Boycott HS Precision

As I mentioned in the show summary post, last night a disturbing development was brought to my attention: namely that HS Precision, a manufacturer of high-end rifles had printed a glowing endorsement/recommendation letter from Lon Horiuchi. Here's the actual back cover of the HS Precision catalog, complete with the letter. Click the image to make it larger.

Now, HS Precision is free to run their business as they want, and to receive endorsements or pay people to endorse their products, no matter how I feel about it. It's their right to conduct their business as they please.

Going hand in hand with that is my right to say that printing an endorsement from Lon Horiuchi, the sniper who managed to shoot an innocent woman holding her baby in the face - the same Lon Horiuchi who Jeff Cooper wanted charged with murder - is a poor business decision, and a business decision that guarantees that I will never buy a rifle from HS Precision.

Honestly, I think this is in incredibly poor taste - no matter what you think about the guy, he's controversial enough that a ringing endorsement from him is going to go a long way towards damaging your credibility amongst the pro-gun community.

I'm very disappointed with the lack of judgment from HS Precision - and I can assure you that if I'm in the market for a good rifle, it won't be an HS Precision rifle. If they were to print a retraction and run away from this endorsement, then I would change my tune, but until then - buy FN Herstal.

I'd like to thank TD and Ry Jones for bringing this to my attention.

Gun Nuts Radio: Epiphany Hour

Last night's show was great. Click the link to listen to the show; and you won't be disappointed. We started the show a little off topic, because I had received an email from TD about HS Precision printing a ringing endorsement of their rifles from Lon Horiuchi. Yes, that Lon Horiuchi. I'll post more details on that in a follow-up post, but please click the show link to listen to the discussion.

After that, we talked about "ah-ha" moments in shooting and politics - those moments when it all came together. Whether it was about politics or the shooting sports, having our listeners call in and share their moments with us is always a pleasure. As usual, you can listen to the show in the embedded player, or click this link to download the .mp3 file of the show.



We're real excited about the upcoming weeks on Gun Nuts, as we have quite a few good shows in the pipeline. You should really check out last night's show though, I feel like in terms of content and callers, it was one of the best.

Tonight on Gun Nuts: Lightbulb moments

Have you ever had that moment as a shooter when the lightbulb just "went on"? When you realized something that you were doing that could make you shoot better? Or maybe it was when you realized that you wanted to carry - tell us about your lightbulb moment.

You can listen live tonight at 9pm Eastern time - just visit www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts to join the conversation. You can sit in the chat room that runs with the show, or you can call in and share your shooting epiphany live on the air at (347) 539-5436. Again, that's tonight at 9pm Eastern at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts!

Dear NRA Action Pistol Coordinator

This weekend, I was looking up information on NRA Action Pistol, specifically I was trying to find information on the different competitive classes - Open, Metallic and Production. I was intensely frustrated by this, as the information on the website at www.nrahq.org is obtuse at best, and irritating at worst. As an example, to find the rulebook for the game, I first click on "Competitive Shooting" and then on NRA Action Pistol, which seemed like a pretty logical path. Unfortunately, the page I landed on, while descriptive of NRA Action Pistol to a small extent, did not contain a link to the competition rules.

Next, I tried clicking on "Getting Started", and then on the Action Pistol Shooting link on that page. While the resulting page was more descriptive than the previous Action Pistol Shooting page that I had landed on, it still didn't fully explain the difference in competitive classes in such a way that a new shooter could know what gear and guns to bring to their local club match and be allowed to shoot.

Finally, I clicked on Rule Books and Scoring Materials, which I will confess is a logical place for the action pistol shooting rulebook to be kept, and I was right, because there it was: a link to the .pdf file of the rule book, which I gleefully clicked. Much to my dismay, this opened an index .pdf with references to other .pdf files which when you click on the index returns the error of "file not found". Finally, to find the information I wanted, I had to deduce from the "file not found" error what the URL of the .pdf file I was looking for was, and manually type it into my browser. Needless to say, this was a tremendously frustrating experience for me, and I can only imagine how frustrating it would be for someone who isn't extremely interested in Action Pistol.

It would have been extremely simple to alleviate my frustration by placing a link to the full .pdf rulebook on either of the pages labeled "NRA Action Pistol Shooting", and not having to hunt and peck through three different categories to find the info I need. Now, I'm not trying to rip you guys here - obviously I was extremely frustrated when I was searching for the info, but I really do feel strongly about web sites being user friendly. As a comparison, it took me all of five seconds to find the rulebook for USPSA, and about the same to find the rulebook for IDPA.

Now, I have a big ol' soft spot for NRA Action Pistol and the Bianchi Cup, which is why I'm disappointed to see how difficult it is for new shooters to get information on the sport. I do love pistol shooting, and it's important to me and the future of our sport to see that more people pick up pistols and get out and shoot some courses of fire. That's why I really feel strongly that this information should practically be sitting in the laps of the casual shooter who sees an episode of Shooting USA and thinks that "that Bianchi stuff" looks fun.

