Articles by Herschel Smith

David Codrea:

Harris is pulling one of the oldest cons in the book, the “I’m a gun owner but” dodge, and in this case, her “but” is huge. Here’s another trick she’s employing: When she offers a couple of “gun laws” she believes she can pass off as “practical solutions,” note she prefaces them with the phrase “which include.”  That means there are plenty more she hasn’t mentioned. Then she ends her pitch with “Period,” as if that’s the end game.

It’s not. What she won’t do is define what new edicts would finally be enough for her to say “No more.” That’s because if she thought she could, she’d be going after a total monopoly of violence. There are some things it’s not prudent to admit just yet, especially since she’s now playing to a bigger crowd than California, and has to at least pretend to be “one of us.”

But it only matters to idiots who don’t know history.  The controllers never go after their own – they just go after their enemies so that they can’t defend themselves against [a] individuals, or [b] the state, or in other words, the controllers.

As reader The Alaskan always says, those who want to take your guns are planning on keeping theirs.  But of course, her position is essentially no different than that of Pete Buttiegieg or any other democratic candidate.

Finally, we all know that when Ms. Lindsey Graham sends her red flag gun confiscation bill to Trump, he’ll sign it.  It was Trump’s idea, just like the bump stock ban.  I fear that it someone sent him a new assault weapons ban, he’d sign that too.  I can see him wagging his righteous finger at us saying, “No one needs a weapon of war except …”

Because Ms. Graham is a controller too.  There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Ms. Graham and Kamala Harris.

Based on what I heard in the video, I don’t honestly think I would ever be selected for a jury.  Any sitting around waiting in jury rooms is a waste of my time.

Like me, Tim is a champion and fan of the AR-15 design.  He begins an interesting test with a BCM rifle.

He shot 1000 rounds in 35 minutes.  We’ll see how far this goes before it gives up as he tracks this over time without cleaning or maintenance.

The guys at Wanat claimed that their Colts gave up after shooting 800 rounds in 30 minutes.  My bet is that they were firing in 3-round bursts.  Although I still can’t see how they managed to put more rounds downrange than Tim.

When Tim posted this a few minutes ago, I heard that Bob Scales puked in his cream of wheat.  His contract with H&K stipulates that no one can perform any more run-to-failure tests proving that no one really needs a piston system.

“Rifle is fine.”

Via BRVTVS, this is an interesting video.

I have to say that I do have one problem with it.  Mr. Johann Boden speaks as if the only important factor in the high velocity from rifle ammunition (and here he’s speaking of the 5.56mm AR, which is an important distinction in the conversation) is the hydrostatic shock from velocities greater than 2200 FPS.

That simply isn’t so.  We’ve learned over the years that the tendency to tumble and yaw (even in flight, but especially in tissue) and break apart into multiple pieces is one of the defining characteristics of the lethality of the ammunition, in no small part yielding its massive success on the battlefield.

As we’ve discussed before, see Small Caliber Lethality: 5.56 Performance in Close Quarters Battle.

So says the Greenville News.

The push for open carry gun laws in South Carolina has backfired after one of the bill’s supporters threatened a top state lawmaker.

In response, a state Senate subcommittee chairman postponed Tuesday’s hearing on the bill, effectively killing it for the year by ensuring it misses a Wednesday deadline to pass either the House or the Senate.

State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, tweeted Monday he was postponing the hearing “until further notice.”

“Even though I’m supportive of Open Carry ideals, I will not stand by and allow threats to my friends,” Goldfinch wrote in support of S.C. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter McCoy, the Charleston Republican who received the threat.

McCoy is being monitored by law enforcement after a gun rights activist took to social media to suggest shooting McCoy for allegedly holding up an open carry proposal.

The open carry bill would allow lawful gun owners to carry their firearms, concealed or not, without a permit in South Carolina.

We really need for some South Carolinian to weigh in on this, but my spidey sense tells me something else is going on here.

It could be someone who didn’t think that he’s being monitored 24/7, like we all are.  Or it just could be a mercenary for some some controller who knows how to bounce his IP address around to avoid detection, who wanted to send the hearings into a tail spin.  In other words, a false flag.  You know it happens, more often than you think.

After all, the controllers can’t afford to lose the remaining holdout by South Carolina throwing off the shackles of control by elitists.

Military Times:

President Donald Trump said that he is considering sending even more troops to the southern U.S. border to help with security missions there, calling the situation there increasingly dangerous.

“I’m going to have to call up more military,” he said Wednesday during a roundtable with supporters in Texas related to his plans for a southern border wall and tighter immigration laws for Central and South American migrants.

Ain’t that something?  They’ll send sons of America to fight all sorts of police actions and “authorizations to use force” around the globe, but the one thing they are tasked by the constitution for doing – preventing and responding to foreign invasions – the elitists in charge call illegal under Posse Comitatus.

There’s nothing wrong with Posse Comitatus.  What’s wrong is in Washington, D.C., and the demons, gargoyles and pit vipers who ensconce there.

This is an interesting commentary on whether to use JHP or FMJ for personal defense.  It’s situation-dependent, but this memorable quote sticks out.

With these factors in mind, hollow points, with their limited capacity for penetration and greater chance of performing in a way that will stop the attacker with fewer shots, start to sound attractive. When one remembers “there’s a lawyer attached to every round you fire,” and the greater possibility of FMJ rounds traveling through the target and beyond, HP sounds like the more responsible choice.

He also mentions the Lucky Gunner gel testing, which I think is still the go-to spot for data.  Then there is this article from Shooting Illustrated.

I call those who live in this world “Jell-O junkies.” They’re folks who believe that ordnance gelatin holds all the answers. Hell, the FBI has all but said so. At one time I was a card-carrying member of this fraternity, and I, like many who still are, was of the opinion that reliable predictions about incapacitation could be made by looking through those urine-colored blocks of squishiness.

