For those of you that have been bugging me to join up, thank you.  You were right, I was wrong. Mea culpa.

I have found a bunch of folks that I haven’t spoken to in years. I’ve run into my best friend from high school. I’ve found old mission buddys that I haven’t seen in a decade. And a few folks I was glad to see that they were still alive. (because for some fo them, it was questionable).

There was already an MHI fan club, (thanks Miguel) which is still kind of shocking. Overall, I’ve had a great time dinking around there.

http://magnoliastatearmory.com/products-page/magnoliastatearmory/ar2ks223-saiga/

Okay, check that out.  Tell me that wouldn’t be cool if it worked.

http://wethearmed.com/index.php/topic,4692.0.html 

One fellow on WTA has one, now I’m just waiting for a range report.

I’ve got a Saiga .223 project gun that I’m working on now, it has been on the back burner, getting bits and pieces done to it over time. It is going to be my “Race AK”. See, I’ve long had a thing for using AKs in competiton, just to be the odd man out. I’ve used lots of ARs too, and I do well with them, but there is something fun about doing good with a rifle that nobody sees coming.

So I’ve got a Saiga that does about 1 MOA with good ammo. It has an Ultimak and I’m going to run a dot on top (not decided which yet). It is currently at my friend Mike Bond’s (master machinist) who is finishing up the custom aluminum handguard. 

Front sight has been removed.  I’ve got a couple pieces of picatinny rail that are going on the handguard, one on the side for iron sights (probably the JP pistol sights), 3gun style, and because I’ve never seen anybody do that with an AK before.  I can even switch it up and go with a low magnification scout scope, just to try.

I’ve had it threaded AR pitch, and I’m going to run either a Cooley brake or a PWS brake/flash hider. I can also run a suppresor on it if I want.

I’ve not done trigger group, stock, or grip yet. I’ll probably do an Ergo grip, because that’s what I’ve got on my Saiga 12 as well as most of my ARs. The stock… haven’t decided, but I like to run them short, but I like a wide footprint (so I hate the traditional stock), as I shoot real hunched up (especially for a big dude). Trigger will probably be Red Star.

I hadn’t bought any mags yet, as I don’t have a .223 AK, my others are 7.62×39, and I’ve been procrastinating. But if this adapter functions good, I’ve got plenty of AR mags.  That would be sweet.

.223 AKs are fun to shoot. The do bounce more than an AR, but it is a strange difference. Once you get used to it, you can keep the sights on target and run them like a jackhammer. Plus I can practice with the cheapest steel-cased crap in the world (not that anything is cheap anymore) and not worry about it.

Now the moron from the last post would call this polishing a terd. Ironically, when I’m done, I’ll have a gun that A. is still cheaper than his stupid gun. B. I can outshoot him with. (but then again, I could do that with a rusty Marlin camp carbine, so that’s not saying much). 

The last time I shot 3gun (January, because I suck, was unemployed for 3 months, and didn’t want to dip into my ammo stash) I used my DSA middy AR with the fluted barrel. It has run flawlessly, but I had a 1-4X scope on it in medium height rings, but it still has the regular front sight. The medium rings put the scope a little too low, so on the close and fast when I turned it down to 1X, the bottom half of my view was black. I hate that. On 4X it is fine, but I find 4X way too much for any of the run and gun stuff.

So that’s why this one is going to have the sights on the side. I tried a JP demo gun out once with that set up, (4X Trijicon on top, irons on the side) and it was remarkably fast. From bad breath to way out there, all you have to do is lift your wrist a few degrees. So right now I’m inclined toward a long eye relief 3X or so on top, with irons on the side of the aluminum tube. Lots of folks are running Doctor red dots on the side, and I may give that a try just to see how I like it.

If this Magnolia State adapter works, that would be that much cooler.

