Month: October 2023

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Happy National Ruger Day!

October 22, 2023 by 1 Comment

October 22nd or 10/22 is National Ruger Day. Obviously, it is a play on words about their best-selling .22LR carbine the Ruger 10/22.

The Ruger 10/22 was the first firearm I purchased when I turned 18. I remember getting it at the now-defunct Best Products in Greensboro, North Carolina for the lordly price of $55. I stupidly sold it sometime in the mid-1980s because I was short on cash. I now have two Ruger 10/22s. One is the International version with a full Mannlicher stock and the other is synthetic-stocked version with fiber optic sights.

I own a few other Rugers as well. They range from M77 rifles to 20 gauge Red Label to numerous pistols and revolvers. I even have a couple of Security-Six revolvers that I picked up used at good prices.

So on this October 22nd, let us thank Bill Ruger and Harry Sefried II for designing this wonderful rimfire carbine that is commemorated today. By the last estimate in 2015, over seven million had been made and sold. I’d wager that the total now is probably closer to eight million or more.

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Happy International Gin & Tonic Day

October 20, 2023 by 2 Comments

There is a special day for anything and everything. Thus, today is International Gin & Tonic Day.

I shall be partaking of course. I am thinking Fever Tree Tonic with one of my Texas gins such as Calamity or Waterloo No. 9. The only gins I have in the house right now are from either Texas or California. I don’t know where Sam’s Club distills their gin so I won’t worry about it.

The day was founded by Jayne Withers in honor of her 95 year old grandmother who refused to drink water in the hospital. She insisted on her gin and tonic so it was smuggled in to her as Ms. Withers explains below.

So here is to Mary Edith Keyburn who preferred gin and tonic over just plain water.

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Off Topic But WTF?

October 16, 2023 by 4 Comments

I read this morning that the US Department of State is finally getting around to evacuating American citizens stranded in Israel. They have chartered the Royal Caribbean ship Rhapsody of the Seas. American citizens will be taken from the port of Haifa to Limmasol, Cyprus. From there, they must make their own arrangements to get home to the United States. They are reported sailing today.

Given other such as Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), TV host Glenn Beck, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) have already chartered planes to return Americans to our shores, I guess it is better late than never. As Emily Miller wrote in her blog, private rescue groups learned their lessons from their experiences in Afghanistan two years ago.

Not only is the State Department slow to act but they have the unmitigated gall to expect evacuees to sign promissory notes agreeing to pay for their evacuation to Cyprus.

As Cdr Salamander wrote:

I would really like to know what requires the State Dept. to ask for a promissory note in order to be evacuated from a war zone. I mean, really. All the taxes you pay – and all the BS junk DOS spends money on, you are running ways from 7th Century rapists and child murderers – and they want you to fill out this?

He goes on to add that he hoped a US destroyer or two would accompany the cruise ship on it way to Limmasol along with having a company of Marines on board the cruise ship. We would not want another Achille Lauro, now would we?

Getting back to the promissory note, I have to say WTF! We spend boatloads of money to house, feed, and provide medical aid to illegal aliens who cross our Southern border. Taxpayers are subsidizing small businesses in Ukraine. Yet we expect Grandma and Grandpa who were visiting the Holy Land with their church group and who are now stuck because US airlines don’t want to fly into a war zone to sign this promissory note. This is just disgusting.

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Vista Outdoor Sells Ammo Business To Czechoslovak Group

October 16, 2023 by

Vista Outdoor had been planning to spin off their Sporting Products group as an independent business. The Sporting Products group included Federal, Remington, CCI, Speer, Alliant Powder, Hevi-Shot, and Estate Cartridges. They had adopted the name The Kinetic Group for the spun-off company. The spin off was to happen in the fourth quarter of this year.

That was announced at the beginning of September. Between then and this morning, things changed. It was announced this morning that Vista Outdoor would sell the Sporting Products group aka The Kinetic Group to Czechoslovak Group for $1.91 billion dollars in an all cash transaction. Czechoslovak Group (CSG) is a a Czech-based holding company with over 30 companies and 10,000 employees worldwide.

CSG has a number of divisions including CSG Aerospace, CSG Defence, CSG Mobility which makes Tatra trucks, and CSG Ammo. This last division includes ammo companies Fiocchi, Italy-based Baschieri & Pellagri, and UK-based Lyalvale Express. Fiocchi has plants in Italy, the UK, and in Ozark, Missouri which is just outside of Springfield.

Jason Vanderbrink will remain as CEO of the Sporting Products business under CSG and it will remain headquartered in Anoka, Minnesota. The leadership team of this business will include “Al Kerfeld, CFO; Jeff Ehrich, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; and Mark Kowalski, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer.”. The current CFO of Vista Outdoor will remain with Vista which is being renamed Revelyst.

Gary McArthur, interim CEO of Vista Outdoor, noted that the previous plans to spin off the Sporting Products business allowed them to pivot easily to making it a sale rather than a spin-off. He added that he thought a sale would provide a better way to maximize value for shareholders.

