Skip to content

Category Archives for Rants

Got Ammo?

This weekend I finally had a chance to get out and do something I haven’t been able to do in a while.. go to the shooting range. Let me first prep this story a bit.

A month or so back while I was visiting my mother, I was able to spend some time with a friend who lives in the country. While I was there, we did some shooting. This little bit of fun lit a fire in me that had been dormant for a few years. Before that day, it had been about four year since I shot a pistol. I was in California when I bought a Glock 27 . I bought it because I wanted a small conceal carry gun, and the .40 caliber was plenty of stopping power to be effective.

Fast forward to last weekend, and here I am at the Mesquite Gun Show at Big Town. While I was there, I fell for a .40 S&W HK USP Compact. It was a nice pistol, and I’ve wanted to add an HK to my collection. Being a German gun, I knew it would be a great gun, so I bought one. While I browsed around the rest of the show, I saw another HK that I’ve wanted since I was in high school — the HK P7 . The problem is that this gun has always been very expensive for a few reasons. First, it is the first (and only to my knowledge) to have a squeeze cock mechanism. Meaning you have to squeeze the handle to cock (and then fire) the pistol. It’s an ingenious design. Secondly, HK stopped production of this pistol in 1991, which (Side note — they made 500 more in 2007) drove up the price. Rabbit trail coming:

As many of you know, I grew up around firearms, and have been around them most of my life. My father told me that when I turned 16, he would buy me a pistol. When they day came, he asked me which gun I wanted, and I told him that I wanted a P7. Back then, the gun was priced around $1200.00. My dad said I would need to choose another, so I ended up with the Beretta 92FS . My father affectionately referred to it as my paper weight, even though I could outshoot him with it. I never did get the P7, and the price continued to go up.

Back at Big Town, I stood before a used HK P7, and the price was only $699.00. The problem was that the blue was really worn. The dealer said it had been issued to the German police. For all I know, it didn’t even have all HK genuine parts in it, so I passed. The price was right, but there was too much risk. I started doing some research, and long story short, I ended up with a P7 this afternoon. I picked it up from a dealer at noon, and was on the firing range by 4:00 p.m. I finally have one in my collection. Dad would be so proud.

After firing it, it was all I had hoped for. The first target, as you can see below, shows the tight grouping of that pistol. It had very little recoil, and with the squeeze cocker offering a single action trigger pull, it was very pleasant to shoot. The price was high, but I am glad I got it. It is my new favorite pistol and will make a perfect conceal carry weapon.

Below are some photos I took this afternoon. I took a few guns to the range to shoot — My HK USP and P7, Glock 27 and finally my Ruger Mark IV with the bull barrel. I had a friend who wanted to shoot a .22 and then didn’t show. Thanks Kyle! :) I couldn’t get the other 11 guns in the car to take, but I need to get them out and get some ammunition through them. My brother, Terry, is sending me Dad’s Sig 228  this week. Ready for another rabbit trail? Okay, here goes:

Several years back, Terry bought a Sig 228 for Dad for Father’s Day. His only request was that if anything ever happen to Dad, he wanted it back. Of course, the request was honored, and when Dad passed, Terry took it back to Tennessee with him. I was disappointed because I loved that gun. I remember when Dad took it out the first time, and he let me shoot the first clip through it. Right out of the box, the Sig 228 grouped 10 rounds that could be covered by a half dollar at 20 paces. I couldn’t believe that a pistol fresh out of the box would shoot that well. Most pistols require a few hundred rounds just to break in the rifling. Anyway, it was a great shooting pistol.

While Terry was in Oklahoma for Mom’s funeral, he asked me if I wanted it. He said that he didn’t have a son to pass it to, so he thought it would be cool if Alex or Andrew would eventually inherit Grandpa’s gun. I almost teared up. Yes, we are a weird family.. a family of gun loving weirdo’s, I guess. I look forward to receiving that gun, though.

Sorry for the long rant. I guess I like talking about guns because its something I actually know quite a bit about. All of those years of ballistics reports in Gun & Ammo Magazine maybe paid off. When you visit next time, let’s go shooting!

