sweasel.com

Looks like Enas got the 4″ barrel and Mr M got the 6″ barrel. McGoo’s too delicate to say what he’s got. I wasn’t looking for a 2″ snubnose. I bought it used, so I got what I got.

Stop staring.

Please.

Weaz, I’d mentioned in the original Enas post that I have the 6″: it’s exactly like MM’s – except his doesn’t look like it has the combat grips on it. They look woody.

Mine is also 900 miles away in Spicewood Tx, along with all my other firearms – or I’d photo it and post it. The only weapon I have here in StL now is my new Sig Sauer P226 .40cal.

Yeah, I think I’m going to leave my favorite two with a friend rather than sell them.

On the other hand, my friend isn’t all there. I can’t discount the possibility she might go on a rampage.

On the third hand, I’ll be 3,000 miles away in Jollye Olde, so what do I care?

I left everything (gunsafe, too) in Tx because I didn’t know the laws here in MO – and didn’t want to haul an 800lb (empty) safe and a couple dozen weapons up here in a Toyota Tacoma. Plus – I wasn’t planning on staying here the rest of my life.

That was six years ago. The best-laid plans…

But my friend is stable and reliable and utterly honest. So I had no concerns there…

I’ll call him tonight and try to get him to duplicate your photo technique – then we’ll have a three-shot photo.

What gun would you recommend for fun and protection? Does the grip, which you guys are talking about, make any difference?

And do I need to become a gun pundit like y’all to get one? Y’all go on and on and on and on about stuff that doesn’t even make sense to me, with decimal points and double quotation marks and weird terminology. It’s like a cult, I tell you.

Enas’ hands reminds me of Her Grace Weasel’s.

I know, Musli. My alternate title for this post was, “does this revolver make my hand look fat?” Because it does! What up with that? I think I’m retaining water. Don’t ask.

For fun, a .22 — itty bitty caliber. It makes a nothing little ‘pop’ when you fire it. Pure fun. Though I’ve heard that professional assassins like them, because if you put a .22 upside somebody’s head and fire, the round bounces around inside his skull like an angry bee and scrambles the brain but good.

For protection, the largest caliber you can stand firing. Me, I’m a girl. I flinch pretty badly. That means my accuracy is off by a lot with larger caliber guns. Then again, self-defense is an up-close kind of thing. So that snubby in .357 is probably my best choice, even though it spooks me a bit.

Many people swear a shotgun is the last word in home defense. But I’m such a klutz, I worry about defending myself indoors with a long gun.

The biggest gun I’m happy shooting on the range is a .38. And that’s why I ended up with the gun in the picture: a .357 will also fire .38 ammunition. (The number is the width of the round. So a .357 is slightly smaller than a .38…but it’s magnum, which means substantially longer. So it’s a much bigger bang).

There! That was a mess!

How can something smaller (.357) shoot something bigger (.38)?

Because revolvers are simple, loose and forgiving, bless ’em. They’re the comfy old shoes of firearms. The t-shirt and jeans of deadly weapons.

A semi-auto? Forget it! It only shoots its own, specially-designed ammo 9 times out of ten. That tenth time, it jams. They’re the Paris Hiltons of firearms.

Weasel love her some wheel guns.

I’m going to assume shooting a revolver requires very frequent reloading, yes? But are most guns frequent-reloading-needy? Machine guns, perhaps not. I can’t imagine how others would go on shooting a lot without reloading.

How long does the reloading take, usually?

Can laser guiders be used? Are they needed? (I was very bad at archery in high school, so I assume I’ll not be so good at shooting.)

Is a revolver a hand-gun? What does one call one of those non-wheel small guns? Are those the semi-autos you were referring to?

Sorry to be shooting so many questions. (Hah! I am making the pun!)

Muslihoon – get thee to a Glock dealer or, if thou hast an aversion unto plastic, do thou as dost Master McGoo: avail thyself of a Sig Sauer.

All else be as archaic as mine English.

My expertise is not great, but…a revolver is usually six or seven shots. Most clips are between 10 and 18 or so. I think. Loading a clip is cumbersome. Loading a revolver is much less so. But!…you can carry multiple pre-loaded clips. On the other hand, there’s such a thing as a speed-loader for revolvers that enables them to be reloaded quickly on the fly. There’s a whole variety of neat laser thingies for all types of weapons.

