Time for a Rehash, past time

Yes, I am still alive.

Sorry I have been dark for so long, 

the fact that I lost "best airsoft blog" to some Hipster with a shaved rat masquerading 

as a dog put me in to a blue funk .

I drowned my sorrows in many a bottle of  Jim Beam premium bourbon, spent many hours walking the streets, chanting and slapping my head with a book of "The 10 Commandments of Aisoft by SCARR"  

(really, I have just been busy at work)

So, I am back and the 1st thing I am going to do is rehash something I wrote a few years ago.

I have seen this coming up again more and more on the various airsoft and RS forums I inhabit.

I think it's time to say it again

From March 25th 2010

   

Security for airsoft and other things in life

We all can't have a super hero hanging around the house, so we need to watch out for ourselves.

I have been perusing the internet the past few days, reading lots of forums for real steel guns and have noticed some things I wanted to talk about.

It seems like we all (airsoft and RS) love to show off our collections online.

Over the last couple days I have viewed some incredible collections of Firearms, High end collectible knives and airsoft guns. They are all on open forums, hooked to a screen name.

That screen name nine times out of ten has a profile connected to it with the hometown of the poster.

Sometimes even the persons real name is also available.

Now lets say you post up a collection of Vrosapale pistols, you are very proud that you have scoured the world to find all models of this unique piece.

A few weeks later you post that you are on your way to the Vrosapale collectors convention half way across the county and you will be off the forums for 5 days. You revel in your Twitter updates about you most recent find at the show, or what a jerk that last guy you dealt with was.

What have you just done?

Have you just told someone that you have valuable items and you will be gone from .to.?

What do you think?

I know you have a gun safe, but don't you think in two days time someone can't get into it, most of the time using tools from your own shop?

What about the other things showing in the pictures, computer systems, flat screens and all the cool movie collectibles in your "man room"?

Do you think bad people don't read Glocktalk, AR15.com or ASR?

I bring this up because years (way too many) ago I was doing the gun show circuit in FL, 51 weekends a year, driving from one end of the state to another, setting up on on Fri, break down and home Sun night.

We had a time when a small group would come to the show on Sunday, tag a dealer that had a nice display and then wait around till close down and loadout and follow him home. Sometimes they hit as soon as the dealer got home or to his shop, sometimes waiting till the next day if it was a collector who worked during the week.

One dealer got killed and a few got hurt and they didn't stop until they screwed up and  got caught.

Now it's 2012, we have Google maps, Google name search, find anyone for 8 dollars and tons of other neat ways to locate an address.
 (and since I wrote this the 1st time, wonderful Google and IPhone apps that can tell everyone exactly where you are , right to the minute.)

Am I too paranoid? (can you be today?)

I learned to keep every thing collectible or rare at an off-site storage location. That and insurance keeps it away from myself and loved ones

.

It does suck that we can no longer have the "Trophy" rooms of yesteryear.

(even if you never have posted a picture, how about the bug guy, meter reader, the guy who trims your trees.

Do you think they might have looked in the window and passed on how cool your cave was?)

From AOL article, 

 Some insurance companies are catching on. Legal & General Insurance in New England says Facebook and Twitter users could be hit with higher homeowner's insurance premiums. Why? All that blabbing about activities away from home means they face a higher risk of burglary.

The company thinks burglars are actually "shopping" for victims on social media sites, looking not only for an indication you're not at home, but also photos of your home and valuables. That cute picture of your son hugging the dog? A burglar is looking in the background, eyeing your big-screen TV and new stereo system.

And it's not just adults. Teenagers are even more likely to post personal information, so Legal & General has warned that parents who aren't even online themselves could face higher homeowner's insurance premiums if their children are online.

