Video: Tommy West Leaves Memphis in Style

For anyone who has ever doubted the absolute unwavering importance of football in the South, I bring you this clip. After last Saturday's vicious defeat at the hands of the UT Vols to the tune of 56-28, the U of Memphis showed Tommy the door, although as he will describe, until there are some changes in place, I'm not sure who they will find who can do any better. Some of his quotes are legendary in this thing so I'll let it speak for its self, and remind you that we're not even talking about an SEC school here. Video is courtesy My Fox 13 in Memphis.

Video: Eyehategod "Dixie Whiskey"

Courtesy of the cool folks over at Metal Injection comes this high quality video of EHG blasting one of their all time greats. Its still amazing to me that streaming video from a crowd camera now has better sound quality than these guys' first 3 studio efforts at the least. If you're unfamiliar with their work, this is a great place to start.

EDIT: Heavy users of this site were complaining about the autoplay on this so I took it down. Check the video out on its native site here.

Review: Benelli Vinci Shotgun

I finally caught a day of good weather this week and headed out to Benton Sporting Clays to break in my new Benelli Vinci shotgun. Benton Sporting Clays is a full 15 station course that has a variety of shooting situations, many of which approximate real-life hunting shots and after shooting the whole course I can't think of a better place to have gotten started with the Vinci. Before you ask, I have not had the chance to shoot the factory chokes at a pattern board yet. I realize that's something I've got to do and will do so as soon as I get the chance, but I reckon most new owners will just assemble the gun and at least experiment a little like I did anyway.

Before I even bought it, the first thing I noticed about the Vinci is how light it is and how quick it points. Although I've always liked how the other Benellis handled, they always seemed to have a heavy duty type of feel that seemed more suited for waterfowl and turkey and not much else. The Vinci definitely feels like more of an all around shotgun than the other semi-autos I have dealt with, which is why I picked it. I mostly quail hunt, with a few chances at turkey and waterfowl every so often, so what was most important to me was a lightweight gun I could carry for hours through thick upland cover, and one that pointed and swung quickly. After trying out everything that's on the market right now, the Vinci won out based on that criteria.

But, all those points wouldn't be worth anything if the Vinci didn't actually shoot well. I took three boxes of Winchester Super X High Brass 2 3/4" Game Loads in 7 1/2 shot size to the clays course to test it out. To me, the value of this kind of a test was to see how the gun would perform in field conditions similar to quail or other types of bird hunting. So, instead of shooting tiny shot through a cylinder bore choke, I shot the game loads through a modified choke, which is generally all I use in the field unless its extremely heavy cover and I go down to an improved cylinder choke. The clays course has some great hunting shots including some over tall grass, others between tight trees and finally some over water that come very close to being like the real thing. The gun pointed and followed the clays in any of these situations just as it had done in the store before I bought it, so handling-wise, it is the real deal. During the course of those 75 rounds, it had 0 failures to feed or malfunctions of any kind. Every time I pulled the trigger the gun fired and cycled exactly as designed. That alone says a lot about how far autoloading shotguns have come in the past few years.

Now, the big question, which many of you have already emailed me about before I could even get this written...the recoil. Just like everything else on the market, Benelli has made some pretty big claims about just how little this gun kicks as opposed to their older Inertia Driven models and even some of their gas-operated competition. In my experience with those lead game loads, the recoil was moderate. And I'm not sure that I would characterize it so much as recoil as I would jump. The rearward recoil force coming through the butt stock was not that bad. I was only wearing my hunting vest and a T shirt and at the end of the day my shoulder was barely red , as opposed to the purple and yellow mix my old 870 usually leaves. In the Vinci, at least in my hands, it felt more like the trigger group and forearm wanted to vertically climb more than anything else. The barrel always stayed well under control and tracking follow up shots was effortless. However, after about 50 shots the trigger guard did start leaving a blister on my shooting finger. It wasn't bad and had I been wearing gloves like I should have been, it probably wouldn't have been an issue. That said, the trade offs between some recoil and the benefits of less complexity, easier cleaning and foremost, lighter weight, seemed well worth it to me. In my mind, if a shotgun doesn't carry and point well, you're not going to get as many chances to get good shots and deal with recoil in the first place.

