by Congratulations to the Illinois State Rifle Association and ICarry for what looks to have been a successful IGOLD Day.
FFL Finder – A Review Of the iPhone App
FFL Finder is an iPhone app that lets you find gun dealers, gunsmiths, firearms manufacturers, Class III dealers and manufacturers, importers, and pawnbrokers that deal in firearms. It was developed by Warsaw, Illinois-based Hunt Geek, Inc. who says they make “techie tools for the outdoors”. I can’t speak to their other apps but I did like FFL Finder.
I have used FFL Finder for the last week. It allows you to filter by up to nine FFL categories, find dealers within a specified radius of your current position, or find dealers across the United States by going to that location on the map. You can select from standard map, satellite view, or a combo of the two.
If you are looking for a certain dealer in a city, you can put part or all of their name in the search field. If you just want to know the name of all dealers within a 20-mile radius of either your current location or a spot on the map, you leave that field blank and go from there. FFL Finder does require an internet or WiFi connection to retrieve current data for display or mapping.
FFL Finder uses push-pins to indicate the location of all the hits it finds within the radius specified. You just tap on the pin and it will then list the dealer at that location. I had GPS enabled while I was doing the search above.
Tapping of the label will bring up complete information about the FFL. It also allows you to dial directly from the app by tapping on the phone number. One of my favorite local dealers, Carolina Mountain Tactical, is shown above. (All the screen shots were generated directly on my iPhone)
The info screen gives you the street address, phone number, and type of FFL. If you have GPS enabled, it will also tell you have far your current location is from the dealer’s store.
The are two things I really like about FFL Finder. First is its ease of use. Like all good apps, it is intuitive. No special knowledge or instructions are needed to use this app. Second, even though I was familiar with the larger dealers in my area, I found a lot of smaller dealers, gunsmiths, and others that I had no clue were located near me. For example, I had read a good review of Galloway Precision’s parts for the Ruger SR9 in The Truth About Guns. I just didn’t realize that they were in the Asheville area until I used this app.
While FFL Finder does include a filter for collectors of curious and relics, no C&R FFL’s are currently included in the database. I tested this by searching for myself. Jeff Hughes, co-founder of Hunt Geek and self-described Lead Dorkitecht, said this was a known problem and it was due to ATF not providing them with that information. However, the rest of the database is accurate and is normally updated on a quarterly basis.
This app does not search on a zip code. I think that would be a useful way to search as opposed to having to center the map on a city or town. When I asked Jeff Hughes about it, he said, zip code searches were “more data intensive – and due to the broad nature of zip codes, it would be less accurate.” However, he said that they may add this feature later if there is enough user demand for this feature.
The app is $1.99 in the iTunes Store. It is a fair price for a really useful app especially if you are like me and check out gun stores when you travel on business or on vacation. The other apps from Hunt Geek are Rangefinder – a shot drop calculator, Knot Wars which illustrates 40 knots, and Shooting Hours which calculates sunrise, sunset, and shooting hours for your location.
In the interest of full disclosure and to keep the Federal Trade Commission happy, Hunt Geek provided me this app for free. That said, I would have happily paid for it.
Pronunciation Guide For Libyan Leader
Now that the USS Barry has joined the coalition against Libya, it brings to mind the name of the guy that those missiles are trying to kill. Is is Muammar El-Qhadafi or is it Mo’amar Khadhaffy? The answer is yes.
Here are all the possible ways to pronounce the name of that guy in Libya with the female bodyguards.
H/T MungoSaysBah‘ MilIntel
Triple Threat Pistol Drill
The targets used by Viking Tactics have a variation on the Mozambique (two to the chest, one to the head). They do three to the chest, one to the head, and one to the pelvis. It looks to be an interesting drill.
One thing I’ve wondered about in these sorts of drills is whether it is better to take out one target completely and then move to the others or hit each each one once or twice and then go back. I’ve never been in a tactical situation nor have I attended a class so I don’t know the right answer to this.
