Shall Not Be Questioned » Shooting

A Bullpup .50BMG?

Sebastian — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:54:04 +0000

This looks like a quite interesting idea, to make a Bullpup .50BMG semi-auto, but I’m skeptical for a few reasons.

Weight is a counter to recoil. 50s are generally heavy, but that also significantly reduces perceived recoil. These are lighter. How hard do they thump shooting offhand?
Do I really want to weld my cheek centimeters away from that much explosive power? All guns models made have kabooms every once in a while. I’d hate to be the unlucky shooter who experiences that.
I’m not sure what situation I’d need to employ that kind of firepower offhand or kneeling, and it’s certainly not something I’d want to shoot competitively with. If I wanted to do long range marksmanship in the .50BMG class, I think there are probably alternatives I’d prefer.

What do you think? The big advantage I can think of, offhand, is this might be a .50BMG that will actually fit in my safe. But my impression of this is that it mostly looks like a neat toy.

A Better Rail System?

Sebastian — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:17:56 +0000

The Firearm Blog posts about a new type of module rail system that looks a lot better, to me, than Picatinny rails. All my AR-15s, save one, have standard ribbed hand guards. I find the Picatinny rail hand guards uncomfortable to shoot. On my one AR with Picatinny rails, I have ribbed hand guards attached to the bottom for comfort. This system looks immensely comfortable compared to current rail systems.

No related posts.

Winning, Part 254

Sebastian — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:42:20 +0000

Susan Komen Foundation teaming up a gun promotional:

Discount Gun Sales is proud to team up with the Susan B. Koman Foundation to offer the Walther P-22 Hope Edition in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A portion of each P-22 Hope Edition will be donated to the Seattle Branch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

CSGV and their mouth foaming followers are already throwing a hissy fit about it, though apparently they can’t tell the difference between a .22LR Caliber Walther and a Glock. Must suck to be irrelevant.

Review of Front Sight Training

Sebastian — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:22:25 +0000

You’ve probably seen their ads everywhere, but Exurban Kevin took a Front Sight Training course, and has an excellent review up here, here, here, and here, plus some overall conclusions:

Frankly, if I were a first-time shooter, I’d go with the NRA classes and private instruction with a proven teacher. Front Sight’s instruction was good, but their safety instruction, situational awareness training and after-action advice wasn’t up to what was taught in an NRA Personal Protection class. Plus, with an NRA class, you get a certification that is recognized nation-wide. With a Front Sight class, you get a certification that’s recognized in Pahrump, and bang for buck, I think an NRA class with a good teacher is the way to go. If you’re a new shooter and don’t know of a good NRA instructor in your area, then Front Sight is for you.

Front Sight has a good thing going, taking first-time gun owners and turning them into decent shooters and they certainly have a booming repeat business: Around half of the students in my class had a Front Sight membership of some kind or another. But are their Four Day Handgun Classes a good value for someone who already knows how to draw, shoot and hit center-mass twice in under two seconds?

In my opinion, no. But that’s just my body Thetans talkin’.

The last part is a joke. As he noted in the review, there wasn’t a hint of scientology in any of their training, and from what he’s seeing, it looks like Front Sight is the real deal when it comes to just being a training outfit.

No related posts.

How Not to Shoot Yourself Using a SERPA Holster

Sebastian — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:15:03 +0000

SayUncle has the useful video. A proper draw from a quality SERPA holster should find your finger indexed perfectly on the gun when it comes out of the holster. If that’s not the case, get a better holster.

Continuing SHOT Show Coverage

Sebastian — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:05:07 +0000

For those interested in covering the events at SHOT, I direct you to The Firearm Blog. SHOT opens today, but the coverage has already begun. The Firearm Blog is, in my opinion, the best blog out there for covering the gun side of the gun issue.

John Richardson is also offering some coverage, as are the folks over at Gun Nuts. SHOT never seems to fall at a good time for me, so I’ve never made it there. One of these years though, I shall try to attend. I haven’t’ been covering very much actual gun stuff, because I had to give up competitive shooting for a bit due to the unstable job situation. Now things are stabilizing a bit, but I don’t anticipate I’ll have much time for, you know, actual shooting, until I complete some projects I started during unemployment.

Smarter Politicking

Bitter — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:31:30 +0000

I see that Drudge is headlining with Rick Perry shooting news:

Ready, aim fire. That’s apparently Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s idea of relaxation before returning to the campaign trail this weekend.

Ahead of Saturday night’s ABC News-Yahoo-WMUR debate in New Hampshire Perry took a few moments to himself at an Austin-area shooting range.

I would suggest that smarter politicking would be to hit up a range in New Hampshire or South Carolina. Just sayin’. Maybe some Rick Perry supporters in those states would like to offer his campaign some local range recommendations. I wonder if the Brady Campaign will issue an update to their “We hate Rick” report with this news.

Rifle Champions

Bitter — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:02:44 +0000

ESPN profiles the University of Alaska Fairbanks as longtime NCAA Rifle champions. The piece dispels several myths, such as the idea that collegiate rifle shooting has anything to do with hunting. I think this tidbit is pretty funny:

When Fairbanks hosted and won the national championship in 2007, nearly 1,000 fans showed up for the finals, far and away an NCAA record for the sport.

(h/t Outdoor Pressroom)

Public Support for the Shooting Sports

Bitter — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:30:27 +0000

I guess this goes in the “we’re winning” column, but the optimist in me sees room for improvement.

Seventy-one percent of those polled approve of recreational shooting, with 44 percent strongly approving. …

The most noteworthy part of the survey documents a slight but consistent upward trend in American opinions favoring shooting sports. In 2001, 59 percent indicated shooting sports were “perfectly acceptable.” In 2006 the percentage had climbed to 63 percent; this year shooting sports are “perfectly acceptable” to 66 percent. In contrast, the percentage of Americans who said “shooting sports are inappropriate” dropped from 11 percent (2001) to 5 percent (2011).

On Being Fit and Shooting

Sebastian — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:37:16 +0000

Caleb thinks that being fit makes you a better shooter. While I generally would agree, I know some utterly fantastic shooters I would not classify as fit. Actually, far from it. That said, I think it does help. I’ve had instances shooting where I’ve felt my stability would be significantly improved if I were in better shape. Certainly you will shoot better if your pulse rate is lower. So I would say it helps, but in the overall scheme of things, I think there are a lot more important aspects to being a good shooter.

BTW, Gun Nuts Media is sporting a new look. It’s cleaner and more modern, and it looks like they’ve also embraced threaded comments (which maybe they had before, but when you blog you don’t comment on other people’s blogs. It’s a rule :) )