Oh, and when I’m done, I’m going to ugly it up a little. Maybe do a Krylon camo job at home, stick some black electrical tape on it like that’s holding something together… Mind games baby.  The first time Nightcrawler saw my gun collection, he said, “I kind of thought that you’d have something that looked nice.”  I’ve got this one FAL that has been completely rebuilt by one of the best FAL smiths out there, runs like a sewing machine, and I left the Century thumbhole stock on, just to make it look cheap. Same thing with my Vepr. It has a homemade wooden stock. And I don’t know how to do wordwork, so it is hideous bad ugly, and the gaps are filled in with unsanded putty. At one point I made a tac sling for it out of black elecrical tape and 550 cord.

But that makes beating the guy who’s bragging about his super fancy uber-gun that much sweeter.

I can’t believe that it’s been 6 months since I’ve last competed. The 3 years I spent at the gun store killed my free time. I used to try to shoot at least once a week. But now I’ve got the discretionary budget, and wifely permission to get back out there. I’m so going to get spanked.

In the recent thread about HK suing the Airsofters, I mentioned that I received a lot of hate mail for the original Suck and Hate You post. Most of it isn’t very creative, so I don’t bother to pay much attention to it, but every now and then, I get a real gem.

Like Jim here.

I wrote you one of those hate mails, chum.

I’m not your chum.

At the time you were selling cheap, bargain basement chicom AK’s to your fan boys to pose with in the mirror in their underwear –

I sold guns that ranged from cheap to extremely expensive. The single most common gun I sold were Stag rifles that were usually in the $800-$900 range. Most of the cheap AKs were purchased by people who were on a tight budget.  

As for posing in the underwear, I had a strict policy to never ever ask about stuff like that. And guys, now that I’m not in the gun business, I still don’t want to know.

and you tried to tell them that junk was not only as good as an HK, but better!

And what HK civilian-friendly non-scalper-priced rifle should I have sold them instead?

Oh wait, there isn’t one. Moron.

Yep. I would take a good AK like a Vepr or a custom Saiga over a G3 absolutely anytime. But then again, unlike most of the internet, I actually like to shoot guns and not just brag about what I own. When I was competing in a lot of 3gun, I managed to kick some butt with a Vepr. The only modifications were a custom stock (that I made myself and I suck with woodworking, so it is very ugly) and Krebs Galil style sights because I was shooting limited (iron sights).  

On a different note, my shooting has gone to crap because of lack of practice time, but I’m finally going to get back into competition. I think I’m mostly going to do USPSA and IDPA because rifle ammo has gotten too expensive to practice with and I don’t want to raid my reserves. I remember when I used to buy cases of practice ammo for $75-$95, burn through a couple thousand rounds a month, and be a happy camper. Those were the good old days, but I digress.

I guess as long as it puts a buck in your pocket, there is no harm in some idiot thinking that a piece of junk is a high end rifle…

Hmm… Jim, if I’m such an evil capitalist pig like you think I am, why wouldn’t I try and sell that customer an $800 or $1,000 gun instead of a $400 one… (we did have a $3,300 USC turned UMP once, but nobody was dumb enough to buy that thing)

I see that the Mad Ogre…who wrote a contemptable piece entitled ‘Why I hate the AR15′ is now selling them and trying to cash in on the AR fad.

For some reason a lot of Mad Ogre hate always seems to run downhill to me. I think it is because we’re friends in real life. I can’t speak for George, but I also know Joe Chetwood, who is building guns with him at Crusader. He used to work for me. I haven’t seen any of their stuff, but they’re both good guys and I hope they do awesome.

You gun bloggers are pretty much whores – but I suspect the whores would have more credibility than you guys.

What’s with all the anti-whore hate? Are you still upset about that one that turned out to be a dude? 

For the record, I haven’t been in the gun business since 2008, and I’m not famous enough to get any free stuff.  Whatever you read on my blog is my opinion. Ironically most of the people like Jim haven’t actually read the original post. They skimmed it, made some crap up, and moved on. In reality I mostly complained about HK being overrated and having lousy service. (and terrible triggers and ergonomics and price… never mind). So I went ahead and posted a response in the Airsoft thread.