All clear!

My New .40 S&W HK UPS Compact at 25 feet - First Magazine   My New .40 S&W HK UPS Compact at 25 feet - Second Magazine   My New 9mm HK P7 at 25 feet - First Magazine   My New 9mm HK P7 at 25 feet - Second Magazine
 
Cleaning up the guns after an afternoon of shooting   Ahh.. all clean now. Now that is a pistol worth carrying concealed.
 
Written on 01 March 2008 by dpruitt under Guns, Rants with 2 Comments

Today’s Wisdom

I saw this statement this morning, and it couldn’t be truer:

Liberals are generally good people, who fill the life raft with so many good intentions that it sinks…drowning all aboard.

Written on 29 February 2008 by dpruitt under Rants with No Comments

I Love Monkeys

It’s been a long time since I e-mailed everyone about how much I love monkeys. Instead of e-mailing, I decided to just post it in my blog. After you read it again, I think you will love monkeys too. So, here goes..

I like monkeys. The pet store was selling them for five cents a piece. I thought that was odd since they were normally a couple thousand. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I bought 200. I like monkeys.

I took my 200 monkeys home. I have a big car. I let one drive. His name was Sigmund. He was retarded. In fact, none of them were really bright. They kept punching themselves in their genitals. I laughed. Then they punched my genitals. I stopped laughing.

I herded them into my room. They didn’t adapt very well to their new environment. They would screech, hurl themselves off of the couch at high speeds and slam into the wall. Although humorous at first, the spectacle lost its novelty halfway into its third hour.

Two hours later I found out why all the monkeys were so inexpensive: they all died. No apparent reason. They all just sorta’ dropped dead. Kinda’ like when you buy a goldfish and it dies five hours later. Damn cheap monkeys.

I didn’t know what to do. There were 200 dead monkeys lying all over my room, on the bed, in the dresser, hanging from my bookcase. It looked like I had 200 throw rugs.

I tried to flush one down the toilet. It didn’t work. It got stuck. Then I had one dead, wet monkey and 199 dead, dry monkeys.

I tried pretending that they were just stuffed animals. That worked for a while, that is until they began to decompose. It started to smell real bad.

I had to pee but there was a dead monkey in the toilet and I didn’t want to call the plumber. I was embarrassed.

I tried to slow down the decomposition by freezing them. Unfortunately, there was only enough room for two monkeys at a time so I had to change them every 30 seconds. I also had to eat all the food in the freezer so it didn’t all go bad.

I tried burning them. Little did I know my bed was flammable. I had to extinguish the fire.

Then I had one dead, wet monkey in my toilet, two dead, frozen monkeys in my freezer, and 197 dead, charred monkeys in a pile on my bed. The odor wasn’t improving.

I became agitated at my inability to dispose of my monkeys and to use the bathroom. I severely beat one of my monkeys. I felt better.

I tried throwing them away but the garbage man said that the city was not allowed to dispose of charred primates. I told him that I had a wet one. He couldn’t take that one either. I didn’t bother asking about the frozen ones.

I finally arrived at a solution. I gave them out as Christmas gifts. My friends didn’t know quite what to say. They pretended that they like them, but I could tell they were lying. Ingrates. So I punched them in the genitals. I love monkeys.

Written on 29 July 2007 by dpruitt under Rants with 3 Comments

40 Pounds Lighter

Weight Chart for June 20, 2007
I have good news! After 2 weeks of my weight plateau I have finally dropped some more weight. I guess the running works, huh? I weight in this morning at the doctor’s office. I stepped on the scale a bit nervous. To my delight I had lost 8 lbs!! I went from 290 last Wednesday to 282 this morning. I had to double check the scales. I stepped off, and made sure that 0 was balanced, and tried again. Sure enough, I am 282!! Wow. Granted, I still weight as much as a house, but loosing 40 lbs feels great. These are the same scales I use every week, so I ruled that out as a possibility.

I just thought I would share the good news. It feels awesome, and I can’t wait to feel what another 100 pounds feels like! Yay!!

Written on 20 June 2007 by dpruitt under Rants with 2 Comments