The Walking Dead on AMC

OK, I am a bit late to the party with this news since its been on every other gun related blog already, but on Sunday October 31st (Halloween) at 10pm EST, AMC is premiering a new series called The Walking Dead based on a graphic novel of the same name. It has been getting some pretty positive preview reviews and looks to be a decent series. The premise is what we have come to expect, a man wakes up in the hospital to find the world has been taken over by zombies, grabs a gun and goes at it. Along the way he meets and interacts with other survivors in an attempt to try an locate his family.

The zombie craze in popular culture is at an all time high and I am fine with that. Zombies are a fun and easily accepted foe for any hero type character to face and allows the creator of the tale to weave some intricate social commentary in the story at the same time. The best use of this in my opinion was when George Romero used a mall in the original Dawn Of Tthe Dead to symbolize American consumerism in the 70’s. Buy, buy, buy without a reason why…

Looking forward to this show which will air nicely after my other current must see show, Boardwalk Empire on HBO.

Here is the obligatory preview clip…

I am just DYING to see this....get it...ha ha ha

The Dammit Hole

The other day on FaceBookI cursed Adobe Systems for taking a great concept for a universal document reader they called Acrobat and shoving it in the "dammit hole". What's the dammit hole? Its the place something beautiful goes to die after its been corrupted by bad ideas and influence. You reach for something you think is useful and find a piece of crap at your disposal and say "dammit"...and shove it in a proverbial hole...or literally a hole, I don't know what shape your trash can is in...


Some examples...


■Adobe acrobat as mentioned above (try Foxit reader for a relatively lightweight reader for pdf's)
■Laverne and Shirley moving to California.
■Jefferson D'Arcy
■Most shows after Star Trek TNG
■Halloween III
■Windows Vista
■Caveman on Geico add ok.....Caveman series...dammit hole
■The 1984 Chevy Camaro with a 4 cylinder engine
■Pink guns
■The old "new Coke" that was replaced by the "new "old" Coke"
■The remake of John Carpenters The Fog
■ANY version of Van Halen with out Sammy or DLR under the age of 30
■Chinese Democracy (alright I liked Better, but come on 15 years for that?)
■ACU's (should of begged the Marines to let us use MARPAT)
■American Idol without Simon..
■Survivor resorting to Ageism....I guess it will be whites versus non-whites next...
■and yes....Fonzi on water ski's....


please feel free to comment and add your own dammit hole victims...

Ex-Ohio state Asst. VP makes threats, labeled terrorist, media make a big deal over loaded weapons...

First the story... http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/10/28/Former-OU-official-charged-with-making-threats.html?sid=101

OK, first I am not defending this guy what so ever....he did something stupid, he made threats to one of the nations largest universities with a police force equivalent to most small towns and with resources that many larger apartments would be jealous of. The things I have to take issue with is the labeling of this guy as a "terrorist", the emphasis on the number of guns he owned and the added emphasis on the fact that they were loaded in the article.

• Terrorist? Seriously? I have no doubt that this guy screwed the pooch royally on this one, but to throw the name tag "terrorist" on him in this era of the global war on terrorism (I will crap gold eggs before I bow to the term "contingency operations") is total show boating on both the PD and the medias part. That son of a bitch who needs to be hanged down at Ft. Hood meets the criteria of a terrorist in my book as a single entity, this guy does not. Hell, the media would not come within a hundred yards of calling that dickwad a terrorist down there lest they offend the Muslim readers and viewers of their medias. Its scary to think that now we can label someone a terrorist this easy, probably based on the number of guns he owned...speaking of which...


• Wow he owned 12 guns....guess I'm lucky that I only own what...11 otherwise I might be called into question for my motives. The media folks just don't get it. A gun is a tool, the number of tools you have does not have any bearing on your motives or intentions. I have never once thought of or expressed any sort of plan to conduct a mass shooting despite the number of weapons that I own that must be exerting some type of mental mind control on me by sitting in a safe in my basement...at least according to Mayor Bloomberg et al. Again, sensationalism....make the gun itself evil in the media and it will eventually become constantly perceived as evil to the sheep they cater to.


• Lastly, the guy had his weapons loaded. It does not say how many were loaded or to what degree that they were loaded. Did he have a handgun and maybe a shotgun loaded? That would be normal for many for home defense usage in these parts. You don't know by the article but again it is a selling point for the piece. Guess what, I keep a loaded gun in my house too. If I have someone break in I sure as hell am not going to ask him to kindly wait while I search for those damn rounds and load them as he sits there looking at me!

