A Little Custom Work

Last spring, I restored a 1944 Remington Rand 1911A1 to its former glory as a warrior's pistol.

This got me to thinking about maybe tackling something a little more complex. Well, last month I got a Colt Delta Elite in 10mm. One thing I don't like about standard Colt 1911s is the grip safety. The way it's configured doesn't lend itself to my shooting style, which is to get as high as a grip as I can and then some. I tried this grip style on my RR 1911 only once, and I've got the scar on the web of my left hand for the effort.

Obligatory before pic

This is what led me to make my first attempt at customizing a 1911. I got the parts from Ed Brown (no paid advertising or anything here FCC) last week and set out today to make my project come to life.

What I got from Ed Brown was:

Beavertail grip safety w/memory pad
Commander-style hammer
Sear and disconnector
Flat checkered main spring housing w/mag well
Ambidextrous safety
Main spring

The trigger is from STI and is polymer. It required a little bit of custom fitting to make sure it cleared everything. This was the very first thing I did when I started. I figured I'd start easy and work my way up from there.

The one part I was most worried about was the beavertail grip safety, as this required firing up the old Craftsman bench grinder. I took me a couple of minutes to make up my mind if this was what I really wanted to do. It was, and I did.

Roughing in the grip safety

Following the instructions included with the jig I bought, I got the grip safety roughed in, then spent the next hour working with various jewelers flat files to get everything to fit right. The one thing that guided me in this part was the fact I didn't want to take too much material off and ruin my project before it ever got off the ground. In fact, I was downright paranoid about it.

Then I spent the next couple of hours (ok, more like 4 or 5) getting everything to fit right. The only thing I really had any problems with was getting the new ambidextrous manual safety to fit. I think I disassembled and reassembled the guts of the Delta Elite about 35 or 40 times checking fit and cussing when things wouldn't go back together the way they were supposed to.

The finished product

After all that, I finally got everything finished, put back together and function checked. Man, I'm good. This turned out way better than I had any right to expect. I look at her and I almost don't want to shoot her. But shoot her I will, probably tomorrow. I can't wait to check out that STI trigger. Just dry firing a couple of times for function, it's wayyyyy better than the stock job. I can't wait.

A New Addition

Gots me a new member of the family today, a Colt Mark IV, Series 80 Delta Elite 10mm. Picked it up for a song via Gunbroker last week, if you call $800 for an early model 4 digit serial number Delta Elite a song, and she arrived at the funstore this morning.

Took her, and my wife, out this afternoon to test fire the new pistol and expose my wife to shooting large bore semi auto handguns.

First, the Delta Elite. Shot to point of aim at about 60 ft, no issues with feeding or ejecting. Matter of fact, ejection was pretty, shall we say energetic. Unlike my Ultra Raptor which seems to hit me 3 times out of seven somewhere on my head with dead brass, this one was up and over my head and out about 10-15 ft behind me to the right. I didn't put out any paper, as this was a shakedown cruise, just to feel her out. In the coming days, I'll be upgrading some things on her like grip safety, mainspring housing w/mag well, trigger, hammer and sear, ambidextrous safety, main spring, and disconnector. I'll post how things go as I go.

Now Mrs Hazmat. This being her first time shooting large bore semi autos, I was worried, but not too terribly, as she's done excellent with her Mosquito, my CZ 50, and the two .25 ACPs she's shot. I don't know why I was even worried in the first place, as everything she's shot that had a little kick to it rifle-wise she ate right up. But she ponied up to the bar so to speak, and shot my XD .40 sub compact, the Ultra Raptor, and the new Delta. Of the three she shot tonite, she didn't much care for the XD as it had too much muzzle flip for her tastes. I think maybe a 9mm or a standard sized .40 might be a better fit for her in that department. She didn't much care for the Delta, as it had a little too much snort for her. She did, however, take a substantial liking to the Ultra Raptor. I'm thinking that there may be a compact .45 in her future, that way she won't be running off with the Raptor when I'm not looking.

