Canadian Shooter

Toronto police attack gun owners yet again

2008-06-03T21:17:00.002-05:00

Committee hears arguments on gun club measures

Updated: Tue Jun. 03 2008 6:52:45 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

Gun enthusiasts voiced their displeasure on Tuesday over Toronto Mayor David Miller's plan to shut down the two gun clubs on city-owned facilities, while opponents and the police board threw their support behind the proposal.

In his latest bid to tackle the problem of illegal guns, Miller has proposed closing the clubs, including the 40-year-old Scarborough Rifle Club.

Some gun owners fired off at an executive meeting at city hall, saying closing the clubs won't reduce the number of gun crimes. They noted many Olympians and athletes train at the facilities.

"Closing us down would do absolutely nothing to solve the crime problem," said Peter Krause, vice-president of the Scarborough Rifle Club.

"We shoot target rifles, single-shot target rifles. There's no handguns in that club whatsoever."

However, the Toronto Police Services Board supports the mayor's push for better gun control measures.

"We need to take every possible action to clamp down on opportunities for the illegal circulation of firearms," said Alok Mukherjee.

Audette Sheppard's son Justin was 19 years old when he was shot to death in 2001. She formed UMOVE (United Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere), and supports any move to get guns off the streets.

"The only people who need to have guns are the police and the army," she said. "I think they should get rid of guns. Let them find another sport."

Miller, who has been long been fighting for a national handgun ban, says closing the clubs will make communities safer.

The mayor reiterated his call for a national handgun ban after the fatal shooting of bystander John O'Keefe, who was killed while walking on Yonge Street in January by a legally registered weapon.

Closing the gun clubs is one part of a strategy to address gun violence. Other ideas include more support programs for youth and developing a system to track handgun use in the city.

Late Tuesday, a spokesperson for the mayor told CTV News the executive committee will likely vote to support the recommendations, but with an amendment that the gun clubs will be able to exist if they are relocated to private property.

Final approval must be made before city council as a whole."

Well isn't that cute. Actually, maybe it's not cute. It' s borderline criminal. If anyone should know who is really responsible for the killings in Toronto, it's the police. I am sure the rank and file officers who actually walk beats on the street have a different take though.

I would pay good to see Mayor McCheese and his cop buddies spend one night walking around Jane and Finch, and see what was left of them when the sun rises the next day. And then we'll hear what they think about me and my guns.

This whole thing is becoming more and more idiotic by the day and I hadn't thought that would even be possible. If this kind of time, effort and media attention were put into things like prevention programs, anti gang workers, youth counselling and helping people in these hard hit areas develop job skills, that would save a whole lot more lives than taking away registered handguns.

I mean, the ban on cocaine works so well, doesn't it? So does the ban on heroin. Small wonder the people who sell banned narcotics which aren't even made in this country have guns that were neither made nor sold in this country too!

There's no such thing as "gun crime" or "gun violence". There is only CRIME. Pure and simple. And crime, more often than not, comes with poverty.

So if Mayor Moron could wave a magic wand tomorrow and strip legal owners of all their guns, what is that going to improve when large sections of the city are still poor, still plagued by gangs and the criminals don't turn over their guns?

The not so law abiding gun owners of Toronto.

2008-06-01T15:29:00.003-05:00

Miller calles us the "so-called law abiding gun owners" eh?

You know, I've been to quite a few clubs and shot with plenty of Ontario boys...classy folk and skilled shooters.

But these weren't the people I was meeting. You would think these areas be the focus of a clean up, that the people who have to live in these low income, high crime neighbourhoods deserve to be safe, and not have their children preyed upon by gangs and violence, but you would think wrong.

They're not the target of any war right now. Only legal gun ownership. Miller and his cronies and bosses don't care WHAT goes on in these places.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBOJThRZpZs&feature=related

And there are productive ways of dealing with them too, ways to make life cleaner and safer for those stuck living in at risk neighbourhoods. Prevention programs. Anti gang measures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pC3D_ZtYP4

Imagine that this is where the money and effort was going...The kind of dividends it could pay.

Mayor Miller's goon squads at work.

2008-06-01T13:32:00.003-05:00

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/05/29/5704911.html

"

A licensed Toronto gun owner got an early wake-up call today after police stormed through his Beach apartment, arrested him and seized about 125 guns.

Police were tipped off about "a quantity of firearms" in the Queen St. E. and Kingswood Ave. apartment, before Emergency Task Force and 55 Division officers arrived at the home around 1 a.m., Toronto Police Const. Wendy Drummond said.

Inside, officers found about 125 firearms, a "good portion" of which were registered, Drummond said. Peter Sedge, 56, faces one count of unsafe storage of a firearm.

A neighbour described Sedge, who has lived in the apartment for several years, as a harmless guy who simply liked to collect guns.

"He was a legitimate gun owner and he did have a licence and registration for the firearms, but safe storage is key in being a legitimate gun owner," Drummond said. "There are laws and regulations that you must abide by aside from having the right paperwork."

Here's the ugly front line of Toronto Mayor Miller's war on crime. As usual, he is striking lawful firearms owners.

When you look past the headlines, past the sensationalism and spin of it all, Mr. Sedge is being charged with one and only one count of a firearm being stored in an unlawful manner. As always, he is innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

We know Mr. Sedge is a clean guy, for he is permitted to own handguns. Obviously he has no past history of violence if this is the case.

Just as obviously, he owned more than ten firearms, and he was a collector whose inventory included handguns. Because of either of these facts, the police have the authority to visit him at their convenience to inspect his home and firearms.

But instead, they door kick him at 1 AM. What must that feel like, having a heavily armed SWAT team bust through your house, treating you like some drug dealing scumbag, and take all of your legally owned property with them?

How bad could Mr. Sedge have truly been, if the best they could do with him was one charge on one gun?

I have to assume Mr. Sedge fired his guns. If that is the case, I assume he had ammo. And probably enough of it. But no charges of unsafe storage of ammo. And no charges on 124 of the firearms!

The reason he was not simply visited courteously? Soemone confidentially dropped a dime on him. What was the tip off? A "quantity of firearms"...Not that he was selling guns on the black market. Not that he was dealing drugs. Not that he was dangerous to those around him or mentally unstable. Simply that he had more firearms than is considered politically correct to have. And that less than one percent of his inventory may or may not have been secured, which is very debatable since Mr. Sedge was actually home at the time of the raid! It's very difficult to make an unsafe storage charge stick if the man was actually present! Was he not supposed to have access to his own guns when he is physically there?

We may never even know who this person was, who called in to report this gross hazard to public safety. Take a second and think about that. Anyone can anonymously phone something in on you, and no matter how clean and upstanding a citizen you may be, they can kick your door in and bust you at 1 AM in the morning, and you may never even know who placed the call.

The real killers, the drug dealing scumbags, the ones who sell poision and illegal guns and prove themselves time and again to be the killers out there, they slept soundly that night. No one was kicking in their doors, taking away their murder weapons, or taking these jackals off the street.

They're still out there. They are doing their thing.

An innocent man with no criminal past was the target of the raid. Just as they have been more and more often as of late.

Further, if the city of Toronto is worried about the legally owned guns of citizens being stolen and used in crimes, they are doing a great job of advertising where those guns are and who owns them.

The timing of this raid is suspect at best. The average person cannot read through the spin doctoring and see what really took place. To know that this man was no danger or risk to anyone. And to realize that those who do wrong and choose to violate the rights of others were safe that night.

Mayor Miller's war is not against crime. It's not against gangsters, or murderers, or anyone who makes places like Jane and Finch, T.O. less safe for everyone.

It's against the gun owning citizens of Canada. Not just Toronto, but Canada.

Carcano!

2008-05-01T20:25:00.002-05:00

Hey all!

New addition to the collection here today, a model 1891/1941 Carcano long rifle!

For all those who may never have come upon one yet, the Model 1891 Carcano was Italy's standard service rifle from it's date of inception right up through both world wars! Naturally, they saw service in all kinds of trouble spots, like Italy's colonial ventures in Ethiopea, and in the hands of Finnish and Spanish soldiers in the Finn's "Winter war" against the Russians and the Spanish facist corps.

Along with their siblings like the infamous M38 Short rifle and Truppe Speciale carbines in various calibers, these rifles are a real piece of history.

As the "41" in the model number denotes, this one was made to meet a 1941 revision in the design, and saw service in the second world war.

A couple interesting things about the Carcano...First and foremost how maligned they are. You'll hear rumours abound concering how they are poorly made, unsafe, etc. Let me tell ya, it ain't so. This is a finely made rifle. Italians generally don't muck about when it comes to craftsmanship, ad this rifle is definately proof. For starters, the steel is actually of Czech origins and very hard. I am sure drilling and tapping it would be a lot of fun to do. Secondly, the action has two front locking lugs that lock up good and tight, and the bolt is rather well engineered and safely laid out.

Another rumour is that they are wildly inaccurate. The root of this one might lay in the caliber. This one here is the most common variety, 6.5x52mm. Unlike our common 6.5mm bullets, which would be .264" the 6.5mm Carcano is .268" which probably doesn't help if you are shooting North American bullets for groups.

As is kinda obvious from the pictures, the 6.5x52mm round looks rather strange. It's a small casing with a very long bullet, which turned out to be both a good and a bad thing. The good thing is, the 160 grain round nosed bullet is very heavy for caliber, and very long which makes it both accurate and incredibly stable in flight, and also wonderful in terms of penetration. The bad thing is, it's incredibly stable in flight, leading to a small caliber round which produces ice pick like wound tracks unless it (very rarely) tumbles, which supposedly caused devastation to whatever it passed through. I am sure a lot of people over the years were relatively lucky the round passed through them in good humour, which is why after highlighted by failures in the Ethiopian campaign, the Italians decided to upgrade to a more powerful 7.35mm round. Unfortunately, WW2 broke out right after that, and the logistics of making the change became impossible.

One other nice thing about the round though, it is very mild and pleasant to shoot. Low recoil, and easily controlled.

Here's a picture of it compared to a few of it's European contemporaries, at left a 303 British and at right an 8x57mm Mauser

One other unique feature of the Carcano is the rear sights. For one, they are about the roomiest V notch I have ever seen. Very deeply and widely cut. It lets a lot of light through, and I suppose it would be great for older shooters who might not still enjoy as fine eyesight they used to have. Secondly, it is set to 300 meters at it's lowest setting, but the whole rear sight leaf can be flipped all the way over 180 degrees to expose a fixed 200 meter battle setting notch. Check it out, here it is closed and opened.

And a look down the wide V-notch sight...At Barns! I have no idea how he wandered into this frame, but like me he cannot turn down a chance to play with new guns.

In terms of shooting the Carcano, it was a good and bad experience. Good because it's a light kicking, seemingly accurate rifle and bad because I don't have any charger clips yet. The Carcano is fed by 6 shot en bloc sheet steel clips, and it is very difficult to single load the rifle. In fact, I don't recommend it. Secondly, the sights are not properly set for new commercial ammo it seems, and I didn't have tools with me at the range so I won't be able to post a group for you just yet, however it seems promisingly accurate. The trigger is also surprisingly light and crisp, although it is on the sluggish side once it breaks.

Overall, I am very happy with the Carcano. For the prices an example in good shape sells for, say the $120-$150 range, they are a fine collector's item.

The downside is, if you are not a serious shooter or reloader, get ready to pay a lot for ammo. A box of Norma 156 grain Alaskan set me back $41. Of course I can reuse the brass many times. But for a non handloader, not so attractive. Also, make sure you have the clips!

All in all, a handy, accurate and well built rifle that is going to be as much of a joy on the range as it will be in the deer fields. Kept to 100 meters or so like a 30-30, th 6.5x52mm Carcano will be quite capable of taking medium sized game, and I look forward to trying it out.

The 110 V-max is a bad mother

2008-04-30T21:51:00.003-05:00

The 30-06 V-max load is really shaping up! I had a chance to try it out today on something other than paper and the results were nothing short of explosive!

Our volunteer was a 2.8L Sunny Delight bottle stuffed tight with newspaper soaking in water, and lit up at 100 meters. At that range, the 110 grain round must be doing about 3100 fps and it looks like it really comes apart.

This is one I have to film on impact for y'all one of these days! In the meantime, I have the aftermath here.

Here's the loaded rounds, and bullets

This load started with 51 grains of H4895 powder and its been worked up carefully to 54.5 as of now, the target being 57 with a speed of over 34oo feet per second at the muzzle.

