Late Friday afternoon, Freedom Group issued a news release announcing the March 31, 2011 closure of the Wyndham, Maine facilities of Bushmaster Firearms International.

Simultaneously, Smith & Wesson’s announcement of the decision to close Thompson/Center’s manufacturing facilities in Rochester, New Hampshire, initially announced in the company’s second quarter financial results, was front-page news there. Thompson/Center employees got the news of the closure on Wednesday.

Both closures have been the subject of industry conjecture for some time, but the formal announcements have once again raised the question of the overall economy’s recovery.

While the firearms industry ran at a near-frantic pace through the first eighteen months of the current economic downturn, sales numbers seem to indicate that the doldrums of the rest of the nation’s businesses has finally arrived.

Manufacturers, distributors and retailers report even the most-scarce categories of firearms and ammunition only months ago are sitting on their shelves in a critical retail season. At the same time, new products are being rolled into a marketplace that is said to still be receptive to new gear.

In the Freedom Group’s Bushmaster announcement Chairman John Blystone said “We are continuing to adjust our operations in order to remain competitive and continue to grow. Given increasing costs and pricing pressures affecting the entire firearms industry, this action is clearly necessary and responsible.”

The explanation offered by Smith & Wesson CEO Michael Golden was similar, describing the Thompson/Center closure as a move to “streamline our firearms manufacturing processes and improve our margins.”

No word on the disposition of Bushmaster’s Wyndham, Maine facilities, but Smith and Wesson says they’re looking for a buyer for the New Hampshire foundry that will be among the T/C facilities shuttered “sometime next year”.

Some Thompson employees are being offered relocation packages to Smith and Wesson’s headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts; the remainder will be given severance packages.

Acquired three years ago – at what appears to have been peak profitability- T/C has been hit hard by a change in purchasing by the firearms consumers.

Bushmaster, one of the hard-charging companies during last year’s boom in “black rifles” seems to be another smaller facility being phased out by Freedom Group’s unrelenting drive to achieve manufacturing and distribution efficiencies.

From a business efficiencies standpoint, absorption of Bushmaster into the Freedom Group’s overall manufacturing facilities and Thompson/Center’s rolling into Smith’s Massachusetts facilities both make sense.

That’s small consolation, however, for the employees who will find themselves unemployed in what is a tough job market nationwide. That job market is even more challenging in the northeast where high taxes, operating costs and employee compensation packages have already driven other companies to more friendly locales.

Bushmaster joins Marlin Firearms in the ranks of purchased/consolidated brands of the Freedom Group. In March of this year, Freedom Group announced they would close the North Haven, Connecticut facilities that for 140 years had been that brand’s home.

The Freedom Group consolidations aren’t new. Beginning in 2008 with the closure of the Remington manufacturing facility in Gardner, Massachusetts, the company has continued to consolidate its holdings.

The Smith & Wesson closure of Thompson/Center will also bring product lines to a central facility with sufficient space and capacity to accommodate the additions.

While smaller “boutique” facilities continue in the firearms industry, it is no longer realistic to believe that acquisition targets will remain in their current locations when folded into larger portfolios.

www.shootingwire.com

Hopefully some of the prayers offered up today, whatever your faith, will be for wisdom in the elections and for the well-being of our nation and those of us still here. The elections end tonight, but the contentiousness of the political climate will not go away, despite the promises from any candidate – win or lose.

This year, campaigns have been waged with no quarter asked or given. That bitter of campaign lingers on.

If you’re reading this before the polls close where you are, I can only encourage you to stop reading and go cast your ballot. That having been said, there are things happening in the outdoor industry, and unfortunately, not all of them are good.

Yesterday was the deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency to rule on a petition asking the EPA to ban lead from all fishing tackle. The original petition asked the lead also be banned in ammunition, but that portion has already been denied by the EPA.

In California, U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter has challenged the closure of the 29-acre shooting range on the Miramar military base. The closure was blamed on concerns about lead and other toxic contamination, but Hunter’s questioning the Marine Corps decision, especially in light of the fact the environmental analysis that was the basis of the decision declared the acreage important to the endangered fairy shrimp. Here’s Hunter’s rub: the analysis classified a dry creek bed a “regulated waterway”. We’ll keep you posted on this one.

In the shooting industry, a resignation, a repurchase and a pair of downward indicators for overall industry revenues.

Smith & Wesson’s (NYSE: SWHC) Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer William F. Spengler has resigned, effective November 12. He’s taken the position of president at “a publicly traded company in the phytochemical and natural products industry”. The search is underway for a new CFO. Vice-President of finance for the firearms division John Dineen will serve as acting CFO, and Deana McPherson moves from vice president and corporate controller to interim chief accounting officer.

Ruger (NYSE: RGR) has declared a dividend for the latest quarter. You can read the details in today’s news section, but the company has also announced what analysts will likely see as a positive indicator: the company has expanded its stock repurchase program to $10 million. Buying your own stock is a strong indicator of continued success.

