So We Gotta Do THIS Again…

 

Warning: you can usually get a much better Monday Gun Day

over at Phil & Cederq’s.

Or you can get spackled with peanuts and corn here first!

I am not going to apologize for my Glock hate. I will admit I am being a facetious dink in doing so; and I believe the proper response in the comments was, “suck my Glock, Filthie!”

HAR HAR HAR!!! HAR HAR HAR! 😂👍

Thanks, but no thanks. I also got some interesting hate email too. But before I get into that, let me preface it with this. If you want a full size fighting gun, that can take anything you throw at it, and shoot like a champ right outta the box… and ya want that in plastic fantastic (and don’t care what the neighbours think) - this is the best of the lot:

You’re welcome!

The HK USP has been chosen by elite military and law enforcement organizations around the world because it’s robust, superbly accurate AND reliable. Price-wise  it’s toward the high end of service guns… but that is because it’s built by Germans who are absolutely anal about QA/QC and research and product development. This is the sidearm chosen by guys that jump out of helicopters in far away lands filled with exciting and interesting people - and kill them with intent and purpose. They will stake their lives on this thing right out of the box, and you can too. There are any number of gats as good, but there are none better.

Welp… that set off the hate mail. “Stop being an elitist poseur! You’re a gun LARPing fag!”. Or “It’s far more important that a gun goes BANG every time with a variety of cheap ammo! It’s gotta be able to do that covered pocket lint, crud and grease!!!”. A visitor in the comments poasted a link to an old Larry Correria article where he absolutely goes off on HK. He’s as full a shit about HK as I am about Glock. Kim du Toit agrees that cheap n’ dirty is the way to go with guns too. After all - “a pistol is only good enough to fight your way to your rifle…”

Ughhhh. 🤢 It’s a popular message. It makes Cletus and Bubba feel good about their bargain basement beaters. All they do is shoot their pistols at huge targets with whatever ammo was on sale at Wally World… and they figure it’s all good. I ain’t gonna argue. Maybe it is. It’s good enough for Cletus, Bubba and Kim, and I learned long ago not to argue with self proclaimed experts. I’ve got my own messes going on at my shooting bench to deal with. If some idiot is going to say that Fisher Price makes good tools and there’s no need for precision instruments… fill your boots!

But… for those inclined to listen…another anecdote: awhile back there was an incident involving the usual failed liberal social experiment with a duffel bag full of guns n’ ammo. He (she, it) - went to the food court at the mall for his final 15 minutes of fame. He dragged a rifle out, maybe got a shot or two off… and the crowd stampeded and went nuts. A kid stood up in the middle of all that, pulled his subcompact Glock, and did a mag dump on the perp at 40 long paces and north of 95% of his shots flew straight and true and hit home.

The internet came to its collective feet, and applause broke out from one end to the other! “Holy Mackeral!!! The kid’s a reincarnated Wyatt Earp!!! He’s a one in a million!!! Nobody can shoot like that!!!” 

Welp…yeah. Kim du Toit, Tam, and all the other gunny experts and cool kids can’t shoot like that because they’re like Larry. They shoot unrealist huge targets at very close range. That kid was a sorcerer in comparison to them. But… it wasn’t sorcery at all! It was what Jeff Cooper so elegantly described as “pistolcraft”.

That kid was not shooting a beater pistol coated with grease and lint, firing garbage ammo. He practiced regularly. He knew his gun, he knew his ammo, and when he pulled that gun he knew exactly what he was doing. And he killed that monster with deliberate intent and purpose and succeeded spectacularly. He had practiced to the point where he literally could do nothing else.

Of course, I got egged for “trying to belittle the hero’s accomplishment”. “Fuck off,” I explained, “I could do it too back in the day and could probably do it again, given some practice. So could you if you put the proper trigger time in…” “Liar!” A few screeched… so I poasted links to the stubfarts recreating the shot at the range, right on OyTube. Sure enough… it was rod and gun club duffers and stubfarts just like Yours truly doing it on video. Period. End of story. Buuuuuttttt....  “Shooting in crowded mall at a psycho that can shoot back is far different than shooting targets at the range!!!” Yes - to an extent. But the metrics are the same. You go tell the SEALS, the Deltas, the Marines, and the Rangers that training is meaningless. About the only people that will believe you are the brass hats and affirmative action hires that run the RCMP! HAR HAR HAR HAR!!! Errrrrr.... probly the fat dykes and fwenchmen that run the Canadian forces too...

