# Is A Custom Pistol Worth It?; Fake Fingernail Fixes Firearm; Orphan Guns

An episode of [Gun Talk](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/190516844), 6 Sep 2026, 44 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74938338/090626guntalkc.mp3

In This Hour: -- What goes into making a custom pistol, and is it worth the money? Bill Laughridge of Cylinder & Slide talks 1911s and how to care for a fine pistol. -- He hated the trigger on his pistol, and then overheard his wife talking about press-on fingernails. He put one on the trigger and loves it! -- "Orphan Guns" are those no one seems to want. Often it's because they are chambered for an unpopular or older cartridge. Make a lowball offer and it just might go home with you for the deal of the year. Gun Talk 09.06.26 Hour 3 Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gun-talk--6185159/support.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Upgrade your optic with Hollison, where innovation meets precision. With 50,000
[0:04] Speaker 1: hours of battery life, shake-awake technology, and a solar fail-safe,
[0:09] Speaker 1: your optic is always ready when you are.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Hollison.
[0:11] Speaker 1: Confidence in every shot.
[0:14] Speaker 3: Forged.
[0:15] Speaker 4: M-Lock ready. Nitrided bolt carrier group. The Ruger Harrier is
[0:19] Speaker 4: completely re-engineered for today's shooter. Innovation without compromise comes standard
[0:25] Speaker 4: with the Harrier.
[0:29] Speaker 5: That's one of our joys is to build nice stuff
[0:31] Speaker 5: for good people.
[0:32] Speaker 3: Well, good afternoon. We are still doing this. I'm Tom Gresham,
[0:35] Speaker 3: and this, of course, is Gun Talk. If you'd like
[0:38] Speaker 3: to join us, it's pretty easy. TomTalkGun is the number.
[0:40] Speaker 3: Give me a call. We're pretty much open lines about
[0:42] Speaker 3: anything you want to talk about. I'm fortunate to know
[0:45] Speaker 3: a few of the people who were, well, the early ones,
[0:48] Speaker 3: the ones who were there first, or around the first, anyway.
[0:52] Speaker 3: When it comes to 1911s, we know a lot of
[0:54] Speaker 3: the names that make really nice, high-end 1911s. You got
[0:59] Speaker 3: Wilson Combat, of course, Ed Brown, Les Baer, and now
[1:03] Speaker 3: Nighthawk Custom, making really good stuff. But before all that,
[1:07] Speaker 3: way back, Bill Loughridge was making 1911s. And then he
[1:12] Speaker 3: formed cylinder and slide. And chances are, if you have
[1:17] Speaker 3: purchased a custom 1911, it has some cylinder and slide
[1:22] Speaker 3: parts inside of it. And maybe if you had a
[1:24] Speaker 3: custom Python, somebody worked on it, You got cylinder and
[1:28] Speaker 3: slide parts in that as well. Well, I was able
[1:31] Speaker 3: to catch up with Bill. Honestly, he's probably at the
[1:34] Speaker 3: end of making these 1911s. I don't know how much longer,
[1:38] Speaker 3: maybe a year or two, who knows. I had to
[1:40] Speaker 3: make one for me recently, and it was terrific, so
[1:42] Speaker 3: much so that I got another order in there, and
[1:45] Speaker 3: he's making another one for me, a special one. We'll
[1:47] Speaker 3: talk about that when it arrives. But when it comes
[1:50] Speaker 3: to people who have been there, done that, and who
[1:52] Speaker 3: were there at the beginning of the accurizing, customizing process,
[1:57] Speaker 3: fixing up and making 1911s work the way they're supposed to,
[2:00] Speaker 3: the name Bill Loffred stands out. So I was able
[2:04] Speaker 3: to grab him recently, and I just pulled together a
[2:06] Speaker 3: few of the little clips from that interview. Hope you
[2:09] Speaker 3: enjoy them. Bill Loffred, you started Cylinder and Slide a
[2:12] Speaker 3: long time ago. How in the world did you get
[2:14] Speaker 3: started in this whole thing?
[2:16] Speaker 5: I moved my wife and my daughter and I up
[2:18] Speaker 5: here to Fremont, Nebraska to take a job with my
[2:21] Speaker 5: cousin's husband in a He made cattle handling equipment for feedlots,
[2:27] Speaker 5: and I needed a job. After two years, we didn't
[2:30] Speaker 5: see eye to eye. But meanwhile, I'd started hobby gunsmithing
[2:34] Speaker 5: for a little gun shop here in Fremont. A friend
[2:37] Speaker 5: of mine said, hey, this sporting goods store here in
[2:39] Speaker 5: downtown Fremont wants to expand their gun department. Why don't
[2:43] Speaker 5: you go talk to them? They want to hire somebody.
[2:45] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[2:46] Speaker 5: Well, I knew more about that than they did about guns,
[2:49] Speaker 5: but I didn't know really anything.
[2:52] Speaker 3: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,
[2:55] Speaker 3: so there you go. All you had to do was
[2:56] Speaker 3: know more about that than they did.
[2:58] Speaker 5: I think I worked for them seven years, and I
[3:01] Speaker 5: built up a gunsmithing department because that's what I really
[3:03] Speaker 5: like to do. And so finally I said, hey, I'm
[3:07] Speaker 5: going to buy that business from you, and I did.
[3:09] Speaker 5: And November of 1978, I incorporated a cylinder and slide.
[3:15] Speaker 3: People know you. Some people know you as the 45 guru.
[3:18] Speaker 3: Some people know you as the revolver guy. You got
[3:21] Speaker 3: all these parts and there are a lot of custom
[3:23] Speaker 3: guns being made. They use the silver and slide parts.
[3:27] Speaker 3: When you describe your business and what you do, how
[3:30] Speaker 3: do you tell people what you're up to?
[3:32] Speaker 5: In the beginning, I had to work on anything that
[3:34] Speaker 5: came in the door. And, of course, I worked on
[3:36] Speaker 5: Crossman pellet guns. I fixed Coleman lanterns and Coleman stoves.
[3:40] Speaker 5: I didn't matter. Whatever needed fixed, I fixed. But I
[3:43] Speaker 5: gravitated to handguns because that's where my real love was.
[3:47] Speaker 5: I went up to the Second Chance shoot.
[3:50] Speaker 3: Rich Davis?
[3:51] Speaker 5: Rich Davis started putting this shoot on up at his
[3:55] Speaker 5: place in Central Lake for the guys, the police guys
[3:59] Speaker 5: that had... been saved by his vest.
[4:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, for those who don't know, Rich Davis
[4:04] Speaker 3: was the guy who essentially invented the bulletproof or bullet-resistant vest.
[4:08] Speaker 3: He would demo it by shooting himself in the chest
[4:10] Speaker 3: with a real live gun.
[4:12] Speaker 5: Yes, sir. And the last iteration of doing that, he
[4:15] Speaker 5: used a. 44 Magnum, Model 29 Smith & Wesson.
[4:17] Speaker 3: Put a phone book behind it to keep him from
[4:19] Speaker 3: breaking his ribs.
