Articles by Herschel Smith

I removed a post made by fellow writer PGF.  I did so after receiving this note from Ammoland editor Fredy Riehl, as follows.

Hello  captainsjournal100″ (sic)

You have content from our website that is in violation of our copyrights. (here is one example, you have multiple.)

The Captain’s Journal » Self-Defense Skills and Drills, The Casino Drill (captainsjournal.com)

 Please remove all content and images you may have scraped from our domain at once and email us notice it has all been deleted and scrubbed from your domain captainsjournal.com

This is a poorly written letter with awful editing (e.g., you don’t end the sentence with a period if there is a qualifier in parentheses, nor put a period inside the parentheses, I don’t know what the ” is about at the beginning of the letter, etc.).  But I got the gist of his offense.

I responded to Fredy as follows.

Mr. Riehl,

To avoid problems with you, the offending post has been removed.  The post was made by one of my somewhat less experienced co-writers, not me, but that’s irrelevant to the main point.

But let me make this clear to you.  I don’t consider any other post (of which I’m aware) to have violated ANY legal stipulations whatsoever.  I consider previous posts in which TCJ has linked Ammoland to be “fair use.”  I make precisely zero (0) dollars or cents from my web site.  In fact, I have to pay for the services.  This is a labor of love for the sake of the 2A.

Furthermore, I’m surprised that you would have sent this note.  You clearly don’t understand the way the internet works.  We ALWAYS lift a bit of pose out of articles, commentary, and observations, usually make some comments or remarks of our own, whether agreeing and expanding on the points (usually the case) or in rare cases disagreeing and explaining why, and then send the reader to the link we provide for Ammoland (or whatever other publisher).  This increases (a) your traffic, and (b) your internet power (Google Page Rank).  That you don’t understand this is a testimony to … frankly, I don’t know what.  I rarely get notes like this except from very small publishers who get almost no traffic.  Again, I’m quite surprised at you.  Almost stunned at the ignorance of your note.

David Codrea and I have exchanged links like this almost forever, and if I do lift some limited content from his web site or Ammoland article (or Firearms News), I will NEVER copy in a link he provides himself based on his own research.  I have also helped him a bit with research (usually limited but it has happened), never demanding payment or recognition.

Henceforth, I will link to Ammoland almost never.

See how that works?  Was that what you intended?

And I will add that the instances where I have helped David are extremely rare and the instances where he has helped me far outnumber the times I’ve helped him.  But the point still stands.

For evidence of what I’m saying, go peruse Instapundit any day to see the prose they lift from articles, sending visits to the source.  It’s all fair use.  This is the way the internet works.  PGF responded to me with this note.

Not only did I link the full article but what i did amounted to a tease and promo, even directing the reader that they had to procede to ammoland to get the main and important information.

I responded back with this note.

I know.  They’re acting like a small and inexperienced publisher.  This is all water over the dam.  This is fair use, and they know it.

I’m not worried about it – in fact, a bit offended that he sent the note to begin with.

This is why the 2A community might fail in the end.  He thinks we’re siphoning traffic.  Rather, we’re sending it to him.

Fredy finally responded with this: “Thank you for your fast action and for your support of our second amendment.  This is all just a matter of housekeeping when we have a large site with lawyers involved.”

I don’t think so.  I think the Ammoland lawyers know the difference between copywrite violations and fair use by sites who make no income (but rather, send traffic to the source).  I think Fredy has a flair for the dramatic.

And thus, I won’t be linking Ammoland anymore.  I thought I should explain this to readers.

Source.

A state lawmaker is now admitting a mistake was made that has led to a lot of confusion and anger from Indiana deer hunters. New regulations prohibit hunters from using any kind of rifle to hunt deer on public property, like state parks. But the author of the bill that caused this said that was never the intention.

Republican State Representative Sean Eberhart (Shelbyville) authored House Bill 1415, which is at the heart of the confusion.

“First of all, it was something that nobody caught when the bill was first passed,” said Eberhart.

In 2016, rifles could be used on public land only when they shot pistol rounds, but high velocity ammunition could be used on private property. This year, lawmakers changed the existing law to clarify the rules regarding high velocity rounds.

I think that’s an error in the article.  Rather than “pistol” cartridges, I think it should have read “straight wall” cartridges, which would include 350 Legend (Indiana was one of the reasons the cartridge was designed to begin with), 45-70, etc.  But I’ll let an Indiana reader clarify this.