Olin (NYSE: OLN) reports a diminished level of demand for their Winchester products for the third quarter. Third quarter sales in the Winchester division dropped from $168.2 million in 2009 to $157.5 million for 2010. Commercial earnings were still there, but they dropped from last year’s Q3 record of $23 million to $18.8 million.

The strongest indicator of the softening of the firearms market comes from the latest Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Collection report issued by the Treasury Department. Manufacturers reported excise tax liabilities of $102.2 million in Q2 2010. Compared with the same period in 2009, that’s a 16.29 percent reduction.

Here’s the way those numbers shook out:
$ 31.84 million – pistols and revolvers (down 5.1 percent)
$28.71 million for other guns (down 32.25 percent)
$41.65 million for ammunition (down 9.77 percent)

Later this afternoon, I’m off to Louisville, Kentucky and the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) Annual Meeting and Exhibits. There, I’ll be talking with manufacturers about new offerings for 2011 and quizzing wholesalers about their observations on retail outlooks for next year.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

–Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com

As the notice observed “This unexpected firing of multiple rounds creates a potentially dangerous situation.” Absolutely. If you’re not accustomed to controlling a rifle in full-auto mode, the potential for a disaster is not perceived, it’s absolutely real.

Fortunately, no word of any such happenings outside Bushmaster’s test facilities.

The danger of a rifle going auto is really more than a simple safety issue. The ATF has interpreted the act of firing a rifle not certified and registered as a Class III firearm as a felonious act- even when the rifle goes rogue on its own.

Recognizing that fact, Bushmaster issued an advisory calling on owners to “Please immediately discontinue the use of your ACR rifle(s)” – and get their customer service department on the phone in order to get return shipping instructions and the inevitable Return Merchandise Authorization number (RMA #).

There’s no turn-around time on the notice, and no quantification of the numbers of rifles impacted by the recall. To repeat, however, the recall is for ALL of the ACR rifles, not a particular run or serial number sequence.

You can read the particulars of the notification here.

Last week, my observations on what readers have called the “dumping” of rifles into the marketplace by manufacturers with no consideration for dealers caused many of you to respond. Those responses were revealing in the fact that while many of you felt the manufacturers and retailers were guilty of price gouging during the recently-departed “bubble” of high-demand for firearms and ammo, others were in the retail chain and understood the impact deep pricing slashing could have on your own businesses’ well being.

“After reading the article regarding the distributors and retailers getting hit by the release of new low prices by the manufacturers of AR’s, I found it difficult to feel much sympathy,” one reader responded, “There can be no doubt that some of these same complaining distributors and retailers where also involved in purchasing lower cost AR’s (before Obama got elected). Ultimately they ended up selling those rifles, purchased at low cost, for the new, ridiculously, high prices that they could charge in the panic buying going on (the exact opposite of what they’re crying about now). Sounds a bit like crocodile tears to me.”

Another reader asked a basic business question: “…isn’t it normal business practice to take your chances on the prices of merchandise?”

The answer to that one is a bit more complicated than the obvious affirmation. While retailers routinely see prices ebb and flow on products, they’re seldom in a range where they find themselves holding products they’ve paid more for than the prices now being offered to consumers.

When I studied firearms pricing, I was shocked to learn how tight the margins actually were for all but a few firearms. In other sporting categories, it’s normal for a product that carries a retail price of, say, $500 – like a high-end driver in golf wholesale for as little as half that. When retailers “slashed” prices, they weren’t losing money, they were turning over inventory at reduced profit levels. In other areas, margins were even higher.

Not so in firearms. It’s a price-competitive industry and retail locations frequently have very tight margins. That’s why price slashing by a manufacturer causes such heartburn and resentment with distributors and dealers.

One retailer summed it up far better than I could ever hope to: “I’m a retailer. We’ve taken this in the shorts because of this. We have dropped a couple of lines because of this. We continue to buy from those companies that treated us well. The guys who really are caught in the middle are the Company Sales Reps. Those guys are scrambling to keep customers – like me.”

We appreciate your feedback – and promise to keep you posted.

–Jim Shepherd
http://www.shootingwire.com

“EPA reached this decision,” he wrote, “because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).” It was the clause following that explanation that has the firearms industry celebration: “…nor is the agency seeking such authority.”

The back story on a ruling that denied the petition filed by the American Bird Conservancy and the Center for Biological Diversity is more interesting that the short statement from assistant administrator Owens, however, is considerably deeper than a jurisdictional decision. It may, in fact, point to the idea that it might not be too-late to restore some sanity to the increasing encroachment of the federal government into our lives.

On Wednesday, the firearms industry issued an unprecedented call to action, asking shooters across the country to let the EPA know that a ruling banning lead would be viewed as a political, not scientific decision. In fact, language many of us provided our readers, members or friends from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) stated clearly that such a decision would be based on something other than demonstrable scientific findings.