Jason Vanderbrink added:

“We are confident that CSG is a great home for our leading ammunition brands,” said Jason Vanderbrink, CEO of Sporting Products. “The company is fully committed to our iconic American brands and expanding our legacy of U.S. manufacturing, support for military and law enforcement customers, and investments in conservation and our hunting and shooting heritage. We are excited to work closely with the CSG team as we enter this next phase and position our brands for long-term success.”

Michal Strnad, CEO and 100% owner of CSG, said he was looking forward to partnering with Vanderbrink and his leadership team. He went on to add that he and CSG were “committed to expanding their legacy of U.S. manufacturing and providing resources to accelerate their growth.”

An investor call concerning the sale was held at 9am EDT this morning. It was recorded and you can listen to it here. You will need to register your name and email. A PDF of all the slides is here.

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Follow-Up On Windham Weaponry Closure

October 15, 2023 by

Approximately a month ago, I posted the unfortunate news that Windham Weaponry was closing its doors. The statement from Windham included a note that full liquidation would take place within a month or so. Given the notice of an auction I received recently, the liquidation will take place by auction with lots closing on Tuesday, October 17th.

The auction is online at Proxibid.com. A quick look at it shows stripped lowers in lots of 15-20 , other parts, ammunition, and some fully finished firearms. I am a little surprised at the bids on the fully finished firearms as they are higher than I would have expected.

Conversely, many of the parts used to assemble an AR are going for well under cost. The auctioneer has posted the costs of the parts in each lot. For example, Lot No. 646 contains 9mm buffer bumper caps, ejectors, weights, and more related parts. The cost of the parts is said to be $8,951 while the current bid is a mere $60.

A separate auction is being held for the general intangibles such as the company name, goodwill, mailing list of 54,000 names, their website, and social media accounts. This auction closes tomorrow, October 16th at 11am for the acceptance of sealed bids. A 10% deposit must accompany the bid.

The final auction for their machinery, office equipment, trucks, shelving, and other factory or office furnishings is also being held online at Proxibid. This auction starts closing on Tuesday, October 17th at 1 pm. I wish I lived closer as I would love some of their industrial shelving as well as a work bench or two. The prices here are very low. If someone was trying to start up a machine shop or a full-service gunsmithing operation, they could pick up some real bargains here.

It is always sad to see a manufacturing business close its doors. It is doubly sad to see a firearms company going under.

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Operation Gideon’s Trumpet

October 13, 2023 by 6 Comments

Tragedies can bring out the best and worst in people. I won’t go into the worst because it is all too common. However, the best can be there. Following the attack on the LGBTQ community in the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the firearms community stepped up to offer firearms instruction and familiarization to those in the LGBTQ community. It became what is now Operation Blazing Sword.

Our guest on the Polite Society Podcast this week was the Pew Pew Jew, Yehuda Remer. You can listen to his interview here starting at about the 8:40 mark. One of the things that Yehuda is doing in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel is to offer both training and advice to those in the Jewish community who are thinking it is time to consider being armed. After our interview with him, Yehuda was hosting a Zoom call with 18 participants to give them advice on what to consider when searching for their first firearm.

Yehuda’s outreach got me to thinking. Why can’t the rest of us in the gun culture, Jew or Gentile, step up and do the same for our friends and neighbors in the Jewish community?

Since the name Operation Blazing Sword is already taken, I would propose something like Operation Gideon’s Trumpet. I am far from a biblical scholar so if you can find a better example from the Old Testament, go for it.

So reach out to your Jewish friends, work colleagues, neighbors, etc. and make the offer. You don’t have to be pushy about it. You could just say If they just want to know more about becoming armed you would be happy to help. It could start out with just going with them on a visit to a gun store. Alternatively, you could take them to them range and let them shoot your guns and ammo.

I don’t know if this will go anywhere but we will never know if we don’t try.

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Want To Learn More About The Firearms Industry?

October 11, 2023 by

Ben Langlotz is a patent attorney who specializes in the firearms industry. He is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. In addition to his legal work, he publishes a monthly newsletter called “Bulletproof”.

If you want to know more about the in’s and out’s of the firearms industry at the manufacturer level, you need to subscribe to and read Ben’s newsletter. It deals with patents, trademarks, and copyrights. He goes into how to protect your ideas and inventions. Just as importantly, he discusses whether it makes financial sense to even try to patent an invention as it can cost you more to do so than it will bring in return.

Ben has worked with companies across the firearms industry. He shares that expertise in Bulletproof. The cost to subscribe to this invaluable resource is….free! Just go to this sign-up page.

I first met Ben in person about a year and a half ago while attending the 2022 Dallas Safari Club convention. We met for dinner and it was a fascinating evening. Just sharing a meal with Ben I learned so much that I didn’t know about the firearms industry. As I said, it was a great evening.

As I said in the headline, if you want to learn more about the firearms industry then you need to subscribe to Bulletproof. I am saving my back issues in a binder as part of my firearms industry reference library.

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Judge Allows Motion On Supplemental Deposition Of Willes Lee

October 10, 2023 by

I was alerted a few minutes ago by an email from the blog NRA In Danger that Judge Cohen had granted the NY AG’s “motion to compel a post-note of issue, supplemental deposition” of Willes Lee. In doing so, he rejected the arguments put forth by the NRA and Lee.

