Well, in view of some earlier lines of discussion, I thought my latest vacation (i.e. shooting trip) to the US may be of interest and perhaps amusement to some of you.
The wife and I decided to tour her home state of Pennsylvania, something she herself had never done. She knew that I would want to shoot, and I mean lots, and she stated a desire to learn to shoot handguns properly herself. For detailed opinions on the handguns we shot, see the Pistolcraft Forum.
I arranged for some private tuition via the net and telephone with Anthony Arms in West Mifflin, Pittsburgh. Our tutor turned out to be a local Deputy by the name of Bob Cherap (spelling ?). He turned out to be a really nice guy and was openly more concerned with teaching my wife than me, which was just fine. Wifey is a fast learner and passed his practical quiz in no time at all, she then progressed to a Ruger .22LR and promptly removed the 10 ring from an 8 yard target with about 30 rounds fired. Bob had a few strange notions however that I didn't question, the first was that a .22 LR round has, get this, 1350 foot pounds per second of energy, an interesting mix of the 2 main yardsticks of round evaluation, he explained that this meant the little round could move 1350 lbs by one foot. His second interesting assertion was that all Glocks had what is known as a New York trigger, I asked if he meant a 10lb trigger pull and he replied that the safe action trigger is also known as the New York trigger, to illustrate that there was no connecton between the New York reference and trigger pull weight he produced his new Glock 36 .45ACP single stack from his pants pocket, and, whilst ejecting a live round of 230 grain Hydrashock from the chamber explained that HIS Glock had a 3lb pull, I asked what kind of holster he had in his pocket and he replied simply "None". Needless to say I was glad that his weapon remained in plain view for the rest of the course. He did however get my wife interested in guns, and for that I owe him big time, her certificte stating successful completion of both the basic and concealed carry handgun courses is now a prized possession. From here we progressed to the Bullseye rental range near Greentree, Pittsburgh, where I was able to shoot pretty much the weapon of my choosing, if you are interested in my views see pistolcraft. Now, we planned to rent a cabin in the Cook Forest area of upstate Pa, and knowing it could be a little remote I suggested that we proceed with our plan to buy a low cost handgun for PD. We visited Bravermans in Pitts where my wife would not let go of a Sig P232 in .380ACP, it was indeed a very nice pistol and one that we both had shot well, but at $409.99 it was a little too elevated for our needs. The pleasant if somewhat reticent gunstore guy added that he was dumping all his S&W products and that they were all reduced to clear. As a result we (or legally my wife)became the proud owners of a S&W Model 22A .22LR with a 4" field barrel. This full size 10+1 pistol was ours for $180 along with a case and 2 mags, a thousand rounds of Remington brass plated hollow points were just $22 and with a $10 cleaning kit, we were good to go for just over 200 bucks. The NICS check took seconds, during which time the guy in the store strangely covered the earpiece of the phone with his shirt, why he just didn't walk further away from us is beyond me. The gun was a peach once broken in, and I became a surprised believer in the abilities of the .22LR round to cause severe damage to objects both animate and inanimate. The only trouble was, on arriving at our remote cabin, we were greeted by some overly familiar black bears which hung out close by. I became such a wuss about the prospects of becoming bear brunch that on one particluarly dark and foggy night, I would only retrieve extra logs from the wood pile if my wife covered me from the door in her nightgown with the Smith, not being sure which was the greater danger, bears or armed wife, I had her lock the slide back on a loaded mag rather than chamber a round, if old brar' did appear I told her to release the slide and cap one off into the air if he got too friendly, but under no circumstances open up on him as he would almost certainly be too busy skidding around in all the doo doo that I would be producing down my pants leg. Looking back sat here in my warm comfy Cheshire home, it's easy to laugh, but during our stay in that cabin, I was very, very glad to have that little .22 sat on my nightstand, the dangers proved to be elsewhere however as the cabin was burned down to the ground along with all our belongings, the result of a faulty refrigerator, goodbye Black Bear cabin #3, it was fun while it lasted. We did our range work at a