Docwagon

They are both one man shops. "Famous" is relative. If you aren't a nerd or someone in the industry, neither name will mean anything to you. Most gun guys wouldn't know or care, either. Yeah, he said a popular gun may get made earlier as for efficiency he makes in batches if he has a bunch of the same holster in the same colors for the same gun, but otherwise that's a pretty solid estimate. He's turning away orders until he gets his backlog down, but will still take some. Definitely no nylon. Ick. The worst of all worlds. Plastic/kydex is ok. It's not a patch on a properly made leather holster though. Eventually, probably all of my Sigs. I may do one from each to start and then go from there.

Sort of. Keep in mind they are custom work, but you can get an idea. #1's work: #2's work:

I don't know what to do. I want a really high quality custom holster for one of my Sigs. I have two options I've narrowed it down to. Both options are entirely hand made, hand sewn, and hand boned. Both are high quality bull hide accented with exotic skins. Option #1: 6-12 month wait from time of order. $160-ish. A good but relatively unknown holster maker. 100% guaranteed to fit. Option #2: Unknown wait time, but likely less than 2 months. $250-ish. A famous holster maker. Someone who's something of a legend in holster design and who's patents are still used by the big players in the field today. Lives out of the country and has a gun blank that should work, but we're like 95% sure it'll fit. Dither dither dither dither.

My son with the dinosaur we put together:

Dude, this "Shooter's Bible" is a freaking treasure! Thanks so much. "How much should a shotgun weigh? This is almost as tricky a question as, "How much should a woman weigh", for one seem almost as much a matter of personal taste as the other. However, just as 200 pounds of femininity is definitely a bit much for most of us, so is a 10 pound shotgun. At the other extreme, both a 3 lb. shotgun and an 80 lb. girl friend would probably seem just too wispy to please very many of us." The article actually goes on to talk about in years past women were preferred at 140lb and "today" (being 1973) the preference is 110-125 lb and also preferred shotgun weights. Holy shit, these are fun.

There's a rental service: https://www.pley.com/landing-video It's real similar to how Netflix used to be for DVDs.

Courtesy of Drifter: Old reloading manuals. These are going to be so much fun to read. I skimmed the chapters in one and am particularly intrigued by "bunk about buck shot."

Legos are awesome.

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/08/384056172/first-listen-the-mavericks-mono#playlist Listen to "All Night Long" and go from there. Lead singer has an amazing voice. Genre is difficult to define.

Then you probably wouldn't like the end of Mass Effect 3.

I still carry the LCR. It's my backup gun and I carry it in an ankle holster. As far as the handguns I don't carry any longer, most of them sit in the safe and see the occasional range day for fun. I carry my P220 daily. I carry my LCR almost daily. I carry my P245 occasionally. Generally in situtions where I would have previously used the LCR as a primary. Once the weather breaks and I start jogging again, for example. My revolvers pretty much sit in the safe except for range time. I sold the Security Six after buying the Match Champion, as I liked the MC more and didn't need two guns that were nearly identical spec wise (both 4" .357 revolvers). I *never* carry my 1911, and its a safe queen. I seldom even take it to the range. I love it, but I can't carry it due to work restrictions. I have shot my Glock 22 former duty pistol exactly once since I had the trigger job done. I would sell it except its got my police department's initials in the serial number (they were ordered that way) and I think it'll make a neat heirloom for my son one day.

