First time shooting the .45

My friend, Bruce, who works out at the Lee Kay Center, had taken the .45 (which I had never shot) out to see why it wouldn't fire. I had tried to fire it out in the desert in the spring and hadn't had another chance to figure it out. When Bruce took it, he couldn't get it to fire either, and after showing it to a couple of experts at the range, it was pretty much assumed that the magazine wasn't seating properly in the gun.
When I borrowed this gun for an indefinite period from my mom (hint, I'm keeping it, Mom, until you need it, ha ha), it had no magazine with it. A few weeks ago I finally made it to Gallenson's and purchased a new magazine for it.  Previously I had purchased one from Impact Guns in Kearns. This was the one that didn't fit properly. I don't know if the guy who sold it to me didn't know what he was doing, or what, but that may be a reason I don't go back to that store again.
Anyway, Thursday, I finally made it out to the Lee Kay Center to shoot. The magazine seated properly and I was ready to fire. Here is what my target looked like when it was finished.

I took the first 8 shots from 7 yards, four at the middle bulls-eye and one at each of the corners. The two shots circled are the ones I fired from Bruce's gun, also a .45, that he let me shoot.
I then moved the target back to 15 yards and fired seven more rounds, all at the middle. You can see that I was pulling slightly to the right with the gun I brought. This was the first time I've ever fired a semi-auto, and the first time I've fired a handgun in at least 25 years. It was pretty darned fun! I don't think I did too badly for a self-taught first timer. Of course, I've had lots of practice rifle shooting over the years, so that helps. I'd like to do this more frequently, but the cost of ammo is prohibitive. Maybe I'll find a smaller gun with cheaper ammo to do the majority of my practicing.

An arresting story

Yesterday, we saw something highly unusual. We were heading north bound on Wasatch Boulevard, approaching 33rd South, when two cop cars, light flashing, roared past us. A half mile ahead, they spun into u-turns, and pulled over a black truck. The cops in both vehicles hopped out and trained their guns on the vehicle. Like an idiot, I drove closer so I could see what was happening, and pulled back over to the side in a gap that had been left between two other vehicles.

The guy driving the black truck appeared to be cooperating, and the two cops soon had him in cuffs and down on the ground. Within seconds, he was back up again and driving down the road, shaking his head, and the cops had jumped back in their cars and sped off down the road with their lights flashing again. We had just witnessed some cops putting the wrong man in cuffs.

I wonder how he felt with those guns pointing at him.  I wonder if there was any apologies from the officers who had him on the ground with cuffs on. I wonder how many other people recognized exactly what happened there.

I guess they were looking for someone in a black truck. It could be easy to make a wrong move in such a situation. Thankfully the guy didn't resist arrest in any way, and he came to no harm--maybe other than his pride and his clothing.

Question: If it was a black truck they were looking for, would they have pulled over any black truck they passed? What made them think they had the right person? Truck color alone? If that's the case, something like that could happen to anyone. In that case, here's my advice: Don't struggle or complain when a cop's gun is pointed at you. Do what they say. Keep your cool.

I'm hoping they at least bought him a dinner at Texas Roadhouse or something.

Michael Moore wants to ban guns in the hands of police and ...everyone else.

Michael Moore wants police to go gunless: Michael Moore wants to disarm police and free non-violent criminals

This is the same guy who wants to take guns away from ordinary citizens.
What a joke! So, therefore, only criminals will have guns. A smart man, that Michael Moore. Very, very smart--like most people on the left, they don't use common sense. As long as it feels like they're doing something good, the consequences don't matter.

Do I look stupid?

A few months ago, I decided that I needed to become more familiar with a .45 auto that was in my possession. Being a little nervous about firing it for the first time, and not wanting to look like an idiot if I couldn't figure it out (I had never actually fired a semi-auto handgun), I went out into the desert, found a nice hillside, and put up my target.

Walking back about 25 feet, I turned and pulled the action back on the gun which should've loaded a cartridge into the chamber, and I thought it did. I aimed and pulled the trigger. Nothing. I tried over and over to figure out what was happening, pulling the action back repeatedly and repeatedly trying to fire the gun. Still nothing. In frustration, I walked back to my vehicle and got in, then went and did some other things while I was out there.

The thing with  the gun is that I had taken it many times on campouts just in case there was a bear rampaging through the camp. Luckily for me, there was no bear, or I would've had the nicest gun-shaped club in existence with which to fight it off.

In talking to a friend, I decided that I might take the gun to a gunsmith to find out if something was wrong with it, but instead I just put it away to wait for spring or to wait for someone who knew guns to take a look at it for me. Finally, I approached another friend of mine who I found out happened to work at the Lee Kay Center, a local gun range. He offered to take the gun with him to work and to try and fire it.

Here's what he found out. He too was unable to fire the weapon. After talking to several people there who know guns, they deduced that it was because the magazine wasn't long enough and the mechanism wasn't grabbing a cartridge out of it because of that. When I had acquired the gun from a family member, the magazine had been missing. I had taken the gun into a local gun store and asked them to match up a magazine that would work with this gun. I had bought the one they suggested. I didn't know that the particular guy wouldn't know what he was talking about.

But at least it wasn't anything I did, so if I looked stupid out in the desert, it was because someone sold me the wrong part. Now I just need to get the right one.

Why you might need a gun with a large clip

Many liberal politicians are saying things like "no one needs a twenty round clip to stop a burglar", or "who needs a thirty round clip to go hunting?". Perhaps they haven't heard of this incident in which five people invaded someone's home. Presumably in such a situation, the invaders aren't going to stand there in a straight line while you plug away at them with your six-shooter. They will be diving behind things, spreading out, looking for cover, perhaps firing back. You, with your six-shooter revolver will have emptied it and perhaps wounded one or two of them, because you're likely not going to be calm, and you're probably not going to hit a moving target with the first shot. It may take two or three or even more shots to get one of them. Now, hopefully, once you pull out your gun, they high-tail it out of there, but what if they don't? Would you want to face them with a six-load revolver, or a thirty round semi-auto? You make the call.