Gun Thread: End of February 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!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving hell did it get to be February 25th? Cold weather be damned, I'm headed to WeaselAcres this coming weekend as long as it's not precipitating!

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

From the Gun Thread Archives we have:

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 ol' 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 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, even if you don't particularly like them.

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?

None were infantry rifles, but the Army assigned them rifle series designations. All were either marksmanship training rifles, aircrew survival rifles, or sub-caliber anti-tank gun sighting and training rifles. The M3, M10, and M11 designations were not used.

Thanks Gref!

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

And this is pretty cool; slo motion video of valve springs at 8500 rpm.

Here is a 10 hour recording of a hotel AC unit.

Cigar of the Week

This week our pal rhomboid scores again with this excellent review of the Aladino corojo

"Aladino is a brand of Julio Eiroa, a major figure both as a grower and blender in the Honduran tobacco industry. The stick reviewed here is a Honduran puro, all the leaf in the filler, binder and wrapper grown in Honduras, and all corojo leaf.

A nice looking medium-brown cigar, the Aladino corojo (toro size) has good construction, is light in the hand, and burns evenly with only a few touch-ups needed. This cigar received high ratings from the big reviewers of such things. Unlike them, I did not get much of the Mediterranean spice notes they mention, though the earthiness and leather did come through. Passing hints of sweetness and some kind of spice, as well. It was medium bodied for me. Those who are fond of corojo, which is a feature of many highly regarded Nicaraguan sticks, would probably find this cigar interesting and worth a try. Online one can find this cigar for around $8 and up."

Excellent, rhomboid! Thank you!

Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.

Cigarsinternational.com
Cigarpage.com
Famous-smoke.com
Cigarsdaily.com
Neptunecigar.com
Smallbatchcigar.com
Bobalu Cigar Company
Cigarbid.com
Nicks Cigar World New!

A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid

Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!

Ammo 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
American Elite Ammo NEW!

For all you vegan hunters out there, this week's mailbag entry is for you from our pal Misanthropic Humanitarian. Great one!

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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