The Miller

Renewing My Concealed Carry Permit

One of the reasons that I love Virginia is that it is a "Shall Issue" State. I realized recently that my Concealed Carry Permit was getting ready to expire so I went onto their handy dandy web sight and filled out a simple PDF form.

I like to actually stop in at the courthouse and renew in person. I have been in there lots of times so when I got there I knew enough to leave my knives in the car. But this time I discovered that my cell phone was now forbidden. Specifically cell phones with a camera or recording ability.

Hmmm...

Five minutes, and $50 later I was swearing on a stack of mothers graves that I will behave. Quick and easy. The clerk was a classic southern bell. She called me "Darlin". Called everyone, Darlin.

I asked, "How long until the new permit arrives in the mail?"

She answered, "Well the law says you have to have it in 45 days or less. Darlin, if you don't have it in 21 days, you just give me a call." She gave me her card, a free trigger lock and a smile that wouldn't quit.

--I love Virginia.

Shooting Skills Enhancement Course

I have been considering taking the course detailed below. Has anyone ever taken this class? Any classes from the Silver Eagle Group?

Shooting Skills Enhancement Course

Course description:

This will be a four week, 8-session pistol enhancement training course. The shooter will leave here both confident and proficient in handling and manipulating their weapon system, with the skillset to back that up. Our trainers will take shooters from all levels and turn them into smarter, well rounded practitioners.

The course is designed around the natural progression of each individual student. During the training, students will learn to develop the fundamentals of shooting and master the mechanical manipulation of their firearm. Students will learn safety, fundamental manipulation, ballistics, round placement, target acquisition and more.

Once grounded in the fundamentals, students will progress to more dynamic shooting techniques. They will be taught speed reloads, stress shooting, problem solving, dynamic movements and immediate action drills. Through this progression, the student will become a self-confident, knowledgeable shooter. By the end of our course, you will be capable of analyzing situations, solving problems and placing rounds where they need to go, in any situation.

Course dates & times: Tuesdays and Thursdays starting July 5 – July 28 from 5:45 PM – 7:45 PM

Instructor:Paul Sweeney

Paul retired as a Master Sergeant from the United States Marine Corps after twenty years of service as a Force Reconnaissance Marine. Through his extensive operational and training experience, Paul has achieved the ranks of Master Training Specialist, certified by the US Marine Corps. He has designed, implemented and instructed both tactics and firearms training programs for the Maine Corps, the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command, Federal and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, Special Operations Units and civilians.

Round Count: 400 total for the 4-week course

Required Materials: Handgun, ammo, holster, and two extra magazines with a magazine holster. You may bring your own. Items also available for rent or purchase at Silver Eagle Group.

This course includes eye & ear protection but you may bring your own.

Course Length: 16 Hours Total

Course Price: $199.00

Quotes of the Week

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse."

--John Stuart Mill

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learnt something from yesterday."

~John Wayne

"If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him."

-- Talmudic law

"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense."

-Lazarus Long (RAH)

"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. "

--John Lennon

"Happiness is a warm gun..."

--John Lennon

"And what would humans be without love?"

"Rare" said Death"

-- Terry Pratchett (Sourcery)

My Story

Jennifer started a ball rolling...

I was born in 1959 in farm country of Western NY.

I knew every family for five miles in every direction. Every house had guns in them. How did I know that? Because I saw them. They were not squirreled away. They were over the fireplace, leaning in corners, in tool chests in garages, on shelves in basements and in a lot of closets.

My whole life there was a double barrel shotgun hanging over the kitchen door with ammo. We knew what dangerous meant. I believed my parents when they told me what was dangerous. I remember a demonstration my father performed with a ripe melon and a shotgun at around 5 years old.

By the time I was 10 years old I was hunting rabbits for my father. They were pests on our farm.

Guns were tools where I grew up. They were not demonized. During deer hunting season half the trucks in the parking lot at my high school would have shotguns in old style window gunracks. Even the teachers.

My elementary school had a rifle range in the basement under the gym. Gun safety and target shooting was a class in gym.

I bought my first gun in the early 1980's. It was a Smith&Wesson Model 539, 9mm. It was the hay days of the 9mm. Miami vice was on the TV and the gun shops were full of 9mm's.

A Mossberg 500 and a Ruger Mini-14 quickly followed. A classic three gun system. That turned to a five gun system with a Ruger 10/22 and a Ruger Mark II. I needed a long range rifle next and got a Savage 110FP.