[4:20] Speaker 5: I watched him do it.
[4:23] Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you what.
[4:25] Speaker 5: It gives you heart palpitations to watch this.
[4:28] Speaker 3: I bet. I bet. All right, so you go to
[4:31] Speaker 3: the second chance match, which was the first of a
[4:33] Speaker 3: lot of matches. You end up going to a lot
[4:34] Speaker 3: of matches, and you were the go-to guy for a
[4:37] Speaker 3: lot of these competitive shooters.
[4:38] Speaker 5: That got me started. I went up there just to shoot,
[4:41] Speaker 5: and I had a toolbox and some tools for the
[4:44] Speaker 5: four or five of us that went up there. So
[4:47] Speaker 5: I ended up working the whole damn match on a
[4:49] Speaker 5: picnic table. with almost no parts and a couple of
[4:53] Speaker 5: files and a hammer. So I said, you know what?
[4:56] Speaker 5: There's money to be made in this. And I would
[4:58] Speaker 5: haul everything that I owned up there in a U-Haul
[5:02] Speaker 5: Tandem axle trailer. put the tent up, set up my
[5:06] Speaker 5: portable bench, fire up my little old Briggs & Stratton generator,
[5:10] Speaker 5: run the lights and my drill and my Dremel tool,
[5:12] Speaker 5: and fix guns. I quit shooting at that point in time.
[5:16] Speaker 3: You didn't have time to shoot because you were fixing
[5:18] Speaker 3: everybody's guns.
[5:19] Speaker 5: I started traveling to all the major pistol matches in
[5:22] Speaker 5: the United States fixing guns at the match.
[5:26] Speaker 3: All right, let me ask you, because I have already—
[5:29] Speaker 3: And people know. They've heard me talk about it. I
[5:31] Speaker 3: purchased a full-size. 45 from you, full custom, and it's
[5:35] Speaker 3: just gorgeous. It runs like a top. And, I mean,
[5:38] Speaker 3: it's a beautiful thing, the Trident, and love the heck
[5:41] Speaker 3: out of it. How do we keep our 1911s running
[5:46] Speaker 3: the way they're supposed to run?
[5:48] Speaker 5: Use good magazines. Properly lubricate them. And don't shoot junk ammunition.
[5:55] Speaker 3: Huh, so shoot good ammo. And you told me when
[5:58] Speaker 3: I got this, you said, look, a 1911 is heavy machinery.
[6:01] Speaker 3: You got to keep it lubed like you would a
[6:03] Speaker 3: heavy machine. So plenty of lube.
[6:06] Speaker 6: That ain't WD-40.
[6:08] Speaker 3: No, no, no. Keep that stuff away from your guns.
[6:10] Speaker 3: Simple as that.
[6:11] Speaker 5: Yeah, you know what WD means?
[6:13] Speaker 3: Water displacement.
[6:14] Speaker 5: Water displacement.
[6:15] Speaker 3: There you go. Yep, yeah, I remember that. Water displacement.
[6:18] Speaker 3: But it's not a lube and it's not a rush preventative.
[6:22] Speaker 3: Just looking at your website, if people can go take
[6:25] Speaker 3: a look at it, cylinder-slide.com. And obviously, you will still
[6:30] Speaker 3: take custom orders. I know that you're selling off a
[6:33] Speaker 3: little bit of the inventory right now. Where are you
[6:36] Speaker 3: with the company, and what can people expect from Cylinder
[6:39] Speaker 3: and Slide?
[6:40] Speaker 5: Basically, you know, I've sort of been a niche marketer.
[6:44] Speaker 5: I'm sure not going to compete with Kimber or Cole.
[6:48] Speaker 3: Well, no, that's not what you do. You're making custom-made guns. And,
[6:51] Speaker 3: you know, here's the ones that, I mean, people know
[6:54] Speaker 3: other names. They may not know yours as well, but
[6:56] Speaker 3: the people who really know, they'll go, oh, yeah, that's
[6:59] Speaker 3: Bill Lofford's gun. People who know really do know your work.
[7:03] Speaker 5: I hope to think so. I mean, I really don't
[7:06] Speaker 5: care how long you had the gun. If you have
[7:08] Speaker 5: a problem and we built it, if I get it
[7:11] Speaker 5: back in here and it's obviously well cared for, been
[7:15] Speaker 5: properly lubricated, and there is a problem, I'll fix it
[7:20] Speaker 5: at my cost. But that's how come I got people
[7:23] Speaker 5: coming back after 30 years or better.
[7:25] Speaker 3: There you go. Bill Lawford's cylinder-slide.com. As I said, I
[7:30] Speaker 3: don't know how much longer he's going to be doing this,
[7:32] Speaker 3: but if you want... A handmade 1911 that simply runs
[7:37] Speaker 3: and is spectacularly accurate. You might want to see if
[7:41] Speaker 3: you can get your name in there and get in line.
[7:43] Speaker 3: We'll be right back.
[7:44] Speaker 4: 250 years of American liberty. Ruger is honoring that milestone
[7:50] Speaker 4: with firearms worthy of the moment. The 250th anniversary series,
[7:54] Speaker 4: distinctly marked with made in the 250th year of American liberty.
[7:58] Speaker 4: Each limited production model echoes Ruger's legendary 1976 bicentennial line
[8:03] Speaker 4: while celebrating the freedoms the Second Amendment has safeguarded for generations.
[8:06] Speaker 4: From the iconic 10-22 to the LCP Max, the Super
[8:10] Speaker 4: Wrangler to the American Rifle Gen 2. These aren't just guns.
[8:17] Speaker 7: Take your hunt to the next level with a chance
[8:20] Speaker 7: to win the Taurus Raging Hunter in. 44 Magnum and
[8:23] Speaker 7: Nosler ammunition. The six-shot revolver is the standard when it
[8:27] Speaker 7: comes to performance in the field. Hunters that want to
[8:30] Speaker 7: change it up a bit deserve the Raging Hunter and
[8:32] Speaker 7: Nosler ammunition. It's the total package. Put this powerful hunting
[8:36] Speaker 7: combination in your hands. Enter today at guntalk.com slash win.
[8:48] Speaker 8: Whether it's for self-defense or everyday carry, a quality Surefire
[8:53] Speaker 8: light can be a lifesaver. Surefire builds the most rugged
[8:57] Speaker 8: handheld and weapon-mounted lights on the planet. Manufactured right here
[9:01] Speaker 8: in the USA to give you the upper hand when
[9:03] Speaker 8: it counts most. Don't settle for good enough when your
[9:06] Speaker 8: life is on the line. Go with a proven performer.
[9:09] Speaker 8: Go Surefire. Find your setup at Surefire.com.
[9:17] Speaker 2: Shooting Sports Life feels like spending time with your people.
[9:21] Speaker 2: Whether you're new to firearms or have been shooting for decades,
[9:25] Speaker 2: you'll find stories, instruction, entertainment, and personalities who share your passion.
[9:32] Speaker 2: Watch free today on your smart TV, your phone, or online.
[9:36] Speaker 2: Visit shootingsportslife.com. Shooting Sports Life, where freedom is a lifestyle.
