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November 5th, 2009
 The 24th Annual “World Championship of Punkin Chunkin” will be held Friday November 6th through Sunday, November 8th, in Sussex County, Delaware. This hugely popular event draws 40,000-50,000 spectators each year. They gather to watch 100 or more amazing air cannons, catapults, trebuchets, giant slingshots, and other fantastic devices launch pumpkins into the air. In conjunction with the Punkin Chunkin Championship, there will be cooking contests, and live rockabilly music all three days.
On Saturday, the “Miss Punkin Chunkin” Pageant will be held around noon, with a large fireworks display at dusk. Proceeds from the annual event go to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, various other charities, and scholarships. Daily admission is $9.00 per adult and $2.00 parking per vehicle. Children under 10 are admitted free of charge. There are reasonably-priced hotels nearby and camping is permitted at the Championship site east of Bridgeville, Delaware. Directions are available online, or plug these coordinates into your GPS: Latitude = 38.7101657968, Longitude = -75.5315404535.
 Want more Punkin Chunkin footage? Believe it or not, there’s a full-length feature movie about the event: Flying Pumpkins: The Legend of Punkin Chunkin. To view movie clips, CLICK HERE.
You can find complete event info, including directions, on Punkinchunkin.com. To view many of the amazing machines, visit the event’s Online Photo Galleries.
One of the greatest “big guns” in Punkin-Chunkin history is the aptly-named “Second Amendment”. This 14-ton monster boasts a 100-foot-long barrel that can toss an appropriate projectile (e.g. a pumpkin or frozen turkey), over 5,000 feet (nearly one mile!). Muzzle velocity is an impressive 500 miles per hour (about 733 fps). The big cannon, shown below, holds the official world Punkin distance record, and is a 4-time overall winner (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006).
October 29th, 2009
In a back and forth battle, Michael Voigt held off defending National Champion Jerry Miculek to win the Open title at the 2009 U.S. Practical Shooting Association’s (USPSA) Multi-Gun National Championships held October 22-25 in Boulder City, Nevada. During the 3-day match, Voigt and Miculek exchanged the lead seven times in one of the closest head-to-head duels in the history of Multi-Gun competition. At the Multi-Gun Nationals, 135 top shooters from around the country competed in a shooting format that utilizes rifle, shotgun, and pistol, demanding shooting speed and accuracy with all three weapons.
Team STI’s Voigt and Miculek of Team Smith & Wesson were neck and neck through 10 stages, exchanging the overall lead. After Miculek won Stage 10, the match turned in Voigt’s favor when Voigt won Stage 11, scoring 200 stage points, nearly 100 points better than Miculek. Miculek won the 12th and final stage of the match but it was not enough. Voigt finished with a final score of 2178.2303, placing him over 75 points ahead of Miculek, the 2008 champion.
Michael Voigt has been a force to be reckoned with in USPSA competition since 1979. He has served as USPSA President, and he has been the best in the world with pistol, rifle and shotgun ever since Multi-Gun Competition became a part of USPSA Matches. Voigt’s latest Open Class victory marks his ninth USPSA 3-Gun National Title.
Voigt Reveals Match-Winning Skills and Strategies
If you’re interested in three-gun competition and want to shoot like a champion, check out Michael Voigt’s “Pro Tips” on ShootingUSA.com. In six training sessions, Voigt explains and demonstrates the key skills needed for the multi-gun game. Voigt’s tips were broadcast as a regular part of Shooting USA’s Sighting In segments, and summaries are available online, complete with photos and Michael’s expert commentary.
October 20th, 2009
If you had purchased Ruger (RGR) or Smith & Wesson (SWHC) stock after the November election, you would have seen your investment grow almost three-fold. Ruger stock now trades at over $13.00 after hitting $4.52 last fall. If Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and other Freedom Group companies “went public”, could they ride the coat-tails of Ruger and S&W, and succeed collectively as a publicly traded stock? Cerberus, a private holding company that controls the Freedom Group, apparently thinks so.
Cerberus Plans IPO for Remington and Freedom Group
A surge in gun sales has pushed the stock prices of major firearms manufacturers upwards. Will that trend continue? We can’t say. However, the money men at Cerberus Capital Management, which owns Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin, and other Freedom Group companies, have decided that the time is ripe to “go public” and start selling stock. According to a 10/19 report in the Wall Street Journal Blog, Cerberus plans an initial public offering (IPO) for its Freedom Group companies. The Freedom Group is comprised of Advanced Armament Corp., Bushmaster, Dakota Arms, DPMS, Eotac, H&R, L.C. Smith, NEF, Parker Gun, Remington Arms Company. Advanced Armament Corp. (AAC) is the latest addition to the Freedom Group collection, having been acquired just this month and placed under the Remington Military Products Division.
