I’m so excited. I got my HCP in the mail today. It wasn’t a quick process (not that I was exactly pushing), but it wasn’t too bad either. I took the HCP class August 5th; (big delay) submitted my application October 6; got fingerprinted Oct 14; and received my HCP today November 20. I’d been waiting for this before ordering holsters. I didn’t want to jump the gun (okay, bad pun).
I was a bit surprised to see this in the Commercial Appeal, but it’s quite good. This is probably one of the most positive articles on CCW I’ve ever read in a publication that didn’t specialize in the subject or at least firearms in general. Take a look:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5155161,00.html
Okay, sarcasm mode off. I just saw this on the news.
http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5569718
Didn’t the bad guy know that schools are gun free zones. Or maybe he knew that made for a place law abiding citizens wouldn’t be able to protect themselves.
We finally went an tested out that P-22 at RangeUSA today. It ran like a top on generic .22lr. We put 200 rounds through it without any issues. It’s my first experience with a .22 pistol and it gave me a few surprises. First, as this particular pistol is so light it had more recoil than I expected (not that it really had any). Second, I apparently flinch. I started out with the Makarov and was doing quite well with it before switching to the .22 and my groups simply weren’t groups. They were all over the place, and I don’t believe it’s the pistol. Lots of fun for cheap, though. Can’t wait to give it another run!
We went to the charity machine gun shoot at Range USA yesterday. Excuse the pun, but it was a blast. We took the opportunity to try out the Thompson sub-machine gun (tommy gun), M3 grease gun, and MP5k. I really had no idea what to expect out of the tommy gun or grease gun. The tommy gun was a real sweetheart. It really fit me well and felt great. The rate of fire was surprisingly high. I’d love to have one (or a sem-auto clone). The grease gun was fun. It’s rate of fire was extremely slow. I know I can pull the trigger much faster than it ran in full-auto, but it still was cool. Such a piece of history is always an experience to remember. Then there was the MP5k. That was fun. Nothing to write home about. It has a really high rate of fire, and is pretty comfortable. If I can get the money together soon enough, maybe I can put together a clone. I can’t wait for next year.
[update 10/1/2006]
Found a Commerical Appeal article about the shoot. When we were there I saw two reporters (one from Commercial Appeal and the other I don’t know), so I thought to look for this today.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5015417,00.html
Something that turns out to be legal in TN (with an HCP) is open carry. This was not the case back in OK. I’ve followed some discussion on this over on PDO and a new site opencarry.org. A general consensus tends to be that open carry is probably not going to get you hassled unless you are in Memphis. Well, yesterday, in a Starbucks of all places, I was a couple of places behind a guy open carrying. I saw no badge and basically nobody even batted an eye. Pretty cool. I suspect most people didn’t even notice, but at the minimum, the people at the counter looked at it (double take motion of the eyes). Maybe the biggest obstacle is getting up the courage to give it a try.
We took the Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit (HCP) class today. It was lots of fun, thanks to Phil and Silvino. I will say that an 8 hour course is kinda long. At least it’s bearable. Tennessee really does need to update it’s mandantory video. On top of it just being plain horrible, it’s got some inaccuracies in it due to changes in recommended tactics AND TN law. Shinta and I both qualified with Bulgarian Makarovs. It was nice to formally learn some shooting techniques. I finally got validation on some of my theories of pistol shooting. So, now I’ve got 6 months to get my name fixed on my drivers license and get my HCP application in. I also need to get my Makarov hard chromed for sweat protection.
As a side note, the Mesko ammo we tried felt great. Plenty snappy and accurate enough at all the ranges we engaged the targets. I should order plenty more before Aim Surplus sells out.
As a second side note, I finally understand the complaints people have about the Makarov sights. Having always shot outdoors I thought they were plenty (not great, but good enough). In the dim indoor range light, I finally understand the complaint. I need some bright orange paint for the front sight blade.
