I absolutely hate in-the-ear hearing protection.  They’re not comfortable to me, and I just can’t use them if I want to speak to someone or hear what they’re saying.  Yes, they’re ubiquitous and cheap, but they’re just not for me.

This past spring, I decided to take the plunge and get a pair of electronic earmuffs for shooting and high noise work.

Caldwell Emax Low Profile Earmuffs Photo from Midway, USA website

I pretty much stumbled on electronic earmuffs by accident.   A friend of mine had an older pair and seemed to really like his.  I thought for $30 a pair, I could get these and try them out to see if a more expensive pair was worth the time.  I bought a pair of the EMax Low Profile Earmuffs and took them to the range.  After trying them, I’ve bought another pair for use when working with Girlie Bear or a new shooter at the range.  Their comfort and aid in hearing while wearing ear protection makes a huge difference over plain earmuffs or foam earplugs.

These electronic earmuffs feature a microphone on each ear, an adjustable headband, and a volume control that takes the sound from normal to very amplified depending on your needs and preferences.  One advantage I saw about these over some of the other models I’ve looked at is that access to the two AAA batteries is through a compartment on the outside of the earmuffs.  Other models required taking the cushion and internal electronics out in order to access the batteries.  The over-the-head band extends far enough that I could wear these comfortably over a hat and still place them securely over my ears.

There is a bit of hiss that is quite noticeable in a low-noise environment, but isn’t distracting.  They cut off the microphones quite well when hearing a loud noise such as gunfire or a chainsaw motor, with little to no delay before going silent.  I have worn these doing yard work, at the Knob Creek machine gun shoot, to the range, and to the Lucky Gunner shoot with no ringing in my ears or other hearing issues afterwards.

I also wear these earmuffs when I’m out at Fort Knox doing volunteer work as a role player, and they have done an excellent job both in keeping my hearing safe from flash bang grenades and other nearby explosions and in staying on my head while I’m running and jumping around.  I cannot say the same about the Peltor earmuffs that are stocked at the range for role players.

One quibble with these is that since the padded cups are covered in plastic, you will sweat underneath them, necessitating taking a break occasionally to wipe them out.  However, the covering makes for an excellent seal between the cups and your skin.  Also, the vinyl covering has no cracking or deforming after several months of regular wear in both hot and cold conditions.

Overall, I’d say that these electronic earmuffs are a good value for someone who is a recreational shooter or needs good hearing protection while working around noise sources that cut in and out.  The sound quality from the microphones and speakers is good, and the ability to talk at a normal tone on the range and still hear is great.

Disclaimer – I received nothing for this review.  I paid for the product myself.

OK, another one that I’m woefully late on seeing.  “Bee Movie” is another of the movies we got out out of the bargain bin.  Irish Woman spied it when she was picking up a few things for dinner, and thought that since it was a cartoon from Dreamworks, and we like other things they’ve put out, we might like this one.She and Boo did indeed seem to enjoy it.  Girlie Bear and I, well, not so much.  


To be honest, the label of “Gilded Turd” is too good for this waste of good celluloid.


The following paragraph condenses the plot of the movie, so if you’re into hurting yourself and those around you, don’t read it so you’ll be surprised when you watch the movie.  The rest of you should use this as an excuse to never see this insult to the intelligence of starfish.

The movie centers around a bee, voiced by Jerry Seinfeld, named Barry.  Barry is a young bee on the go, who doesn’t want to settle into his role as a drone.  He gets out of the hive, discovers that humans harvest honey for food, sues the human race to make them stop, which causes the bees to stop making honey due to oversupply, with the unintended consequence that all of the plants start to die because of no pollination from bees.  Barry figures this out, brings the last flowers on earth to New York, which the local bees use to re-pollinate all of the plants in the world, saving the day.  

There are lots of topical jokes about contemporary American culture, which will do a lot in making this a timeless classic of American cinematography.  Few, if any, of the jokes actually got me to crack a smile.  The characters were as two dimensional as the animation, the plot was disjointed and poorly thought out, and I never looked forward to the end of a movie so much in my entire life.