By Friday, I had received several hundred emails from our readers, telling me they had answered the call and commented on the petition. Many of you also inspired your friends to comment as well, spreading the message that each of us had the opportunity to tell one governmental agency that we were actually watching their actions.

Despite the fact the EPA characterized the petition as “one of hundred of petitions submitted to EPA by outside groups each year,” it was one out of those hundreds that elicited tens of thousands of comments only hours after the opening of the public comment period. It was also unique in its generating a clarifying statement from the EPA that said while the agency was taking plenty of actions to address major sources of lead in our society, EPA “was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.”

For shooters, whatever their application of a firearm, the decision has laid to rest (at least for now) a fear that has existed inside the industry for some time-that the administration would find a way to move against guns that didn’t employ what has been demonstrably proven to be the political suicide in most of the nation-gun bans.

This EPA decision on ammunition, however, is only one piece of what is a remarkably complex interrelation between individual rights and the outdoors. The same statement being celebrated as a win for the firearms industry should also serve as a call to action for anglers to make their voices heard as well.

“As there are no similar jurisdictional issues relating to the agency’s authority over fishing sinkers,” the statement reads, “EPA-as required by law- will continue formally reviewing a second part of the petition related to lead fishing sinkers.”

If you’re strictly a shooter, Friday’s decision is certainly reason to celebrate. If, however, you’re also an angler – or want to express your position that the evidence against lead’s use in fishing tackle is no more solid scientifically than that cited regarding ammunition – today is another opportunity to speak out against acceptance of any portion of that petition.

The Environmental Protection Agency will continue to accept public comment on the petition- this time directed specifically to the fishing tackle issue – until September 15.

Today’s edition of The Fishing Wire (www.thefishingwire.com) has more information on the reasoning behind the recreational fishing industry’s opposition to the decision.

A second decision quietly announced last week might have global implications for competition shooting. The 2012 London Olympics will use laser guns instead of air pistols in the modern pentathlon. Union International de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) President Klaus Schormann made the announcement on the Youth Olympic Games website (www.singapore2010.sg) last Monday.

“We can hold competitions in parks and even shooting malls,” Schormann wrote, “Safety issues will no longer be a big concern.”

Being somewhat shocked at the idea, I contacted several people in the United States shooting world to get their opinions on the decision. Both United States of America Shooting (USAS) and International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) dislike the change. Their position is simple, the laser gun takes much out of the “shooting” element of external conditions (pistol and pellet accuracy) and turns shooting “into an arcade game.” They view it as a possible threat to shooting, moving away from what is “shooting sport” and not acceptable on a worldwide basis.

The modern Pentathlon’s decision-making was not exactly characterized by the word “stable” in any conversation. First, they changed the shooting event from 25 meter ISSF rapid fire to 10 meter air pistol ISSF target, then combined shooting with running, and now, laser guns. Sources tell me none of these decisions were not exactly backed up by “homework” but more of a reaction than thought-out development.

My favorite comment was somewhat more direct: “Unbelievable! I suppose the downhill in the Winter Olympics will be done with Wii (“No broken bones, and much easier to practice without all that inconveniently cold snow, old chap!”) And the Olympic Torch and Flame will be replaced by LED’s (“Much easier to transport by aeroplane, don’t you see?”).”

Sign me up for “air fencing”.
— Jim Shepherd
http://www.shootingwire.com

The show featured competition with everything from modern rifles to flintlocks, slingshots and knives-in scenarios that mimicked everything from military situations to carnival shooting galleries.

When I was watching, two thoughts went through my mind. First, it was an excellent recruiting tool for shooting as the shows were absolutely beautiful in production values and viewer appeal. Second, I should have pursued the invite to compete. I certainly wouldn’t have won, too-many competitions where old legs carrying too-much load would have failed, but the competitions they used would have been a blast.

From watching yesterday, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to start working on putting together a coalition of companies and competitors and, well, taking shooting on the road in a fun and engaging format. Since I’ve always been one to jump in without over-analyzing a possibility, all I’ll say at this point is: watch this space, and we’ll keep you posted.

It is no secret that we’re a nation of gadget lovers. In an effort to get better at whatever revs our recreational motors, we’ll try things that might look, well, silly to outsiders.

When you get a gadget that works and manages not to scream “willing to try anything” it’s hard not to spread the word. Recently, I’ve come across some gear that has actually helped me enjoy -and correct some errors in – my shooting.

The first has absolutely nothing to do with the shooting, per se, but it certainly has a lot to do with functioning firearms. Protecting optics is something I do as second nature, but it seems I’m not so particular when it comes to the firearms they’re normally residing atop. So, I’m susceptible to failing to adequately protect my handguns and long guns when I’m putting them into the safe for any length of time.