In its report on the pending Freedom Group IPO, the Wall Street Journal Blog cited AccurateShooter.com. When Cerberus acquired riflemaker DPMS in 2007, we wrote: “One positive aspect to Cerberus’ involvement in the gun industry is that the huge political clout Cerberus commands as the ‘rescuer’ of Chrysler Corp. should undermine efforts to ban AR-platform rifles. Cerberus is big enough to make waves in Washington. Money talks in politics and Cerberus has lots of it.”
Is the timing right for a gun-company IPO? The stock-market continues to move upward, and gun and ammunition sales remain very strong. On the other hand, the panic buying of black rifles has tapered off and AR-platform gun prices are now dropping back to “pre-panic” levels. Morever, at the end of each calendar year there are usually major stock sell-offs. That could drive down prices of Ruger and Smith & Wesson, which could dampen enthusiasm for a Freedom Group IPO. On the other hand Remington is an historic brand with a strong customer base, and Remington/Bushmaster are poised to take an increasing share of lucrative military contracts. With its new ACR (Adaptive Combat Rifle), Remington could well win the contract for the AR15’s replacement. And, even if the US military sticks with Stoner’s 50-year-old AR design, Bushmaster can fill that need, though it has strong competition from Colt and FN Herstal.
A cynical observer might say that Cerberus is simply looking to grab easy profits by “flipping” arms companies it acquired at fire-sale prices. Given the huge run-up in Ruger and S&W stock prices over the past 12 months, Cerberus may figure that investors will be hungry for Freedom Group shares. Right now may be the best time to take the Freedom Group public while gunmakers are still considered a “hot property” on Wall Street. In six months that could change.
October 18th, 2009
This past week, Remington held a new products seminar in Kerrville, TX. While Remington tried to impose a “news embargo” through November 15, details leaked out about many of Remington’s new guns.
The big news is the planned release of a civilian, semi-auto version of the Adaptive Combat Rifle (ACR). The Guns and Hunting Blog “spilled the beans”, revealing that Remington plans to sell a semi-auto ACR in the civilian market, starting in the first half of 2010. Based on a Magpul prototype, the ACR has been under development for two years, as a collaboration between Bushmaster and Remington. Price for the civilian ACR is expected to be under $2000, considerably less than the FN SCAR, a similar weapon now being tested by the U.S. Military.
The civilian version of the modular ACR will likely sport a 16.5″, 1:7″ twist barrel standard. Multiple barrel lengths can be fitted (see diagram above), and barrels can be changed without tools. Remarkably the entire gun can be field-stripped down to six major components in under 90 seconds. The ACR features integral rails on top of the receiver and on the forearm. The buttstock adjusts for length and also folds back using a hinge at the rear of the receiver. The charging handle is non-reciprocating. Weight with a 14.5″ barrel (no magazine) is 7 pounds.
Adam Heggenstaller of Guns and Hunting reports: “The consumer version will be offered with a 16.5-inch barrel, but Bushmaster will also be making barrels with lengths of 10.5, 14.5 and 18 inches. The first version of the ACR will be chambered in 5.56×45 mm, of course, but since a tool-less disassembly allows you to change bolt heads, barrels and magazines, the ACR can be user-configured to run with other cartridges as well. Ongoing development will focus on the 6.8 mm Rem. SPC, 7.62×39 mm, a yet-to-be-disclosed 6.5 mm round and the .30 Rem AR.”
October 17th, 2009
The Editor Speaketh: For the past two and a half years, every day I’ve prepared new Daily Bulletin postings for you guys. Rain or shine, without a single day off — 956 days in a row to be precise. But today’s my birthday, and, well, I decided to take a day off and go shooting.
Don’t fret — so dedicated readers don’t go through Bulletin withdrawal, here are quick links to some of our “Greatest Hits” from 2009 — the coolest videos and the most interesting stories. For each item, click the blue link to read the full, original story. NOTE: when you get to the bottom of the page, click “Older Posts” for even MORE Greatest Hits!
As for me … I’ll be sending some lead downrange.
Greatest Hits: Anschutz Photo Shoot Video — Babes ‘N Arms”
Great-looking blond handling state-of-the-art German firearams. What’s not to like?
October 17th, 2009
LINK: Advanced Ballistics Program for I-Phones and I-Pods
Apple’s I-Phone and I-Pod offer a superb user interface with serious computing power. Here’s a very trick software App (good enough for the U.S. military) that runs ballistic calcs and even has a bullet database.