The next thing we're going to work on is getting her CCP. Fortunately, here in South Dakota, it's not too much of a hassle. $10 and a trip to the county sheriffs department and she'll be all set.

A Little Soul Searching

With all the hoopla over what happened yesterday at Ft Hood, I've held off commenting on the incident out of respect for the families of those who were casualties of the shooting.

But the more I read about it, the more I can't help but wonder why this doesn't happen more often. I mean every US military installation in the world is a "gun free zone". The only people who are allowed to 'carry' weapons on base (besides the base cops [civilian and contractor] and resident OSI/CID/NCIS special agents) are those who live in base housing, and only then they are allowed to 'carry' it from their house on base to the range or wherever they're taking the weapon and back. There is no concealed carry on base. Did I mention that everyone who lives on base must resgister their weapons with the base?

I found this out the hard way as one time I was going on base and had forgotten to remove my regular concealed carry piece from under the drivers seat of my truck. As luck would have it, I got stopped at the gate for a random vehicle search, and they found it for me. When I handed them my CCP, I was politely, but tersely told that my permit was not valid on base.

Now, I can bring a firearm on base, but it must be unloaded, cased, and the ammunition cannot be stored close to the weapon in question. Which kind of negates the whole defensive firearm aspect of concealed carry, don't you think?.

My initial reaction to what I was told was not for my defense while on base, but for the time I spend commuting to and from the base. I make a couple of stops coming and going from base and it's at these locations that I get nervous about not having my carry piece on me. I never dreamed (although I should have) that I may need it on base. This whole mess has me rethinking my threat-based decision-making paradigm.

That's not to say I haven't done it in the past. I teach foreign weapons familiarization and when transporting $25k worth of firearms, I'm not going to do it unarmed. It's the same mindset that goes with transporting military arms. When you have so many, the courier must be armed. I'm the same way. There's no way I'm going to give up $25k worth of firearms without a fight, I don't care who you are.

So this has me thinking, just how far do I want to push the issue?

Lock N Load

Saw a couple of the episodes of the new Showtime series Lock N Load. Eye opening, at least to the antis, but not really any surprise to folks who go into gun stores on any kind of basis.

What strikes me about the series is these are just regular people walking into a gun store. Some have never been around firearms before, some have mediocre experience and some are life long gun owners. This includes men and women, boys and girls. I would venture a guess that you could probably duplicate this series in just about any gun store in the country.

And it's not just life in the store. On last nights episode, the owner/proprietor goes out shooting with a couple of kids, shooting both .22 rifles and pistols. Good on him. In the other episode I saw, he got his butt kicked shooting clays with what he thought was some broad who walked into the store, but who turned out to be the Grand Poo-Bah of ladies shotgunning.

After watching these two episodes, I think if Showtime puts this out on DVD, I might have to pick it up, since I personally don't have Showtime at home. And I would encourage those who think gun stores are the den of evil incarnate on Earth to watch a couple of episodes, you might learn something.

A New Term

Whilst out trying, in vain I might add, to do my part to decrease the elk population of Wyoming, I stumbled onto an epiphany of sorts.



One night while sitting around the tent imbibing some of Adolph Coors' master works and discussing the problems of the world in general, and the state of American politics in particular, with my father and brother, I came to a sudden realization.



I am not a Conservative.



I am not a Libertarian.



I am not a Republican.



What I am is a Fundamentalist American.



What does it mean to be a Fundamentalist American? Well, first off, I have a deep appreciation and love for America, what it means to be an American, and a belief that we are in fact a decent and moral nation.



I believe what the Founders put down on paper, both in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, is how it's supposed to be. That the "Living Document" argument is a stupid one. The writers and framers of the Constitution put in place a mechanism to change it and using the courts to do the dirty work to change portions that they either don't like or have to clout to change on their own is as they say, chickensh*t.

