Tomorrow is Cabela’s National Ladies Day Out in several locations around the country, and this event features a whole bunch of great demos and seminars, including buying the right gun, archery and even how to make jerky.
I will be staffing Phoenix Rod & Gun Club’s IDPA table at Ladies Day Out, so stop by and I will tell you all about this fun and challenging sport, which requires a minimal amount of equipment and just a little bit of brain power.
Phoenix Rod & Gun Club‘s Practical Division has been kind enough to offer free shooting for ladies at all May IDPA matches. Check the calendar and come on out and shoot with us. Seriously. If you’re interested, please contact me, and I’d be glad to walk you through any one of the May matches.
Outdoor Channel is sending a contest winner to the NRA Annual Meeting and Convention in St. Louis April 12th-15th, and the lucky person gets to attend the show AND walk the convention floor with an Outdoor Channel camera crew and cover the event for them.
Thinking that it would be super cool for a gun blogger nobody to win, I entered the contest by submitting a video, and now it’s time for judging! Outdoor Channel is encouraging those of us who entered to ask our friends to head over to their site and astroturf comment on their favorite entry and give a “thumbs up” to their favorite video.
I would be most grateful if you could mosey over to this post on the Outdoor Channel Community website and give me (Jaci) a “thumbs up”, a five-star rating and/or a supportive comment. You do need to create an account, but Outdoor Channel makes it easy to sign up for their community site with your Facebook or Twitter account. Once you’ve left your comment or thumbs up, please come back here to let me know and I’ll do my best to give you and/or your blog a shout-out on camera if I win.
It’s that time again – the new season of Top Shot begins on Tuesday the 14th (10/9c), and the History Channel’s Top Shot Season 4 webpage has given out a few clues on what’s in store for the first episode:
Season Four begins with the biggest twist in Top Shot history: two competitors are sent packing immediately after a surprise shoot-off in the opening minutes of the first episode. Later, two shooters get a taste of WWII combat as they fire an M1 Carbine from a motorcycle sidecar and attempt to stay in the game.
This year, I don’t have a favorite going in, but I would like to see Michelle Viscusi do well, and not just because she’s a lady (though I freely admit that is a factor). She’s practically a neighbor (she lives in the next city over) and competes at my home range, Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club.
Good luck to all of the competitors, and may the best PERSON win!
My muse told me to get off my lazy butt, so it’s time to share my 1911 project gun.
My project is a .45 ACP 1911 with a chrome Colt Series 80 slide, a Caspian frame, a 1990s vintage Aimpoint, Colt grips, and a 20 plus pound recoil spring. The recoil and main springs are so stiff that the former owner converted remnants of a Chevy gas pedal into a slide racker, just to be able to chamber a round. Each time I refer to this little beast as a Frankengun, I could swear it snipes back at me, “it’s pronounced Fron-kon-gunn.”
After SHOT Show 2011, Mz. VRWC decided she absolutely needed a 9mm Rock Island Armory 1911 Tactical so she could continue shooting USPSA matches while her Production class gun went in for a doctor visit. Suddenly, I feared that I would need to learn a lot more about working on guns derived from John Moses Browning’s most famous design.
A nearby gun store in Mesa just happened to have a 9mm RIA in stock, as well as a rough, vintage looking, 1911 race gun. I don’t think I actually said, “hold my beer and watch this” out loud, but somewhere inside, a voice did say, “you can learn all about making a 1911 run with that one”. The Frankengun just kept staring at me with that sad mournful look that usually haunts people in pet stores and animal shelters.
After trading the store (that I borrowed the photo from) a few dollars and the Taurus Judge previously won at a Friends of NRA dinner, Mz. VRWC had a budget 1911 for Single Stack competition and I had a “new” used gun. More precisely, I had a new project.
When this project is finished, I should have a fun .45 for shooting steel, or a pile of scrap metal. Follow along as I go through the gun in the coming weeks and see what’s inside Frankengun.
It’s become a tradition for the cast members of Top Shot to meet up for a casual reunion during SHOT Show, and with three seasons under their belt and one on the way, this year’s event was bigger than ever. So big, that it was pretty much impossible to get a complete group shot of all but a few of the cast of characters, but as you can see from the photos, everyone involved had a great time. In addition to just about all of the cast members from season 1 though 3, the contestants from season 4 were also in attendance. You will be able to watch them get their game on in just over a week, as Top Shot Season 4 premiers February 14th at 10/9 central.