When I’m traveling by private conveyance, I use Envelop cases to protect my firearms from moisture. They only offer soft-sider protection for my firearms, but that’s plenty when you’re carefully placing them in your vehicle. They are derived from the same protective casing our military uses for heavy weapons in hostile environments ranging from the desert to the oceans. Not inexpensive; but neither are the guns I’m protecting.

At home, however, I have been lacking that sort of protection inside my safe. Sure, I have dehumidifiers in both my safes, but that doesn’t totally protect them in long-term storage. That’s not because the safes aren’t dry, it’s because I have a bad habit of handling firearms when I’m rummaging through the safe and not wiping them down when I put them back. After all, I think, I barely touched them.

ZCORR FSP protective bag.

That’s why I was excited when Russell Smith of Zero Corrosion Products (Z CORR) sent me a couple of ZCORR FSP protective bags. They’re made using a combination of “Vapor Phase Corrosion Inhibitor (VpCI) technology and barrier packaging to prevent rust and corrosion on guns – or ammunition. Without going into science I don’t understand, the bags were developed for the United States Marine Corps for long-term packaging of their M16-A2 rifles.

They’re durable bags that are specifically made for protecting firearms-for up to 20 years, but they’re not- and I stress NOT- designed for transport. I filled up one of my test bags with a pistol, magazines, and 100 rounds of ammo (boxed) and tossed it into my range bag, thinking everything would be protected from the elements.

I was mistaken. The bags aren’t gun rugs; they’re storage bags. And the fact they have industrial-grade velcro tops shouldn’t lead you to believe they’re for transport. I have a bag with a hole rubbed into it as proof.

If, however, you’re looking for a bag that’s suitable for storing your favorite shooter or family heirloom, they will fill the bill. They’re available online (www.zorrproducts.com) at prices ranging from $7.99 for the pistol bag to $14.99 for their tactical weapons bag.

And I’m a self-admitted sucker for sun and shooting glasses. I’ve worn a wide variety of shooting glasses, and discovered that either I’m extremely tough on them or they’re not as durable as advertised. Looking through a drawer yesterday, I pulled out five pairs of glasses. Two pair of expensive polarizers had shattered lenses, both shattered in light duty. The fact one pair shattered while sitting on the dashboard of my vehicle convinced me neither were worth the $95 price quoted by the manufacturer for repairs. Two pair of shooting glasses had broken stems, again broken in less than extreme wear. A fifth pair simply didn’t work. Wrestling the “interchangeable” lenses out was bad enough; getting a replacement pair back in their place simply wasn’t worth the effort. So, they went into the drawer full of equipment I tried-and rejected.

Interchangeable lenses and video/audio recording. Shades of James Bond. Jim Shepherd photo

A few days ago, I received a box with two pair of glasses that looked like heavier-than-normal glasses. They have four sets of interchangeable lenses, including clear and polarized brown, amber and black. The first pair was in my favorite color- black. The second in camo, making them good for hunting or other outdoor applications.

But these are not just sunglasses, these use new digital technology to record video and audio onto flash memory. Yep, a tiny 3 megapixel camera in the bridge of the nosepiece records video onto either a 4GB built in memory or Micro SD card. It records audio from mics located in the stems.

Everything’s in the glasses, from the camera and mics to the rechargeable battery and USB-connection to enable you to recharge the battery and/or download the video (736×480 AVI files) to your PC or Mac computer. It comes with interchangeable lenses, carrying case, a charger module/USB cable combination for AC or computer-charging and a cleaning cloth.

After charging them and then fooling around enough to get confident with the start/stop functions (a record light is visible in your peripheral vision when you’re wearing them and push the record button to start/stop), I decided to head out to the shooting range to get a look at my shooting form from a perspective I’ve not been able to get- mine. I have and use- a small high definition video camera I fasten to guns to get either input on form or interesting angles for my television show, but even that small helmet-type camera looks massive by comparison to a pair of 1.4 ounce sunglasses.

At the range, it was stifling, but I was determined to see if either the glasses or I would function in those conditions. The glasses worked fine, I didn’t care much for the heat.

Back in the office, I plugged the glasses into the computer and, bingo, up popped an auxiliary hard drive indicator. Double-clicking, I found a series of AVI files with a quality that, frankly, surprised me. I saw everything from almost the exact viewpoint as when I was shooting. With the camera centered in the glasses, it’s either off-center right or left depending on which hand you use to shoot.

Two rounds before adjusting the grip; four rounds after. The little things count.

But the shots gave me a perspective I’d been missing- and answered a question about why my double-action handgun shots had a tendency to go left. I watched the video, corrected my grip to give a little more “push” from my off-hand, and headed back to the range. The slightly off shots were directly into the center of the target.

I haven’t flogged the i-Kam Xtremes around enough to have a definitive word on their durability, but they certainly held up to more than 150 rounds of shooting and bouncing around in a range back to/from the range.

