National Museum of Naval Aviation

On our trip to see my wife's family this week, we stopped to see the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Short version? If you are in the area, GO.

We pulled up to the gate, and since it is an active military base, there were M.P.'s at the gate, and no firearms signs. When I got to the gate, I showed my badge, and asked if they had a storage box for handguns. The MP advised that they didn't, and they didn't allow firearms on base, even though I was a cop. Seeing my badge was a Louisiana issue, he asked where I lived. I told him, and he commented that his wife was from Baton Rouge.  He then sighed and handed me a pass. "Look, man, I appreciate your honesty. Leave it locked in the car, and enjoy the museum. "

Good guy, that MP.

Anyway, the museum has hundreds of planes, representing the span of the entire history of flight in the US Navy. It is an amazing museum, and to truly experience it, one should plan at least 6 hours. We were there for 3, and didn't see an entire hangar.

Trust me, this one is worth going to.

Belts

The Other Ryan at www.tslrf.blogspot.com has a post up about belts and holsters. I have been following his blog for a while, because while I have never met him, he lives in roughly the same geographical region as I do, so his posts about choices of gear and specific survival skills are relevant to me due to their applicability to my geographical location. (I really need to add him to my side bar)

Anyway, I have a dual need for gear. What is applicable for duty use, even in a moderately plain-clothes assignment is widely different than what I need during my personal time, when I tend to carry smaller, lighter firearms and about 15 pounds less gear. I will not get into weapons, holsters or other gear in this post. This post is about belts.

With the rare exception of when I wear a true duty belt or a dress belt for court, I wear one belt. Being a leatherworker, I am partial to, well, leather. Picking a sturdy piece of vegetable tanned leather is fairly easy, these days, as Tandy Leather makes belt blanks, and uses high-quality hides. They can be had for about 12 dollars at Hobby Lobby. They come with snaps for adding a buckle, but I usually cut the snaps off and stitch a buckle on permanantly. The belts come in lengths up to 48 inches, so it's easy to get one big enough, and trim to length. These belt blanks are thick, and are about 1 and 1/2 inches in height. Now, leather breaks down over time, so it will need to be replaced every 4 years or so (mine is approaching this mark, so I need to get another one). Still, for 12 bucks, that's only 3 dollars a year.

I would literally trust this belt to hold me up, hanging off the side of a mountain, and I trust it to keep my firearm tight to my side on duty.

There are a lot of options for belts out there, but a full-grain, vegetable-tanned leather belt has a lot to recommend it. For under 20 bucks, you can have one that lasts for years with very little work to make it what you want.

Just my 2 cents.

The best Easter basket

I was remembering back today to my time spent in Florida. Our fist easter there, I was working as a store manager for a Big Lots, and I had to work on Easter. My wife wanted to go spend Easter with her family, a few hours away,  and I had to stay behind. Her Mom, Ginny,  decided to make me an Easter basket, so that Easter didn't such quite so much for me. In said Easter basket was: a six-pack of Guinness, 2 Acid Blondie cigars, a DVD of Rocky Balboa, and a pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

That was one awesome Easter basket. This memory bears no relation to anything going on in my life, but I was just thinking about it today, and wanted to let ya'll know how great of an Easter basket I once got.

Ginny hit it out of the park with that one.

Leather, again.

Decided I needed an IWB holster for my Kahr. I like how it turned out.

Memorial Day Range

So, I went to a private range with my friend today, and we shot a BUNCH. Part of that was shooting 140 rounds of 9mm through my new Khar. Fisrt, the gun shot great, with no failures of any kind, even when I intentionally limp-wristed it, trying to induce a stoppage. I am very pleased with this gun's accuracy and reliability so far. Secondly, the bullets I shot were some new handloads. The bullets worked great, were powerful enough to reliably cycle the slide, but not punishing. As the pics attest, HS-6 powder is a bit on the dirty side. However, the load was great in function, and shooting these loads just means that I will be more diligent about cleaning my gun upon return from shooting.

I'm pretty happy with my new gun, And new 9mm loads!

When reloading...