Again, I am not defending the suspect in this article. Matter of fact I am happy a possible shooting has been avoided. What I am a bit miffed at is how again the media can vilify an inanimate object to sensationalize a story and possibly lend leverage to some type of political or special interest agenda...

Back in a bit...

I've been on a blogging hiatus as of late. We have had some family issues that have prevented me from getting around to writing on this blog. As always, family and work take priority over my hobbies. Hopefully things will come around in the next week or so to the point I can get some stuff written and published.

Sorry for the lag time on this page, please be patient with me as I try to do my best to bring you some quality posts in the future..
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RIP Norman Wisdom 1915 – 2010

I found out this morning that Sir Norman Wisdom, OBE, died on the Isle of Man on October 4th, 2010. Through clips on YouTube I have only too lately become familiar with the works of Norman Wisdom.  A British stage, screen and TV actor his career spanned many decades on the other side of the Atlantic mostly unnoticed by the American audiences.  He was a veteran of WW2 having served in a communications bunker working for the British High command after serving the first part of his career as an Army musician in India. His affable disposition and friendly demeanor made him a favorite of all of his audiences.  He was nominated for a Tony Award for a Broadway production in 1966.  However, it was his portrayal of the common man Norman Pitkin over many films that gained him fame and admiration, even from the likes of Charlie Chaplin.

His Wikipedia biography can be found here.

Norman did a few films centered around his characters reluctant and nonchalant service in the British Military.  It is for these roles that I know of his work from YouTube.  His was truly a comic masterminds skill and I am sorry that I never got to enjoy his work in its prime. joy the

Enjoy the following few clips from “The Square Peg”, the one with the bayonet is especially funny to me.

 

 

 

 

…and the Royal Navy wasn’t immune from his attention either!

Brock Lesnar makes some fruit salad..

Just to show some professional athletes can handle firearms without shooting themselves..

Jessica Simpson behind a twin .50 cal??

From a recent USO tours, maybe she is hunting for some of the "chicken of the sea" she is so famous for...

Rugers's SR9 now in .40!

The Firearm Blog is reporting that the Ruger SR9 pistol is now being offered in .40 S&W, the model is aptly being called the SR40.

I recently reviewed the SR9 and found it to be a great pistol especially considering the price. That review is here.

Another reason (or more liek 1,000) that I carry a Glock...

a G19 just like this one....think its kind of funny that the guide rod got so hot that it melted and broke off but the gun still worked. Not that I would ever be in a position to recreate this test and have that issue but for $20 seems like a cheap fix to buy a stainless steel guide rod from Glockmeister...just did that.

1,000 Round Glock Challenge...all at once!

Swag - The Mora knife.

Bought a couple of these knives off of The Sportsmans Guide after seeing a link on an online forum. Apparently, these things are the rage with the "Bushcraft" crowd, those folks that think nothing of going into the woods with nothing but a knife and flint to survive. They seem to be especially popular in Europe where gun ownership is severely restricted in many places. That's not surprising since this knife has been a staple of Swedish craftsmen and laborers for generations. For them, clipping one of these on and walking out the door to work is just another day much like clipping on a cell phone or pocket knife.

The attraction to this knife is its utilitarian design. This is not a hardcore survival or fighting knife design. No, the blade looks more of what you would find on a steak knife or fillet knife in your tackle box. But then again, for a general purpose knife to cut rope, twine, boxes or any other common chore type duty does it matter? The handles are generally make of wood or cheap plastic and the overall appearance is about what you would expect for the cost, around $10 - 15 for basic models. What people buy these for is for the blades, which are made from high quality steels and can be made razor sharp with the right stone and stay that way after use.

Many people take the effort to produce vids of the knife taking abuse...here is just such an example..


I mentioned the cost being relatively cheap. Good steel at a cheap price, hard to beat that. Yes, you can go to Wally World and find cheap knives too. Generally they are made in China and are stamped out of cheap metal that they call stainless. For the same price you can get one of these, this is the better choice. Hell, for the price get a few. I bought one for me and Kev just for giggles and he used his at the Appleseed event we went to (post pending) to great affect.

The model I bought us is the "military" model with the green handle with rubber insert and green plastic sheath. Its decent, nothing fancy but it works. The rubber on the handle provides a good gripping surface, the sheath holds the knife securely enough for light duty and clips onto my belt fairly well.

So overall, for the cost of this knife versus the quality and utility, I gotta say this is good buy indeed.