[9:46] Speaker 4: Ruger RXM. Self-defense focused. When things go sideways, your gear
[9:51] Speaker 4: better go forward. The Ruger RXM is built for real-world defense. Simple, intuitive,
[9:58] Speaker 4: and ready when you are. With a flat trigger for
[10:00] Speaker 4: consistent control, excellent ergonomics, and reliability you can bet your
[10:04] Speaker 4: life on. The RXM makes no excuses. One of Ruger's
[10:08] Speaker 4: most versatile and modular designs. The RXM is ready, because
[10:13] Speaker 4: when it's go time, you won't have time.
[10:26] Speaker 3: Okay, I think it's time for Miscellaneous Mess. I just
[10:32] Speaker 3: made that up. I don't know what that is. Basically,
[10:36] Speaker 3: we don't have a plan. Don't know where we're going.
[10:38] Speaker 3: If there's something you want to talk about, let's do it.
[10:41] Speaker 3: Give me a call at 866-TALK-GUN or TOM-TALK-GUN. Same number,
[10:45] Speaker 3: just different ways of getting there. Old gun, new gun,
[10:48] Speaker 3: something you got, something in the back of the safe.
[10:50] Speaker 3: He hadn't thought about it for a while. He just went, oh, yeah,
[10:53] Speaker 3: I got that thing back. I need to pull it
[10:56] Speaker 3: out and take that thing, go do a little shooting
[10:58] Speaker 3: with it. Or are you ready to sell guns? There
[11:03] Speaker 3: are people, I hear them all the time, I don't
[11:06] Speaker 3: sell guns. It's like an article of faith. It's like
[11:10] Speaker 3: some kind of religious declaration. I just don't sell guns. Okay,
[11:16] Speaker 3: your call. Do whatever you want to do. Then I
[11:18] Speaker 3: got buddies who do nothing but sell guns and trade
[11:21] Speaker 3: guns all the time. They're gun traders. They're swapping. And
[11:26] Speaker 3: for them, I think, and maybe you're one of them.
[11:29] Speaker 3: You can explain it to me. It's more about getting
[11:33] Speaker 3: the deal. Did I get a good deal? Not that
[11:36] Speaker 3: I took advantage of somebody so much. It's that I
[11:40] Speaker 3: just negotiated a really good deal. Did I get a
[11:43] Speaker 3: super-duper price on this, or I did a trade and
[11:46] Speaker 3: I think I got the better end of the trade.
[11:49] Speaker 3: It's a continual thing. It happens all the time, and
[11:52] Speaker 3: they can't rest without trying to make some kind of
[11:55] Speaker 3: a deal on the gun, sell a gun, buy a gun, whatever.
[11:59] Speaker 3: I'm kind of between those two, I guess. I will
[12:03] Speaker 3: occasionally sell a gun. I don't do it very often.
[12:06] Speaker 3: I'm going to start doing it a little bit more
[12:07] Speaker 3: because I have guns in the safe that have not
[12:10] Speaker 3: seen the light of day in years, many years. Well,
[12:14] Speaker 3: that's crazy. I mean, if I were a collector, it
[12:21] Speaker 3: would make sense. If I were an investor, it would
[12:23] Speaker 3: make sense. I'm not. These are not like high-end guns
[12:27] Speaker 3: where you're going to make some money off of them.
[12:28] Speaker 3: They're just guns. You know, it's a Springfield XD. It's
[12:35] Speaker 3: never going to become more valuable than it is now.
[12:38] Speaker 3: Probably not going to become any less valuable. It's just there.
[12:42] Speaker 3: You know, it's a gun that's worth 200, 300 bucks
[12:45] Speaker 3: kind of a thing. And if I'm not going to
[12:47] Speaker 3: shoot it, probably I'll sell it. And people say, well,
[12:50] Speaker 3: do you need the money? I said, well, that's not
[12:52] Speaker 3: really the thing. It's okay. That's gun money. Gun money
[12:56] Speaker 3: is different. Gun money could be applied to, you got it,
[13:03] Speaker 3: to guns. So we take our gun money and we
[13:06] Speaker 3: put it into other guns and maybe sell two or
[13:09] Speaker 3: three or four guns. And by that one, you've been thinking, man,
[13:15] Speaker 3: one of these days, right? How many times have we
[13:17] Speaker 3: said that? One of these days, I'll get a Wilson Combat,
[13:21] Speaker 3: a Les Baer, a Nighthawk Custom, maybe even a Bill
[13:25] Speaker 3: Lawford cylinder slide gun, maybe. But they're pricey. Although I
[13:32] Speaker 3: will say that not that many years ago, the idea
[13:37] Speaker 3: of buying a $ 5, 000 pistol would have been crazy. And
[13:41] Speaker 3: now you look out there, then Staccato maybe, probably was
[13:45] Speaker 3: the one that got people to kind of recalibrate their thinking.
[13:50] Speaker 3: We see a $ 2, 000 or $ 3, 000 pistol. Okay, yeah, okay,
[13:54] Speaker 3: I could do that. Well, once you've decided that you
[13:56] Speaker 3: can do a $ 2, 500 pistol, then maybe a $ 3, 500 or $ 4, 500
[13:58] Speaker 3: pistol is within reach. But to do that, going back
[14:01] Speaker 3: to my original thought, Maybe to do that, you sell
[14:13] Speaker 3: several guns. People say, why would you put $ 5, 000 into
[14:18] Speaker 3: a gun? I don't know. You got $ 80, 000 into your
[14:23] Speaker 3: four-wheel drive pickup truck. What if you dialed that down
[14:29] Speaker 3: and got a $ 70, 000 pickup truck and now you got $ 10, 000
[14:30] Speaker 3: to put into guns? Ah, I like the way you think.
[14:38] Speaker 3: There probably are some guns there that are not doing
[14:41] Speaker 3: any good. Although, I will say, sometimes you pull them
[14:45] Speaker 3: out of the back of the safe and you go, oh,
[14:47] Speaker 3: that's cool. I hadn't thought about that in a while.
[14:51] Speaker 3: That's that shotgun I used on that pheasant hunt with
[14:55] Speaker 3: Dad way back. Went on a pheasant hunt with my dad,
[15:01] Speaker 3: oh man, a long time ago now. And invited several
[15:06] Speaker 3: of my buddies. I said, look, we're going to put
[15:08] Speaker 3: together a friends hunt, not a media hunt. Because I
[15:10] Speaker 3: go on a lot of media hunts where we're all
[15:12] Speaker 3: invited and it's paid for. But you don't, you're all
[15:16] Speaker 3: along for the ride. You get to use their gun,
[15:19] Speaker 3: their ammo, their trip, everything else. You just show up,
[15:23] Speaker 3: which is fine and fine. But I put together a
[15:26] Speaker 3: friends and family hunt. And invited Ray Elgin, who unfortunately
[15:33] Speaker 3: we lost contact. a couple of years ago. And Ray
[15:36] Speaker 3: had been a double-A trap shooter, really good trap shooter
[15:40] Speaker 3: and wing shooter. It was the funniest thing, you know,
[15:44] Speaker 3: pheasant hunting, we were in Kansas, we were all walking
[15:46] Speaker 3: the line, flushing birds. My dad was a terrific shot.
