Who's the market for this?

Just returned from running errands at lunch.

My trek put me in the vicinity of one of the local FLG's in the area. While looking around, I noticed this sitting on one of the display cases. So fresh, they hadn't even put it under the glass yet.

Let me preface the rest of what I am about to say with this: I think Ruger builds some fine handguns. I don't own any, but I've shot several different models over the years and I have been universally convinced that they are of high quality, with good materials and have a tendency to be somewhat overbuilt for their respective caliber. They are a high value firearm, getting a lot of gun for the money. Their autoloaders have, in my opinion, been rather dowdy in appearance, but that has never detracted from their performance. Their revolvers are simply outstanding, with overbuilt frames and nice finishes and they look pretty nice as well, whether in the Blackhawk or Redhawk series.

Now, I'm of the opinion that guns don't necessarily need to be built out of steel and wood to be considered appropriate for dispensing lead projectiles. I'm also one who doesn't jump up and down about not having a 3 1/2# trigger and too much take-up in my SA type pistols. I don't mind double-action triggers, even in plastic fantastic semi-autos. Even though I know about the Holy Browning Doctrine of the 1911, I just don't think those kinds of things matter at all when it comes to actually shooting correctly, or whether the gun fits your hands correctly, or if there is an issue of having the strength to handle the gun's chambering.

In short, I'm a gunny equivalent of the Liberal. I don't care what kind of gun it is, or who made it, or if it's ugly as sin. Plastic? Fine, I say, I shoot my G19 and I like it. Double-action lockwork? I love my 92FS! Big, chunky frames? Again, as long as I can reach the trigger, I'm usually happy. Spongy DA feel? I have a Swiss AT-380M that has a stacking trigger with about a 15 pound let-off, no kidding! Again, if it doesn't feel like sandpaper, I can usually hack it out. All I typically care about is that it works, and bad ergonomics, to some degree, can be dealt with.

Now, one can definitely make arguments about what that definition entails, and I'd have no problem with that, except that one must expect that each individual has differing
needs, and that leads to different approaches to designs that may appeal to some and not others.
The SR9, however, may have hit a new low with me.

To be clear, I didn't shoot the damn thing, and there's a wealth of feedback that any gun will give you when you do. It's likely that doing so will weigh heavily on one's opinion of how the gun resonates with them, so I can't be certain about my initial handling, but it wasn't good. The feel of the gun tells me that it's too long in the grip, with a pronounced point along the backstrap, and longish reach to get my fingers to the front strap. The girth of the frame is fine. Metal magazines tend to keep that dimension more slender, and they hold 17 rounds of 9mm. The slide is nicely contoured, and has a good look to it, in my opinion. Polymer frame (shocker, I know) that actually compliments the look instead of killing it (Glock, XD, HK - check your office). It even has a manual safety, for round-chambered carry, though the actuation lever is small and hard to manipulate, I think.

The trigger. The single most important interface between the user and the gun, and one that you can't afford to screw up too badly, or you'll never get people to shoot it. It was awful. In a way that is hard to describe, kind-of-awful. But I'll do it anyway.

It was gritty, bouncy, creepy, vague, heavy and had virtually no feedback with about 1/4" worth of travel, maybe up to 3/8", before it broke. When it did break, the overtravel to bottom out the stroke seemed to take up an additional inch! The trigger reset (This is a traditional DA action) was horrid! It didn't seem to want to reset at all, until almost completely released from contact with the trigger finger, and when it did, the trigger kicked back at you, with a big, buzzing feel and noise. Not good for reacquiring a good grip and follow-up shots. Just ridiculous. Comparing it to the box-stock G21 I handled along side it made the Glock trigger seem both smooth and crisp. That is the level of damnable praise I am casting here. I put it down after pulling the trigger no more than three times and pronounced the gun DOA. I doubt they will sell any after the initial novelty wears off.

Later I saw the manager doing the same drill with precisely the same reaction that I had.

Ick.

More Lamestream Media

Can't have a story about Africa without pointing fingers at the US, since, ya know, we're the ones responsible for all of their social ills.