Progressive Bifocals And Shooting
I’m not to bifocals yet as I get by with just reading glasses. Still, if you have aging eyes and you wear progressive bifocals, this little video by Bryan Bilenski might just explain why you are having problems with your shooting.
H/T GunTalk
Bad Translations
Depending upon a mechanical tool like Google Translate to translate from one language to another can result in some interesting translations.
Here is a case in point. This morning I was reading on the Blade Forums about a new bushcraft knife from Mora of Sweden that came with a firesteel attached to its sheath.
The original page on the knife at the company’s website was in Swedish. Someone helpfully posted this link which translated the page from Swedish to English. The third paragraph was translated thusly:
On the rugged vagina is a well-lit room for the steel and the diamond will be easy to sharpen the blade. It is easy to replace the two included bältesclipsen that lets you choose how you want to carry your knife.
The proper translation from Mora of Sweden’s own page is this.
The robust sheath is provided with a well thought out space for the firesteel and completed with a diamond sharpener, making it easy to sharpen the knife blade. A black handle with high-friction grip gives the finishing touch to the Bushcraft Survival, a knife that suits a tough lifestyle!
And we sometimes wonder how international incidents come to pass. Wonder no more.
By the way, if you are looking for good, reasonably-priced knives to use outdoors or to put in your bug-out kit, the Mora knives are some of the best you can find. They are sharp, strong, and well-made. I probably have a dozen of them in various styles. I can recommend them without any hesitation and can also recommend Ragnar’s Ragweed Forge as the place to buy them. He also has a full catalog of other Scandinavian knives including Finnish puukko and leuko knives. For the price of the cheap crap bought at a discount store, you can have a real knife made with good steel that will last.
Best Secretary Of State Ever Says Obama
As President Obama has now made the decision to send the U.S. armed forces to the shores of Tripoli again, I stumbled across this little tidbit.
Obama who made a rare appearance at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department to attend the holiday reception party hosted by the Washington’s vibrant diplomatic community by Clinton said, “I think there’s a consensus building that this may be one of the best Secretaries of State we’ve ever had in this country’s history.”
I guess that would be because Hillary isn’t a dead white guy like these other former Secretaries of State: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Marshall, Daniel Webster, Cordell Hull, George Marshall and Dean Acheson. Or even a living white guy like Henry Kissinger who wrote the book on foreign policy that I used in college.
In Honor Of St. Patrick’s Day
There are few things as good in this world as a perfectly poured pint of Guinness. My great-grandmother born in County Cavan used to urge my Mom to drink Guinness because she thought her too skinny. As the ad says, Guinness is good for you.
SAF Responds To NJ AG
The Second Amendment Foundation posted this response to the New Jersey Attorney General’s brief in Muller v. Maenza on their Facebook page.
NJ Attorney General Argues That The Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms Does Not Apply Outside the Home and
That the Public Needs to be Protected From Those Legally Carrying!
On March 16, the New Jersey Attorney General filed its final lower court response in the recently-filed lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s extreme and subjective handgun carry laws.
As in its previous papers, the Attorney General again trashed the Second Amendment, arguing that the right to bear arms does not apply outside the home, and that New Jersey’s carry laws are constitutional and necessary to protect the public from those who legally carry firearms.
The federal lawsuit, filed in November of last year by Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, the Second Amendment Foundation, and six individual plaintiffs, challenges New Jersey’s unconstitutional “justifiable need” standard for issuance of handgun carry permits – a nearly impossible standard to meet that has all but eliminated the right to self defense with a firearm in the Garden State.
“It is now crystal clear that the State of New Jersey has no intention of ever respecting the right to defend yourself with a firearm outside the home, and will have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into compliance with the Heller and McDonald decisions,” said ANJRPC President Scott Bach. “With this lawsuit, we intend to do just that, even if we have to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Bach.
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb added, “ With the help of our members and supporters we will fund this legal action all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court just like we did with McDonald vs. Chicago. This case will impact states all across the country.”
The case is now submitted for consideration by a U.S. District Court Judge, who could rule as early as September. Appeals are anticipated regardless of the decision.
SAF will keep you apprised of major case developments as they occur. Please watch for future alerts.
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