I don’t want to say that there were no redeeming values to this…. film.  The animation was top notch.  Dreamworks has definitely figured out how to do computer animation to a degree that was undreamt of 20 years ago.  Jerry Seinfeld can occasionally run into a funny bit and exploit it successfully, which goes to prove the old saying about blind pigs and acorns.  The music chosen for it was pretty good and was similar to the contemporary music used in the Shrek franchise.  The producers and director obviously put a lot of work in getting top notch people such as Seinfeld and Larry King (who makes one of the only funny scenes in the movie work) to do voice over.  


But none of that can make up for the plot, character development, and endless stream of bad jokes.  I know, this was a cartoon, but it fails where Shrek and all of the Pixar movies succeed:  It doesn’t engage across a wide swath of ages.  Boo was fascinated by the movie, but he’s fascinated by the sandbox.  I was bored and insulted.


I cannot dis-recommend this film enough.  Jerry Seinfeld and  Dreamworks should be ashamed of themselves and should atone for their poor work by publicly flogging themselves with rose stems.  I swear that as the credits started to roll and I made a beeline to the eject button with the intention of taking this DVD to the range, I distinctly heard the baby Jesus crying.  


Oh, but the things we do to keep our spouses and children happy.

During our mini-vacation, we stayed at the Chase Suites in Dublin, Ohio.  This is an older chain hotel that has been turned into a suites-based hotel by a private owner.  While it has a few blemishes such as a stain on the rug or a couple of cracked tiles in the bathroom, it’s kept immaculately clean.  The hotel is  located in a commercial park about 2 minutes from the I-270 freeway in Dublin.  It’s about 10 minutes from the Columbus Zoo, and is surrounded by entertainment, dining, and shopping opportunities.

Amenities:

• Kitchenette with full sized refrigerator, electric stove, and dishwasher.  The kitchenette is also stocked with real dishes, silverware, cooking utensils, and pots and pans.
• Two televisions with satellite receivers in every suite, one with a DVD player
• Two room suites.  The main living area held a queen-sized pullout sofa-bed, while the bedroom contained two double beds with new mattresses. 
• Separate pool and hot-tub
• Hot breakfast buffet every morning
• DVD library to check out movies at the front desk
• Free high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.
• Social hour on Monday through Thursday, which included a couple of beers or glasses of wine and hot and cold snacks.

Pro’s:

• Great location.   We were able to get to the Zoo, restaurants, grocery stores, and entertainment in minutes without having to navigate the interstate.
• Immaculately clean rooms, pool, and grounds.
• Extremely pleasant and helpful staff
• Great value.  We stayed 4 nights for less than $400 dollars
• An actual hot breakfast in the morning instead of just bagels and cold cereal.  This was a lot easier than going down the street for breakfast, and added to the value of the hotel to us.
• Very family friendly, but I could also see staying there if you were in Columbus on business.
• The Wi-fi was convenient to use, very dependable, and fast.  This was probably the best wireless Internet access I’ve seen in a hotel.

Con’s:

• It’s an older hotel, so there were minor blemishes on the trim of the rooms as I stated earlier.  However, this was relatively minor and were not unsightly or a safety hazard.
• When we tried to check in at 2 PM on Thursday, our room wasn’t cleaned yet, so we had to go get a bite to eat while room cleaning took place.  This wasn’t a major problem as we were hungry anyway, but it was the one time the staff had to play catch up all weekend.  Also, we may have brought this on ourselves since check-in time isn’t until 4 PM, and we arrived a little after 2.

So overall, I’d give this hotel a 4.5 out of a possible 5.  The pro’s definitely outweigh the con’s, and we already plan to stay there again when we go back to Columbus in the future.  I would definitely recommend the Chase Suites to anyone travelling to Columbus for business or pleasure.

Remington recently came out with nickel plated target ammunition, and the folks at Lucky Gunner sent me a box of their .38 Specials to try out.  Nickel plating on the brass casing is supposed to provide better corrosion resistance and allow the round to feed better in an automatic.