great little outdoor public range just outside of Clarion, the town where an illegal deer hunter recently shot and killed a frat prankster dressed in a gorilla suit with a 30-30 because he thought it was Bigfoot. I had one embarassing incident when a guy wandered onto the range out of my line of sight to set up a target, only to have me open up with the .22 at a target on my side of the range, I accepted it was my fault and apologised profusely and just as I was suggesting that he holler over to me next time he wandered onto a hot range I noticed his State Trooper ball cap and police issue utility belt, gulp, fortunately he turned out to be an ok guy, even taking the time to show me his LEo only Ranger Talons in contrast to his tobacco chewing friend who was complete with stained chin and H&K USP9, and appeared to be muttering something like "can we kill him now Paw, hurr, hurr, hurr". I always enjoy my time in the US immensely, and you have much to be proud of, certainly more than we do, but I have to add my own honest impressions good and bad. You all work incredibly hard, and whatever job I observed someone carrying out, even if it was in a launderette, they were diligent in the extreme, it also seemed as though every person we met, even the 50 year olds in WalMart, were doing a school course of some kind, congratulations, but the hell with that, it makes me feel horribly lazy and inadequate. The bad parts, well just a couple and not entirely PC I'm afraid, but honest and with no axe to grind, the towns in Pa seemed to consist of the following, a Dairy Queen, 2 burger joints out of the big 3, a Pizza Hut, KFC an Arby's and 2 motels called Super 8 and something I can't remember now, there was no REAL town as such which is quite sad really. Secondly, the number of grossly overweight people was worrying, some were just teenagers and must have weighed well over 200 lbs, slim people were few and far between, and finally, dare I say it, we both encountered rudeness and even open hostility when we were being attended to by black people, either in diners, motels or at the airport where all the security staff appeared to be African Americans. I was left wondering if it was me just not being used to your ways, perhaps we English are just too touchy these days. In summary all I can say is GO USA, we're coming back real soon. Apologies for a) any offence caused and b) boring ramblings, I felt a need to share.
Regards,
Mike H
The wife and I decided to tour her home state of Pennsylvania, something she herself had never done. She knew that I would want to shoot, and I mean lots, and she stated a desire to learn to shoot handguns properly herself. For detailed opinions on the handguns we shot, see the Pistolcraft Forum.
I arranged for some private tuition via the net and telephone with Anthony Arms in West Mifflin, Pittsburgh. Our tutor turned out to be a local Deputy by the name of Bob Cherap (spelling ?). He turned out to be a really nice guy and was openly more concerned with teaching my wife than me, which was just fine. Wifey is a fast learner and passed his practical quiz in no time at all, she then progressed to a Ruger .22LR and promptly removed the 10 ring from an 8 yard target with about 30 rounds fired. Bob had a few strange notions however that I didn't question, the first was that a .22 LR round has, get this, 1350 foot pounds per second of energy, an interesting mix of the 2 main yardsticks of round evaluation, he explained that this meant the little round could move 1350 lbs by one foot. His second interesting assertion was that all Glocks had what is known as a New York trigger, I asked if he meant a 10lb trigger pull and he replied that the safe action trigger is also known as the New York trigger, to illustrate that there was no connecton between the New York reference and trigger pull weight he produced his new Glock 36 .45ACP single stack from his pants pocket, and, whilst ejecting a live round of 230 grain Hydrashock from the chamber explained that HIS Glock had a 3lb pull, I asked what kind of holster he had in his pocket and he replied simply "None". Needless to say I was glad that his weapon remained in plain view for the rest of the course. He did however get my wife interested in guns, and for that I owe him big time, her certificte stating successful completion of both the basic and concealed carry handgun courses is now a prized possession. From here we progressed to the Bullseye rental range near Greentree, Pittsburgh, where I was able to shoot pretty much the weapon of my choosing, if you are interested in my views see pistolcraft. Now, we planned to rent a cabin in the Cook Forest area of upstate Pa, and knowing it could be a little remote I suggested