Running out of time...

Ladies, if you haven't entered the phenomenally generous give-away being run by A Girl, do so now! The cutoff is Friday at midnight...

Here's the prize list, as posted on her site:

$300 toward any reputable basic self defense shooting course in the United States of America-provided by A Girl and Her Gun.

200 rounds of Ammo in either 9mm, 10mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP or .38 spl provided by the very cool ZerCool

100 additional rounds provided by the generous North

150 additional rounds provided by the generous and competitive Tango Juliet

If you are in the Metro Charlotte area of North Carolina a basic pistol class and Conceal Carry Handgun Class or if you are not in the area a $50 gift certificate for gear(ie eyes, ears, range bag) provided by the generous and very competitive Keads

100 Rounds provided by the nicest of nice Scott McCray

250 rounds provided by the incredibly supportive The Calm Gun

200 more rounds by the extremely kind Old NFO

A $50 gift certificate provide by the goddess of all Gun Goddesses

Electric ear muffs and if you live near Northern Virgina, a personal consultant to take you holster shopping or an hour of one-on-one range time provided by talented and knowledgeable Female and Armed

A pistol class for the winner and a friend if she lives in the state of Iowa(or is willing to travel)provided by yet another generous blogger,known as Bill

A fabulous holster provided by the good folks at Remora

An 18th century reproduction, St. Barbara's medallion. She is the patron saint of artillerists, and of things that go "boom". Provided by one of my sweet new friends Nancy R

The package will contain three cans (one of each size we make) of Steelgard Firearm Protector - a cleaner, lubricant and rust prevention product for all types of weapons provide by the fine folks at Firearm Protector

THE GIFT OF FEAR by Gavin de Becker provided by the brave GunDiva

Dragon hits the big time

... Shooting Illustrated has put up a review of Dennis's work.

It seems they agree with the rest of us that have reviewed his art. Fancy that!

(Side note, this is very timely, as my new Talon from the WWP fundraiser auction this past fall should be here any day!)

House o' Mouse

Attention House-of-Mousers: MrsZ and I will be visiting your area in March. For obvious reasons I'd like to catch up with as many of you as possible while down there.

I mean you, Lissa. And you, UJ (and of course Dixie and -let). And even you, Robb. Ping me at gmail for further!

Report from the Fun Show

Small local semi-annual show this morning. 120 tables according to the flyers.

A good friend and I went down to check it out. (I convinced her not to wear her "O**** 2012" shirt, at least.) She was half-looking for a decent .22 with nothing specific in mind.

We got there late morning, paid the six bucks to get in, and started making the rounds. It was busy but not overly crowded, and prices ranged the gamut from "market" to "you're funny!" (Case in point: S&W M&P15 Sport. Dealer 1: $685 (market). Dealer 2: $779 ($40 OVER list).)

She wandered around and poked at a few .22s, and very nearly bit on a Remington 341 which was in mostly-good shape... but then we did some quick research and found that parts are likely a nightmare to find and it was priced a touch high. If parts had been more available, I think she'd have taken it home. No denying it was a good-looking rifle. There were a few others that caught her eye - a few Savages and Marlins - but nothing that really screamed "take me home".

I brought along my AR and the Dragoon to fish for sales or trades. Lots of nibbles on the AR - but no one reached for their wallet either. A dealer made me a sort-of fair offer on the Dragoon but wouldn't move the last thirty bucks it'd have taken to come up with a deal. (Dragoon with ammo and some cash for an M&P15-22.)

And then ... my friend found the rack of Mosins. She looked them over, accepted that they were priced a little higher than she might otherwise find, but decided she wanted one.

So, for $130 out the door she has a 1943 Izhvesk 91/30 - in pretty good shape. The bore is clean and the rifling is sharp, and it came with the standard accessories. Not what I'd have picked for a first rifle, but not a bad choice, either!

There she is, Mosin in hand. Next step: ammo and a range trip.

Fascinating

I got to spend a few hours yesterday observing "live-fire" (Simunition) training with several area police departments.

For what should be obvious reasons I can't get into details, but I saw the entire range of actions and reactions. Some good, some bad. Some made *me* cringe.

I'm no ninja, but you know what? I didn't see any yesterday.


I saw a lot of cops put in tough scenarios and having to make split-second decisions on level of force, shoot/no-shoot, and everything else we talk about.

I wish I could have played too.