[15:49] Speaker 3: But a bird would get up pretty far out there,
[15:54] Speaker 3: generally not when dad was there, because he would go
[15:56] Speaker 3: ahead and nail them. But the rest of us might shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, miss, miss, miss, miss.
[16:02] Speaker 3: And Ray would just wait. And then when everybody else
[16:05] Speaker 3: was done, he would just pick up his gun and
[16:07] Speaker 3: just kill the pheasant. It almost didn't matter how far
[16:12] Speaker 3: it was. There's a level of people who can shoot
[16:19] Speaker 3: and do things you just think, how in the world?
[16:24] Speaker 3: And people like Ray, people like Rob Latham, Max Michelle,
[16:29] Speaker 3: they make it look easy. They're just not struggling. And yeah,
[16:35] Speaker 3: they have a lot of natural talent. They really do.
[16:38] Speaker 3: And typically on top of that, then they put hundreds
[16:42] Speaker 3: of thousands of rounds of practice into that to get
[16:45] Speaker 3: better because that's who they are. They're that highly competitive
[16:49] Speaker 3: person who can't imagine not going out and practicing all
[16:53] Speaker 3: the time because as I think it was Colonel Askin said,
[17:00] Speaker 3: when He finished second. No, it wasn't Askins. It was
[17:05] Speaker 3: actually Harlan Carter, who ended up being head of NRA.
[17:09] Speaker 3: He had a pistol match. It was a really tough match,
[17:12] Speaker 3: and he almost won. He came in second. Somebody congratulated
[17:15] Speaker 3: him on coming in second. He turned to him and
[17:18] Speaker 3: scowled and said, I wouldn't wish second place on my
[17:23] Speaker 3: worst enemy. That's how they think. All right, let's go
[17:28] Speaker 3: grab Ben out of Oklahoma. He's on line three. Ben,
[17:30] Speaker 3: thanks for calling in. What's on your mind, sir?
[17:35] Speaker 6: About my Ruger SR9, the solution I had for the trigger.
[17:41] Speaker 6: I love my SR9, except I hate that trigger. It's
[17:45] Speaker 6: so awful. You grab a hold of it and you
[17:48] Speaker 6: want to fire, but the trigger is so short, it's
[17:51] Speaker 6: gouging into your finger. And I'm trying to find a
[17:55] Speaker 6: comfortable spot for it. And I called Ruger, couldn't get
[17:59] Speaker 6: a solution. They don't have a custom service office. And
[18:03] Speaker 6: so I heard my wife talking to her friend at
[18:08] Speaker 6: church and said, I love your fingernails. And her friend says,
[18:13] Speaker 6: they're press-on fingernails. And this trigger is so short. There
[18:20] Speaker 6: is a lot of room between the end of the
[18:23] Speaker 6: trigger to the trigger guard. And that's the only thing
[18:27] Speaker 6: I don't like about my Ruger. So when I got home,
[18:30] Speaker 6: I asked my wife, I says, do you have any
[18:33] Speaker 6: press-on fingernails? And she said, yes. I've got some double-sided tape.
[18:41] Speaker 6: I put it on the fingernail and carefully placed it
[18:45] Speaker 6: on the trigger.
[18:48] Speaker 5: And now it's comfy.
[18:51] Speaker 3: All right, what color did you use? What color fingernail
[18:54] Speaker 3: you got on that trigger?
[18:56] Speaker 6: No, no. Well, I hadn't done anything with it. It's
[18:58] Speaker 6: not going to be pink or red or anything. It's
[19:01] Speaker 6: got to be black.
[19:03] Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh.
[19:05] Speaker 5: I kept expecting it to fall off, but it hasn't.
[19:08] Speaker 6: Yeah?
[19:10] Speaker 3: How much have you shot it?
[19:13] Speaker 6: Oh, very little, but I've got to get it out and.
[19:19] Speaker 6: And it wastes all my ammunition.
[19:21] Speaker 3: Okay, so let me go over this. So the trigger,
[19:24] Speaker 3: the way it came from the factory, really was rough
[19:26] Speaker 3: on your finger. It kind of was sharp on the edges.
[19:28] Speaker 3: It just didn't feel right. You put on a press-on
[19:32] Speaker 3: fingernail on the surface of the trigger. Basically, you know
[19:35] Speaker 3: what you did? You created a trigger shoe. It's an
[19:38] Speaker 3: old-fashioned trigger shoe, which we used to put on those.
[19:41] Speaker 3: And with a press-on nail, now, did you trim it
[19:44] Speaker 3: or file it or anything to get the shape the
[19:45] Speaker 3: way you wanted it? No.
[19:48] Speaker 6: It's curvature is just right. Now, the tape is resting
[19:52] Speaker 6: on that so-called trigger safety.
[19:56] Speaker 5: Okay.
[19:57] Speaker 3: I was wondering about that. Yeah.
[20:01] Speaker 6: And so it didn't affect that. That's all it's sticking to.
[20:05] Speaker 6: It's not sticking to the trigger.
[20:10] Speaker 5: Huh.
[20:11] Speaker 3: Well, you know what? That's ingenious. I love that. Way
[20:16] Speaker 3: to go. You solved the problem, and you got it
[20:19] Speaker 3: the way you want it, and carry on. Just keep
[20:22] Speaker 3: on shooting. There you go. Cosmetics for better shooting. I
[20:25] Speaker 3: love that. Thank you, sir. I appreciate the call. Let's
[20:27] Speaker 3: go to Jeff in Reno on line two. Hey, Jeff.
[20:31] Speaker 3: What cosmetics are you putting on your gun?
[20:37] Speaker 9: I wouldn't know. thank you for taking the call.
[20:40] Speaker 3: Sure.
[20:41] Speaker 9: It may be almost a year since you talked about
[20:44] Speaker 9: how the Biden administration was using money from USAID, which
[20:49] Speaker 9: was the whole thing was a scam to begin with.
[20:52] Speaker 9: And they were running it through, you know, more than
[20:55] Speaker 9: one step, which is money laundering and a crime. And
[20:59] Speaker 9: they were they were giving that money to people There
[21:04] Speaker 9: were definitely not many people intent on cautioning the First Amendment,
[21:08] Speaker 9: you know, speech and anything that the government didn't think
[21:10] Speaker 9: they wanted to hear. And they were using it, giving
[21:13] Speaker 9: it to anti-gunners, you know, the gun grabbing lobby.
[21:16] Speaker 3: Yes, there were. The anti-gun lobby. Oh, great.
[21:20] Speaker 9: Well, my question is, is anybody following up on that?
[21:23] Speaker 9: You know, I'm looking for prosecutions. I mean, they clearly
[21:26] Speaker 9: committed crimes. And they're using our money. They take it
[21:29] Speaker 9: from us. And then they use it against us. We
[21:32] Speaker 9: might only have two years left. I'm looking for accountability.