I figure if I get into a bad situation, I’ve got a shot or two to get myself out of it. If it takes more than that, somehow I’ve slipped sideways into some extra-dimensional combat planet where I do not belong and will swiftly die. Actually — between you and me — I suspect I’d be toast if I ever got into a real-world self-defense situation. I’m not what you’d call a fast reacter…especially coming out of a deep sleep. I’d probably have just enough time to think, “WTF?!” before I got my gullet slit.

On the other hand, target shooting really is a lot of fun.

Generally, people mean semi-autos when they say pistols. Semi-autos are really very clever. You fire a round, the bullet flies out the front and the same pressure moves the slide backwards. Then the spring in the clip shoves another round up, just in time for the slide to slide forward and poke it into the barrel, ready for firing.

It’s ‘semi’ auto because you have to squeeze the trigger again to make the next round fire. Full auto would just keep going on one squeeze until the magazine was empty. As you might imagine, you can convert the one to the other fairly easily.

Clever = elegant, wonderful and prone to failure just when you need it most.

Also, I drive a straight-shift. ‘K?

Uh-oh. With the utmost respect Master Badger – and I am serious (about the respect, that is) – I must delicately assert that your spouse-to-be has a valid point: Revolvers are way more reliable in a pinch. (personal story of 1000 words deleted) The wheel gun NEVER jams. The argument that autoloaders have more rounds is valid – but if you need more than 5 or 6, you’re in over your head and probably fucked anyway, unless you’re ex-mil.

Muslihoon – the Sig Sauer is here, if you want to see it:

http://aardvarks.wordpress.com/files/2007/11/sigsauerp226.jpg

Umm.. actually, I lie.

I said ‘all else’. I forgot the blessed Beretta: the Maserati of handguns.

Chiedo scusa

Woohoo! Chick fight!

Oh.

Wait.

No.

Love the Sig, McGoo – a gentleman of exquisite taste and discernment!

The revolver vs. semi will roll round forever. I absolutely agree that revolvers don’t jam. I’d still (if I ever had to) wave a Glock around if the ordure hit the ventilation device.

It’s damned hard to put that pistola up there to the monitor, point the camera, get it lined up with the Weasel photo, let it focus, hold it still, and push the damned recessed button. Christ. I felt like a klutz.

Wait. I am a klutz. With a gun. Never mind.

Weasel drives a straight-shift? That’s a stick-shift in ‘Merican?

I knew it!!!

Thanks, peeps! (I really mean it: I feel like a know a bit more.)

The Sig looks like a toy! Nice pic, nonetheless.

How does Uncle Badger know about guns? I thought the English had banned them.

..and I will politely agree with my esteemed associate to disagree. But in a gentlemanly fashion, of course. The debate will never end, as you say.

My bias (and it is bias) about wheel/auto stems from an incident very much like that Weasel described – except that I had a Walther PPK-S .380, went to chamber a round, and the fucker jammed!!! I bought a .38 5-shot wheel gun that weekend and relegated the Walther to the safe. Thank god the prowler incident was a false alarm.

Thank you, Uncle B. I like the P226. It kicks very nicely and hurls a nice chunk of lead out the front end. I cannot claim to have mastered it yet. But I will.

But Mus’, before the English banned them, they invented most of ’em.

Oh ho! So now you admit the British are the source of the world’s problems, what with their divide-and-conquer, inventing weapons, and eating spotted dick.

Were it not for the British I’d be in some hovel in the Afghan mountains right now, fighting with a sword, if I’m lucky. They really civilized South Asia to an extent no one can realize, and which many South Asians try to deny or hide.

Brits are basically unfinished proto-Americans.

Yes, and let’s be honest – half the people roaming the world waving firearms at The Bad Guys are either Americans, Brits, Canadians, or Aussies (though that might be about to change).

Spotted dick? Either tetracyclin or custard… I forget which cures which, though.

BTW, nicely said, Muslihoon – but the cultural exchange was far from one way. We are in your debt, too.

That’s like weasels are unfinished proto-badgers, is it?

(koff)

I can forgive them for the worlds problems, the divide-n’-conquer, and the weapons. No problem.

But I’ll never forgive them for eating dick – spotted or otherwise. It just isn’t natural, and no good will come of it.

