Thursday, January 26, 2012

Family Fun

So the other night I come home from school. It's around 7:30pm and dark outside. It is snowing. As I pull up to the house I see my daughter outside with the biggest grin on her face. Now I have to be honest and say that my first instinct is to be annoyed. Why is she outside in the dark so close to bed time...while it is snowing...with her coat unzipped...while it is snow, oh. That's when I said to myself, so what. It's the first decent snow of the year, let her play in it for a little bit. I did have her zip up her coat though. I went inside and my son sees me and asks who are you talking to? I tell him his sister and he asks where is she? I said outside so he gets this concerned look on his face and asks "Can I go out too?" Sure I say, as long as you put on your boots and coat. We get him all buttoned up and ready to go out. By this time my daughter has started work on a snowman and wants everyone to come help. At first I just step out and throw (badly I might add, need some pitching work) some snowballs at my kids. My wife comes out and I throw some at her too. After a few minutes of this my daughter goes back  to making the snowman. Everyone winds up helping out.



All in all, I would say that is probably going to be my favorite memory of this winter. We all had fun. I didn't let my grouchy ways get in the way. I got to see my kids smile. My wife was smiling and having fun. I am putting that one in the good day file.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Gear Review: Mossberg 500

When you ask most people that practice home defense about what to get and use, the answer is almost always a shotgun. They are not too technically demanding, depending on the ammo in use over penetration is not generally a worry and they make great clubs if you run out of ammo (kidding on that last one). I was able to come across this shot gun a couple of years back, a Mossberg 500a. 18 1/2 inch smooth bore barrel with 5+1 capacity.
I made some minor modifications to it in order to make it just a touch more user friendly in the home. I removed the fixed stock and added a collapsible, 6 position stock from Blackhawk (not the recoil absorbing one, couldn't afford it and didn't want to pay more for the stock than I did the gun). The addition of the stock made handling a little more comfortable for me and a lot more for my wife. The fixed stock was just a bit too long for her to feel balanced and in control but with the shortened stock she feels very much in control.
My first time shooting this shotgun was a fun trip out with guys guys from work to shoot some clay pigeons. Having been out shooting trap before this, I still had a very informative learning experience. First off...if you have followed all of the safety rules of gun handling and you are really, totally sure you are ready to shoot...no matter how hard you try, you cannot squeeze the trigger on this shotgun with the safety on. I had gotten too excited to fire off my first shot, so when I called out "pull", raised the front sight to track the bird and then squeezed, and then squeezed harder and then glanced down at my gun when the pigeon hit the dirt. That's when I saw I had left the safety on. Oops!!!
The next thing I learned was how the gun felt when it went boom.  ....er I mean.... BOOM!!!!! I had been given an assortment of shells to try with the shotgun to see what I wanted to use with it. Being the rocket scientist that I am (no offense to any ACTUAL rocket scientists), I started out with solid slugs...ouch! From those miserable misses, I moved on to some 00buck, 04 buck, and finally ended up shooting bird shot.

I found that my previous experience with shooting clays wasn't helping me. I couldn't seem to hit any thing with my shotgun. Finally, I got a little jumpy and let go a shot a little earlier than I had planned and actually hit the bird. I knew I had been leading them correctly but then it hit me. Since my barrel was shorter than the 24 and 28in barrels being used by my friends, I needed to get my shot off faster. The spread pattern was much greater. Well, once I did that I started to hit more than I was missing. It was at that point I finally became happy with my choice.
I have made one other modification to my gun from the stock model. I added a one point sling attachment ring from GG&G to use with a Blackhawk Storm Sling. Later on I added a more traditional two point shoulder sling from Remington for more extended carry periods. The one point sling is great for short distance travel, i.e. walking from the car to the firing line where we shoot but I found it to be a bit uncomfortable to walk with the shotgun for a longer carry period (less shooting and more walking).
I personally like this shotgun. It's not fancy, I can tear it down and put it back together again. No matter if you agree with my opinion or not, I will still like it. I would even recommend it to those of you in the market for one since they can be found on sale for under $300. 