They just can't resist with the hit pieces, attempting to make it look like the US is the one doing the supplying, to wit:

"The report, titled "Africa's Missing Billions," was released as part of a campaign at the United Nations for stricter controls on the global trade in small arms and light weapons. The U.N. General Assembly has begun hearing proposals for a new treaty regulating the arms trade, a process that only the United States , by far the world's leading arms dealer, voted last year to oppose.

Gun-control opponents, led by the National Rifle Association , worry that a treaty would infringe on private gun ownership. Oxfam and other advocates have called for a framework that restricts only sales of arms that are likely to be used in conflicts or to violate international law.

African nations broadly favor stiffer controls on small arms sales. The most commonly used weapon in African conflicts is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, 95 percent of which come from outside the continent, according to the report."

First order of business by journalists everywhere in these hit pieces is in vilifying the US and its gun-owning populace, by always mentioning the NRA.

I also have to wonder, were we really the only ones who opposed this measure? I'm somehow doubting that this is the case. Of the ambassodors who were present, it's possible that this was true, but who were the countries being represented at the UN summit? Were their country's citizen's views in line with those being pushed by their respective ambassador?

And who is the usual suspect with the supply of these Kalashnikovs (that's the AK-47 for those of you who don't know the difference)? Cluebat to those who don't know anything about this type of thing - the damned thing was designed and built by the Soviet Union. They gave the fuckers away, free of charge, during the Cold War years, to any would-be dictator who wanted them, so long as said dictator would tow the Red Party line and welcome the Marxist Doctrine.

What has followed is exactly what one would expect from those conditions, and I'm not arguing who is right and wrong about such grave matters as genocide and ethnic cleansing, past or present, but at least get the facts square here. The US may indeed lead the world in small arms production (we do NOW, anyway) but I'd wager that we aren't shipping much of it overseas, and that which we do is probably to another legitimate government's military that has paid for it.

Truth be told, one of the few things left that the Russians can still trade in is military hardware, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of it is surplus stuff that's been sitting around for 40 years in a warehouse in Siberia, boosted by the regimental Colonel to pay for his newly constructed dacha by Lake Baikal. Which scenario sounds more reasonable?

And for anyone who thinks that it takes a western, first-world country to make assault rifles, it doesn't. Kids in remote villages in the remotest sections of the world, with little-to-no formal education can build these things, and do it with terrific reliability.

Go see.

More "free" shit from the Gummint

So, fresh off her dissappointing attempt at vote buying, the anti-Christ wants to set up every American with a 401(k) account.

Great, I say. The more we can get people to invest in their futures the better. Except that this little scheme seems to smell, once the thin outer layer of skin is peeled away to reveal the decomposing flesh underneath, since these accounts are apparently to be initiated with $1,000 each, and have a matching sum per year "invested" by the government into each account, totaling (according to the article, quoting the good Senator's numbers) $20-25 billion per year.

These funds will be appropriated to "those who don't have enough savings for retirement," by way of stealing them directly from "estates" (best to keep it fuzzy here by identifying inanimate objects to rape instead of, ya know, people) worth more than $7 million dollars, or so she says. I guess if you are rich, it's A-OK to steal from you, since wealth envy is something that appeals to most people who aren't wealthy.

I feel sorry for those who just don't get what's happening here. Really. This isn't Robin Hood we're talking about here, this is real life, and the rich in this country aren't Prince John, supposedly stealing from the poor peasants (onerous taxes, actually, by the ruling class - sorta like the politicians) for his own selfish gain. Hillary is dangerous, and to a degree that makes her husband look like a champion for individual liberty by comparison.

Scary shit, these days.

Sycophants, one and all

Oh god. More breathless admiration for one of the poster boys for Communism, and the leftists are tripping over other leftists in a clusterfuck fury about who can felate his remains quicker.


The irony is, of course, that Che is revered and regarded as some sort of freedom fighter and political hero. For some, perspective makes all the difference, and that's what they see, just one picture. If the other side of sphere gets illuminated, just as the Earth rotates and brings its rays to bear on each continent, another image emerges. Che was a murderer, and a ruthless one, and all for the ponzi political rantings of Marx.

Fucker got what he deserved.

Hand over the guns, you citizens can't be trusted...

...just as the government can't be trusted with them, either. Seems one of "The Only Ones" has gone and shot up some folks in Wisconsin. Oh, he was "off duty" at the time, so says the article. Dipshits.