That rugged individualism isn't just some nifty little catch phrase, it's what made America what it is today. People like my grandfather who survived the Great Depression doing jobs that most modern Americans squish and squirm at doing as "beneath them", and who went on to do great things. Not great things in the sense he invented something and became rich and famous, but great things like helping to build a small northeast Wyoming cow/jerk water town into something besides a cow/jerk water town.

Or the man who was larger than life when I was growing up. A Mountain Man. Real life, no kidding mountain man named Timber Jack Joe. I met the man growing up, he was an icon in Wyoming lore, harking back to the days of Jim Bridger and Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith. He was not a"re-enactor", but a man who believed in all his heart in rugged individualism.

I believe in what I was taught from a young age: that you are responsible for you, and not anyone else. Seeing as now we get a constant barrage of being our brother's keeper and that somehow, propping up failure is a noble thing. Failure is just that, failure. That is how life is lived. If you don't fail, you don't learn. Doing the same tired things over and over and expecting different results each time is, to put it mildly, stupid.

So there it is, my epiphany. Fundamentalist Americanism. I'll add more on the subject in the days and weeks to come, but for now, I thought I'd share this with everyone, just to get it off my chest.

I'm Baaack!

Well, another hunting trip has come and gone and the elk population of south-central Wyoming is still intact. Skunked again. But at least this time I got to SEE elk (two cows and a calf, although their siting was a complete accident), as opposed to most every other time when it's just a vicious rumor they're there.

On the plus side though, I got to spend some quality time with my father and my younger brother. And, even though we didn't get any elk, we did manage to kill a rather sizable quantity of beer.

I'll try to post some pics of our home away from home for the past two weeks so everybody can see what we were up against.

I'm Off...

No, really. I'm off to attempt to thin the elk population of south-central Wyoming for the next two weeks.

I'm taking my Savage 10GLXP3, my M1A, and my brand spanking new 4" S&W Model 57. And just to make sure the anti's have enough to slobber over, I'm also taking my new Draco pistol with me. What I love most about Wyoming laws is they have no magazine restrictions. So I'll also have two 30 rd Polish polymer mags filled with 154-gr soft points. Why? Because I can.

Anyway, I'll post the outcome when I get back.

TTFN!!!

What A Day

It's been a good last 24 hours. I've received my Utah carry permit in the mail and the Galco holster for my 4" Model 57 Smith arrived yesterday.

On a related note, what the hell is up with the availability of .41 mag ammunition and components? I mean, if you listen to all the gun writers, nobody likes the .41. It doesn't have the snort of the .44 and it's not as sexy as the .357. If you listened to the writers, nobody should have them.

Evidently, someone forgot to tell everyone ELSE. 'Cause loaded ammunition is almost as easy to find as hens teeth, and components, well jacketed bullets anyway, are almost as easy to locate as the loaded ammunition.

Sheesh.

Gura on Beck

Noted attorney and 2A hero Alan Gura is presently on Glenn Beck's TV show talking about the Chicago gun ban case that was just granted cert. by the USSC.

They just finished talking about the particulars of the case, and are getting ready to start talking states rights on the issue when they return from break.

My take on this is that while the 2A was originally binding only on the fedgov, with passage of the 14th amendment, right or wrong, it should be binding on the states.

Anyway, they're back on now....

Gura's take: Same as mine. 14th amendment provides for application to the states.

This should be an interesting case. If the SC finds for Gura et al, then that opens up a whole can of worms all around the country. From NYFC and the Sullivan Law to Denver and their idiotic AWB, to Massachussets stupid gun laws and all points in between. The coming months should fun.

Lack of Posting

Sorry for the lack of posting around here, I've been a little under the weather the last few days.

After the September gun show here in lovely Rapid City, I was stricken with a blood clot in my left leg. Hats off to all the people involved who helped get me back on my feet (literally). The imaging people in radiology, the interventional radiologist, the ICU staff and all the folks who put up with my grumpy behind the 6 days I was bedridden.

And a special thank you to Mrs Hazmat who was there through the whole thing, from my initial appointment until I was released, sleeping in a sorry excuse for a recliner in my room while I recuperated. All the while trying to keep me from throwing things around the room and being a general PITA.