“The intent of the change was to make it more clear on what high velocity rifle rounds you could use on private property,” said Eberhart, “when that change was made, it inadvertently pulled in the pistol rounds as well [and] unfortunately the law now says that you can use those high velocity and pistol rounds in a rifle, but only on private grounds.”

That oversight has left deer hunters unhappy. Many outfitters and gun stores we spoke to on the phone said they’re getting calls from angry and confused hunters.

When questioned how neither he nor any of the law co-signers caught the oversight before it was voted on, Eberhart responded, “That’s a good question, not only did we not catch it as myself or any other legislator, LSA didn’t catch it, no other department didn’t catch it, DNR didn’t catch it, so we had a lot of eyes on this bill and no one caught that inadvertent change.”

In light of that, Eberhart hopes to fix the problem soon.

“I’m very confident we can address it come session time in January…but it’s my hope that we can address it short term as well,” said Eberhart.

What that short term fix could be and whether it can happen fast enough for this season, which starts November 18^th, isn’t clear. But Eberhart reiterated that he and his fellow lawmakers are working on a solution.

Yes, this article is dated and I missed it when it came out, but after a brief search I haven’t been able to find any amelioration of this stupidity.

I’m also not convinced that this is an error or oversight.  The simplest thing to do here to remove the ban on all cartridges and let hunters shoot what they want, thus ensuring ethical harvesting.

Indiana’s hunting lands are far more expansive than where I live, and we don’t shoot centerfire cartridges into homes around here.  The alleged concern is a sham.

Thanks for all the notes.  TCJ was down for some maintenance.

Source.

The writer has it at (5) Lee-Enfield, (4) AR-15/M-16, (3) Mauser Gewehr 98 / Karabiner 98k, (2) Mosin-Nagant, and (1) AK-47 and derivatives.

They don’t do much in the way of producing evidence for their assertions and I have my doubts.  For example, who is to know how they counted AR-15s/M-16s?  If you sum the total deployed to SE Asia, Iraq, Afghanistan, other armies across the globe, and AR-15 and variants, including upper and lower receivers sold separately, would you have come up with their number of 20 million?  I seriously doubt it.  I think there have been more than 20 million full ARs sold in America just in the civilian market alone.

However, it’s worth nothing that the gun that was built for conscripts (AK) who didn’t know how to shoot and didn’t want to mechanically understand the gun has been quite successful.

That’s one observation that should be made, of course, that genius Eugene Stoner designed his rifle for the professional soldier who needed MOA or sub-MOA performance, and wanted to understand how to work on his rifle.  As it is said, the AR is an MOA gun, while the AK is a minute-of-man gun.

Furthermore, America was built, at least up until the 1980s or so, with garage, backyard and farm mechanics working on cars, gun, and machines of all sorts, repairing them, cleaning them, and making them better.  Eugene Stoner knew this, I suspect, and didn’t worry too much that it was “too professional” of a rifle for the professional soldier.

From my point of view, Stoner understood the AK about as well as Kalashnikov did. Watch and tell me I’m wrong.

Here are the preceding two videos of Stoner and Kalashnikov at the range (Link 1 and Link 2).  One day I’ll embed the entire Eugene Stoner tape library for viewing.

Outdoor Life has an article entitled The Best Scope Rings of 2022.  They go the spectrum from Seekins to Night Force, from Zeiss to Leupold.  As for prices, they go from budget (just over $50) to around $500.

That’s what I’ve noticed about this market – the massive divide in price point.  Precision Rifle Blog has a rundown of what the long range competition shooters use, and as anyone might guess, it leans towards the pricey end of things with Nightforce being the most prominent of the choices.

Spuhr makes some very expensive mounts/rings too, mostly in the range of $400, up to $500 for quick detach mounts (which in my book are preferable to fixed mounts and rings).

What are the experiences of our readers?  Do you find much difference between moderately priced rings and the pricey ones?  Which ones do you prefer, and why?

I find that the really cheap ones are really cheap and not much worth having.

Source.

Florida sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot by his roommate, a fellow deputy, over the weekend, in what the sheriff described as a “tragic and totally avoidable death.” Austin Walsh, 23, was killed Saturday in Palm Bay by his roommate Andrew Lawson, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said Sunday in a video statement on Facebook.

