The Big-Bore Chronicles

by Gary Smith

Just to show how twisted the anti-hunting community is, the youngster — Jamison Stone, who killed the 1,000 pound hog in May 2007, is still receiving death threats and there is a group trying to have those involved in the hunt prosecuted for animal cruelty.

Fox News reported this today, that there was an online petition going around with 800 signatures on it calling for prosecution. (Fortunately 800 signatures online doesn’t amount to a fart in a whirlwind.)

Rhonda Roland Shearer, a New York City shrill who investigated the incident, no doubt with her mind already made up on the results, called the 500 S&W a low velocity weapon. Of course, if this gun had been used in a crime the anti-gun crowd would have called it a massively powered handgun that no one needs to own for any purpose… Don’t believe it, yesterday the Brady Campaign called a Remington model 48 an “assault shotgun”. Never mind that they also reported it was commonly used for bird hunting and it didn’t even have the plug removed when the crime was committed (which they didn’t report).

I don’t blame a lot of people for not wanting to read about all of the foolish gun laws being pushed and passed — I can’t decide if it’s just too depressing or too angering. In any case there are a lot of hunters in this country that had better wake up, start voting and start writing letters to your elected officials. Since Heller the hysteria of the anti-gun bunch is reaching a fever pitch.

by Gary Smith (from the NSSF)

On July 4, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane sent presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) a letter asking whether he still believes his hometown of Chicago can ban law-abiding citizens their Second Amendment right to own firearms, including handguns, in their homes. The NSSF letter followed the landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court affirming that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. To date, NSSF has not received a response from Sen. Obama or his campaign. As Sen. Obama continues to dodge questions related to the Second Amendment, the senator’s hometown of Chicago is continuing to enforce their unconstitutional gun ban and Washington, D.C., is attempting to circumvent the Supreme Court decision — a move which has led to another lawsuit against the Capitol City. I wonder what bHusseinO doesn’t want to admit? Sorry dude — we already have your number…

by Gary Smith

Amid all the chatter about whether Tom Cruise will be in a Top Gun 2 movie — yawn — a surprising top gun may be emerging in spite of the typical Hollywood anti-gun hand wringers. Unlike so many Hollywood stars who’ve made their fortune by performing in movies with violent content yet coming out against the right to actually own the guns they’ve glorified on-screen, Angelina Jolie has told London’s Daily Mail, “I’ve got my Tomb Raider Guns - and I’m not afraid to use them… If anybody comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, I’ve no problem shooting them”.

I  find her response particularly refreshing and somewhat ironic in issuing this statement to media in England. A country who has not only eliminated the right to own firearms but has virtually outlawed the right to defend yourself in any way. Of course I think many of the Hollywood elite have someone with a gun close at hand to protect them, they just don’t want you and I to have the same ability.

So what did she carry in Tomb Raider? An H&K USP Match pistol. Maybe there is hope.

by Gary Smith
The state of California is apparently determined to strip the rights of all gun owners with their continued barrage of anti-gun laws. I think it is time for the firearms industry to take a stand against the state. All firearms and ammunition manufacturers should immediately stop selling firearms and ammunition to any government entity in the state. They should refuse to sell them any parts, such as high-capacity magazines, optics or anything else that could be used as a weapon or accessory. I wouldn’t even sell them one of those blue plastic training guns. After all a criminal could paint it black and commit a crime. While the firearms industry is making new policy they might as well go ahead and add Washington DC, NY City, and Chicago to the list. Let the police throw rocks like the rest of us will have to do to protect ourselves if the government gets their way.

This idea is not with out some support. STI Guns has already taken such action but they took it one step further, to their credit. They refuse to sell anyone in California a gun or magazines. According to a source at the company whom I spoke with, they have received calls from law enforcement officers who have proclaimed, “oh it’s ok for you to sell to me, I’m law enforcement and I’m exempt (exempt from the laws that subjugate the rest of the citizens).” How convenient. STI has refused their requests for exemption from the company policy.

On July 1 it became illegal for dealers to transfer a gun unless both dealers are on the CA justice department’s “list”.  I doubt most out-of-state dealers will even bother; they simply won’t sell to California. You can already see the signs of this on gunbroker.com.

AB2602 will effectively run every gun shop in the state out of business even if the July 1 law doesn’t.

