New Blog to separate my passions

I should have figured that this would eventually happen. I’ve noticed that in the last couple posts that most of them have been primarily about firearms and my passion for them, and straying away from the reasons I started this blog in my first place (For those of you who don’t know that’d be my car, video games and generally my life).

Also since my father and I are starting to push around the idea of doing something together in the world of firearms, I decided to get an early start to it by starting another blog in which I can start posting the crazy stuff we do and the reviews I choose to write about the stuff I’ve bought. I will be keeping all the original posts here, but I will be posting the First Shot videos, as well as maybe reusing the photos on the new blog. Especially if I’m the one who bought them (the M&P45 and M&P9 ring a bell on those)

Without Further ado: The new blog is For the record… That’s not going to be the logo. Promise.

Smith & Wesson M&P9

On Thursday, April 21, 2010, I recieved an email from the good people at Four Seasons Firearms in Woburn, Massachusetts. I had recently registered for their email list because when I was looking for the M&P15-22 they said that they would notify everyone who was on their email list as soon as they had them in stock. This particular email stated that the Smith & Wesson M&P9 Carry and Range kit was finally approved by Massachusetts and that they had some in stock (and that they were getting the M&P40 in stock later in the week.) Once I heard this, I gave my dad a ring and I told him he had to talk me out of it, because the price was very good, and the M&P9 was something that I had originally wanted due to the fact that it was relatively cheap to shoot and with the carry and range kit, I would have the perfect holster to conceal carry it with. We discussed it for a couple minutes but the best of his efforts were not going to thwart my desire to go buy it. This frustrated him to the point where he said you know what if you have the money just do it and don’t think about it anymore. I took his advice and during my lunch hour at work I drove to Woburn and spoke with the guys at Four Seasons about purchasing it.

The kit itself comes with an extra magazine (3 total), a Blade-Tech holster, a Blade-Tech magazine pouch, a Maglula Uplula speed loader. Once I saw that everything was there and everything was in great shape I told the man wrap it up and start the process. After about an hour, I walked out of there with my new firearm and had to lock it up in my trunk until I got home and took some pictures of it.

How the M&P9 was packaged

The entire Carry and Range Kit which includes the M&P9, the Blade-tech holster, the Blade-tech magazine holder, an extra magazine, a Maglula Uplula speed loader, and head phones (not pictured)

Close-up of the M&P9. It's a bit smaller than the M&P45 but it still feels good in my hands.

M&P9 logo

Thanks Massachusetts for the stupid looking 10 round magazines. This Full Sized 9mm has a smaller capacity than other states' compact.

The two Sisters. On the left is the M&P9 and on the right is the M&P45

Top: M&P9, Bottom M&P45. The M&P9 has a .25 inch shorter barrel.

The Blade-tech holster that comes with the Carry and Range Kit

Logo on the Holster

The Complete M&P Family. The M&P15-22 purchased by my dad on Monday April 18th and the M&P9 purchased by me

I took the entire M&P family to the range on Sunday. But for now I’m going to focus about the M&P9. The gun was extremely accurate, the trigger was amazingly smooth, which is something I truly expected from the M&P Line-up. With the 100 rounds I put through it (PMC 124 grain), I had no failures which is another thing I expected from the M&P series and the guys at Smith & Wesson. The only downside happened when I came home and tried to fill the magazine. Each Magazine only accepted 9 rounds even though they were clearly marked for 10. On Tuesday (April 26th) I called Smith & Wesson and explained what was happening. They said to try to fill the magazine with 9 rounds and let the magazine sit to break in the spring, and that if in a couple days I still couldn’t fit 10 rounds in then to send them back to the company. Every day since when I have gotten home from work I have unloaded/reloaded the magazine a couple times a night. I can now get 10 rounds into the magazine however I cannot get the magazine into the gun! I’ve taken pictures documenting this and I am going to send all three magazines, with the pictures to Smith & Wesson so that I can get replacements for them.

This truly aggravates me because I know for a fact that it is because Smith & Wesson had to make a separate magazine for California and Massachusetts and that if I were able to purchase the firearm with three 17 round magazines that I would not have this issue whatsoever. But atlas the brillant Attourney General believes that even though I possess a LTC Class A Large Capacity license, I can only be trusted with magazines that contain more than ten rounds IF those magazines were made before 1994. Logic…? They don’t have it.

