The M1 Garand

Shooting guns is fun. But, just shooting any ordinary gun is just ordinary. To really live, in the firearm world at least, you need to shoot guns with character, guns with history. One of these guns is the famous or infamous M1 Garand.

 

The M1 Garand was an 8 shot clip fed semi-automatic assault rifle. 

It was issued to troops during WWII and was instantly favored by the users. They weren't just favored by the U.S troops, but were also envied by German soldiers as well. They would pick up dropped Garands whenever they had the chance to replace their outdated Kar98k. 

The M1 Garand shoots a 30.06 bullet.

Although ahead of its time, there was one minor setback in it. During combat, when a soldier ran out of ammo, the clip would be ejected and distinctive "ping" would be heard. The Germans learned from this and as soon as they heard that "ping", they would pop out and shoot. While this was a disadvantage for the U.S. Soldiers, they also used it to their advantage. While a fellow soldier was shooting, another soldier would throw an empty clip onto a rock to make that distinctive "ping", which indicated to a German soldier that it was safe to shoot. But indeed, it was not safe for the German soldiers.

The first time i shot this gun, i was still quite smaller than i am today and the recoil was quite horrendous. The most recent time i have shot this gun, i had some exciting fun. This gun is very loud, so loud in fact that you can feel the "boom" in your chest. It is also extremely accurate. For me, i was hitting a helmet at around 100 yards shooting every other second. When we went down range and looked at the metal helmet, it was completely shredded. If you never have shot a Garand, than you are really missing out because it is a load of fun (with expense to your wallet of course). Guns like these just aren't around anymore so find one while you can.

Schindler's List

If you have ever been interested in WWII, but especially the disasters of the Holocaust, then you will definitely love Schindler's List. This inspiring movie takes place in Nazi Germany during and before WWII. It display's the life of Oskar Schindler and what his purpose of life was. Basically he first started out as a businessman selling enamelware and needed workers for his business, so, being very resourceful, he recruited many Jewish people that were meant to be into concentration camps. At first, Schindler did not realize what was taking place, but when he did, he fought for all his workers and recruited as many as he could. Saving these Jews was not free however, Oskar Schindler was a very wealthy man but he spent his entire fortune to save these desperate people. In the movie, Liam Neeson played as Oskar Schindler, who i think did a phenomenal job. This movie was quite a long movie, but it was definitely worth watching it. If you have not seen this movie, it should definitely be on your watch list. This movie taught me some important information on how anyone can make a difference. 1,200. That is how many lives this man saved during the Holocaust. Now i know you are thinking "Well that's not a lot compared to the 6 million deaths", but, to have hid that many people in plain sight is extraordinary. Considering it was hard to hide just a few people, this man did the unthinkable. The man that directed this film was Steven Spielberg, a Jew himself was inspired to make this film and he truly did an awesome job.

Oskar Schindler:

The Hobbit

Now, a movie that I am looking forward to is The Hobbit. Even though this movie has not come out yet, I'm almost positive it will be a good one, mainly because it is related the LOTR series. For me, I have been waiting for this movie to come out for a long time, ever since I read the book in summer of 2010. This movie's premiere date is on December 15. I plan to see this movie sometime during my Christmas break (probably sometime between the 24th and the 28th). From what I can see from the trailer, Gandalf is the same actor from the LOTR, but Bilbo is not. This is reasonably understandable because The Hobbit took place some time before the LOTR and Bilbo probably looked considerably different because of the effect the Ring had on him. The actor playing Bilbo Baggins is Martin Freeman. As you can see the two actors of Bilbo look considerably different.

< This is Ian Holm from the LOTR.














^ This is Martin Freeman from upcoming movie The Hobbit.







A lot of people that are a fan of the book are probably thinking "Well, the movie is not going to be as good as the book." Although, in a lot cases this is very true, I still think it is worth it to see the movie because you can compare your imagination with that of the director's.

Kel-Tec KSG 12

Kel-Tec KSG 12. This is a 12 gauge combat shotgun designed for today's military. It is a bullpup style loading system meaning you can have quite a long barrel, but the weapon is short enough for Close Quarters Combat. It features two magazine tubes that hold 7 shells each  and 14 in all. This is a really nice feature because you won't have to reload as often with 14 rounds at your disposal. It weighs 6.9 pounds and has an overall length of 26.1 inches. It has a very long barrel for its length because of the bullpup design. Basically the barrel extends from behind the grip to the end of the gun.


The shells are loaded behind the grip (blue) as well. Because of the dual tube system, you have to switch a small lever (red) near the loading latch to allow access to the second tube.

Because of its modern design, you can add many upgrades to it like optics, vertical grips, different length barrels, higher capacity magazines, and lasers/flashlights.

Kimber 1911 Eclipse II

My favorite pistol is probably the 1911. But, my favorite 1911 that I have ever shot is a Kimber 1911. The version I shot was the Kimber Eclipse II 2005 NRA Gun of the Year. It is a very crisp 1911 with almost no slide wobble. Its trigger is quite crisp as well and as with all 1911s, it is extremely accurate. For example, when my brother was shooting, he hit a man sized target at 100 yards which is almost unheard of with any .45 ACP pistol.

To me, the only bad thing with a 1911 is its ammo capacity. With only 7 rounds, the fun only lasts a short while. But with the low ammo capacity comes a very slim and comfortable feeling gun.

Because of this slim slide, it can easily be concealed without any detection. As you can see its slide is just under one inch wide.

Assassin's Creed III Review

As my first blog post, I want to share a game that i have recently played. Now, I don't play a lot of video games, but i do enjoy them quite a bit. The most recent that i have played is Assassin's Creed III. Now I haven't played Assassin's Creed before except for just watching other people play but this is the first time I have actually got into it and played it. I am around 15% done with the campaign and I have been playing as Conner for a little while. It is quite fun going around hunting animals with your hatchet and bow, but I think it quite funny when it shows the scene he skins an animal that it just shows him stabbing it with quite a lot of force. One other thing, after he skins the animal, he leaves the carcass behind instead of using everything from it like a Native American would do.

Even though there are some "realistic" problems with this game, it's not big enough to dislike it. The graphics on this game are pretty good, but about average, which is explainable. The reason Assassin's Creed doesn't have as good of graphics as other third person action/adventure games is because it has such an open game area/map style. Basically you can do whatever you want for example; killing British Soldiers, scaling walls, buildings and towers, stealing and pick pocketing people, and all of the side missions like playing small games, and interacting with people and animals. To me, i'm glad i bought this game and it's worth it, so if you haven't played it and want to, then it won't be a waste of time.