11/13/2022 - BLOG COMMENTS are again allowed and are moderated to exclude only the bots, advertisements, racial / ethnic pejoratives, and embedded links. I'll attempt to honor Chicago's historical "Bughouse Square" concept of free-speech and open debate --- spanning the curve from the far-left to the far-right. /JZ
Blogging to you from the Northeastern Badlands of The County of Lake, in the state currently known as Fatmanistan, DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP inside the heartland of the Banana Republic formerly known as the USA, WELCOME TO THE NEXT CHAPTER! WARNING! ALL FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ARE ADDICTIVE; EXCESSIVE USE MAY LEAD TO MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS, REDUCED JOB PRODUCTIVITY, INSOMNIA, SOCIAL ALIENATION, GENITAL ULCERS, BLINDNESS, POLITICAL EROTICISM, AND / OR DEVIANT FUNAMBULISM. NOTICE: NO GUNS OR AMMUNITION ARE FOR SALE VIA THIS BLOG. (No, I will not trade my Colt Python for some lubricious adventures with your trophy wife and a future first-round draft pick.) CAVEAT: This blog is not suitable for viewing while at work, while inside a public library, while inside any public or private school, or while inside any public or private restroom. Do not view this blog while driving a motor vehicle or while piloting an aircraft. Viewing this blog may be illegal inside the EU, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and other parts of the Third World. THIS BLOG CONTAINS (albeit often very childish) ADULT-CONTENT. DISCLAIMER: This blog is a hobby, it is not a livelihood. Even though much of what I blog about relates to firearms collecting and recreational shooting, I am not an expert (by any measure) on any facet of guns, shooting, hunting, or personal defense. Entries at this blog are akin to good old-fashioned campfire chats or post hunt bourbon-fueled barroom-bluster; I offer no opinion on what you should or should not purchase, or what you should be using or doing. What does or does not work for me could be rugged-country-miles away from your tastes and your needs. All products, places, and miscellany that I review for this blog are purchased / rented / leased at retail price by me. I do not accept payment, gifts, discounts, freebies, products on loan, distilled spirits, recreational pharmaceuticals, plea-bargains, probation, parole, Papal Blessings, Presidential Pardons, or sexual favors for doing any review or blog post. TRACKING COOKIES: Google et al stick tracking cookies on everybody. If you are online, you are being spied on via one method or another, for one reason or another; 'nuff said. You may be able to minimize your online DNA residue by using Tor and Duck Duck Go. Vive la liberté! Vive all y'all! Ante omnia armari. To each of you, thanks for stopping by!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg plans to ride a camel through the eve of a needle straight into Heaven.

Move over, Elon Musk.  Your rocket to Mars is nothing compared to this!

I have to tip my hat to Bloomberg.  That shriveled old runt sure does aim high.  Imagine how much clout and wealth it must take to bribe God.  All the bullies who once beat his skinny ass on the playground should now cower in awe; Michael Bloomberg has become the ultimate bully and may even plan to dethrone The Almighty!

I now stand vindicated; Bloomberg has fulfilled a prediction I made as a child during Vacation Bible School.  To me, all a rich man had to do to get his camel through the eye of a needle was to use his wealth to build a really big freaking needle; problem solved; time to rewrite the Bible.


Anyway, since my lifetime of blasphemous contraventions (and my membership in the NRA, SAF, and ISRA) guarantees that my camel is humping straightaway toward the barbecue-pit of eternity, the only way I will know whether little Mike’s scheme to breach the Pearly Gates succeeded will be by his absence in perdition, which my eternal soul would find just heavenly. 


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Review of Galco Stow N Go STO204 IWB holster for Walter PPK and PPK/S

(ABOVE) Appendix carry cargo shorts with 1.25-inch gun belt




Disclaimer:

Owning a few more than just a couple of holsters and handguns does not make me an expert.  This review is simply “campfire conversation” and is not intended to influence anyone’s decision on the purchase or use of anything.

Quick Product Summary:

This is a major brand name, economical, mass-produced, inside the waistband (IWB) holster.

This model is usually available for around $30 or less and is commonly available from online outfitters; I purchased mine from a local gun store.

It is a simple, open top (i.e. no retention strap or flap) holster design.

The soft leather is (what I would call) utility grade, napped finished (some call it “suede”), steer hide.

The mouth of the holster is reinforced via a simple stitched leather fold-over.  The rear of the front sight on my PPK has a wee bit of a hook and does occasionally snick the inside stitching of the holster mouth during the draw-stroke; it does not happen often, but if it happens enough it will cut the thread.

Breaking the holster in does take considerable effort.  This soft leather holster is not form-fit or boned; in fact, the PPK will not initially fit into the holster; a new holster is much too tight.  You will need to take your UNLOADED PPK and work it into the holster to create the fit; you are stretching the leather.   Follow instructions that come with the holster.  As with most any leather holster, the grip of the fit relaxes with age and use.

The holster has a very substantial nylon belt clip (advertised to work with belts up to 1.75-inch wide); I used it with both 1.25-inch wide and 1.5-inch wide bespoke gun belts.  There was never a problem with the clip failing to maintain a hold on my gun belts, but IMHO the 1.75-inch holster clip size leaves far too much play on my narrower belts.  More on this is in the narrative.

