It's raining in Baltimore...

so here's a funny.

Freestate Gun Range

I think this is the first time I'll be naming a range near us, but this one is worth talking about.

A few months ago, an entrepreneur came to Maryland Shooters with a question for the forum: "What do you want to see in a range?"  Naturally, the masses responded with enthusiasm.  This was unbelievable...a range actually wanted OUR opinions before opening?  REALLY??!?  Everyone listed their grievances with the other local ranges and specified things they absolutely wanted to see in this new location, and the owners took it all in...and thus far, they've made something excellent with it.

The range in question is Freestate, and out of all the ranges I've been to in Maryland, they're the one I'm actually going to join.  They have TWO bathrooms (where most have one, if you're lucky), classrooms, a waiting area with chairs and tables, an onsite gunsmith, a location where a  snack bar will be (in the works right now), and air conditioning on the range itself.  The guys who own and operate the location are courteous, friendly, and welcoming.  The range itself is modern, with an electronic target deployment system and active targets, and a bag bench behind the shooting stalls.  Oh, and they allow .223 rifles AND silhouette, zombie, "bad guy," and animal targets  They have a decent class offering including Tactical Pen.  Memberships are under $300 (cheapest around, from what I've seen...), and I'd say it's worth it.

I waited until my third visit to the range to do my writeup because I wanted to see them under different situations.  Here's a summary of the three visits.

First visit: Fourth of July weekend with Chris, friends MB and P, and myself.
The visit itself was nice enough.  We were given the tour of the place, shown how to use the target deployment system, and set up with two lanes.  Overall the experience was pleasant, but we could tell they were still working on things.  The women's bathroom was lacking fixtures and had a unisex sign on the door.  I brought this up and was told it would be better by the next visit.

Second visit: Two weeks ago with Chris and his coworker, my coworker, coworker's SO, and myself.
This visit was more pleasant (despite a malfunctioning AC system).  We showed up around 10:15 and they were still setting up for the day - apparently they had people waiting outside before they opened at 10.  We were set up on three concurrent lanes and had our shooty fun.  My coworker and their SO had to leave early, so we closed out our two lanes while Chris and his coworker continued to shoot.  While I waited for them to finish up, I waited at the tables and had a nice chat with Randy, one of the owners.  We discussed the range, how business was going, and my opinions of other local public ranges.  I noticed he would not share any opinions of those other ranges and consistently steered the conversation back to his business.  This was incredibly professional, and made me feel more confident about the range sticking around.  Oh, he bought me a soda, but he didn't need that to win me over.  Promised I'd get a membership when I had the disposable funds for it.

Third visit: Last night with my cousin V.
They were busy! It took a few minutes to get us signed up for a lane (part of that was V filling out the initial waiver).  I did notice the clientele differed drastically from previous visits - most notably in the amount of female patrons.  For once, I wasn't the only female adult!  That said, I think the owners/ROs need to clearly define the rules regarding entering and leaving the range area.  There is a two door "airlock" sort of setup, where you must shut one door before opening the other to reduce noise between the range and the lobby.  The doors do not automatically shut, and apparently the individuals who were there last night assumed otherwise.  I had to correct the group more than once (because no one else was doing so).  This is a problem, and one I hope the range addresses.

Overall, I'm pleased with Freestate...and I'm never going back to the range we used to frequent.

Boo, Chiappa. Boo.

Way to make no one in the blogging community want to buy one of your pistols.

If you're going to use RFID tech in inventory management, it's great to let your customers know about it.  I don't have a problem with it, really...but please, don't let your distributors do the talking for you when it comes to responding to complaints, especially if they're going to be snarky.  That just paints you as the bad guy.


**Edited to add** I've read the press release, and I misunderstood who was originally saying the chips can only be read within a couple of inches.  So glad to see MKS is failing in both their snark and their facts.  WTG, failboats.

No FFL needed!

I thought I had seen it all. With the 100 yr anniversary of the 1911 it seems almost every firearms manufacturer is getting in on the production action. Now it seems you can get 1911's from the most unlikely vendors. A whole bunch of these just showed up in my office. I hope the alphabet boys don't come next.

Fellow Blogger users...got a question.

Does anyone know how to kill the linkspam at the bottom of a post, other than manually deleting every link?  Furthermore, does anyone know what causes this, other than manually linking a post?

I'm stumped, and there's a lotta links that need killin'.

I think the best birthday gift...

Is time spent with good friends.

Chris and I went to Virginia for the weekend to celebrate my birthday.  Newbius, NFO, Mike V, my old buddy S, and even my dearest friends L and his wife H (who trucked down from PA) hit the NRA museum and range with us.  We did the museum tour, then hit a restaurant for lunch and had a crazygood time while noshing on some pretty good food and having high-larious conversation.  After lunch Mike and Newbius had to skeedaddle, but the rest of us blew through a good bit of ammo at the range.