Thanks to Crimson Trace and Top Shot Season 1 winner and Media Relations Manager for Crimson Trace, Iain Harrison, for hosting this unique event. I think you’re gonna need a bigger boat next year.
One of the hottest guns on the floor at SHOT Show 2012 was the Sig Sauer P938, a brand new pistol modeled after Sig’s wildly popular P238, but chambered in 9mm.
Designed for the concealed carry market, the P938 is very similar to the P238. So similar, in fact, it’s difficult to tell the difference between the two at first glance (click on image above). It’s only about a quarter of an inch longer than the P238, so it retains it’s ease of concealment, and as you can see from the image of the two backstraps, the only noticeable difference in this area is the more aggressive checkering (to assist with recoil control of the larger caliber). If you’ve been considering purchasing the P238, but have hesitated because you would like to carry something more powerful than the .380 ACP, the Sig P938 may fit your needs perfectly.
I haven’t had a chance to shoot the P938 (yet), but I was able to get my hands on it during SHOT Show. The ambidextrous safety was stiff enough that I wouldn’t worry about it disengaging accidentally while carrying, but I was able to thumb it on and off without a great deal of effort (which is not the case with many of the pocket pistols I’ve tried). The trigger broke cleanly, and while listed on the Sig Sauer website as a 5lb pull, it felt just a bit heavier to me. I didn’t notice a difference in the grip between the P938 and the P238, and despite feeling slightly awkward to hold (like any other pocket pistol), it didn’t feel like it was going to fall out of my hand. When the extended seven round magazine was inserted (sold separately, it ships with a six round mag), I found that the extended mag made it more comfortable to grip the P938.
Sig Sauer is planning on initially offering the P938 in four different flavors – Blackwood (MSRP $809), Equinox (MSRP $823), Rosewood (MSRP $795), and my favorite, Extreme (Shown at left, MSRP – $823). The Extreme includes all the bells and whistles of the other models, including SIGLITE Night Sights, and features Hogue G-10 Extreme Grips. Not only are they super cool looking, they provide a solid, aggressive grip without being ouchy or pinchy (to put it in technical terms).
Using the street price vs. MSRP of the P238 as a measure, you can expect the P938 to sell for around $100 less than MSRP. While this places the P938 at the upper end of pricing for pocket pistols, keep in mind that you are getting an all-metal, mini 1911 with night sights. I’m looking forward to making one of these go bang, and when I do, I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.
Last week at SHOT Show’s Media Day at the Range, I couldn’t help but notice that the MKA 1919 12 gauge semi-auto shotgun was receiving a great deal of attention. This unique, AR-15 style shotgun is made by Turkish company Akdal Arms, and was being showcased at the range by U.S. importer RAAC. Stock MKA 1919’s are currently available online for around $700-800.
In addition to the stock models, they also had a model customized for 3-gun competitions in the open division by Firebird Precision, which was incredibly popular for those that wanted to give one of the MKA’s a try. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to test it out, but I talked to a few people that shot the race gun version, and they were surprised by the lack of recoil and said it was very fun to shoot.
The MKA 1919 ships with two 5-round metal detachable magazines, 3 internal chokes, and almost all of the controls are identical to an AR. The barrel is 19.7 inches, and it weighs only 6 1/2 pounds when empty.
I expect the MKA 1919 shotgun to give the Saiga-12 shotgun a run for the money in 3-Gun competition. It’s two pounds lighter than the Saiga, would make transitioning from rifle to shotgun almost effortless, and aftermarket competition accessories are already available. The tricked-out race gun will set you back somewhere around $1800, and you can expect to wait approximately 8 weeks for delivery.
Check out 3-Gun champion Patrick Kelley’s video clip of the super tuned, competition model MKA 1919 in action at the 2012 SHOT Show Media Day at the Range:
Tomorrow is Cabela’s National Ladies Day Out in several locations around the country, and this event features a whole bunch of great demos and seminars, including buying the right gun, archery and even how to make jerky. 