If you’re serious about your shooting-or looking for a way to record your hunting adventure without lugging around any extra camera equipment, you might want to check iKam Xtremes out. They’re available online at prices ranging from $159.99 for black/white to $169.99 for the Realtree camo models at http://www.revolutionaryoutdoorproducts.com/Video-Glasses_c2.htm.

And if you’d like too see the short video clip, you can check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DQNaoihoAs

Smith & Wesson’s new BODYGUARD line follows the industry’s current leaning toward small, easily concealable handguns designed to be easily concealable and accurate enough to allow someone under duress to put rounds into an attacker.

Smith & Wesson's new BODYGUARD Series handguns are shipping. The revolver (above) is a .38 Special while the pistol (below) is chambered in .380. Smith & Wesson photo

The revolver is, as you would expect from the longtime compact revolver maker is chambered in .38 Special +P – another of S&W’s long line of small-frame revolvers. This one, however, is completely different in its design, despite the familiar looking S&W snub-nosed profile. This five-shot hammerless revolver features several changes- the most notable being an ambidextrous cylinder release located on the top of the frame. That feature really does set this compact pistol apart from any that came before it- unless you go back to the top-breaks of another century.

The pistol is right in the wheelhouse of the current rage- a polymer framed, steel slide and barrel pocket pistol in .380. It has a seven-shot capacity (magazine capacity +1 in the chamber) and is small. A 2 3/4-inch barrel, and an overall length of just over 5 inches. It’s also light enough (11.85 ounces-unloaded) to ride in a pocket holster without dragging down trousers or seriously “print” in a jacket.

Both BODYGUARD models feature something that has generally come as an add-on feature for the smaller handguns – a laser. A collaboration between Smith & Wesson and Insight Technologies has both units sporting integral Insight lasers. On the revolver, the laser is on the right side of the frame. On the .380 pistol, the laser is underneath the barrel and just forward of the trigger housing.

The S&W/Insight collaboration brings the laser and handgun in a single package. Jim Shepherd photo.

Fitting a laser onto the pocket pistol isn’t a new idea, but the collaboration is the first where one goal was making an affordable unit. While the MSRPS of $575 for the 380 pistol and $625 for the .38 Special +P revolver aren’t cheap, they’re not significantly different than the costs of putting together a gun/laser combination from other manufacturers.

I had the opportunity to try both handguns recently while taping an episode of Guns & Gear. Both were comfortable in the hand, easily concealable and had sights that I could actually see. My major complaint with pocket pistols- without the laser – is that I’m just pointing and shooting at a target because I can’t get a sight picture. Granted, these aren’t target guns, but the ability to easily pickup a sight picture more than makes up for the slight additional surface area created by them.

The .380 pistol has controls that felt familiar to me, including a manual thumb safety, slide stop and takedown lever. They definitely made the left side of the gun busier than some, but I like a safety on a pocket pistol. Having carried a Colt .380 for many years, I’m accustomed to the safety and the flipping of it off (or on) when I’m presenting or holstering.

The revolver, however, took some handling. It feels like a Smith & Wesson small frame-revolver, but the top cylinder latch caused me to do some fumbling around until I broke myself of unconsciously reaching for a side mounted release.

Several sales reps tried the new BODYGUARDS during our taping. Everyone liked their accuracy and triggers, but some struggled with the unfamiliar top release on the revolver. Jim Shepherd photo.

Where I learned the most about the BODYGUARDS, however, wasn’t from shooting them myself, it was watching a group of sales reps giving them a try. Watching them shoot, I realized the first-time shooter wouldn’t have any problem with either gun. A veteran shooter, however, will go through a couple of head-scratches before realizing the cylinder release really is located on the top of the revolver.

This isn’t intended to be the exhaustive and comprehensive review of either gun- that comes from trigger time. Tactical Wire editor Rich Grassi is getting that this week in Springfield, Massachusetts, he’ll have the professional’s impressions later.

From my limited time on them, they seem more than capable of being employed-accurately- should the need arise.

–Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com

Since a no-nonsense drill instructor during an ROTC summer training camp told me “if you reassemble this firearm incorrectly, when fired, the bolt will travel to the rear in a rapid manner. It will continue to travel rapidly backward until it lands in the squishy stuff that was your right eye. Gentlemen, I can assure you this will leave a lasting impression on everyone who views your corpse at your funeral” I have left the innards of firearms strictly alone.

That doesn’t mean I have never disassembled my guns; just never one ten-thousandth beyond the point where the manual advises further work should “be performed by a qualified gunsmith”. Other than grip panels, my pistols are always stock – or worked by “a qualified gunsmith”.

Recently, Lisa Farrell and the team at Apex Tactical sent me a Competition Enhancement Kit for my Smith & Wesson M&P Pro pistol.