Now, our victim!

On impact, the bottle flew 7 feet to the left, and I could see the explosion of water and paper in the scope. As the pics show, at least half the contents was blown out, and I measured 30 feet from the impact to the farthest bits of wet newspaper.

It really shows that th V-max is performing as designed, giving rapid and devastating transfer of energy, and expanding without needing to penetrate that far first.

The exit was rather oblong and I wonder what remained of the bullet to make that hole. The bottle is blown nearly in half.

I really, really have to film this impact!

Norinco 1911A1

2008-04-23T23:16:00.002-05:00

Finally, a couple pics of the .45

The verdict?

Well, you can see where they cut a corner or two...They don't finish the machining inside all that well, but you never see it until the pistol is taken apart. The sights could be a little bigger. And the grips are plastic.

But none of it affects the function of the pistol, and the pistol does work. Don't expect it to feel like a McCormick trigger, but for $330 it is very usable.

I had gunsmith Gunnar Christensen do a prep job on this one, including a trigger tune and a lapping to fit the frame to the slide, going over the ejector and extractor, etc.

This is the softest recoiling automatic pistol I have fired yet. Shot lots of 9mms that have kicked harder. The weight helps. It really impresses you as a solid chunk of tough steel. A small plastic recoil buffer also cushions the blow of the slide reaching the end of it's rearward travel. The result is more of a slow shove than a fast crack. Great for keeping you on target when snapping off rounds quickly, and shaving time off in a comp I would reckon.

The sights are not adjustible for elevation, but at 21 feet were right on the money for 230 grain FMJ ball, which is the classic .45 ACP load.

Overall I have to say I am very impressed. I'll try to post some groups soon.

Diagnosing a common problem

2008-04-23T22:28:00.002-05:00

I had just finished loading a set of 30-06 Springfield 110 grain rounds for my Winchester Model 70. Beautiful rifle, a pre 1964 style Mauser action they call the "Classic". Here's a pic.

24" barrel, fantastic cut of walnut for the stock, you have to see it to be able to make out the good looking shades and grains in the wood. Great bluing job, very satiny black finish and it's wearing a Bushnell 3-9x50mm 3200 Elite scope in Leupold rings.

Here's the trouble. When I chambered the rounds, some chambered just fine and others offered a degree of resistance.

Now, there are several possible explainations with that. One could be the bullets being seated too far forward, so that on chambering, the bullet is being driven against the rifling. It should not be encountering rifling, as this will affect your pressure, jacking it up and possibly causing bad results.

But I checked the round. They measured the 3.170" I wanted, and factory rounds with different bullets are much longer. So that's not it.

Maybe the shoulder was not set back far enough? When you use a reloading press to force fired brass into a full length sizing die, it compacts it by squeezing it back to what should be factory dimensions. If your die is not screwed into the press to the proper depth though, the casing won't be pushed in far enough to be properly resized.

But no, comparing the length to drawing and schematics, and to a factory round. Shoulders were fine.

After talking to some friends online who forget more about reloading than I will ever know, I narrowed down the cause. It took coating the bullets in black magic marker to become apparent. On chambering, whichever part of the round is making the friction, it will have the magic marker scraped off and you can immediately see your bugbear.

You can see my problem right off, starting a quarter inch up from the bottom of the case. The case head is too large.

Turns out the explaination is really simple.

This brass came from my M1 Garand and was mixed into my other 30-06 casings. The Garand (as do most military rifles) has a larger chamber, so the casings are coming out with a funny shape. If I cannot load a bullet quickly, it is at worst an inconvenience. For a US soldier or Marine in 1944, it was a matter of life and death. Their ammo was sometimes gritty and dirty, and sometimes not all made to the exact same specs. To feed easier, chambers were slightly larger than those in civilian rifles.

My RCBS full length die doesn't have the horsepower to cram the Garand brass case heads back to proper shape. There's two possible remedies. The first is buying a small base die, a special die made just for this problem, or switching to a Lee die set. I like my Lees and they seem to form a little tighter. I think I'll try the Lee.

The good news is, I can still shoot this ammo for now. It's just a little stiff to chamber.

Hope this helps someone someday!

Handloading at last!

2008-04-23T21:50:00.003-05:00

Yup, I finally took the plunge into the world of reloading!

Here's my setup.

It's a Lee Challenger kit, including a press, powder scale, powder measure, case care tools and a hand primer.

I've also picked up a Lee Zip Trim case trimmer, that little grey thing bolted to my desk in front of the safe. Great piece of kit. You lock an empty case into the chuck and pull a cord to spin it against a cutter to return it to factory length.

A selection of bullets: .308 caliber 110 grain V-max, .458 caliber 350 grain round nose soft point, .308 cal 155 grain moly coated A-max and .308 cal 150 grain Ballistic tip. The bag on top is military style 150 grain .30 cal FMJ for cheap shooting.

The V-max is a wonderful little bullet, typically used for varmint shooting. As such, it's light, flies very fast, and expands and fragments extremely violently. Another plus is that it is a light kicker. Being light, there is less recoil due to the fact that less inertia is being pushed out of the rifle. It's got a great potential for accuracy.

The A-max is a more balanced long range match or competition loading, which retains it's energy and velocity a lot better than the lighter V-max, and offers more stability and aerodynamics for long range shooting.

The .458 cal soft point is a big game load for use in a 45/70 or .458 Win Mag. Ideal for the moose around here! Hard kicking, but hard hitting on the other end too.

As of now, I am equipped to load 30-06 Springfield, 308 Winchester, 300 Winchester Magnum, 8x57mm Mauser, and 45/70 Government. Soon to add 30/30 Winchester, .45 ACP, .303 British and .30 Caliber M1 carbine to the list.

So far so good. Not only is it cheaper than factory ammo, it gives you much more control over what kind of ammo you can make, and the consistant nature coming from the amount of care you put in goes a long way in obtaining accuracy.

Here's a .308 Winchester load I am working up, starting with a Federal casing, Winchester LR primer, 45 grains of H-4895 powder and a 110 grain V-max seated to 2.800" overall length.

That's .602 of an inch at 100 meters. The rifle is a Stevens 200, with a previous best grouping of right around the 1 inch mark with factory ammo. Almost cut in half!

Russian Captured Kar 98K

2007-12-30T13:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple pictures of a great pick for any rifle entusiasts...A Mauser Kar 98k that was captured by the Soviets during WW2.

Aside from any historical value, what attracts me is that the rifle is cheap. Actually, less than half the price of an unaltered German Kar 98k. The Russians refinished the wood in a crude kind of varnish, and assembled the rifle from a mized batch of parts, with electropenciled serial numbers on the bolt and elsewhere. Overall, it does remove some attractiveness, but it's still a Kar 98k and a German made one at that.

Their job of rebluing is actually quite nice too. A great hot-dip blue job, which is dark and handsome.

This particular one coded S/243, denoting that it was made in the Mauser Borsigwalde factory, and dated 1937. The bore has a little frost from having used corrosive ammo but on the whole is very good. The strong points of the design are well shown. I picked up a stash of both Equadorian and Romanian ammo, and a goodly supply of FN AP and Tracer. So far, it likes both, and is a pretty accurate shooter. Careful grouping usually stays under 3 inches, and with the limitations of Mauser sights, thats just fine for me. 8mm Mauser ammo is a pretty hot number too, pushing a 196 grain .323 caliber ball at 2550 fps or a 150 grain ball at 2900.

Cheap surplus ammo abounds, a great hunting rifle with some rockin stopping power. Tough as nails to boot. For $325, a righteous buy.

New Gun Time!

2007-11-30T16:23:00.000-05:00

YAY!

While I was gone workin in some of the armpit of Canada, I naturally saved up enough bread to buy tons of new guns!

Among them, a Mossberg 500 Persuader, a Winchester Model 70 Classic in 30-06 Springfield, a Mauser Kar 98k that was captured by the Soviets and an H&R Buffalo Classic in 45/70 Government! (And a Norinco 1911 on the way, but more on that another day).

Here's some pics of the Buffalo Classic. It sports some beautiful wood, a 32" barrel for a nice long sight radius, and a Williams sight set featuring a rear aprerture and a front sight with 8 interchangable inserts.

Quite an accurate rifle. It's capable of sub 2" at 100 meters with this monkey pulling the trigger, which happens to be wonderfully light and crisp. Extraordinary stopping power and on game effectivness too!

Finallly back! With good news and bad

2007-11-30T15:33:00.000-05:00

Whoa, was that ever a hiatus!

Happy to say after one hell of a summer and a great fall, Canadian Shooter is up and running again.
And in my first new post, I bring us Holiday tidings...Both good and bad.

The good news is we have theUN monkey off of our backs for the time being. For those who aren't in the know, the UN has mandated that all newly produced firearms need to be stamped with their country of origin, and this stamping must comply with how the UN says it is to be done. So far the countries who have signed on to this bill are a collection of either third world dictatorships or jokes. Including this one.

The magic date (Dec. 7, 2007...How is that for another day of infamy?) was fast approaching, and the US gun manufacturing companies had almost all given a "no" to stamping their guns.

Think about that for a sec. No new US guns. No military surplus firearms entering the country. What would that do to our shooting industry? Most likey cripple it overnight, and spike the prices of guns already in the country dramatically.

The UN actually has the nerve to tell us that this is to help end conflicts like those in Africa. Right. Because in a world with over 22,000,000 AK-47s out there and where tin pot republics can buy fighter jets and gunship helicopters for what I make in a year, Africa would be sooo much safer, and there would be no more child soldiers and conflict diamonds, and we could all sing "koumbaya" if my guns have a special UN stamp on them.

Right. Don't piss a global gun control scheme and socialist engineering of society down my back and tell me it's raining. This is the same UN which has said there is no international right to armed self defense. You know, if I were paranoid, I might actually see them doing something like standing by and letting an African genocide take place, with policies like that!

Oh, wait....They did. I am so happy we have the Third World Debating Club to tell us how to run our country.

End sarcasm now....We dodged a huge bullet, even if D-Day was only postponed to December, 2009. Two more glorious, gun filled years for all of us and more time to slay this dragon.

And the bad news....

Our Quebec "Representatives" the FTQ have taken it upon themselves to speak for all of us before the Government again, saying proudly that they would support removing military style firearms and certain pistols from the hands of law abiding gun owners.

Whiskey...Tango...Foxtrot....Over?

Here...watch it straight from the horse's mouth...their president. Video is in French.

http://diffusion.assnat.qc.ca/video/ci/ci200710171645.wmv

Wow, there you have it. Why do the represent us? Because the Govt says they are the only organization that does! Coincidentally they are also the only organization that receives funding from Charest's Govt. Go figure.

Now I would hope this guy is scared to answer the phone and that his inbox has been spammed to hell in back, but I forgot the large part of Canadian gun owners who are content with the thought of being cuddled and sweet talked after the prison style butt reaming is done, don't I?

So here is what I did. I found every e-mail for every gun store and shooting club in Quebec I could get my grubby little hands on (Sadly this barely breaks one hundred...It's 2007 guys, get yourselves online!) and started mass mailing them the video clip. Hopefully they spread it around. Some signs in stores and shooting clubs would also be greatly appreciated.

Way to go, FTQ. With "friends" like you, we don't need enemies! Vidkun Quisling would be VERY proud.

If anyone else out there values their rights whatsoever, here's their contact info. Let 'em have it!!!

fqt@fqtir.qc.ca

ppaquette@fqtir.qc.ca

Canada legal STEN?

2007-07-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

Yeah, supposed to be! Word is, STENs are back, have been approved as Restricted class, and are registered!

Trick is, you have to buy an unfinished semi auto only reciever and an old parts kit.

But it's certainly doable.

This sounds like a job for Joel!

For those of ya who ain't familiar with it, the STEN was an economical British designed 9mm submachine gun from the Second World War. Made largely of sheet metal stampings, they were effective and very cheap and fast to produce.

Not the best lookin SMG ever, but they work.

Unsafe muzzle loaders?

2007-07-01T13:06:00.001-05:00

Hey all,

I read this and cringed.

I am not sure how, if this is in fact the case, some retailers are allowed to pull off such a horrible marketing malpractice.

These are comments by Randy Wakeman, taken from the Chuck Hawks website.

