Gun Thread: Easter Edition!

There's a hare in my scope!

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 Jumping Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be Easter Sunday? Happy Easter! Once again, we go deep into the Gun Thread photo vault and dust off the hare in scope pic. I hope the day is a special one for you and you get to bite the head off of lots of chocolate bunnies!

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

Q: Weasel, must we yet again suffer through your endless talk about fundamentals?
A: Yes. Yes we must.

OK! So last week we covered two basic shooting stances, the Isosceles and Weaver, and the reasons why they form the basis of a solid platform. In a nutshell, wobbly shit is bad in stances just like it's bad in a rifle setup. So weight forward with knees and elbows ever-so-slightly bent. Think aggressive stance. You do not want to be all rigid and dorky and unable to correctly absorb recoil as the gun is fired. You want your stance to be somewhat relaxed allowing you to return everything to the same starting position, or your natural point of aim after each shot. Somewhat relaxed doesn't mean all loose and floppy, but flexible enough to absorb recoil, and absolutely not push you back on your heels.

'Kay? We good on stance? It has to be practiced until it becomes natural with muscle memory. For those of you without muscles, try and make do as best you can.

Today lets take a peek at a proper grip. A proper grip varies slightly depending on what you are shooting, a revolver or a pistol, but the key takeaway here is you want a firm (but not ridiculous) hold on the gun with as much contact and support between the hand and gun as possible.

Here's a guy with an extra big watch discussing stance and grip.

Here's a medium size watch guy with pistol grip techniques. This is really good.

Here is a super-duper competitive shooter, who is strangely watchless, with another take on grip. Does his method make sense for the casual range shooter?

And finally, here's our pal "Jer" Miculek with tips on revolver grip.

You may notice there is some slightly contradictory information among the four, which only means you need to go to the range and find out what works the best for you. If you are not achieving repeatable results, consider tweaking your grip. The best way to do that, in Weasel's opinion, is to have a plan when you go to the range as you sort out what is most effective for you. All the big watch wearing tactical badass mo-fo's in the world can give you tips, but you need to take them to the range and develop a useful and practical application for yourself.

Listen up, all y'all. I think this is important. I spend a lot of time harping on the technical aspects of shooting but not always so much on the mental aspect. While I am absolutely a proponent of carrying a firearm for self-defense, I also believe with that decision comes a great deal of responsibility. In my opinion, having a firearm can in fact limit your options in the event of an altercation. The minute a gun comes out, you are one step closer to taking the fateful step of pulling the trigger, and it becomes harder to de-escalate a situation by resorting to a simple fist-fight or poo-flinging, for example. How many times have you run these sorts of scenarios through your head? What would it take to cause you to un-holster or otherwise deploy a handgun and up the ante in a conflict?

What about brandishing? Good idea or not? Partial brandishing? Pseudo-brandishing? Concealed brandishing?

I am going to ask you to watch this 19 minute video sometime this week, and return next Sunday prepared to discuss your thoughts. Please don't comment on it tonight in order to give everyone who is interested a chance to watch and participate in the conversation. You will have a week to think about your reaction when in real life the decisions are being made in seconds.

The incident involves two drivers in the chaotic environment of an airport. What would normally result in an exchange of fingers becomes a little more complicated, as you will see.

Discussion Points
Was it smart for gun-guy to do what he did? If not, what would have been a better reaction? How about the cops - was their handling of the matter justified and appropriate? What about cab driver guy - how significant a part did his actions play and did the actions warrant gun guy's response? Finally, given the contradictory accounts which one do you believe?

Think about it and let's discuss next week.

Our pal scampydog shares a very nice pair of Winchester Model 71’s! Weasel are jealous!

Both dad and I had discussed the 71's for years. Was fortunate to pick one up at auction and took it out west as a permanent on loan gift for him. Told him to keep it and shoot it as long as he wished. He was an avid reloader and I knew he would run some rounds through it. Which he did. In typical dad form, my next trip out west a couple years later, dear 'ol dad put one over on junior. Slow walked me into his treasure room and off-handedly said, "Oh I've got one you should have a look at." Which of course was his own Model 71. I do miss his humor and the rhythm of him putting one over on me. He would have been a fine Moron. Ammo is pretty much unavailable and reliant on reloads. Comparison pic of 30.06 vs .348. Kicks about as one would expect.

Happy Easter and happy shooting.

Very nice, scampydog! Thank you for sending these in for us all to enjoy!

Do you think Accident Prevention Man sleeps in his hard hat? Let there be no accidents!!

Special Easter Bonus!
What if the Doors wrote Enter Sandman?

Cigar of the Week

This week our pal rhomboid scores again with this excellent review of the Illusione Fume D'Amour

llusione is a brand that had made its mark for, among other things, blending cigars with little or no ligero leaf, generally the strongest leaves of the tobacco plant, which are near the top and thus get more sun exposure. This can produce very mild yet flavorful cigars. The Fume D'Amour is one of these. It is a Nicaraguan puro, with corojo and criollo leaf and emphasizing lower "primings", or leaves lower on the plant, according to the company. Result is a very smooth and mild cigar that for me delivered a distinct tobacco sweetness throughout (even on the finish, and after). Other notes were present - some nuttiness, some sweet wood. Construction is good, draw is easy, burn line required only a few touch-ups (I like to keep the line even). For those who like flavor and complexity in a milder package, the Fume D'Amour is worth a try. Available online in the $7-8 range.

Excellent as always, 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!

This week's mailbag entry is from our pal WTM. Something seems off.

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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