Articles by Herschel Smith

There are many of those.  But this one is quite interesting, and I’ll repeat what I’ve said before: I don’t start my day without coffee, even if I’m on the trail.  A better way of saying it is that coffee starts my day.

In this case, coffee may save your life one day on the trail in less than optimal circumstances.  You can start fire with it.

I wonder if this works with flint and steel or a ferro rod?  I guess there’s one way to find out.

American Rifleman.

On an FFP the reticle expands or contracts in conjunction with the magnification, allowing the gradations of the reticle design, whether milliradian (mil), minute of angle (m.o.a.) or bullet drop compensating (BDC) to remain proportional. With the high range of magnification possible on today’s optics, it is a true luxury to crank the power to whatever is ideal for the level of support, the field of view desired and the precision of shot placement, then simply hold on the correct reticle gradation for the range and begin to press the trigger.

[ … ]

Most AR shooting, in whichever role—whether sporting, competition or duty/defense—is done within the “sweet spot” of the .223 Rem. trajectory where the shooter can simply hold on the intended target and get the hit. With the common 50-yd./200-yd. zero the bullet’s path is within the margin of error out to about 250 yds. This lets a shooter enjoy a consistent reticle image that remains the same, regardless of the magnification, and is still bold and visible at the low end.

However, if the shooter has to hold over for the occasional long shot with the magnification topped off at the maximum, the reticle holds are “true.” Six power is a good compromise for visibility at distance but is still low enough that many shooters can use maximum power from an unsteady support without getting motion sick from the image and, thus, prone to snatching the shot off.

I think this is a pretty good article, explaining what you’re giving up with each choice.  For FFP scopes and high powered rifles, the reticle adjusts according to magnification.  This lets the shooter more accurately judge holdovers with extreme distance and magnification.

But that reticle looks mighty small on low power.  For SFP scopes, there is no need to go to high magnification to make accurate judgments of holdovers because the reticle is always the same size.  But for extreme long range shooting (as long as you can get with an AR), that reticle won’t adjust with magnification.

Again, I think this is an informative article.

Each one of these guns is high $$$.  I guess you have to be a YouTuber to be able to afford them.

There are a lot of them

GOA & GOF

Ted Cruz and 24 other republican senators.

FPC.

Dave Hardy.

In all there are 43 briefs.

… 43 amicus briefs filed supporting this case. Among these groups, NRA-ILA is heartened to see support from numerous elected officials including 176 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-22), 25 U.S. Senators led by Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), 26 Attorneys General led by Mark Brnovich (AZ) and Eric S. Schmitt (MO), and Governor Greg Abbott (TX).

But the Supreme Court is filled with controllers and cowards.  My prediction: they’ve heard the truth now, and they will ignore it, or find some way to whittle down the scope of the decision, or decide that the meat of the claims have no standing in their court because blah blah blah.

Let’s get this off to an educated start.  Here’s a miscalculation for you.  I’ve seen engineers do it before despite being taught better in engineering courses.

Let’s say you’re trying to get the cross sectional area of a tube in stress with an inner and outer radius.  You cannot use this formula: pi() * (r2 – r1)^2, or pi() * (d2 – d1)^2 / 4.  Because that’s not the same thing as pi() * (r2^2 – r1^2).  That’s a miscalculation, and it’s the sort that can kill people (or over-design and cost money).  I corrected the engineer I saw doing this.

The title of this article is LAPD bomb squad ‘miscalculated” weight of homemade fireworks when ‘controlled detonation’ went horribly wrong destroying armored truck and leaving 17 people injured.

Los Angeles police have admitted their bomb squad ‘miscalculated’ the weight of fireworks before a planned controlled explosion which went wrong last month, destroying the team’s armored truck and leaving 17 people injured.

[ … ]

The vehicle has an iron chamber which is designed to contain 25 pounds of explosives, and officers estimated they were putting in 16.5 pounds in to it, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Monday.

But investigators later weighed the remains of the explosives and calculated that there must have been about 42 pounds of fireworks loaded into the device.

The resultant catastrophic failure of the armored chamber sent a plume of fire into the air, injured 17 people and shattered the windows of nearby buildings.

Chief Moore gave the update the investigation on Monday morning at the LAPD Headquarters and said an ‘apparent miscalculation’ and ‘human error’ led police to overload the containment truck.

“Apparent miscalculation.”  He uses those words.  I do not think he understands what it means, and it makes me wonder if these folks have ever calculated anything in their lives.

If they tried, could they drive the intelligence quotient of LEOs any lower than it is right now?

And why couldn’t they have driven the truck into the middle of a field rather than do this on a city street?

Tip: WiscoDave.

You all know that S.C. recently passed permitted open carry, soon to take effect in S.C.  Well, that’s just not good enough for the controllers in Charleston.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The City of Charleston is making some changes to a few city ordinances regarding firearms as South Carolina’s new Open Carry with Training Act goes into effect on August 15th.

Monday, the Public Safety Committee voted to restrict open carry at all city permitted events. That includes, but is not limited to, parades, concerts, fairs, festivals, and, demonstrations. The act gives local municipalities the authority to implement such restrictions while staying within legal boundaries.

“We wanted to apply it across the board,” said Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg.

The restrictions are all in the name of public safety, according to City Councilman Peter Shahid.

“Those who come to watch a parade, we want this to be a very safe operation and for those who are participating in a parade, we want them to be safe,” said Shahid.

Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds stated that he’s in support of the restrictions.

“I think it’s the right thing for all the right reasons,” said Chief Reynolds.

But of course you do.  Public safety.  Forget that those same guns could be carried concealed, and forget that you wouldn’t know the difference, or that the carriers may not be permitted.

But … but … for the children!  Public safety.

Recoil.

This is a very well written and informative article.  For those who are wondering, the M18 is the M-4/AR-15 variant with a typically shorter barrel, usually sporting a quad rail.

I see the need for this sort of weapon, given the focus on CQB in recent years combined with the fact that suppressors are now ubiquitous in the U.S. military, so a 10.5″ barrel isn’t really 10.5″.

But it does cause problems, including lug breakage, high pressures, etc.  This article discusses some of the ways to mitigate those issues, including coated BCGs, adjustable gas blocks, and so on.

But just be sure to remember that when you go altering the design the engineer gave it, you introduce all sorts of unintended consequences.  The machine will usually perform its best when unaltered from the original design, assuming the engineer is good.

And Eugene Stoner was good.

Guns.com.

Saying you dislike heavy recoil is kind of like saying you can’t drive a manual transmission. Everyone likes to say they aren’t bothered by recoil. Everyone lies. I know shooters who boast of their recoil tolerance but when I see them at the range they have 50 lbs. of lead stacked behind the rifle.

Fool me all you want, but don’t fool yourself. If you really want to find out, have a friend at the range load the rifle for you, leaving the chamber empty on occasion so you never know if the rifle is going to fire or not. When the firing pin clicks on an empty chamber after a string of live rounds, you’ll know. If you really can handle it the sight picture will remain steady. If not … I’ve seen people with both eyes closed, face pulled away from the stock and contorted in a grimace. If shooting offhand sometimes they’ll actually stumble forward a step or two.

I always look for the gun which can supply the minimum recoil and still get the job done I am asking it to.  There is no virtue in unneeded recoil.

Expired security certificate.  Fixed now.