Let us cut the shite. Good shooting is accurately described as a triangle. You need good ammo, a good gun,  and good training. None of that is cheap. There are exceptions but they ARE the exceptions. Separating the shite from the shinola… the Glock came out in the early 80s and is in use with countless police and Sherriff’s departments. You can beat the tar out of the Glock and it will still work well too. For the most part the people that carry them largely do not have to rely on them the way a special operator or squaddie does. Most will carry their sidearm for their entire career without firing a shot in anger. That is a Good Thing.

I bought my USP on impulse about 16 or 18 years ago. The big frame shot well in my hands, and I put 10 or 15 thousand rounds through it. I started with four mags and then bumped that up to 8 when I decided the gun is a keeper. If the SHTF, that’d be my sidearm of choice. It has adjustable sights, a rail if ya want it, and a great trigger - for a service pistol. It wasn’t cheap. Forgive me if I take pride in that. The gun has character and attributes that will only appeal to elite war fighters... and  fanboys and gun club duffers like me. I accept that and can live with that.

But time moves on… and there’s new pistols coming out all the time. A couple years back my buddy bought the new Sig 320 in 9mm…

It’s a mighty fine plastic gun. I twisted his arm and made him buy 8 mags for it. I get along well with it. Another sweetheart that I’d like to meet is this piece by FN. 

If your favourite Barbie gun isn't listed here it is because I am lazy and can't list them all. If I were in the market today I'd probably be hemming and hawwwing over them all. Shopping and debating with yourself about gats is a great pastime.

Complicating things is that now the marketplace has flipped on its head! When I was a kid, the high rollers spent thousands on beautiful rifles and got them worked on by elite smiths with waiting lists a mile long and prices that would make you gag. They'd shoot sub-MOA groups and us kids n' pikers would oggle in amazement and turn green with envy. And we'd tell ourselves, "All we gotta do is hit a pie plate at 100 yards in order to put a deer down...". But... what about those shots at 200 or 300? Further? Given the limits of our equipment, sights and ability we had to be cognizant about our sporting ranges. For me and my milsurp Mauser, rebarrelled to .308...? 200 yards was a LOOOOOOONG shot. I turned my nose up at such shots on game. I probably could have made those shots... but I didn't need to, and why take the chance on wounded game? 

Last summer I bought a cheapo Ruger American carbine in .223. Gawd... that thing is the fugliest gun I own. Can't remember what I paid for it - but it was well under $900.00 Canadian. I found a Swarovski 3x9 rattling around so I mounted it on the little mouse gun, thinking that I was polishing a turd in doing so... but that ugly little gun goes sub MOA with the ammo it likes all the time. That, from a bargain basement carbine... the times.... they are a-changin'...

But, here, again - there is a world of difference between 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'. That Ruger carbine is EXACTLY where the beginner shooter wants to be. It takes inepensive AR mags, it shoots like a house afire and it gets the noobs out shooting. The same thing is probably going on with pistols too. The beginner can start and stop with a rifle like that and lose nothing in the long run. 

As for me... I love the shooting sports and shoot everything from black powder to black rifles. I like the fun, reliable guns like the little Ruger but I like the higher end models too. The USP is in my opinion, the best of the breed... but it isn't my favourite pistol by a long shot. Right now the toss up for that spot is teetering between a $300.00 1851 Colt Navy repro in .36, and a Ruger Redhawk that shoots 45 LC/ACP. I cast my own boolits from lead bought from another stubfart who is an information encyclopedia when it comes to shooting cast. The USP, your Glock ... both could shoot circles around those two... and I could care less.

The important thing for you is to get shooting. The second priority is to start reloading. If you're going to strive for true pistolcraft (rather than just talking or lying about it), you will have to reload at some point. The Glock is a far better way to get started than elite high end guns. Handguns take serious trigger time to get good with - but it's doable and YOU can do it.

All ya gotta do is get cracking. Buy a gun. Don't listen to retarded bloggers. Go to the range, watch the shooters, and home in on the good ones. If you can't shoot well with your gat, fix it or sell it. Talk to the pros first. They are not necessarily bloggers or gun counter clerks. The big thing is just to get started.

We'll see ya at the range!

Filthie