[21:35] Speaker 9: I'm looking for, you know, a good enough smack in
[21:37] Speaker 9: the face that nobody ever wants to do that again.
[21:39] Speaker 3: I know that there are departments in the U.S. government
[21:44] Speaker 3: that are working on the fraud, and they're trying to
[21:46] Speaker 3: find a lot of those people. On the USAID, that
[21:50] Speaker 3: may not end up being the case because a lot
[21:52] Speaker 3: of the people who were involved with that were U.S.
[21:54] Speaker 3: senators and congressmen, and they're funneling that money back. But
[21:57] Speaker 3: there is good news I can report on that. And
[22:00] Speaker 3: that is that when that money dried up, when they
[22:02] Speaker 3: were stealing the money out of your pocket, my pocket,
[22:05] Speaker 3: throwing it into USAID, and then running that money back
[22:08] Speaker 3: into the gun control groups, once that dried up, these
[22:11] Speaker 3: gun control groups are hurting for money now. I mean,
[22:14] Speaker 3: they were getting millions and millions through the federal government.
[22:20] Speaker 3: from our pockets. Now it's gone and these guys are hurt.
[22:23] Speaker 3: So that's part of why we're winning today, I think.
[22:26] Speaker 3: We took away the graft. Of course, we have a
[22:36] Speaker 3: training facility. It's not really like a full-on shooting school.
[22:41] Speaker 3: We offer classes down in Louisiana. It's part of our
[22:45] Speaker 3: Content Creation Center. I don't know what else to call it.
[22:47] Speaker 3: We've got TV studios and edit suites and classrooms and
[22:50] Speaker 3: indoor shoot houses and outdoor shooting ranges and a whole
[22:53] Speaker 3: team of professionals there. And we help a lot of
[22:57] Speaker 3: the companies in the firearms industry produce their messages, their videos, whatever.
[23:05] Speaker 3: We actually sometimes we'll even train people. professional shooters on
[23:09] Speaker 3: how to do their media appearances. And they come in
[23:11] Speaker 3: and we do mock interviews with them and such. And
[23:14] Speaker 3: so we do a lot of different things there. But
[23:16] Speaker 3: part and parcel of that is we have the range
[23:17] Speaker 3: and we have the very best instructors. We offer classes
[23:21] Speaker 3: now and then, but not very many. And I'm looking
[23:24] Speaker 3: online at rangeradiestudios.com. I see the Benelli experience is sold out.
[23:29] Speaker 3: You can, by the way, get on the wait list.
[23:31] Speaker 3: And sometimes, for whatever reason, people have to cancel. Sometimes
[23:35] Speaker 3: at the last minute and something happens with family. And
[23:37] Speaker 3: if you're on the wait list, you might get in
[23:39] Speaker 3: on one of these. The Benelli Experience and the Colt
[23:42] Speaker 3: M5 Experience are both sold out. Those are the ones
[23:45] Speaker 3: where you actually get to keep the gun and the
[23:48] Speaker 3: optics and everything else at the end of the class.
[23:50] Speaker 3: Very cool stuff. I see that the semi-auto pistol operator
[23:54] Speaker 3: class is still available. That's going to be in mid-October.
[23:58] Speaker 3: It's a two-day class. I think it's two days. If
[24:04] Speaker 3: you want to really learn how to run your semi-automatic pistol,
[24:10] Speaker 3: this would be really worthwhile. You will come away having
[24:14] Speaker 3: learned things that you didn't even know existed. You get
[24:18] Speaker 3: some top-level instruction. It's really good and not terribly expensive. Also,
[24:25] Speaker 3: this was different. I think maybe the name throws people off.
[24:30] Speaker 3: It's called the Diagnostic Pistol Instructor, the DPI. It's a
[24:35] Speaker 3: three-day class, and it's in mid-November. And you will come
[24:40] Speaker 3: away being such a good shooter after this. Yeah, you'll
[24:44] Speaker 3: learn how to diagnose, and you could actually learn how
[24:45] Speaker 3: to help people and teach them. But it's not really
[24:48] Speaker 3: a class to learn to be an instructor. It's figuring
[24:52] Speaker 3: out what works and what doesn't work. And I would
[24:56] Speaker 3: say this is not a beginner's class. You need to
[24:58] Speaker 3: be a shooter, an experienced shooter. But if you can
[25:01] Speaker 3: take the DPI, the Diagnostic Pistol Instructor, you would sure
[25:05] Speaker 3: benefit from that. And then we've got the Essential Pistol Skills.
[25:09] Speaker 3: That one is basically if you're new to all this,
[25:12] Speaker 3: you sign up for that, and you're going to learn
[25:13] Speaker 3: how to run pistols. So if you go to rangereadystudios.com,
[25:18] Speaker 3: you can see all those. I would sign up for
[25:20] Speaker 3: the newsletter, the email newsletter, because that goes out, and
[25:24] Speaker 3: you'll learn about these classes before they get posted online.
[25:26] Speaker 3: And as I say, some of these sign out or
[25:29] Speaker 3: rather sell out very quickly. Let's go talk to Brett
[25:33] Speaker 3: on line two out of Canton, Oklahoma. Hey, Brett, thank
[25:36] Speaker 3: you for your patience. I appreciate that. What's on your mind?
[25:40] Speaker 10: Great. Just wanted to deprogram the police, you know, like
[25:45] Speaker 10: they deprogram coal members when they get them. They've been
[25:50] Speaker 10: being taught by the SPLC, the Southern Poverty Law Center,
[25:56] Speaker 10: that if you have more than three guns, you have
[25:59] Speaker 10: an arsenal and, you know, guns can jump up and
[26:03] Speaker 10: kill people. And I don't know what all the SPL see,
[26:06] Speaker 10: but they've been getting money from the left to brainwash
[26:13] Speaker 10: our police and sheriff deputies.
[26:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, I see where you're going with this. The Southern
[26:19] Speaker 3: Poverty Law Center, Morris D's group, And they have been
[26:23] Speaker 3: the go-to group for law enforcement to identify what they
[26:27] Speaker 3: would call hate groups or radical right groups or Nazi
[26:30] Speaker 3: groups or whatever. It turns out SPLC was actually putting
[26:34] Speaker 3: people into those groups and telling them, hey, go have
[26:37] Speaker 3: a riot. Go attack somebody because that's how– basically that's
[26:40] Speaker 3: how they raise money. That's over now. They're toast, SPLC.
[26:45] Speaker 3: But you do make a good point. Look, I appreciate
[26:46] Speaker 3: the call. You make a good point that– the information
[26:51] Speaker 3: with big air quotes around it that they've been sending
[26:53] Speaker 3: out has poisoned law enforcement in how they think about
[26:59] Speaker 3: gun groups, gun rights groups, gun right advocates. I hadn't
[27:06] Speaker 3: thought of that, but that is an interesting idea that
[27:11] Speaker 3: the training and the culture at law enforcement agencies and
[27:15] Speaker 3: departments is may have been affected by that. There certainly
[27:18] Speaker 3: is an us versus them, but that's not new. It's
[27:20] Speaker 3: always been the case with law enforcement. But there's also
[27:24] Speaker 3: the whole thing of, and one of the things that's
[27:25] Speaker 3: always bothered me is when in academies or firearms training
[27:29] Speaker 3: for cops, the command at the academy or at the
[27:34] Speaker 3: shooting range for them to draw is the word gun.