Background:

I never take any holster for granted; I run tests on each one I intend for even occasional use.  I purchased this holster new in February of 2013 and put it through periodic use consisting of leisure-carry and active-carry.  I consider periods of vigorous work as active-carry, such as while performing chores during each of the four seasons over the past year.  Such chores include hauling and setting patio bricks and landscape boulders, cutting / trimming trees and bushes, mowing the lawn (tractor and push mower), moving snow (shovel and blower), etc.  Obviously, I do not believe that disarming is mandatory before performing physical activities (it is not unheard of in our area for miscreants to target folks working in their yards).  A holster must keep the handgun secure during these activities; losing a handgun in the snow can at the least be embarrassing and at the worst contribute to a tragedy if a child or other unqualified person finds and misuses it.   Further, handguns do not take kindly to being dropped onto hard surfaces; it can damage the fit, function, and finish of the piece; a dropped handgun discharging a round of ammo is a possibility.  “To the best of thy ability, thou shalt endeavor to avoid unintentionally dumping thy handgun.”  Due diligence on the choice of a holster can help prevent dire consequences.

Narrative:


Generally, with some exceptions and concerns that I noted further on, this holster does what a holster is supposed to do; it protects the trigger and (to some degree) keeps the pistol where it is supposed to be.  It is reasonably comfortable in all positions of IWB carry (although the small of the back works best for me), and it does not have any peculiarities that hinder concealment. 

The short-barreled Walther PPK presents some challenges for IWB holster designers; it is somewhat of a butt-heavy gun, i.e. a bit more of the weight is above the waistband than below, and there really is not much of the pistol ahead of the trigger guard for the belt and pants waistband to glom onto for control.  IMHO, this PPK IWB holster is best used with a sturdy, thick, tight belt and not with something flimsy and loose.  Let me repeat that using other words; “With this holster, the thicker and wider the belt, and the tighter you wear it, the better off you will be.”  It was my experience that the “one size fits all” 1.75-inch belt clip is not a good thing; I feel Galco would be better served to forego the 1.75-inch thick gun belt market and limit the holster clip size to 1.5-inch.  I do not own a 1.75-inch wide gun belt because none of my pants has loops that large.  The loops on my jeans will barely take my 1.5-inch wide gun-belt while my dress pants, my light casual pants, and (some of) my cargo shorts, can only handle my 1.25-inch wide gun belt.  

NOTE:  The following never happened during real-time active-carry.

I used chairs and other everyday items as experimental snags and was able to simulate conditions where the 1.75-inch holster belt-clip allowed the holster to move up against my 1.25-inch and 1.5-inch gun belts far enough that the gun and holster could twist the belt and flip out of my waistband.   This put the holstered gun upside down with the muzzle pointed at my anatomy.   Further, such “snag and tug” events could possibly yank the inverted pistol from the holster.  These experiments gave me pause early on and I became ever conscious about the status of the handgun and holster when carrying, especially when doing any vigorous activity. 

Conclusion:

I will likely keep using this holster and handgun combo on occasion, but only during leisure carry periods with little to no possibility of extreme physical activity that might contribute to snagging the pistol.

If I were to choose (likely, I will not) the Walther PPK as my dedicated, sole choice for IWB everyday carry, I would take the information that I learned from my experience with this holster (along with around $200) and head on over to my favorite custom holster maker.  A great deal can be learned from using affordable, mass-produced holsters that will help folks prevent making expensive mistakes on bespoke designs.




Saturday, April 12, 2014

We have blooming Daffodils!



Northern Illinois is edging out from the Winter Without End.

Four hours after I took the photo, many of those flowers were in full bloom. 

The standards (the green blades)  of my ever-faithful foundation planting of Irises are shooting up from between the row of bricks (used to limit the spread of the Iris rhizomes) and the hose faucet (where there is another row of limiting bricks; there is a bed of Dianthus beyond it).  The nearest bed has a row of Daffodils (planted last fall) by the wall of the house, a row of established Daylily clusters (this will be the fourth season for them) sprouting up in the center of the bed, followed by a row of Tulips breaking the surface (planted last fall).  In fact, things are now popping up all over the yard.

Despite the prediction of snow for Tuesday  Monday of next week, there is no denying our stealthy advance into springtime.  Gaia, northern Illinois is not alone in finding that you are a troublesome wench.


Friday, April 4, 2014

No spring flowers yet in our area of northern Illinois





Despite the calendar saying that we are two-weeks into spring, the sepia melancholy of winter hangs on.  There is no spring yet for us. “Verdant” is not a word anyone would use to describe our neighborhood landscapes, “Nuclear waste spill aftermath” would be a better fit.  Some daffodils have broken through the crust but there are scant few buds yet.  Most evergreens suffered through winter’s cold and snow with little visible damage, the exception being Dwarf Alberta Spruce trees, most of which showed substantial winter burn.

Perhaps Gaia will be kinder to us after another couple of weeks. 


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