Zombies!!!!!!!

I LOVE zombies.  Who doesn't (If Halle Berry were to become a zombie, I would be the first to get in a inter-mortem relationship with her).  And I am fully prepared for the zombie apocalypse.  For handguns, I've alway been part of the "when taking on zombies, more is better" crowd.  So my choices are my high cap guns.

Handguns are extremely important -- you'll most likely find that in order to refresh supplies of food and ammo, you'll need to move into urban built-up areas.  This means you'll be in close quarters situations as  you clear rooms of buildings to seek supplies.

The first handgun I grab is the one I own with the highest capacity: the FN Five-seveN.  It holds 20 round per mag, and I have 3 mags.  That's 60 rounds of high velocity death.  It's also very accurate for head shots, and low recoil for placing multiple shots when confronted with a hoard.

The second handgun I grab is my Beretta 92FS.  Fifteen rounds per mag, and I have over a dozen mags.  The most important thing about this gun is that in a zombie apocalypse, the 9mm NATO round can be found anywhere and everywhere throughout the world -- it's the most popular handgun cartridge in the world, and probably 3/4ths the worlds militaries use it.

The third handgun I grab is a compact -- either my Ruger LCP, or as a second choice, my Walther PPK.  It will be necessary to have something hidden as backup -- especially for other survivors that might try to take your supplies.  These small guns, especially the LCP, you can just throw in your pocket holster, toss it in your pocket, and forget.

Of course, your primary weapon will be a rifle.  You'll get more use out of this than anything, fortunately the choices are obvious.

The first rifle I grab is my BCM4, a civilian model of the M4 used by our military.  It shoots .223/5.56 NATO, the second most prolific rifle round in the world, used by half the militaries.  One mag holds 30 rounds, and I have over 30 magazines.  The M4 is a carbine, so it's short and maneuverable in cramped quarters, and has the accuracy to reach out to 300 yards, which is about the max effective range of the 5.56 round in an 18" barrel.  I know this rifle better than any other, since I've lived with it, slept with it, eaten with it, and bathed with it.

The second rifle is for when I need more oomph, or for some AT&T ("reach out and touch someone").  The rifle I choose is a toss-up between two, but the caliber is the same: 7.62 NATO (.308 Winchester).  For this I would choose either my FN FNAR 7.62, or my Remington R-25.  The FNAR is an ultra-accurate tactical rifle designed for snipers, based off the Browning BAR hunting rifle.  The Remington R-25 is based off the original Armalite AR-10 platform, which is called the SR-25/110 platform.  I would lean towards the FNAR, because it is more accurate, but the R-25 would have easier to find magazines if I would need to find them.  Also, I only own one FNAR magazine (20 rounds), since they're $90 per piece, but I own 5  magazines for my R-25 (one 20 round, and four 5 round).  

Last, but not least I would grab a shotgun, just because you never know when you might need one. I only own one, and it's a Mossberg 500 Turkey gun.  I would most likely saw off the barrel to make it more compact.

That's it.  What do you have for Zombie invasion?

Oh, and one last thing, this is the ammo I want:

Mossberg 42MB

Kind of not the greatest of weekends.  I left with a buddy to go out to western Wisconsin to another buddies farm for some squirrel hunting and shooting fun.  But got called back early because my father had to go to the ER.  He's OK, and doing better now, but will be in the hospital for the week.

So obviously my mind is on other things, but since this is a gun blog, the topic that popped into my head first was a .22, the Mossberg 42MB.  This was the first rifle I ever hunted with.  It was his, a military surplus firearm.  I remember, he didn't have a magazine for it, so we searched high and low for one, and it being the 80s, Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet.  And, being a small, farming town of 1012 people in rural Wisconsin, there wasn't a bustling Gun market, either.  He ended up finding the magazine through Gun Parts Corp (formerly Numrich).  The shipped the magazine, along with Catalog #13a, which I still have.  The magazine didn't feed perfectly, but it was better than single shot.

I took that rifle hunting many times and carried it proudly.  I would like to say many a squirrel fell to that rifle, but I lacked the patience to be a good squirrel hunter, and the rifle's accuracy far surpassed my hunting abilities.

In 1990 I left for the Marine Corps, and my thoughts returned to that old rifle several times.  However, when home on leave I never was home during hunting season, and I never shot the rifle.  When you're used to shooting M16A2s with 3-round burst, and M249 SAWs, M60s, Mk19s, M2 .50 Cals, etc, you don't know how to appreciate a rifle like the 42MB.