We are all products of our culture and its history. The “McGoos” got “invited” to leave England for getting a bit uppity around the Crown (this secretly pleases me no end) back in the late 1600’s. Her Majesty was not amused. The rest – is history.

Just think though, Mus’. You’re about to move out on your own, exercise your Constitutional Right to keep and bear arms (and feed and clean them, too), and have a lot of fun too! Where else but in ‘merica!?

Weaz – Pixy Misa did his/her thing over at Aces. Everything is all better now with the New Comment Thingy.

So comment, Weaz! Comment like the wind!

I’m in the shotgun camp myself. I’m firmly of the opinion that simply hearing the racking of the cocking mechanism would have a definitely chilling effect on any miscreant bent on harming me. Not to mention the misfortune of drilling several close neighbors if I miss with my .38.

Hard to sleep with it under one’s pillow, tho.

Ooooo! Gun thread! Here ya go Gnus: The Back-Up

From my viewings of many episodes of The History Channel’s “Wild West Tech” show I was under the impression that most of the advancments in handgun design and manufacturing were made in the good Ol’ USA.

I have to agree with Gnus that if the purpose of the exercise is home defense and specifically discouraging a punk from opening the bedroom door, there is nothing in the world more effective than the sound of a pump action shotgun. People who have never heard one or even imagined such a thing existed will be very, very discouraged by that elegant, menacing, mechanical sound.

Other benefits are that if you actually decide to shoot someone or something, you don’t need no stinkin’ laser sights. You’ll hit anything that you can light up with a flashlight; everywhere. Additionally, you don’t have to worry as much about the law of unintended consequences. Sure, you’ll have to buy some drywall and some paint, but that shot that missed won’t end up breaking the lamp in your neighbor’s bedroom like a ever-so-slightly missing .357 magnum round will.

However, Mus, if you intend to carry the thing around, a pistol is much more convenient.

As for the Brits and their history of colonization, I find it instructive to compare the countries where the Brits went in to those where the French, Germans, and Spanish took over. Generally where the Brits went, the countries are currently doing well compared to the former colonies of the others.

My friend, who is a bit of a history buff attributes this to English laziness. The British administrators didn’t want to be bothered with the work of government so they set up schools and trained the locals to run things. When the Brits left, the governments (the bureaucracies like the postal systems and the courts, etc) kept right on ticking, since they’d been doing all the work anyhow.

Oh, yes. I agree, Gnus. Pistols are great, but for self-defense pure and simple, no one argues with a shotgun.

Not twice, anyway.

I know I asserted English domination of the field, but in point of fact I really don’t know for sure. I do know there were some interesting oddities as to how the US/EU developed and used things. Metallic cartridge primers, for instance. Boxer vs Berdan primers. There’s an odd story there.

Guns, huh?

Gots me one of these — http://www.gunsworld.com/rossi/rossi8.htm

And a few others.

The blue card test reminds me of when I went to get a the motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license when I moved back to Chicago in 1988. I had to take a riding test which they administered in the parking lot with a bunch of cones that you had to ride around without hitting anything. At the end, you were required to accelerate up to twenty miles an hour and then at a certain cone hit your brakes and come to a controlled stop before you got to the yellow line.

I did this and was then told by the matronly lady,who when I asked later if she’d ever ridden a motorcycle just looked at me with horror, that I’d have to do it again because I’d used my front brake when coming to a stop. I tried to explain to her that the front brake did about ninety per cent of the stopping and she told me I was dead wrong, that I would flip over the handlebars if I kept using my front brake and that if I wanted to pass the test I had to use only my rear brake.

So, I went through the course again and at the appropriate spot accelerated and then using only my rear break I went sliding nicely past her leaving a pretty black stripe on the pavement from my locked up back wheel. Before she could say anything I went back around, accelerated to about forty miles an hour and using only my front brake came to a perfect stop with my rear wheel about four inches off the ground so she could see that it wasn’t doing any braking at all. She flunked me.

I filed a complaint and was retested. I tried to file a complaint to have the woman removed from motorcycle testing or at least to stop telling people something that could get them killed. But, I was dealing with the State of Illinois.
Nuff said.

Weas, have you tried a .45? I have very little upper body strength, and I find that .45s are MUCH easier to fire than .38 or .22 pistols, because the trigger isn’t nearly as hard to pull. I don’t remember the recoil bothering me that much.

