Firearm of the Week - Posted for Big Mullet

Greetings liberty lovers, I was in D.C. last week and visited the United States Supreme Court. No, I wasn’t arguing with the court but wanted to. In recent years the court has ruled on arguments relating to the Second Amendment. The Court has ruled on weapon bans in D.C. and Chicago. The court ruled against these bans. Basically saying a citizen has the right to protect themselves. Good news? Not really. Here’s the rub. The court ruled 5 to 4 to protect these rights. Why wasn’t it ruled 9 to 0? The 1st Amendment addresses free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. Most of us would agree freedom of speech is a fundamental right. If it weren’t for 5 conservative justices the 2nd Amendment may be interpreted very differently. I don’t get it. Attending public schools is considered a fundamental right. It isn’t in the constitution. In our country, abortion is considered a fundamental right. I’m pretty certain it isn’t in the constitution. The 2nd Amendment is in the constitution and 4 of the 5 Supreme Court Justices do not think it is a fundamental right? I’m confused. The take-away from this is we are one heart-beat away from losing this right. Let’s pray one of the 5 conservative justices don’t get hit by a bus or decides to retire.

Over the next few weeks we will be reviewing Russian/Soviet era military fire arms. This weeks’ fire arm is the Mosin Nagant 91/30.

When the Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1941 the Mosin–Nagant was the standard issue weapon of Soviet troops. As a result, millions of the rifles were produced and used in World War II by the largest mobilized army in history.

The Mosin–Nagant was adopted as a sniper rifle in 1932 and was issued to Soviet snipers. It served quite prominently in the brutal urban battles on the Eastern Front, such as the Battle of Stalingrad, which made heroes of snipers like Vasili Zaitsev and Ivan Sidorenko. Google these guys and read about their incredible shooting skills.

The M1891 was adopted by the Russian military in, well, 1891. It was redesigned in 1930 thus the designation of M91/30. Earlier dated versions were more finely crafted. After the outbreak of the war, Russia cranked out rifles that were more crudely crafted. The Soviet union abandoned the M91/30 soon after the war in favor of the SKS style rifle and ultimately the AK 47.

Today you can buy an M91/30 for about $100. This includes a cleaning kit, ammo pouch and bayonet. Most of these rifles are in good shootable condition. They shoot a 7.62x54r cartridge. The “r” stands for “rimmed”. This ammo is plentiful. I will tell you this rifle is a shoulder cannon. The 54r is a big ass round. If you are interested in a bit of history this is a cool rifle to own. The Russians mint marked their weapons. You will see the mark for where the rifle was made, serial numbers are easy to compare on the bolt, receiver and stock.

Here is a picture of mine.

Happy shooting and keep an eye on the ass-clowns in Washington.

Big Mullet

Firearm of the Week - Posted for Big Mullet

Greetings Liberty Lovers,

BillyBob has reminded me I haven’t been contributing to my Firearm of the Week column. Between just life activities and my part time job at the trailer park I have been distracted. Also, we have been trying to help out the folks of Joplin MO and Reading KS by collecting Walmart gift cards and bottled water. You can help too. At the very least pray for relief of their suffering and pray for strength. Find a way to contribute, $10 - $20, every bit helps. At the very most find time to donate your time. They will be rebuilding for years. Lifting up our own countrymen is what it means to be an American.

Firearm of the Week: I am out of town next week attending Trailer Park Owners Association meeting so here is a teaser of what will be coming up in the next few weeks. We will review a variety of Russian military weapons. We will start with the Mosin Nagan 91/30, Russian SKS, Tokarov SVT 40 and finally the venerable AK 47.

In order to have the proper frame of mind for these next weapons, rent the video Enemy at the Gates. It is a story about Vasily Grigorevich Zaytsev. Using a scoped 91/30 he was a remarkable sniper. Or just Google Vasily and learn more about him.

Until then, keep the peace and blessings to you.

Big Mullet

Range Day April 28, 2011

My Bride's youngest brother is in town this week. He wanted to go do a little shooting while he was here. I took him out this morning.

It was a beautiful day and the shooting was exceptional.

We started out with the Hi-Point Carbine. We were shooting it at 50 yards. As usual it was a hell of a lot of fun to shoot. The Brother-In-Law enjoyed it a lot.

My target on the top, Brother-in-Law's on the bottom.

Brother-in-Law posing for the camera.

After 100 rounds of 9mm, we moved over to the 100 yard range to enjoy the Olympic Arms AR-15. We fired 60 or so rounds.

Brother-in-Law firing the AR-15

We moved on the the Mosin Nagant M44 Carbine next. I think we fired about 25 rounds through it. That is enough to get used to the recoil but not enough to kick your ass.

Brother-in-Law firing the Russian Cannon.

Brother-in-Law posing with our targets. We used the same targets for the AR-15 and the Mosin Nagant. Mine is the lower, his is the upper.

After this, we moved over to the shotgun range for a little light trap shooting. Big Mullet and his son joined us. We were having such a good time I forgot to take any pictures. We were shooting my Mossberg 500, my Mossberg 590A1 and Big Mullet's Mossberg 590A1. My Brother-in-Law turned out to be pretty handy with a shotgun.

As an added treat, there were several law enforcement folks at their range, which is next to the shotgun range. They were firing full auto M4 Carbines and a few other goodies like an MP5. But as we were getting ready to leave, they asked us if we would like to come watch the sniper guy fire his Barrett .50. What do you think we said to that? Umm, we said Hell Yes! It was an awesome sight. The concussion of the first shot set off the alarm in one of the police vehicles. It was sweet...