[27:38] Speaker 3: They'll yell, gun! And then that basically teaches them to
[27:43] Speaker 3: draw and shoot. So the first time they see a
[27:46] Speaker 3: gun or hear a gun or hear an officer say gun,
[27:48] Speaker 3: they draw and shoot somebody. Even though it may be
[27:51] Speaker 3: a person like you or me who carries a gun legally.
[27:54] Speaker 3: I would love to get that stopped. And that might be,
[27:57] Speaker 3: here's your activism thing, that might be a thing where
[28:00] Speaker 3: you contact the training academies, law enforcement academies in your state,
[28:06] Speaker 3: and just ask them, do you guys ever use the
[28:08] Speaker 3: command gun to teach people to shoot? My concern, and
[28:12] Speaker 3: just tell them, look, my concern is that now we
[28:13] Speaker 3: have millions of people carrying guns legally, and I just
[28:17] Speaker 3: would hate it if we had a tragedy where one
[28:22] Speaker 3: of your officers or deputies were to respond to somebody
[28:27] Speaker 3: saying gun and then shoot somebody, and it turns out
[28:30] Speaker 3: it was a perfectly legal gun. So that's worth a call.
[28:35] Speaker 3: It's worth an email, a question for the sheriff or
[28:39] Speaker 3: even to the head of the state law enforcement training academy. Now,
[28:45] Speaker 3: you may not get much in response. If they get
[28:48] Speaker 3: only one letter, it may not matter. If they get 10,
[28:52] Speaker 3: they may go, oh, something's going on. If they get 100,
[28:55] Speaker 3: they may pay attention. But if you also copied, think
[28:58] Speaker 3: about this, if you also copied your state legislators and
[29:03] Speaker 3: maybe get some of them started to ask the question,
[29:07] Speaker 3: I'm not sure how much there there is there. But
[29:10] Speaker 3: I think it's something. I think it's a thing. So
[29:13] Speaker 3: I just kind of toss it out for your consideration.
[29:18] Speaker 3: So I did a thing. I get real busy. This
[29:22] Speaker 3: is a, between this job and the other thing that
[29:25] Speaker 3: I do, sometimes I'm rushing around like a chicken with
[29:28] Speaker 3: its head cut off, like my hair's on fire. And
[29:31] Speaker 3: I've been trying to work up loads for my rifles
[29:32] Speaker 3: because I got elk season coming up and deer season
[29:35] Speaker 3: coming up. And so I got the. 338- 06. I got
[29:38] Speaker 3: it all dialed in. I got some ammo made for it.
[29:40] Speaker 3: And I got my. 257 Roberts Ackley improved. And I
[29:44] Speaker 3: finally figured out I'm using 115 grain ballistic tips on
[29:47] Speaker 3: that and got it shooting really well. Getting 3,100 feet
[29:51] Speaker 3: per second out of that, which is really. 25- 06 velocities.
[29:54] Speaker 3: It's great. But I want to have a backup actually
[29:56] Speaker 3: for both hunts. And I thought, well, the. 30- 06, that's
[30:00] Speaker 3: kind of a middle-of-the-road kind of a deal. I can
[30:04] Speaker 3: get that all tuned up. So I started working on it,
[30:07] Speaker 3: worked up some loads, finally got to the load I wanted.
[30:10] Speaker 3: It did not, for whatever reason, I couldn't get the
[30:12] Speaker 3: 180-grain bullets to shoot the way I wanted. So I
[30:15] Speaker 3: dropped down to 165-grain bullets and working up loads using
[30:21] Speaker 3: Reloader 17, which you cannot find anymore. I'm going to
[30:23] Speaker 3: be sad when I use up the last of that.
[30:26] Speaker 3: And I got that 165 grain bullet, cranked up, I'm
[30:29] Speaker 3: doing about 3,000 feet per second, which is hot. Got
[30:34] Speaker 3: it just the way I wanted it. And I thought, okay,
[30:36] Speaker 3: I'm good to go. I'm ready to go. And then
[30:39] Speaker 3: I went and started pulling all my ammo together a
[30:42] Speaker 3: couple of days ago for my hunts. I can't find
[30:45] Speaker 3: any of that. 30- 06 ammo. I said, what in the world?
[30:48] Speaker 3: Where did I put that? What did I do? And
[30:51] Speaker 3: then it just occurred to me that in my rush
[30:53] Speaker 3: around and doing all this stuff, I worked up the loads.
[30:56] Speaker 3: I got it just the way I wanted it. You
[30:59] Speaker 3: know what I didn't do, though? I didn't actually load
[31:02] Speaker 3: any ammo using the load I developed. So I know
[31:08] Speaker 3: which load works. I've got the data. I've got it chronographed.
[31:11] Speaker 3: I've got it written down in my loading book. I
[31:14] Speaker 3: just didn't make any ammo that I could take hunting.
[31:18] Speaker 3: So I sat down yesterday and I Fortunately, I found
[31:23] Speaker 3: some already sized and primed brass that I'd already prepped.
[31:27] Speaker 3: So that made it really easy. And I made some ammo,
[31:30] Speaker 3: which is just a case of dumping powder in and
[31:31] Speaker 3: seating the bullets. So I've got that. So my plan,
[31:35] Speaker 3: I'll be leaving in just a little over a week
[31:37] Speaker 3: for my elk hunt, is to use the. 338- 06 as
[31:41] Speaker 3: the primary gun with the. 30- 06 as the backup. So
[31:46] Speaker 3: if something happens to the gun, the scope or whatever,
[31:49] Speaker 3: or honestly, if you just... up on one of these
[31:52] Speaker 3: hills and you step on a rock and it turns
[31:55] Speaker 3: and you slide and you go down on top of
[31:57] Speaker 3: your gun, you're going, I don't know if it's shooting
[32:01] Speaker 3: where it's supposed to now. I'm going to trade it
[32:03] Speaker 3: in on this backup gun I have in camp, which
[32:06] Speaker 3: I know is good to go. So I'll have that.
[32:08] Speaker 3: And then on the deer hunt, I plan to take the.
[32:11] Speaker 3: 257 Roberts Improved. And that'll be primary, but then I'll
[32:16] Speaker 3: use the. 30- 06 as backup for that. It's almost a
[32:21] Speaker 3: shame in a way to relegate the 06 to the
[32:23] Speaker 3: backup because it would do either job just fine. You
[32:27] Speaker 3: could just take that one and hunt mule deer, hunt elk,
[32:31] Speaker 3: that matter, you could hunt anything with it. I have,
[32:34] Speaker 3: I was trying to think of what I'd kill with
[32:37] Speaker 3: a 30-06 and it was weird. The only thing I
[32:41] Speaker 3: ever shot with a 30-06 is an antelope. So, you know,
[32:46] Speaker 3: don't know why I just happened. I was in New Mexico.
