Articles by Herschel Smith

Recoil:

In addition, the top of the mount also incorporates the activation button for the light, providing natural and ergonomic access to the controls, especially for shooters who use a thumb-over grip on their rifle. Tap the switch to turn the light on or off, or hold it to activate momentary on mode. Double tapping the switch engages strobe mode. INFORCE says the light will output approximately 1,300 lumens.

That’s a lot of light.  I’m certain it would be blinding in the dark to an assailant, but the danger is that it’s so bright that it causes dysfunction even in the shooter due to light scattering from walls, ground, etc.  I’d want to see this in the dark myself before buying, although with electronic components there are no returns.  I do like the offset mount.

The INFORCE web site doesn’t show this product yet.  The alleged cost is in the neighborhood of $239, with a $100 switch.  I found the cost of the Surefire M622 (with switch) to be $429.  That’s up a bit from the last time I looked.

Guns Magazine:

My first impression upon decanting the rifle from the shipping carton was “it’s heavy.” It weighs 11.5 lbs. A suitable optic brings it to 14.5 to 15 lbs. The centerpiece — and the source of most of the weight — is the heavy barreled action mounted in an aluminum alloy chassis — free-floated, biologically inert and pretty much immune to the vagaries of nature.

[ … ]

Groups at 600 and 1,000 yards hovered around the 1 MOA mark for all three of us with three or four of each five rounds at — or below — 1/2 MOA in most cases. This is likely a more accurate predictor of the rifle’s baseline accuracy than the full five rounds and the likely interjection of human error.

Nevertheless, Stan’s subsequent load development with the same ELD bullet is closing in on 1/2 MOA across the board.

The weight isn’t trivial, but a review of the CMMG Endeavor in 6.5 Creedmoor has the author saying that “The 300 series is an absolute log at 11+ lbs.”  Accurized, heavy profile barrels are going to dominate long gun weight.

Given the weight of the rest of your kit, unless you have the strength of a pack mule and stamina of a sled dog, that gun is going to get heavy.  It would be enough to make anyone hesitate to carry it on a long hunt.

Then again, this is more like a tactical gun, useful for other things.  What’s really nice to see is the MSRP of $1,211.  Getting a highly dependable, accurate tactical bolt action gun has gotten to be a rich man’s game with costs running near $2,000 just to get in.  I’d like to see downward pressure on the market cost.  This is a good start.

News from New Hampshire:

Ruger CEO Christopher Killoy responded during the meeting that rolling out a line of these weapons would be a financial loser.

“While people think there is often a great market for ‘smart guns,’ or user-authorized technology, we are not seeing it,” he said.

The company’s decision to not pursue smart guns frustrated Colleen Scanlon, an activist investor with Catholic Health Initiatives, which is based in Colorado, where a school shooting on Tuesday killed one student and injured others.

“We find management’s decision dangerously short sighted. It ignores a significant business opportunity, as well as one of the most promising prospects for reducing gun violence,” Scanlon told shareholders.

Last year, Scanlon and other faith-based activist investors successfully persuaded Ruger shareholders to adopt a resolution requiring the company to produce a report investigating the viability of smart guns and how the company assesses risks related to gun violence.

[ … ]

Ruger did appear receptive, however, to another demand of activists: that the company meaningfully engage in conversations with faith-based shareholders, who have criticized Ruger’s refusal to meet.

Oh nice.  So now Ruger has agreed to waste time and resources meeting with the same sort of “faith-based” groups (read here, “Jesus was a Bohemian, pacifist, beatnik, flower child hippie, so we should be too”) that are pushing them to meet with these groups.  They’re all in it together.

Once again.  To all gun manufacturers, make sure a majority of your stock is owned by employees.  Ruger did not work behind the scenes to buy out these shares over the last year and leverage their power (e.g., splitting the stock and buying half of it?), and that may have been a mistake.

Via Ken’s place, American Rifleman has the top selling new and used semi-automatic rifles of 2018.

How weird am I when I’m not interested in a single rifle on the list, not even an M1 Garand?  If I had my choice given everything else being equal, I’d take an AR-10 over an M1 any day.  Many manufacturers are making better pistol caliber carbines with AR functionality than the Kel-Tel Sub-2000, and I don’t like the Bullpup design for any gun with it’s chamber closer to the ear.

The Ruger 10/22 is the only gun that makes sense to me.  I suppose if you’re into budget or rack ARs, one is a lot like the other, and perhaps there’s a place for a rack AR if you’re looking for backup, replacement parts, and so on.  Otherwise, you get what you pay for.  Feel free to post your thoughts.

This is why the Holy Writ requires two witnesses to convict.  And in case you had to be told (I hope you don’t), be careful how well you manage your home life.  I personally have a very good friend whose wife was unfaithful to him, demanded a divorce (that he didn’t want), and took half of everything he owned in court, along with alimony payments.  If red flag laws existed at the time his guns would be owned and operated by the police today.  And not one bit of the whole ugly affair was his fault.

AR-15: Lock on it.

Cop: Tries to cycle the charging handle three times before he concludes it is not loaded.

Good Lord.

News from Colorado:

The school does not have a school resource officer, but the school does have private security, Kluth said. School staff notified emergency dispatchers “almost immediately” after the first gunshots were fired, and deputies were on scene within two minutes and engaged the suspects, Spurlock said.

Sorry folks, but that’s not nearly fast enough as this incident goes to show.  A lot of people can get hurt in two minutes, and that’s a fast response time for most PDs.

This recapitulates a conversation I had with someone on Sunday, after I heard a pastor say of the police on campus, “They are here to protect you and keep you safe.”

