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For The Magpul Fanboys – Magpod

January 17, 2012 by

From what I understand, Magpul  Mag-Pod USA released the Magpod floor plate at the SHOT Show. It is a floorplate for their PMags that fills in the curved void between the bottom of the magazine and a flat surface. The Magpod serves, as the name would imply, as a pod to steady your AR.

It looks like a nice little invention that was just waiting to be discovered. The only thing I wonder about is whether resting the rifle on its magazine could cause some misfeeds. This may be a non-issue and one that Magpul examined and then discarded as irrelevant.

UPDATE: According to Rob Curtis at MilitaryTime’s GearScout blog, he was concerned about the same thing.

I was surprised that shooting from the mag had no effect on feeding/cycling on either AR used during the evaluation. The first rifle was a Smith & Wesson M&P15 VTAC and the second, a Mega Arms lower with a Daniel Defense 16” upper. Both cycled flawlessly with the MagPod. I was so determined to cause a malf, that I sat on the range dumping rounds ‘till my right thumb was sore from loading and my left hand was sweating from the smoking barrels.

I guess that answers my question – it doesn’t cause misfeeds. Read his full review of it at the link above.

I thought this floorplate was from Magpul itself as it was designed to work with their PMag. That is incorrect. It is from the same company that makes Multitasker Tools. They are out of Marietta, Georgia according to their Facebook page.

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Pastor Kenn At Media Day

January 17, 2012 by

I really like Kenn Blanchard but sometimes it is tough when I see him out in beautiful sunny Nevada at the SHOT Show Media Day playing with all the “new toys” while I’m stuck here in gray, overcast North Carolina working. Grumble, grumble.

I’m actually looking forward to more reports from Kenn and the other gun bloggers from SHOT Show. If I can’t be there, it is good to know that friends are and are working hard on getting the word out.

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A Round-Up Of More Media Day Videos

January 17, 2012 by

From Down Range Firearms Training as they try the Caracal.

From Firearms Guide on the new Gen 4 Glock 21 in .45 ACP.

From GunWebsites on the new Springfield XDs45 Compact which is a single stack .45 ACP.

And another on the same XDs45 from Two Brothers Adventures which gives some more info on the pistol.

And finally, Colt’s Bulldog Gatling Gun courtesy of NRA News.

UDPATE: One more to add. Caleb of Gun Nuts Media trys out the Springfield XDs45. I think this may be one of the hits of this year’s SHOT Show.

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2012 SHOT Show Media Day

January 17, 2012 by

NSSF just posted this short overview of the 2012 SHOT Show Media Day.

I attended the 1996 SHOT Show in Dallas. While I found it fantastic at the time, it was just a fraction of the current SHOT Show. One of these years, I’m going to do like JayG and get out to SHOT. One of these years…

And then I can do like Jay and post a picture like this on Facebook.

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In Case You Missed It This Weekend

January 16, 2012 by

There were a lot of great blog posts over the weekend in the gun blogosphere. However, there are two that I really want to point as worthy of a careful read.

The first is by Barron Barnett at The Minuteman. It is an open letter to Joan Peterson, gun prohibitionist and Brady Campaign board member, who took great exception to the video that he and Joe Huffman produced. Barron points out the hypocrisy of her views, the attacks made on gun rights activists by the prohibitionists, and how we care about all victims of violence – not the select few.

The second post is an examination of Mitt Romney’s record in Massachusetts by Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned. During the time that Romney was Governor of Massachusetts, Bitter was a resident of the commonwealth and was active with the Gun Owners Action League. She points out she is not a fan of Romney – nor am I for that matter – but felt the need to clarify his record on firearms from that time because we would be doing “our constituency a disservice if we aren’t honest about Mitt’s record on gun rights.” It turns out he did a number of things that actually helped gun owners.

As I said in the intro, both of these posts are worthy of your time and should be read. The former because it points out where the other side is coming from and the latter because we don’t always get the candidate and probably nominee for President we might wish to have.

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Historical Quote Of The Week

January 16, 2012 by

After reading and reviewing the new book Proclaiming Liberty, I approached Philip Mulivor about doing a Historical Quote of the Week from quotes within the book. He, like I, thought it was an excellent idea.

So herewith is the first of a new weekly feature.

Both [oligarch and tyrant] mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

Aristotle. Aristotles’ Politics. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916. 218. Print.

I went with Aristotle as the first because of his influence on both political thought throughout time and on the Founding Fathers.

Proclaiming Liberty is available through Amazon.com.

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Proclaiming Liberty – A Review

January 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

Philip Mulivor recently sent me a copy of his book Proclaiming Liberty: What patriots and heroes really said about the right to keep and bear arms for review. It is a book of quotes on the Second Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms by everyone from the Founding Fathers to modern-day bloggers such as Dave Hardy and Marko Kloos. While the quotations are primarily from the pro-rights side, Mulivor does include some quotes from the opposition.

Why a book of quotations?

Mulivor offers three reasons. First, the Internet is rife with either inaccurate or phony gun rights quotations. Because of this, it is important for our side of the debate to have accurate quotes that are properly attributed and sourced. Mulivor notes that his biggest job wasn’t assembling a set of quotes but rather verifying their word-for-word accuracy and vetting their original sources. All of the quotes are fully cited.

Second, the author wants to provide the reader a gateway to “to classic works that promise a genuine understanding of the Second Amendment.” He provides an extensive bibliography at the end of the book.

Finally, and in my opinion the most important, the author  wants to better equip pro-rights people when we engage in debate with the gun prohibitionists.

Quotations are the haiku of political discourse, carrying a disproportionate amount of power for their size. That alone qualifies them as important, if not critical, elements of our gun rights conversation. Their efficacy is especially apparent today, when sound bites designed for arrested attention spans play a key role in shaping public opinion. One can indeed experience the sensation of pulling the pin on a grenade when preparing to quote a Founding Father. 

Proclaiming Liberty is a useful little book and I recommend it highly. You can find it on Amazon.com or through the author’s website www.gunquotebook.com. It retails for $12.95 and is eligible for free Super Saver shipping on Amazon.

In my emails with the author, he reports that Kindle and Nook versions will be available very soon. I think having these quotations available on your Kindle or Nook equipped smart phone would be very useful when discussing gun rights with those occupying the middle ground in the gun rights debate. By this, I mean those who might be coming out of Gun Culture v.1.0 who are not strongly pro-gun rights but are not gun prohibitionists either.

To comply with the nanny-staters at the FTC, the author sent me a copy of this book for review purposes.

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Congratulations To Kenn On Five Years Of Podcasting

January 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

Rev. Kenn Blanchard, the Black Man with a Gun, and my brother from another mother, is celebrating five years of podcasting. His Urban Shooter/Black Man with a Gun podcast was one of the first ones that I started listening to on my old iPod Nano and I’m still listening.

I’ve shot with Kenn, I’ve talked with Kenn, I’ve ridden with Kenn, and I’ve eaten with Kenn and he is one of the finest individuals that grace the face of this Earth. We are extremely lucky to have him on our side in the gun rights debate.

You can find his podcast on iTunes or at his podcast website. Make sure to check out his blog and website at www.kennblanchard.com.