"As scrutiny of the muzzleloading market quickly reveals, there are no muzzleloading standards. There are no standards for metal, bore-size, testing, or much of anything. SAAMI and the CIP have clear standards for rimfires, pistols, shotguns, as well as rifles, but it is a brave new world when you look at muzzleloaders. It is quite a mess, and has been for a long time. The term "Magnum Muzzleloader" means nothing specific at all, it's just another meaningless marketing label.

So, how do we know what a muzzleloader of reasonable build quality should do? Good question, as the manufacturers have still failed to set minimum standards or otherwise control themselves. Companies that are, in my opinion, sleazy and smarmy like "CVA" and "Traditions" can make muzzleloading a lousy to place to be.

Pressure information has long been available, as evidenced in the LYMAN Black Powder Handbook & Loading Manual written by Sam Fadala. Lyman Ballistic Laboratories data has been above reproach for decades. If you check pages 172-177 of the second edition of the Lyman book, you will quickly obtain a grasp of what muzzleloading pressures may be. You'll see that 120 grains by volume of Pyrodex RS pushing a 240 grain Hornady sabot can develop 29,900 PSI. You'll find many, many loads developing well over 25,000 PSI peak pressure. A three pellet load can develop 29,000 PSI peak pressure, as shown by Lyman. That still isn't the top pressure loads that are published; some are well above 30,000 PSI with 120 grains of Pyrodex. Loose powder loads heavier than 120 grains by volume of Pyrodex are not touched upon, though heavier loads and hotter propellants than Pyrodex are in common use.

Based on all this, the "Question" becomes obvious. If an inline muzzleloading manufacturer refuses to tell you in writing that their rifles have been designed and tested to withstand a constant diet of 30,000 PSI peak pressure loads safely, their guns should not be sold, much less used.

This is such a basic, common-sense question that no inline muzzleloading manufacturer should have any problem answering it without hesitation. If they can't, they are richly deserving of all the scorn and condemnation that we can lavish on them. It is bad metallurgy and lack of testing that keeps 911 busy for some unfortunate victims year after year."

And more....

"
It is a sad fact that many muzzleloaders produced today with Spanish barrels are marked with a pressure rating of 700 kp/cm? clearly stamped on the barrels. Relying on the ignorance of the muzzleloading community, aren't they are the most popular barrels sold in the USA today? The dirty secret is that the proof rating above is converted to psi by the following formula: kp/cm? x 14.22 = psi. Directly put, these barrels are factory marked to a maximum pressure of 9954 psi.

It is also well documented that so-called magnum loads, for example 150 grains of Pyrodex pushing a 260 grain saboted projectile can easily develop pressures exceeding 20,000 psi. Much more moderate charges of 100 grains of Pyrodex pushing the same 260 grain saboted bullet can easily develop pressures in the 13,000-14,000 range. In fact, the original Pyrodex pellet patent states this quite clearly, to name only one document.

Do these soft, low-pressure barrels have any business being fired with loads that create more than twice the stamped barrels pressure rating? Does this create an unnecessary risk both to the shooter, and to those around him? Will it likely take death or dismemberment and the resultant lawsuits for this to change?

Some may think my barrel safety questions inappropriate. Why would any manufacturer market borderline or untested product? Why would Enron steal money from its employees, why would Morton-Thiokol okay space shuttle O-ring systems their engineers had severe reservations about? Must it take a "60 Minutes" expose or loss of life to change or improve things?

Would anyone in their right mind reload a smokeless cartridge to twice the SAAMI specifications? Don't today's muzzleloading companies actively promote similar practices? Who is more stupid, the people that ignore pressure ratings on barrels or the companies that tell you it is somehow "okay" to fire charges in barrels that have never been individually tested to take such pressures?

Call me dense, but what smokeless powder firearms manufacturer directs you to set off any single load in any single gun at near proof pressure in any barrel under any circumstances, much less exceed it? Yet, some muzzleloading companies, apparently, do it all the time. Wouldn't a lot of people like to know what that might have to do with their gun, and what pressure their gun is really proofed for? Pressure limits are no secret in SAAMI / smokeless-land; in muzzleloading, they apparently are!

Hodgdon Powder Co. has long warned that either 100 grains Pyrodex pellets in .50 caliber or 100 grains Triple Seven pellets in .50 caliber is the MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE LOAD. When muzzleloading manufacturers deviate from the propellant maker's warnings, the burden is on them to prove its safety.

Are they dangerous? I don't know. Have they ever been shown to be safe with high-octane loads? How does a modern shooter know what his gun is capable of? Shouldn't modern muzzleloaders be proved safe prior to sale? Isn't this a reasonable question for any gun owner to ask?

I think it most certainly is.

Addendum:

There are two basic types of "proof." "Provisional" proof that applies generally to barrels in the early stages of manufacture, to prevent the maker from continuing work on defective tubes. Definitive proof applies to all arms and is effected "in the white" or in the finished state.

Inspection of many Traditions and CVA guns will clearly show the Spanish House of Eibar definitive black powder proof mark. Likely you will also see the ammunition inspection proof mark as well. A pressure stamping on the barrel, typically 700KP/CM2, will follow this. That pressure is expressed in "kiloponds / cm2." The equivalent in PSI is approx. 9957 PSI.

It is well documented that 150 grain Pyrodex pellet loads pushing 250 to 300 grain saboted projectiles can exceed 2.5 X that pressure, often upwards of 25,000 - 27,000 PSI. These are common loads, not "unusual" loads. Not just the original Pyrodex patent, but many readily available independent sources such as Lyman's.

There is no evidence to show that these barrels are tested stateside in any way, and there is evidence to show that they are not, as in imported muzzleloaders arriving here a day or so after clearing customs.

If there is further testing beyond what is clearly stamped on the barrels, it is unknown--and not reflected on the original substandard proof embossed on those barrels. Nor is there any supplementary proof to indicate that this is being done.

The simple question, posed again and again, is have those guns been proofed or tested to 20,000 PSI, 25,000 PSI, or 30,000 PSI? If so, who is doing the testing, and what guns are being tested? Why are there no marks to indicate a "tested" barrel from an untested one? What specific loads are they tested with? Are they tested with pellets at all? What metal is used in these soft, extruded barrels? How do I know that my gun has been tested beyond the internationally respected house of Eibar stamp?

What reasonable assurances can be provided to a customer so he knows his individual gun has been tested?

Somehow, a terse phone call from a manufacturer that says these proofs are "not really proof marks" or "just a manufacturing mark" or "minimum pressures" or "it is ALL hogwash-- just follow the manual" seems ill-prepared, clumsy, and insufficient.

Traditions and CVA / BPI have been aware of these questions for some time. They have been unable to answer or fully address them. (Unless you think that Traditions calling me "anti-Second Amendment" or CVA starting a "Randy, you are out of your mind" thread on their forum should be construed as an answer to these questions.)

I don't know what testing there is, with what, by who, and why the Eibar Proof marks remain far, far too low. The public response from Traditions and CVA / BPI has been non-existent. If they can address these issues fully, and put the matter to rest, why haven't they? Traditions and CVA/Winchester Muzzleloading/BPI have been asked again and again why a customer should consider their recommended loads as safe, when they defy the clear barrel proofs, C. I. P. maximum service pressures, and Hodgdon Powder's own maximum load warnings.

With a mess like this, it is clear that the Black Powder Industry desperately needs an overseeing body like SAMMI. Though SAMMI participation is voluntary, it has made the firearms industry a better place by setting the rules. Only those with self-destructive proclivities would knowingly break powder manufacturer's reloading rules. Yet, if you are a muzzleloader, you are a reloader.

The educated consumers can decide for themselves what chances they may or may not be taking. As to if they are tested or safe with "their loads," I cannot possibly say either way. I wish I could say that I believe these guns to be well-tested and proven safe.

The best I can offer remains "I don't know."

Shameful.

High Speed Photography

2007-06-06T23:28:00.000-05:00

Hey all!

I decided to play with high speed photography tonight...And with my Tokarev. So why not combine the two? Off to the range!

Here's some pics taken within one second, showing the result of a hit from 7.62x25mm on a 2 litre bottle full of water.

The bottle exhibits a clean hole on entry and a slit on exit where pressure cracked the bottle in a straight, clean seam.

That means the military 85 grain steel cased ball does not expand, nor dump energy into the target the way a deadlier hollow point will.

But look at that spray! And in the last picture, you can see how much water is "bleeding" out of the bottle as it falls, becaus of gravity alone.

Nope, the pistol round of a Russian soldier in the "Great Patriotic War" wasn't as deadly as the hollow point, larger caliber rounds our police and we as civilians use today...But nothing to laugh at! And that's from a pistol, not an SMG. If Fritz caught that round in major blood vessels, he was down for the count. A well aimed shot would be all she wrote. Chalk one up for the Motherland.

CTV's Paula Todd: Gun owner "Freakish"

2007-06-06T14:48:00.000-05:00

Hey all.

Does anyone else here remember Wayne Chiang? Simply because he had posted pictures of himself with firearms, he was mistaken for being the Virginia Tech shooter.

Well, Wayne was invited to do a CTV interview to speak about Virginia Tech...Instead, he was ambushed on air and insulted off air.

Here is what Wayne has to say about the affair...

"Hey all, thanks for all the support! It means so much to me. The interview with Paula Todd was aired live on Wednesday April 18, 2007. I was supposed to talk about my experience at Virginia Tech, but ultimately ended up blindly walking into a firearms debate/ambush. That's why I look so retarded answering the questions.

The second video with the comments were off-air. CTV was nice enough to send me a copy of the interview and someone let the off-air portions slip through. After watching all the off-air parts, it was interesting to see how she personally greeted all her guests, except for me. She talks to at least seven other people and tells them the topic of discussion before hand. For me, I just ended up on camera talking at a wall to someone I couldn't see or ever heard of before. I suppose this must be the new tactic these news networks use...

Paula Todd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QSC4RqdMII
Paula Todd #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U69ABffO-Y

The other piece of infamy is the picture mixup debacle. This one is just absurd and needs no explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQtdxPl4Ew8"

Hmmm....wait...since I posted this one...something new has developed...

Wayne received this...

"

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by CTV Inc. claiming that this material is infringing:

CTV Paula Todd Thinks Gun Owners Are FREAKISH: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U69ABffO-Y)
Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the "Copyright Tips" guide: http://www.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright."

Oh.

Okay.

So it's all well and good for terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah to post their propaganda which actually recruits children to be suicide bombers...But we can't have Wayne posting HIS CTV video! That's crazy talk!

MG34

2007-05-30T14:40:00.000-05:00

Hey guys,

Sorry no posts lately but I had a BLAST this weekend and just pulled in from O-town on Tuesday...Shot in two competitions on Saturday, but I'll talk more about that in another post.

I gotta mention first and foremost that I was lucky enough to get a chance to take a spin on a German MG34.

For those of ya who aren't familiar with it, the MG34 was the first modern universal machine gun. At 12kg, it was much lighter than most other MGs around the world, and could be used for virtually any role.

Nazi Germany began producing them in 1934, and it was used from a bipod, as this one was, in the light machine gun role, with a tripod for a general purpose machine gun, and also in tanks and aircraft.

It had a blistering rate of fire, although not as high as the later MG-42, and fired the powerful 8mm Mauser round. Typically a 199 grain bullet at 2600 feet per second.

It operates by the recoil of the barrel being blown straight back and pushing the bolt to the rear with a massive recoil spring in the buttstock bringing the bolt back into battery. The nose cap at the muzzle end of the rifle uses the gas from firing to assist in this.

It is effective to 1200 yards at least in aimed fire and 2000 yards or more in the indirect fire role, to simply batter an area with ammo.

Recoil was very mild, although this version was only semi automatic, it was quite accurate. Hitting a 10" target with slow fire was a breeze. When you really open her up as fast as you can fire her though, it tends to spray an area. Doesn't kick hard, but you can't keep the sights on target very well either. It pelts the immediate area with ammo. You should see this thing chew up a berm. It's unreal. 8 men firing rifles at the same time was the only thing that even came close to how much damage this thing was doing.

I can say this...our boys who charged these guns in places like Juno beach had some big, BIG brass ones!

Here's me giving it a go.

Pictures for Red Collar

2007-05-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

Now we all know our bro Red Collar is a huge fan of M14 rifles. I've talked with him a lot about how they work inside, etc so I figured I'd post some pics to show him exactly what the heck is going on.

So..Here's a course on the inner workings of an M14 or M1A rifle!

