I wanted a place to discuss my handguns and firearms in general. Everyone seemingly has lots to say about guns, so I promise you this won't be a rant blog.
Pheng Yang purchased standard capacity magazines when a judge ruled last year that the CA law banning magazines with a higher capacity than 10 rounds was unconstitutional. The ruling lasted a week before it was reversed, but this time frame allowed CA citizens to purchase standard capacity mags during that span of time (called Freedom Week).
The ruling (also the reversing) judge stated that the law could not be enforced against those who bought standard capacity magazines during Freedom Week.
The judge’s statement will now be tested, as Pheng’s brother is a felon and a parole search was issued, which meant that Pheng’s home had to be searched. Deputies found the magazines during the search. Felony charges were filed against Pheng.
I bought some plastic snap caps called Dummy Rounds from Amazon maybe a month ago. I had no snap caps in 7.62×39 and wanted to test out some Croatian mags that I thought were misfeeding. I bought the Dummy Rounds (5 rounds).
Well, while they served their purpose (I was able to test the Croatian mags with them), they are NOT durable. I racked all 5 rounds through 4 of those mags, and ran each mag through two firearms (an AK rifle and an AK pistol). These rounds are chipped at the back, where the extractor normally latches onto the back lip of the cartridge. We’re talking big chips.
If you’re going to buy plastic snap caps, at least ensure they’re metal where the extractor makes contact with them.
I ended up buying another set (of 5) from Vector Suppliers. These are metal with rubber where the primer would be (to lessen firing pin wear/damage). I haven’t used them yet but I’m almost certain they’ll be better than the plastic ones.
I noticed that there’s a lot of carbon and copper jacket on the then-installed brake that was originally on the AK-V. The carbon is normal. The copper jacket is somewhat of an anomaly, though. The jacket comes off the bullet due to excessive velocity. 9mm was primarily designed to be shot from handguns. When shot from a rifle, due to longer barrels, muzzle velocity is high enough to where the copper jacket sheds as it’s exiting the barrel. That copper spatters against the brake. I’ve 570 rounds through the AK-V, which is enough to where I’m starting to see some build-up. Cleaning it will be a pain.
I researched for alternatives and was about to put an AR-15 bird cage on the AK-V (I’d have had to drilled a larger diameter bore through it, or found one for 9mm). I did find some others and was about to make the purchase when I saw that the PSA website had the Faux Bulgarian 4-piece muzzle brake back in stock. They always sell out of them.
Now, this pistol doesn’t really need such a muzzle brake since the 9mm round isn’t throwing flash everywhere when the pistol is fired. It’s not a 4-piece brake. It’s only one piece and it’s more of a megaphone in internal shape. I wanted it mainly because I didn’t want to have to clean out copper splatter. There’s nothing to clean with this muzzle device…there are no nooks/cranies. It’s more of a show piece than anything, as it does look good.
Well, I bought Hogue rubber grips (with finger grooves) for my PX4 Storm Compact. I’ve been carrying that gun the last 6 weeks, non-stop. I’m not sure why I moved from the XD45 to the PX4, but when I was going through the safe and checking to ensure the firearms weren’t in need of oil, I noticed (again) that the PX4’s grip is rather slick.
I researched online to see what others were using to enhance the grip of this gun. I didn’t want to use Talon Grips, because that involves adhesive. I have Talon Grips on my Glock 22 and it was a pain to ensure they were in the correct spot (and then I had to heat up the tape to ensure they stuck).
I have Hogue grips on my Sig P220. I like the way they feel (I like that slightly tacky rubbery feel), so I decided to go with Hogue again.
These grips work very well for this handgun but one con is that they make the grip thicker in girth than it already is (it’s thick enough without adding anything). They feel very good, though. They were also a bit difficult to install, as the rubber is stiff (it is recommended to use a heat gun or hair dryer to heat up the rubber, which makes the rubber more pliable – I didn’t use either).
I bought some other toys for other firearms as well, but I’ll post about those separately.
While I believe in fighting for 2A and general freedoms, the recent pandemic requires social distancing. I can understand why indoor ranges should be temporarily shut down. Some folks state that with modern indoor ranges having ventilation systems that would negate some of the infection vectors, it would not vacate all of them (ie, surfaces that will be contaminated such as stall walls and benches, door knobs, and range equipment).
A large majority of my wife’s extended family are either doctors or nurses and they’ve seen people directly affected by the virus. This is no joke and I’m very sure they’re not embellishing when sharing their daily happenings, yet there are folks in the gun community that are accusing folks of lying or embellishing the truth (so that they can have their boogaloo, maybe…dunno). They’ll tout the 2% death stats but I’d rather not rely upon the luck of the draw when we can just keep away from each other for 3 or 4 months. That type of crap is easy to say when you’ve stake in the game and I’d rather not have someone decide that type of thing for me.