The meat of Judge Cohen’s order is this:

Here, Mr. Lee’s post-NOI public statements, resignation from the SLC, and removal from NRA leadership are “unusual or unanticipated circumstances” that warrant a “brief and targeted” (NYSCEF 2205 [OAG Reply Brief at 12]) supplemental deposition (Esteva v Catsimatidis, 4 AD3d 210, 211 [1st Dept 2004]). Contrary to the NRA’s argument, in these circumstances the OAG’s ability to cross-examine Mr. Lee at trial is not a sufficient replacement for pre-trial discovery. Further, there is no assurance that Mr. Lee will testify at trial, thus potentially locking in his initial deposition testimony without the opportunity to further question the witness based on subsequent events.

He also found that the potential prejudice to the NYAG’s Office outweighed any potential prejudice to the NRA from having Lee desposed.

The deposition must take place within the next 30 days, it can be for up to seven hours, and it will be limited to the new facts and circumstances that the NY AG’s motion identified.

Given the contradictions between what Lee said in his earlier depositions to both the NY AG and the Bankruptcy Court and what he has posted on social media, this will be interesting. The former directors that I contacted about Lee’s assertions in his affidavit were in agreement he never challenged the NRA’s leadership nor encouraged others to do so.

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You Are On Your Own

October 9, 2023 by 4 Comments

Michael Bane constantly reminds his listeners that in times of unrest or natural disasters that “you are on your own.” Reliance on police or emergency services to save you can be futile. Many Israeli civilians have just learned that fact. The Times of Israel estimates that the death toll from the Hamas terror attacks this weekend has reached 800 with many more wounded. If you were to scale that number up in the United States like blogger Cdr Salamander did, the number would approach 25,000 in a day.

IDF soldier next to dead civilians [Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo] from Al Jezeera

We often think that Israel is an armed country. We have all seen the pictures of off-duty IDF women carrying their issued M-16s. The reality is much different. It is estimated that only 2.5% of Israeli civilians have gun permits. Those permits allow them one firearm and 50 cartridges.

As Stephen Gutowski of The Reload reports, this crisis has forced the government to relax the requirements.

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir announced on Sunday he has ordered officials responsible for issuing gun licenses to broaden its standards. As the death toll inflicted by terror group Hamas grew to over 600, Ben-Gvir said he wants more Israelis to be able to legally arm themselves.

“Today I directed the Firearms Licensing Division to go on an emergency operation in order to allow as many citizens as possible to arm themselves,” he posted, according to a Google translation. “The plan will take effect within 24 hours.”

Ben-Gvir also increased the amount of ammo that one can have from 50 rounds to 100 rounds. To my mind, both amounts are insignificant when faced with terrorists armed with full-auto AK-47s.

Tom Gresham on his Sunday Gun Talk Radio broadcast devoted time to the attack on Israel and its people by suggesting an “imagination exercise”.

While there is no magazine in my ready AR-15, this is what is next to the AR along with a ready bag with more filled magazines and a first aid kit. In retrospect, I think I need to add a set of shooting muffs to the setup.

I can’t say my idea is original. I got it from author Matt Bracken who first wrote about how to make duplexed magazines in 2010. I modified mine a bit from his in that I used a piece of dowel instead of a pencil for the spreader and I didn’t fill the space in between with silicone caulk. If you decide to make your own, use GI-type metal magazines. I think mine were either C-Products or D&H. P-Mags just won’t work for this. You could just get the 60-round drum mag from Magpul but the duplexed mag is a lot cheaper and works just as well.

I don’t expect to be attacked by Hamas, Hezbollah, or Mexican drug cartels. But then again neither did most of the Israeli citizens who were killed or kidnapped this past weekend. That said, home invasions with multiple attackers are on the rise. Being prepared doesn’t mean you are paranoid. It just means you are prepared for something you hope will never happen. If you are prepared, then it will be one less thing to have to worry about.

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Goodbye, Illinois; Hello, South Carolina!

October 9, 2023 by

Manticore Arms is relocating from Illinois to South Carolina. Currently located in Elburn, a village in Kane County just west of Chicago, they will be moving to North Charleston, South Carolina.

From a popup on their website:

Manticore Arms is MOVING!

We are Relocating to 7300 Peppermill Parkway, North Charleston, SC 29418. All orders placed after Thursday October 12th will be packed and shipped after we resume operations in our new location. We estimate shipping to resume Tuesday, October 24th. ORDERS PLACED BETWEEN THESE DATES WILL NOT SHIP UNTIL AT LEAST OCTOBER 24TH.

Manticore is a combination design firm and OEM manufacturer. They manufacture after-market parts for a number of firearms as well as providing design work for other firearm companies.

Their email announcing the move says they are moving to “much more gun friendly state!”. I would agree.

It also looks like the new building will also be larger as well as solely dedicated to Manticore Arms.

Here is their old location in Elburn where the building was shared with a number of other companies.

I hope the move goes smoothly for them and welcome to the Carolinas.