All those purchases and shooting was in the 1980's. I watched the the ramp up to the Assault Weapons Ban happening. I paid a lot for a pile of 30 round mags and later a second Mini-14. (2 is 1)

Oddly enough I bought my first suppressed firearm during the Assault Weapons Ban.

In the years that followed I have taken many people to the range for the first time, bought more guns, got married a couple of times, had two great kids, had the honor of teaching them safety, respect and the enjoyment of firearms, and eventually started this blog in June 2008.

This blog has been and continues to be fun. Through it I have met some of the best people I know. They are not a crazy violent lot like some want you to think. They are real men and women, they can be funny, kind, honorable, intelligent and noble. I am honored to call some friends, in the real world.

--I even found a new Mom!

Keeping Stock

My computer wallpaper!

I have seen multiple people posting what kind of rounds they keep in stock.

I sort my rounds into primary and secondary stock. My primary stock I keep in stock in volume. Secondary stock I only keep a few hundred rounds in each caliber.

Here is my spread:

Primary: I buy in bulk, sometimes from the Internet, usually at gun shows, and I shoot these cals a lot.

9mm, .40, .45 ACP, .22LR, .223, .308, 12 ga

Secondary: I have guns in these cals but don't keep ammo in bulk for these.

.25acp, .380, .38, .38spl, .357, .44mag, 20 ga

I like to keep my primary stock rotated. I also keep my mags full at rest. I have never had a problem with spring fatigue. I never have enough mags, in any cal.

--I never have enough ammo.

Bull Run Regional Park Shooting Center

Andy over at The Tempestuous Sea got me looking at my bookmarks. One of the ones I found buried in there to send over to him was for Bull Run Regional Park Shooting Center.

Here is a quick blurb from their website:

"Bull Run Shooting Center offers 5 different shotgun games that are fun and exciting for new or experienced shooters of all ages. Our Learn-To-Shoot class, which is required for new shooters to our range, is affordable and fun. Certified instructors are available for experienced shooters who want to improve their scores. The shooting center is open year-round and features a pro-shop for shotgun reloading supplies, ammunition and more. Rental guns are available."

It has excellent archery ranges too! One of the best things about it is the that the costs are so cheap. Here is a list of current pricing, all subject to change:

Skeet, Trap & Sporting Clays Range
Skeet or Trap (25 Targets)
Weekends/Holidays	$5.50
Weekdays	$5.50
Skeet or Trap League (25 Targets)	$5.25
Discount Ticket - Skeet/Trap/Wobble (10 Rounds)	$52.25
Discount Ticket - Skeet/Trap/Wobble (25 Rounds)	$124.00
Gun Rental
All Guns	$11.00
*Call for Ammo and Component Prices.*
Sporting Clays
Sporting Clays (50 Targets) - Daily	$20.00
Discount Ticket - Sporting Clays (5 Rounds)	$90.00
Discount Ticket - Sporting Clays (10 Rounds)	$170.00
Five Stand Sporting Clays(25 Targets)	$8.00
Discount Ticket - Five Stand Sporting Clays (10 Rounds)	$76.00
Archery Range
One Shooter, Per Lane/Per Hour	$5.25
Leagues, Per Person/Per Hour	$3.25
Each Additional Shooter (Maximum 4 Shooters), Per Lane	$1.00

--I love the fact that this is a Prince William County Park. I love Virginia!!

NoVA Guide to Guns

My friend and fellow blogger, Andy, over at In Search of the Tempestuous Sea has put together a local directory for Gun related resources. Great Stuff.

"This page is provided as a quick resource for firearms and shooting information in Northern Virginia. If you find something is incorrect or feel there is information that could be added, feel free to leave a comment or contact me. If you have questions about terms and observations, please feel free to ask. If you have a review and would like me to link to it, also drop me a line."

I will have to sort though my half assed bookmarks and sift out some gunny goodness to send over to him!

Send him updates if you have info to add!

--This is a great idea!

The Lucky Gunner Shoot

I was invited this year to attend the 2011 Memorial Day Weekend Blogger Shoot. Unfortunately I was not able to go due to prior obligations. From what I have seen blogged about it I will try to go if it happens again next year!

There has been a lot of conversation regarding the "Ammo Waitresses". For an event like this the idea of someone to help out along the line is wonderful.