Using the word loosely, that M&P Pro is my “competition” gun. I used it at this year’s Bianchi Cup and a couple of local steel matches since then. A long sight radius and a stock fiber optic front sight mean I can see -and shoot- better and faster.

The M&P Pro already has a pretty darned good trigger. But, Lisa assured me the Apex kit would give me a smoother action and sub-three pound trigger pull.

At this point a caution: a sub-three pound trigger pull is NOT for concealed carry, home defense, or duty guns. Under duress, fine motor skills diminish. You’re capable of creating an accidental bang when you mix adrenaline and an uncontrolled situation with an ultra-light trigger.

Taking a trigger pull down to a competition level also means you need to practice until you’re totally aware of the light pressure necessary to initiate the firing sequence. A few negligent discharges in dry-fire practice will cause an enhanced awareness – it can produce tragic outcomes anywhere else.

That having been said, I found myself conflicted about pulling perfectly good working guns apart. Flying springs didn’t hold much attraction to me; neither did the thoughts of showing up at the gun shop with a frame, slide and sandwich bag of parts.

Cautiously describes the entire process of changing out parts in my M&P Pro pistol. The gun's for speed, the tools are for deliberation.

But, Lisa assured me that even I could make the changes. So, I decided to try – with some help from a friend who will readily disassemble virtually anything.

I’m not going into how deliberately we worked. If you’ve seen “Hurt Locker” think slower- with the same anxiety level.

A tip when working: have your manual handy. The schematic may be designed to help you order parts, but it’s lets you know where the parts are located -before you start backing off screws or releasing springs.

A bit of work that a “competent gunsmith” might have accomplished in about a half-hour, assuming a couple of interruptions along the way, took just over an hour. And a quick inventory revealed the same number of pieces outside the pistol as when we started- and no leftovers from the inside. It looked finished.

Reluctantly, I racked the slide and very tentatively squeezed the trigger. After “tentative” -but before – “squeezed” the trigger broke-like a proverbial glass rod. And it worked that way through several dry firing sequences before I worked up enough nerve to take it for a test firing. It ran -like a race-tuned machine – with a trigger pull that measured roughly at about 2.8 pounds, more than two pounds lighter than before.

That makes a big difference -and not just in the pistol.

With the Apex Tactical Competition Action Enhancement Kit, I have the ability to break my first shot faster and subsequent shots as quickly as I can bring the sights onto the targets. Apex can’t help there, but they’ve made my equipment capable of breaking more smoothly when I get there.

Apex Tactical’s kit has taken away any pistol excuse. The rest is up to me.

Watch this space.

–Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com

Westchester County residents Alan Kachalsky and Christina Kikolov are also parties to the lawsuit. Both had permits denied. Kachalsky’s denial was because he could not “demonstrate a need for self protection distinguishable from that of the general public.” Kikolov’s was denied because she could not demonstrate “any type of threat to her own safety anywhere.”

If it’s true that Kikolov had no demonstrable threat to her safety anywhere, I’d like to live in her neighborhood. Having lived in New York, however, I’m betting that’s a little artistic license on the part of the handgun permit licensing officer. Another Westchester pair, Susan Cacace and Jefferey Cohen, both of whom served at times as handgun permit licensing officers, were also named as defendants.

According to the suit, New York Penal Code says handgun carry permit applicants must “demonstrate good cause for the issuance of a permit. The plaintiffs claim that “good cause” requirement violates the Second Amendment.

“American citizens like Alan Kachalsky and Christina Nikolov should not have to demonstrate good cause in order to exercise a constitutionally-protected civil right,” says SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.

“Our civil rights, including the right to keep and bear arms, should not be subject to the whims of a local government or its employees, just because they don’t think someone needs’ a carry permit. Nobody advocates arming criminals or mental defectives, but honest citizens with clean records should not be denied out of hand.

“Thanks to our recent victory before the Supreme Court,” Gottlieb stated, “the Second Amendment now applies to state and local governments. Our lawsuit is a reminder to state and local bureaucrats that we have a Bill of Rights in this country, not a Bill of Needs’.”

As usual, Gottlieb’s coming into U.S. District Court (the Southern Division of New York White Plains Division) with his big legal gun blazing. Attorney Alan Gura, 2-0 in Second Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court is representing the plaintiffs, along with Vincent Gelardi of Rye Brook, New York.

This case seems to be another of the series of domino-effect cases that will be required to force recognition of the United States Supreme Court’s having found – twice- that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies to all citizens on an equal basis.

The Harru Reid campaign runs a video showing Reid with NRA head honcho Wayne LaPierre chumming it up at the dedication of a multi-million dollar shooting facility outside Las Vegas.

On a separate note, the idea that the National Rifle Association may be preparing to give a formal endorsement to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in his hard-fought campaign for reelection is being tossed about in the mainstream media as an all but done deal.