Hopefully when I send them back to Smith & Wesson we can get the issue remedied and I will be a truly happy camper.

Just Some Photos of the Century Arms CETME and the Smith & Wesson M&P15-22

As I said in my previous post, my dad purchased three new guns within the last month. I’ve seen two of them and gotten some pictures of them, so I wanted to post them up here before taking them to the range. Also, I plan on doing a video review of either the Taurus PT99, the Taurus PT100, or the S&W M&P45 tonight. Not sure which as of yet. My family has had the Taurus PT99 the longest and I’m definitely more accurate with it (just barely better than the M&P), but I’ve probably put more shots through the Taurus PT100 and I just figured out how it’s adjustable sights line up. But that’s just an excuse for the fact I haven’t sighted it in yet.

Anyways I present to you the Century Arms CETME and the Smith & Wesson M&P15-22

Century Arms CETME - .308

The Safety Lever. Set to the Fire Position (Don't worry it, the rifle was determined safe.)

The CETME's 20 round magazine.

The M&P Family which currently consists of the M&P15-22 and the M&P45

The M&P15-22

The M&P15-22 Logo

M&P15-22 Field Stripped

Not to be outdone, the M&P45 Field Stripped

The third one my father purchased was a Saigar AK lookalike. I have not seen this gun however. I do plan on taking both of these as well as the Saigar and some other toys out to the range this weekend for some good ole fashion fun. I’ll try to bring the camcorder out there just to get some first shot clips.

Smith and Wesson M&P15-22 Debacle

On March 12th, I went down to Riverview Guns in East Windsor, CT to purchase a M&P15-22 rifle. I drove there because I knew they had them in stock and I also knew that they had a truly reasonable price (399 dollars, which is pretty cheap). I filled out all the paperwork and they wrote down the details of the gun, and did all the necessary stuff to start my two week waiting period including put down a deposit on the gun (420 dollars worth of a deposit).

They said that I could come in on Saturday, March 26th, and pick up the gun. I called that day to verify that it was okay for me to come down and they said it was. So, I went down to the store to pick up the rifle, and was ready to go to the range that day. I got there, explained to one of the guys at the counter that I was there to pick up a gun off the two week wait and he goes to look for it. 15 minutes later I see him up at the counter talking to one of his coworkers, kind of frantically, and tosses my paperwork onto the rack of guns behind the counter. His coworker picks up the paperwork, looks through it and then goes off. About another 15 minutes later, the second coworker comes up to me and tells me that they do not have my gun in the store because they were recalled. This didn’t sit well with me because of how the first guy acted, so I questioned if Smith and Wesson truly recalled it or if the gun was sold to someone else. He reassured me that he had a contact at Smith and Wesson that could verify that the gun was in fact recalled and that he was sorry that I would not be able to pick it up that day.

This still didn’t sit well with me but I gave him my contact information and he reassured me that he was going to call me as soon as the rifle came in for me to go pick it up. As I was driving back to Massachusetts, I called the Smith and Wesson Shooting Center and asked them if they had heard of any M&P15-22′s being recalled. The explained to me that they had not heard of any recalls and gave me a number to call to find out the latest information. When I rang that number it went straight to voicemail saying that if I wanted to speak with an associate, I would have to call back during the week. That Monday morning (March 28th), I called Smith and Wesson customer service who again stated that they had not recalled the M&P15-22′s. This made me a bit furious with the dealer because it just proved that they outright lied to me. But I decided that since I was over 90 miles away, that I was going to give them till my next trip to Western, MA. I patiently waited a couple days after the time frame they gave me, still no call. I asked my dad to call our favorite dealer to ask if she had one. She explained to me that they were having a hard time keeping a stock of them because they were selling very quickly. I started to consider the last option I wanted to think about. This was the idea of going down to the store and cancelling my order altogether. I felt like I was being lied to and dragged around in the mud like a chump.

On Thursday, April 7th, 2011, I went down to the gun store, which was Riverview Guns in East Windsor and asked them if they had the gun come in. They said no, and I promptly asked for my money back. The owner came over said fine and gave me my money back. I was fine with this, and that there were no hard feelings (I think we both knew that I knew he was BSing me about the recall and he just sold the gun to someone else.) What I didn’t appreciate was the fact that one of their workers came up to my father and I and said that they couldn’t sell Rifles to people from Massachusetts anymore, because they apparently sold one to someone who didn’t have an LTC in Massachusetts.