So, a month after I post, others catch on, welcome to the party, Pal

Even though I have a overlapping video system with my next door neighbors, a alarm system, Two big dogs and a neighbor on one side who's a Reserve police officer and has a home office where he works that overlooks my house and on the other side is a just retired Navy DEVGRP 20 year man who has nothing better to do than sit on his back porch and shoot guns most of the day (and night, for the past damn week!) I still want to keep the good stuff locked up.

I hate that when I want to review a gun or get ready to go to a gun match or a airsoft game that I have to lay in another 40 mins to go by and pick up what I need, but I would hate to have a shootout at my house or even worse  to come home and find what I had worked 40 years for ransacked and off at some pawn shop.

My stuff is pretty safe and yes, I have gone overboard but it gives me piece of mind that I have done all I can, if I get hit now, that's what insurance is for.

Just some random thoughts that came into my head and I wanted to share them, and because I am old and it's my Blog, I did, Nah nah neey po po

I am losing it

Please share your thoughts on this in the comments.

See you tomorrow

Till then, Check 6

An old man rages against ignorance ( Airsoft Revolvers)

Y'all know by now, I am old.

I started out yesterday and checked on that newfangled "Facebook" thingy 

to see what peoples dogs were up to and if I got "poked" over night or not.

I found this

 

(Video of some douche wrist twisting in a revo cyl)

Deleted from YouTube

Now, anyone who has seen my pathetic attempts at video  know,

I do crappy ones, but when I watched this one, I went BALLISTIC.

It was not due to the fact that I guess they didn't have a script, 

that must have been the reason that the same adjectives were used over and over.

It was not even due to the fact that just because it has "Dan Wesson"

trademarks on the barrel it looks nothing like a Dan Wesson.

It was not even the fact that they deleted my well thought out comment
on their facebook page

It was because of the gun handling skills of the presenter.

In talking with a younger colleague on the landline later that evening 

( one who is well versed in Real steel tactical weapons),

I came to realize that it is an age thing, not a stupidity thing.

So, because I seem to buy every Tanaka revolver that comes up for sale,

if you have the time,

here is a school on what not to do on your airsoft revolver.

It really is just one thing you need to remember

DON'T LEARN YOUR GUN HANDLING SKILLS FROM 

MOVIES OR TV SHOWS.

I would love to have the time to chop up bad gun handling clips from tv and movies
into a quick youtube vid

( if I knew how)

but for this installment here is the one that really gets under my skin.

The spinning and wrist flip to close the cylinder into the frame.

Now I know it looks cool, just like the "HK" slap,

but every time you flip out the cylinder or flip it back in
you are putting severe strain on this part

That "L" shaped piece is called the crane,
although it looks like a stout piece of steel, 

it is not designed to take the stresses put on it by the "flip"

It will go out of alignment, 

in an airsoft gun, this just means that your 130-300.00 gun is now worthless,

but if you do it with a real steel one,
it means that your bullet could impact the side of the forcing cone
causing a "Catastrophic failure" (That means BOOM)

 

 

Also, when you spin the cyl and flip it closed,
you could do damage to the ratchet and hand 

(other parts that no one sells for airsoft!)

To properly close the cyl, cup it gently in your non support hand
and ease it into the frame,
That's it, do it slower, just like that.
( wow, where did that come from, I think I like my revolvers a little too much!)

I worked for a little company called Smith & Wesson for a few years, 

they made a revolver or two and I sold a few.

I guess this is why I get so upset when I see this done
"on the street"

I know a lot of people today have never fired a revolver, real or airsoft, 

so after taking my blood pressure meds and my heart pills,
I have calmed a little and now understand.

Your not doing it just to piss me off,
you just did not know that it could do damage.

Now you do

If you would like more information on this topic,
or any others I have covered

READ A DAMN BOOK,

OR GET OUT THE ENCYCLOPEDIA

AND 

STAY THE HELL OFF MY LAWN, 

damn kids

where's my glasses?

Till Tomorrow,

Stay Thirsty my Friends.

WWWWH

I am the old guy, on the left

Lets start this blog with a little history.