AB2062 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the Department of Justice’s database.  Ammunition retailers would have to be licensed and store ammunition in such a manner that it would be inaccessible to purchasers.  The bill would also require vendors to keep a record of the transaction including the ammunition buyer’s name, driver’s license, the quantity, caliber, type of ammunition purchased, and right thumbprint, which would be submitted to the Department of Justice.  All ammunition sales in the state of California would be subject to a $3 per transaction tax.  Lastly, mail order ammunition sales would be prohibited.  Any violator of AB2062 would be subject to civil fines. — NRA ILA

AB2235 isn’t even possible but if it passes then there will be no more handguns in California for legal purchase.  Although I’m sure the government will exempt law enforcement.

AB2235 is still pending action in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  This bill would prohibit the sale of handguns other than “owner-authorized (or “smart”) handguns”– that is, handguns with a permanent, programmable biometric feature that renders the firearm useless unless activated by the authorized user.   No proven, viable handgun of this type has ever been developed.  Introduced by Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier (D-11), AB2235 would require the Attorney General to report to the Governor and Legislature on the availability of owner-authorized handguns.  Once the Attorney General finds that these guns are available, only “owner-authorized” handguns could be approved for sale in California. — NRA ILA

My sincere apology to all of the responsible gun owners in California. You had better start thinking of ways to make some changes too.

by Gary Smith
I know there are a lot of us out there who would prefer to be a better shot. Let’s face it, unless you’re using sandbags, your sights are wobbling all over the place when you’re trying to get lined up on that buck. One thing that helped me immensely when I was trying to master the handgun was to regularly shoot under stressful conditions. For me, this meant shooting competitively. In the early 80’s I took my Contender with a 2x Leupold scope and went to my first NRA Hunter’s Pistol match which was held in Beckley West Virginia. I shot a 13 out of 40. Not too bad I suppose considering I wasn’t accustomed to the rigors of competitive shooting. Two years later I was shooting scores that fell in the low to mid-30’s.

What had changed? Several things come to mind. For one I had gotten used to other guns going off just as my shot was about to break and I was able to hold steady (relatively speaking) during the fusillade. I had also developed a rhythm of shooting. In NRA Hunter’s Pistol you have 2 minutes to fire 5 shots. It’s plenty of time really but personally I’ve found that as the stress level increases the trigger seems to get heavier and heavier. So intent on a perfect squeeze that you can’t seem to make it break. At the same time you’re beginning to feel the stress of the timer ticking down and of holding your breath for a few seconds. You’ll feel the same stress when a deer is walking steadily and you can’t seem to stop him as he goes behind tree after tree as you try to get off a shot before he’s gone — the timer is running out and the stress level is rising quickly.

What do you do? Just like in competitive shooting, remain calm, pick a spot where the shot will be taken, concentrate and shoot. The “shoot” part should be able to be done with out much thought at this point because hopefully you’ve fired thousands of rounds through handguns.

To add some stress to your shooting get a small timer that has an audible alarm when time runs out. They can usually be found at the grocery store. Set up a target, going back to my roots I prefer steel, at a distance where you can hit the target with over 90% certainty during un-timed fire. To start with put 30 seconds on the timer, make your gun ready and start the timer. Make the shot on target in the 30 second time frame.  When you can score hits with the same regularity of un-timed fire shorten the time to 20 seconds. Keep practicing and reducing the time as your skills progress until you can bring the gun up from the low ready position and fire an accurate shot in 5 or 6 seconds. I prefer to set the target at 50 or 75 yards depending on which gun I’m shooting. For sustained practice sessions I don’t recommend that you use heavy hunting loads. You’re trying to develop a rhythm and muscle memory so the handgun becomes an extension of your body — there is no need to use anything but target loads, even a 22 rimfire may suffice if it’s of the same action type as your big game gun.

Try shooting under stress on a regular basis with the proper discipline and you will be a better field shot.

by Gary Smith
I just finished reading a short article on the CAN-SPAM act and I can’t help but be reminded about an episode from the 1970’s TV show WKRP in Cincinnati where the news anchor, Les Nessman, was forced to broadcast a tornado warning when the station didn’t have a prepared tornado emergency message. He was told by the station manager to use the emergency plan for an attack by the Soviet Union and insert the word tornado everywhere he saw the word Russian. Thus we had an attack by the godless tornados.

The article on CAN-SPAM by Jordan Ayan contained this paragraph.