With the current debate over health care in this country, I can't help but wonder how long I would have had to suffer before I was "allowed" to receive treatment for this malady if the Chosen Ones health care plan was in place...

He's Baaaaack!!!!

Via Bruce at mASS Backwards, comes news that one of my favorite bloggers is returning to the intertubes. Kim DuToit and his wife Connie are starting an internet radio show, details here.

Man, that's great news. I can't wait!

More Yale In The News

Seems a student at the Yale School of Medicine is in hot water because he had a couple of drinks and got lippy.

Seems that in CT, a person can have their home searched without probable cause because of something that was said.

Now, knowing how the media loves to accurately portray gun owners, their mention of "assault rifles" and "sniper rifles" seems a little over the top.

And the commentors on the story are typical of the Northeastern liberal mindset; freedom for me, but not for thee.

Illegal Guns, What????

Seems Mrs. Joanne Hafter has a problem with illegal guns. I've been around guns my whole life, been an active gun owner and self proclaimed gun nut for the last 6 yrs, and I have yet to see an illegal gun at a gun show. Now I've seen a few real illegal guns, some rifles that were illegally modified contrary to the National Firearms Act. Read: illegal post-May 1986 sample machine guns. And those were seen in stores where I pointed out to the staff what they had and what they needed to do with them. I know they were taken off the shelf, but what happened to them after that I have no idea. Then there's the illegal short barreled rifle, and the gun with a filed off serial number. These I've never seen, but the SN issue has come up in recent news.

Another thing I have an issue with are the so-called "kits that enable legal weapons to become illegal". See, I've bought several "kits" over the last couple of years to build up my collection of politically incorrect semi-automatic rifles; rifles that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to acquire (or afford) through any other means. I've built Yugoslavian, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, and Bulgarian rifles in configurations that would have cost me over 100% more than what I paid for these "kits" had I attempted to purchase them from a dealer. I've now got 2 NFA tax stamps (and getting ready for a third here shortly) for two SBRs built from these "illegal kits that enable legal weapons to become illegal". Did I mention the receivers for these rifles were transferred through a legitimate dealer, with a FFL, complete with mandatory background check? Illegal again, how, exactly?

Does Mrs Hatcher know that a person may build their own rifle, without any licensing from the BATFE? Yup, you sure can, as long as you don't sell it on the open market, you're good to go. I know several folks who have done so, on 80% receivers they bought on line and bent and welded up themselves.

Now, knowing what exactly an illegal gun is, I challenge Mrs Hatcher (or anyone else, for that matter) to explain to me just what an illegal gun is in her definition.

A Day To Never Forget

There are some occasions that are so seared into the national consciousness that everyone remembers exactly where they were when the event took place. Talking to my folks, they can remember exactly where they were when Kennedy was killed. Myself, there are two days that I will never forget.

The first was when Challenger exploded. I was home sick from school that day and watched in horror the events of that terrible day, right before my 14th birthday.

The other, was September 11, 2001.

I was stationed in Korea at the time, a little burg down the west coast from Seoul called Kunsan.

I'd managed to talk my way into a day off that day, mainly so I could watch the live broadcast on AFTV of the first regular season game in the new Mile High Stadium. (Yeah, I'm a Broncos fan, get over it.) And what a game that was. At least right up until Eddie McAffrey broke his leg, but I digress.

Anyway, I went to the hooch that night to watch the re-broadcast in prime time. As the game was getting over, and several libations, I decided it was time to go home.

My room was quite literally across the street from the hooch and it didn't take me 5 minutes to get there. And in those 5 minutes, the world came apart at the seams.

When I left to go to the hooch, I happened to leave my TV on, so when I got home, I was met with video of the first plane hitting the South Tower. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I remember thinking that maybe it was all an accident.

Then the second one hit the North Tower. Talk about instant sobriety.

