Gun-a-Day 46: MLR-1722 Redux

It’s a do-over of the best kind– trying to “go from strength to strength” and from good to better with this gear.

It sure has been fun so far.

As interesting and challenging as it is to shoot with a 1x image and electronic, heads-up display overlay, this red-dot can only provide an approximation of a sight picture at 50 yards and beyond.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying it and learning by practicing with it.

I started with five shots and walked to check the group. The shots were riding high and left even after one-click adjustments.

The next five were about the same. One more adjustment to the right, and I poured the other 40 rounds into, onto and through the target.

The end result left me wondering even more about the potential this gun has with long range optics.

Of course, good optics don’t make much difference without decent eyesight to use them.

And these Eley-primed rounds have me concerned in that regard.

The ignition and recoil weight is very inconsistent, and every once in a while a round fails explosively. That is, unfortunately, Shot o’the Day.

I know better than to go out without eye-cover, especially with these rounds, but I forgot to grab them this time (it’s been a problem with small caliber guns, but that’s not good enough, and it’s no excuse).

So.

When a case rim blew out, a big cloud of smoke and a spray of grimy debris blew out of the breech (jammed open because the extractor pulled the crimp and left the case chambered) and back into my face.

Dumb. Really dumb. Really, really dumb. I still feel like I’m wiping crusty gunk out of my right eye, but there was no damage done.

I ended up with a target looking like this …

Once again, I’m blessed more than I deserve to be.

=== ( • ) ===

Wow, the Top Shot Elimination Challenge was cool tonight, wasn’t it? Thompsons on full-auto with multiple round mags. What a ride!

Gun-a-Day 45: My Valentine Rifle, the MLR-1722 (.17HM2)

I used more than one of the projected sight pictures to target the 6-inch Shoot-n-C circle came to the conclusion that I’m going to end up changing to another sighting rig on this rifle.

The Browning red-dot is great for what it is, but after finding out how accurate this gun/ammo combination can actually be, I want to see more and see better when aiming and firing it.

I’d mistakenly thought that the red-dot’s smaller circle image would frame the target shape for better center-point consistency, but the scale isn’t quite right.

A magnified optic is going to be necessary. The aesthetics are going to be a big hurdle to jump. This sleek, light rifle deserves complementary accessories.

Until then, I can keep practicing two-eyed sighting. And, boy, do I need the practice …

Starting on center-red, I checked the results after the first 10 shots and found that they were grouping on the high-left edge of the target circle. The rest of the shots were aimed at the 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock positions on the lower right edge. The grouping is nothing special, but it does confirm again that the rifle works (and the sight is good enough for what it is but not quite suited to the .17HM2’s potential).

That’s good to know after all this frustration with accuracy and aiming.

What a beautiful morning (the whole day)! The crisp air and raking breeze blusters made the light dance along the firing line, and the temperature brought out the best of the post-downpour, pre-spring smells of earth and moss and pines and dead oak leaves.

My shot o’the day is a tangible sign that I receive much more grace and mercy and plain-ol’lovingkindness than I deserve.

While waiting for a time-lapse upload to finish today, I decided to warm up with a few shots at a high-caliber spinner target of thick steel. It did not at all occur to me that its location and angle in relation to the angle and location of my time-lapse rig put my phone in harm’s way from fragmentation and ricochet.

But it did.

And I found that out when I came back to the target line and found that my screen protector had taken two hits. Of course, on first glance it looked like the glass itself had been smashed.

What a relief to see that even the scuffs wiped off!

Like I say: I’m a regular target of God’s grace, and I get hit with it very often– always a bull’s eye.

Happy Valentine’s to me, for sure.

Gun-a-Day 43: Minimums from the Magnum (.17HM2, MLR-1722)

“The inherently accurate .17HM2.”

Not just accurate … inherently accurate. That’s the way I’ve seen this cartridge described in article after article and advertisement after advertisement.

Alright already! I get it!

And yet.

Evidently, I don’t. Not really.

Not today anyway.

I’m in a serious state of “I believe, but help me in my unbelief”-ism as far as things have been going with these Hornady Vmax .17-caliber bullets with Eley primers.

