I wonder why they don't sell silhouette targets at Walmart. It's not as if they are pretending that they don't sell things related to self-defence....357 Mag hollowpoint and 9mm +P Hydrashok are NOT hunting calibers. But that's neither here nor there.

Well, the new addition to the family is here:



I apologize for the COB'ed manufacturer photo, but mine looks exactly like this...a duo-tone Bersa Thunder 380. Basically an Argentinean .380 compact pistol, blowback action, basically an improved version of the classic Walther PPK (a very famous gun...wielded in style by James Bond, used by Hitler to blow his brains out). First shot is double action, a very smooth trigger pull compared to the Walther, and consecutive shots are single action. Sights are very visible, and the fit and finish is excellent. Safety is a bit stiff but I've got instructions on how to make it smooth as silk. But the ergonomics of this gun are its high points...it melts into your hand. I know that sounds silly, but compared to either my snubbie or my 1911, this one just fits the hand, instead of the hand fitting the gun. It fits quite nicely in the shoulder holster for my snubbie, which surprised me...I just have to adjust the retention straps a bit. I bought a box of S&B ball ammo, which I'll be sending downrange this Saturday when I put it through its paces at Lake City. All my effusive praise and gushing aside, this isn't really my gun, it's Debra's. We were looking at compact .380s (including the ultra-compact Kel-Tec P3AT, which I fired last Saturday down at the lake) and this was the one she liked best. Perhaps not the smallest, nor the lightest, nor the most powerful, but well balanced. Fairly small, manageable weight, reasonable power with the right JHP loads, nice trigger, good sights, and excellent grip. The Kel-Tec on the other hand had great advantages in size and weight, close to equal power (though one less round, and a shorter barrel leading to lower muzzle velocity), VERY tricky trigger, non-existant sights, and a grip that was hard to manage comfortably. The Kel-Tec, don't get me wrong, is the ultimate answer for deep concealment and pocket carry, but it would actually be better for more avid and experienced shooters like myself...most people would actually perform better with more of a compromise, like the Bersa. Odds are the Bersa will be more reliable as well...they are built like Volvos...a little heavier than they need to be but solid and reliable. Kel-Tecs on the other hand are finicky race cars...great performance, and at the top of their class in certain respects, but they take special attention and care, and can be, as I said, finicky. My main carry pistol will probably be a Kel-Tec, but their flat stack 9mm soon to be out. I've had it on order for a while, but it will be a while yet before they come out with it.

I've got an experiment running that should be good...the "Dark and Stormy" is a cocktail made with a shot of dark (usually black) rum in a spicy ginger beer (ginger beer in the non-alcoholic but very spicy ginger soda sense...something like Reed's, not Canada Dry). I'm going one up and creating a "Less Dark But Even More Stormy" cocktail...basically I took a dark amber rum (Bacardi Select...hey, it was fairly cheap!) and I'm infusing it with a pound of peeled and chopped ginger root. Ginger-infused rum! The flavours go so well together...perhaps because they are both Carribean flavours, but the spicy, sugary "rumminess" of the rum (well, how else would you describe the flavour?) with the hot, fiery ginger...a dose of this in some Reed's, or Bundaberg...great for zingiphiles like myself. Yes I just made that word up (Zingiber officinale being the scientific name for ginger).

There are big issues to tackle on here, for you, my countable-on-one-hand audience, but I never seem to muster the mental effort to get started. The emerg[ent/ing] church movement, pragmatism and trusting God, and pacifism and the Bible. But I never actually buckle down and address these, do I? Oh well, not as if I'm doing the world a disservice by not enlightening the masses with the golden rays of Neufish opinion...its easier and quicker to rant about little things like hobbies!

S I V I S P A C E M , P A R A B E L L U M