Ammoland does a nice job of writing up five new precision chassis rifles debuted at the SHOT show.  Except for one thing.  I’m not even interested in looking at the models unless you have a price affixed to them.  Fortunately, a commenter does this for us.

Ill save others the hassle of looking for MSRP’s. IWI doesnt even show the rifle above, Tikka doesnt show an MSRP on their site, the other three list for about $1500-to $1600, which come with a number of features standard, plus options. Ill say the obvious, put an MSRP in your press releases/ads and make sure your web site has the product you are talking about.

I don’t know if he’s got the prices right.  Some of the Bergara precision rifles start at > $2600 and go up from there – way up.  For the folks who debut these things at the SHOT show, you need to have them on the web site, true enough, and you need to stick a price tag with them.  If you’re not ready to price it, then you’re not ready to debut it.

But more to the point, if you’re getting ready to ask for > $2000 for a precision chassis rifle, you’re asking too much.  Bring the prices down or there won’t be sufficient interest to make the gun except as a special order item for professional precision rifle shooters, of which there are about 150 in the country.

Very nicely done.  The music is goofy, but the video is well worth watching.

SOFREP:

I can no longer place any confidence in the AR-15 to defend myself in a time of disaster or urban unrest. To protect myself and my family, I have completely switched over to the AKM family of weapons—a semi-automatic variant of the legendary AK-47. I know that somewhere, someone is saying out loud that I am a dumb-ass or a communist. When I first discussed this with one of my close friends, a career Army infantryman with more than 16 months of combat duty spent with the 172nd Infantry Brigade, he just shook his head in disagreement. I remember telling him over some beers, and he just kept asking “Why?” with a look of disappointment and bewilderment on his face.

The M16A2 was my primary weapon for my entire career in the United States Air Force; I knew it inside and out. I was one of the few USAF engineers I knew who loved target shooting, going to the range, hell, I even liked to clean guns. So why walk away from a weapon platform I had used or owned for over 20 years? The answer comes down to two major reasons: supportability and simplicity.

Any military or company that uses AR-15s/M4s has much deeper pockets than I will ever have. Major corporations and military units typically have a robust supply system that can provide an individual any desired replacement part they may need. This is necessary, because the variation in parts from manufacturer to manufacturer is immense, making interchangeability difficult.

The buffer spring and buffer weights alone have more than a dozen different variations depending on barrel length and number of coils on the buffer spring. Then, stop and consider the rifling twist rates in the weapon’s barrel and what projectile works optimally in them. Here is a sample of the variations and options on buffer weights alone.

[ … ]

The word simplicity might cause people to think that the AR-15/M4 is a difficult weapon to operate, and that is not the case at all. When I use the word simplicity, I think of overall use and maintenance of the weapon. How maintenance-intensive is it? What type of lubricant do I have to use for my situation?

With the AR-15/M4, there is an entire segment of the shooting world that will  launch into heated arguments about what lubricant works best. I have seen the debates between CLP versus Frog Lube versus Fire Clean. Running the gun ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ is another topic of debate. I have even heard people who say they use WD40 or Castrol Slick 50 on their AR-15s/M4s.

Properly lubricating a weapon isn’t rocket science, but improper lubrication can lead to the weapon jamming at the most inopportune moment. In the case of over-lubrication, in a dusty or sandy area, excessive dirt and debris can accrue on the weapon’s working parts, causing stoppages and malfunctions.

Consider my selection. The AKM can be lubricated by just about anything that has some degree of viscosity. Bearing grease, lithium grease, motor oil, 80W 90 gear oil, the tears of liberals, the blood of unicorns, you get the idea. There is a scene in the video below (at about the 20-second point) where you can see an AK-47—buried in the dirt and clay of Africa for 18 years—rendered operable with only a can of motor oil.

Good grief.

And AR-15s can be made to function with a dab of motor oil too.  And he acts like there’s no such thing as AR-15 stress tests out there on YouTube.  I’ve linked and embedded so many they’ve almost become boring to watch now.

So it all boils down to this after reading this tiresome and stolid article.  The author doesn’t like to think about anything, doesn’t like variability, doesn’t like to be able to modify his gun, doesn’t like variants on a theme, and doesn’t want to have to worry about the engineering mechanics behind the rifle or proper selection of components.  Therefore, he has found himself some canned excuses to jettison the AR-15.  He’s lazy.

Eugene Stoner is unimpressed.  I am too.  If this is the best that web site can do, I won’t be returning.  This piece is not even a thinker piece that makes you ponder the more complex issues behind gunsmithing or engineering.  It’s completely un-compelling.

The telltale sign that it’s going to be a bad article was in this sentence: “I was one of the few USAF engineers I knew who loved target shooting, going to the range, hell, I even liked to clean guns.”

So there you have it – what a USAF “engineer” thinks about guns.  Stick to airplanes.  Go back to something you’re good at.  I guess.

“Why I abandoned the AR-15” are words you’ll never see here at this web site except in mockery.