Some of you may have noticed the trigger lock on the shotgun in the pics. I know some of you don't agree with that for home defense but I have my reasons for it, one of which is smiling so beautifully in the pictures above. The gun does stay loaded with the safety off so that lock is the last resort safety should I somehow commit the ultimate blunder and leave the gun where the kids can get to it. I take my responsibilities towards keeping my family safe and until the day comes that the kids are out of the house, I will practice safe storage methods for my firearms. That doesn't mean I can't get to them and yes it would take a few extra seconds to deploy them. If my life depended on those few seconds though, I may as well be walking around in my own home weapons in hand and at the ready on patrol at all times. If the world has gotten that bad (it wasn't the last time I checked) then I will be glad I bought the slings. Until then, Peace be unto you and yours.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Gifts to Cut with

Well, I figured I had started doing a write up of my knives and had better finish. I had planned on doing it as a full gear review but to tell you the truth, I probably know less about knives than I should. So instead of trying to sound pretentious I thought I would just saying a little something about what I have.
 
I received this Gerber Gator from some of my buddies in the Navy. It was a gift for my 21st birthday. As I recall, it was the only gift I got that day. They knew I liked knives and all pitched in to get one for me. I have carried this knife with me off and on for the almost 20 years since I got. Some weeks it gets more belt time than others but it still gets out and about. I don't know that I ever really let them know how much that meant to me. It had been a pretty low time for me and they came through and let me know that someone out there thought my 21st was something that should be marked by an occasion of some sort. Phil, Rick, Andy...Thanks guys. I still think about each of you when I look at this knife and the fun we had. 
The Gator came with a black nylon pouch. The grip is a great textured rubber that I have never had slip from my grip when using it. I had enjoyed having this knife and plan on it staying with me for a long time to come.

I have another knife I am going to talk about now. The Buck 110. This is a classic knife. My wife got this for me for Christmas a couple of years back. It came in a commemorative tin with a nylon belt sheath. This knife is just classic. This (oh, boy, gonna date myself here) is the knife that Bo and Luke Duke used to carry on their belts. I love the heft of this knife, it's weight just feels good in your hand. The blade on this thing is wicked sharp. Go ahead, ask me how I know that. The solid brass end caps and the wood panels give is a very distinguished look. This is yet another knife that I plan on carrying with me for a long, long time.
Thank you sweetheart for giving me this great gift.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Musings from the hall...

Sitting here at the school house in between classes. I am surrounded by other people; students, faculty and just people passing by. Yet with all of these people around me, I feel completely isolated and desperately want to connect with someone. At a table in front of my there are six men, each avidly absorbed in their own personal activities. To my left another student is cruising through wikipedia and typing away with the bits of wisdom he finds.

Through it all, there is nothing to establish a connection with any of these individuals. It is very nearly like being the lonely traveler at an airport far from home. You know that your time there will not be indefinite. You know that there is no reason for any of the others around you to try and impart a few moments of their time. You have questions sometimes if you even speak the language. But still, the burning desire to connect with another human being continues. Why is it that even when we are surrounded by so many others, we can feel so alone?

Monday, January 9, 2012

Gear Review: Personal Responsibility

 

Hey Folks...it's me again. I was going to make this another of my gear reviews, this one featuring my Springfield Armory XD(m) 40. Looking at the above pic though, I decided to write about something different, I hope you don't mind. I promise that I will do a good and detailed review of the XDm another time. I am sure the folks at Springfield (fabulous folks there by the way) will probably not even notice my little review either way. Now without further ado...

Some of you might have looked at my pic and thought what a horrible parent. How could this man expose his daughter in such a reckless manner to those horrible and disgusting things. Doesn't he know he could have killed her?