And reports started coming in about other hijacked jets. By this time I was on the phone to my flight commander asking if we needed to get our stuff up and running.

Then the Pentagon was hit, and that sealed it. Work was only a block away and I was dressed and out the door.

We stood up our operation, got everything ready in the event things got sideways on the Pen. Fortunately, nothing happened. I ended up working the rest of the night, getting off work at 0900 the next morning. When I got home that morning, I was so amped up, it took another 3 hours to finally get to sleep, and even that was fitful. Those 12 hour shifts lasted another couple of days, and we weren't allowed to go downtown for another 3 months. The remaining 9 months of my tour over there went without incident and I returned Stateside in June of '02 and right into Iraqi Freedom 7 months later.

I remember the month before the attack, we'd been briefed that there was a threat of terrorist attack, nothing specific, just a general warning to all installations to be on guard. After Khobar Towers, we didn't know what to expect. After watching wall-to-wall coverage of the events of that fateful day, I don't think anyone could have even dreamed that the targets were the epicenters of power in the US.

Commissions have been chartered, investigation made, rumors and conspiracies have come and gone since that fateful sunny morning those not-so-long 8 years ago. But one thing has remained crystal clear through all the BS:

I WILL NEVER FORGET!

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

Something's Not Right About This

When I read this artice, something didn't quite sit right. So I read it again. Any guesses on what it might be?

LA Times Gets It's (Anti) Gun Thing On...Again

As has been reported around the interwebz the last couple of days, a rabid anti-gun zealot, Professor Garen Wintemute tells everyone how evil gun shows are in a 300+ page "report". Of course, the LA Times, being that bastion of fair and balanced reporting, can't help but pimp the Brady Line.

Dave Workman, the Seattle Gun Rights Examiner, gets into Wintemute's twisting logic and flights of fancy, here.

Seems the good professor witnessed what we here in the free world call free exchanges of goods and services between consenting, like-minded adults. In other words, he saw face-to-face transfers of legal firearms. Now, in just about every free state in the western US, outside California, these transfers are perfectly legal. And that, evidently, is enough to get his knickers all kinds of in a twist.

And in typical progressive form, he (and the LA Times for that matter) can't help but paint gun shows and the gun owners who attend them as racist swine by letting you, the objective reader know that at a good portion of the shows he attended (and video taped), racist materials like the Turner Diaries and Mein Kompf were being peddled almost as fast as it could be put out on tables.

I do gun shows where I'm at, and you know, I've never seen a copy of either at any gun show I've gone to in over 5 yrs. Funny how that works, ain't it?

Some Things Just Won't Go Away

Seems Miss Stephanie Kraft can't get over the fact that people can lawfully purchase firearms even if their names appear on a super-secret-squirrel list kept by the DHS.

What gets her knickers in a twist is the fact that someone who hasn't been accused of a crime, let alone been convicted of the same, can walk into a gun store and lawfully purchase a firearm.

Never mind that DHS admits there are flaws with their super-secret-squirrel list. What with over a million names on it, there's bound to be innocent people on it somewhere.

Now, this has been old news for about 4 months. Apparently Miss Kraft needs to keep up with the times. Not only has Frank the Fixer's bill been reintroduced, but so has Carolyn "Barrel Shroud" McCarthy, and Rep King from NY.

By the way Stephanie, all of these bills are DOA in Congress. You're a little late.

Wow!

One has to wonder what they hell is going on around here. First, we have the WH telling everyone that carrying firearms at presidential events is hunky-dory. Now, we've got the NYT itself actually carrying a decent piece on semi-automatic weapons on their "At War" section.

Pretty good piece that actually is devoid of the usual pants-sh**ting hysteria that is so common in their op-ed pages. Of course, the comments don't disappoint in that regard. Some of them still need to come in from barking at the moon.

As a proud owner of one of their products (SA-M7 carbine), I think what they're doing is noble. They just need to keep on top of some of their recent quality control issues.