Got his second post this morning, and it made me decide that Jim was worthy of his own blog post.

Just givin’ ya some of your own back and saying some things that need to be said.

Well thank goodness somebody is willing to step up and defend the little guy!

Here’s a couple more: Do you think your suppliers will treat you better becuase you slag the crap out of them and their products? The guys at HK won’t sell you the time of day and I don’t blame ‘em.

Ironically their service sucked before I ever wrote the rant. Plus, hate to break it to you, but there isn’t a dark cabal of German arms dealers who have my picture pinned to the wall with daggers and they curse my name. I’m pretty sure that I’m not that famous, nor important.

You’re an ass!

The internets have spoken. Who am I to argue?

Yes, they have misgivings about selling to civvies. Who can blame them?

Uhh… Civilians?

This next line is where Jim earned his very own blog post!

The chicom/russo pricks that sell you those bargain basement Kalashnikovs also sell them to the pisslamic swine that kill our boys in the sand box every day. Nice business associates you have there chum.

You mean Osama gets his guns from Century Arms, Vector, or Robinson Armament? Bastards!

Good thing Jim set me straight. HK is wise to not sell guns to regular Americans, because those guns will only end up in the hands of Al Queda… Jim probably also believes that all the Mexican drug lord’s guns come from gun shows.

Let me make sure I got this right. So the AK is bad, because it was designed by Soviets who then sold it to bad people, and by extension American companies who build AKs and sell them to regular Americans are therefore bad too, but HK which was founded by fleeing Nazis is good, because they refuse to sell to regular Americans and only sell to governments, including bad ones. And government guns never turn up in the wrong hands…

Hate to break it to you Jim, but the “pisslamic” guys will use whatever they can get their hands on. And yes, we’ve caught them with HKs, as well as FNs, Enfields, Brens, BARs, and one of my friends kept a Tommy Gun in his Humvee after they captured it. Heck, somebody sent me a picture of a captured STG-44 once. The AK is just the most common gun in the world.

I have a couple HK’s, a Bushmaster and a Colt in my gun room – and not a single AK POS in sight.

Good for you. But are you sure that you want to start a pissing match about who owns what with a guy who used to own a gun store? I own a few guns. Some are very nice. A few were really expensive. But I don’t need to post and brag about owning fancy guns, because my ego isn’t attached to what I can afford, rather what I can outshoot you with.

And since you just said that you don’t own any AK POS, you might want to try a good one before you knock it. You might be surprised. I’ve owned guns from HK, FN, Bushmaster, Armalite, DSA, Rock River, Stag, Sig, STI, Kel-Tec, Colt, Marlin, Remington, Winchester, Robarms, Century, RAA, Kahr, Ruger, Springfield, Browning, CZ, S&W, and others that I can’t remember off the top of my head.  All of them had shortcomings in one way or another, some I liked better than others, and a few I will never part with.

I can afford to shoot good guns AND buy them from better men than you.

And I couldn’t sell you a gun anyway, (not being an FFL anymore in favor of being a novelist), so I’m not really out anything, but I’m sure that you are just an absolute joy for your local dealer. Plus we already know from your unfortunate hooker experience that you are an expert on men.

In any event, carry on. All I am seeing here is another self proclaimed gun expert trying to set himself up as some kind of authority on the subject. Your fan boys await. Cheers, Jim

Jim, I may be rude at times and I may have fans, (I’m still wrapping my brain around the MHI fan club on Facebook), but I don’t think I’ve ever claimed to be an expert. At the end of the day, I’ll still be who I am, and you’ll still be an elitist prick, looking down on people who can’t afford guns like the ones that you mistakenly paid too much for and sticking up for the European sentiment that thinks American civilians getting their rifles is equivalent to arming terrorists.

So long, chum. And by that, I mean the mass of smashed pulp and fish guts your argument stunk like.