But I know the laws of CT and Massachusetts as my father and I regularly deal with CT dealers, I could see that this was a blatant lie because the Massachusetts doesn’t know that I have the rifle until I register it in Massachusetts. It is not illegal for me to possess a rifle as an out of state resident as long as I have my driver’s license. All I had to do was promptly register it with the state within 7 days of bringing it in. The entire ordeal left me with a bad taste in my mouth towards that shop. My dad says that he is going to continue dealing with them, not for gun purchases but for magazines and stuff of that nature. I personally will not be giving them a penny of my money. There are far too many dealers in the world to deal with ones that treat you poorly and lie directly to your face.

First Shots: Sig Sauer Mosquito with first time guest appearance of Becky!

My dad recently bought a Sig Sauer Mosquito from the Ware Gun Store. It shoots .22LR and will replace the High Standard that we have in the collection (We’re not selling the High Standard, we are retiring it since it was my grandfathers and we do not want to have it break because it would be very sad)

With this purchase, my dad said that it would be cool if we took my girlfriend Becky out for her first time on the range. Here is the video of that day.

 

Now for some pictures that I’ve taken of it:

And now for an announcement. On March 26th, I will be heading down to Ellington, CT to pick up the latest gun to our collection. I’ve purchased a Smith and Wesson M&P15, the .22LR rifle, on Saturday March, 12, 2011. Hopefully that day my father and I will be able to go from picking it up straight to the range with a lot of our newer toys (I’m thinking at least the SW1911, the M&P45, the M&P15, the Mosquito, and the two Hi-Point 9mm Carbines we have.) This means that there will either be a couple new shooting videos, or one of greater length it depends on who we have coming with us and how long we stay. I also plan on doing a review of the M&P45 and the Mosquito when I have a chance (Since I have them both readily accessible)

Mosin-Nagant 91/30 Fail video and First Shots

Late in 2010, my father found out about the surplus Mosin-Nagant 91/30′s. His birthday was coming up so I decided that I was going get him one. So on his birthday we went to Kittery, ME to see if the Kittery Trading Post had one or if they had something else that he would more. Of course, it was the first time that we’ve ever been to Kittery where we left disappointed.  So we drove to a gun shop in New Hampshire, only to find out that it was closed. So we decided to make a mad dash to Cabela’s in East Hartford, CT.

When we got there they had tons of them, many of them in great shape. My dad wanted one with a nice stock and the metal strap rings so I did my best checking each and every one to determine the best one. I finally found one that met my satisfaction. Once we had filled out the paperwork, and waited the required two weeks. My father and I went down to pick up the gun. On the way back we took it to the range to try her out.

As you could see, the gun couldn’t chamber a round. It was probably the most disappointing thing that ever happened to me with a gun. The reason it was truly disappointing was because I had spent a lot of time getting it. A lot of time picking it out to be the best one. Just for my dad.

Anyways, we took it back to Cabela’s and bought another one. When we took it to the range to make sure it worked we brought a only a couple bullets  because we didn’t want to get our hopes up. I didn’t even bring the real camcorder to the range because I thought it was just going to be another failure of the day. Luckily the thing shot really well. I can’t wait to take it out in the spring and have some fun with it.

Apologies for my sick voice.

Atty. General of Illinois attempting to release the FOID list.

The events in Illinois are a bit scary. But not for just for gun owners. For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, the attourney general of the state of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, is trying to get the state police to release the list of citizens authorized to own guns in Illinois.

You can see the Chicago Tribune’s article here.

It’s scary because not only does it pose a risk to people who have gun permits simply because of the fact that people could change their opinion of them, but because it exposes who in the state does not have the ability to own a gun. It exposes those who don’t have the same means to protect themselves in the same means that someone with a gun permit would be able to.

Think about it this way, if you were a criminal and you were going to rob someone. Would you rather rob someone who has a gun, or someone who does not have a gun? Five bucks says that you are going to be someone who says that they would want to rob someone who doesn’t have a gun. I really wonder who supports the idea of the list being made public. I truly don’t see the benefit of it. None of the articles I have read on the topic actually specifically state that this is what they are trying to achieve my making the list public. The closest I have seen is from the Brady Campaign that “the public should know.”

But why I ask? Why would you even take the chance that you are putting the general non-gun owning public at a greater risk of violence? What does it achieve if the list is made public?