Huey tested, Huey approved!

More history behind Adams Holsters.

I have previously posted about how much I like my “Texas” IWB holster from Adams Holsters hand made by Luke Adams.

Today on a forum his sponsors I posted the following:

“just felt like I should comment about how please I am with my Texas holster for my G19 and how it seems to keep getting better as the leather breaks in through wear.  The pistol seems to have shaped better to the leather just by wearing it next to me constantly over the last month or so as well as softened up where it rubs against me.  None of my previous leather holsters (mostly by Galco) seemed to have worn in like this. Whats the secret Luke?”

And boy did I get a response…

“Well I'd love to think it's some kind of genius on my part but I'm humble enough to think that I'm lucky:) I think it's allot of little things that make the rig work as well as they do one of the biggest things though in my opinion is the leather. When I first started making my own holsters as a hobby I used cheap Mexican leather that I actually got over the border at a leather shop when we lived right next to the border a couple years back. It wasn't thick enough, it didn't work well and generally frustrated me but the holsters it made worked as good or better than most anything I tried. They were crude and generally not very good, didn't look very good but they did function. Design at that stage was a cross between a Summer Special style of rig and a cheap uncle mikes IWB but boned from leather. I actually still have 3 of those original holsters sitting in a drawer of the motorhome, haven't used them in well over a year but I can look at them and see how far it's come. Anyways from that cheapo leather I learned allot of how not to build a good rig, and ran out of leather so I went to Tandy leather and got a single shoulder to continue making holsters with. What I realized was that this new leather was much better, and more stiff than the stuff I had been using, overnight my holsters improved significantly. Really it was a huge night and day difference, still not nearly what they are now but at the time I was astonished how much better leather made the end results so much better.

At that point I started playing with 2 clip designs, I realized there had to be some reason that so many guys liked holsters like the SuperTuck and the Sparks VM2's and allot of other rigs. So as I looked at things that I liked and didn't like I started getting basically features that I thought would make a rig that would work well for me. This was still a while before I decided to even sell holsters, this was me playing around for fun, still doing computer work and a bit of college, not ever planning a career of sorts in leatherwork. Anyhow I found that IWB was terrible for me with most of the rigs I had tried and attempted to find the combination of things that made it not uncomfortable. One of the things I liked about the SuperTuck/Answer/Mtac holsters was the flat leather backing. Much like a paddle holster it allowed the contours of the gun to be spread across the body and hip more comfortably. It's much like would you rather lay on the flat ground or a pile of rocks, for me it's the flat ground:) So that's where the design in the back came from.
The wide clips were the only was I could carry a government 1911 without it dragging my pants down, and applying a ton of pressure to my hip, so it got wide double attachments. I've brought the leather up on both clips to tighter to the body to give more adjust-ability. Overall there have been allot of changes in the rigs from the start. Same goes for the rest of the design and one day I built the first Texas holster but at the time it didn't have a name;) Actually I built it and started wearing it from day one and it was dang comfortable compared to anything else I tried. I used it for a while and liked it, got some ideas and made some changes.

Then when I was running out of leather from Tandy I decided to start researching leather and brands and what everyone liked. I started seeing a trend from nearly all the companies that built industry leading custom gear. Hermann Oak leather, one of two tannerys left in the US. Known to allot of leather workers as the last place to get real holster leather. Wickett and Craig is another place but many people have said their leather is too soft and pliable, too easy to mold. Hermann Oak is a pain in the butt to use compared to Wickett and Craig from what I've heard(I've never bought Wickett and Craig but I've used a bunch of Hermann Oak at this point). There are some guys who won't use Hermann Oak because they can't cut it with allot of knives;) It's a good leather in my opinion, but it's allot of work and requires a bit of thinking to build certain designs and rigs out of it. Sometimes it requires a bit of out of the box thinking but I think at the end of the day it's the best leather for the purpose. So I bought my first entire side of leather, half a cow. That first rig I built out of the new leather was an eye opener. Better than anything up to that point. Another huge jump in quality and finish. So at that point I decided that given the chance to get a better base product for the holsters would always be done. In other words if I could find a way to do it better in any way, I would do it. No compromise on features or comfort for the sake of price or materials.

