Posted on October 15, 2010 by Caleb
From the Bushmaster press release:
Important Bushmaster ACR Product Safety Notice
We are notifying you as a result of information provided to us indicating that you are the owner of a Bushmaster produced ACR rifle.
Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC has become aware of a possible firearms performance issue that may develop with a small number of ACR rifles and we are requesting you discontinue the use of this rifle immediately, and contact us at your earliest convenience so that we can make the necessary arrangements to have the rifle returned to us for inspection and update if necessary.
**All Bushmaster produced ACR rifles are impacted by this notification.**
**This notice is not applicable to any other Bushmaster firearms.**
During routine test firing, Bushmaster discovered a design flaw which could result in multiple rounds firing continuously when the trigger is pulled. This unexpected firing of multiple rounds creates a dangerous situation.
Since the safety and quality of our firearms is our utmost concern, Bushmaster is implementing the following corrective actions plans to correct the effected firearms as quickly as possible. Therefore, we are requesting your timely assistance with the following action:
1) Please discontinue the use of your ACR rifle(s).
2) Contact our Customer Service Department at 1-800-883-6229, (Monday-Friday, 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM EST).
Please have the serial # of your firearm(s) available when you call.
3) We will provide you with return shipping instructions and issue you a RMA# (Return Authorization Number).
This will assist us in processing, and updating of your firearm and returning to you as expeditiously as possible.
4) If you have sold your ACR rifles, please provide the full name, address, and phone number (if known) of the new owner so that we may contact them as soon as possible.
**The shipping address for the return of your firearm is listed below**
**Please contact us prior to shipping**
Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC
Attention: Dept. ACR
999 Roosevelt Trail
Windham, ME 04062
CustomerService@Bushmaster.com
5) This process will be accomplished at no cost to you and will be completed as expeditiously as possible.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and we will return your firearm to you as expeditiously as possible.
If you have any further questions concerning this request, please call us on the above noted toll free number between the hours of 8:30 AM and 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation in resolving this important matter.
From reading that, it looks like the ACR has the potential to go accidentally full-auto. Based on past history with ATF prosecuting people for mechanical malfunctions, I strongly encourage all of our readers here at Gun Nuts that own ACRs to follow the instructions detailed in the above press release and return your ACR to Bushmaster immediately.
Filed under: news | 9 Comments »
Posted on October 15, 2010 by Caleb
Michael Bane has a great first look at the Ruger SR40 over at Downrange.TV; in it he takes a look at the key features of the SR series of guns that have been expanded to the new .40 S&W offering. For the Quest for Master Class I’ve been shooting the SR9c, which after several thousand rounds has really turned in to quite the little pistol.
Now here’s the cool news – Gun Nuts has a pair of Ruger SR40s on the way from Ruger; I’m going to be running these guns in IDPA and USPSA competition on a regular basis, and based on Michael’s initial report I am excited to see how they shoot. You should start seeing coverage on Ruger’s new SR40 here on Gun Nuts in the next couple of weeks, which will coincide with a couple other big announcements we have coming up!
Filed under: Ruger | 5 Comments »
Posted on October 15, 2010 by Caleb
The latest installment in the Quest for Master Class is online at Downrange.TV! In this week’s episode, I take a look at the bane of most IDPA shooter’s classifier scores: Stage 3. This stage is often “pass/fail” – not enough people practice shooting at 20+ yards to get really familiar with their competition/carry guns at this range. Coupled with the fact that IDPA as a rule is trending towards much closer targets at short ranges, this stage is where a lot of otherwise good IDPA shooters will fall apart. I know for a fact this stage gives me a mess of trouble; that’s actually why I spend a lot of my practice time shooting at 20 yards these days. The way I see it, if I can get a fast hit at 20 yards, I can get an even faster hit at 7.
Check out this week’s installment of the Quest for Master Class, only on Downrange.TV!
Filed under: Downrange.TV, Ruger | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 15, 2010 by Caleb
Here are the final results for the Open/L10 USPSA Nationals that just wrapped up in Las Vegas.