Fast forward to 2009, and my old man, age 79 decides to give me his rifle, since he can't really shoot it anymore, and hadn't shot it in over a decade.  I can't even tell you how it felt to have that old war horse in my hands again.  And now by a man who could appreciate the rifle, not he teenager who held it before.  It hadn't been cleaned probably since I left for the Marines, so it needed some work.  And some of the worn parts needed replaced.  So I stripped it apart, replaced some worn/broken parts, thanks again to Gun Parts, Corp, which is now apparently using Numrich in its name again.  So I got her cleaned up, fixed up and took her to the range.  That stubborn old magazine still didn't work well.  So I looked in the catalog again, and saw there were two models of magazines made, depending on the date of the rifle.  So, I forked over $40 (ugghhh) and got the proper one, and feeds like a champ now.  The neat thing about it, you can shoot .22 LR, .22 L, and even .22 Short out of it.

I enjoy shooting it.  Now that I've had formal marksmanship training, that thing will shoot a zit off a fly's arse at 100  yards.  I've always had an appreciation for peep sights -- I think all kids should learn to shoot on a peep before they get a scope.

Anyway, that's a little trip down memory lane, and if you don't have a Mossberg 42MB, look one up, it shoots great.  The last I looked, in 2009, you could get one pretty cheap, for under $150.  And, being a military surplus gun, you can find tons of parts for it.

Enfield MkIII*

I've wanted to add an Enfield to my collection for years.  I've found a lot of No. 4's, which are OK, but I really like the looks of the No.1's.  Therefore I've been holding out.  Yesterday I think I found my gun, though.  I've just been trying to find out more info on it -- the gents at milsurpafterhours.com have been great in helping me.  The one I'm looking at was made in 1918, which makes it a MkIII*.  If you don't know anything about British guns, the * means something.  That's one or more minor changes to a firearm that do not justify a new model name.  That has to make for a strange exchange between troops.  "He Nigel, could you hand me that Number one mark three asterisks?"

I didn't know this, but originally the Enfields were not called No.1 MkIII, they were just MkIII, because there wasn't a No.2 out yet, so no need to call it a No.1.  Kind of like how WWI was just the Great War until WWII came out, then they went back and renamed the Great War, WWI.  So, first there was the MkIII.  Then they made a couple of minor changes, and called the new one the MkIII*.  Then shortly thereafter, they decided to call the new ones No.1 MkIII*, therefore making the previosly made MkIII*'s into No.1 MkIII*.  Or at least that is how it was explained to me.  If anyone else out there knows different, don't be afraid to let me know.  So the one I found was originally a MkIII*, but was renamed the No.1 MkIII*.  Also known as the SMLE (Short Magazine-fed Lee-Enfield), or Smelly.  A lot of Mosin-Nagant Russian rifle collectors call that rifle the "Turd," and that was made in the same time frame, so I definitely see a trend.  Smelly and Turd.

Anyway, on the one I found the crown looks great, the bore looks really good, and overall it looks like it's in great condition.  Maybe too good -- it could have had an arsenal refinish at some point.  I'm going to continue to learn about this particular rifle, and will hoping to be adding it to my collection.

John M. Browning

A few years ago, during the last presidential election cycle, I got into a discussion with a very good friend of mine.  He said if Mitt Romney were to get the Republican nomination, he would never vote for him because he was Mormon, and to him the Mormon Church is like a cult.  I quickly replied, "You know, one of the greatest Americans ever is a mormon."  He immediately queried back, "Who?!"  His voice was a mixture of curiosity, disbelief, and shock.  He was at a complete loss as to what great American could be a Mormon.  "John Moses Browning." I told him.  His immediate response was, "Yes, you are right, I hadn't thought of that."

If you're a gun fanatic like myself, you would have to be living under a rock or fighting in Iraq (or fighting in Afghanistan or elsewhere -- thank you for protecting us) to not know that 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the US military adopting John Moses Browning's masterpiece, the Government Model, better know by it's military designation, the M1911.  To put this in perspective, when Browning designed this handgun the horse was still the primary mode of transportation for many, if not most Americans.  He didn't have the luxury of the computer like firearm designers do today.