that we proceed with our plan to buy a low cost handgun for PD. We visited Bravermans in Pitts where my wife would not let go of a Sig P232 in .380ACP, it was indeed a very nice pistol and one that we both had shot well, but at $409.99 it was a little too elevated for our needs. The pleasant if somewhat reticent gunstore guy added that he was dumping all his S&W products and that they were all reduced to clear. As a result we (or legally my wife)became the proud owners of a S&W Model 22A .22LR with a 4" field barrel. This full size 10+1 pistol was ours for $180 along with a case and 2 mags, a thousand rounds of Remington brass plated hollow points were just $22 and with a $10 cleaning kit, we were good to go for just over 200 bucks. The NICS check took seconds, during which time the guy in the store strangely covered the earpiece of the phone with his shirt, why he just didn't walk further away from us is beyond me. The gun was a peach once broken in, and I became a surprised believer in the abilities of the .22LR round to cause severe damage to objects both animate and inanimate. The only trouble was, on arriving at our remote cabin, we were greeted by some overly familiar black bears which hung out close by. I became such a wuss about the prospects of becoming bear brunch that on one particluarly dark and foggy night, I would only retrieve extra logs from the wood pile if my wife covered me from the door in her nightgown with the Smith, not being sure which was the greater danger, bears or armed wife, I had her lock the slide back on a loaded mag rather than chamber a round, if old brar' did appear I told her to release the slide and cap one off into the air if he got too friendly, but under no circumstances open up on him as he would almost certainly be too busy skidding around in all the doo doo that I would be producing down my pants leg. Looking back sat here in my warm comfy Cheshire home, it's easy to laugh, but during our stay in that cabin, I was very, very glad to have that little .22 sat on my nightstand, the dangers proved to be elsewhere however as the cabin was burned down to the ground along with all our belongings, the result of a faulty refrigerator, goodbye Black Bear cabin #3, it was fun while it lasted. We did our range work at a great little outdoor public range just outside of Clarion, the town where an illegal deer hunter recently shot and killed a frat prankster dressed in a gorilla suit with a 30-30 because he thought it was Bigfoot. I had one embarassing incident when a guy wandered onto the range out of my line of sight to set up a target, only to have me open up with the .22 at a target on my side of the range, I accepted it was my fault and apologised profusely and just as I was suggesting that he holler over to me next time he wandered onto a hot range I noticed his State Trooper ball cap and police issue utility belt, gulp, fortunately he turned out to be an ok guy, even taking the time to show me his LEo only Ranger Talons in contrast to his tobacco chewing friend who was complete with stained chin and H&K USP9, and appeared to be muttering something like "can we kill him now Paw, hurr, hurr, hurr". I always enjoy my time in the US immensely, and you have much to be proud of, certainly more than we do, but I have to add my own honest impressions good and bad. You all work incredibly hard, and whatever job I observed someone carrying out, even if it was in a launderette, they were diligent in the extreme, it also seemed as though every person we met, even the 50 year olds in WalMart, were doing a school course of some kind, congratulations, but the hell with that, it makes me feel horribly lazy and inadequate. The bad parts, well just a couple and not entirely PC I'm afraid, but honest and with no axe to grind, the towns in Pa seemed to consist of the following, a Dairy Queen, 2 burger joints out of the big 3, a Pizza Hut, KFC an Arby's and 2 motels called Super 8 and something I can't remember now, there was no REAL town as such which is quite sad really. Secondly, the number of grossly overweight people was worrying, some were just teenagers and must have weighed well over 200 lbs, slim people were few and far between, and finally, dare I say it, we both encountered rudeness and even open hostility when we were being attended to by black people, either in diners, motels or at the airport where all the security staff appeared to be African Americans. I was left wondering if it was me just not being used to your ways, perhaps we English are just too touchy these days. In summary all I can say is GO USA, we're coming back real soon. Apologies for a) any offence caused and b) boring ramblings, I felt a need to share.
Regards,
Mike H
, Art