Hopefully the Illinois state police hold their ground and don’t have to make this list public.

First Shots with the Smith & Wesson SW1911 and M&P45

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I purchased an M&P45 on February 19th, 2011. My dad had purchased the Smith & Wesson SW1911 for Christmas. When we were purchasing my gun, the dealer said that there was going to be a pistol match the next day at the range my dad and I frequent. We wanted to go see how it was so we could participate in future ones, but we brought our latest purchases just in case the range was decent enough for us to make them go bang. Even though the roof collapsed we decided that it was okay for us to break them out and I took a couple video clips of the day. Here’s the video.

My First Gun Purchase – The Smith & Wesson M&P45

Ever since I’ve gotten my LTC in the state of Massachusetts, I had wondered what my first purchase was going to be. I pondered the idea of getting another rifle, a shotgun or maybe a handgun. My father has always said that the first purchase should be something that I truly wanted but he had hoped that I would get something that would expand our collection. So I began doing my research, watching YouTube videos and kind of getting a feel as to what was out there and what I wanted to try. One day, I stumbled upon a video in which a Glock was put through this ridiculous torture test. This guy had was dragging it behind a car, dropping it from an airplane, burying it in the dirt as well as putting it underwater. Every time the guy would pick it up and shoot it right away. The point of these tests was to show that the gun was ridiculously dependable and could take any abuse you could possibly put to it.

Of course, new Glocks are banned in Massachusetts due to our lovely attorney general, so I kind of wrote them off as being something I would like one day but not as my first gun. I wanted something that I would be the first owner of, something that could be dependable just like the Glock and something that I could have for a very long time. But the fundamental idea of the Glock stuck in my head… That maybe I should be looking towards a striker fired hand gun. This narrowed my search down to three guns that I thought were gorgeous pieces: A Glock, a Springfield xD, and a Smith and Wesson M&P.

Unfortunately of the three, only the Smith and Wesson M&P was available for sale in Massachusetts (Again thanks to that lovely Attourney General of ours). So I made the trip down to CT just to see if I could hold one. I remember the day I went down there and I picked up all three, and the M&P was screaming to come home. It just felt right. I had made up my mind and that was that. I knew that it was the gun I wanted and nothing was going to change my mind.

The last thing I had to decide on was what caliber I wanted. This was a bit of a hard choice because I wanted something that I could shoot a lot of but something that would be fun as well. Also, if I ever needed to use the gun in self defense, I would want a caliber that would stop people. Ultimately the thing that made up my mind was what the laws in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, we are limited to 10 rounds in a magazine for handguns, because we still have the Assault Weapons ban in effect. You can go to Connecticut or New Hampshire or anywhere else and purchase a high capacity magazine but if you were caught in possession of one that was not manufactured before 1994, you could be arrested and lose your LTC. This convinced me that the .45 was the best choice because the gun was designed to only have 10 rounds in the magazine, so I wouldn’t be penalized for living in Massachusetts.

My dad and I took our .45′s to the range the day after I got it, I will post that video in a later post. For now I will close this post with pictures I’ve taken of it.

This picture was taken in the gun shop while the paperwork was being phoned into the FBI.

This is the close up of the logo.

The first picture when I got home

A Close-up of the message saying that the gun can fire with the magazine removed.

This is what it looks like with the two magazines it came with.

This was the first bullet fired from my gun at the Smith and Wesson Factory.

I got really bored so I took this picture.

Once I put more rounds through it I will do a full fledge review of the thing. But so far I truly love it.

First Shots with the WASR-10 and Taurus PT100

So I finally got turned on my desktop computer and spent a bit of the day organizing my YouTube channel when I realized I had 8 videos, all of which were from one day at the range, 3 of which corresponded to the first couple shots with my father’s and my WASR-10 and then my first shots with our Taurus PT100 and two other videos of some guns we took to the range that day. Since they were all from the same day, I decided to put them take them off of YouTube, use my video editing software to simply string them together and re-upload them to YouTube.  Here is the finished video.

This video was taken with my Sony Cybershot, which takes relatively low quality video and doesn’t allow you to use any sort of zoom options. Apologies for the low quality. But atlas you don’t want to sit here watching a video about shooting and hear the stats about the camera. In the upcoming months I do plan to do some more shooting with all four of the guns featured in this video, and do some reviews of them as well.