[ … ]

Gelatin testing and the results from it are only tools to be used. If you consider either anything more than an indication of terminal performance or lethality potential, you might be a Jell-O junkie—Don’t be a Jell-O junkie.

Whatever.  Thanks for an uninteresting waste of my time.  I learned nothing from your article except that you want to be smarter than everyone else.  The most informative data comes from one of the comments.

Cartridge; Percentage of stops; Ratio of stops
.32 ACP—65%—–11 out of 17
.380 ACP—–70%—–83 out of 119
9mm—–83%—–224 out of 271
9mm +P—–88%—–170 out of 193
.357 SIG —–94%—–45 out of 48
.40 S&W—–94%—–292 out of 311
.45 ACP—–96%—–142 out of 148
10mm—–too new to include but said to approach 100%

HANDGUN AMMUNITION STOPPING POWER UPDATE
By Evan Marshall

I haven’t read it and cannot vouch for the information.  I do know this.  I carried FMJ when I was in bear country, and I usually carry JHP when I’m around the threats of the two-legged kind.  If I don’t happen to have .45 JHP in my guns at the time and have FMJ (let’s say I’ve been to the range recently), I don’t sweat it.

John Basilone said it was okay.  I trust him more than I do Shooting Illustrated.

News from New Zealand.

Stripping farmers of their semi-automatic weapons and forcing them to use contractors for pest control is “completely illogical”, Federated Farmers says.

However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says proposed legislation has tried to anticipate the “legitimate needs” of farmers.

On Monday, the Finance and Expenditure Committee released its report on a new law to ban semi-automatic and military-style weapons.

It recommended the bill be passed but suggested several changes, including allowing semi-automatic firearms to be used for pest control on farms.

Farmers would not be allowed to do the work themselves and would have to use specialised businesses approved by police.

“We consider that there would be some narrow circumstances where use of a prohibited firearm was absolutely necessary to carry out pest control on private land or non-conservation Crown land for conservation, environmental, or economic reasons,” the report said.

“Our recommendation would allow a private landowner to engage a wild-animal or animal-pest control business to use such firearms while still removing most semi-automatic firearms from circulation.”

Federated Farmers rural security spokesman Miles Anderson said the Government had failed to deliver on its commitment to landowners that they would continue to have access to the weapons required for effective pest control.

“There are five million hectares of privately owned high and hill country in New Zealand. What these landowners have been left with is the equivalent of painting the Auckland Harbour Bridge with a toothbrush.”

He said Federated Farmers had backed the Government on the issue of gun law reform from day one, based on the need to both protect public safety and ensure continuing access to the appropriate firearms for those with a genuine need.

“The whole select committee has shown both a lack of trust and a complete lack of understanding of the needs of the rural sector on this issue,” he said.

“Labour has the opportunity to fix the bill over the next few days, otherwise Federated Farmers will feel duped by this process.”

However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said all elements of the gun debate had been considered and she hoped it had created an outcome there would be support for.

The proposed changes were in stark contrast to the Australian legislation and tried to anticipate the legitimate needs that existed within the farming community, she said.

When asked if the requirement for farmers to employ contractors for pest control sent a signal she did not trust them, Ardern replied,  “Absolutely not.”

“We created carve outs, particularly around the use of 10-round .22s five round shotguns but beyond that have put in place measures, where there is large scale pest eradication, for framers (sic) to be able to access those who can legitimately use those weapons, too.”

But Anderson said requiring farmers to use contractors for pest control was ineffective and inefficient and rural landowners with a genuine need to use the weapons should be eligible to apply for an exemption.

“For generations farmers have been doing that job and now they’re going to have some of the tools that allow them to do it effectively taken away.

“We’re not talking about AK-47s and we’re talking about hundreds of farmers, not thousands,” he said.

“There are farmers who are dealing with rabbits and they shoot tens of thousands every year. In those situations, a 50-round magazine wouldn’t be excessive.

“If you’ve got a mob of 30 goats, a 50-round magazine is probably the right tool for the job.”

You see, in a land where peaceable men give up their guns, the government gets to decide what is and isn’t allowed, and when “special people” get to do things that others do not.

And the government gets to decide “carveouts,” where they throw a bone to the slighted, call it even, and tell you there’s no room for debate.

And here’s a news flash for Mr. Anderson.  Naïve gun owners, who think they can just appeal to the sensible side of government for “special needs,” as long as it is someone else who gets the shaft, are always, always duped by the process.

I’ve told the Fudds among us before, and you’d better listen to me again.  “When you let the government go after other people because you aren’t affected, not only is that selfish and cowardly, it’s bad strategy.”

When you use bad strategy, you will always lose.  So your precious break-action or pump shotguns for fowl hunting, and your bolt action guns with a detachable magazine for deer hunting, yea those.  The FedGov will want those too.  They want all of the guns.  All of them.  No exceptions.

This picture of New Zealand – the American gun controllers and the FedGov is watching closely.  It’s a trial run, boys.

Glomming off of Wirecutter’s hard work (WiscoDave sent this our way), here is a very good video of 300 BO Q&A by someone who sounds like an experienced practitioner.  I don’t shoot 300 BO, but if I wanted to start, I’d begin with his video.

That’s my title because that’s the title of the video.  Forget for a moment where this is occurring, or that it’s a little dated (2016).  I found this profoundly interesting, and if you watch it with an open mind I think you’ll find all sorts of lessons and tactical applications.  I’ll let you fill in the details in the comments section.  And I think you’ll be surprised at some of what happens in the video.  I’m posting it for educational purposes only, of course.