Accidents Deer and the Life of this gunblogger

...has been slow this past few weeks. Weather and work determines how much time I spend at the range. Cost and availability is a factor, but is a reasonable one. If I don't work it is a major factor. Two weeks ago today I was driving in the early morning darkness a large band or a small herd of deer ran across the road from the condo's where they were grazing to a city park. Damn I thought I had them clear when a smaller second group darted out. Obviously the slower part of the group. Well I nailed one. Now I have hunted deer in the past and have no issue harvesting one. I have had the misfortunes also to make contact on the roadways. So this did not make me nauseous or did I need professional consultations for the PTSD. Till a few hours later and the morning light illuminated the damage.

  A roll off was ordered and it was hauled to a Body shop near my residence and a person that I have dealt with in the past. Now the real issues begin. The good hands people at my Agency laugh ( No the agent really did) and with the given reply to me about why I could not have a rental. Which made absolutely no sense  So when I asked for the definition of the word collision he really laughed. Believe it when I say I went off on him.  A short while later the agent calls back, still not comfortable with me and again tries to tell me that comprehensive damage  will not cover a rental. He then went on and told me I had not the rental clause in my policy. Damn dude you could have said this from the start. The agent now tells me I am not a nice person. Yep your right I am not, I will be changing companies soon also. He also informs me the adjuster will show up some time between the next day Tues and Fri.  Great service. In the meantime the rental company is called. The cheapest possible vehicle is reserved. At my own expense.
  The next day I receive a call from Insurance carrier stating the adjuster would be stopping to appraise the damage in the afternoon and would call me before he got there. On my way home from the dreaded 4 letter word that gets in the way of my range time. I stop at the body shop to get my sunglasses and take a few more pic's. The appraiser is there and ready to total the vehicle. As most can tell there is damage however the airbag didn't deploy and I drove it to work a half a mile away. He is wanting to give me less than value on the vehicle. When I demand he fix it. The adjuster spent more time working this one and his body english told me didn't want to do this. He wanted the easy way out. He however did give me some help in a reduce rate with the Rental company. Still out of my pocket. Now two weeks later i sit here waiting for the call from the body shop saying I can get a ride over there to pick it up. the rental was returned on Friday when the jeep was suppose to be done.
  I know many of you have had similar experiences. I write this so to warn everyone of you to look over your policies and make sure you have the coverage you think you are paying for.

Deer run rampant in Fairfax County- Need some Chasing Tails here. This is next to the parking garage at work.

As I finish typing this up the body shop has called and said it's being washed and cleaned up and will be ready in an hour. I think I have said enough about my insurance companies issues, while I am not pleased with them. I will give kudos to the folks at Enterprise Rentals. The customers service there was outstanding. When they heard I had been in accident they were more than willing to give me the Insurance company rate for the rental.

I don't know if I will have time for some range activities today but the weekend is just a few days closer now. Thanks for stopping by.

Fight is not over

This is 8 minutes and change. Please give it a listen to. I know most of us already know these things. however it's is nice hearing from a scholar and on a PBS Podcast to boot.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/the-assault-weapons-ban-as-understood-by-a-second-amendment-scholar.html

Tomorrow's me favorite Holiday

Happy St. Patrick's day!  Let's don't forget our brothers who have been fighting for their freedom from Tyranny longer than we have.


 For them I offer a toast and some lassie to lift their spirits

Thanks Boodhoo for that one

Part II Chiappa Review

Part II of review. This is the Chiappa 1911-.22, see the earlier review below. This is a gun I want to really like. Let me reassert this statement. I really want to like this gun, I was hoping to shine a big beacon over this one and say, Hey look world, you are over looking a true bargain!  Yet it has not given me that instant satisfaction I was looking for. A gun out of the box that doesn't fail. An inexpensive target gun for plinking and training with. So for that I would say approach cautiously. If you are a lover Of John Moses Browning’s creative masterpiece, as I am. You still might want to have one of these. I have no remorse for buying it. However I can not add it to my top 5 gotta own list.  My goal this day, was to successfully use this gun without fails. I guess really it is how you measure success, I did walk away from the range, the weapon is still intact, I did not give it a good chuck in the Potomac on the way out. 

http://www.armedcandy.net/2013/03/buyers-remorse.html

So on Monday morning I arose early and headed out to the range. After a catered breakfast that includes piping hot coffee and fried pork chop with gravy on a biscuit. Courtesy of Hardees drive up window!  I began setting up the bay. It was a nice overcast day, just a slight breeze, and temps ranged from the 40’s thru the mid 50’s by time I finished. Humidity ran at about 78%.

