courtesy of andy_carter

At first I thought I would write about my favorite gun blogs in two main categories:
Blogs who deal mainly with guns from the technical aspect, either practitioners or collectors and blogs who write more about the political side - gun rights, and second amendment issues.
The thing is, these two categories are not mutually exclusive. Most so called gun blogs, have a bit of both.
Keeping that in mind, I have placed blogs into these two categories, and this first post will be about bloggers who write about guns proper. The order of the blogs posted is random.

1.View From the Porch and The Arms room are the first blogs I want to mention.

They are both authored by Tamara K (or Tam), who defines herself as an unemployed bum. I translate that as woman with a great sense of humor and based on both these blogs, armed with both knowledge and love for guns.
The Arms Room seems to be posted in sporadically, but is about guns in the purest sense of the word. If you want to find out about pistols or rifles from different countries or periods such as WWI or the Cold War, you could do so on The Arms Room. The Author refers to this blog as an on line gun museum. I think it’s a work in process, and a blog worth reading if you are a serious collector.

2. In her other blog, View From the Porch,  she posts more frequently. It is in a way lighter and deals with all aspects of guns, not only from the collectors historical point of view.
She writes about shooting her different guns, gun safety, gun shows as well as a bit of politics. Her writing has a good flow to it, and is a pleasure to read.
View from the Porch is highly recommended for anyone that is interested in guns and has a sense of humor.

3. The Firearm Blog, is one of the only blogs I have found that does not mix guns with politics. The Author Steve is one of the most fertile bloggers I have ever run across. He averages a minimum of 2 posts a day!! His main topics are AR-15 and AK carbines, skeet shotguns, self defense pistols and hunting rifles. Instead of running all over the web for news on these guns, you can just pop over to firearm blog. Steve cruises the Internet, finding all the interesting stories for you, adding his own commentary and thoughts to them. If any of the above mentioned guns are interesting to you, bookmark his blog and read it daily.

4. Gunpundit was a hard one for me. Not because I don’t like it, but because I wasn’t quite sure if to put it in the mostly about guns blogs, or in the mostly about gun rights blogs. As you can see, I have finally decided to put in the first category, though halfheartedly so.
Shelby Murdoc, the author of gun pundit himself says that his blog covers both guns and gun issues, and he covers both these issues well.
One thing that I found in his blog that I haven’t see elsewhere is that he review accessories - clothes, holsters, cases, scopes and so on.

5. Amoland.com sports and shooting news, is another blog I enjoy reading. OK. Its not strictly a blog, but it is a very interesting read, and although it covers all things firearms and guns as well as gun politics, one if its main focuses is sports shooting and hunting, which sets it aside just a bit from the other gun blogs.

I find speed shooting and target shooting very worthy and interesting sports and find it a little strange that the gun community as a whole deals with them less than with politics, for example. Amonland.com is an interesting read, especially to those with a practical use for guns, other than self defense. Since I don’t know much about sports shooting (I do, but know more than the layman) I have found it particularly interesting to read.

6. N.U.G.U.N is a blog diary of a new gun owner. Jason, the author bought his first gun and started blogging in September of 2008, making this blog 2 years old.
Its contents are, as the title says, the thoughts and experiences of a new gun owner.
Two years later, he still has an interesting perspective and is a worth while read.
One thing does bother me however - I do believe that a person has the right to their own opinions and to make the choices he wants to in his life. I feel Jason is a bit to apologetic about why only now he decided to own a gun. I don’t think pro gunners need necessarily to own a gun, the whole point is, the choice to own one if they so choose. I find his reasons for not owning very valid, just as valid as his reason for changing his mind. No apology needed.

7. The Unforgiving Minute is one of my favorites. There is something about a guy naming his guns that does it for me.
Other things that make this blog stand out - He has only 10 categories on his side bar, He writes about computers a lot, which would be interesting for just about everyone in this day and age, and he has a killer booze section. Very funny posts.
He hardly ever writes about politics.
My only complaint is due to a heavy work load, he doesn’t write as often as he once did, making his posts and updates a rare treat.
100% recommended.

8. Nurse With A Gun or Xavierthoughts s a gun blog like no others.
The author is a male nurse, who is a total gun rights advocate, with a unique angle - he gets to patch up shooting victims.
His profession, and his day to day experiences make his blog a must read. Although its very obvious that he is a gun rights advocate, he hardly writes about gun politics at all. He focuses a lot more on technical aspects of self protection, gun use and so on. I find his personal point of view extremely intriguing and am always happy to read more from him.