Open
- KC Eusebio
- JJ Racaza
- Chris Tilley
- Max Michel
- Shane C
Limited-10
- Travis Tomasie
- Dave Sevigny
- Rob Leatham
- Blake Miguez
- Phil Strader
Open Women
- Rebecca J
- Jessie Abbate
- Megan F
Limited-10 Women
- Randi Rogers
- Tori Nonaka
- Maggie Reese
The Limited/Production/Revolver Nationals are currently underway; obviously Dave Sevigny and Bob Vogel are big favorites to win Production Division, but you know never know what could happen at Nationals. The margin for error is razor thin, and there’s always someone looking to capitalize on a mistake from one of the favorites. Ben Stoeger, Phil Strader, or any of the other threatening GMs could easily come away with a big win.
Over in Revolver division, the favorite to win is as always Jerry Miculek, however last year’s defending champion Cliff Walsh might have something to say about that. Back to back upsets at USPSA Nationals would come as quite a surprise to me, although it’s not like Jerry needs another national title to go with the 32 dozen or so he already has hanging on his wall.
Sadly, I don’t really follow Limited enough to give truly insightful commentary on it. Like Open division, it’s just sort of “there” for me; however I am rooting for my buddy and Top Shot teammate Blake Miguez to take a home a win. Other Top Shots at Nationals include Mike Seeklander and Brad “Holywood” Engmann shooting Production division, and JJ Racaza in Open who finished 2nd to Limcat teammate KC Eusebio. I’ll also definitely be watching a close battle for the Women’s Production title, as Randi Rogers from Team Glock takes on Julie Golob from Team S&W. That should be fun!
Good luck to everyone shooting Nationals this year!
Filed under: USPSA | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 14, 2010 by Caleb
Master Jeff, the subject of the “Sensei Jeff Gets you Shot” series, has actually replied to the original post in which I had…well more than a few issues with his techniques. Now, what’s interesting is that his reply here is a lot more polite than the one he posted at ENDO. Interesting. The short version of what he said here at Gun Nuts is that if I’d like to come down to Miami and play airsoft tag that I’m more than welcome to come to his school and give it a whirl. Read both comment threads to get an informed opinion.
Filed under: humor | 17 Comments »
Posted on October 14, 2010 by Caleb
It is no great secret that I am not a fan of the Taurus Judge. However, today Tam and pdb say it much better than I ever could. With bonus QOTD honors to pdb for this line:
The Judge does apparently do quite a job on snakes. But so does a shovel.
This isn’t a blanket condemnation of Taurus firearms. I had a PT-92 that really was a great gun and digested over 10k rounds; I also deeply covet their .38 Super PT1911 if for no other reason than it’s one of few factory available .38 Supers. But the Judge…I just don’t get the Judge. There is nothing that Judge does that can’t be done better by another gun; as one of the comments at Tam’s points out, the M&P45 can readily digest the CCI .45 ACP shotshells which will wreck snakes just fine, and you get more rounds in the mag, it’s easier to reload and actually lighter than a Taurus Judge.
I seriously don’t get it.
Filed under: rants, revolvers | 23 Comments »
Posted on October 14, 2010 by Caleb
The guys at Lucky Gunner have a great Fiocchi ammo review that also includes a cool interview with non other than Carl Fiocchi. Definitely worth the read.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 13, 2010 by Caleb
I’m a big believer in practicing the aspects of your shooting that you’re not so great at; in my case it’s any kind of shooting past 10 yards can get unusually frustrating.
However, there are times when practicing your weakness can be quite rewarding. That’s the standard Bianchi Cup target; which I set out at 20 yards to practice what else but my long range pistol shooting. Specifically, giving myself 2.5 seconds to draw to a 10 ring hit at 20 yards. This is a standard practice drill that I use, as I’ve discovered if I can draw to an open 10 ring at 20+ yards in 2.5 seconds, I can get the same hit at 7 yards in 1.35-1.5 seconds.
Target at the right was shot with my Bianchi Cup Production division revolver, a S&W 686 SSR. Drawing from the holster, with an average draw to shot time of 2.47 seconds my score on that target would be 236-10x; that means out of 24 shots at 20 yards I only dropped 2 in the “8-ring” of the standard Bianchi target. Sure, I could have run the target out to 10 yards and shot a 1-hole group in the center of the x-ring, but that’s not a realistic training drill. That’s not hard and it doesn’t challenge my skills. Trying to shoot x’s at 20+ yards under time pressure? Now that’s good training.
