One of the most useful gun cleaning / smithing tools I have is a dental pick.
The dental pick I use looks like the one pictured 3rd from the right.
Dental picks can be used for any number of common tasks such as scraping powder residue out of hard to reach places, holding down springs and miscellaneous adjustments. If you plink with dirty .22 LR ammunition they can be used to gently scrape off the powder that accumulates on the bolt face, so you can keep on shooting without feeding problems and without having to strip the gun.
They do have limitations. Because they are made from hard stainless steel you have to be gentle with them and you should keep away from outside finish of a gun.
A single stainless steel dental pick costs only a few dollars on eBay.
They get a 5 star rating from me, at only a few dollars they are worth every cent.
The blog has turned two years old! I can hardly believe I made it this long, it feels like I have been doing it for 20 years, not two.
When the blog had it’s first birthday I posted some stats:
* 593 posts
* 1,178 comments
* Most comments in a post: 176 (Ruger SR9)
The stats for it’s second birthday are:
* 1409 posts
* 9663 comments
* Most comments in a post: 611 (Ruger SR9)
I have to thank my fellow gun bloggers. Without you I probably would not have started blogging and certainty would not have lasted two years!
A big thank you to everyone who has emailed me content, photos and links to interesting things. It is always appreciated.
And thanks to everyone who has commented on the blog. Your comments make the blog significantly more useful for the community, and they encourage me to continue blogging.
I should give a special thanks to, in no particular order, Jay (jdun1911), Daniel E. Watters, Heath, Sven, Matt Groom, REMOV, Mehul Kamdar and Wendell who have each given me a lot of help and content for the blog over the years.
Advanced Long-Range Systems (ALS) have issued a warning:
Advanced Long-Range Systems has identified a condition that may exist with the bolt supplied with the ALS 50 caliber conversion which may allow the gun to fire out of battery.
As all the facts are not yet in, and purely as a safety precaution, ALS is asking owners of its rifle uppers to suspend shooting this product until further notice.
It is our goal to provide safe and accurate products. We are currently working on a solution. Please, bear with us, it may take up to sixty days to complete this task. We will resolve this issue and make it right with our customers.
Once additional information is available, you can rest assured that it will be passed along on our website, in VHP Magazine, and the relevant firearms discussion forums.
A .50 BMG firing out of battery could easily be deadly, not just for the operator but potentially for spectators or the person in the next lane at the range!
The budget priced Thompson/Center Venture rifle is now shipping. T/C guarantee that it is capable for firing 3 shots in a one inch group at 100 yards. This rifle is going to fly off the shelves!
It will be available chambered in .270, .30-06, 300 Win. Mag., and 7mm Mag. I hope it will be available in a short action soon.
Earlier this year author Neil Strauss published a book about survivalism. I was planning on reading Emergency until I read the Boston Globe review:
Next he takes a course in killing with a knife, during which an instructor named Mad Dog demands that he slaughter a live goat. Strauss also studies wilderness survival, learning to build a shelter from leaves, find water, and live off the land. After getting instruction in shooting, he finds himself changing from wimpy writer to would-be killer: “Something strange had occurred. I developed a bloodlust I’d never felt before. I actually wanted an excuse to shoot a bad guy.”
Taking an animals life is saddening, and I think most hunters would agree. To this day, and even as a child, I could not bring myself to kill a bird, or even a worm for that matter, that was not doing any harm and was not eatable. The so-called blood lust is a myth.
Outdoor and Hunting blogger Albert A Rasch put it succinctly in a post about PETA:
You also refuse to acknowledge that there is more to hunting than killing. You refuse to observe and experience the hard work and perseverance that goes into hunting. I don’t deny that I enjoy hunting. I don’t deny that there is satisfaction in a clean kill. But let me be clear, there is little joy in the actual death of an animal. As many hunters will attest, there is frequently a moment of regret or sadness, but that is tempered by the basic satisfaction that the hunter feels knowing that he can provide and secure sustenance. It does not matter whether it is necessary or not in this day and age of mass produced food, it matters to me, and that is all that matters, regardless of the moral high horse you think you sit on.
UPDATE: I may have been a bit harsh basing my opinion on one line and a few gun bloggers disagree with me. Foxtrot in the comments wrote that he thought the quote was out of context, 1withabullet enjoyed the book and Michael Bane, an outdoor author himself, really enjoyed it.
I still stand my my comments above that going on about blood lust in hunting is a load of hollywood fantasy.
GunBroker have launched a version of their website optimized for mobile web browsers such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre.
It is very simply and bare bones, which is exactly what you want when you need to quickly find out what a certain gun is selling for, after spotting what you think is a bargain at a gun shop or gun show.
I took the below screenshot using the newly released Palm Pre emulator.
Those hardworking boys at American Rifle have been plinking African style with a double barreled rifles chambered in .470 Nitro Express.
A spectator shouts “Fix bayonets!”
A question to those who know more about these things than me: I noticed that the first rifle shown in the video featured ejectors while the other two rifles did not, Is there any reason not to have ejectors on a dangerous game rifle? In a real-life situation a fast reload could be the difference between taking home a trophy or being taken home in a coffin so I would have thought ejectors would be standard.
The takedown version of the famous Winchester 1892 lever action rifle was last manufactured in 1932. For the first time in 77 years Winchester are producing a limited run of the rifle.
.45 Long Colt 20″ Barreled Version
The deluxe rifles feature high grade walnut stocks and octagonal barrel. The 20″ version is chambered in .44-40 and .45 Long Colt and has a MSRP of $1874.95. The 24″ version is chambered in .44-40, .38-40, .32-20 and .45 Long Colt and has a MSRP of $1899.95.
For each caliber offered, 500 rifles will be made in the 20″ version and 250 in the 24″ version.
Winchester should seriously consider mass producing a modern takedown version in .30-30 and some of the fancy new Marlin cartridges such as the .308 Marlin Express. I think it would sell very well.
CNBC’s Fast Money show talks to Michael Golden, CEO of Smith & Wesson, about the gun market and how S&W is faring.
He says that the gun market is cooling but S&W’s M&P rifles and tactical rifles are selling well. I do not dispute that S&W is doing well, but I find it hard to believe S&W, or Ruger, will be able to maintain their current stock prices. Both stocks have more than doubled since February courtesy of the gun buying frenzy.
Golden mentions the M4 competition. I expect they will have sometime more interesting up their sleeve than the M&P4, a pretty standard direct gas impingement M4 clone, which the Military Times reported a while back that S&W would be entering.