Wonder what the Brady Campaign has to say about this? I'm sure the retard has absolutely nothing to say, other than his usual bloviating and misdirected rantings.

Question; what does one do in this situation? Return fire? If so, look for the best lawyer money can buy, I suppose.

Future Losers, Part II

So, some time ago I posted something about my distaste for a certain commercial on the TeeVee that the notoriously leftist AARP had pasted to the airwaves, in an effort to ensnare grandparents everywhere into some sort of guilt-trip about who best to vote for, by way of blatantly appealing to their emotions with children supposedly asking "serious" questions about their futures, and insinuating that, somehow, it's all currently fucked-up, presumably because of Eeevil-Ruthuglicans and their leader, George W. Bush.


It seems the Geriatric Club is up to no good again.


I'm doing a rollback on their party mascot amalgam, BTW. Simply the stupidest piece of dumbassery I've seen in quite a while, a fore-section of the pachyderm and the flying backside of the ass is a stretch in trying to avoid pointing fingers directly. News flash on this one; Stop, it's not working!

The gist of their whining is that there are issues that are too important to ignore, and they're demanding action by declaring that, "if they (again, the wittle kiddies) could vote, these "Future Champions" would vote for the candidate who will fix health care, protect Social Security and pensions," as if some politician could actually do that.

Time for the Clue Bat to get taken out of the closet. Politicians are born and bred liars. They will promise you anything and everything you want, so long as you promise to vote for them. When they're in office, they'll take whatever it is that they want, and not return anything tangible to you, unless you don't have anything to begin with, in which case, they know you'll surely vote for them again.

If it's all, "way too important," as you yobs keep harping about, then here's my advice; stay in school, grow a brain and figure out what those answers are, for yourselves, instead of expecting the government to come to your rescue.

Idiots.

The Greatest

Geb sets a new world record for the marathon.

I don't think most people realize what it takes to accomplish this kind of thing.

By my calculations, that's right at 4:45 per mile, for 26 uninterupted miles with most of an extra lap of a standard track thrown in at the end. That's a pace that would cause most people's hearts to go into cardiac arrest if they attempted to run that fast for more than about 2 or 3 minutes, if they could sustain it at all. No kidding. At my best, at age 18, I could have kept up with him for about 4 miles of that race. Then I'd be toast.

Geb is the former WR holder at both the 5,000 and 10,000M on the track, resetting his own records in each, several times during the 90's, and yanking the record at 5K down so far at one point that many thought it, at the time, to be almost unreachable by any other human. That he lowered that time, to 12:44, by an almost 11 full seconds, put him in an entirely new territory. He had covered the distance faster than anyone else by about one second for each lap of the race; completely unheard of in the distance fraternity. These standards are usually lowered by a few tenths or, at most a second, perhaps two, at time. To drop it by 11 is something that hadn't happened in decades. He would later break his own record, resetting it to 12:41.

That race, ink still wet in the record book, was lowered, this time from Daniel Komen, of Kenya, who was tearing up the European track for a couple of years at the time, setting several of his own records, and the only man to ever break the 8:oo minute/2-Mile barrier. That record took Haile by surprise, I think, and he then made a concerted effort to take back both records come the '98 season, in both the 5 and 10, with Paul Tergat, also of Kenya, being the other record breaker at the 10. Needless to say, he accomplished both of these feats, within 13 days of each other. Simply amazing.

His young countryman, Kenenisa Bekele, has since broken all of Geb's track records, and at the age of only 25, seems poised to lower those standards even further. I'll be anxiously waiting to see all of his racing for the next several years.

Some have called Geb, at 34, passed his prime and washed up. He had a rather disappointing show at Athens, and was nursing a bit of an injury, but he went out to the track and ran a respectable race nonetheless, finishing fifth. But, if anyone who knows anything about running can tell you, his serious marathoning is just NOW starting to ramp up. I think he has several good years of making a crack at the 2:03 barrier, if he can keep injury-free, and maitain a restrictive race schedule that focuses on quality rather than quantity. With several world best and records in the 10 mile, One-Hour run and Half-marathon (in UNDER ONE HOUR, JEEZIS!, I'm thinking that we're in for some serious performances in the near future.

I wish him well.