Gun Nuts Radio: The EBR Show

If you missed out on last night's show, don't worry - you can still listen to an archived copy by clicking this link. It was a pretty great show, actually - we spent a lot of time talking about the run on firearms, a even more time talking about what black rifle you should buy if you're in the market. As usual, all the cool kids were in the chat room live at 9pm, so if you're not listening live - you're missing out. Also, here is an .mp3 copy of the show, and of course the embedded player is beneath this text.



We don't have a topic for next week's show, so Breda and I are taking suggestions. An unscientific poll was taken to see how many people would like to hear Mrs. Ahab on the show, and the response was a unanimous "yes"; and who am I to resist the mandate of the people? I'll do what I can in upcoming weeks to get her on the air with me.

Gun Nuts Radio: Best of Gun Nuts

For the folks that listened to last night's show, I want to say "thanks", and I also want to apologize to everyone who tuned in expecting a show on the spike in gun sales and EBR recommendations. I apparently have contracted some kind of damned virus, which made me sound like this guy in addition to making feel like 6 pounds of crap in a 5 pound sack. If you want to hear the atrocity that was my voice last night, listen to the first minute and last 30 seconds of the show.

The show we did air was a re-run, and it was a re-run of what I think was one of our very best shows. It was the original "chicks and guns" show, the first time Breda was on the air, as well as Bonnie and Tracy from Pretty Pistolera. If you'd like to download an .mp3 of last nights show, you can by clicking this link. You can also listen to the show in the embedded player below.



Next week's show will be the scheduled show on gun sales and EBRs, and then the week after that we're going to start the run up to SHOT SHOW. Last year's coverage of SHOT was immensely popular, however it was a little one-sided in that I only covered what I wanted to cover. This year, I want to get lots and lots of pre-show input from the readers and listeners that make all of this possible on what you want to see at SHOT '09.

Tonight on Gun Nuts Radio

We're talking gun sales, black rifles, and Veteran's Day. Listen live tonight at 9pm Eastern at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts, and as always you can join the conversation by calling us live at (347) 539-5436.

We'll discuss the recent run on guns, as well as recommendations for buying an EBR, and we're also going to have a special segment honor our Veterans. Don't miss it tonight, www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts!

ParaUSA GI Expert

A picture has surfaced of the as yet to be launched GI Expert pistol from ParaUSA. Here is the gun that should be hitting around Q1 2009, like after SHOT. Click the image to enlarge.



As you can see from the picture, it's not exactly a "true" GI Pistol, in that it comes from the factory with a skeletonized hammer, speed trigger, and lowered ejection port. Presumably, this is do to the fact that the pistol is part of Para's new "Expert" series, which are going to include a new line of polymer pistols from Para as well this .45 ACP and a line of rifles.

While I haven't seen any official numbers on pricing for the GI Expert, I'd expect it to be priced in a region where it would be able to compete with entry level 1911s, but come from the factory with more features than your standard GI .45.

I'm looking forward to seeing this gun in 2009.

1897 Winchester 16 Gauge

I realized a while back that, apparently, have a thing for classic shotguns. If you look in my gun closet, in addition to the two 12 gauge single shot break actions that my father in law gave me, I also have a vintage Remington 870 from the 50s, The Frankenshotgun, and now I have my great grandfather's 1897 Winchester pump action.

Ever since I saw this gun in my dad's collection, I've wanted to get my hands on it; for some reason there is something about the lines and the way the '97 Winchester handles that makes me enjoy shooting it much more than I enjoy shooting other pump action shotguns.

The '97 Winchester was an upgrade to the to the model of 1893, the primary new function was that the newer model was designed from the ground up to handle the new (at the time) smokeless powder shotgun rounds, which produced a higher pressure than the more common black powder rounds. The shotgun was produced in two different gauges, 12 and 16, with the 12 gauge guns fitted with a factory standard 30 inch barrel, and the 16 gauge guns fitted with a 28 inch barrel.

My gun is the 16 gauge variety, which scores even more cool points, because hey, let's face it, 16 gauge is just that cool. Sadly, the gun I have right now is broken - so as soon as I can find a good cowboy action gunsmith, it's off to the fix-it shop with this gun. The '97 Winchester model is extremely popular with cowboy action shooters, and although this gun won't be seeing any of that action, someone who fixes and slicks up those shotguns is going to the "the guy" for me to fix mine.

On my example, the blued finish has faded to that nice "old gun" brown; there are no rust spots and very little pitting - the gun looks like it has sat in storage for the last 50 or so years (which is probably pretty accurate). I'm looking forward to getting it up and running, just so I can shoot a round or two of trap with my old school shotgun.

Plus, for some reason, it sure does photograph well. Here's the picture that I liked so much I made it part of my rotating header. Click to enlarge. And of course, the final "good thing" that the '97 Winchester has going for it is the designer...as Tam would say: "You know who designed that gun?"



John Moses Browning, that's who.

Gun Nuts Radio: Election Night

You can click here to download the .mp3 file of last night's election coverage. It was actually a pretty good show - the election coverage is good, and the callers who shared their election stories were good as well. Click the embedded player below to listen to the audio from last night.



It was a good show, despite the fact that we lost the election. You can start to hear the pessimism creeping into my voice after they called Ohio and PA for Obama, though. Give it a listen, and you won't be disappointed.