Actually, I just have to laugh at you folks and I hope I don't offend you with that as I shake my head at you. The truth is I would never endanger my beautiful daughter or my son with any reckless actions. Before I ever bought my first real firearm, I had a plastic pistol that fired orange foam darts which have a suction cup on the end. Yup, that's right, my daughter was started on safety with Nerf pistol. I taught her that you don't point the nerf at someone's face. She doesn't play with the nerf unless she asks first so that the adults know what she is doing. Later I bought a airsoft pistol, spring operated, that shoots plastic bb's. With this purchase we started to teach more safety lessons. I taught her that she never touches the pistol unless Daddy is supervising. I taught her more basic firearm safety lessons like never point a firearm at something or someone that you don't want to hurt (destroy or kill were the terms used later). She was told that if she ever found the gun laying around to not touch it and tell Mommy or Daddy about it first.

Finally I bought my first real firearm, a shotgun. As with the other pistols, I taught about her how to be safe around this firearm. I let her come and see the shotgun (unloaded, checked 2 times) on my bed and ask questions. She actually approached it like a display at a museum. She leaned over and looked at it and then stepped back and asked if it was real. I said yes it was very real and then reminded her of all the safety things we had discussed so far. I asked her if she wanted to pick it up and she said no...it was too big for her and that she would wait until we got a "girl" size one for her to use.

We went through this same stuff when I bought my first pistol but we did add one additional step at this point. I field stripped the pistol and then made my daughter hold the stripped frame. I wanted to teach her how to touch and carry the pistol safely. The reason for this is that her little brother was going to need some extra eyes looking after him. I gave her permission to touch the gun only in a situation where she needed to move it to someplace safe and then go tell Mommy or Daddy right away that it wasn't put away. She understands that my guns are not toys, that they can and will cause serious hurt and could kill. We took our pumpkins out and shot them up after Halloween one year and she saw what happened to them. She even took a turn on her Grandpa's .22 rifle one year at the family reunion. She wanted to shoot it but was really nervous. She fired one shot and then was completely satisfied. She was proud of how brave she had been to fire the gun but didn't want to shoot anymore than once. I was proud of her for being brave.

Have I endangered my daughter? I don't think so. I have equipped her with tools that will allow her to respect the capabilities of firearms. She will treat them with respect and caution. She knows how to not endanger others if she needs to handle them. Did I remove the danger that a gun can represent? I think so because a gun is just a simple machine. It is not sentient. It is not a condensed lump of evil that radiates an uncontrollable desire for death and mayhem. It is just a tool and like any tool can be dangerous if you don't know how to use it and how to do so in a safe manner. I have taught my daughter how to handle a firearm in a safe manner and what it can do. She is going to face many dangers in her life; high school, driving, boys (ugh!!) but one thing that she now has the knowledge to deal with safely is firearms.

...now if I can just figure out how to teach her about dealing safely with boys I should be a shoe in for parent of the century.

Look Out World....

....It's Crafty Time!!!

So, for those of you who know me and those of you that don't, I tend to think about worst case scenarios a lot. I have always worried about my kids and my family. We moved into the lovely house that we live in about 3 yrs ago. In the entire time, my kids have slept upstairs and that has always caused me some concerns. In case of fire what would they do? 
Well, I finally decided to do something about it and I did some research. I found some good sites online that gave me some info and I ran with it. Using some rope that we had purchased to hang hammocks I stated to make an escape ladder for the kids.
I actually did this a couple of times because when I tied it the first time and did a height check, the ladder was about 7 feet too short.  I undid all of my work and narrowed the steps up to give me more reach. I also tried to reinforce the rungs by putting a dowel in each one.
As you can see, the knots are not exactly tough to tie but they can still be a pain. When you first start tieing this, the entire length of the rope is being passed around and through the knot. It's a bit awkward but doable.
So I got this tie redone. I used rungs that were about 8in in width. I did a height test and the ladder reach to about two and a half feet off the ground. It's a big step for a kid but if they are climbing down it and not up they can jump the last bit.

Now before you say congrats, I tested it. I held it and asked my daughter to try to climb it from the bottom. She started climbing and on the second rung, the dowel broke. She didn't fall but that rung was more unstable. I am going to redesign this thing and try again. I want my family to be safe and if I can do it by using my hands to make something.....Bonus!!