From Art Acevedo, who aided the fedgov to take forcible blood draws at random stops in Travis County in violation of constitutional protections – protections from people exactly like Art Acevedo – to something apparently just as bad.

The one on the left is Abbot, the governor of Texas.  He’s a good guy.  The one on the right is … ahem … the sheriff of Travis County.  No, I’m not kidding.  She’s not a good guy.  She hates Texans.  And she hates America.  And she doesn’t look to me like she could find her way to the gun safe, much less protect anyone.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is formally demanding that Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez reverse her new policy on cooperation with federal immigration authorities or lose state dollars, further escalating a showdown over “sanctuary cities” that have been in the crosshairs of Republican officials.

“This is not a pronouncement of sound public policy; it is a dangerous game of political Russian roulette — with the lives of Texans at stake,” Abbott wrote to Hernandez — whose jurisdiction includes Austin — in a letter dated Monday.

The newly elected sheriff, who campaigned on the issue, announced Friday that her department would reduce its cooperation with federal immigration authorities when they request an inmate be flagged for possible deportation. Her office said it would continue to hold people charged with very serious crimes, such as capital murder.

[ … ]

Abbott’s threat targets Criminal Justice Division grant money that is administered by his office. Travis County got almost $1.8 million from the division over the past year “based upon the commitment that federal immigration law would be enforced,” according to the letter.

“Your policy is in violation of that commitment,” Abbott told Hernandez. “Unless you reverse your policy prior to its effective date, your unilateral decision will cost the people of Travis County money that was meant to be used to protect them.”

Solution.  Fire her and throw her in the state penitentiary with the general prison population where she belongs for (1) violation of the law, and (2) theft from the citizens of Texas.

This is a prime example of collectivists.  They are literally willing to impoverish people in order to fulfill their wet dreams of statist utopia.

What is it with those folks down there is Travis County?  Do they like abuse?

Fox News:

The U.S. Army on Thursday awarded Sig Sauer a contract worth $580 million to make the next service pistol based on the company’s P320 handgun.

Sig Sauer beat out Glock Inc., FN America and Beretta USA, the maker of the current M9 9mm service pistol, in the competition for the Modular Handgun System, or MHS, program.

“We are both humbled and proud that the P320 was selected by the U.S. Army as its weapon of choice,” Ron Cohen, chief executive officer of Sig Sauer, said in a statement to Military.com here at SHOT Show, the world’s largest gun show, taking place this week in the city.

“Securing this contract is a testimony to Sig Sauer employees, their commitment to innovation, quality and manufacturing the most reliable firearms in the world,” Cohen added.

Whatever.  Color me unimpressed.  Go look at the model.  I’m not a Sig fanboi (nor a Glock fanboi), so I hadn’t really noticed the Sig pistols all that much.

This is God’s honest truth.  The first thing I thought when I saw that thing was “The slide profile is very tall and it has a high bore axis and so it will have worse muzzle flip” (well, I say God’s honest truth, but to be completely honest, this thought coincided with the thought “boy that thing is ugly”).

Now to be sure, you can look at the Sig fanboi forums (yes, here are such things), and they swear up and down that Sigs don’t have a high bore axis, and even if they do it doesn’t mean there’s more muzzle flip.  That’s a myth.  It isn’t real.  Seriously, you can’t make this up.  Go look at the forums yourself.

Well, here it goes, so listen up.  The bore axis is higher in this pistol than any I’ve ever seen (distance between bore and web of your hand in Cartesian space, here think the “y” axis, straight up and down).  The greater the moment arm, the greater the force.  That’s engineering mechanics to those who have taken courses in statics and dynamics.

Or to little boys who first learn to work a jack when they change a tire.  Amusingly, Uncle says “I also don’t disagree with picking the Sig. Or if they’d have picked the M&P. So long as they went with a striker-fired, polymer-framed gun that holds a lot of bullets. And isn’t an XD or Taurus.”

Well, that puts me about 180 degrees out with Uncle, since it eliminates 1911 and XDm, the only two guns I would want to take into combat.  I thought about that the other day (“If I had to go to combat, what sidearm would I want to take?”), and while my heart says 1911 because I shoot it better than any gun I have, my head says XDm for its durability, reliability, simplicity and 11 degree 1911-style grip angle.

I could beat on it with a sledge hammer and it would still work, I’m convinced.  All of you Glock owners out there, you realize that your grip isn’t the perfect 11 degrees, right?  And all of you M&P owners, take your pistol (make sure it has no rounds in the chamber first), look at it from the side, and observe the gap between the front of the slide and the frame compared to lack of gap at the rear of the gun.  You can even take your fingers and squeeze the slide together with the frame at the front of the gun.  It rattles.  This is true of all M&Ps.  The slide sits a full 1/8″ off the frame at the front sight.

You see, right?  Did you M&P owners do it like I suggested?  I don’t like that gap for reasons too numerous to outline here.  I don’t shoot 9mm (chamber pressure of around 35,000 psi compared to around 25,000 psi for the .45 ACP), and I don’t have Sigs.

