I am getting ready to head out to Michigan for a bit, and have fun researching carry laws in Michigan. While MI honors my Indiana permit, there are some differences in places I can and can’t carry. For example, it is perfectly legal in Indiana for me to carry my gun in a bar, and it’s even legal for me to tip a beer back when I’m carrying. It is illegal to be drunk and packing in Indianastan, but other than that there are few limitations.

In Michigan on the other hand, I cannot carry in a bar, which is defined as an establishment that derives the majority of it’s income from serving alcohol in a glass. It actually says that in the state law. I also cannot drink, not even a solitary drop of booze while armed in Michigan.

The oher issue that comes up is route planning. While my ultimate destination is in Michigan, one of the routes to get there takes me through the Chicago area and in Illinois. To avoid committing a felony, I would have to stop in Indiana, take my gun off, unload it, store it securely away from any ammo, and then proceed through IL. The problem with that is the area around Chicago isn’t exactly “crime free”, so if there is one area of my drive where the statistical odds of needing a gun increase, it’s precisely where the law requires me to be unarmed. So, I choose a route which is a little slower, but doesn’t take me to IL. That way I can simply stay “gunned up” for the duration of my drive time.

It’s important when you’re travelling across state lines to do your homework on the carry laws of that state. While Michigan has some weird laws, it’s generally okay. The same cannot be said of Illinois or of other states within reasonable driving distance of Indiana. Make sure you do your due diligence before you travel, because telling the cops “I didn’t know” flies like a lead balloon.

Instead of having the 646 tuned up for Steel Challenge, I could find some SW collector, sell it and then use the money to buy 2 S&W 625s, which are definitively the bee’s knees. That way all my gun kata stays the same since the 625s eat out of moonclips, and I only need to buy one kind of ammo to feed them. Decisions, decisions. The 625s also have the advantage of being an N-frame, which is full of win and awesome.

The 646 isn’t a bad gun, mind you. It just hast really lit me on fire with enthusiasm, unlike the 625 which was love at first trigger pull. Plus, I have one 625 already, and could always use a backup in case the first one goes TU at an inopportune moment during a match.

More details at The Firearm Blog.

Someone told me that somewhere in this picture there’s a Galil with a side-folding stock.  I can’t see it.

So I have this Performance Center 646, the .40 S&W revolver with the titanium cylinder.  I took it out to the range a while back with Tam to shoot it, and wasn’t exactly impressed with the gun, as the trigger pull was long and heavy and I had stick extraction issues with certain brass.  Initially, I thought about selling the gun, but imposed a waiting period on myself to make sure it wasn’t just a silly emotional reaction.

That got me thinking about what to do with an L-frame gun firing a moderately powered cartridge.  So I created a pros and cons list for the gun:

Pros

• Extremely mechanically accurate (the gun is scary accurate in single action mode)
• Very light, swings naturally in transition
• Seems to really like cheap Federal American Eagle brass

Cons

• The factory wood grips are lame
• Recoil is sharp, but manageable
• Ridiculously heavy DA trigger
• Sticky extraction

With the exception of the sticky brass extraction, all of the “cons” with the gun are fixable in one way or another.  For example, the heavy DA trigger can be mitigated by sending it off for a professional action job, the wood grips can be replaced with a set of Pachmayr stocks, and even the recoil can be mitigated by having the barrel ported.

It was that final idea that really sank home what I could do with this revolver, and that was send it off to Pinnacle Guns and have Mark turn it into a lean, mean, steel eating machine.  The gun is already light, and it points quite well, so throwing some ports in the gun and adding a C-More shouldn’t throw the balance off.

I haven’t committed myself to this idea, but it certainly beats selling a perfectly good gun that has potential, just hasn’t had it realized yet.

If I had a 1911 in .38 Super (which I don’t) could I just drop in a 9mm barrel and be off to the races, or would I have to do a little bit more conversion work on the gun?

The new show Tactical Arms on the Sportsmen Channel is hosted by Larry Vickers (KingBadass), Kyle DeFoor (Level Z Elite Badass), and Jason Falla (So Badass you’re already dead).  I get The Sportsman Channel, I am definitely setting my DVR for this.

Mad ups to Steve for the link.

What fun we had last night on Gun Nuts Radio!  We opened the show talking about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, and how when confronted with actual difficult questions about recusing herself, or her thoughts on incorporation, she kind of fell apart.  Of course, the money quote from the entire thing was when she said she understands the right to keep and bear arms because her godson is in the NRA.  Breda was quick to point out that saying that is exactly the same as saying “I’m not a racist, I have a black friend!”  Plus, Sotomayor’s lack of actual legal knowledge is kind of disturbing, but hey it’s not like we expected Obama to nominate a conservative, right?  I guess I did expect him to be a little less transparent in his pandering to the Latino vote, but that’s what I get for hoping.

The show moved on, as it is wont to do, and if you’d like to download it you can click here for the show page.  If you’d like an .mp3 copy, that is available here.  The real highlight of the show was when we were joined by Michael Brendzel of Zel Custom Manufacturing, makers of the Tactilite .50 BMG AR upper.  That’s right, a .50 BMG upper for your AR15 pattern rifle, which readily converts your rifle from a tactical poodle-shooter into a single shot ultra-long range thumper.  You can even have your upper with an 18 inch barrel, if you want to be able to fire the .50 BMG offhand…(although one wonders why).  As Tam pointed out on last night’s show, everyone should have a .50, because it’s like a finger in the eye of the anti-gunners.  The best part about the Tactilite upper is that exactly – it’s an upper, so you can order it online and have it shipped straight to your house, no FFL.  Trust me when I say that this makes Paul Helmke a sad, sad panda.

For more of the Gun Nuts goodness, check out the Twitter Feed, and also join our fan group on Facebook!  As always, you can also subsribe to the show via iTunes, so if you’re an iPhone user like Breda and I both are, you can have your Gun Nuts with you at all times.  Don’t forget to listen live, Tuesdays at 9pm Eastern time!

It would appear that ammo is slowly coming back, as over the last week I’ve seen bulk packs at a couple of different “big box” stores, and MidwayUSA released a backorder I had for 200 rounds of Magtech 124 grain JSP. Of course, prices don’t appear to be falling back to their pre-panic levels yet, so don’t sell the farm and buy up all the 9mm or .223 that you find.

The downfall to my statements here is that they’re entirely anecdotal. I’ve heard reports from other folk that ammo is starting to show up as well, but in some areas it’s still harder to find that honesty in Washington, DC.

So I can buy one of these: Replica full rock and roll M1a Thompson clone. That is just too cool for school.