Who am I

My name is Ellwood, Tim Ellwood,

born in AZ back in the good old days, when tumbleweeds blew done the streets and real men wore real steel on their hips.

I moved to Orlando at age 16 or so, misspent my youth in gun shops and shooting, stint in the Coast Guard, worked for Orange county, Malibu Grand Prix and others, got into airsoft by way of a phone call in 1986.

I had bought a Tokyo Mauri spring gun from a company up in the panhandle of Fl, talking with the owner brought forth he was looking for a partner in crime, so I moved to Crestview Fl and embarked on the start of my airsoft career. The Command Post was the 1st airsoft/paintball gun and accessory catalog in the US. We carried all the top makes, Splatmaster, Nelson and Brass eagle, that was about it for paintball back then. We added Tippmans wonderful SMG 62 and also were the exclusive distributors in the US for the Para Ordnance model 85, yes Para started life as a paintball gun manufacture!

We also carried a full Toyko Marui line, at that time they only made spring guns, and some high end guns (what is now considered "classic airsoft)

SHOT show 87 found us in New Orleans, trying to explain what these weird looking guns were, and on the airsoft side, fielding comments like " Hell son, I could buy a real gun for that"

I traveled the country promoting paintball and had a lot of fun. I was also the back cover "boy" on the 1st few issues of Action Pursuit Games magazine and ads in SOF and the like.

In late 1988 I left the company to pursue matters in the "real steel" market place.

I have had a gun shop, managed a police supply company, was sales manager for a major firearms and accessorizes distributor, ran the Smith and Wesson store in Orlando and then moved to NC to take over the SE regional sales manager position for S&W to cover NC, VA and eastern TN.

After the mass layoffs at S&W, that I got caught in, I manged a gun shop in Greensboro for a while, tried to own my own used book store, I then embarked on a quest to provide a affordable video camera that could be mounted on a firearm to the LE community.

Working for Pacific Concepts, after a year in RD we brought to market the Advanced Tactical Camera. Sold by US Calvary and other retailers, it enjoyed a minor success.

After parting ways with Pacific the first of this year, I have been doing some consulting work with X Caliber Tactical and still keeping up with the major LE trade shows.

I got back into airsoft in 2006 when I was looking for a way to display my camera and not have to tote around real guns.

I now trade and buy airsoft like baseball cards, and have some limited access to the manufactures and builds of all sorts of crazy guns.

So, that's me in a nutshell

What will this blog be about?

Random acts of airsoft, as it relates to the pre AARP crowd.

When will I post?

When ever I have something worthwhile to say, or when I just want to ramble, hey, it's my blog!

Where will the info come from?

My many minions will fan out from my fortress here in Skull Island NC and call in news, tips and other assorted intelligence, most of it gleamed in death defying ways! I will leave no stone unturned to bring you the hottest news from the fast breaking world of airsoft ( not really, I will just pass on crap I find on the web, from phone calls and trade shows)

How can you do all this and still have a life?

To be honest, I am just that good!!!!!

Stay tuned for many thrilling adventures, gun reviews and other crazy stuff, or just a lot of boring crap, depends on how you look at it.

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Certain products represented in this website may be subject to federal, state and local prohibitions, restrictions or special licensing for sale, possession or interstate transport. Check with local and federal authorities regarding legality of purchase, possession and transport.

The information described and portrayed in this website is based upon the personal experiences of the author(s), under specific conditions and circumstances. Due to time and space constraints, the entire author's experience may not be reported or otherwise verified. Nothing in this blog should be construed to substitute for a manufacturer's manual, advice or for professional training.

This Blog, its officers, agents and employees accept no responsibility for any liability, injuries or damages arising from any person's attempt to rely upon the information contained herein. 

I am currently doing some consulting work for X Caliber Tactical Airsoft. 

I do maintain my impartiality as a reviewer. I receive no recompense for any reviews 

Thanks for coming, when the car stops, step off to the left.