Browning designed handguns, shotguns and machine guns have fought in every war, battle and skirmish since WWI.  The 1911 was just phased out of military service in 1985, but continues to see use in the military to this day.  The M2 .50 cal machine gun still fights to this day, and if the troops had their way, it would fight another 100 years.  If not for J.M. Browning, I'd venture to say we would have probably had to rely on the weaponry of foreign countries, and during times of world war, there wouldn't have been enough to go around to all the allied countries, which would have greatly impeded our fighting.  Not to mention, most of the other weaponry was inferior to Browning designs.

Due to this, I believe that without the weapons designed by Browning, our military would have not been as well armed as it is/was, meaning wars would have turned out differently, and it's quite possible we would not be a free country (possibly German territory x2), and we would certainly not be the world power that we are.

This all leads me to the point: John Moses Browning deserves to be categorized as one of the greatest Americans ever.  Perhaps not at the level of our founding fathers and Lincoln, but a step or two below.  Certainly greater than Kennedy.  I would most likely put him at the level of Theodore Roosevelt.  But he will never get his due because he designed firearms, and academia is the ones who sit around and discuss such issues as "greatness," and to much of academia guns are bad.

Maybe this 100 year anniversary of the military adopting the 1911 will renew America's interest in John M. Browning.  The admiration has always been there within the firearms community, but it should go beyond that.  There should be a national monument to the great man, I believe.

.22LR vs 9mm vs .45ACP

Here's a hypothetical:

A .22LR is 36 grains, so it takes roughly 3 .22LR to equal 1 9mm 115gr round, and roughly 6 to equal a .45ACP 230gr round.

Given this, I have three questions:
1. Setting aside -- for a moment -- velocity and penetration, which wound channel would prove more lethal: 1x .45ACP, 2x 9mm, or 6x .22LR?

2.  Now including velocity and penetration, in the real world, which of those 3 would prove more lethal?


3.  Of the three scenarios, if you had to choose one to defend yourself, which would you choose: one .45ACP, two 9mm, or six .22LR?

Gun perv

This weekend I went down to IL to visit family.  This side of my family isn't much into guns.  I think most of them are afraid of guns, and maybe even anti-gun.  So, of course, I didn't have any of my guns.  Whenever I'm away from my guns for more than a day or two, I find myself missing them. I guess I'm a gun fanatic.  I just like to be around guns, even if they are tucked away in a safe.  And it's not even a personal defense issue -- it's not like I don't feel secure or safe.  I just like guns.  I like at home, when if I get the urge -- which happens often throughout the day -- I can go to my safe, pull out a gun, and fondle it.  I know, sounds kind of weird.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this.  There's just something about feeling a gun in my  hand.  I'm sure it harkens back to my Marine days, when I carried a gun.  You get used to be around them.  (And yes, I did use the word GUN, who some seem to think is taboo, because weapon could mean a knife, and I can't just say RIFLE, because I carried a rifle, handgun, and machine gun at various times).

Ammunition

I was meandering through Gander Mountain the other day and happened upon their "end of season clearance ammo" table.  I think I found some pretty good deals.  I picked up 3x Winchester 124gr 9mm NATO FMJ for $13, 2x Fiocchi 115gr 9mm Luger FMJ for $13, 1x Fiocchi 142 gr .357 Mag FMJTC for $18, and 1x Sliver Bear 185 7.62x54R FMJ for $8 (I remember when this stuff was $4).  For all this I paid $95 and some-aught cents.

I don't know if it's just me, but while I really enjoy loading my own stuff, I also get a weird satisfaction from buying it too.  It hurts the wallet, now don't get me wrong.  But I love ammunition off the shelf.  I don't know what it is -- if it's the weight of the box, the sound of the cartridges when the box jiggles, if it's all the shiny-ness (I don't like the correct spelling of shininess, I like it better my way, it emphasizes the "shiny" better than "shini"), or who knows what.  Am I weird, or does anyone else feel this way (I'm going to talk as if I have an actual audience, until I do have an actual audience.  Hey, you gotta "fake it 'til you make it).  haha

Super Bowl bound!!!!!!!!!

'nuff said.