Overview:

The ammunition retails on Lucky Gunner for $17.00 for a box of 50, or $0.34 a round.  If you use Remington’s Golden Saber nickel plated hollowpoints as a self-defense round, these would probably make a good lower-cost training alternative for your revolver.  The bullets themselves are 130 grain copper jacketed ball ammunition.

Shooting:

I ran these bullets through my five-shot 2 inch Taurus Model 85, which was thoroughly cleaned the night before going to the range.  I chose this gun because it’s one of my carry guns, and if I was using these rounds for practice, I’d want to use the gun I would have with me in an emergency.  The 12 inch target was set at 21 feet under mostly cloudy skies and no wind.  All shots but the last 10 were done single action strong hand using slow aimed fire.  The last 10 were done double action strong hand as fast as my front sight came down on the target. 

Felt recoil was surprisingly light, which helped a lot with gun control after the shot.  That also made it a lot less painful to shoot all 50 rounds in one sitting.  After the first two or three strings of five, I was able to bring my groups in a bit and get closer to the bullseye.

Initial strings are in the upper left corner. Couple of fliers from the double action shooting in the lower right corner.

Cleaning:

During firing, there was quite a bit of smoke and sparks at the muzzle.  After firing all 50 rounds, the front inch of my barrel was very smudged with soot.  However, when cleaning the gun, I found that the interior of the gun itself was pretty clean.  Also, I noticed that after about 30 rounds, the effort needed to get rounds into and out of the cylinder increased, but not to the point that I had to break out the multitool.

The nickel casings showed very little carbon after firing

Note the smudging at the end of the barrel.  The cylinder and forcing cone were remarkably clean after firing 50 rounds.

This is all the carbon that came off of the gun during cleaning.  Most of the crud on the paper towl came from the end of the barrel.

Final Thoughts:

• The relatively low cost and light felt recoil of these rounds would make it easier for me to shoot more at the range.
• Other nickel plated ammunition I use has stood up to a lot of abuse over the time I’ve owned them.  Buying this ammunition in bulk would be a good way to put back target ammunition at a good price and not have to worry as much about corrosion.
• The condition of the gun after shooting surprised me.  After seeing all of the soot on the end of my barrel, I thought the interior of the gun would be gunked up.  As you can see from the pictures above, all it took was a toothbrush, some Kroil, a bore brush, and some patches to get the gun ready to wipe clean.  
• I’d be interested in hearing how well these rounds went through a Coonan .357 automatic.  The nickel plating is supposed to improve feeding from a magazine fed gun.
• I would definitely recommend these rounds for plinking or training, especially to those who use similar ammunition for self-defense.

Disclaimer:

Please note that Lucky Gunner provided me with the box of ammunition I used in this review, and I will be their guest at the Memorial Day bloggershoot later this month.

A couple of years ago, I was looking for a way to secure my handguns when I wasn’t carrying them, and locking the bedroom door just wasn’t cutting the mustard. I wanted my carry and home protection guns in the bedroom where I could get to them quickly, but I wanted them secured against small hands and curious minds.

I’d looked at several handgun safes, and after discussing it with my concealed carry instructor, who also had several children at home, I checked out the V-Line Top Draw.  This 12 by 9 by 2.5 inch steel box includes a top lid that’s as tall as the box itself, making prying it open difficult, a programmable five button mechanical lock, and pre-drilled holes for securing it to a stud, closet shelf, or drawer.

I chose the mechanical lock over an electronic lock because I sincerely believe in Murphy’s Law:  When there’s a need for me to get to the gun quickly, the battery will be dead, and I won’t have the backup key  handy.  The tactile feedback of the raised buttons allows me to open the case in the dark quickly without a flashlight or turning on the room lights.

The case is large enough to hold the following:

• Government Model 1911
• CZ-82
• Taurus Model 85 .38 snub-nosed revolver
• One extra magazine or quick-strip of ammunition for these guns, in addition to the load they have in them at all times.