So, yeah, when I get my license to carry, I’ll probably get a .45 revolver.

I know nothing – nothing – about guns. I’m a regular Britisher civvy without an American girlfriend/mustelid.
Mind you gun crime is on the exponential curve in Blighty, so maybe I can be all like ‘die Nazi paper target – boom!’ soon.

I’m a regular Britisher civvy without an American girlfriend/mustelid.

Uhm, when your American Girlfriend carries a pistol in her garter, she’s generally referred to as a
“Moll” not a Mustelid

Artist’s rendition of a Moll as described by actual witnesses

A rare photograph of a real Moll in her native environment

Editor’s note: I’d have done all this in one post, but Akismet is sleeping one off, and he’s particularly dangerous when he’s hung over.

Mrs P, I fired a .45 as part of my ‘training’ when I joined a range. They made us fire a whole variety of stuff (it was fun!).

I did okay with the .45. I passed on buying one because I’m cheap and ammo is expensive. Yeah, that’s right…I’d risk death to avoid paying a lot for ammo.

Big heavy guns absorb a lot of the shock for you. Little girlie guns don’t. So that little feminine thing Mom used to carry hurts like hell to fire after a while.

Shucks, Lokki, I haven’t plucked anything fun out of the filter in ages. Man, am I ever getting some spam these days, though.

Spam? Weasel, its probably all that peanut lady fuck traffic.

Good point on li’l vs. big guns, Stoaty. Its true of auto’s vs. wheel guns too.

I used to demonstrate this to friends by loading up identical full-load rounds into my S&W 29 (the .44 magnum Dirty Harry used) and into my Desert Eagle .44 magnum. I’d let them fire each a few times.

The perceived kick of the wheel gun was significantly more than the autoloader. The wheel gun would actually hurt the hand after a while – not so the autoloader.

This is actually due to a reshaping of the impulse – or kick – curve by the mass and mechanism of the autoloader. Mrs. Peel would love the physics of it. The little ballet of redistributed stored energy vs kinetic energy is beautiful. I love it.

Heinlein said: Get off the first shot. This makes them keep their heads down and gives you time to aim the second.

Y’know – I’m seeing a pattern here. Seems like jwp only shows up when I say peanut lady fuck. Is that like abracadabra or sumpin? 🙂

My favorite two RAH statements are:

“To really enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.”

and,

“Always tell her she’s beautiful. Especially when she isn’t.”

But there are so many of them:

http://www.geocities.com/seeker3010/Laz1.html

Gibby Haynes: “I know nothing – nothing – about guns…”

And that’s just how our lords and masters like it. I reckon it’s an Englishman’s duty to frustrate the bastards.

Besides… the way things are heading in this country, it’s knowledge we may well need to have, simply to stay safe. Perhaps even alive.

It never ceases to amaze me that with all the gun-banning that has happened all over the place – and the resulting universal increases in crime rate – that people don’t get a clue. Likewise, everywhere that has relaxed restrictions on firearms ownership and concealed-carry licensing has seen a measurable reduction in said crime rate (and NO increase in “cowboy” acts).

But – I’m familiar with denial of reality and cognitive dissonance phenomenon. Pity there’s no easy cure.

Don’t underestimate their wiliness, McGoo. See, when a city or a state or a country enacts tough gun control laws and the gun crime goes up, it’s obviously the fault of all those places next door who DON’T have strict gun control. Criminals nip over there and get weapons and bring them back.

We’ll never be safe until guns are outlawed everywhere. You know that’s the subtext.

Yep. Its circular reasoning – reinforced by an absolute unwillingness to face the simple truth that there are bad guys and good guys out there – and always will be.

You can either hand the bad guys your valuables (or life) or you can say no – and pull a trigger.

Those are the choices. There are no other “ifs, ands, or buts”.

If they truly banned (and seized) “all” guns, we decent folks would simply have to master knives. ‘Cause the bad guys are still out there. And they want what’s yours. They always have.

God, I hope I didn’t chase jwp off.

peanut lady fuck….? 🙂

…and the Devil appears!

The August/September issue of Reason has an excellent cartoon regarding the right to own a bazooka.

Can’t wait to get mine. Those pesky buffalo that ignore my fences will be in for a bit of a surprise. Likewise, the tourists looking for a shortcut to Eleven-Mile Reservoir.

