That's More Like It ....

For over a year, I struggled with the defacto modern state-of-the-art backup/pocket/concealed carry pistol, the KelTec P11 9mm.  It took a chunk out of my thumb once.  It left my hand sore every time I fired it. But worst of all I could never hit squat with it.  I was all over the paper with no rhyme or reason.  I couldn't even fire enough of a pattern to figure out what to correct.

So, I went to a much larger and more expensive weapon for regular carry, a Glock 19, which, after a reasonable amount of practice, I am able to fire fairly accurately.  But, it is a larger weapon, summer is coming and I really wanted something small to just stick in my pocket in the yard, around the farm, etc.  After a ton of research on the internet, I found something startling. Probably the most accurate pocket pistol around for non expert shooters is a less than hundred and fifty dollar Saturday Night Special, the Phoenix Arms, HP22A. Yes, it is a .22.  I ordered one online.  It arrived today.

The target above was shot at ten yards.  Nine out of ten rounds are in the kill zone.  The tenth was a flyer. The headshot was aimed as a headshot.  I have since adjusted the sights to correct the left side error in pattern. After a year of work, I never got anywhere close to that kind of accuracy with KelTec. Granted, as target shooting goes, the pattern above is nothing to write home about.  I expect to keep my rounds within a six inch circle after I have gotten used to the weapon. But, for the first time out after having fired approximately a hundred rounds with the little guy, I have to say that 90% in the kill zone at 10 yards is not a bad start with a 3 inch barrel pocket pistol.  Further, the little gun fired flawlessly right out of the box.  I had

one FTF and FTE out of a hundred rounds.  Not bad for a brand new gun.

The downside of the gun is that the "California" safeties on it are ridiculous and it is a royal pain to field strip. It took me an hour to take it apart, wipe off the excess oil from the factory and put it back together again. The same operation with a Glock would take about a minute.

But, all in all, I am very pleased with the little gun and am glad to have a pocket gun again.  The gun comes in either brushed aluminum or blued finish.  It also

comes in a number of different combinations.  The basic gun with a 3 in. barrel costs about $130.00.  The Rangemaster kit comes with a 5 inch barrel, an extended magazine and a cleaning kit all packed in a lockable hard plastic case.  These sell for around $160.00.  The Rangemaster Deluxe kit includes a 3 inch barrel, a 5 inch barrel, two magazines, the cleaning kit and and the lockable case.  It's a great value.

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Postcript:  The reason the Phoenix is more accurate than the more expensive KelTec goes back to basics. The KelTec has no safeties and relies upon the striker fire mechanism and a long, hard trigger pull to avoid misfires.  Compromises in accuracy are a natural result of this combination.  The long trigger pull makes real accuracy impossible and the light weight combined with a powerful round make it a weapon nobody is going to fire enough to get accustomed to it.  

The Phoenix is an old fashioned, single action, hammer fired weapon.  It relies on too many safeties to prevent misfires but the trigger pull is short and relatively crisp for an inexpensive weapon.  The annoying safeties can be modified leaving a small, old fashioned, little pocket pistol that shoots quite well and is still safe enough to carry if you know what you are doing.  BTW it will half cock.  Anyone who has ever carried a 1911 or a Browning would be at home with it.  Half an hour with a Dremel tool, a tiny shim or two and some luminous sight paint to make the tiny sights light up and you have a fairly nice little weapon with a lifetime warranty.

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A later note.  Yesterday, I decided to practice drawing this little guy from Condition 3 (no round in the chamber).  This is commonly known as the "Israeli Carrry" method.  It requires you to quickly rack the slide to load a round into the chamber after the draw.  If done right it adds only half a second to the time it takes to get your first shot off and is a much safer way to carry the weapon.  This is important in Israel where it is common for citizen soldiers to carry handguns.  It also has the advantage of working on any semi auto without requiring intensive drills on the safeties of that particular weapon.  The first time I tried a "combat draw" with the HP22 it ripped a chunk out of left forefinger.  I naturally went looking for the problem and saw it immediately.  The top of the hammer safety had not been finished completely and was razor sharp. So, if you are following this saga while considering buying an HP22 be advised you will probably need to spend an hour or so with a Dremel tool or a piece of emery paper to take the sharp edges off some of the roughly finished parts on the weapon.