When I saw the pics of the Ammo Waitresses I did not expect to see normal attire.

I was expecting the kind of "helpers" that exist in specialty shooting ranges found just outside of Las Vegas. Or even like Tilted Kilt.

I for one am totally cool with it.

My wife says, had she been there, she would probably have been more comfortable being helped by these girls. I say "girls" because they remind me of my daughter!

Good job ladies. Excellent marketing Lucky Gunner!

--Man, I love Capitalism! And guns, and women. I wonder if there was bacon there?

Movie: Strange Days

Loretta "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) and her SIG-Sauer P226.

I watched a random movie today: Strange Days

The Miller Rating: 6 of 10

I would have probably have given it a higher rating back in 1995.

It's odd to watch a Sci-Fi movie about New Years Eve 2000 that was made in the early 1990's. The Technology was bad but the movie had a ton of good guns.

It also had the smokin, super hot, fit, sexy, Angela Bassett as Loretta "Mace" Mason.

From the Internet Movie Firearms Database:

--Angela Basset was so beautiful in this movie. Great arms and legs!

Gun Story

My grandfather was a postman on the railroad. He would go to work and get on a train that would collect mail bags all along the way and they would sort the mail on the train.

It was classic snatching mail bags, with hooks, as the train rolls and the bags fly by. Kicking other bags out onto the platforms.

It was an excellent job. He was lucky during the Great Depression to remained fully employed. My grand parents also had a farm with orchards and gardens. He greatest asset was my grandmother. She basically ran the 250 acre farm herself. It was easy to hire farm hands back then.

Anyway, my grandfather always carried a gun for work. Train robbers were real back then. My father told me that it was a Smith &Wesson .32 cal. He strapped it on every morning.

S&W .32 but not the actual one he carried.

When my grandfather died suddenly in 1966 no one thought about the gun. When my Grandmother died the year after and the estate was distributed the gun was no where to be found.

Out of the blue in 1991 my dad gets a call from the current owners of my grandparents house. They were renovating. They found a classic loose floor board in the master bedroom that gramps used as his stash.

It held love letters my grandmother had written to him and his revolver, rusted completely solid, with rounds still in the chambers.

My parents enjoyed reading the letters one at a time, then burning them, so private they were.

And the gun? It was rusted closed. My dad was worried that it had live rounds still in it. He soaked it in a bucket of water for a month and then buried it.

--I wish I still had it. Even rusted closed.

Quotes of the Day

"And they are ignorant that the purpose of the sword is to save every man from slavery."

--Marcus Annaeus Lucanus Roman poet (A.D. 39-65)

"There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice; not by instruction but by natural intuition: I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right."

--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC)

"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his palace, his possessions are safe."

Jesus Christ, Luke 11:21

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarms only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes..."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed - unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."

--James Madison

"Those without swords may still die upon them."

--Eowyn, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

Collection: Squirrels Bane

I have a Ruger 10/22 that I have named: Squirrels Bane

I purchased this gun from SSG Tactical for $900. I add the stock myself from Tapco, a modest scope and a nice sling.

I get asked all the time about this rifle. It is a big attention getter at the range. Where did I get it? How much it costs? So this posts helps with that.

I also just purchased some Ruger factory 25 round mags. Great stuff.

--Everyone needs a rifle like this. Great for squirrels and Zombies!

Movie: The Green Hornet

The Miller Rating = 6 of 10

I really like Seth Rogen but not in this one. I think I liked the TV series too much.

The Internet Movie Firearms Database lists the following guns.

--The cars were cool. So was Cameron Diaz in underwear!

Arizona

I have posted about my awesome gun chick niece before. She lives in Arizona and I very rarly get to see her. Keeping in touch with her is easy because of Facebook! She loves to make me jealous about being able to just drive out into areas of the desert and chase cans with her Springfield XD 9mm.

--They have serious night sky there. Love it.

REM 11 Short

Rem 11 Short

I have a Remington Model 11 that I do not use very often. I am considering having it modified by my friendly neighborhood gunsmith.

This modification would give me an excellent home defense tool or a camping gun. It would have five shots of 00 buck, no pumping required, ass kicking, action.

The smith says that the mods would be about $100 and the ATF stamp is only $5 for this modification. The paperwork takes a while though.

--What do you think? Sling or thigh holster?