[32:50] Speaker 3: I had a. 30- 06 ready to go. I'd use that.
[32:52] Speaker 3: And then I was also thinking about the. 270, which is, frankly,
[32:56] Speaker 3: it's always a good answer. When people say, what rifle
[32:59] Speaker 3: should I, if it's hunting, I say, you know, it's
[33:03] Speaker 3: not a bad answer to say the. 270 with whatever
[33:05] Speaker 3: it is. And I was thinking about the. 270 and thinking, well,
[33:08] Speaker 3: you know, how much have you hunted with that? And
[33:11] Speaker 3: I thought, actually, almost none. And both deer I shot
[33:17] Speaker 3: with a. 270 were with borrowed rifles. One of them,
[33:22] Speaker 3: I was either, I don't know, 16 or 17, hunting
[33:26] Speaker 3: out of a deer stand in Louisiana. And the fellow
[33:31] Speaker 3: that had the place, he said, here, take my. 270.
[33:32] Speaker 3: I went, okay. And as it turned out, the longest
[33:37] Speaker 3: shot I'd ever made at that point on a deer,
[33:39] Speaker 3: and it was at 270 yards with a. 270. And
[33:43] Speaker 3: he was right on the edge of the woods on
[33:45] Speaker 3: this food plot shot. And then he hopped, hopped into
[33:49] Speaker 3: the woods. And by the time I got down and
[33:51] Speaker 3: walked over there, it had gotten dark. So I'm walking
[33:53] Speaker 3: in there with my flashlight at night. And fortunately, he
[33:57] Speaker 3: only went about 50 yards, which is, you know, not unusual.
[34:01] Speaker 3: I got him. And then the other one was like
[34:02] Speaker 3: three years ago, hunting with my buddy, Brad. He went
[34:05] Speaker 3: out early from hunting camp. And like 10 minutes after
[34:08] Speaker 3: he leaves the tent, we're all about to head out.
[34:11] Speaker 3: We hear a shot. And I go out there and
[34:14] Speaker 3: he's got a deer down about 400 yards from camp.
[34:17] Speaker 3: So I just walk out there without my rifle or
[34:19] Speaker 3: anything just to help him. We're cutting up this deer.
[34:22] Speaker 3: And another buck just walks by. It's like 70 yards away.
[34:28] Speaker 3: And I don't have a gun. And I look over
[34:30] Speaker 3: at Brad and he's got his rifle, but he's already
[34:32] Speaker 3: unloaded it while we're sitting there taking care of this deer.
[34:35] Speaker 3: I said, you have any ammo for that thing? He says, yeah.
[34:38] Speaker 3: I said, give me a couple of rounds. So he
[34:40] Speaker 3: hands me his rifle. He hands me a couple of rounds.
[34:41] Speaker 3: I load his rifle. I turn around and I shoot
[34:44] Speaker 3: this buck. So now we got two bucks down 400
[34:46] Speaker 3: yards from camp. That's the way to do it. But honestly,
[34:51] Speaker 3: pretty much anything you wanted to hunt, you could take
[34:53] Speaker 3: care of it with a 270 or an Alt 6.
[34:57] Speaker 3: And yeah, I know there are the newer, flashier things.
[35:00] Speaker 3: And it's not that they aren't better. They actually are
[35:05] Speaker 3: more accurate, honestly. The Creedmoors, the PRCs, are inherently more accurate.
[35:15] Speaker 3: But it doesn't really matter for what you're doing. If
[35:18] Speaker 3: your goal is to cling steel at a thousand yards, yeah,
[35:23] Speaker 3: it makes a difference. If you got a rifle that
[35:27] Speaker 3: shoots one inch groups at a hundred yards and one
[35:30] Speaker 3: that shoots quarter inch groups at a hundred yards, you
[35:35] Speaker 3: go times 10, for the dispersion at 1,000 yards, that
[35:40] Speaker 3: makes a difference. And also, of course, you get the
[35:43] Speaker 3: higher ballistic coefficient bullets, the faster spin rates and all that.
[35:47] Speaker 3: But if where you hunt, you typically shoot a deer
[35:51] Speaker 3: at 100 or 200 or even 300 yards, it doesn't
[35:56] Speaker 3: make any difference at all. And nobody wants to talk
[35:59] Speaker 3: about that. They want to talk about the newest and
[36:01] Speaker 3: greatest and slickest and fanciest and fastest bullets and the
[36:05] Speaker 3: long sleek Heavy for caliber bullets. That's the phrase these days.
[36:11] Speaker 3: I like the heavy for caliber bullets. Sounds cool. Yeah,
[36:15] Speaker 3: but you shot your last three deer inside of 75 yards.
[36:20] Speaker 3: You could be shooting Legos. It would work just as well.
[36:27] Speaker 3: There's a real tendency to get caught up in the
[36:29] Speaker 3: hype of whatever the latest greatest thing is. Not just
[36:32] Speaker 3: in guns and not just in shooting. In everything. Vehicles, boats, whatever.
[36:37] Speaker 3: Golf clubs. Oh, that's one that's interesting. It's a golf club.
[36:41] Speaker 3: And there are people who trade in their golf clubs
[36:43] Speaker 3: every year to get the newest, latest, and greatest. Which means,
[36:47] Speaker 3: of course, there are some really good deals out there,
[36:49] Speaker 3: if that's your thing. There also are some really good
[36:52] Speaker 3: deals to be had with used guns. Used guns almost
[36:58] Speaker 3: never get worn out. Almost no one shoots their gun
[37:01] Speaker 3: enough to wear it out. The used gun counter at
[37:05] Speaker 3: the local store You can find some super deals there,
[37:10] Speaker 3: especially if you find things that are not common. If
[37:16] Speaker 3: you find, for instance, a rifle chambered for the 7x57
[37:19] Speaker 3: or the 6.5x55 Swede. Now, the 7x57 is just a
[37:22] Speaker 3: 7mm 08, especially if you hand load. You can get
[37:26] Speaker 3: right up there. The 6.5x55 Swede is just a 6.5 Creedmoor.
[37:27] Speaker 3: It just came out 100 years earlier. As long as
[37:40] Speaker 3: you're shooting inside of 400 yards, that is true. Yeah,
[37:42] Speaker 3: you go out further than that, yes, you get some
[37:44] Speaker 3: benefits from the newest and latest and greatest. I get that.
[37:48] Speaker 3: But I'm just saying that, you know, you may find
[37:50] Speaker 3: an orphaned gun sitting back there that nobody wants because
[37:54] Speaker 3: now they want the latest and greatest, the shiny thing, right?