Finally, after shooting the gun it is as easy to breakdown and clean the gun as the literature suggests...eventually. Essentially there are only 3 parts to the Vinci, the Barrel/receiver/inertia action, the butt, and the trigger group/forearm. Once you figure out the secret to twisting the forearm cap to assemble or break down the shotgun, you've got it made. But getting there can be a challenge. One of my only complaints about the Vinci is that for what it costs (around $1300 in camo), the owner's manual feels extremely cheap and at times, isn't as clear as it could be. At this price point, an instructional DVD would be the appropriate way to do the owner's guide and maintenance instructions. Until there's one out there, I'd suggest any Vinci buyers have the salesperson show you how to precisely line up the forearm to stock assembly step a couple of times to save you some frustration at home. That said, everything else is flawless components wise. The shims used to adjust length of pull couldn't be easier to use and the shotgun is included with 5 crio choke tubes (C, IC, M, IM, F) and a really nice T handled choke wrench that lets you change them out in about 10 seconds. Even the case it comes in is made of good quality plastic and is durable enough to carry the gun to and from the field.

So, am I happy with the Vinci? In a word, yes. For me, it is exactly what I wanted in an autoloading shotgun. Is it the gun for everyone? Maybe not. If you are looking for an ultra-low recoil gun, you will want a heavier, gas-operated semi-auto. If you are a waterfowl or turkey fanatic who HAS to have the ability to use 3.5" shells, you might look elsewhere in the Benelli line. However, for someone like me who is primarily a bird hunter who wants the ability to do it all when they get the chance, this is the gun for it. It's light, it's got a fast and natural feeling point and it will reliably cycle a multitude of lead and steel game loads for a variety of game. Until I get good enough to demand a gun for every single discipline of hunting, the versatile Vinci will be what I have.

Email Questions or Comments to: Johnny

Video: Athens Buck Commander Bow

Holy smokes. There's a video ad out now for the new http://www.athensarchery.com/buckcommander.html"> Buck Commander Bow By Athens Archery. This video is like one sludge riff away from complete and total perfection. It has everything. Lately I've been wanting another bow and was leaning towards a solo cam, but after this I definitely won't buy until I've tested one of these.

Podcast: Live Fast Racing #26 is Up

Well, I never though it would happen, but we shook off the cobwebs and did another one. NASCAR, WSBK, bikes and a Flav-less F1 are the topics. Enjoy.

Listen: Live Fast Podcast #26

Johnny

Music: Steel Nation "Forever Wounded"

While I'm out of the business of doing long form album reviews on here for good, every now and again something comes down the road that's worth mentioning. The new full length "Forever Wounded" from PA's Steel Nation is definitely worth a look. This is the first thing I've heard from them and after repeated listens, it reminds me of a cross between the older BFL bands' material (especially MUSHMOUTH) and some 90's Clevo stuff like RINGWORM, minus a little bit of the metal. The title track just absolutely owns it from the intro on. Everything is tight on here, the vocals kill and honestly it was cool just to get to hear some no pretension/no hype hardcore for a change. Do not sleep on Steel Nation.

And for a limited time, you can stream the ENTIRE album for free at the band's label Double or Nothing Records. Listen HERE.

Video: 2010 MV Agusta Brutale Walk Around and Street Ride

Tor over at Raptors and Rockets has already gotten his videos up from the 2010 Brutale press launch. Check out this walk around and highlights from his street test. This has got to be the best sounding 4 I've heard in a long, long time.

Video: 2010 MV Agusta Brutale

And following up one Italian masterpiece with another, we have the promo video for the new 2010 MV Agusta Brutale. As usual, it's completely mind-blowing. The last generation Brutale was the nicest bike I've ever ridden and I'm sure this is just an improvement on that. Amazing.

Finally...The Benelli Vinci

After nearly a year of anticipation, all the waiting, overtime and weeks of tracking down somebody that had them in stock finally paid off. I got exactly the one I wanted. 26" barrel, Advantage Max 4 with a 3" chamber. I plan on doing everything from skeet, dove, quail, duck and even turkey with it. I still love my old 870, but a long stroke pump like that just isn't near as quick on double birds as a semi auto will be. Boom. Boom. Boom.

You can learn more about the Vinci here: Benelli Vinci Site

New Southern Steel Trailer

This doc looks like it's totally going to own. More later.