Due to political motivations hoarding and stockpiling and as most speculate price gouging is going on along. (So inexpensive is out) However I was able to put together 400 rounds of .22 ammo.  Mostly CCI standard velocity 1070 fps and a 100 rounds of Federal Game-Shock JHP 1420 fps. I loaded my three available magazines and began shooting.  Let me stop here and let me point out. Earlier I stated I wasn't sure if I was “Limp wristing”. I did some research and found a video produced by the Gun manufacturer. In which they stated because of the light recoil this seems to be a problem. Unfortunately in my video, I always seemed to be out of the frame when shooting, so I am unable to tell. However I still insist this is not the case.  Well with the first 2 magazines I had one fail to feed and 2 rounds that did not eject completely causing the slide to not seat. Not a good start. (The doesn't fail thing is out the window now) This went on for several magazines full. I stopped and reloaded the magazines with the Federal ammo. Not much difference. Still spermatic ejection problems and in which caused feeding problems. Some thing I noticed was that the magazines don’t load straight in line (see photo below) some staggering can be visual noticed and as I stated in the video I attempted to correct this in the field.

These are not doubled stacked magazines. There is also no consistent manner in which they stagger however all three of the magazines do it. I did shoot nearly all the ammo I took there, over 300 rounds. With only one magazine firing correctly with out failures of any kind. If you listen near the end of the video you will hear only, as I am rapidly fire off the magazine. I am hoping that another 300 rounds and this gun will “break in”. I have not completely given up hope on this gun. Now off to search for a source of ammo. Like I think I pointed out in the earlier review this is one of my favorite weapon platforms.  However at this point I am not thrilled with this gun. As far as that a .22 goes a revolver is more reliable. Watch the video. You won’t see the frustration on my face from clearing it so much. It is a fact I look like that all the time. The frustration is there, and the pauses in the action will tell the story. I can attest if the round chambers it will fire. Accuracy is there. Even with old aging eyes. The POA and the POI are very close. If you are doing everything right. Remember the front sight is your friend. I made no adjustments to the sights. They are as they came out of the box.

Thanks for stopping by and reviewing along with me. If you have had any good success with this gun, please chime in or contact me. Also read the Armed Candy article on Buyers remorse. It offers good insight.

Editors note, I took this one a part to clean. Something I failed to mention that this fixed barrel weapon. Unlike a true 1911 or other Semi auto hand guns the barrel does not float. The dis assembly and re assembly are pretty simple and cleaning is pretty basic. The manual with the unit is pretty hard to see if you are like me and yours arms are shrinking. On  line version is pretty nice though. 03/17/13

Carl Edwards wins at

Phoenix's, a congratulations to him on his win and end to the dry spell.  I was unable to watch the race yesterday but am glad the Lady in the green suit was able to walk away after her run in with he wall.

Johnson wins the Daytona 500

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and HMS for winning the Daytona 500, his 5th time. I was routing for the pretty lady in the Go Daddy racing suit.  She giving an impressive 8th place finish in her day. Danica might not have been the first lady in a Stock Car but she is the best. She ran in the top 10 most of the race along with her historic Pole position and Leading laps record. The "good ole boys" might have to pay attention to her if they aren't already.


regardless the 2013 NASCAR season is now in on. Boogity Boogity Boogity

AP photo

Go Daddy

Chiappa 1911-22 review

First time out of the box.

stock footage

 Eight days ago when I bought this piece I thought this was great addition to my collection and ultimately a fun gun to shoot. That was before I went shopping for ammo. I had never thought I see the day a brick Of .22 ammo would be over $12., let alone a 100 rounds costing that much. So not to let this get into a rant and off subject. I will leave it at that. So taking the available ammo on hand and some I was able to secure at a local gun shop. I headed to the range this morning. It was right around 20° when I arrived sunny and just a slight wind at my back. The day did get warmer as it progressed. Even got a little mud on my Flip Flops.