I haven’t posted in quite a while and a lot has happened. I don’t know where to start and I’m sure I’ll forget something, so here goes:
We’ve continued our restaurant tasting. Since the last update we’ve been to Erling Jensen’s, Ruby Tuesday’s, Lulu Grille, and Bhan Thai (twice). We went to Eriling Jensen’s in celebration of my birthday and getting a job. The full-fledged review is where to find the detail (not written yet), but it’s quite probably one of the best restaurants in Memphis. Bhan Thai has the best Thai food we’ve had in Memphis (Chao Praya being a close second). Ruby Tuesday’s has buffalo burgers. I’ve been missing my buffalo fix and I’m finally finding some here. Incidentally, I found out about Erling Jensen’s while looking for buffalo meat here. We went to Lulu Grille today for lunch (more buffalo burgers). And since we’re on the topic of food, I should mention that the little cafeteria at work has an excellent tasting Italian sub sandwich for CHEAP.
Speaking of work, I’ve completed my first three weeks. My luck seems to be holding up not only in finding a job so quickly, but also finding a good one. I really enjoy it there. The people are friendly, and there doesn’t seem to be the pervasive flow of people jumping ship you find in some companies. To me, that’s a good sign, and I’m excited to see how this goes. That reminds me to complain about taxes. My god I hate taxes. I was looking at my paystub and realizing that I’ve now paid more in taxes from this new job than I use to even get paid over the same period of time. And we don’t have state income taxes, that’s all federal.
Also, I don’t think this has happened since my last post, but I seem to have neglected it. I finally got to go shooting again. We went to RangeUSA for their Carbine night with the Krinkov. Those frangible rounds they require weren’t 100% in feeding, but they were also so light that accuracy is probably pretty bad out my 1/7″ barrel. At the cost ($0.35/rd) I’m sure I’ll probably go again out of necessity, but it won’t be too often. I’ve got some more Makarov ammo coming in, though. The drought on 9x18mm seems to have been helped a bit. I’m gonna need it for the HCP (aka CCW in most places) class coming up.
No new movies yet. Kind of surprising, considering how many I usually see. I rented Clerks and Pirates of the Carribean so that we’ll see them before their sequels. Miami Vice is out this weekend, so maybe that one. Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis have started up again (and I completely forgot). We spent last night catching up. Gonna be good new seasons.
Memphis has had it’s 100th murder of the year. Actually, by now it’s probably beyond that, but last week I saw it on the news. Washington DC is complaining about their 18 or so murders, but they don’t have a clue. Did I mention the HCP class? Also, pretty freaky, some dude went on a stabbing spree at a grocery store. He was stopped by a dude with a pistol (not a shot fired). The news mostly skipped that little fact. That HCP is sounding even better. Also, in unrelated news, Todd Bailey (Special Weapons) posted pics of his upcoming MWS that he’s been working on for a couple years. I like it. I want it. We’ll see how long it takes for it to really be available. The SP-10 .40 caliber he said would be ready “in two weeks” (4 months ago) aren’t ready yet. Maybe I’ll be able to afford them when they come around, I just need to find an FFL I like.
I managed to sell off the SP-10 today. Took it to the big Wanenmacher show in Tulsa. Sold it to a class 3 guy. Hopefully that means he’ll be able to make it run better than I did. It takes a long time to walk all the tables. The A/C wasn’t working so it was pretty hot too. I think this is the first time I’ve gone there and came away with more money than I started, so I guess it was a good show.
Let’s see, what all did I see? I saw a PS-90 for $3500. It was the only one I saw at the show, and I bet it goes home with the dealer at that price. I only saw 2 FN Five-seveN’s (at the same booth). Last show there were tons of them. Cheap 7.62x39mm was non-existant. Only cases I saw were Winchester (didn’t even bother with looking at the price). I overheard another guy talking about them being $200 a case. I overheard a lot of conversations where people were complaining about not finding any 7.62x39mm. I saw no 5.45x39mm at all. 9mm was cheap and plentiful (even brass cased). 5.56x45mm was available at about $130/case. Interesting to see the changes that happen in supply from show to show.
These guys are great. I hope I have as much fun as they do in retirement. They decided to test out the myth about loaded mags, like one might wear in a chest pouch, being used as a poor man’s body armor. Interesting, but not too surprising result. Talk about myth busted.
Check it out: http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot9.htm