First picture: Here's the M14 stripped down for cleaning in the field. Not a detailed clean, but just what ya have to worry about. On top is the rifle, removed from it's wood stock by unlatching the trigger guard and pulling out the firing mechanism. Underneath the rifle is the operating rod (Op Rod), the op rod spring, and spring guide. When assembled, the end of the spring pointed left goes over the guide, and the end to the right goes inside the op rod tube.

Second picture: Slightly right of the middle of this picture is the gas cylinder, underneath the barrel. If you look closely, you'll see the gas piston sticking out a few inches to the rear of the gas cylinder. Normally it is inside, and it is only exposed about .25 of an inch. On the bottom left is the front of the op rod. When assembled, it sits almost flushly against the gas cylinder, resting on that .25 inch of gas piston.

On firing the rifle, hot gas from the propellant race down the barrel and some are diverted into the gas cylinder. They hit the gas cylinder and force it rearward into the exposed position above with great force. The gas piston in turn smacks the op rod on the face, driving the op rod back, and compressing the op rod spring. The op rod takes the bolt with it all the way to the rear of the receiver, which ejects the empty casing. As it hits the end of it's travel, the op rod spring pulls the op rod and bolt forward again, chambering a fresh cartridge and cocking the hammer of the rifle. The gas piston is smacked by the op rod and driven back into hiding inside the gas cylinder.

Third picture: Here is the assembled rifle. You can see the face of the op rod is against the gas piston, which is back inside the gas cylinder where it belongs, and that the op rod spring is in position, with most of it actually inserted into the op rod. The firing controls are also shown. They are the trigger, hammer, and safety of the rifle. You can also see the trigger guard has been pulled open. That's all that is neccessary to remove the rifle from the stock. No screws, no tools.

Fourth picture: Here's the top of the rifle. You can see here where the front of the bolt's bottom lug (right hand actually) fits into the op rod to link the bolt and op rod together. When the gas piston slams the op rod rearward, it brings the bolt with it, camming and tilting the two locking lugs out of their grooves in the receiver and unlocking and opening the action when gas and pressure levels are safe.

Well, there's a basic course on the internal parts and operation of the M14...Hope it wasn't too boring!

If anyone wants more detailed explaination or to see more pics, just let me know!

M14 Rifle

2007-05-13T17:39:00.000-05:00

Hey all,

Just came home from a session with the M14! I was finally able to pick her up from the shop on Thursday night, but today was my first day off from work.

Overall, I gotta say...this is a CRAZY deal for $499. A real 7.62x51mm NATO battle rifle, available in Canada, even for shooters on a budget. Or even cheap bastards like me. What's not to love?

Well...It does have a few shortcomings. The Chu wood stock is not as good looking or durable as US walnut, but you can exchange that for $100. 5 round magazines suck hard, but such is Canadian law. And the sights are not as robust as US models, but you can just drop in a set from a Garand or a US made M1A or M14 rifle, they just fit right in.

Bear in mind a US rifle is $1900 and you can see why there's a couple cut corners here.

Now the good news...its actually closer to the old US Military M14 rifle than the Springfields we buy for $2k dollars! A forged receiver, as opposed to cast, a one piece firing pin, tighter gas system, and flash hiders already bored out to National Match specifications. Can't go wrong.

I'm actually VERY surprised by the accuracy of this rifle. In the last two pictures, you get an idea of the sight picture, and there's a group I shot today. Four rounds into two inches, from standing supported, with Remington hunting ammo. Not too shabby for an eyeball and iron sights huh?

7.62x51mm NATO, which most of us know as 308 Winchester, is a very powerful rifle round. It can shoot accurately from an M14 to 500 meters if the shooter does their part, defeat cover which would laugh at a C-7 or M-16 rifle, and is plenty enough gun for even moose hunting. Cheap surplus ammunition is still available in Canada to shoot holes in targets other than your wallet.

The sights on this rifle (as well as the Garand) have to be the BEST that mankind ever devised. Sharp and crystal clear, easy to see, and fully adjustible.

One click of the dial moves your bullet strike one inch per each one hundred yards you are shooting. Thus:

1 click at 100 yards is one inch
1 click at 200 yards is two inches
1 click at 300 yards is three inches
1 click at 400 yards is four inches

and so on.

So lets say our rifle is zeroed for 200 yards and we want to shoot something 400 yards away. My data book shows a 147 grain FMJ boat tail round dropping 22.3 inches, or almost two feet, at that range. So, one click being four inches at 400 yards, you need simply 6 clicks of elevation to put yourself at 24", and your shot would hit 2 inches high on target.

Pretty simple eh?

Ergonomics are very good. Not AR-15 good, but it's very comfy. Heavier than say, a 30-30 lever action rifle, but no heavier than a scoped bolt action. And the weight does soak up some recoil and allow you to get back on target faster.

Seriously...at this price everyone should buy at least one.

Here's some pics...As usual, click for the big version!

No 1 Mk III* SMLE

2007-05-11T21:52:00.001-05:00

Here's the .303 Enfield I was tellin everyone about! A 1942 made Bristish rifle, with an 18" sword style bayonet!

Heavy rifle, but it soaks up the recoil very nicely...and the fastest firing bolt action rifle there ever was. A 10 round detachable magazine helps that out too, and it's decently powerful. The strength is pretty much between 30-30 Winchester and 303 British, so it's a fine hunting rifle aside from all the history of it!

The soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force were able to fire these rifles so quickly and accurately that German soldiers thought they were under machine gun fire.

Sights are very nice for an open notch and post and well protected. It shoots 5 shots into a group slightly less than 4 inches wide in my less than skilled hands.

Which really ain't so bad. Gotta figure then, at 500 meters, that would be an 18" group...well enough to hit a human sized target, which is what it was made to do.

End result? Fine piece of our history...powerful and accurate battle rifle, looks great on display, effective for hunting...And isn't that bayonet awesome?

Sorry no new posts lately

2007-05-04T19:17:00.000-05:00

Hey gang,

sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I know you guys are around a lot, but I've been workin 10 hour days at a lumber yard...Suffice to say, a cold beer and sleep are more on my mind than watchin the blog!

Gonna be done soon though until June...So to everyone here, thanks for your continued patience and visiting the site.

In other news....My Tokarev took a dump on me!!!

Turns out when it is actually fired, the magazines fall out. Cause looks like it is the magazine catch. Ain't long enough to actually enter the slot cut out of the magazines. Without it in place, the magazine just kind of rests on it. Nothin makes ya look cool like ammo falling at your feet whenever your pistol is fired!

Marstar's customer service rocks though, I gotta say. Called a tech, explained the problem, and they told me to go right ahead and remove that part from the pistol and mail it in to them. They are gonna replace it for free.

So...Downtime for the pistol until I get my new mag catch. Shame...She was sooo fun to shoot!!

But there's still light at the end of the tunnel. Bright light.

I picked up a WW1 vintage all original 303 British SMLE rifle with bayonet...Pics and update soon! I love the Lee Enfields and that 18" blade is SCARY!

Put a down payment on a Norinco M14 as well...$499 at the local store. Never would have thought I would find one there!

Hopefully that comes home too. I'll have info, pics and review for you all ASAP.

Supposedly, the extra high rings I need to mount my scope on my Mauser Sniper are also in. I am going to snag them this weekend when I go put more money down on my M14...

So...lots to look forward to! Stay tuned.

Until then I stay in the lumber business :(

RCMP still using Gestapo tactics on gun owners

2007-04-25T11:43:00.000-05:00

Here's something I found this morning...

Why are these tactics needed? Because a guy is a legal gun owner? What indication is there he would try to harm an LEO? Why not just call him and ask him to come down to the station?

You know what? If he doesn't come down, THEN you know he's probably a felon.

Read this guys...and do something about it.

Next time, it could be you.

EVERYONE MUST KNOW

LAST MONDAY, APRIL 16TH, 4 AM, NEAR THE HAMLET OF CRAIGMYLE, SOUTHWEST OF HANNA AB. JOHN REW, AGE 50, WAS AWAKENED TO THE SOUND OF A S.W.A.T. SMOKE GRENADE SMASHING THROUGH HIS BEDROOM WINDOW.

HE WAS THROWN FACEDOWN ON THE FLOOR AND HANDCUFFED INSTANTLY AFTERWARD, AS A SECOND SMOKE GRENADE EXPLODED THROUGH HIS TV STAND IN THE LIVING ROOM, BURNING A HOLE IN THE FLOOR.

THE DRUMHELLER RCMP, CALGARY S.W.A.T., RED DEER S.W.A.T. HAD COME FOR ALL HIS FIREARMS, IN PARTICULAR HIS REGISTERED PROHIBS AND RESTRICTEDS. YES! REGISTERED!

ALTHOUGH THEIR SEARCH WARRANT DID NOT INCLUDE ANY RESIDENCES, JOHN AGREED TO LEAD THEM ACROSS THE FARMYARD TO HIS 80 YEAR OLD MOTHER’S HOUSE. HER BASEMENT CONTAINS JOHN’S STORAGE FACILITY.

JOHN’S MOTHER, BETTY, ALLOWED THEM ENTRY AND WAS DETAINED FOR HER CO-OPERATIVE EFFORTS. THE MASKED, BODY ARMOURED, ASSAULT RIFLE EQUIPPED THUGS GOT WHAT THEY CAME FOR.

JOHN WAS HAULED AWAY, STILL IN HANDCUFFS, JOHN’S ALLEGED CRIME: ALLOWING HIS F.A.C/P.A.L TO EXPIRE, HIS VARIOUS CRIMINAL CHARGES ALL STEM FROM THAT. (ADOLPH WOULD BE PROUD)

2:30 THAT AFTERNOON JOHN WAS RELEASED, PROMISING TO APPEAR IN DRUMHELLER COURT 10AM MAY 25TH, 2007.

THE BROWNSHIRTS SHUT DOWN HIS OILFIELD BUSINESS FOR THE DAY, TURNING HIS 20 EMPLOYEES AWAY AT THE GATE. HIS SISTER WAS NOT ALLOWED ENTRY TO TEND TO BETTY.

IRONICALLY, THE NEXT DAY, APRIL 17TH, OUR GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED AN EXTENSION OF THE LONG GUN REGISTRY “AMNESTY” FOR ANOTHER YEAR.

WILL THIS HELP JOHN AND HIS FAMILY? WE MUST CONSIDER OURSELVES JOHN’S FIREARMS FAMILY MEMBERS. I STAND UP FOR MY FAMILY, DO YOU? ELECTION TIME IS COMING NOW IS OUR TIME TO BE HEARD. DON’T FALL MUTE NOW. FURTHER INFORMATION WILL FOLLOW FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE THE FORTITUDE TO UTILIZE IT.

Virginia Tech

2007-04-16T14:06:00.000-05:00

I've just seen what happened at Virginia Tech today...31 people killed, and supposedly the deadliest shooting in US history.

This post isn't about guns or gun control or anything political. It's not the time. I feel physically sick.

HOW? How can someone dehumanize other people to that extent???

I just hope the death toll has stopped now...and that no one else needs to be hurt.

Backdoor ban on handguns

2007-04-09T15:07:00.000-05:00

Well if you can't ban the guns...Ban the ammo! This is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. Once again, proof positive that they don't care about crime, they never thought the laws they proposed years ago would be "good enough", that they will scare people into anything to gain votes and that they DO NOT want the public owning firearms...Period!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Resolution:
Restricting the Sale and Possession
of Handgun Ammunition

"That, in the opinion of this House, the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services should request the Chief Firearms Officer to conduct a study to identify ways of better regulating ammunition which includes consideration of additional mechanisms to further restrict and/or ban the sale and possession of ammunition for hand guns and to share relevant findings with Federal and Provincial/Territorial partners."

Media Release:

Duguid Proposes Restrictions on Possession and Sale of Handgun Ammunition

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 -- Brad Duguid, MPP Scarborough Centre, is introducing a Private Member’s Resolution in the Ontario Legislature on Thursday, March 29, 2007, calling on the Ontario Government to direct the Chief Firearms Officer to report on alternatives to restrict and limit the possession and sale of handgun ammunition.

“Unless someone is in law enforcement, there are few legitimate reasons for anyone to be in the possession of handgun ammunition. If the Government of Ontario moves forward with a ban on the unauthorized possession of handgun ammunition, the police will have another tool at their disposal to address the problem of guns and gangs in our community.” Duguid said.