Buffalo Chip Machine Gun Shoot

Well, my week of employment at the Guns of Freedom shoot has come to a close. Got to replace a disconnector in a malfunctioning rifle, troubleshoot a rifle that wouldn't feed right, pound a squib discharge out of a barrel, and reattach the roller mechanism in the top cover of a MG 42.

By far, the most popular item was the .50 BMG rifle. Not sure how much we went through, but it was alot. The next most popular thing to shoot was the shorty 1919 in 8mm. Not sure how long the barrel is on it, but it's definitely wayyy shorter than the standard. Makes for one hell of a flame thrower, let me tell you.

So far, I've seen a Frog, a half a dozen Aussies, and about the same number of Canucks, a Dutchman, and a Brit at the shoot. But one Aussie in particular takes the cake for the "Funniest Moment of The Shoot". It all happened Wednesday night about an hour before we closed down. Dude came in wanting to shoot 4 through the .500 S&W. Guy did his 4 rounds and wanted some pictures of him holding an M16. Now, I should also note that whilst our intrepid Aussie was having his picture snapped, there was another customer loading up the .50 rifle for 4 rounds. He watched as they loaded the rifle, he watched as they turned the bolt down. Hell, he was standing about 3 ft behind and to the left of the shooter so it shouldn't have been a big surprise what was coming. Well, the customer on the .50 cranked off a round and our brave Aussie damn near messed himself. Jumped about 2 feet in the air. I was surprised he didn't toss the rifle, but he held onto it and promptly turned and handed me the rifle and took off like someone had lit his butt on fire. I couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 minutes.

The high point of the shoot so far was getting to meet Joe Perry of Aerosmith. He came over and wanted to shoot a little of everything, but once he got behind the controls of Ma Deuce, he pretty much didn't want to shoot anything else:

The other high point was Miss Montana USA showed up. She got some trigger time on an M16.

I guess the low point would be the thunderstorm we had Friday night. Saw the weather coming in for about an hour. Didn't think much of it as we'd dealt with some form of rain all week long. But Friday afternoon we got pounded. Winds had to be in excess of 60 mph; at one point we actually thought we may have been caught in a tornado. Which was a pretty fair assumption based on the size of some the hail we found afterwards. With the amount of rain we were getting, and how fast the wind was blowing, we couldn't see the monster hay bails about 100 ft from where we took shelter.

Fortunately, there was no visible damage from the storm, given the size of some the stones. Thankfully, these were the exception rather than the rule. Most of the hail was between dime and quarter size.

Given the eventful nature of last week's shoot, I can't wait for the next one, this time a weekend gig at Wall, SD in September.

Machine Gun Shoot-Day .3333333333

Went up to the Guns of Freedom machine gun shoot this afternoon at the Buffalo Chip Shooting Complex, I am the local guy helping out and all, to see when they'd need me.

Talked to the proprietor about some things and he had an AK that had gone TU that morning with a broken front trunion, and he wanted me to see if there was anything that could be done to salvage it. Not much, short of a new trunion, was the diagnosis. The problem was, well, fatal, and can't be fixed until he gets back to his home shop.

I got to meet some of the stage hands for Toby Keith who were wondering around seeing the sights before his show tonite. All of them were a little in awe of all the firepower on hand for the event. Several asked questions of the proprietor about specific arms and such, but almost to a person, they were all googly eyed at Mrs. Ma Deuce. I mean, who wouldn't be? She's a sexy beast that Ma Deuce, even at the ripe old age of 88.

But the highlight of my trip today was watching a bowling ball get launched about 300 yds. Talk about frikkin' AWESOME! I've never seen a 16lb bowling ball get punched that hard, evar! Granted, I've wanted to do something like that when I was on a bowling league years ago, but my size 10's wouldn't stand up to it, so I'll settle for watching from a semi-safe distance.

Tomorrow? Well, I'm lined up for a non-resident Utah CCW class at 1000 put on by Minnesota Concealed Carry. After that, I'm helping with the shoot. Hopefully, I'll have more interesting things (and people) to post about tomorrow night.