The roommates, who were taking a break from playing video games with friends, were talking when Lawson “jokingly” pointed a handgun he though was unloaded at Walsh and pulled the trigger, Ivey said. A single round was fired and fatally struck Walsh, the sheriff said.

Lawson called 911 saying he accidentally shot his roommate, Ivey said. When officers arrived, they found Lawson “fully distraught and devastated.”

Lawson was taken into custody on a no-bond warrant on a manslaughter charge by agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and transported Sunday to the Brevard County jail, Ivey said.

“Austin and Andrew were the best of friends and Andrew was completely devastated over what happened. Even with that, there is no excuse for this tragic and totally avoidable death,” Ivey said.

The rules of gun safety are there for a reason.  The fact that they hadn’t had them ingrained and tattooed on their soul shows the complete inadequacy of their training, or perhaps the complete inadequacy of their selection policy for police candidates, or perhaps both.

As TCJ has observed before, you’re never in more danger than when the cops are around.  Leave their presence as soon as legal and possible.

This is a timely and informative video.  I had suspected that the increased bullet weight caused enough decrease in muzzle velocity to cause a wash between the two bullets in terms of energy, but until this video I hadn’t researched it or convinced myself.

Watch this video until the last to understand what the fourth circuit thinks about the rights of the people.  The judge is making up rights for cops out of whole cloth.  There is no such thing in the constitution.

What an old fart.  A school child is capable of more sound reasoning than he displayed.

And by the way, that cop showed too much familiarity with the person he stopped and not nearly enough respect for him as a free man.  I don’t like his attitude or demeanor.  The man’s name is not “Cuz.”  He has a name, and you should call him that, along with “Sir.”

Specifically, leopards.  As best as I can tell, both of the incidents in the linked videos happened in India.  The first dog gave up enough fight to end it.  The second dog had that big cat by the neck and the big cat wondered why he had decided to get into brawl.  It both cases, the fights ended with both the dog and big cats deciding to retreat and live another day.

I love dogs.  Man’s best friend and best protector.

LINK.

For the second encounter use this link.

Source.

While the sacrament of communion or the Eucharist — which is present in many Christian denominations and involves consuming bread and wine in remembrance or exaltation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ — has shifted in presentation and delivery over the centuries, most contemporary churches have similar systems.

Parishioners may be called to the pulpit to receive bread or a wafer from a church leader and to drink from a common cup of wine or — in the case of some more conservative denominations — grape juice. Alternatively, deacons may pass around a tray of wafers or small hunks of bread, followed by small disposable cups of juice. This is a common enough approach that most religious goods stores carry specific communion trays with slots for 1-ounce cups.

However, in the age of megachurches — as well as that of a global pandemic, which caused many churches to reconsider the sharing of bread and use of a common cup — an alternative delivery system for the Eucharist has increased in popularity in recent years. And it’s something of a booming business.

These days, when attendees enter Southeast, they’re guided to a row of long tables filled with small, plastic two-packs of wafers and juice. These aren’t a new product, but they have been primarily used to deliver the sacrament to individuals who are hospitalized or otherwise infirm, or when worshiping outside the walls of a physical church. When indicated by leadership from the pulpit, worshipers serve themselves and eventually dispose of the cups and wrappers in the large recycling cans that are now stationed outside the sanctuary doors.

You can read Kenneth Gentry’s book on wine for yourself.  Nothing irks me more than Christians who think they’re holier than God.  In the time in which the NT was written, refrigeration didn’t exist.  Any grape juice quickly turned into wine.  And if you want to somehow figure out an engineering solution to that dilemma (refrigeration didn’t exist until Carrier), you have to deal with Deuteronomy 14:26-27, and tell me how the term “strong drink” can be interpreted in any fashion than one which can make you inebriated if abused.  And just to be sure not to neglect those among us who rely on tithes, Moses makes sure we invite our local pastor when consuming wine.

Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do with your life, nor do I have strong opinions about the modern practice of using pre-packaged do-dads for communion.  But Jesus instituted His supper with wine and unleavened bread, and that’s the way it should be taken.  To say that conservative churches sometimes use grape juice means only that they are in slavery to the temperance movement created by do-gooder social gospel ladies in northern churches.

I recall a lecture by R.C. Sproul once in which a student asked him why we couldn’t take the Lord’s Supper with crackers and coke.  Sproul screamed, “Because Jesus didn’t institute it with crackers and coke.  He used wine and unleavened bread.”