Duguid’s Resolution would have the Chief Firearms Officer conduct a study to identify ways of better regulating ammunition including consideration of additional mechanisms to further restrict and/or ban the sale and possession of ammunition for hand guns.

In addition, the Chief Firearms Officer could consider alternatives to ensure that ballistic tests are taken and recorded from shells of all handguns. As well, there could be consideration of mandatory record keeping by retailers of all ammunition purchases.

“You can’t fire a handgun without a bullet. Today, if police come across a criminal or gang member in possession of handgun ammunition (having already dumped the handgun) there is nothing they can do but let him go. They can’t even confiscate the ammunition knowing that it may well be used in a shooting any time in the future. That’s simply not right and needs to be addressed.”

Duguid’s resolution has the support of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

-30-

For more information contact Brad Duguid, MPP directly at cell 416-993-5195.

Backgrounder:

Current laws regarding possession of handgun ammunition:
Ammunition Regulation Act, 1994 (Selected Sections)
Restriction re purchase of ammunition
2. (1) No person shall purchase ammunition unless the person is at least 18 years old and at the time of purchase presents valid identification that has his or her photograph and age or date of birth or other valid identification prescribed by regulation. 1994, c. 20, s. 2 (1).
Same
(2) Despite subsection (1), a person under 18 years old may purchase ammunition if he or she presents at the time of purchase the valid identification required under subsection (1) and a valid permit issued to him or her under subsection 110 (6) of the Criminal Code (Canada). 1994, c. 20, s. 2 (2).
Same
(3) Despite subsection (1), a person 16 or 17 years old may purchase ammunition if he or she presents at the time of purchase the valid identification required under subsection (1) and a valid permit issued to him or her under subsection 110 (7) of the Criminal Code (Canada). 1994, c. 20, s. 2 (3).
Improper documentation
(4) No person shall present, for the purpose of purchasing ammunition, identification or a permit other than that which was lawfully issued to him or her. 1994, c. 20, s. 2 (4).
Offence
(5) A person who contravenes subsection (1), except as permitted by subsection (2) or (3), is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable,
(a) for a first offence, to a fine of not more than $5,000;
(b) for a second or subsequent offence, to a fine of not more than $10,000. 1994, c. 20, s. 2 (5).

Same
(6) A person who contravenes subsection (4) is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of not more than $10,000. 1994, c. 20, s. 2 (6).
Restriction re sale of ammunition
3. (1) No person shall knowingly sell or provide ammunition to any person unless that person produces documentation as required under subsection 2 (1), (2) or (3). 1994, c. 20, s. 3 (1).
Same
(2) Despite subsection (1), a person may provide ammunition to a person who is 12 years old or over and under 16 years old if that person holds a permit issued to him or her under subsection 110 (7) of the Criminal Code (Canada). 1994, c. 20, s. 3 (2).
Record keeping
4. (1) A person who holds a permit issued under subsection 110 (5) of the Criminal Code (Canada) to carry on a business described in subparagraph 105 (2) (b) (i) of that Act shall keep a record of the following information for all ammunition sales:
1. The date and time of the purchase.
2. The name, age and address of the purchaser.
3. The type of identification and permit produced and their serial numbers.
4. The calibre and quantity of ammunition purchased. 1994, c. 20, s. 4 (1).
Inspection of records
(2) The chief provincial firearms officer for Ontario, designated under the Criminal Code (Canada), or any person authorized by him or her for the purposes of this section, may conduct an inspection of the records required to be kept under subsection (1). 1994, c. 20, s. 4 (2).

Overall Number of Homicides, Gun Related Homicides, and Shooting Incidents, Toronto, 2004-2007
In 2006, there were 29 gun related homicides in Toronto, a 45% decrease from 2005. The number of gun related homicides spiked in 2005 (from 27 in 2004 to 53 in 2005) and returned close to the 2004 level in 2006. In 2006, 42% of homicides were gun related. The overall number of homicides decreased from 80 in 2005 to 69 in 2006. In 2007 YTD1 there were 7 homicides in Toronto, 4 of which (57%) were gun related.

Number of Gun Related Homicides, Toronto, 2004-2007
Year 2004 2005 2006 2005 YTD1 2006 YTD1 20072YTD1
Total number of homicides 64 80 69 12 9 7
Total number of gun related homicides 27 53 29 7 2 4
Percentage of gun related homicides out of Total number of homicides 42% 66% 42% 58% 22% 57%
Sources: Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada & Corporate Planning, Corporate Services, Toronto Police Service

Number of Shooting Incidents3, Toronto, 2005-2007
Year 2005 2006 2005 YTD1 2006 YTD1 20072 YTD1
Shooting Incidents 249 207 29 31 21
Total number of victims as a result of shooting incidents 344 292 35 43 26*
Shooting Victim Injury Level
Number of deaths as a result of shooting incident 53 29 7 2 4
Number of victims that sustained injuries as a result of shooting incident 179 173 15 24 17
Number of victims with no injuries as a result of shooting incident 89 71 7 16 5
Unknown4 23 19 6 1 0
Sources: Toronto Police Service, 680 News, City news, Toronto Star
* There was one shooting incident that occurred on February 15, 2007, however, information on the number of victims, if any, is pending.
1 Year-to-date as of March 4.
2 Data is subject to change due to incidents that have been investigated and deemed to be unfounded, or reclassification of an offence subsequent to further investigation.
3 2005 and 2006 data is based on report date, that is, the date the victim reported the shooting incident to the police. All incidents involving police officers discharging firearm in the line of duty and incidents where victims shot themselves are excluded.
4 Prepared by: Corporate Evaluation and Analysis, Corrections and Community Safety Policy Branch, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Updated on March 5, 2007 10:46 AM The extent of injuries to the victim could not be determined.

Cost of Handgun ammunition and where it can be purchased today:

See Package.

Purpose of Resolution:

Consider ways to restrict the possession of handgun ammunition to those who require it to fulfill their duties such as law enforcement officials. While the resolution leaves open the consideration of other alternatives, it is intended to consider outlawing the possession of handgun ammunition outside of an approved gun range. Handgun ammunition could only be available for purchase and use at an approved gun range.

This proposal would have the affect of banning the sale of handgun ammunition from retail outlets. It would consider ways to make it illegal to acquire through mail or other means handgun ammunition other than at approved gun ranges.

Further, this proposal would consider the viability of requiring all handguns bought, sold, manufactured, possessed or discharged in a firing range within the Province of Ontario to have on file a ballistics sample of the shell casing discharged from every handgun. This data base of ballistics samples could provide police with leads as they trace the ownership of the weapon. It could also assist in providing evidence to aid in the prosecution of handgun offences."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

People, this has nothing to do with "crime guns" or "sporting purposes" or "handguns" at all. Gun ownership itself is under attack and will stay under attack. If you care AT ALL about gun rights, or your rights in general, let your MPP know about this and how you feel! Or take 10 minutes to write a short editorial.

It DOES make a difference.

Excellent essay on the cost of gun control

2007-04-09T15:05:00.000-05:00

Nope, I didn't write this...But the guy who did is certainly switched on!

My Fellow Canadian ~

I once read an excellent Isaac Asimov non-fiction essay on really big numbers. Humans are in general really bad at understanding big numbers. Because of my math / science / engineering background, I'm maybe a bit better than average, but I'm no Asimov. I have though learned a few ways to help me better understand big numbers, so that I can better deal with them when I need to. This essay shows how some of those methods work.

The initial Government of Canada estimate for the gun registry database system was $1 million. Technically, I think that's probably a bit low. Based on my on three decades of work in the field of distributed multi-user database transaction processing systems like the registry, and on some systems I'm currently working on which are of that type, I think $3 million would have been a better estimate.

If someone from the Government of Canada can provide me with a simple accounting showing some component of the system that I've missed, I'd be more than happy to adjust my analysis of the situation to take that data into account. My current analysis is based on the numbers I have collected from the public media over the last few years.

Given how important it is for state monopolies to serve citizens to the highest possible ethical standard, let's throw in a factor of three-ish over my base estimate and call it $10 million, to be as careful as possible.

Now, say you had such a $10 million contract with some customers. And then, say you spent three times that: $30 million. Does it occur to you that your customers (in this case, we citizens) might be, oh, shall we say, somewhat angry? Ok, let's say it's another factor of three: $90 million. How are your customers doing now? Fine. Let's throw in another factor of three, so we're now up to $270 million. How angry are your customers now? In more primitive times than we live in, would you still be alive? But wait, there's more. How much would we pay for another factor of three? Oh, about $810 million. Say, that's interesting, the gun registry database system has, according to the CBC, cost $750 million.

It didn't cost 3 times as much. Or 3 times 3 times as much. Or 3 times 3 times 3 times as much. It cost 3 times 3 times 3 times 3 times as much.

That's like planning to have two children, and ending up with 162 (two times three to the power of four). Now stop. Think about that number, 162 children. It's unimaginable that you could legitimately have 162 children, in any way whatsoever. Likewise, there is no way I can come up with to imagine how the registry database project could legitimately cost $750 million, whatsoever.

Never mind that it is to me unfathomable that it could take eight years to develop the registry database, and never mind that according to the CBC it doesn't actually work; $750 million divided by eight years is about $250,000 per day. That's right, they spent what should have been, at its most extreme, a $10 million budget for the entire project, they spent that much every 40 days, for eight years.

Here's another way to look at it. The database system has cost about 750 / 8 = $94 million per year, for eight years. Loaded full-time staff costs in this field are about $100,000 per year. That means the development of this system employed 940 full-time staff per year for eight years. How the hell can a database fundamentally designed to store and retrieve 7 million gun records distributed across 3 million person records take 7,500 man-years to develop? What is this, the Pyramid of Cheops?

(Actually, the CBC's total cost figure of $2 billion for the entire gun registry "file" amounts to about $685,000 per day, which means they spent the entire initially estimated budget of $2 million, again according to the CBC, every three days, for eight years straight. That's 20,000 man-years, to register 7 million guns. But what do I know, I'm just a software guy, I'll stick to the database system.)

Corporations get sued for cost overruns on the order of tens of percent. Assuming my careful $10 million estimate is reasonable, the registry database is not 10 % over. It's not 100 % over. It's not 1,000 % over. It's 7,500 % over.

It's not 10 times less than the standard we citizens are held to, under threat of criminal prosecution. It's not 100 times less. The state's standard of performance for itself is 750 times less than the standard it holds us to. Who the hell, exactly, do these people think they are, and why the hell shouldn't we smite them?

Ok, I'll tell you what. Section 380 of the Criminal Code of Canada calls for jail for up to 10 years for fraud over $5,000. Applying the 750 factor apparently used by State Canada, let's just say that any politician or civil servant that is guilty of fraud over $5,000 should go to jail for 7,500 years.

That's starting to sound like a big enough number for me.

Layton back in the saddle of stupidity

2007-04-05T12:30:00.000-05:00

As if pushing for negotiations with the Taliban wasn't stupid enough...

"Ban semi-automatics, NDP leader urges PM

Montreal - The federal government should ban private ownership of semi automatic rifles such as the one Kimveer Gill used at Dawson College, NDP leader Jack Layton says.

"The answer to gun violence is not to end the gun registry - it's to ensure that assault weapons do not end up on city streets," Mr. Layton told a receptive audience during an event organized by the Dawson Committee for Gun Control.

Canada's firearms legislation, which includes restrictions on some guns and mandatory registration of others, is an effective tool in maintaining public safety, Mr. Layton said. There have been 300 fewer gun deaths a year in Canada since the gun rules were adopted in 1995, he noted.

Mr. Latyon urged the audience to press Prime Minister Stephen Harper to maintain and further tighten gun laws.

THE MONTREAL GAZETTE"

Hoo boy.

If anyone has any idea how a registry could have helped prevent this tragedty, please let me know! His guns were registered, it still happened. So...What would losing the registry do to make people safer?

I also like his reference to all semi automatic firearms as "assault rifles"....I guess my semi automatic 22 long rifle is an "assault rifle" now.

Sure, "assault rifles" exist...What are they, by definition? A rifle with FULLY AUTOMATIC capability (okay, that just scrapped his arguement right there) using a bullet stronger than that of a pistol, but weaker than a conventional rifle round.

Is the C-7 variant of the M-16 used by the Canadian Forces an assault rifle? Yeah. Is an M-16 variant owned by a citizen, with a magazine holding 5 whole rounds an assault rifle? If scooters are used in races, does that equate them to a bike like a Ninja?