That’s a lie.  The police know it, and the congregation should be told the truth.  This is especially true of small congregations who don’t have the financial resources to hire cops to sit or stand around.

The job of keeping families safe falls to the same people who provide for them, teach them and nurture them: heads of families and their spouses.

And note again that this was a gun free zone, a soft target, just like many church congregations are on Sunday.  It’ll keep happening until people learn to protect themselves and those for whom they have been given charge.

Washington Examiner:

David Hogg: “If you need an AR-15 to defend yourself you need more target practice because you’re a terrible shot.”

First of all, he’s a liar and doesn’t really believe this because he’s not advocating that the police be disarmed of long guns, and has never done so.  He just wants the state to have a monopoly on violence.  It’s always enlightening to run things like this through the grits mill in order to see the hypocrisy of their views.  If you advocate disarming people other than cops, then you’re just a communist.

Second, as for not needing an AR-15 to defend yourself, I think Mr. Stephen Bayezes would beg to differ when he used an AR-15 to defend against multiple assailants in a home invasion.  So would a number of other folks.

However, Hogg is right about one thing.  We all need more practice.  So let’s heed Hogg’s counsel and make sure not to neglect range day.  I think Jerry Miculek said in one video that he has shot somewhere around 7,000,000 rounds downrange in order to get as good as he is.  I know that my son shot well more than half a million rounds in his workup to deployment.

We’ve all got a little bit to go, I suspect.

News from Florida:

An experienced deputy accidentally discharged his firearm in a middle school cafeteria, which — thankfully — resulted in zero injuries. However some parents and the Florida Education Association are calling out the Florida House of Representatives for voting to move bill SB-7030 forward, which would authorize districts to arm teachers.

According to Pasco County deputies, no one was injured when a school resource officer at Thomas E. Weightman Middle School in Wesley Chapel, Fla. “incidentally discharged” his gun in the school’s cafeteria during the students’ lunch period on Tuesday.

“We want to again make it clear that the weapon discharged directly into the wall and no students were in danger,” the Sheriff’s Office shared in a Facebook post to the public. According to the post, an investigation has been initiated.

WFLA reports that the unnamed officer was “leaning against the wall when his holstered, duty-issued firearm incidentally discharged into the wall behind him.” Lt. Troy Ferguson with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office said that the gun involved was a Sig Sauer 9mm.

ABC Action News reports that the school resource officer involved in the incident has been placed on paid administrative leave, and his name will not be released until the investigation is complete.

“There are a number of features on the threat level 3 holsters that we carry with our firearms, so there are a number of dynamic factors that are involved with fine motor skills functions that would cause that to happen. So we have to really kind of dissect that,” Ferguson said.

Gosh I hate it when that happens to me.  But I never thought to call it an “incidental discharge.”  That’s a new one on me, and maybe I’ll use that one in the future when my goes just decides to “go off” by itself.

Leaning up against the wall.  Maybe the wall made him do it.  As for that dissection of the incident, let me know what you come up with.

But arming teachers is a bad idea.  Because.

David Codrea:

“It was brought to Hawaii Firearms Coalition’s attention during this year’s legislative session that not one single firearms owner has been entered into the service. However, for more than two years, the state has been requiring firearm owners to sign a waiver (of their constitutional rights) and collecting the fees associated with the FBI Rap Back service.”

The state’s position is that new firearm purchases are going to require fingerprints and coerced “consent,” if you don’t you won’t get a permit, you have to pay fees and to be unenrolled, “a registrant must show documentation that all of his or her registered firearms are no longer in Hawaii, or have been sold.”

We’ve known for a very long time that gun permitting was a way for CLEOs to raise revenue.  This is just icing on the cake for them.  Oh, and not to mention, infringement of God-given rights and registration with the FedGov.

In the spirit of this post at ZeroGov, The Federalist has some alarming news.

Adam Kilgore, general counsel for the Mississippi Bar, offered the following hypothetical to a group of experienced civil and criminal lawyers.

A man has been fired from his job. He is upset. He hires you as his attorney. You are of the opinion he has an excellent case and file a complaint on his behalf. You later discover he possesses a permit to carry a firearm. He also has a so-called enhanced carry license. While his case is wending through the courts, your client goes to a public area outside his former workplace. He displays signs that say he has been wrongfully fired. The man has no history of criminal activity, violence, or threatening anyone.

The instructor asked the class what actions, if any, a lawyer should take. It seemed obvious to me there was no reason to do anything except proceed with the client’s case. I (Jude) would also advise my client to avoid confrontations with anyone who worked for his former employer and what he might consider saying if approached by the media.

While I was forming an answer, many lawyers immediately said they would terminate the attorney-client relationship and contact law enforcement to report their client was potentially dangerous. The only reason offered was his firearm permits.

I have to admit, I was flabbergasted, for several reasons. First, I live in Mississippi, which is among the reddest of the red states. Second, the attorneys—let me call them gun-phobic—were proposing to violate the attorney-client privilege, which establishes one of the most sacrosanct confidential relationships. (American Bar Association “Rule of Professional Conduct” 1.6). As with most things, there are exceptions. They generally pertain to a client who is about to commit a criminal act or engage in fraudulent behavior.

The lawyers who proposed to call the police cited ABA Rule 1.6 (b)(1). It states “[a] lawyer may reveal information relating to the representation of a client to the extent the lawyer reasonably believes necessary: … to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm.”

To them their confidentiality agreement means nothing at all.  The fact that you even have firearms means that removing them from you is necessary to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm.

How easy do you think it would be to overcome such an indictment from your own lawyer in front of a judge?  And yet, it can happen with literally no warning, no basis in fact, and no regard for your God-given rights.

Be careful what you say, and to whom you say it.