[37:58] Speaker 3: And this gun has just been orphaned back there. Nobody
[38:01] Speaker 3: wants it. And sometimes you just, you do what I
[38:05] Speaker 3: did recently. You got to be careful about this. Because
[38:08] Speaker 3: the guy said, well, what are you... I said, yeah,
[38:10] Speaker 3: that's a nice gun, but I think you got overpriced. Well,
[38:14] Speaker 3: that was my mistake. He's starting the conversation. He said, well,
[38:17] Speaker 3: what do you think it ought to be? He was
[38:20] Speaker 3: smarter than I was. I said, I don't know. I
[38:24] Speaker 3: think probably out the door, you ought to be able
[38:26] Speaker 3: to get maybe a thousand bucks for that. He goes, okay,
[38:28] Speaker 3: I'll write that up for you. What? What just happened? Yeah,
[38:33] Speaker 3: I got it sitting over here. It's right here next
[38:35] Speaker 3: to me. But it's a very nice 10mm 1911 that
[38:38] Speaker 3: I needed like a hole in the head. I did
[38:40] Speaker 3: not need this gun. But I got a deal on
[38:43] Speaker 3: it because I got it for an awful lot less
[38:45] Speaker 3: than he was asking. If you make the offer, go
[38:49] Speaker 3: ahead and lowball it. You never know what may happen.
[38:52] Speaker 3: As we say, that thing may follow you home. They
[38:55] Speaker 3: have a tendency to do that, you know. And that's
[38:57] Speaker 3: not necessarily a bad thing. But look for those orphan
[39:01] Speaker 3: guns on the racks. Something with a little dust on it.
[39:05] Speaker 3: Ask the guy, what do you got back there that
[39:06] Speaker 3: you have not been able to move? You may find
[39:10] Speaker 3: that puppy that follows you home that becomes the love
[39:13] Speaker 3: of your life. Be right back. It's not necessarily a
[39:27] Speaker 3: bad thing as we think about the 25th anniversary of
[39:32] Speaker 3: the 9-11 attacks. It is a somber occasion, and I
[39:36] Speaker 3: would encourage you to treat it as such. I also think,
[39:42] Speaker 3: I'm just going to suggest, maybe use it as a
[39:46] Speaker 3: springboard to do things that you know you should have
[39:49] Speaker 3: done anyway. Make it a commitment, maybe a recommitment, whatever.
[39:57] Speaker 3: to becoming the prepared person. Doesn't mean you walk around
[40:01] Speaker 3: like a ninja with, you know, body armor on, helmet,
[40:05] Speaker 3: nods and all the rest of it. No, you just,
[40:07] Speaker 3: you're going to become better at this. You're going to
[40:11] Speaker 3: go to the range monthly, at least. Take a class
[40:15] Speaker 3: twice a year. Once a year, if you haven't taken
[40:18] Speaker 3: a class at all, but twice a year is a
[40:19] Speaker 3: good idea. Go take a class. Going to go to
[40:22] Speaker 3: the range at least monthly. I'm going to work a
[40:25] Speaker 3: little bit on my physical abilities. A few sit-ups, a
[40:29] Speaker 3: few push-ups, not a bad thing. I'm going to sit
[40:33] Speaker 3: and think about scenarios. What am I going to do
[40:37] Speaker 3: if this happens? What am I going to do if
[40:38] Speaker 3: that happens? Work your way through it so that you
[40:41] Speaker 3: have visualized it so if it shows up, you're ready.
[40:45] Speaker 3: Make a commitment to buy good gear. Don't buy cheap gear.
[40:49] Speaker 3: Don't carry cheap equipment. This is the life-saving equipment. Take
[40:54] Speaker 3: a free Stop the Bleed class. Carry a tourniquet with
[40:59] Speaker 3: you everywhere you go. I do. I always have a
[41:01] Speaker 3: tourniquet with me everywhere I go. That's weird, Tom. Only
[41:06] Speaker 3: if you don't need a tourniquet, I guess. If you're
[41:09] Speaker 3: the one who needs a tourniquet, you probably think it's
[41:10] Speaker 3: a great idea. Here's another thought for you. Maybe build
[41:17] Speaker 3: a new cadre of friends. If Your friends generally don't
[41:24] Speaker 3: think the same way you do about this stuff. Can
[41:27] Speaker 3: I suggest you need a new batch of friends? I'm
[41:30] Speaker 3: not saying you have to dump your old friends. But
[41:33] Speaker 3: if none of them are of the prepared mind type,
[41:39] Speaker 3: if they don't go to a range, if they don't
[41:41] Speaker 3: carry a gun, you need to find some people who
[41:44] Speaker 3: do so you can help yourself prepare more. You can...
[41:52] Speaker 3: increase your preparedness. You have people to talk to about that.
[41:54] Speaker 3: You have people to go to the range with. How
[41:56] Speaker 3: do you do that? How do you find those people?
[41:58] Speaker 3: You go find them. You go to a shooting range
[42:01] Speaker 3: and say, do you guys have leagues? Do you have classes?
[42:04] Speaker 3: You can meet a lot of cool people like that
[42:06] Speaker 3: in a class. Maybe they have shooting leagues. If they
[42:10] Speaker 3: have a competition, you can go say, look, I've never
[42:12] Speaker 3: done a steel challenge match. Easiest thing in the world,
[42:15] Speaker 3: steel challenge matches. Before you shoot, go watch one. See
[42:18] Speaker 3: what it's all about. You go, wow, that's cool. I
[42:20] Speaker 3: could do that. That's easy. I mean, it's easy to shoot.
[42:23] Speaker 3: It's not easy to score well, but that's a whole
[42:25] Speaker 3: different thing. I shoot it and don't score well, but
[42:27] Speaker 3: I have fun, and I get a little bit better
[42:29] Speaker 3: each time I do it. And then you meet people.
[42:32] Speaker 3: You meet people that say, oh, yeah, come on in.
[42:35] Speaker 3: You want to be part of this community? You're in.
[42:38] Speaker 3: Let's go to the range. And you just ask them. Say, look,
[42:40] Speaker 3: when do you guys go shooting? I'm just looking for
[42:42] Speaker 3: somebody to go shoot with. You will, I guarantee you,
[42:45] Speaker 3: get an invitation to go shooting with them. And you
[42:49] Speaker 3: build this support network around yourself. People you can talk
[42:55] Speaker 3: to about this who don't think it's weird that you
[42:57] Speaker 3: carry a gun. Who understand taking on the responsibility for
[43:02] Speaker 3: being the one who protects other people. People who understand
[43:05] Speaker 3: it's your responsibility to come home to help your family.
[43:11] Speaker 5: Right?
[43:12] Speaker 3: People who don't think that's weird. You can take those actions.
[43:16] Speaker 3: So this week, as you're thinking about those... bastards who
[43:21] Speaker 3: attacked us set fire to the building and people are
[43:24] Speaker 3: jumping out of high-rise buildings and falling to their death
[43:27] Speaker 3: so they won't burn to death. Recommit. Recommit to being
[43:32] Speaker 3: the person who says, yeah, not on my watch, not today.
[43:34] Speaker 3: If I'm there, I will put a stop to that.
[43:37] Speaker 3: Be that person. You can be that person.
[43:41] Speaker 5: There you go.
[43:42] Speaker 3: If you want to join us on the after show,
[43:43] Speaker 3: call me right now at TomTalkGun. Be safe out there.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.