His statistics about how we've had 300 fewer gun deaths per YEAR since 1995 is similary screwy. Don't just take my word for it though, let's have a look.

According to my Dept. of Justice handbook, which was issued to me during my course to own Restricted class firearms, 81% of "gun deaths" are suicides.

So less guns means less suicides?

Not quite. According to Statistics Canada, deaths by hanging have nearly doubled since (you guessed it, 1995.)

4% of deaths are accidental, and sadly usually involve children. For every retard who leaves a loaded firearm near children, there's a retard who locks a baby in their car, answers the phone while giving their baby a bath, or does not supervise their children as they play near a swimming pool.

Too bad we can't ban "stupid".

The remaining 15% are homicides.

Let's look at our homicide rate... Statistics Canada says it has dropped dramatically since 2005. Does that mean it's because of gun control? Um...not really. Our entire homicide rate dropped!

"

There were 172 homicides committed with a firearm in 2004, 11 more than in 2003 and 20 more than in 2002. However, the 2004 total was still slightly below the average of 176 homicides involving firearms over the past decade.

During the past 10 years, the proportion of homicides involving a firearm has remained fairly stable, ranging from 26% to 34%. In 2004, the proportion was 28%. In contrast, in the United States, two-thirds of all homicide victims were killed with a firearm in 2003, more than double the proportion seen in Canada.

Over the past decade, the highest rates of firearm homicides have been reported in British Columbia and Quebec. However, in 2004, Manitoba recorded 13 homicides committed with a firearm, giving it the highest provincial rate for that year.

Beginning in 2001, handguns have consistently accounted for about two-thirds of all firearm-related homicides in Canada. Last year was no exception, as 65% of firearm homicides were committed with a handgun.

Over the years, the primary method used to commit homicide has varied between stabbings and shootings. With 63 more than in 2003, the most common method used last year was stabbings, accounting for one-third of all homicides. Beatings accounted for 22% and strangulation/suffocation for a further 10%."

Wow...

Guns only account for 28%-34% of our homicides? We need knife control!

Isn't it reassuring that Canadians would rather beat you to death or stab you?

It gets even better though!

"

Mental illness a factor in many homicides

A new detailed profile of the relationship, motivation and location of all 2004 homicides revealed that 70 victims were killed by someone that police believed was suffering from mental illness. The majority of these homicides were committed against family members.

There were 33 victims killed during a robbery, two-thirds of which occurred in the victim's residence. Half of those victims killed in their own home were over the age of 60.

In addition, over half of victims and almost three-quarters of accused persons had consumed alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the homicide. There were also 20 victims killed as a result of an argument originating in a bar"

Gosh...75% of the killers were consuming alcohol and/or drugs at the time they killed someone!

We need to ban drugs! Oh wait...They did. It sure made them harder to find, didn't it!

So what do you figure the odds are then, that these killers were already criminals, and thus barred from owning guns in the first place?

Well...

OF 5,194 TOTAL HOMICIDES BETWEEN 1997 & 2005

118 (2.27%) were committed with a registered gun;
63 (1.21%) were committed with a firearm registered to the accused murderer;
111 (2.14%) were committed by a person that held a valid firearms licence.

OF 1,572 FIREARMS HOMICIDES BETWEEN 1997 & 2005

118 (7.51%) were committed with a registered firearm;
63 (4.01%) were committed with a firearms registered to the accused murderer;
111 (7.06%) were committed by a person that held a valid firearms licence.

OF THE TWO-MILLION LICENCED GUN OWNERS IN CANADA

111 (0.00555%) Used their firearm to murder someone

Unfortunately, women are often the victim of a violent crime, and the anti gun side of the fence loves trying to play that up. Also unfortunately, Stats Can has this to say.

(1)	On snapshot day, one-fifth of all shelters referred 221 women and 112 children elsewhere. About two-thirds of these shelters reported referring women and children elsewhere because the shelter was full (See report #1 below),
(2)	Eight in 10 abused women in shelters were there to escape a current or former spouse/common law partner (See report #2 below).

Aren't we glad we spent that 1.4 BILLION dollars on the gun registry now?

People ask me very often "Why do politicians think banning guns will make us safer, then?"

The answer is, they don't! They know it won't do anything! BUT...It does bring in LOTS of votes from the uninformed.

Long Range Tactical Rifle

2007-03-27T22:19:00.000-05:00

Here's something I thought everyone might like to see: I recently finished my first custom sniper rifle build. This one has gone through lots of stages in the past two years, but finally ended up nailed down, albeit much differently than I had in mind from the start! It was originally going to be a wood stocked target gun, but it ended up a tactical rifle...And a great one at that!

Here's the specs:

Caliber: 30-06 Springfield
Action: FN Mauser 98, 1952 production
Barrel: Douglas Air Gauged Premium 26", 1-12" twist, No 7 contour
Bolt: VZ-24 Czech Mauser 98 with forged bent lever and tactical knob
Stock: Bell and Carlson tactical
Optics: Bushnell 4200 Elite 4-16x40mm with adjustible objective and Weaver QD rings
Finish: Walter Birdsong's Black T spray on coating and parkerizing

Lessons learned: Shoulda went with a 1-10" twist on the barrel (one complete turn of the grooves every 10 inches) to stabilize rounds heavier than the 175 grain range.

Special thanks:

Fritz Matti of Matti Fine Arms: Thanks for all the lessons, my friend. Benoit, if you are out there too, you're the man.

Mike Rescigno of Tac Ops: Mike put the awesome texture and paint on that stock for me, installed the bolt knob, and had Walter Birdsong apply his Black T finish, which is simply the best firearms finish I have ever seen anywhere. Big words, but true nonetheless. Mike's shop, Tac Ops, deals with 450 Law and Military organizations across North America, and makes the best tactical sniper rifles in the world. I'd put that claim up against anything else out there.

Mark Lammers of LOSOK Custom Arms: Mark is a police officer/sniper and owner of a custom rifle building company. I really couldn't have gotten this done without his help.

Mel Ewing of Sniper Central: Thanks for the info, advice, and smokin' price on optics, old bud.

Tokarev!

2007-03-27T21:58:00.000-05:00

Hi gang!

My Type 54 pistol finally came in!

For those who ain't come across one yet, it is a Chinese copy of the Russian TT-33 Tokarev sidearm of the "Great Patriotic War"...And my impression of it so far is that it's the AK-47 of the pistol world.

You can kinda see from the pictures that it looks at least a little inspired from Browning guns, but there are some very Russian features. For one, the hammer assembly gets yanked out in one easy piece. For another, instead of having the feed lips positioned on it's magazine, they are machined permanantly into the breach of the pistol! So, damaged mags don't matter. It'll still feed like a champ.

Caliber is the venerable old 7.62x25mm Tokarev round. The only problem is, I can't afford it! The ammo is dirt cheap, but the dealer will only ship in bulk...Sooo, until I feel like throwing down $275 on pistol ammo or the local store comes through for me, I ain't gonna be shooting this piece.

I can still tell ya my impressions though. Skinny grip, and the angle is a little slanted, so it points higher than natural, but to me it feels pretty comfy in my hands. The sights are pure combat sights. Adjustible windage on the rear, fixed front sight. So you can adjust for left to right, but not up and down.

Then again, for sights designed to kill Germanski Soldat at close range, they must have worked just fine. For practical work of picking up on the centre of a human target at pistol fighting ranges of point blank to 12 yards, they are fast enough to pick up on for low end combat sights.

Trigger pull is a little gritty, but not bad at all for a Chinese arm.

The only safety on the pistol is a half cock notch on the hammer, so I would recommend against carrying this one with a round in the spout. If you practice though, you can chamber one right quickly as you draw it, which is how the Russians and later Chinese always managed.

It's dead easy to field strip and clean, and the parts as well as how they work together are very easy to figure out.

All in all, a very respectable adversary...and welcome addition to any collection!

As usual, here are the pics...click em to enlarge!

Man had right to defend home, family

2007-03-26T17:51:00.000-05:00

SARASOTA -- John Coffin won't spend any more time in jail for beating up
two sheriff's deputies inside his house, striking one in the head with a
Taser gun he took from the other.

Circuit Judge Rick De Furia said at Coffin's trial Tuesday that he doesn't
condone the violence against the deputies. But Coffin, 56, had a right to
defend his family and property because the deputies had no right to be in
Coffin's house in the first place, De Furia said.

"Law enforcement was responsible for the chain of events here," De Furia
said. "I think in situations like this, officers become so frustrated they go
beyond what the law allows them to do."

The fight started when Coffin heard his wife screaming in pain, went into
the garage and saw two deputies arresting her on the floor. The deputies
were trying to serve Coffin with civil papers that had been given five days
earlier.

They had entered the garage even though they did not have a
search warrant or arrest warrant. And they arrested Coffin's wife, Cynthia,
50, on obstruction charges even though she had no obligation to follow
their orders to bring her husband outside.

"The most critical is the fact the officers broke the law by stopping the
garage door from going down," and then entering the garage, De Furia said.

A jury was picked for the trial Monday. But the judge granted a motion by
Coffin's attorneys, Derek Byrd and Brett McIntosh, and acquitted John Coffin
on five of six felony charges Tuesday morning. Coffin pleaded no contest to
the remaining charge of taking a Taser gun from one of the deputies during
the fight.

Before handing down the sentence, De Furia asked how long Coffin spent in
jail after his initial arrest. "You spent eight days in the Sarasota County
jail," De Furia said. "That's your sentence. No probation."

Relatives applauded, and Coffin walked out of the courthouse with only a
$358 bill for court costs. The sentence surprised even defense attorneys,
who had suggested De Furia sentence Coffin to probation.

Prosecutors had asked for more than a year of prison time because of
"the totality of the case" and the injuries to deputies James Lutz and
Stacy Ferris, whose name is now Stacy Brandau.

The two deputies testified about their injuries Tuesday -- three blows to the
head with the butt of the Taser gun knocked Lutz unconscious.

"I just ask that he doesn't get away with this," Brandau told the judge.

Assistant State Attorney Jeff Young told the judge the case "could have
been over in five seconds" if the Coffins "had simply come out and cooperated."

"That is a man who took it upon himself to beat up two police officers,"
Young said.

De Furia said that while he believed the deputies' mistakes were not
intentional, the Coffins had every right to lock doors, try to close their
garage door and not cooperate.

"What took place in the house was unfortunate," De Furia said, "but
Mr. Coffin ... had a right to resist."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Those of you guys who know me probably know I am pro cop. In fact, I am willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and say it was a mistake or misunderstanding. I wasn't there, and I can't judge them.

You have to admit though, seeing a pair of deputies assault your wife in your own home has to get you fired up. Given that what the deputies were doing was illegal, I am happy the verdict of this case was in favour of Mr. Coffin.

As much as we need police giving us the service that they do, we need checks and balances. Whenever you have people in positions of authority over others, that authority is going to be abused, be it purposeful or not.

Another trouble point as of late has been the serving of "no knock" warrants in which officers breach entry into a house in the middle of the night or early morning. I support this tactic when it is needed, like if a suspect has a likelyhood of harming the officers. Lately though, it's been used on a very shaky basis, sometimes on faulty information and upon the wrong house.

If you put yourself in the position of a man or woman who is woken up at 4 AM to several men breaking down their front door and rushing into their home, you can see there's precious little time to figure out what is going on or what to do about it.

2007-03-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

Hey all!

Finally got around to testing the terminal effects of the M1 Carbine. Unfortunately I don't have any FMJ military style ammo yet, but I thought it would be cool to see what it did with SP ammo in a self defense kinda role.

For our volunteer baddie I soaked some small pieces of printer paper in water for an hour and then firmly packed a hostile coffee can with it, until it was full to the top. Then I covered it with eight layers of denim to simulate clothing.

The results were a little surprising. I was expecting six, maybe eight inches of penetration, and to recover the bullet.

It exited the can. I only fired on it from 50 feet though, which is still a respectable self defense range, but I am lookin forward to trying some farther shots when the chance arises.

I fired two rounds at it, the first looking to strike rather high, so I compensated and fired the next one lower. It still hit high enough on the can.

Here's the thing. I am not sure if the first round popped the back end of the can open, because I didn't see it happen, and the can hardly reacted. It looks that way though. On the second hit, the lid of the can popped right off, paper spilled out, and blew out the back end of the can. It looked pretty nasty.

