Gun Thread: January 30th Edition!

Photo obviously not taken by Weasel

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

So it's crunch time at work for your ol' pal Weasel. Hopefully after this week things will return to something resembling normal, but since the Gun Thread must go on, let me see if I can patch something together for today.

Programming Note: I will be checking in/out periodically this evening - please don't burn the place down!

With that, let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Hearing Protection

The question of what kind of hearing protection I use comes up from time to time, and typically goes something like this:

Q: Weasel, what type of hearing protection do you use?
A: Ear plugs.

For the many thousands of hours I have spent shooting, I have found plain ol' ear plugs work the best for me, and contrary to WeaselWoman's opinion, I still have a large percentage of my hearing intact. Over the years I have probably collected every type of hearing protection known to mankind, but still just use the plain cheap-o earplug.

Ear muffs are a popular solution, and I have used them in the past at indoor handgun ranges, but find they make my ears hot and sweaty, and who the ever-loving hell wants hot and sweaty ears? That's almost as bad as having socks that are too tight. Also, when shooting a rifle, I find my cheek weld to the stock causes the ear pad to lift up ever so slightly which pretty much defeats the purpose of wearing them in the first place.

I have also had sort of expensive custom ear plugs made in the past. These are the type where you take a mold of your ear holes at home, then send them away to have the finished product made. My experience with these has been they work a little too well and I can't hear shit while wearing them on the firing line. Sure, they block the high impulse of sound from the shot, but also block out all other sounds as well. Little things like people yelling "Cease Fire!" and "Weasel, the match is over!" I want the sound from the shot to be attenuated, but other sound to make it through, like hawt range babes asking for my phone number.

Back in the olden days when I was able to go to my farm, I'd often be shooting a handgun one minute, then a rifle next, and a sub-machine gun after that making switching hearing protection back and forth impractical. The jumbo bag of ear plugs is a perfect solution and at less than 25 cents per pair, are a real bargain. At that price point, they're cheap enough to pass out to people who may have forgotten their own.

One item I am in the process of evaluating is the ISOtunes Pro 2.0, not as much for shooting but rather when driving around on the tractor. The ISOtunes product is designed as a hearing safety product first, with the added feature of pairing with your phone for calls and also listening to music while you work. While I don't want any distractions while shooting, I am confident these would work just fine purely as earplugs. These also allow me to hear my phone for incoming calls from the hawt range babes when running the tractor and implements. They're nicely made and the Pro 2.0 model runs a little over $100.

So how about you all? What are you using? Plugs, earmuffs, or both? Do tell!

First up, our pal Big Alfredo taunts us with his home rifle and handgun range.

Howdy all. Traded my house in Chicago burbs for 17 acres just east of Nashville. Previous owner had competition shooting. You can see the berms for rifles. Looks like 50-100-200 and maybe 300 yards. And also a pistol range/or light caliber rifle. He left an old tv in the garage, so I took it to the pistol range and put targets on it. I use a 45 sig p220. Love it. Got my wife a .22mag Kel Tech which is a great target gun. I also have a bunch of deer that need some culling. Any morons in the area?

Nice setup, bro! Congratulations! How many of you out there hate Big Alfredo? Anyone in the Nashville area?

Next up, our pal Diffus heads to the range with a new 9mm!

When I got my annual bonus at the end of last year, it came in the form of a specified amount redeemable for a variety of gift cards at a certain website. When I saw Cabela's was one of the merchants, I thought, Ah-ha! I can get that pistol I've been thinking about getting and not have to spend any of my money. A few weeks later, I was the proud owner of a new Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 9mm, which I had selected based on a trip to the range with a friend; it just seemed to fit really nicely in my hand.

So I've made a few trips to the range since I bought it. Not as many as I would like, but I'm working on increasing the frequency. I've still been shooting fewer than 15 times in my life; four predate my recent firearm acquisition, and one of those was at Air Force field training in 1978.

7 yards

15 yards

The first pic is two magazines (15 in each) from seven yards, which is pretty much the default distance at which I've been shooting. The other was from my first attempt ever shooting at 15 yards again with two mags. I think it's not bad for a neophyte, though I'd like to get the seven-yard grouping tighter. Positive affirmations and suggestions welcome.

Nice shooting and welcome to the Gun Thread, Diffus!

Next up, our pal rhomboid sends photos of his Colt Magnum Carry with the holster made for it by Andrews Custom Leather in Florida.

rhomboid also mentioned:

Their website has changed, and now I can't really even find the option I chose, which I think is a thumb-break (this was optional) paddle-style holster. But I'd imagine they still work the same way and can customize to most needs.

Very nice looking gun leather! Thanks rhomboid!

Cold Weather Shooting

With most of the country in a deep freeze, seems like a good time to look at how cold temps affect your rifle.

Well will you looky here! Our pal Diogenes sends us an actual cigar review!

The finest cigar experience of my life occurred in 1997 in Toulouse France. In the old section of town there is a square and in one corner there is both a wine shoppe and tobacco store. I sat down to a plate of cheeses, bread and a nice Beaujolais followed by a genuine Cuban Cohiba. It was 1 hour and 10 minutes of absolute bliss.

Today I pulled out a new cigar. It was a 6 x 52 Tora called the Corona Constantine. This cigar is made in honor of the Sigma Chi fraternity (In Hoc Bif) as one of the execs at the Corona Cigar Company is also a member of Sigma Chi. Proceeds from sales in part go to charities.

The cigar was not the equal of my French experience, but pretty damned close!

The cigar had a surprisingly light tobacco flavor at the start with the spice and cinnamon backgrounds dominating. As I moved into the middle third of the toro, the tobacco began to emerge and with it a fine leathery aroma. This continued into the final third with a nice finish, a smooth smoke and even ash all the way through.

The downside is it comes at almost a Cohiba price. But I have to say, I will be buying more. I wholeheartedly endorse it to the Horde, and for any of the 'Ette's who want to try a cigar, this is a good one.

Dead soldier

Very nice review, Diogenes, thank you! Anyone else have a favorite to share? How about a great story to go with it?

Link-O-Rama

I'm really very seriously not kidding around anymore. Buy Ammo
AmmoSeek - online ammo search tool
GunBot - online ammo search tool
SG Ammo
Palmetto State Armory
Georgia Arms
AmmoMan
Target Sports USA
Bud's Gun Shop

Our pal WTM sends us this week's funny.

Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!

That's it for this week - have you been to the range?

posted by Weasel at 07:00 PM

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