EZ Pawn .... My A**

This afternoon, I did a quick check at a few pawnshops looking for my stolen guns from the farm.  You never know where they may show up and I will not give up until I have the weapons back or the name(s) of the person who took them .... preferably both.

The EZ Pawn in the 3700 block of Admiral Place had a weapon that looked very much like one of my stolen weapons. When I asked the teen-aged black girl working the counter to unlock it for me she asked, "Are you going to buy it?"  I told her that I sure wasn't going to buy it until I inspected it and made sure that it worked.  I didn't tell her that I am a PI working on a case close to my own heart and need to examine the weapon closely to see if it was stolen property.  She unchained the weapon.

I was disappointed that it was not one of my stolen weapons but it looked clean and I figured I might go ahead and buy it and put it away for my grandson in case I never recover the original that was a gift to me from my father.  Problem was, they had the action locked up with a zip tie and the little girl said that she couldn't take it off so that I could look down the bore, examine the extractor, etc.  So, I asked her to call her manager.

The first person to show up was a pencil necked geek of an assistant manager who told me that their FFL license would not let them show a weapon with an unlocked action.  I told him that was bullsh*t because I have read a big chunk of that law and it doesn't say anything like that.  By this time, the MANAGER" had shown up.  She was about nineteen and looked like she couldn't tell the butt from the bore of a rifle.  She insisted that they could not allow a weapon to be unlocked before selling it.  Furious, I told her that she apparently didn't want to sell guns from her store.  

By this time my BP was up and my patience was gone.  I asked to talk to HER boss.  She gave me an 800 number.  I am now waiting for a call from the "REGIONAL MANAGER."  I suspect it will not come.   I have never been treated so stupidly when trying to purchase a weapon.  EZ Pawn must have real personnel problems to collect the crew that I talked to.

I have one word of advice.  Don't try to do business with EZ Pawn.  They're apparently so ghetto minded that they think everyone will put up with their BS.  There are a dozen great pawnshops in town that will sell you a gun or a musical instrument or tools without handing you a line of BS.  Do business with them.  Second Hand Rose on 3rd Street and Green Country Firearms on 31st are two of the best.  The only reason I will ever step foot in an EZ Pawn again will be to do exactly what I was doing today, look for stolen property.

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This is an update to the post shown above.  The Regional Manager for EZ Pawns here in Tulsa called me shortly after 1:00 PM this afternoon.  It is indeed the corporate the policy of EZ Pawn not to allow the customer to examine firearms before purchase.  This is not the law as their local assistant manager tried to tell me.  It is simply an EZ Pawn internal policy.

This is another example of what is wrong with many American businesses concerning firearms today.  The corporate idiots at EZ Pawn would not expect a customer to buy a television without turning it on first or a power tool without watching it operate.  But, they are perfectly comfortable in insulting gun purchasers by asking if your are going to purchase the weapon before they even pull it out.  The Regional Manager "apologized" for this of course but the corporate policy of "special treatment" of gun purchasers makes such inappropriate behavior not only understandable but probably inevitable.

If I walk into Second Hand Rose, Green Country Arms and Pawn or Sooner Firearms, they will let me examine a firearm any way I want to within reason.  They may ask that I not dry fire it or may not depending on the weapon.  But, they may also provide a snap cap to dry fire it safely.  I will be able to handle the weapon, work the action and even look down the bore if I want to.  If I ask for a bore light they will provide one.  

EZ Pawn should get out of the gun business.  If they can't trust their employees enough to tell which customers are a threat and which aren't, they certainly don't need firearms on the premises.  

Bill and Sheila Go To The Mad(dy) House

It was a sad little evening Friday night at the Freeway Diner.  Tulsa is losing one couple of the Pack.  Roger and Maddy have now officially moved to Grand Lake.   We had a good visit Friday evening over the usual diner fare.  Saturday, Mike and Jodi spent the day at Grand Lake helping Roger and Maddy move.  Sunday, we went up to help them unpack.