Here's the pics. Click on em to enlarge.

Our entry wound up there, along with the thickness of denim I used in the test.

There's a side view of our tango, with the full effect of the bulging and flap that blew open

Exit wound is about 1 inch in diameter.

The wound channel in the can. it is just shy of two inches in width and runs the length of the can.

There's a round, some of the paper showing denim that was blown into the can, and a piece of the jacket. Since blue jeans isn't a natual occurance in the human body, the surgeons would have some fun removing that. The copper piece of jacket says the round expanded violently, which explains the pressure signs and wound channel. It's impressive that it retained enough weight to completely penetrate the can!

Well...There's a quick and dirty non-scientific test if ever there was one. It sure doesn't look like using the 30 Carbine in combat is anything to worry about, with SP ammo anyway!

The Carbine is here!

2007-03-13T20:07:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've had a ton to do, and I've been neglecting the old blog. I know we have some new readers, so I'll be trying to keep the place interesting.

My M1 Carbine showed up today, so that's what I'll talk about. It doesn't hurt that I LOVE it. Great little gun. Light, handy, and easy to get on target fast.

The .30 Carbine round is a snappy little sucker, but it sure isn't a rifle's recoil. Getting back on track after the first shot is easy as pie.

Accuracy is very decent from a 60+ year old warhorse. I fired a few rounds this evening at mixed ranges from 30 to 100 yards, and scored plenty of hits. The little round seems potent when it impacts as well, with soft point ammo at least.

It's surprising just how compact the weapon is, at not even 36" long and weighing about 5.5 lbs.

The sights are a rear aperture and front post protected by two wings. The aperture slides front and back, with notches for 100, 200, 250, and 300 yards. It is also adjustible for windage.

So far my only complaint is that the sights are hard to pick up on in lower light...Happens with all apertures, but this one takes a little less than say, the Garand.

Anyway...Here's the pics!

The little carbine next to her big sister, the M1 Garand rifle.

Ammo comparison, from left to right: .30 Carbine, 7.62x39mm (SKS, AK-47, Etc) and 5.56x45mm Nato (M-16, Etc)

Ruger 10/22 "Tommy Gun"

2007-03-02T00:28:00.000-05:00

Something I found on the CGN board...This was done in the US. It's a Ruger 10/22 with real Thompson parts grafted onto it. I don't know the details, but it would be Canada legal...

And I want one!!!

M1 Carbine for self defensive use

2007-02-27T22:32:00.000-05:00

Since I mentioned that I scored an M1 Carbine in yesterday's post, I figured I would talk a bit about that tonight. For anyone not familiar with it, the M1 Carbine was a .30 caliber rifle firing a pistol like cartridge, feeding from a 15 round magazine, and it was meant to be issued to soldiers who couldn't work with the cumbersome M1, like truckers, artillery crews, officers, etc.

The carbine saw widespread use in the Second World War, the Korean War and early in the Vietnam war. It was very popular among paratroopers for it's light size. Along the way though, it attracted somewhat of a negative reputation, both justly and unjustly.

The first problem was a lack of stopping power. With .30 caliber ball ammo it fired a 110 grain FMJ at almost 2,000 FPS. With no expansion, it tended to overpenetrate. The bullet tumbled of course, and that would have caused a great deal of damage. The problem was, it would only begin to tumble after penetrating 20 cm (9 inches) of gelatin, or in this case, enemy soldier. By then it had probably already exited the enemy and kept on trucking. This became especially well known in Korea, when it was said that the round could not penetrate the thick down filled coats worn by Chinese infantrymen, or it penetrated without enough power to knock them down.

The second problem also became evident in Korea. The rifle had problems working reliably in the frozen climate there.

I've read firsthand accounts of veterans claiming to have seen down blowing out the back of a Chinese soldier's coat as he was shooting him, so I don't think penetration would be a problem, even if the round had slowed down to 1400-1500 FPS. The 7.62x25mm Tokarev pistol round at the same velocity is a fearsome penetrator and shreds Class II armour without a hitch. But if the round lacked killing power, then it would have exited the body of the enemy without dealing a lethal blow anyway, so I think the penetration myth is false.

One reason for the reduced stopping power and decreased reliability of the gun might be that ammo in stores from the Second World War had been loaded weaker because of the tropical climate in the Pacific Theater. This coupled with the cold in Korea could really be enough to slow down the round, and not give the weapon the power it needed to cycle the action properly.

So why do I think the M1 Carbine would be very effective for defensive use? It's rather simple.

No one says we need to use ball ammo. We can load it with whatever we wish.

Given soft point rounds, the bullet inflicts a very nasty wound. It mushrooms to .56-65 of an inch and makes a very large temporary cavity. Some pistols might do more, but they are not as easy to use as accurately, under stress...They are slower to aim, and slower to produce follow up shots.

A full sized rifle has the same problem, as does a shotgun. The rifle also suffers from overpenetrating. Rounds will go through the bad guy, through your house and God only knows where after that. The shotgun, loaded with buckshot, severly hampers your effectiveness at ranges past 25-30 yards or in making any shot where accuracy might be a factor.

The sights on the carbine are a very fast to focus aperture set, and the rifle has very little recoil, letting you fire multiple shots into the same target quicker than with heavier recoiling rounds.

I think an AR-15 would be about ideal, but if you don't have one, or you would like a piece of history, I think the M1 Carbine is fine for the job!

Here's the carbine firing a round into water jugs, in an image taken from the Box O' Truth website...I wouldn't want that going on inside my torso!

Well, at least someone finds me interesting...

2007-02-26T18:17:00.001-05:00

Too bad it's the Government!

I knew it had to happen sooner or later I suppose. I think I have been red-flagged by Big Brother as a "person of interest".

I bought a non-restricted M1 Carbine (barrel lengthened a whole half inch to comply) and I tried to complete the transfer today. Usually this is really easy. Call, give my personal info, and the gun is mine.

Today they told me it had to be sent to the Surete (Quebec provincial police) for approval before it could be transferred, and they informed the gentleman I bought it from not to give it to me.

How did this come about? Well here's my theory.

In late November I sent off some money to buy a Tokarev pistol. The company I bought it from went on a month long vacation in mid December before my purchase was processed. Now, as of around Christmas a new law started being implimented. They wanna see proof of membership of a gun club before you can even take restricted firearms home now.

So, when the company went back to work in January, I ended up kinda screwed. The Surete called me wanting to know where my proof of membership was...I didn't know I would need to be a member of a gun club to buy the pistol. Why not? Because that was never a rule!

So the club I shoot at as a guest hasn't replied to my letters and I end up shafted, and shell out $130 to get a membership elsewhere. I get my card today, so I am a full fledged member.

Hopefully I can straighten this out tomorrow.

I'll tell everyone something right now though. In Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and many more cities in Canada, criminals are buying unregistered illegal guns from other criminals. So when some kid ends up getting shot by some druggie, we can all remember they spent all this time looking into me and other gun owners with no criminal record, and over $1,000,000,000 has been spent to keep law abiding people in check.

Long live the Garand!

2007-02-20T23:53:00.000-05:00

A poem I found that I would like to share with everyone.

Do you wonder why that rifle
Is hanging in my den?
You know I rarely take it down
But I touch it now and then.
It’s rather slow and heavy
By standards of today
But not too many years ago
It swept the rest away.
It’s held its own in battles
Through snow, or rain, or sun
And I had one just like it,
This treasured old M-1.
It went ashore at Bougainville
In Nineteen Forty-Three.
It stormed the beach at Tarawa
Through a bullet-riddled sea.
Saipan knew its strident bark,
Kwajelein, its sting.
The rocky caves of Peleliu
Resounded with its ring.
It climbed the hill on Iwo
With men who wouldn’t stop
And left our nation’s banner
Flying on the top.
It poked its nose in Pusan,
Screamed an angry roar
And took the First Division
From Chosin Reservoir.
Well, time moves on
And things improve
With rifles and with men,
And that is why the two of us
Are sitting in my den.
But sometimes on a winter night,
While thinking of my Corps,
I know that if the bugle blew
We’d be a team once more.

Type 97 to be imported this summer?

2007-02-20T23:05:00.000-05:00

It's looking that way!

Some dealers have been talking about it on the CGN Forum and while it is not a sure thing yet it does sound promising!

The Type 97 is an export version of the PLA's current issue infantry rifle, the QBB-95, only chambered in 5.56x45mm. You can read more about them here and here. Supposedly, the rifle has already seen it's first action, with the Chinese contingent in Haiti.

It does look crude, but it's the only bullpup in town, and it's going to be priced to compete with other 5.56mm restricted class rifles, at hopefuly $600-$800 bucks. Half the price of an AR, and just maybe we can get a non-restricted version too...there is a longer barreled DMR version.

Great shooting on a shoestring budget

2007-02-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

From having worked as a mod/admin on a few shooting forums now, I've seen and answered all kinds of questions. A lot of em are from people like me. Folks who would like to have a couple of guns around that shoot lots of holes in targets, and not their wallets. I appreciate tough, working guns a lot, since I find them more valuable than their price tags might suggest.

So here's just a few of my picks for guns that give you the most bang for your buck. These first four are made by Norinco in China, and are available from Marstar.ca

Tokarev Type 54: This is a Chinese copy of the Russian TT-33 Tokarev sidearm from the second world war. It features an eight round magazine and uses the hot 7.62x25mm round. It's a very snappy little bullet, and a great penetrator...Which has it's pros and cons. Like most Russian firearms, it's rough around the edges, but runs like a tank. The pistol sells for $180 and the ammo goes for $225 per 2280 rounds. You literally can't beat that in centerfire ammo.

The great 1911A1, in all it's glory. Maybe the bluing and machining isn't as pretty as a US made gun, but you can buy one and slick it up to custom specs and still equal the price of buying a new Springfield, etc. 45 ACP might not be the cheapest round in the world to shoot, but it sure is one of the most effective. The Norinco 1911A1 retails for $325

Another classic, the M14 battle rifle. This has to be the best centerfire rifle deal in all of Canada, and won't be around forever. These rifles are very comparible in quality to USGI rifles, and the only shortcomings I've seen on them are cosmetic. People have been workin all kinds of mods into them, or just shooting them out of the box. They seem to average 1.5 to 2 inch groups, but I have seen one shoot 1 MOA consistently with a simple gas port shimming. Marstar is expecting another shipment soon, but be warned...rumour has it this one might be the last. The M14 goes for $399

Departing from military firearms now, here's a Mossberg 500 Persuader. The tried and true Mossberg 500 shotgun is just as reliable and smooth as a Remington 870 or Winchester 1300. The Persuader model features a 20" Imp. Cyc. chamber and an 8 round magazine tube. You can get one at S.I.R. Mailorder for $275

Henry 22lr Lever Action: Everyone needs a good 22! Whether it's for pest control, teaching a new shooter, mastering your own technique or just having a blast, rimfires rock. For the same price, you can find a Ruger 10/22, but you have to cycle the action of a Henry to appreciate how smooth it it. Aside from the slickness and the classic styling, the wood is unbelievable. They are using some awesome cuts of walnut on these stocks. The only drawback to it is a chunkyish plastic front sight, but it can be replaced. Even with it on, it's a great shooter to within reasonable limitations of a 22lr with iron sights. S.I.R. Mailorder has these for about $280

By no means the only deals out there, these are a few firearms I find you can really have a good time with and be happy to own. Honourable mentions would include an SKS, surplus Lee Enfields and Mosin Nagants, and Ruger Single Six revolvers...But hey, might as well save those for another installment!

Jim Zumbo retracts stupid comment

2007-02-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

If anyone here owns "scary looking assault rifles" I am sure they have been heckled for it. It's long been known that some hunters or shooters don't care for them, and probably wouldn't care when they are banned. They're duped into thinking the anti's are serious when they say they don't want to ban their guns.

Sometimes though, you see this prejudice in a place you really wouldn't expect it. Influential people in the gun lobby media. People who claim they support gun rights.

According to Jim Zumbo, if you own or use an AR-15, you're a terrorist...and he's dismayed that people hunt with them.

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/assault_rifles_.html

Here's the highlights:

"I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles. They tell me some companies are producing assault rifles that are tackdrivers."

Um, Jim...Maybe before you compare thousands and thousands of North American shooters to jihadis, you should actually SHOOT ONE. The AR-15 platform is very commonly sub MOA capable. And if someone wants to shoot varmints with them, why shouldn't he?