Today’s mission was to put 20 rounds on each of three 2-inch Shoot-n-C targets from 50 yards away.  I really should have remembered to take the binoculars out with me …

By the time 80 (eighty!) shots had been fired (and at least 15 stovepipes had been cleared), I had one (yes, 1!) hit on one of the targets.  That’s, for lack of anything close to better, the shot o’the day, but I didn’t even have the energy to take a separate picture of it, so it’s just in the time-lapse …

Good grief!

And this is from the gun I thought I’d sighted in yesterday.

Today’s main lesson is to more carefully avoid over-estimating my prospects of success on the second day of practice with any gun, especially this Ruger 10/22 adaptation.

Now, all I can do is hope that tomorrow’s target practice will be the today I was hoping for yesterday. Or something like that …

And the moral of today’s story is, to paraphrase an old, hunter’s proverb: Sometimes you shoot the heart out of a target, and sometimes the target tears the heart right out of you.

I had a hard time even getting the pictures together, but there are gonna be days like this. I tried to do my best, and my best didn’t turn out too great.

And that’s the way it was: February 12th, 2011. Good night.

Gun-a-Day 42: Doing Some More Magnum Research (MLR-1722, .17HM2)

May God richly bless the people of Egypt. What a gift of hope and opportunity and potential they’ve been given today. I pray that they will use it to pursue peace– within and beyond their borders. And may America be a blessing to them as well. May it be so, gracious Lord.

=== ( • ) ===

Of much, much less importance is the personal pleasure of trying again– and … finally … succeeding!– at sighting in the browning red-dot sight on the Magnum Research .17HM2 rifle.

I don’t think illness was the issue today, but I didn’t get up and going too well. Sunset was in full spectrum by the time I finally put it all together and got to the range.

Turns out it was a good thing that so little daylight was left.

I might have ended up spending hours and hundreds of rounds (and loving every second of it).

After all the trouble I’ve had with this rifle, it turns out that the answer to sighting it came with a plain piece of foam-core board salvaged from office discards laid “landscape” style and my trusty pair of Barska shot-spotting binoculars (one of many value-conscious buys from The Sportsman’s Guide).

From the 50-yard station, I targeted a 2-inch Shoot-n-C and hoped that the foam’s width would provide enough space to walk the shots in with sight adjustments. The rifle was mounted on a Stoney Point “PoleCat” tripod (the medium size is great for seated and bench level shooting).

And it actually worked. Wow, was it ever satisfying. I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s session now that the sight is dialed in.

The pictures that follow track the strategy and the progress.

I started with a small center spot on the big board mounted on yard sign clips in front of a full-sized railroad tie and the rest of the backstop.

With the illumination on a 4-setting for brightness, I used the center-dot-in-cross-hairs as the reflex sight picture and set it over center-red on the target and went one-eyed during the sight-adjustment process (force of habit, mostly). I worked in groups of 10 shots and usually checked hit locations after every five shots and made adjustments after every group.

The first five shots helped me find out a big part of the reason I’ve been having so much trouble with the sight-in. The sight was way off. The bullets were hitting high and right by about a foot– far too wide to be strikes on the other target boards I’d been using.

Some adjustments brought the next five in much closer, although my aim was obviously spreading things around a bit. This is not great by any standards, but I had an almost silly sense of accomplishment out of this inadequate but very clear progress toward the goal of getting the gun and sight to work together and get on target.

The next five are in the six shots low and right. The adjustments were too far down and not quite enough left. The next five (including one of the shots off the target low/right) got me inside the target ring itself. That’s 20 shots to a touch on center-red, and I was thrilled.

The next 10 shots went to another 2-inch target mounted lower-left on the board, and I was still trying to dial it in. Always nice to get a 9-ring hit, but the rest were just “close” … but not close enough or consistent enough.

The following picture is from a 20-round test group after I thought the sights were set. They obviously were not. All 10 of the next shots were left and a bit high. I adjusted the sight again. I should say I over-adjusted, because the next five were low/right. I finally managed to get on target after more adjustments. What a great feeling after almost two years of trying to get all the variables worked out to some measure of success.

The rest of the session was fine-tuning and checking for repeatability. I began to picture squirrels under the glow of the red cross-hairs. These ballistic-tipped Hornady rounds (with match-grade Eley primers) should make for very decisive hits.

Speaking of the cartridges, though, the stove-piping issue persists, and it’s not getting any better as far as I can tell. I may have to break down and try out the Federal HM2 rounds in the storage bin to see if the ammo is the problem, but I almost don’t want to know yet. Maybe I’ll make sure I’ve got at least 1,000 rounds through it before getting overly concerned.