For the past two weeks, NRA members have been in a furor at the idea. NRA leaders, have kept quite on the subject, even as the Reid campaign runs a video showing Reid with NRA head honcho Wayne LaPierre chumming it up at the dedication of a multi-million dollar shooting facility outside Las Vegas earlier this year.

The fact they’re not squealing about the video being politicized is, in itself, a pretty strong admission that the organization is, once again, hedging its bets when it comes to politics.

Reid’s in a dogfight with Republican Sharon Angle, and campaign records released yesterday show her campaign contributions leading Reid’s from April through June. She says the fact 46,000 people donated an average of $49 shows “how much people want to retire Harry Reid.”

Meanwhile, Gun Owners of America has made it abundantly clear they don’t support Reid. Yesterday, GOA released a statement endorsing Angle. They also compiled a list of forty-two reasons why Harry Reid “MUST be defeated” (their capitalization).

We’ll keep you posted.

- Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com

You might want to think a little about your favorite 1911 if you run in and out of air conditioning. Keep it well lubricated - inside and out - to protect it from the elements- and contact with your skin.

Back after more than two weeks of watching oil spread across some of my favorite places on Earth, I find myself staring semi-blankly at a stack of things that have managed to accumulate atop my desk in my absence. No, not just the bills, they are regular arrivals; the special packages that I haven’t had an opportunity to get running and wring out.

With temperatures (and humidity) near triple-digits for the next few days, I’m thankful that the majority of the new gear doesn’t need to be taken to the range to be prepped. In the deep South, summertime is the equivalent of the dead of winter in other parts of the country. You can get outside, but not without paying quite a price.

It’s also a time when your firearms and other gear are highly susceptible to one of the most damaging of all threats – rust.

High humidities cause guns to attract condensation like a leaky double-paned window. Going from air conditioning to sweltering heat will fog more than your glasses. When cold firearms are quickly taken into heat and humidity, the oily residue from physical contact with metal parts shows up as what it really is- a powerful corrosive.

For that reason, I treat my firearms the same way I do my camera equipment. If I’m going outside with advance notice, I put my gear in the garage well in advance. When I leave, it’s far closer to ambient temperatures – and prevents condensation.

And before you accuse me of being reckless, there’s a safe in the garage for that transitioning. Being cautious about your gear doesn’t mean you have an excuse to be reckless. If you own a gun – rusty or not – you’re still responsible for keeping it under control at all times. For me, that means on my side or locked in the safe during the day. At night, well, where my gun is, is none of your business.

Anyway… If I find myself going out unexpectedly, I’ve been known to put my spare magazines inside a sandwich bag until they’ve had the opportunity to warm up. It’s not such a problem if you carry a polymer sidearm, but you might want to think a little about your favorite 1911 if you run in and out of air conditioning. Keep it well lubricated – inside and out – to protect it from the elements- and contact with your skin.

Another reason I’m suffering a moderate case of writer’s block is my underlying concern when it comes to firearms these days isn’t the new gear, it’s the same old challenge- never ending threats to firearms ownership.

Don’t get me wrong, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve read some pro-Second Amendment articles in some really unlikely places- like very liberal blogs and even some mainstream media.

Net-net of the writing- some forward-thinking liberals have come to realize that the Second Amendment is just as valuable as the other numbered and enumerated rights that make the United States the place it seems most non-natives still want to live. In fact, they have realized, as was so well stated in the National Review, that “gun control has always been about control, not guns.”

So what should we be alert for?

The same challenges that existed before DC versus Heller and exist even after McDonald versus Chicago – dedicated anti-gun groups and petty bureaucrats at all levels.

Remember, both landmark Supreme Court decisions came from local challenges to local laws. A law that restricts your rights in a town of 500 is no less illegal than one that restricts the rights in a city of five million.

We also have to be alert when it comes to access to places to shoot. Some bureaucrats have figured out that eliminating public ranges gradually squeezes down public interest in shooting.

Instead of going to the range alone, we should be taking newcomers out and introducing them to recreational shooting. It doesn’t matter if you enjoy archery, air rifle or high-powered rifles, there are shooting games for any method of propulsion you can imagine. And there are people who have never tried your sport who would love it- if someone would offer them the opportunity.

And nothing discourages politicians from trying to regulate something or legislate it out of existence more than seeing growing numbers of people (voters) participating.

There are other issues, but we can’t cover them all on a Monday. Besides, there’s new gear to get unpacked and checked out.

We’ll keep you posted.

–Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com

When I was a kid, not many people thought a thing about seeing me and/or my friends heading out into the woods with a rifle or shotgun. Today, most children don’t have the opportunity to go into the woods or handle a firearm. Instead, they’re dropped off at the mall or relegated to the bedroom with video games.

When I was a kid, not taking off my hat, standing up straight and putting my hand over my heart when the national anthem was played was a good way to either get scolded by the nearest adult, or paddled when my parents found out- or both. Recently, I watched a room full of reporters sit and talk while the national anthem was being sung -by someone they knew- only a few yards away. The staff of the event was already on their feet and had their hands over their hearts- it wasn’t as if they didn’t know better. It was simply a reflection of how disconnected many Americans are from American values.