  I have been admiring this gun for some time now. At the past couple of Gun shows at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly Va., Taylor's and Company have had them at their display. I have several Cowboy type pistols and a Rifle that came either directly from Taylor's or a distributor. They are one of the Top dealers in the US for Cowboy Action Shooting weapons. I learned form the staff that the Chiappa is American made, (Dayton Ohio) comes with a life time warranty. Accept for weight and magazines the gun ergonomically feels like the original patent of John Moses Browning. There is 2 models that I am aware of. Military a1 style and one with the skeltonized trigger and hammer and adjustable sights..I have the Military style and even thought it has the military style sights the rear one has some left right adjustment. I found it fits securely with out any modifications to my Blackhawk retention holster, the kydec holster Springfield sends with their's and my leather holster from King Ranch saddlery. Chiappa send 2 magazines with the gun along with the lock and key a safety flag for the range cleaning brush and a decent case. I picked up an additional magazine with my purchase and found the plastic magazine retailing over 20 bucks. It's just a carbon material I believe. Nothing fancy,and feel it maybe a little over priced.. If you are interested in this gun call the folks at Taylor's and Company, http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/  

Taylor's & Company, Inc.
304 Lenoir Drive
Winchester, VA 22603
Phone: 540.722.2017
Fax: 540.722.2018

  I shot around a hundred and seventy rounds today. Would have shot more if ammo was more readily available. I experience some problems with the load of ammo I had laying around for several years. Gave the problems to the ammo and reloaded with a fresher batch.  I then approached the firing line and began shooting. I found that on some occasions the ammo would not eject clearly from the chamber causing some problems. The instructional manual has a picture of the correct way the magazine should be loaded. With the bullet tips slightly angled upwards. However I did notice that the bullets seemed to jump out of the stack. They don't all lie perfectly on top of each other. Is the problem? I don't know. I will investigate it. more. I also don't know if I was limp wristing it or not. I want to say no I wasn't, but with the light recoil I may have been. Over all this little copy of my favorite pistol platform, felt great and was a joy to shoot. The smaller magazines were a bit to find the well with, but some dry fire practice at home should fix that. 

You will hear the new steel action targets I picked up off of E Bay.  When I move to the left out of the frame. This was the other newby I was reviewing today. I will post more later this week on them. I would have liked to film more but the cameras were all shutting down, before I could set things up. If any of you in the Northern Virginia want to film for me, I could arrange some range time for the effort. 

  As I stated above I was able to procure some ammo and had some stashed in different corners of the office. Not large amounts, I do not hoard ammo, I shoot it. I will tell you right now if you have any Aquiler's ammo save it for your revolvers. I did have a half of box of older CCI hollow point and a Box of 50 Winchester and 100 rounds of CCI both standard velocity bullets. I also had a magazine of misc rounds that need to be used or disposed of. Disposed of, would have been the the smarter options. I never attested to being a smart person. They did not cycle well but 8 out of 10 of them did go bang.

Overall I think this is a great plinking gun I may find out it is just a great gun after a few outings. Once a readily supply of ammo is available. It might even be fun to shoot some rabbits or squirrels with. I found without adjusting the sights I could take careful aim and put the it on the targets.  I will do some further R&D on this one in the coming weeks. Check back for more details.

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I stopped giving a damn about other's rights

Take a minute and read this, it is well written and is fuel for believes in the 2nd amendment rights.

 http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/item/the-post-in-which-i-piss-off-everybody


I have a bunch of projects I am working on and will start publishing them this week.

Super Bowl sneek preview

Thanks E

Kate Upton is my favorite Blonde I couldn't help myself when I seen this today. Not going to make me want a Mercedes or even wash one. She still my favorite.

Fast n Furious or a PD Fuck up?

you call it.

From the Virginia Pilot On Line

Lots of un-answered questions here.

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/part-gun-seized-norfolk-ended-street?page=2#comments