I also need to keep in mind that I have installed a cheap, after-market recoil buffer. For all I know, it’s preventing complete extraction, cycling and re-chambering of the rounds. No panic yet, but attentiveness, yes.

After 50 rounds, I felt like I had the sight very close and any variations were more an issue of my aiming than the sights settings. With 10 more rounds, I targeted another Shoot-n-C 2-inch circle placed in the lower-middle of the board. I also switched the sight picture of the red-dot to the dot-in-circle image, and it helped me better frame the whole target inside the projected circle. These last few shots were also taken “two-eyed.” I really want to learn that style of shooting at least as well as the “squint-eye” style I’ve defaulted to all these years.There are still signs of aim-float in these last 10 shots, but getting five of 10 on the 2-inch target from 50 yards was much more of a result than I’d allowed myself to hope for today. Even the two fliers on the left– nearly keyholed on each other– were encouraging as signs of aim consistency.

From what I understand, Teddy Roosevelt swore by the both-eyes style (at least until he lost the sight in one of them), and if it’s good enough for our Rough Rider President, it’s good enough for me.

This sight-picture is shot o’the day, because I plan to make it my sight o’the day tomorrow, and I’m expecting to have at least a couple more empty cartridge boxes by sundown on Saturday. Motivation and anticipation are both running high.

I’m very glad that I finally got to really, actually enjoy this rifle that I like so much. There’s nothing like a couple of center-ring hits to keep a guy coming back for more.

=== ( • ) ===

Today belongs to Egypt, and I sincerely pray for God’s best on the people and the government-to-be as they go forward. May they, and we, act in ways which leave room for God’s abundant, generous grace to be poured out.

Gun-a-Day 30: TO3-78, .22LR, Bolt Action, Simmons 4×32 scope, prone at 50 yards

Today’s Mission? Prone shooting, part II (just when I thought it was safe to enjoy another perfectly mild, breezy, and sunny day).

The potential for redundant self-indulgence was pretty serious, since the plan for iron-sight shooting turned, at the last minute, into another practice round with the scope. But it turns out that I learned some very good things that I might not have otherwise. I also found from the pictures that I had some very tight shot pairs in the process (interested parties may refer to shots 12 & 13 and 14 & 15 in the time-lapse– the first two touch over another hole, and the second pair are almost single-holers at 3 o’clock on the target edge).  No doubt there’s a bit of good fortune involved in those shots, but they did happen, and this gun is taking on legendary and heroic proportions in my mind …

Today’s Documentation? The “gallery “picture” is the time-lapse video (in part ’cause I just found out that my Flickr account is getting overloaded … I’m running out of free storage space) which includes the rifle on the shooting mat at the end.

Today’s Recognition? Did I say shooting mat? Actually, in classic, Gun-a-Day cheapskate style, that black throw is a barbecue grill pad that I got on clearance. It works great, with its plasticized pad, as both a ground cloth and as an indoor gun-cleaning catch-all-base. No stains on carpets or tables …

But enough about a stupid piece of black synthetic fabric! What a hoot today’s shoot was! The rimfires were poppin’ and flyin’ with wild, blustery, ballistic abandon. How great is it to be able to post another 50 for 50 round? Pretty great.

Today’s Lesson? I do much better with smaller targets! Counter-intuitive but true. This is the tightest total group I’ve ever shot at 50 yards (or any other distance to the best of my knowledge), and I’m pretty sure I owe most of the credit to the pizza-box cardboard insert and the 2-inch Shoot-n-C target for helping me concentrate and center better than ever.

I may only use the 6-inchers for 100 yard-plus shooting from now on. This is definitely my new strategy for 50-yard targeting.

Shot o’the Day is the “one that almost got away” out where the target was held in place. I’m really happy with how compact this total group is, and the “flier” is the exception that proves the point.

Today’s Observation? Not so significant, but genuinely interesting to me: these cheapo, bent-aluminum/steel (?) yard sign holders are tough. The shot that turned the target and tore a big chunk out of it actually hit the pressure-pinch circle, and the wiry, stubborn, little widget didn’t do much more than turn in place.

In fact, it seems to have dropped the bullet dead in its path. I think I found it after the session (seen on the right in the target close-up). Sure does fit like a glove in the cardboard indentation and tear. The major deformation leaves it as a kind of “smear” of lead. It got the worst end of that confrontation.