I learned:
1 - Gold Dot .45 ammo?  Holy Hannah.  I'm definitely not used to it!
2 - HK USP .45 = Heavy...and thick. Not my bag, but it shoots nice...it's just danged big for me.
3 - I am entirely too likely to drop the muzzle in anticipation of recoil when shooting .45, but I don't do so at all when I switch back to .380.  I really need to get some snap caps to practice more, I think...
4 - I need to lose weight so my holster fits better.  More on the holster later this week...Michael, we've got another winner!

Today we went to the newer Air & Space Museum...and it's well worth the $15 parking price.  Seriously.  Saw the Space Shuttle, the SR71, and a whole mess of other cool stuff.  If you're in the DC area, GO THERE.

Also, we stayed at the Springhill Suites Fairfax, and I can honestly say it's in my top 5 list of non-resort hotels.  If you find yourself needing a hotel somewhere near DC, GO THERE.  The room is EXCELLENT, the bed is comfortable, the staff is pleasant and helpful, and the breakfast is pretty good.  Oh, they'll have a flyer for a local pizza joint in the room...definitely order from there if you've got a hankering.  It's one fo the better delivery pizzas I've had in awhile.

All in all, this was a really nice weekend and I'm glad we decided to stay down there.  I'm also very thankful those who could make it out did.  I love you guys, and I'm glad I got to meet/talk with Mike. 

Well, dangit.

I was starting to write about this moron but you guys beat me to it.

I'd like to add the inherent problems with this proposal:

Problem #1 - Chris and i really, seriously, can't think of a place (that would be affected by this proposal) IN the city where one can buy ammo.

Problem #2 - Rob&Ride goes out of the city into the county and straight to a Dick's...and ammo.

Problem #3 - bus goes out of the county to various malls...and Dick's.

Basically, this guy's plan is already a failure.  Way to go, dinglebrains!

Why your new knife might seem to suck.

So you bought a new knife and you used it a few times, but then you put it away with the tens and hundreds in your collection. It was cool, but didn't seem to hold a good edge very long or stay sharp, but that old crapper fishing/hunting/kitchen knife you use all the time does. How come? The simple answer is because you don't use it.

Commercial knives available today are some of the best in history, even the crappy cheap ones. The reason is the steels used in today's knives are some of the best ever made. The computer controlled foundries are producing higher quality steel with less impurities in greater quantities and therefore cheaper than ever before. So even some of the really cheap crappy knives you pick up have pretty decent blade steel.

Why does my new knife suck though? Because of the grind. Check out this nice illustration at wikipedia. Almost every knife you buy that was mass produced will come with a #3 saber grind because it is the easiest and best grind for all around use that a machine can easily make. It has two precise angles, and blades can quickly be ground to a razor sharp edge. So blame the robots! There is nothing wrong with this, but from looking at the illustration you can see the edge is very thin and can easily be flattened or bent out of shape. Most people continue this grind shape on their knives because they use all manner of angled gizmos to sharpen them. Angled ceramics, electric sharpeners and things you pull along the edge are all designed to keep that straight angle on the blade and give you a razor sharp edge.

If you're satisfied with this, great! keep doing what you're doing. The only real difference is you will be sharpening more often, and your edge is more vulnerable to chipping, but you'll have just as sharp a knife, that's just as useful. If you want more out of your knife buy some type of whetstone. Before the usual exasperation, (OMG! How do I use a flat stone to sharpen things? There might be math involved!) let me assure you there is less math involved than there is with the other sharpening gizmos - it's just the other gizmos have done the math for you. You will have to acquire some skill which will mean practice. I will admit I do still use the gizmos for quick stuff and kitchen knives. What you get with a flat stone is an eventual convex edge. That's #6 on the above chart. The convex edge is just as sharp as the V or saber grind, but it is much stronger and will stay sharp longer, and be less prone to chipping. It's all in the sacred geometry. OH NOES MATH! Relax, it's only in the explanation. The convex edge has much more steel backing the edge. Remember from geometry class? Say it with me, circles are stronger than squares and triangles.

So how do you get one? If your knife came with an edge like that you're in luck, as it was most likely hand ground. If not, you can do it yourself, and you don't even have to work hard at it. How? Use a flat stone when you sharpen things. This is where we get rid of the math. Your human sense of angles is vague. You try to hold the precise angle on the whetstone, but due to human error you wont get it exactly right each time. You will however not quit until it's sharp. Over time you will round the angle that the machine ground at the factory until it becomes convex. This happens a little even when you use the sharpening gizmos as long as you're using them often. That's why the old crappy bait knife and kitchen knife I mentioned earlier always seem to stay sharp.

My dad showed me how to use a whetstone when I was young and I've been practicing ever since. There are plenty of videos on youtube that show how to use a flat stone so I won't go into that here. The problem is in the beginning when you're not so good at it YOU WILL most likely scratch the blade. Start with a knife you don't really care about the finish on until you get the hang of it. Once you get it down you'll have no problems with scratching finishes. It just takes practice and best of all once you get the technique there's nothing for you to do, just keep using the flat stone and you'll get that convex edge. So get practicing!

XKCD's spot-on...

Yet again.

Don't forget to check the hovertext. :)

You wanna know who's awesome?

She is. So is she.