As for other reviews, there is this one from Shooting Illustrated, and in it there are these nuggets.

One of the pistol’s features I really like is the cutouts on either side of the frame, which allow the magazine to be stripped forcefully from the frame when necessary, such as when correcting a double-feed.

Funny, that.  I’ve shot thousands of rounds through my XDm, and I’ve never had a double-feed.  Not a single FTF or FTE.  Not even once.  And then there is this.

My overall complaint about the P320 is a net that I’ll cast over nearly every SIG pistol: a bore axis that results in more muzzle flip than necessary.

Well, like I said.  So to reiterate my take on the Army decision … whatever.  I won’t be getting one.

Jihad Watch:

Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers behind Saturday’s Women’s March, being held in Washington, D.C., was recently spotted at a large Muslim convention in Chicago posing for pictures with an accused financier for Hamas, the terrorist group.

Sarsour, the head of the Arab American Association of New York and an Obama White House “Champion of Change,” was speaking at last month’s 15th annual convention of the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America.

While there, she posed for a picture with Salah Sarsour, a member of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and former Hamas operative who was jailed in Israel in the 1990s because of his alleged work for the terrorist group.

Salah Sarsour, who is also a board member of American Muslims for Palestine, served as a bodyguard of sorts at the convention for Sumeyye Erdogan Bayraktar, the daughter of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

You know that these guys advocate female circumcision, right?  You’re on the wrong side of history, ladies.  Oh, and let’s not forget this.

David Codrea:

Here’s the thing about Virginia Tech that some of us commenting at the time attempted to publicize: Nine months before the shootings, graduate student Bradford B. Wiles wrote a letter to The Roanoke Times in response to a campus manhunt for a murder suspect.

Rules against having guns are always designed for the moral amelioration of the immoral.  The progressives know that law abiding men and women will follow the law, up to a point, and the liberal project of societal salvation through law-making was not intended for those who do not need it.

There are consequences for defenestration of the family and church.  The progressives know full well that their rules will neither change the law-aiding nor allow him legally to defend himself.  The immoral part of the progressive project is that it harms peaceable men and women, and the project masters don’t care.

The stupid part is that they believe they can change the behavior of the wicked with a new law or rule.  But to what else would they turn?  Without the church and family, the law is all that’s left.

New Hampshire Union Leader:

The state Senate, as expected, voted along party lines, 13-10, on Thursday to approve a bill that would make it easier to legally carry a concealed weapon in New Hampshire.

Senate Bill 12 to eliminate the state’s permit requirement for concealed carry was endorsed in a 3-2 vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 10.

State Sen. Bette Lasky, D-Nashua, said the change will make New Hampshire residents less safe by removing the authority of police chiefs to pick and choose which residents will be allowed to carry a concealed handgun. Current law allows police chiefs to determine if someone is “suitable” for a concealed carry permit.”

SB 12 will revoke a process that has worked well in our state for more than a century,” said Lasky. “It’s a process that balances the Second Amendment rights of our citizens with local control of law enforcement to ensure that potentially dangerous people are not allowed to carry concealed weapons.”

New Hampshire is one of 31 states that give law enforcement the power to deny a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

[ … ]

D’Allesandro said the state’s police chiefs oppose the change …

I’m sure they do oppose constitutional carry.  It destroys a revenue stream from which they can buy brand new Dodge Chargers, Comms gear and top of the line AR-15s.

“Pick and choose.”  Remember that folks.  That’s what the progressives want to do.  They want to pick and choose the special people.  You may not be on that list.  As for the criminal, he’s not worried one way or the other.

WBIR.com:

A Tennessee lawmaker is hoping to loosen Tennessee’s gun carry laws.

State Rep. Micah Van Huss, a Republican from Jonesborough, has introduced a bill to eliminate the need for a permit to open carry a handgun.

Under the law, you would still need a permit to carry a concealed handgun, but if you wear the gun openly, you would not need a permit.

House Bill 40 would amend the state’s weapon laws for open carry to bring Tennessee in line with several other states.

Several lawmakers who spoke with Tri-Cities NBC-affiliate WCYB said they support the proposal.

“Tennessee has eight bordering states, I think seven of them allow what’s called open carry,” said state Senator Jon Lundberg, for Tennessee’s 1st District. “Has it changed the dynamics in Virginia and North Carolina, not really.”

The bill has been introduced twice and was rejected both times. If approved, Tennessee would join the other 29 states that don’t require these permits.

“This is one that people are passionate about, they’re either for it very strongly or against it very strongly,” said Lundberg. “So you will see those kind of passions come out this time around.”

Right now, the bill is still in the early stages and doesn’t have a senate sponsor yet.

Well, it needs a sponsor, and it needs to be passed this time around.  Frankly, I thought that Tennessee was already a gold star open carry state like my own state of North Carolina.

Tennessee needs to join the ranks of states that recognize God-given rights like this one.  Anyway, Tennessee can show the way to Texans, who have permitted open carry, and who are flirting with constitutional carry if only the awful Lieutenant Governor will get out of the way.