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to find that my collarbone was still tender from a couple of days ago. Now it’s even more so, but I just look at the target grouping, and the pain fades into the background … The wooden butt-plate may get a small recoil-reducing slip-cover sometime this year, though. Just for extra length of pull, of course!

Today’s Resolution? The scope issue is completely settled in my mind. This rifle deserves the best glass I can put it. It won’t be the best there is (can’t afford that, I’m sure), but I do intend to upgrade the optics on this pretty-doggone-near-to-a-tack-driving firearm. I feel like I’m obliged to ol’Tozzy …

Tomorrow: iron sights … no, really!

Gun-a-Day 29: TO3-78, .22LR, knee-rested seated position, Simmons 4×32 scope with Butler Creek flip-up lens covers

Well, if this wasn’t the first time I’ve ever tried elbow-to-knee, seated shooting, I’d be more disappointed with my results, but I’m going to have to accept 47 out of 50 on target and just be happy that my 3rd or 4th shot (according to the time-lapse below) was centered, and there were a couple of nice key-holed pairs in the session as well.

In addition to this, the position experiment also led to a significant discovery. That is, I do NOT like seated shooting. Yes, okay. I need to lose at least 25 pounds, and maybe I’d be much more comfortable. I’m working on it. Promise. In the meantime, I had a hard time holding on target, and I had a hard time avoiding a recurring problem with the oxygen-debt shakes.

Knee-rested shooting is not for me. My days as a little league baseball catcher caught up with me long ago, and my congenitally-twisted vertebrae don’t take too kindly to long stretches of sitting as still as possible in one position. Those issues and the weight concern all add up to my not planning to try that set-up again any time soon. The results weren’t bad-bad, but they weren’t that good, and it wasn’t very comfortable. All good stuff to know. 

The shots went downrange much more quickly today. The action is either loosening up a bit, or I’m getting more familiar with it, or both. Both is probably right. I had to keep reminding myself to take an extra second for the sake of the time-lapse effect.

Then again, it appears that 3 shots didn’t even make the cardboard at all, so I must have been rushing a bit too much. Also good to try and good to learn. The pictures tell the story. Here they are …

So what are the positives today? At least two things stand out: Ammo & Accessories.

Well, I finished off the last of the Federal Round Nose .22LR’s yesterday, so I was curious to see how my buddy TOZ would like the coppered hollow-points. Also Federals, but I recalled as I was cleaning guns last night that I’d had a feed ramp problem with this rifle when I first tried it out. The owner of my favorite gunshop in the area stood by our trade deal and smithed it up a bit to make it more like a ramp and less like a brick wall. I haven’t had any serious feed issues since, and I was glad to see that the hollow-points chambered just fine. That’s a very, very good thing, ’cause I’ve got about six boxes of hollow-points left which I’ve stockpiled on and off during the “Great Ammo Shortage of ’09 & ’10. They’re great in the Brownings, and they work just as well in this Russki-rifle.

Also: I do not like the sling currently on this gun. It’s a Remington with .410 and/or large caliber holders, so it’s not meant for a .22, and I only have it on as a “short-term, temporary” thing, but it’s funny how that kind of stop-gap can end up lasting for years? Not this time, though. Once summer hits, I’ll definitely be looking through my spare parts bins for a good, “permanent” replacement.

The accessory on this rifle that I do like very much is the pair of Butler Creek flip-up lens covers I installed last year. Wal*Mart and a couple of shops I stop in once in a while all had a number of sizes on clearance, so I just grabbed up anything that looked close to my optics and put them on whatever fit. I wouldn’t have worried about this scope at all, but the covers were exactly right for them, so on they went. I’ve tried “bikini” covers elastic band-connected slip-overs and a number of other things, but these flip-ups are the only thing I ever want to use on anything I currently own. They work, and they are so convenient– completely no-hassle– and efficient. Being a person who might tend to be able to lose just about anything at any time from a pocket or range bag, I’m completely sold on these “always attached” gizmos. They get Gun-a-Day’s highest recommendation.

That and a buck-fifty won’t get anyone a latte-mocha-vente-whatever, but it is my endorsement nonetheless, worthless or otherwise. Good on ya, Butler Creek!