Here ends the first post in this series. Next time, I will write about my favorite gun rights blogs.

Is there anyone you would like to add to this list? Feel free to do so in the comments.

I haven’t written here for quite some time. Fortunately bloggers more worthy than myself have been filling the void with their own blogs, which between you and me, are much more interesting than mine.

Anyway, it’s not as if I have been completely out of the blog-sphere. Instead of writing, I have been reading a lot of other great gun blogs out there on the Internet.

There are so many bloggers who cover gun ownership from all aspects. Some write about the technical aspects, others are collectors writing about their collection, and many write about the gun rights/second amendment aspects. All most all of them mix and match, and add a pinch of there personal life as well.

I thought it would make a interesting series of posts to write about what’s out there. Some posts will focus on one category, making it easier to find the blogs that are interesting to you. Other posts will focus on specific bloggers whom I find have a unique point of view.

Of course if you know blogs which you think should be of interest to me, please post them in the comments so  I can check them out.

This is a test post. I was asked to post this code 5ZUY8UDTHUMC on the blog for various technical reasons that are to complicated to explain, so now you know. And its posted.

Just so that you don’t think you have wasted your time be clicking on this post here is something I found on youtube, for you entertainment.

“If I had a dime for every time I answered that question….”

With our latest software development, the above can become more than a sentence you utter to yourself while answering a question for the umpteenth time….

OK, The above might sound like an infomercial, and you will have to forgive me that, but I do think that our new Expert option is a wonderful opportunity for a lot of the users here, who are bountiful in knowledge, and enjoy sharing it with others, except that now, they will have the option to get paid for some of the answers.

Here is how it works:

To become  an expert you must of course be a registered member of this board, and have given answers to at least 40 questions on the forums.

You must have been rated by at least 4 users, and have an 80% positive user rating. If you have all of the above, you can go ahead and sign up as a Gun Values board Expert.

At that point, due to the credibility that you have gained through answering questions and getting good ratings, you will have gained the right to earn money for answering questions.

From now on forward, a user will be able to choose whether to post a question in the regular manner on the forums, or choose to send it as a paid private question to a specific expert, and some of that payment will be received by the expert.

There may be many reasons that a user might choose to use this service, speed, privacy, expertise and many others.

As I mentioned above, these paid questions are private. They are not posted anywhere that anyone other than the asker and expert can see them, and because we promise the asker privacy, the expert may not discuss the questions he answers under his capacity as expert with anyone else.

The benefits for all involved are quite clear. The expert gets to work from home, generate extra income from doing something that he does for fun, and the hours are really as flexible as can be.

Users benefit from being able to divulge more accurate information, since they have no worries about privacy issues, plus they get to choose the expert that answers them, and base there choice on his track record and apparent knowledge and good helpful answers.

When a user asks a question, the site will determine which of the experts are the best qualified to answer his question, and present the user with a list of these experts, along with testimonials and a link to their profile pages, so the user can then make an informed decision as to who answers his question.

If the expert doesn’t feel he can answer the question, he can reject it, and it will be assigned to another expert.

The user will get 7 days in which he can ask another 4 follow up questions to clear up any loose ends or unclear points he might have.

So far, so good, you might be thinking, How can I make sure that I get as many Private Expert questions as possible?

• Take an active part on the community and increase your Credibility.

•  Give users a good experience and users will return to ask you.

• Update your profile and your photo and users will recognize you.

•  Be on-line. Users choose experts with the on-line mark on.

Each expert has a Credibility Rank which is compiled out of the number of forum posts, blog post, votes on your blog posts, user rating and so on.

All of this information is a summery of what the users think of you and how important you are to the site. The more you are active, giving good information, getting good responses from users, the higher your Credibility rank will be. Obviously, a person with higher credibility will be regarded as more of an authority on all things gun related, which is precisely why a user would choose to pay you for information.

For more detailed information, such as how experts are paid, how much they are paid and so on please read our Expert  FAQ.

This is just the beginning. Please join us on this new journey, and stay tuned for further developments.

I don’t DIY my own ammo, but I know that a lot of you do. Like any other type of minuscule tasks the agronomy of this can make or break your ability to do it, as well as the enjoyment involved.

I found this great video on Anthroblogogy. Dirtcrashr, the auther of anthroblogogy makes his own cases, and has run into all kinds of difficulties that he expands on in this post. He recons that this video fixes them all. So if you are into making your own  ammo - hop over and read.