Mass Effect is, at it's heart, a game about blue titties. Wait, what's the question? Oh, right. The ending was fine by me. I think I just relate it to real military decisions and the like too much and the overarching narrative doesn't strike me the way it does you. I could be the greatest Admiral to ever command a float during WWII. My decisions and tactics could save ships and lives that would have been lost by a mundane admiral. Then some egghead invents the nuke and all it really takes is one pilot and one bomb and all of my decisions have no affect on the end result on the outcome of the war. Teamwork and tactics and all the rest makes huge differences on the battlefield. Sometimes the battlefield doesn't mean dick to the outcome of the war, though, and sometimes a disruptive power (technology in the real world) just up and takes the decisions out of your hands. That's just the way war goes. Hell, that's the way LIFE goes. Everything is cooking along, your plans are laid, nothing can go wrong and then...disruption. Think of the guys who worked their asses off to get satellite radio to be a thing, and before any real return on investment, high speed wireless and free apps kicks their business model out from under them. In short, its a reminder that regardless of how powerful you are, how smart you are, how good you are, there's always somebody better. Its a reminder to not step on people on the way up, because some day you may be coming right back down. in the end, Shepherd is just a man, not a god. Shepherd is us.

I recently purchased a police trade in P229 from Sportsman's Outdoor Super Store. Indy Trading Post took care of the transfer (their FFL was already on file) and I picked it up this morning. ITP was out of .357 Sig, so a quick jaunt over to Beech Grove Firearms for two boxes of Remington 125gr FMJ and back to ITP to hit the range. ITP just upgraded their range lighting, and its a much nicer place to shoot for groups now. First off, here's the gun: It's got some holster wear, but nothing that suggests it was abused. The rails are in good shape, and while it was a bit dirty it was lubed. It came with two factory 12 round magazines. I put some grease on the rails and shot 100 rounds. I had no idea what to expect from the .357 Sig cartridge, as I'd never shot one. I had been around them during a few IDPA shoots in the early 2000's and knew they were loud and had a bit of muzzle blast, but that was about it. So, I hung up a Dirty Bird target and ran it out to 7 yards, loaded up 5, and took my time. That's just a fuzz over 1" center to center. I was happy with that. The first shot was in double action and is the one that's the second from the top. The rest were shot single action. I wheeled the target back in, took the photo, and then ran it to the back of the range. I think that's about 12y. I loaded up the two magazines and started speeding up a bit. This was done at a steady cadence, I'd estimate about 3 shots per 2 seconds, as I got used to the reset point and the recoil. I did throw 3 as shown, and it was due to two reasons First, I was tightening my right hand too much and milked the grip a bit. Second, I was overcompensating for recoil at first and pushing the gun down a bit. The recoil is minimal. Especially shooting it back to back with the .45 it was very soft shooting. I didn't have a .40 with me to compare it to, but I'm confident its less recoil than the .40, but more than a 9mm. While it is noisy, its all bark and no bite from the shooter's end. I had planned to get a .40 barrel for this gun, and I still may, but I'm going to give serious consideration to the .357 Sig. Then it was time to play with the Haley Tactical targets I downloaded and printed. I ran this out to about 4 yards and started at the bottom. On the bottom row I shot the first shot double action then tried to shoot the same dot again in single action, then move down the line in single action. The next two row ups I sped up a bit and tried to put one in each dot, but was getting further out than I wanted. You can see #5 is closer to the bottom row than the row I was shooting at, so I slowed down a bit. I started on the next to the top line, got the first 3 in the dot and then put the second two a little low. I was getting tense and again my grip was too tight. I didn't shoot the top row as it was super close to the hanger and I didn't want to accidentally shoot the range's hardware. Between shooting those lines, I shot a transition drill on this target, which I hung on the other side of the target hanger. The upper left circle is shot in double action, then work my way clockwise around the others in single action. Yes, the top have 5 each and the bottom only have 2. I ran out of ammo during the last cycle. The black circles are 2" across. So, all in all I'm well satisfied with this gun. It's right up there with my P220, and this is hard for me to admit but I think I might shoot this one better, at least at slow fire. I've been a single stack .45 fan for so long and I've got so much invested in my P220 and 1911 that its a difficult prejudice to overcome and say "this is probably better." But this gun has the potential to be better. I won't know for sure until I get a holster and get to the outdoor range where I can do some more instinctive shooting at speeds, work the steels, etc. I suspect the factory Sig sights on the P229 are more precise for slow fire, but will not be as fast and easy to acquire as the Trijicon HD's on my current EDC, the P220. The reduced recoil is noticeable, though, and I'm curious to see how my split times will be. The trigger is exactly what all the classic P-series Sigs have. A heavy but smooth double action with a clean break and an imperceptible amount of over travel. This Sig does not have the Short Reset Trigger, which I'm a fan of, and I'll probably upgrade it if I get serious about carrying it. The grip is the standard Sig pebble grain plastic, a lined front strap (horizontal lines instead of the vertical on the P220), and oddly there's a lanyard attachment point. I've never noticed this on other Sigs, but admittedly don't normally look for it, so I'm not sure if this is standard on the P229 or the PD ordered them this way. All in all, its the got the quality feel I expect from a Sig, it functions like it should, it feels good in the hand, and it shoots quite nicely. I'm happy. Oh, and just to drive a few select people nuts: It's combat accurate. It's a tack driver. Anything cheaper sucks and will get you killed. Anything more expensive is for snobs and show offs. .357 Sig is the best caliber, and whatever you carry sucks.