 
This actually brought up a problem though:) My wife was looking at my hobby taking more and more money, at this point between tools and leather I had probably put somewhere between $500-1000 into this. I could have had allot of nice rigs for that:) But she was trying to cut my leather hobby budget so I decided I'd have to sell some holsters to pay for the hobby. I sent out a couple testing rigs to guys I trusted their opinions to see how they worked for them. So far I had only seen these and used them, they worked great for me, but I was afraid that I stumbled on a combination of features while great for me wouldn't work for others. Everyone of them came back with something much like Bud said, it was great and I wasn't getting the holster back. How much did I want for it;) So that's where it started. One day when I was cutting out a 1911 holster I realized the back of the rig was shaped kinda like the state of Texas. Since I still didn't have a name for the holster I started calling it the "Texas" holster. It stuck. Adams Holsters, came about because if I were starting a business I wanted it to be something family oriented because family is important. I figured "Lukes holsters" or something sounds weird if it ever grew larger than a one man shop. So figuring that no one but family would be working for me(pending it ever grows that big even) it became Adams Holsters.
Honestly not too many months after that I met you guys on the forums here and started sponsoring WTA, and from there you guys have pretty much been in the loop as to whats going on

So what's the secret? Honestly not sure, mix of the right features, the right materials and allot of time. It probably doesn't hurt that I couldn't comfortably carry before I built my own holsters to do what I wanted, so a little bit of me being PO'd enough to make a rig that worked for me:)”

If you remember I talked about the personal service that you get when you purchase his products, this is just another example of how well he communicates with his “user community”.  Definitely going to but a second now..

me want….

At least one Sheriff takes the time to thank CCW holders...

A "friend" on FaceBook sent me this letter he received after renewing his CCW permit with the Ottawa County Sheriff's department recently. For those outside of Ohio, Ottawa county lies about midway between Toledo and Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. It is best know for having the popular amusement park Cedar Point (recently named the #1 park in America!) in its boundaries as well as Camp Perry, where the NRA national rifle matches are held and is also the home of the CMP North Store where I bought my M1 Garand.

The Sheriff there takes the time to not only say that his department is pleased to provide the service of granting the CCW permit but also remind the recipient of their obligation to safe handling of their weapon and the civil liability that possess the permit entails.

The administration of the Ottawa County Sheriff's office was very pleased to process your "Carry Concealed Weapon" permit request and/or renewal. Over the years our personnel have been very committed to ensuring that this service is of a high standard and accommodating to individuals' schedules.

As Sheriff, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the importance of gun safety. You have completed a course, which addresses the liability issues, safety issues, and also the civil liability that accompanies the CCW permit.

The Ottawas County Sheriff's Office is very pleased to have provided this service to you. If at any time you have questions regarding the CCW permit, please go tot our web site, www.ottawcountysheriff.org or contact Director or Administration Deputy Rhonda St. Clair at 419-734-6823 or myself at my direct line , 419.734-6877.

Hmmm, when I worked at Camp Perry a long time ago there was a crusty old warrant officer named St. Clair that was entrenched in the running of that place, wonder if Deputy St. Clair is any relation?

Anyway, this comes short of being an out right thank you for applying for the CCW license, but it comes close. At any rate it is a nice service to provide the letter with the reminder about civic responsibility. One of the big things that is cited when arguing against concealed carry is that we the holders are a bunch of "cowboys" and "loose cannons" on the streets. As the sheriff points out in the letter, knowledge of the issues surrounding the liability of this permit is required of each holder. By reinforcing this fact at the outset of the issuance of each license he is helping the "carry community" come into compliance with this responsibility.

As I filed with Franklin County (I live in nearby Delaware County but applied in Columbus as I could schedule my fingerprinting appointment during lunch at the office a few blocks away from work), I did not get such a letter. Perhaps the sheer number of applications that the Columbus area generates prevents this from being possible due to postage reates. The CCW office in Columbus was very friendly and efficient when I received mine and took less than 24 hours to process it. The benefit of having a clean record I guess!

Tony Curtis dead at 85

Saw on the news that the iconic actor of the 50's and 60's passed away this week at 85. He will be remembered for many roles, but for me he will always be the slick and swindling LT(JG) Nick Holden in Blake Edward's classic 1959 comedy Operation Petticoat. Even after 50 years its still a funny movie.

Great video showcasing the M1 Garand

Picked this up off a forum...

Great government produced video that partially showcases the M1 Garand and has a very good part with its inventor, John Garand, that includes some rare audio of him also. I got to shoot my M1 at the Appleseed event that I went to with poor results due to me mainly. Found out that the M1 is designed to be shot as a right shouldered weapon, the loading mechanism does not lend itself well to a left handed shooter slinged into it loading en bloc clips. Oh well, I will adjust...