We shut down our old website, and a new one will be up soon. In the meantime however, that means that I can’t be reached at my larry@fbmginc.com e-mail. So if you need to buy something from me, call me at the shop at 801-571-1160.
A new page is coming, and it is going to be much nicer.
There’s been a huge run on MHI since I annouced that the original edition is getting discontinued because I’m getting picked up with a big publisher. On the Amazon page, it shows as out of stock, but there’s another link there to “used” copies starting at $17 something from a bookstore in Pennsylvania. Which I’m assuming is actually the POD publisher, since that’s where they’re located. Somebody contacted me on THR and pointed this out, and that’s where he got his copy from.
I do not have a firm ETA on the discontinuation yet, because I haven’t received the contract in the mail yet.
It’s showing as out of stock right now, and some of you have asked, but no, it has not be discontinued yet. Some folks have e-mailed me about that. The contract is not signed yet with the big publisher. I think what happened was that there was a run on them when I mentioned that I would be ending the self-published version soon. I don’t know how soon exactly, but probably next week, so they’ll be printing them at the POD publisher until I tell them to end it.
But as of today on Amazon:
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What’s this?)
| #57 in | Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Contemporary |
| #84 in | Books > Entertainment > Television > Shows > 1980’s |
Okay, I don’t know how I ended up as #84 on books about the 1980s, since the book takes place in the early 2000s, and the time periods that are referenced in the past are 1995, 1945, 1895, and an unknown period in the late 1400s.
But hey, MHI can roll with Miami Vice, Night Rider, and the A-Team any day.
But not ALF. Monster Hunters have to draw the line somewhere.
I had a gentleman come into my store yesterday. I had taught his CCW class a little while before, and he had asked me if we could do modifications to guns. I told him to bring the gun by the shop and I would introduce him to my gunsmith.
So he comes in yesterday, real nice guy, and his gun that he wants to modify is a USP .40, and it is the variant that is double action only, with a manual safety. I ask what the problem is, and he says, try the trigger.
Pull-pull-pull-pause for breath-pull-dramatic hesitation-click. I don’t know what the pull weight on this particular speciman was, but the trigger pull gauge doesn’t go that high. Honest opinion? It was bad, even by DAO standards. Let me rephrase, it was bad double action, even by German standards.
So understandably, he wanted to change out the little plate so that he could switch it to the da/sa cocked and locked variant. I told him that I’m not HK direct, so that his best bet would be to contact their customer service and see about getting the Variant 1 plate.
He has contacted customer service. Repeatedly. For a long time. Hasn’t had any luck.
So I’m trying not to say anything, because then everybody on the internet will say, Oh Silly Correia, you’re just biased. You’re just a HATER. You’re just not an OPERATOR! (on that note, there’s a video game forum that has posted my picture and my profile from my blog, and says that it must suck to be a 32 year old virgin, because apparently, if you don’t like HK, then you don’t get to have The Sex. Which, I’ll have to inform my lovely wife of 10 years, that this new policy must go into effect immediatly, and also my 3 children, because apparently, they don’t actually exist. Also ironically, they’ve somehow construed that I hate video games, because I make fun of people who’s knowledge base comes from games, when I’m hopelessly addicted to my Xbox 360. Go figure)
So my gunsmith and I start going to various places online that we can get parts from, and have zero luck.
So I pull up HK’s page, and start calling other Utah gunshops that are listed as HK direct dealers. The first shop I call has been around a long time, and I used to shop there before I started my own place. They’ve got some good people there, and are located in Salt Lake City. Maybe they’ll have some, or be able to get them…
Correia: Hi, I would like to get one of those plates so that I can change a USP from DAO to DA/SA with safety. Do you have them, or can you get them?
Gunstore #1: Uh… well… Yeah, about that, we’re listed on their page, but you’ve got to understand, that they’re kind of hard to get parts from… and… well…
Correia: Dude, I’m calling from FBMG. I’m a dealer too. I’m calling for a customer. I know all about them.
Gunstore #1: Oh, cool. Then you know they’re a pain in the ass. Sorry man. Good luck. You’re gonna need it.
Okay. No luck there. So I called another Utah gunstore on the list. I’m not as impressed with these guys, but they’re on the list. I will not reveal the company name to protect the stupid. This phone call started the same as the first, but the idiot on the other line, barely able to string two coherant sentances together, at first didn’t understand what I was asking for, then got really confused, bloviated for about five minutes while I used very simple words to explain what I was looking for, before he finally told me to call back tomorrow to talk to his boss.
I hung up the phone, looked at the 3 Minions I had working behind the FBMG counter and told them, “I swear that if any of you, ever, answers a phone here, and you’re as clueless and useless as that guy, I’ll fire you on the spot.” They all nod sagely. “No, screw that. I’ll just shoot you in the knee cap.”
So I come to you, knowledgable people of the internet. Where the hell do you get those plates for USPs? I can’t find them online anywhere, unless I’m searching for the wrong term, HK customer service won’t call the customer back, and nobody local seems to have them.
And no snide comments about how I should sell him a different gun. Contrary to what some people on the internet seem to think about me, I’m not a devotee of any brand or type. I just think you should use what works for you, and not get all self-righteous about your crap. However, it is hard to use a gun with a 20 pound trigger that you start pulling in January and it will discharge sometime in March, (unless it’s a leap year, then it may go off in February). Surely, if this customer was a REAL OPERATOR, living on a diet of raw snake meat and Dick Marcinko novels, then he would easily pull that trigger.
Ironically, since I was informed earlier this week that the “VAST MAJORITY” of special operations people preferred HK products, I thought I would check. Since my store’s approximately a block from the Headquarters, and a big chunk of my customer base is wearing ACUs when I sell them guns, I do sell a few personal guns to SF people. And since my business partner is the friggin’ armorer (45B) for the local SF unit, he knows everybody.
Ironically, the single most popular handgun purchased was the Springfield XD .45.
The single most popular rifle was a Stag AR15.
Ironic. 🙂
I noted earlier today that I was offered a contract from a large publisher for Monster Hunter International, and that if you wanted a Larry Correia self-published 1st edition, you needed to pick it up soon, because that version was getting discontinued. Well, apparently some of you decided to buy a copy.
From Amazon at 11:00 PM:
Popular in this category: (What’s this?)
| #34 in | Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Contemporary |
#5,031? That sounds like a lot until you realize that they’ve got like a million books on there. And #34 in Contemporary Fantasy?
Not bad for a self published hack wannabe!
And to the Fan Boy that said I was easily intimidated, apparently he’s never tried to make it as a writer. I could wallpaper my living room with rejection letters, and I just kept beating my head against the bricks, but all that is finally paying off. I almost said that all of the “hard work” was paying off, but who am I kidding? I would write for free. Writing isn’t work. Writing is what keeps me from going on a tri-state chainsaw rampage!
See all 34 customer reviews…