October 17th, 2009
LINK: Web-based Human Reaction Time Test
For action shooting competitors, reaction time is key to success. Check your reaction time with this fun online game from HumanBenchmark.com. FYI, the average (median) reaction time is 215 milliseconds.
CLICK HERE for Reaction Time Test >>>>>>>>
October 12th, 2009
 This week’s episode of ShootingUSA television features a recent Three-Gun Challenge Match at Fort Benning, Georgia. In this event, hosted by the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), both Army and civilian shooters compete with pistol, rifle, and shotguns in a multi-stage, timed course of fire. ShootingUSA airs Wednesdays on the Outdoor Channel at 4:30 pm, 8:30 pm, and 12:30 am, Eastern Time. Check local listings for show times in your area.
Stages Re-Create Medal of Honor Scenarios
Each of the 8 stages in the Three-Gun Match recalls the actions of a Medal of Honor recipient. Portions of each medal citation are read to competitors while explaining the course of fire.
 This annual three-gun match helps advance the Army Marksmanship Unit’s mission of improving skills throughout the Army, according to AMU Commander, LTC Frank Muggio, “This type of competition is exactly what we want our soldiers to be able to do in the field. They identify a target, they choose the right weapon system to engage the target, and they take out the target, and not anything around the target.”
The helmet-cam video clip below (not from ShootingUSA), shows Zak Smith shooting Stage 7 at the 2008 Fort Benning Three-Gun Match. This is a shotgun, rifle, and pistol stage with rifle targets at about 140 yards. Wearing a helmet-mounted camera, Zak starts in the back of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and proceeds into a trench system to engage pistol targets. Zak has written feature articles and Bulletin reports for AccurateShooter.com. CLICK HERE to read about Zak’s 6.5×47 Lapua tactical rifle.
October 7th, 2009
 In recent years, spray-on finishes have become a popular alternative to traditional blueing for chrome-moly barrels and receivers, plus other gun parts. Spray-on finishes provide excellent rust-proofing, some degree of abrasion resistance, and many of the finishes also provide increased lubricity for moving parts. (Be aware, however, that these finishes go on thin, and some finishes can wear through on high-abrasion areas, such as slide rails on pistols.)
Matte spray-on products work well for hunters looking for a dull, non-glossy finish that blends into the background. A bake-on polymer-type finish is a very good choice for a shotgun or rifle used in the winter or in damp environments (such as duck blinds). These polymer finishes are offered in a wide variety of color. Cerakote, a two-part bake-on product, offers a thin but abrasion-resistent surface finish that works well on handguns and tactical-style rifles.
Many Processes and Products Shown in Videos
Brownells offers eleven (11) videos that explain, step by step, how to apply a spray-on finish to gun parts. Each video describes a particular technique or how to use a particular product. For example, one video describes curing methods for Aluma Hyde and Cerakote, while two other videos explain surface prep techniques for metal and wood respectively. Brownells even offers a video that shows how to produced layered, camouflage effects.
October 6th, 2009
 We have many Canadian readers. Unfortunately, in our neighbor nation to the north, the process for obtaining firearms permits is fairly complicated. Thankfully, Noah, a Canadian firearms enthusiast, has created a helpful website with step-by-step instructions.
Howtogetagun.ca explains the procedure for acquiring a firearm license — the forms you need to fill out, the tests you need to take, and the fees you need to pay. Here are the basic steps, as explained by the website:
1. Take and pass the Canadian Firearms Safety Courses (CFSC) test.
2. Get an appropriate photo and three references.
3. Fill out a form asking about your financial history and romantic life.
4. Mail in the form and wait to receive Possession and Acquisition License (PAL).
The website further explains: “With the exception of some antique guns you need to get a Possession and Acquisition License to buy guns and ammunition, (a slightly more expensive ‘restricted’ license is required for handguns and some other firearms). A word of advice — get the restricted license! It’s going to cost a bit more (about $95 more and then $20 more every 5 years after that), but it’s well worth it if you want to target shoot or collect guns[.]”
We recommend Howtogetagun.ca to any Canadian wanting to obtain a gun permit. As the website’s author explains: “You’re going to have to wade knee deep into Canada’s nearly two-billion-dollar firearms registry boondoggle. But it’s not as bad as it sounds; and you’re already paying for it with your tax dollars, so why not get something out of it?”
Hat’s off to Steve at The Firearm Blog for finding this useful website for Canadian shooters. Photos courtesy Howtogetagun.ca.
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