That’s the point of practicing your weaknesses. You shouldn’t over-train them for certain, as you’ll probably never need to do a weak-hand only reload on the clock, but if you’re weak in certain areas that can offer an obvious improvement, train those. I’ve been shooting in practice at mostly 15 yards or greater; it’s had a tremendous impact on my ability to get fast hits at close range. Being able to hit a low probability target like a 4 inch x-ring on command at 20 yards makes whacking an 8 inch down zero zone at 5 yards seem very straight forward. At the 2009 Bianchi Cup, a veteran shooter said “IDPA and USPSA won’t make you better at this game…but this game [NRA Action Pistol] will make you better at everything”. He wasn’t kidding!
Filed under: Bianchi Cup, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 13, 2010 by Caleb
In today’s final installment in Lessons from Sensei Jeff, my favorite TDK black belt shows you how to not only get shot in the face, but mildly irritate your attacker as well so that if you are lucky enough to take their gun away, they will now beat you to death with their bare hands. As usual, here’s our time index commentary.
- 0:35 – This technique apparently only works if the bad guy already has his finger on the trigger. Now, I’m no TKD black belt (oh wait, yes I am) but I’m pretty sure that I can’t react faster with my entire body than he can suck that arm in and start shooting me. Also, do you really want to bet your life on a technique that only works if the bad guy is already about to shoot you?
- 1:17 – why is that guy bowing every time Sensei Jeff hands his gun back? “Thank you for muzzling yourself with this gun that has a magazine in it?”
- 1:35 – Back to the booby-trapped weapon! Seriously, does this happen? Ever? Maybe I missed that this was a common occurrence.
- 1:40 – Dude, seriously. The slide is on top of the gun. The thing that you’re “packing” is called the magazine.
- 1:49 – MOST. EPIC. FAIL. YET. He has now performed a tap-rack drill, and is now pointed a cocked firearm that may or may not have a round in the chamber with the safety off and his finger on the trigger at one of his own students. Can you say “I want my money back”?
If you’re going to train gun takeaways, buy a Blue Gun. They’re cheap, they’re safe, and it is completely impossible to have an ND with a blue gun.
This concludes our lessons from Sensei Jeff. I think this video is by far the worst in terms of the technique being presented and the ridiculously unnecessary safety violations in the video. Now, we’ve all had a pretty good laugh about this, but there are some very serious issues that I’d like to address.
First off, the safety issues. Don’t train with live guns like that. It’s incredibly dangerous and it’s how people get killed. I wasn’t joking about buying a blue gun for training purposes; it’s impossible for a live round to sneak in to the chamber of a solid block of plastic. Even in dry fire I’m a little OCD about press-checking my guns, because I don’t want the magical bullet gremlins to sneak one in the chamber. Don’t do that what Sensei Jeff does. I cannot stress enough that training with a live gun like that is just so dangerous and stupid that I run out of adjectives to describe how dangerous it is.
Now about the techniques themselves. Gun takeaways are generally a last ditch effort and are going to require a lot of strength and coordination. Sensei Jeff has a slightly different technique for every situation, which is great way to put your brain in to vapor lock when the balloon goes up, as you can’t remember which complicated, finesse intensive move you’re going to need to do. Hence why I’m a big of “punch him in the throat” followed with “stomp his guts out” as options to “fine joint manipulation”. The body tends to break down under stress, and the more complicated an action is, the less likely you’ll be able to actually pull it off.
I believe that marital arts training can be valuable for the CCW holder. Most fights don’t occur on brightly lit indoor ranges or sunny days in outdoor bays, and learning to fight with your body is useful. But remember that not all instruction is created equal; and in a lot of cases the martial arts community is more fraught with shysters and “mall ninjas” than the firearms community. Investigate your trainers – a guy like Sensei Jeff probably isn’t the best choice for learning to fight.
Filed under: shenanigans | 15 Comments »
Posted on October 13, 2010 by Caleb
From our friends at The Shooter’s Log; a how to guide on buying your first AK.
Filed under: rifles | 6 Comments »
