Gun Thread: July 24th National Thermal Engineer Day Edition!

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!

Happy July 24th and National Thermal Engineer Day, everyone! If this ain't one of the highlights of the year, I don't know what is. I'll tell you it's way hotter than a box of penguin turds where I am in Virginia, so this joyous event comes at a very good time of the year. I'm planning to celebrate by watching hours of the Weather Channel and using the laser pointer on my infrared thermometer as a cat toy. Is it hot where you are?

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Not sure if I have featured this before, but here is a fun little feller from the Weasel collection, a Springfield Armory 1911-A1 manufactured in 2004. It's about as basic as they come, or came rather, because the model was discontinued and replaced with the 1911 MIL-SPEC series. A review of the new model, with some comparisons to the "original" Springfield Armory reproduction A-1 can be found HERE.

I don't have a copy of the newer MIL-SPEC version to compare, but I sure don't see anything wrong with the one I have which seems a little truer to the one our GI's carried. It may just be some of the aesthetics, or the fact I generally view any and all change to be bad, but they didn't consult me, so whatevs. It's a fine shooter and although it has a couple of battle scars from the range, I have zero complaints with it!

Anyone have a copy of the newer version?

First up, our pal and delightful 'ette TB24601 shares her awesome AR upper!:

Engraved AR Receiver and a Hat

I post under TB24601. My husband helped me put together my first AR and I had to get it engraved. The other side has 'Vera' engraved on it. I know some Morons will appreciate it! For anyone around Colorado Springs, we recommend Spartan Defense Armory & Training for engraving, cerakote and similar services.

Awsomeness level 11! Is there any doubt TB24601 is a committed member of The Horde? Thanks for sending this in!

Going From .38 to .32 Magnum
Next up, our pal A.H.Lloyd makes a change!

Charter Arms (top) and Taurus 85 (bottom)

One could say A.H.Lloyd has transitioned.

With a bunch of states now open up for concealed carry, some of our newly emancipated Morons might be interested in why I switched from my venerable Taurus 85 Total Titanium in .38 Special to a Charter Arms Undercoverette in .32 Magnum. I will begin by saying I really like revolvers as an EDC choice. While I have some alternate rigs, my mainstay has been the snubbie, a five shot .38 Special. It is light, compact and simple. I don't even have to think about whether I want a round in the chamber or if the safety should be on, all of that is irrelevant. The Taurus met all of those needs, so why am I swapping it out? What put the Undercoverette over the top? Well, there were several factors.

The first is that the Undercoverette's grips are longer and provide better control. On the Taurus, the little finger is unsupported and usually rests along the butt. Having a full grip is nice.

The second is the caliber. I think .32 Magnum has managed to achieve a sort of Platonic ideal in a self-defense caliber. Felt recoil is significantly lower than .38 Special, yet it produces superior kinetic energy. As you can see, .32 Mag hollow point absolutely destroys a gallon jug and it hit with such force that I actually got hit by some of the spray. Not only does it hit harder than .38, the cylinder can hold an additional round, so I now have six shots rather than just five.

The biggest downside is finding ammunition, which has been particularly scarce and expensive of late. Still, the Undercoverette has several options when it comes to ammunition. In addition to using .32 Magnum, it can also safely use .32 S&W Long and .32 short. In fact, if you are someone who is very sensitive to recoil, getting one of these and using .32 Long in it is a viable option. Though some might call it a "mouse gun" caliber, .32 Long has twice the energy of .22LR or .25 ACP and it was a standard police cartridge for decades.

Revolvers chambered for .32 Magnum are technically capable of using .32 ACP, but this is not officially recommended. Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner explains why. I've tested it and ammunition choice makes a very large difference in performance and reliability. I absolutely do not recommend using .32 ACP as a self-defense round in one of these revolvers.

One issue with using different types of ammunition is that that point of aim can move around. This target helps illustrate that point. The orange tabs are .32 Magnum, and unsurprisingly they have the best placement. The green dots are .32 Long, and they typically fall a little lower, and I have the same experience in using .38 Special in a .357 Magnum. It may look like it is also far less accurate, but the flyers around the edge were the result of me experimenting with using a single hand and rapid fire. The pink dots are .32 ACP and you can see that they consistently hit low and to the right.

An additional point in favor of the Undercoverette for me was that its similarity to the Taurus meant almost no learning curve. All I had to do was get a sense of the proper sight picture and I was good to go.

As an added bonus, the Undercoverette is actually 1/4 ounce lighter when fully loaded. Is that significant? Not really, but if you look at the price points for the two weapons, it's remarkable that the Taurus, which I thought was the ne plus ultra of featherweights, can be surpassed with a conventional alloy frame.

Add it all together and it's a lighter platform, better feel, less recoil, more power and higher ammunition capacity. It's not for everyone, but I'm pretty happy with it.

How about it, .32 Magnum anyone? Great review AHL, and nice shooting! Thank you!

Ruh Roh! Ruger Recall!!
Next, our pal Baron Munchausen offers the following PSA on a a Ruger Mark IV pistol recall.

Here's what Ruger is saying on the recall webpage:

Ruger recently discovered that all Mark IV pistols including 22/45 models manufactured prior to June 1, 2017 have the potential to discharge unintentionally if the safety is not utilized correctly. In particular, if the trigger is pulled while the safety lever is midway between the "safe" and "fire" positions, that is, the safety is not fully engaged or fully disengaged, then the pistol may not fire when the trigger is pulled. However, if the trigger is released and the safety lever is then moved from the mid position to the "fire" position, the pistol may fire at that time.

Thanks Baron M! Anyone have one of the affected pistolas?

Greenwood Mall Indiana Shooting
Most of you know I tend not to include much here in the way of current events, rather choosing instead to focus simply on the hobby of guns and shooting. I'd be remiss, however, if I didn't mention that although we've had another deranged shooter, who opened fire killing three and injuring two more, this time there was a good guy present with a gun to take care of the problem.

The hero? 22 year-old Elisjsha Dicken who responded quickly and clearly saved countless lives. If you own a gun, learn how to use it and carry it wherever you go.

Good job, Eli. Very nice shooting.

89 Days!
The countdown to the TXMoMe has begun. That's right, boys and girls, the TXMome is a mere 89 days from today, and by now you should be rushing your MoMe attendance plans to completion. There are lots of big doin's in the works and your hosts Rancher Bob, Cow Horse Queen and Ben Had are ready to welcome YOU to the festivities! Have you signed up? Are you on the exclusive guest list, or are you one of the mentally defective people who always finds a reason to make it next year?

Holy Shitballs, people. Have I not implored and cajoled you enough? Do you require additional imploring and cajoling? I challenge you to find a single person who has attended a TXMoMe and not found it to be a life altering experience. Life altering for the good even! So please quit screwing around and making up reasons not to commit and start planning on getting your ass to Texas in October!

You will see this material again, so for heaven's sake, so do yourself a favor and email Ben Had for details!

Musical Interlude

Zepparella

Gun Basics 101
Hmmm... no new content from the She Equips Herself gal this week, so let's have a look at a previous video on at-home gun safes.

Here is a link for the Vaultek line of products.

Hopefully they have improved the design of this model!

Thoughts? Comments on the design or principle of operation? Anyone have one?

Cigar of the Week
Here is Cigar Vixen with a video review of the Joya Red.

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

Here is a quick little video of Weasel Dog for her fans! Apparantly she doesn't appreciate my interest in her little shoe-baby stuffed toy, and yes, that is my trigger finger at risk! Yikes!

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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