In my opinion, there has to be a balance of things. The current situation requires distancing. As well, everyone forgets that we’ve been through something like this before with the Spanish flu. For those that need education on that, here is a video published in 2018 regarding that worldwide pandemic (please watch it ALL before leaving any comments):
They had issues containing that pandemic as well. In fact, we were hit 3 times in 1918, with the virus mutating each time (probably because people were not taking the virus seriously). Each mutation was more dangerous than the last.
We as people are very short-sighted. A Japanese friend actually told me that. He said that compared to other countries in the world, the U.S. is young, yet we continue to make the same mistakes. I was a bit offended at first but came to understand that what he said is true.
I believe we can balance the need for freedom while also doing what’s required for the nation to stay as healthy (economy-wise) as possible. It requires compromise (from both sides). If the VA governor was as nasty as people say, he could’ve just outright told citizens that outdoor ranges had to be shut down as well. I can’t stand Northam. I hate him with a passion. That doesn’t mean that he’s wrong in everything he says or does, though, and remember, he has a staff that’s helping to guide him in making his decisions.
I do miss going to shoot. I can go to an outdoor range but it will require additional commuting and the closest outdoor range requires a max shooting time of 30 minutes, using their ammo (reloads). I’m not going to drive 1 hour to only shoot 30 minutes. I’m not going to shoot reloads, either. Yes, there are folks that are new gun owners, but really, if you’ve not prepared until now, it’s quite late in the game, IMO.
Lastly, those same folks hating government are the same ones giddy with excitement about the government giving them surplus money, which most say they’ll spend on a gun. Wait a minute. I thought that you hated big government. You’re frothing at the mouth at the mention of this hand-out, though. IMO, that’s no better than the folks you complain about (the welfare abusers). If you’re going to take that money, better to put it away in case you need it later or in case they decide to take it back next year (they may have told you that they won’t ask for it back, but it’s not like they can’t change their mind later…it’s the government). And before anyone asks, no, I’m not taking any of it. I don’t qualify. The wife and I make too much, yet either one of us can be laid off at any time, but I wouldn’t take it anyways (we’d have put it to the side to give it back if we’d have qualified) because we already get raped annually…I don’t want to give them an excuse to dig deeper.
For those of you that need to shoot (new gun owners, existing gun owners that need to shoot new or repaired guns), Clark Brothers is still open – they’re an outdoor range. See below:
I had fun today! I ended up shooting 199 rounds from the AK-V. In an hour. I had 100 rounds of Wolf 115-gr FMJ and 100 rounds of Winchester White Box 115-gr FMJ.
I started out at 10 yards, then went to 25, then to 20, then focused on 15 yards. I had no issue staying on the paper while out to 25 and when I moved to 20 (to better see where I was shooting), I ate the bulls-eye up! This pistol is easy to shoot. It has very little recoil and you can shoot it fast with ease.
I did have 4 FTEs, though, with one mag. It was the CZ Scorpion mag that I believe is the issue. It’s spring is very stiff, to the point that my finger is sore from loading it. I think it may break in. We’ll see. It wasn’t related to ammo because it did it with both brands of ammo. As well, the bolt didn’t hold open several times. There was also a time where one round didn’t want to feed and was jammed into the chamber. When I tried to get the bolt to hold open so I could get the round out, it slammed shut, forcing the round into the chamber. When I tried to eject the round, I couldn’t get the bolt open, but the trigger was live so I fired it out. The casing came out but I didn’t see where it went (so I could look at it). It did this a second time as well, but I was able to get the round out.
I have range footage but my camera wasn’t positioned well (I couldn’t preview the footage to ensure proper framing).
Hopefully, I can get better range footage next time.
While I was waiting form my PSA AK-V to ship, I decided to order two Manticore Arms CZ Scorpion EVO mags from Prepper Gun Shop. They were $20 each. I didn’t want to order PSA mags because I’d forgotten to order them with the firearm and they were taking a long time to ship the gun.
These are the clear mags that are made for Prepper Gun Shop to sell.
They are very nice. Whereas the PSA mags are 35-round, these Manticore mags hold 32 rounds. The PSA mags have plastic feed lips that are metal-reinforced. The Manticore mags’ feed lips are all metal. PSA mags have a soft rubber base plate. The Manticore mags do not.
The Manticore mag springs are stiff as hell. It took awhile to load the mags…they were that stiff. The PSA mag spring wasn’t anywhere near as stiff and loaded easily. We’ll see if the CZ mags will break-in, otherwise I may have to get two PSA mags to replace them.
I also had to wear leather gloves when loading them because the metal feed lips are sharp! I might have to take a file to them to lessen the sharpness of them.
I meant to go to the range today but ran out of time. I’ll try again tomorrow (Sunday).