Now, the time has come for shot o’the day, and it’s a sad little fella. In the interests of full-disclosure integrity, I need to point out that I don’t know for sure that this is one of the three that missed today’s board, but I offer it as a representative example of shots that string low (at least 4 or 5 shots have missed the target backboard altogether in the last 2 or 3 days. This is, I guess, one of ’em. The little copperhead ended up in the short railroad tie section that I have been using to “guard” my iPhone 4 while getting the time-lapse shots. Sure glad that old chunk of wood was sitting there!

I found it while looking for slugs and fragments in the backstop, and now it’s safely stored away in the bullet-bucket with all kinds of company in all kinds of sizes and, now, shapes.

We had gorgeous, pre-Spring weather, and I felt very blessed to have this excuse (along with the deadfall clearing, tree-felling, and trail-building I did) to be out in it, having fun with my time, my tools, and my little tract of land. God grace is great (and amazing).

Gun-a-Day 28: TO3-78, .22LR, 4×32 Simmons scope, prone position at 50 yards

Lay-flat shooting is new for me, and it gave the perfect excuse for another session spent with this little Russian beauty. I’m not sure exactly why I haven’t done much of it (other than the need to think through what I might use for a ground mat and how to avoid getting myself and my gear all grungy, but I was happy to realize that this rifle and this breezy-cool, sunny-sky-warm day was the perfect combination for a Gun-a-Day exercise. At first, I found some unexpected challenges with “shouldering” the rifle from flat out on my stomach. I must have very pronounced collarbones or something, because I couldn’t find a spot for the wooden butt-plate to stabilize without it bothering me. I probably didn’t have a quality hold on the gun, but that is another good reason for continued practice. Maybe an elbows-to-knees seated position would be a good mission for tomorrow. Just about any excuse will do to keep me operating this piece of equipment.

That relatively small discomfort in no way minimized my enjoyment of another opportunity to test this gun and to be tested by it. I was getting tired and a bit stiff by the end. My admiration is deep and wide for battlefield soldiers who have had to ignore such aches and pains while fighting for their lives and my/our freedom. Respect.

My fascination and infatuation with this rifle continue to deepen with every multi-magazine target session. The time-lapse video shows that my first three shots were a nice little group, and the rest of the shots were spread a bit, but the overall results were very encouraging for a first-time, ground-pounding lead-toss. Today’s session was also about learning more about doing time-lapse photography. I positioned my iPhone closer than ever on the Owle Bubo rig, and the results are much more satisfying than the previous attempts. So far, there has been no problem of any kind with debris or bullet deflection. I don’t yet have the confidence to put it this close with anything but .22-caliber rounds in play.

I need to take a moment in the middle of all this to express my gratitude to God for His blessing in my life and on my family. We are so, so grateful for the privilege of owning this property. We’ve worked very hard, and some people have much more to show after 25+ years, but we love our little wedge of acreage, and we feel God’s mercy, favor, and kindness every day we are here.

Like no other place we’ve ever been, our home and woods and meadow and pond and gardens provide such a sense of peace and satisfaction that we have an almost unlimited source of inspiration each day for living out the wisdom of Psalm 92:2, which advocates the practicality and propriety of “declaring His love in the morning and His faithfulness at night.” What a humbling, exciting, fulfilling thing it is to be the undeserving recipients of God’s overflowing generosity.

Shot o’the day is, once again, the one that got away. Down below the 5 o’clock spot, a single, small hole is left from the shot which went downrange just as my throat caught in mid-swallow and caused me to shift my position to head off a cough. I’d let a bit too much creep into the trigger, and I said, “Oh, that’s not good,” as soon as the firing pin did its duty. It’s disappointing to not reach my goal of three straight “50 out of 50” days, but I should just be glad it’s on the board at all. All of this has me in a bit of a dilemma– caught between two ideas which both make good sense to me. The first is that I should never do anything to mess this system up by messing with the optics or anything else. If it is this accurate, I should leave well enough alone. The second idea is very compelling, though. I’m really wondering what 3-9×40 glass would make possible on this rifle. I’m beginning to think that similar accuracy at 100 yards is very possible, and my eyes just aren’t clear enough to see the center ring from that distance on just 4x magnification. I’m not going to rush into anything, but there’s a chance that a few days of Gun-a-Day work, later in the year, may be spent sighting in a different scope. It already sounds like great gun-fun.