“I want to argue, however, that while it is important that you follow it, the letter of the law in the case of CAN-SPAM doesn’t really matter. CAN-SPAM is a political response to a real problem to which a political solution does not exist. Anyone with a basic understanding of how the Internet works knows that our Congress outlawing spam won’t slow it down. But politics usually trumps intelligence and logic. The Act is a gauntlet established by Congress designed to look good, but that accomplishes next to nothing when it comes to stemming the tide of true spam.”

Does this scenario sound familiar? In true Les Nessman form, let’s insert guns or gun control everywhere we find the word spam.

“I want to argue, however, that while it is important that you follow it, the letter of the law in the case of GUN-CONTROL doesn’t really matter. GUN-CONTROL is a political response to a real problem to which a political solution does not exist. Anyone with a basic understanding of violence knows that our Congress outlawing guns won’t slow it down. But politics usually trumps intelligence and logic. The Act (pick one) is a gauntlet established by Congress designed to look good, but that accomplishes next to nothing when it comes to stemming the tide of illegal activity.”

The bottom line is that governments will never be able to stop certain activities simply by passing laws making those activities illegal. They haven’t been able to stop SPAM, illegal drugs or moonshine or murder, why do they persist in trying to ban guns when they know full well it has never worked.

by Gary Smith

In an effort to combat the ever-growing deer population in many Virginia counties and cities. Virginia has lengthened their deer season to include urban archery seasons that span nearly 7 months of the year and will begin on September 6, 2008 and run through March 28th, 2009.

Virginians are currently allowed five or six deer on the primary big-game license depending on what part of the state you’re hunting in, but there are additional opportunities to take deer on bonus tags and DMAP and DCAP tags which do not count against your big-game license bag limits and apply only to antlerless deer.

It’s not uncommon to see deer run over in Northern Virginia, a region which has some of the highest deer density in the state. What’s surprising is that many times these deer-car collisions are taking place where you would least expect to see a deer, like inside the Capital Beltway with scarcely a tree in sight, or in a mall parking lot, sometimes only a mile or two from downtown Washington D.C.

Decades of no-hunting zones and anti-hunting sentiment have contributed to the the nuisance population levels in Northern Virginia and their deer problem is one that won’t go away any time soon. Much of the area is closed to hunting with firearms and the city-dwelling attitudes with respect to deer hunting haven’t changed much either.

Having a population of over 1 million whitetails, Virginia is also a top-ranked state for the number of deer-car collisions A a number of motorists are seriously injured or killed each year due to either hitting or trying to avoid hitting a deer.

My son and one of his buddies, Justin, wanted to go shooting today on their day off. Justin had never shot a gun before and it makes me wonder how many young people there are out there who would really enjoy going to the range but never get the opportunity. We shot a few rounds of skeet and then moved down to the pistol range where Justin did a little better on targets that were not moving. We shot about 300 rounds of 22’s, a few 45’s, and a few rounds from my Contender in 300 Whisper.

There is something about a semi-automatic .22 pistol that seems to make my son, and probably many other shooters, want to shoot lots of bullets fast. I might even fall into this category at times myself. This is one gun that I’m really glad doesn’t hold more than 10 because I’m fairly certain the barrel would have been melted by now. It certainly has been too hot to touch on a number of occasions.

Justin shooting my 300 Whisper.

After we finished shooting Justin came back by the house and I asked if he had fun. Of course the answer was very positive, so I informed him that bHussein O. want’s to take away his right to own a gun. This, like so much other anti-gun legislation, is under the guise of “reasonable restrictions”. Obama has confirmed on several occasions that he supports the D.C. gun ban, believing it to be constitutional. In his home city of Chicago, they have a similar ban which the NRA recently filed suit to overturn. It sounds to me like we all know perfectly well what Obama considers a “reasonable restriction” on our rights. A total ban. I find this rather ironic considering he has more secret service agents protecting him than any other candidate in history. I guess it’s ok to be protected by guns as long as the guy making the rules can have his. Perhaps he should stick to the streets of Chicago and D.C. where the strict gun laws have made those cities each a veritable paradise.

Never turn down an opportunity to introduce a young man or woman to shooting. If we all introduce just a few people to firearms that have an interest just think how the tide could be turned in just a few short years. I don’t know if Justin will vote or not but I hope he does and I hope he thinks about his day shooting before he pulls the lever at the voting booth this fall. I hope we all think about a day of shooting before any of us pull that lever.