First, to give this move a proper review I have to separate into a few different people.

 

Gun Nut Review: Public Enemies was friggin’ awesome in every way. Very seldom do we get treated to BAR action. Sure, you get some Thompsons in movies, but almost never BARs, and you can count on one hand how many times you’ve got a flick with Remington Model 8s, .351 Winchesters, Winchester Model 12s, 1897s, Military Springfields, sporterized Springfields, and all manner of period goodness.

 

Then the gun fights… Everybody knows that Michael Mann is about the only director in Hollywood that strives for absolute reality in his gunfights. He gave us the epic bank robbery in Heat. I’ve actually seen top of the line firearms instructors use the Hey Homie Is That My Briefcase scene from Collateral in classes. There were even some great gun bits in Miami Vice. And I think that Public Enemies is right up there.

 

When he dies… man, the shot that does in Dillinger was perfection, pure artistry written in violence. (oh crap, I didn’t say spoiler alert… but if you didn’t pay any attention in at all in school, you deserve to have your movie ruined… Yeah… Passion of the Christ, Jesus totally gets crucified in that one)

 

Michael Mann Fan Review: He’s the only guy that can use shaky cam the entire movie and not piss me off. I’ve heard some critics complaining about the use of digital, and how it takes them out of the movie… Shut up. Michael Mann could draw stick figures with crayons and then flip the pages real fast in front of the camera, and he’d still make a better movie than most of the imbeciles who make movies. Some critics have complained about the grit. Personally I like the feel. It puts you there. It doesn’t feel like you’re watching a Hollywood polished thing with Michael Mann, you feel like you’re on the streets of Chicago, or watching a coyote skulk across an LA road in the middle of the night, or that Crocket and Tubbs ain’t screwing around and will blow up some Cubans.

 

Someone else said that there was no character growth or development. Listen, you don’t watch a Michael Mann movie for character development. He tells stories about people who already are what they are, and then you follow them to their inevitable conclusion. I once had a critic come back after reading one of my action sequences, saying that they didn’t like it, because I never said how did the character “feel” during the action.  Feel? You kidding me? You’ve never been punched in the face before have you? You deal with it and feel later. Michael Mann’s characters have all been punched in the face. A lot.

 

My only pet peeve is that is really hard sometimes to figure out who somebody is supposed to be, because he likes to have people show up and not name them. It doesn’t really matter though, because they’re either bad bad guys, bad good guys, good bad guys, flawed good guys, or innocent bystanders.

 

Amateur 1930s Historian Review:  Okay, as some of you know I’m writing a book set during the Great Depression, so over the last year I’ve done copious research into the period from the turn of the century to the late 1930s. I’ve read stacks and stacks of books, and I love me some Wikipedia. I especially like the gangster period and some of the people that are in this movie are minor background characters in Grimnoir.   

 

Let’s just say that if you are going to look at Public Enemies with a microscope to make sure that it is 100% factually correct, you will be disappointed.  Look, if I can check my brain at the door, and not start picking events apart, you can too. Here I am, beating myself up, looking up the history of individual words to make sure they were in common usage in 1932, and Michael Mann has people dying years before they really did, dying at somebody else’s hand, throwing together multiple events (which did make for one bad ass action sequence though), and more.  So I’m sitting there, thinking to myself… Hmmm… Baby Face Nelson didn’t die like that… and he died after Dillinger… aww screw it, that was an awesome gun fight.

 

You guys just remember that when I totally screw up something in Hard Magic. I know my readers… Sure, I can have teleporting ninjas fighting on top of a burning super-dirigible armed with a Tesla super weapon that never existed and that’s cool, but heaven forbid if I have somebody drink a soda that wasn’t distributed for six more months. I don’t want angry e-mails telling me that a such and such wasn’t invented until 1933, or that so and so was dead in 1931, because I’ll say go to hell, mine’s fantasy/alternative history, and it went down different in my world!  If Michael Mann can do it, so can I!

Overall, I really liked it.