On another note: if there is a person out in the big wide world who is more of a cheapskate shooter than I am, I would definitely like to meet him or her, because I’d like to learn a few tricks from them that I could put to use. Until then, though, there is no one in my circle of life who even comes close to operating on the shoe-string budget and scrap-management target-design “plan” that I follow, and I’d be glad to know if there are ways to cut the budget even more to the bone. I don’t even have the decency to be embarrassed by my fun-with-stickers target for the day.

As an example, I’m glad I finally realized that I don’t have to just throw away the target borders from the Shoot-n-C sheets. Not only can the unused pasters become target pieces on their own, it’s nice when they’re  surrounded by the yellow sheet-edge on a target sheet. I’m out of the 6-inch targets now, but I think these leftovers will do just fine for a while. After that, I might just start pulling out those plastic Pepsi bottles I’ve been saving up. The logo make a great little center ring …

There’s no risk of my work being mistaken for a professional endeavor, though, that’s for sure, but I am just as surely enjoying it all as great educational fun …

Gun-a-Day 23: Bond Arms Ranger II, .45LC/.410ga.

This is the first of what might be several “Firing a Brand New Gun for the First Time” days this year. What’s more fun and interesting than that?

Today is January 23rd– that is, 1/23, so I wanted to feature a gun that was “easy-as-1-2-3” to operate. My first inclination is to think, “Shotgun,” when my idea is to have an easy time putting holes in and on a target, but I’ve had this Bond Arms beauty in-hand but off-range since early last December, and it eats .410 shells along with .45 Long Colt rounds. My curiosity won out (and I’m in .45 caliber-cleaning mode right now anyway), so I called it good and chose my ammo, and headed out under heavy, thick, solid, gray skies (cold, too!).

I put a six-inch Shoot-n-C (which also gives a clear scale to the pistol itself– it’s no scrawny little pocket pea-shooter) in a torso-sized box lid and stepped off 10-12 feet. I aimed the first two LC’s with the blade front sight on center-red. The first shot was on the target– high and left. The second shot ended up higher but on line straight above the first. It couldn’t be that I was already flinching, could it?

Seems all too likely.

After aiming two, I wanted to “hip-shoot” a couple. As a last-ditch, close-range weapon (whether the threat be a poisonous snake or a “person-ous” one), deliberate aiming may not be an option, so I want to be practiced at the fluid motion of draw-cock-release safety-point-fire. Or as fluid as I can make it …

I knew enough to expect a serious kick from a shotgun shell, but after the third LC (also high and wide), I one-handed a #6 round and immediately tried to figure out if I’d broken my wrist. Wow! What a snap. Probably a good thing I left the 000-Buck in the house this time. Turns out all the bones were in place, but that wrist will be sore for a time. No major problem, but it’s another reminder that I need to improve my grip and hold strength.

The shot patterned pretty well on the target and box. The other two shells ended up wide-high right and wide left, but every shot left obvious damage. The biggest hole of all in middle-left, and it’s from the last shell’s wad. I wouldn’t want to be hit even by one of those!

The gun works. No question.

Shot o’the day is the pic of this LC slug.

That is one seriously intimidating hunk of heavy metal– a horse-pill of a bullet … some very bad medicine. And that’s just the flat-nosed Cowboy Action slug. I’ve also got a speed-load strip of ballistic-tipped Hornady Critical Defense rounds for “real” home security or concealed carry use, and their potential for devastation is almost scary.

Not being a card sharp (and not being a cheating or suspicious player or even a gambler of any kind), I don’t plan to keep this up my sleeve or at the ready under a felt-covered table. It’s a great carry piece with the proprietary holster included in the Ranger package. Not too concealable (for me anyway), but the weight of it and cross-draw positioning give it a seriously Wild West feel which is nicely complemented by the miniature circled-stars on the holster and the grips.

The Ranger II version appeals to me because of the trigger guard, too. It’s removable, but I like the extra sense of safety– at least comfortable familiarity– it provides. In the interest of full disclosure, it should be pointed out that the hold is not a natural fit for my hands. I’m still working to find the grip position that will be best for me.

Easy as … one … two … three!

I bought this as much for my interest in the engineering and design as in the practical use issue, and it’s a product of the Republic of Texas, and I like that, too.

I sincerely hope I never have to use it in an emergency. I don’t even want to think how much hearing damage it would do, especially in an enclosed space like a vehicle some thug might try to car-jack.

Please, Lord, no.