(Or doing anything that has the potential to go boom) if something looks wrong, stop and try to figure out what the problem is. Don't do the same thing 9 more times, expecting everything to magically get better.

After reassessing how my bullet seater die was set, the other 40 turned out like they should.

Reloading

Well, I've lubed bullets, prepared and reprised brass, expanded throats, got powder, settled on a load, set up my powder measure and scale, and set my press with my bullet seater die. I've got calipers set and my COAL should be right.

We are going to have a family day today, just driving and sight seeing, but tomorrow I'll get to the rat-killing of making some bullets.

Cleanin'

I just spent two hours cleaning out my shed and throwing crap away. The back of my pickup is full of stuff to go to the dump, but my reloading bench is set up now, and since my brother found powder and bought a few extra pounds for me (thanks, Matt!), I plan on stuffing a couple hundred 9mm rounds this weekend.

Me and my buddy Greg are going shooting on Memorial Day,  and I need ammo.

Khar CW9

I have been looking for a concealable 9mm single stack since my brother bought a Ruger LC9 about 2 years ago. I shot his, and I fell in love. While slightly too big to be considered a true pocket gun, the Ruger shot well, had manageable recoil, was accurate,  and fit the hand well. I have been green with envy, and while the "gun funds" have gone to other things over the past several years, I have had in the back of my mind that a single stack 9mm would be my next firearm purchase.

My wife told me the other day that the way our finances have worked out, my next paycheck would have no bills coming from it. As I always do when she mentions excess money, I jokingly asked if I could buy a gun. She thought for a second, and said "Yeah. We could afford that, I think." We discussed it further, and settled on a reasonable dollar amount,  and yesterday I went over to my LGS thinking about what an awesome wife I have.

I looked through the offerings on display, and decided against the LC9,  primarily because I am left handed, and it has a right hand only safety, which does nothing but needlessly complicate a carry gun for me. I looked at a S&W Shield and Bodyguard, but the Bodyguard was in .380, and the shield was right outside the upper limits of my budget. I then saw the Kahr CW40 in the display,  at about 30 bucks less than I was planning to spend. I asked how often he got them in in 9mm, and he reached under the counter.
"Last one in the store, but I get a few in every week."

"What's your feelings on it?"

He smiled, reached into his front pocket, and pulled a CW9 in a well-worn holster out.

"Got a few thousand rounds through this one. I trust it."

At that point, I called my wife and told her that I was about to buy a gun.  She told me to wait, do some research, rent one and shoot it tomorrow, and then decide.

Smart girl. It was hard to walk away, but when I came back today, I knew from reading around that many don't like the trigger, because it has a very long pull, and that the magazines have sharp lips.

Both of these things are true. The mag lips are sharp, making loading a bit of a trial. The trigger pull is long, too. But it's smooth. I carry a S&W j-frame, so I am no stranger to a long, smooth trigger pull, with no reset. In fact, the CW9, with it's long trigger pull and no manual safety is about the most revolver-ist semi-auto I've ever shot. It's like hanging out with an old friend.

At the range, I shot 2 mags for accuracy, and was satisfied with the 2 inch groups at 10 yards. After that, I shot about 40 rounds doing everything I could to make it jam. It wouldn't. Limp wristing, sloppy grip, weak hand shooting.... This gun just kept on loading and shooting the bullets.

So I bought it.

And I like it. The manufacturer says to shoot 200 rounds to break it in, and I will do that. But regardless, I am sold on this Kahr.

Boots

I love a good pair of cowboy boots. You can dress up with 'em, you can dress down with 'em. They are versatile and comfortable. The last pair I had I wore almost every day for 2 years,  and they developed an odor. Then their soles melted. And because they were a bonded sole, I couldn't get them repaired.

But my wife called me today, about a half hour before I got off work and said that they had Justin Boots on sale at Tractor Supply. I swung by after work to see what they had. A pair of Justins,  in my size, for $80? It was a no- brainer. They are a $180 pair of boots, and they have by-god leather soles, meaning I can get them re-soled in a few years when they wear out.

SCORE!