We headed out around 11:00 AM and had lunch at Asiana in Claremore.  If you don't know about it, Asiana is the best Chinese buffet restaurant I have ever known.  There is a full time sushi chef manning a good sized sushi bar.  The sushi is as good as any in Tulsa where you have to pay an arm and a leg per serving.  The buffet food is well prepared and there is a dazzling variety of offerings.  

After a more than ample lunch, Sheila and I headed up Route 66 and then east on 28 toward Grand Lake. Maddy and Sheila were both a little confused about the directions.  At one time, I had to firmly tell Sheila that I-44 and Grand Lake are BOTH east of Route 66.  But, despite the confusion, we arrived without a hitch.

Roger and Maddy's home sits on a peninsula with the lake on three sides.  Roger's pontoon boat is docked within a short walk of his back door.  It is a small but very well designed little house that should be perfect for a retired couple.  It was already well furnished and well decorated.  They bought it furnished.

Sheila came prepared to work but there was little work to be done.  I helped Roger program his new smart TV to use the internet and Sheila helped Maddy unpack a few boxes.  But aside from that, we mostly visited.  Roger's brother Randy who lives nearby stopped in for a while.  It was a very pleasant little afternoon.

Around 3:00 PM we headed back.  I decided to take Highway 82 back to to 412.  That took us south to Lake Spavinaw then over Spavinaw Mountain.  It was a pleasant little drive and a great way to end a quiet little Sunday afternoon.  And a good time was had by all.

The Rat Pack "Tweens" 2013

I like to call the time between Christmas and New Year the "Tweens."  It's a holiday of sorts since little business gets done and nobody really wants to work.  It's a good time for visiting that didn't get done on the actual holidays, chores etc.

Sunday night, the Rat Pack met at the Freeway Diner.  The Freeway Diner is a great place to eat in a bad neighborhood.  I regularly run across the President of one of Tulsa's best known manufacturing companies there.  It is a hangout for north Tulsa's fast car folks. You may seen anyone from a millionaire in camo to a street vet eating there. It is quickly becoming the Pack's go to place for comfort food.

Maddy and Roger were full of tales from their recent cruise to the Caribbean.  Mike and Jodi are gearing up for their cruise to Hawaii in a couple of weeks.  We missed the Caribbean this year because we had to babysit our grandson, Little Ben, while our daughter and son in law took a belated honeymoon ... on the same ship Maddy and Roger took a week later!

We all agreed to do another cruise together in January, 2015.  Maddy came up with a savings plan where

you put one dollar in the bank the first week, two the second week, etc. for a year.  At the end of the year, you have enough money for a modest cabin for two on a seven day cruise.  We don't all need to save that way for a vacation but the plan should be fun and if it is followed, it should allow a couple or two that we would like to come along but normally couldn't to participate.

As we were leaving, an odd thing happened.  Sheila got a terrible cramp in her leg and had to lie down on the bench by the door as we were leaving.  Maddy, who is an experienced RN as well as a professor of nursing at one of the local colleges, immediately got on her knees, isolated the cramped muscle and massaged it back to normal within seconds.  The whole place was looking on open mouthed.  Maddy shrugged it off.  Said she had done too many shifts in a dialysis ward where that kind of cramp was an everyday occurrence.

After dinner, we took the guided tour of Mike and Jodi's son Josh's new  house.  His place was torched in a revenge attack by the neighborhood drug dealers.  To the best of our knowldge they are now behind bars. Mike and Jodi served as the defacto general contractors over the insurance repairs and I have to say that Josh's place is about as nice a small home as you are ever going to find.  Josh is about as far from a metrosexual as you are ever going to find but his house would make one proud.  Mike is a retired electronics specialist/engineer.  While the drywall was being replaced, he wired the place for just about everything including state of the art video security.  The place is impressive.

It was just a quiet evening with friends but that is a good thing at our time in life.  A good time was had by all.