I knew it!

jw – look upon those pesky tourists as convenient moving targets. Practice, practice, practice.

The cartoon makes a lot of valid points – humorously!

Humorously–you mean that was a humor piece? Jeezus, I gotta read more carefully!

Still, tourists, beware! Those holes that pockmark the entry road to my ranch are not meteorite craters.

There’s a man with a bomb strapped to himself in Hillary’s campaign HQ right now. He’s taken 2 hostages. Michelle Malkin and FOX news are on it.

This sucks mightily.

Yes, indeedy. Hope they get him before he hurts anybody, including himself; be nice for once to hear the idiot’s rationale for doing something so fucking stupid.

His rationale for his actions is beyond my ability to grasp.

Sure – I think all adults get spittin’ mad about something or the other – at least a few times in our lives. I know I have.

But to do this…..?

This is …. out there. Way out there. Insanity. Hope we have enough psych- and law-enforcement “rope” to lasso him in from the void without anyone getting hurt. As you say, jw, it would be nice to hear his story. Maybe we could learn something.

Besides… the way things are heading in this country, it’s knowledge we may well need to have, simply to stay safe. Perhaps even alive.

So long as you don’t name your teddy bears or Damien’s butt expulsions, ‘Mo’, you should be just fine. 🙂

Weaz: Texas finally comes through (he sent photos of the s&w .44mag first time).

http://aardvarks.wordpress.com/files/2007/12/dscn1279.jpg

I think my grips are different from yours. I thought I remembered Pachmeyrs, and I was right – I think. Never can tell with my memory.

Heh. Pretty cool. We need to find a few more 686s, so it’ll be like holding two mirrors up against each other…

I can add a s&w model 29 (Dirty Harry’s bad boy) right now ’cause thats what my buddy sent by mistake on Friday.

I kept saying “The .357! There’s only ONE like it in there!” He kept hearing “Hand Cannon!” and programmed his eyes to look for a BIG gun.

I’m in a feisty mood this morning. So I’m doing little “posers” here and there.

Hey, Stoaty! Did anyone notice the subtle differences (2) between the photo of your pistol cylinder (or mine) and Enas’ cylinder? Know why? I think its neat…

Feisty! Meh!

I don’t spot it. I imagined, when you said that, that the cylinder revolved in the opposite direction from previous models. But no. Apparently not. (The little tongue-shaped endentations on the wheel point in the direction the cylinder revolves, for you trivia buffs).

OK, I’ll spill.

You will notice two characteristics of all cylinders: they have long horizontal bullet-shaped grooves starting at the front (barrel-end) of the cylinder, and they have small tongue-shaped indentations at the back (where the hammer is).

Look at Weasels in the photo and then Enas (at the link Weaz provided):

You’ll see that Enas has MORE long grooves and that his tongue-shaped indentations are aligned differently from the others.

The reason is because Weaz (and me and Mr. Minority, I think) have 6-shot weapons – and Enas has a 7-shooter.

Huzzah McGoo! Sherlock Holmes had nothing over you in terms of observational power.

Damn and Tarnation!

Here I learned to count to six only because of Clint Eastwood:

“ know what you’re thinking, punk. You’re thinking, did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?

And now some son-of-a-bitch goes and gets a seven-shooter.

I had to check the S&W site myself ‘fore I believed it, Lokki!

Speaking of 7-shooters: If you ever get the chance, see Cactus Jack/The villain if you ever get the chance.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080097/

Handsome Stranger: This is a seven-shot six-shooter, and I had it especially made.
Charming Jones: Why?
Handsome Stranger: Why?
Charming Jones: Yeah…
Handsome Stranger: I dunno.

I was really concerned with that “if you ever get the chance”.

The flick is a live-action Roadrunner cartoon. Practically every pratfall that befalls Wiley Coyote happens to Cactus Jack (Kirk Douglas). Falling off cliffs. Glued to RR tracks. Run over and squished flat into the ground by wagons. Eff’ed with by animals and Indians. It never stops. And Kirk Douglas plays it to the hilt.

Its a hoot.

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Keep up the good writing.

When you are looking for a certain cable for your system,
you will find two different types consist of single mode and multimode.

Think about that for a moment, you will get it later if not now.

IMO a properly adjusted clutch should be close to fully engaged about halfway through it’s range of motion off the floor.