That's me opening some Christmas loot. My wife, Santa, my son, and me at Holiday World this past Summer.

Yay! Someone cares. It's in the store. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow morning so I can get some range time with it as well.

...my first thought was "Why does Tiger Woods have a mushroom cloud behind him?" Then I paid more attention to the face. Then I laughed. Carry on.

Supposed to be in the store today. Are you savoring?

Speaker for the Dead is an outstanding book. It's an ok story, but its a great incite into what it is to be human. There were parts where the cop in me was saying "yeah, that's exactly how it is" and was truly moved by how it was put. One of my favorite quotes from the book was "Don't ever try to teach me about good and evil. I've been there, and you've seen nothing but a map." That's what its like when your a vet or a cop and you've been there and some well meaning but ignorant soul wants to preach to you. So perfect. I'm going to cut and paste this, but also: “A Great Rabbi stands, teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death. There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine - a Speaker for the Dead - has told me of two other Rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you. The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. 'Is there any man here,' he says to them, 'who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?' They murmur and say, 'We all know the desire, but Rabbi none of us has acted on it.' The Rabbi says, 'Then kneel down and give thanks that God has made you strong.' He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, 'Tell the Lord Magistrate who saved his mistress, then he'll know I am his loyal servant.' So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder. Another Rabbi. Another city. He goes to her and stops the mob as in the other story and says, 'Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.' The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. ‘Someday,’ they think, ‘I may be like this woman. And I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her as I wish to be treated.’ As they opened their hands and let their stones fall to the ground, the Rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head and throws it straight down with all his might it crushes her skull and dashes her brain among the cobblestones. ‘Nor am I without sins,’ he says to the people, ‘but if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead – and our city with it.’ So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance. The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis and when they veer too far they die. Only one Rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So of course, we killed him. -San Angelo Letters to an Incipient Heretic” ― Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead

New gun inbound. Should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. Savor the anticipation.

Or come to Indy, I'll take you to a Turkish restaurant that'll blow your mind.

Trained vs Practiced: Just a reminder. Practice in and of itself will not make you a good shooter. You may be simply ingraining bad habits. The guy on the far left has his target at 5yd and can't keep it all on the over-sized silhouette. I give him credit for trying, at least he's off the couch and at the range. How much better could he be if he hired someone for a few hours to show him the fundamentals, though? The desire to improve is probably there, unless he just likes making money into smoke and noise, but obviously he needs some training. The fellow on the far right keeps them on paper and is probably better prepared than the majority of folks but again, do you think he's had any training? Or a self taught shooter with some natural talent? How quickly could he screw his group size down if he had someone coach him for a bit? How many people chase hardware before they get the software right? Spending $600 on the next toy, but spending $0 to learn how to use it right?

We're about 4 hours apart, then. I'd certainly be willing to drive halfway to meet you in person.

Awwwww....

Hey, another FOG-mate! Where in the US?