Because it would offend people!

"As hunters we don't need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons."

"I say game departments should ban them from the praries and woods"

Let me break it down for you, Jim.

You're an anti.

If a person is legally able to buy one, take it where he wishes, and shoot whatever he likes with it, who are you to call for bans on anything?

Jim has since apologized, which you can see here, but the damage has already been done. Much like you can't call a round back down the barrel, no matter how much you wish you hadn't fired it, I suppose you can't call words back down your mouth either.

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/i_was_wrong_big.html

His apology...too little, too late.

UPDATE:

Well what do you know...the Brady campaign has already started using that article in their fight against gun rights. It's been posted on their myspace account.

Good work, Jim.

FBI report on offenders attacking police

2007-02-17T22:10:00.000-05:00

Here's a really interesting report the FBI has prepared regarding interviews with offenders who shot or shot at police officers. It's got a lot of info in it some of us surely already know, and some that will and should surprise us.

Some of the not so surprising info is that they prefer handguns, and out of 50 offenders interviewed, 49 purchased their handguns illegally.

What surprised me was seeing that the offenders might just fight more effectively than the police. Regardless of what your firearm is, or it's statistics we might love to quote, I think this proves well that your mindset is what truly matters in a crisis.

You can find the whole article at:

http://www.forcesciencenews.com/home/detail.html?serial=62

Here are a few parts I clipped that stood out to me.

"Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of formal firearms training, primarily from the military. More than 80% "regularly practiced with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year," the study reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back yards and "street corners in known drug-trafficking areas."

"Overall, the offenders practiced more often than the officers they assaulted, and this "may have helped increase [their] marksmanship skills," the study says."

"Or as one of the offenders put it: "[W]e're not working with no marksmanship...We just putting it in your direction, you know...It doesn't matter...as long as it's gonna hit you...if it's up at your head or your chest, down at your legs, whatever...Once I squeze and you fall, then...if I want to execute you, then I could go from there."

"The offenders were of a different mind-set entirely. In fact, Davis said the study team "did not realize how cold blooded the younger generation of offender is. They have been exposed to killing after killing, they fully expect to get killed and they don't hesitate to shoot anybody, including a police officer."

Tons of good info here, especially for our law enforcement first responders.

Rebuttal of an Ottawa Citizen article

2007-02-17T00:53:00.000-05:00

I'm sure a lot of people have seen the series on gun control this week in the Ottawa Citizen, as I have...I know a non-biased report wouldn't exactly sing our praises and champion our cause, but I can't help feeling the need to go over this one...A real let down, especially since the writer actually consulted gun owners and made trips to the range.

I'll post the article here, with my comments being in bold.

Under Canada's gun laws, firearms enthusiasts such as Mr. Tomlinson occupy the narrowest niche of legal gun ownership. Today, there are only an estimated few thousand people licensed to own fully automatic guns, and every year their numbers get a bit smaller.

"We're dying off," said Mr. Tomlinson, a 73-year-old retired laboratory supervisor who now fights for the rights of gun owners as president of the National Firearms Association.

Although their numbers may be dwindling, prohibited owners still hold an impressive arsenal of fully automatic weapons. As of last November, there were more than 7,100 legally registered fully automatics in circulation across the country, according to gun registry data obtained by the Citizen.

The guns range in age from Second World War antiques and Tommy guns of Chicago gangland fame to the modern German machine-pistols and fully automatic versions of the famed Kalashnikov AK-47.

Their presence in the community unsettles some in law enforcement and keeps them under the regulatory microscope. With each round of revisions to Canada's gun control regime, the legal usage of automatic weapons has been curbed; their owners worry that the government will move to take their guns away altogether, as Australia did in 1996.

It isn't that the Govt. might move to take them away, so much as that they already have moved to do it. The Liberals have pleged a ban on all semi automatics, which would impact over 700,000 privately owned firearms. Would they really not grab these ones as well?

But some collectors are fighting back and launching legal challenges to win back the right to shoot the guns on approved ranges.

Why shouldn't their owners have this right? If someone wished to use one improperly, would he drive out to the shooting range and try it surrounded by armed people? If this isn't slowly doing away with them, what is it?

The Canadian prohibition on fully automatic weapons came into force in 1978, but rather than confiscate the guns outright, the government granted "grandfathered" status to anyone who legally owned them at the time.

Today, the youngest legal owner of these firearms would be 47 years old. They are grandfathers who are grandfathered, geezers with guns. As the older members of the group die off, the number of prohibited guns in circulation shrinks. If owners want to get rid of their guns, they can sell or trade them only to other grandfathered owners. Otherwise, they must decommission them or turn them in to police for destruction. If the owners die, most prohibited guns must be decommissioned or destroyed. (Under certain conditions, some handguns can be passed on to relatives.)

Don't forget that since they have been banned from use, lots of people have been deactivating them and selling them.

"People who are 47 or older have the possibility of being first-class citizens, and all the rest of the people are second-class citizens based on age," said Mr. Tomlinson. "Ten or 15 years from now, it's going to be a very different equation."

After the 1989 massacre at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Kim Campbell's Progressive Conservative government expanded the list of prohibited guns by adding fully automatics that had been converted into semi-automatics. Under Jean Chretien, the Liberals went even further in 1995, prohibiting a list of semi-automatic rifles and other guns that some referred to as "assault weapons."

So it USED to be a machine gun, but now it has been converted to semi automatic. Since it is limited to five rounds anyway, why was a ban neccessary there, except to drum up votes from ignorant or misinformed people. Also, I would like to point out that the rifle used by the Polytechnique shooter was neither fully automatic nor semi automatic. In an attempt to convert a semi to full auto, he wrecked it and turned it into a bolt action repeater. Meaning he had to reload after every shot fired.

Again, both revisions stopped short of confiscating guns outright. The updates to the law instead created new classes of grandfathered owners and introduced a tangle of sometimes-confusing regulations describing who can own what.

These guns make up a small and declining segment of Canada's firearms inventory. Of the seven million legally registered guns in circulation, only about three per cent are classed as prohibited. Most of these -- 90 per cent -- are handguns with short barrels or prohibited calibres.

10 percent of three percent? What does that make?

The really serious stuff -- the machine-guns and semi-automatic rifles that the government considered dangerous enough to ban by name -- today number more than 21,000. About three-quarters of these are owned by individuals. They include the bulky MG42 machine-guns used by German troops in the Second World War, the Steyr AUG carried by British special forces, and a long list of AK-47s made under different names in a dozen countries. The FN FAL rifle issued to Canadian troops through the Cold War era is another favourite of collectors. There are more than 3,000 of these currently registered.

21,000? But I thought there was only 7,100 in circulation? Oh thats right, these AK-47s and MG-42s are semi automatics anyway! So how is a semi automatic AK-47 any different from a restricted class semi automatic rifle? They are the same length, and they are both limited to 5 round magazines by law. Answer? They are not different at all

Perhaps the most notorious members of the prohibited list are the Uzis. Mr. Tomlinson is one of a small group of Canadians who own the stubby little submachine-guns popularized by Israeli troops during the Six Day War in 1967.

The Uzi is light, easy to hide, and capable of firing its 9-mm ammunition at a pace of 900 rounds per minute. It got its biggest plug in 1981, in an iconic photograph of a U.S. Secret Service agent holding one aloft during the attempted assassination of then-president Ronald Reagan.

Since then, it has been a staple of Hollywood movies and gangster culture. An Uzi also figured, infamously, in a 1984 shooting rampage at a San Diego-area McDonald's.

Today, there are 287 Uzis registered in Canada that are either fully automatic or have been converted to semi-automatic. Forty of them are listed in central Toronto. Two Uzi submachine-guns were reported stolen in 2005: one from a museum on Vancouver Island, another from an individual in the Kingston area.

Even though the numbers of prohibited firearms such as the Uzi are continually dropping, the potential for them to fall into the wrong hands concerns the Canadian Police Association.

"We come across those types of weapons very frequently when we're executing search warrants for drugs," said Tom Stamatakis, a Vancouver police officer and CPA vice-president.

Exotic military-style guns are particularly common in Vancouver's booming drug industry, he said. "These are the types of weapons they want to use. It becomes a bit of a status symbol for them. It's sexy, similar to what they're seeing in movies."

But gun enthusiasts argue that if criminals are getting these kinds of guns, they're doing it illegally. In B.C., police acknowledge a heavy guns-for-drugs trade in which Canadian marijuana producers exchange the drug for illegal weapons from the U.S.

In pleading their case, they have no stats on how many of these prohibited firearms have been taken from legal owners. What does that tell you? Does anyone really think it is hard to come by one if you are smuggling drugs into or out of the US? Cocaine and heroin are banned, both arrive here by the ton daily. Maybe the gangsters are a much bigger issue than the guns?

Gun owners say that prohibitions on law-abiding gun owners have no effect on the illegal trade.

"You're targeting a class of law-abiding people and cracking down on them when they're not the problem," said Tom Opgenorth, an Edmonton software developer who owns two prohibited guns.

"The laws didn't do anything to prevent these gangs from getting hold of them and using them," said Mr. Opgenorth.

John Evers, a Southern Ontario businessman who is as passionate about shooting as he is about growing orchids, said the government is wasting its resources by prohibiting guns that "look mean" as a way to control crime.

"If the firearm is so inherently evil that it causes people to commit crimes, it would be happening now," he said. "It doesn't, because the people who have their licence are so stringently checked and care so much about their sport they wouldn't allow that to happen."

Mr. Evers' collection of prohibited guns includes a Chinese AK-47 copy and an FN FAL, among others. Although they cannot be legally fired, even on a range, Mr. Evers said he still gets pleasure from them.

"It's the engineering, the history, the science that's involved," he said. "Some people collect baseball cards. They get pleasure from looking at their cards, not playing baseball."

But Mr. Evers is challenging the rules that keep him from taking his prohibited guns to the shooting range. He and several other gun owners have launched legal action over restrictions on the transportation of prohibited firearms other than pistols.

Since 2005, guns such as the Uzi or the AK-47 could be taken to gun shows or gunsmiths, but not to a range. That means there is nowhere they can be legally fired.

Mr. Evers said he believes the new restrictions were a reaction to the 2005 incident in Mayerthorpe, Alta., in which four RCMP officers were shot dead with an unregistered, prohibited rifle.

In Alberta, Mr. Tomlinson's organization is preparing its own legal challenge of the rules. He said he hopes to one day hold machine-gun shoots in the province -- the kind he used to organize twice a year before they were outlawed.

"They were very entertaining events," he said. "Nobody ever got hurt, and people learned about military history."

In one popular demonstration at the shoots, Mr. Tomlinson said, he would match up his submachine-guns against non-restricted shotguns in close-range target contests. The results, he said, dispel some myths about automatic weapons.

"The shotgun was most effective versus the submachine-gun," he said. "The full-auto finished dead last, with a worse percentage of hits."

The military purpose of full automatic fire is to make sure the enemy has his head down, not to kill them en masse. If you think about it, fully automatic fire means you run through your ammo a hell of a lot faster, and you end up with a lot more recoil. No matter what Hollywood or video games insist on, you cannot just mow people down. Watch Youtube videos of our troops fighting in Afghanistan or US soldiers in Iraq...they are firing in semi automatic mode.

Mr. Tomlinson's point is that the gun requiring only a basic firearms licence to buy outperformed the exotic weapon that only a small group can legally own.

But with prohibited rifles and machine-guns being illegal for hunting and shooting, Mr. Stamatakis, of the police association, said he doesn't think the interest of collectors is enough reason to keep the guns in circulation.

"There is an obligation to consider what's best for the public at large versus trying to appease the small number of collectors," he said, adding that he would like to see fully automatics confiscated altogether.

"To the police officer on the front lines dealing with people using those weapons while they're committing other offences -- they shouldn't be out there at all."

Always good to have a chairborne suit telling us what the people on the pointed end of the spear think. It's not like he could have a political agenda, could he now? Once again, no facts, figures or proof needed, just insinuation that our LEO's encounter legally owned machine guns on the street. There is no proof given because said proof does not exist.

He more or less comes straight out and admits that the ban on shooting them is meant to kill the prohibited class of firearms at the same time.

The Big Debut!

2007-02-17T00:44:00.000-05:00

Hi All!

Well, looks like I have the newest blog in Canada...for all of ten seconds anyway! Grab a seat, have a coffee and I hope ya like it!

Or...at least...I hope someone sees it...