When I was a kid, the idea that someone would want to take away firearms was ridiculous. Last week, the United States Supreme Court had to rule that the Second Amendment applied to the states as well as the federal government. That ruling only came by a single vote- had it gone the other way, well, you get the picture.

We’ve come a long way- in a very short time- and I don’t feel where we are today would ever be called progress. But here we are- and it’s up to us to figure out how we’re going to cope.

Today, we’ve come to realize that the criminal has the upper hand in many of the situations in which we find ourselves. Not because they’re smarter, but the system has been dumbed-down to prevent offending anyone. If you’re like me, you’re probably offended by that, but it is the way things work today. The squeaky wheels are now steering the vehicle -and it’s difficult to see a positive outcome.

Maybe it’s just me.

Later this week, a new series on personal protections debuts on Spike TV. With that rollout, a huge new viewing audience (100 million households) will start seeing firearms, personal defensive training and the mindset that turns you from a victim into a survivor in a way they’ve never seen before.

It’s also in a broad-form, two-hour long programming block the likes of which not many of us have seen. The programming block is called “Don’t Be a Victim” and it’s the product of a collaboration between Orion Multimedia and a group of firearms and defense instructors, gun companies and accessory manufacturers.

For most of us, it’s an interesting block of programming that looks at the combat mindset – including shooting and personal protection- from an entirely different perspective: a victim’s – the person who may have never considered owning, much using, a firearm for any application.

If the disclaimer at the beginning of the programming doesn’t head them to the gun store, it may send them to the closet to hide until help arrives. It doesn’t sugarcoat the fact that the training they’re about to see is designed to save your life, but may come at the cost of taking another. Many of the other networks that allow firearms programming would get squeamish at such a blunt message.

Throughout the two hours, it’s a non-nonsense approach to the theory that the best way not to get eaten is not to look like food. If you’re wondering who would deliver that message, think Gerald McRaney. He’s a longtime actor who just doesn’t seem to have any other way to present facts than his straight, no-nonsense delivery. He’s the all-business frontman throughout the entire two hours.

Checking out an advance copy, I was occasionally surprised, and generally intrigued at the mix of instruction, reenactments and “infotainment” – a light mix of information and a healthy mix of subliminal advertising messages. It’s safe to say that the companies involved with the block will have healthy top-of-mind awareness with SPIKE viewers.

There are four half-hour shows in the block; each dealing with a specific aspect of, well, how not to be a victim.

The first show, entitled What If? deals with how tragic incidents might have been avoided -had someone been prepared. The initial episode touches on the tragedy of Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.

On October 16, 1991, a crazy gunman rammed his pickup truck into the front glass windows of the popular lunch spot, jumped out and started shooting. Before police arrived, twenty-two people were killed- making it America’s worst mass-murder.

Through the eyes of survivor Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, it’s a revealing look at how Texas law at that time effectively created a killing field of unarmed victims. It also tells how Gratia-Hupp took that event and learned from it- becoming a Texas legislator and working to help pass firearms laws that gave the right of self-defense back to the citizens.

From there, Because Lives Depend On It, tells the story of how experts and armed citizens train and practice their techniques and tactics in order to turn the tables on bad guys.

The third program Practical Tactical, features instructors giving short instructional sequences wrapped around reenactments and scenarios. It’s a dissection-type teaching, showing the what- and why-aspects of tactical action.

The entire programming block blends in short features like “Predator Stopper”- in effect a primer on a particular firearm and/or ammunition combination (the episode I have featured Ruger’s LCR and Winchester’s PDX-1 ammunition) or “School for Survival” -a handgun and personal protection class.

Show four has my favorite title: Conceal + Carry = Survival, and it follows a class of neophyte shooters through an intensive, five-day class on all aspects of personal defense in life-threatening situations.

The two-hour block is a professional television-style approach to personal defense. As such, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for critics who will dissect the presentation, tactics and instructors used in the show.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Since getting more involved in personal defense, competitive shooting and training, I’ve never seen anyone teach anything that someone didn’t criticize. It’s a fact there are as many methods as there are instructors and no one way has the corner of effectiveness any more than one size of pants fits everyone.

Because of that, it’s important to realize that the audience for this show isn’t -us.

It’s the 100 million or so households on Spike who might know a figure-four wrestling hold from cage fighting, but might not know the difference between a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver.

For them, it’s likely going to be intriguing content. Hopefully, it will intrigue them to the point they decide to give shooting a try for themselves. Orion President Chris Dorsey says the goal is to “awaken a massive new, mainstream audience to the need for personal protection products and methods.”

Don’t Be A Victim debuts on Spike beginning next Saturday, July 10, and will run for 26 weeks.

-Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com