.22 Ying & Yang

I've went a little .22 crazy the past couple of years.  I've been spending all of my "allowance" on guns, so I haven't had as much to spend on ammo.  So, I've been trying to maximize my shooting time by supplementing my "real gun" shooting, with .22s.  I'll keep it just to handguns for this post.  I started off in '09 getting a Browning Buckmark.  Sweet handgun, and I loved shooting it.  Then my dad gave me his Hi-Standard Dura-matic.  This gun is sentimental to me, because first off it's his, second because it was the first gun that I ever shot.  In 2010 I got a Ruger MkIII, which I had been lusting after for awhile.  At the same time my wife bought her first gun -- a Beretta 87 Cheetah.  Yesterday I shot her Cheetah for the first time.  Meowwwww!!!!  It shoots sweet.  It feels exactly like a M9, but without the recoil and smaller, of course.

Anyone have a favorite .22 handgun?

Packer's D needs to keep it in perspective

I've been a Packer fan all my life.  I bleed Green & Gold.  I hope we slaughter the bears this Sunday for the NFC championship and a trip to the Big Bowl.  But I've been hearing a little too much talk about the D talking how great they are.  Let me say, I think they've been playing outstanding.  Matthews is a monster, and one of my new favorite players.  Woodson ranks in the top 5 of my favorite Packers EVER.  Williams has been playing on a whole new level.  But I have to say, if the Packers fielded any other offense than the one that they do (that scores 49 points in a game), the Packers lose that game.  They gave up 14 points to the Falcons, and lets not forget that the Falcons were marching down field at will at the end of the quarter, and if not for William's pick, the game would have been a very different game.  I've watched too many teams march down the field too easily against the Packer's D.  As a whole, I think the Packer's D bends WAY too easily, it's just that they have 2 of the best players in the NFL to make up for it, in Matthews and Woodson, plus an emerging star in Williams.  I do think the D is very talented, and their are plenty of other players stepping up and making big plays, I just think they need to be a little more consistent.  They make a lot of big plays, but if you take away the big plays, they are kind of not that great.  They also give away some pretty big plays.  They need more consistency.

All I'm saying, if the Pack can their D playing were it should be, they would have the best D in the league.



Go Pack!  Destroy the Bears.

Ruger 180

It's hard for me to fathom that if you would have asked me just one short year ago, I would say, "I'm not really a Ruger guy."  I did own a Ruger 10/22 that my dad gave me, but that was it.  Then I bought the LCP when it came out.  I was really impressed.  Then by happenstance my wife bought me a book, "Ruger and His Guns."  Ruger has an interesting story -- I was fascinated.  Then I started to crave a Mark I, II, or III.  So I bought a Mark III.  By then I was hooked on Ruger.  Now last week I just bought a GP161.  Now I'm a huge fan of Ruger.  Just last week, after I bought the new .357, I was thinking, "I would really like to get something more in 9mm, I only have a Beretta in 9mm.  Hmmm...look at that SR9, that looks nice."  Low and behold, the next day, viola, look what Ruger has done now...the LC9.

I have to give Ruger a lot of credit, they have truly become innovators in the last couple of years.  The SR-556, then the LCP and LCR  They weren't the first with a micro-compact .380 on the market, but theirs was the best (and well marketed) when it came out and it's because of them that this market has taken off.  I can guarantee you that within the year, everyone and their brother will have a single stack 9mm on the market.  And always, Ruger will have the best price (I was surprised at the low MSRP for the LC9).  Sig will be charging $900 for a similar gun that is "better."  Keep an eye out in coming weeks for a in depth review on my Youtube Channel:  762x51n8o.  


What are your thoughts on Ruger, and do you have a favorite model?

ComBloc Handguns

I love handguns from former Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc counties.  For one, I've always found the USSR fascinating.  Maybe I'm even a little nostalgic for it, being I grew up in the 80s.  Second, I love the commie craftsmanship.  It's neat how their stuff is never as refined as western weaponry, yet it functions just as well, sometimes even better.  And in the case of a lot of the Czechoslovakian stuff, the craftsmanship is extremely good.  Last, I love their price -- you can normally get them on the cheap.  I got my Russian Makarov for around $300 (the Russian ones are priced a little bit more than some of the others), and my CZ-52 for $160.  Next I want a CZ-82, which I know is around $200.  The priciest one I'll have is when I can finally track down a Soviet Tokarev (TT-33).  The one I want is the non-import originals with no safety.  I've seen them for anywhere between $450-600.

So, yeah, to me there's just something cool about shooting commie guns -- especially the ugly CZ-52.

I'm curious, what's your favorite ComBloc handgun -- I'd love to hear.

Hello

Welcome to my new blog.  All about guns.