OMG…there are HOW few shopping days left ‘til Christmas?  And there are “gun people” on your Christmas list?  And you’re a gun person yourself (or else, why would you be reading this blog?), and other folks are asking what you want for Christmas?

One thing I can suggest is the Panteao Productions series of videos.  You can stream them to the computer, or you can order them on DVD.  Ordering info, and the whole catalog, can be found at http://www.panteaoproductions.com/.

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll mention that one of those vids is mine, on the topic of home defense.  But I’m just a drop in a great sea of talent that Panteao founder Fernando Coelho has put together.

You’ve got flicks on how to win action shooting matches of the IDPA kind, by top guns like World Champion Bob Vogel, National Champ Tom Yost, “Super Dave” Harrington, and more.  I’ve shot with these guys and seen their presentations, and I can tell you you’ll get a lot out of what they have to say even if you have no intention of entering competition.
Paul Howe has a neat flick on how to run the M16/M4/AR15 platform with speed and accuracy. I showed that to my sweetie’s grandson a while back when we were getting him ready to go to USMC boot camp. He qualified Expert there.  Need I say more?Thinking about putting together your own AR-15? That’s the “in thing” today, kind of like decades ago when it was so popular to buy an old military surplus bolt action rifle and “sporterize” in into a hunting gun.  The latest Panteao vid has masterful Colt armorer Dean Caputo showing you how to build your own AR…and Dean, a gunfight survivor and veteran cop, also has Panteao vids showing you how to disassemble (and, more importantly, reassemble) the pistol that saved his life in a shootout with multiple armed gang-bangers, the 1911 model.

There are too many solid experts on the Panteo pantheon to list here, but I can tell you that I’ve seen most of their training films and gotten a lot out of them.

Stay tuned for more holiday season gift suggestions.

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Where I spent most of my life, Thanksgiving was traditionally the opening day of deer season, and if the family had gathered in the country, it was not uncommon for some plinking in the back yard to follow the turkey and stuffing and all the rest.  When I was a kid, the Thanksgiving posters at school and in the rest of the community depicted a Pilgrim holding a blunderbuss.  (Where did folks think the traditional turkey came from, anyway?)

An image of a founder of American society holding a firearm is no longer politically correct in “zero tolerance gun-free school zones,” but we who appreciate the backwoods home lifestyle still have guns as part of our tradition.  It was so, at least, in the rural area where I spent the weekend too many people associate with “turkey day” instead of “a giving of thanks.”

Thursday, the Evil Princess and I spent part of the day feasting with friends at a local church, our firearms discreetly concealed under our sport jackets.  The rest of the afternoon was spent at another gathering, where open carry was welcome.  She had worn an engraved, ivory handled Smith & Wesson, and I was packing a Kimber .45 with pewter grips in a sharkskin holster. (You’re supposed to dress up some for holidays, aren’t you?)

Friday, she and I were part of the crew for a “Wounded Warriors Match” held by the Gateway Rifle & Pistol Club’s First Coast IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) seminar.  It was awesome to see how those young men, now re-acclimating to the society they shed blood to defend, appreciatively to an event that sharpened their skills for protecting their families from threats “self-defense domestic” instead of “national defense foreign.”  The event had been approved by the Wounded Warriors Project, though not with their logo in sight except on the shirts of member soldiers who attended.  There has been an issue on that, with WWP happily taking money from gun clubs doing charity projects for injured military personnel, but not wanting their name associated with the firearms industry.  Two respected Internet gun forums, The High Road  and The Firing Line , have discussed them in depth from both sides.

Take a look at those, if you’re not familiar with the controversy, and take particular care to read the links.  I’ll be very much interested in you folks’ take on the matter.

Saturday the EP and I shot the ProArms Invitational Thanksgiving match under cloudless skies in high 60s weather, with a great bunch of folks.  Her coming in High Female and me coming in Most Accurate were a bonus to a great day with great people.

But, heck, that’s just two folks getting Trigger Time during Turkey Day festivities over particularly long weekend.

Tell the rest of us about your Thanksgiving holiday, as citizens of the World of the Gun.

It was an honor to present the first place Wounded Warrior trophy to Allen Personette, left. The shoot was hosted by the First Coast IDPA club at Gateway Rifle & Pistol Club, with Glock pistols (and ammo) provided by Joel Hodges of Glock, and coordinated by Dr. Ed Sevetz.

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When you get to be my age, one of the things you give thanks for is having survived to celebrate another Thanksgiving.

My brother geezer Bill Goldstein sent me this cool 1950s “car show game.” It challenges you to identify various makes and models from the 1950s.  http://www.americantorque.com/game/car-show-50s/

I scored 100%.

I dunno if that’s a bad thing or a good thing.

Hell, I was alive when all of ‘em were new. I remember as a tyke sitting on my dad’s lap as he drove, “helping him steer” his 1950 Oldsmobile 88.  I remember learning to drive on his 1955 Pontiac. (That car had the glove box in the center of the dashboard, equally accessible to driver and passenger. Why the hell didn’t THAT handy feature survive to become an auto industry standard?)  I remember my sister’s sleek 1957 Buick Roadmaster, and how it started: you turned the ignition, then punched the accelerator to fire up the engine.  It seemed quaintly out of place even then. And I remember my very own first car, a ’58 Dodge with push button transmission and, yes, humongous tail fins.

Well, I hope at least that I haven’t (yet) turned into this driver:

On Thanksgiving Day, I’ll join the sweet cookie-baking grandmother with whom I share my life in a quick trip in the geezer van Urban Assault Vehicle to eat and spend much of the day with good friends.  Friday will see us helping out at a shooting event for some wounded warriors, and over the weekend, we’ll compete in a pistol match.  It should be relaxing and fulfilling.

We wish you all a similarly happy and restorative Thanksgiving.

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Secession is in the news after the election. Petitions to secede from the United States are apparently in all fifty less-united-than-they-used-to-be states.
Good that we’re not bitter…or overreacting…
Will the seceding states join one another? What will this new order be called? “The United Red States”? And if the Federal government tries to stop that will it trigger Civil War II, or The War Between the, uh, Blue and Red States? Or The War of Blue Aggression?
Seriously, though, I’d like to hear what you who read this blog think of the whole secession thing.

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In a time when we have a Presidential election in which neither of the front-running candidates served in their country’s military (THAT doesn’t happen too often) it’s all the more appropriate today to give thanks to those who have sacrificed for our nation’s security.

Today is Veteran’s Day.  Let’s all be sure it means something.

Yesterday was the birthday of the US Marine Corps.  That means a lot too.

The day before yesterday, my significant other was in San Diego to watch her oldest grandson graduate from boot camp as a United States Marine.  Regular readers of the blog will recall when he spent a week with her and me getting warmed up, including a two-day Appleseed shoot.  I’m happy to report that he shot Expert with the service rifle.

And, a few days before that, a number of members of our country’s armed services did not get to stand up and be counted in the Presidential election.  Someone needs to answer for that. (No, I’m not talking about the joke thing in the DuffelBlog that went viral.)

The men and women of America’s military do not get the respect they deserve.  There is no better day than today to remember that, and resolve to do all we can as citizens and voters to rectify that situation.

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