Articles by Herschel Smith

Source.

Firearms manufacturer Kalashnikov has unveiled an upgraded AK-12 assault rifle, with modifications based on the weapon’s use in the war on Ukraine.

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As part of the upgrade, the rifle’s two-round burst mode was excluded from the latest design, because it didn’t increase the weapon’s efficiency significantly and complicated its layout, according to TASS.

The other changes were aimed at making the rifle easier to operate.

The AK-12 has several mounting platforms that allow the installation of additional gear, such as sights, a front handle, a flashlight, a laser designator, as well as devices for noiseless and flameless fire, according to TASS.

Interesting.  They’ve added (I assume) a better flash hider, and made the rifles suppressor-capable.  They appear to have added capability for modularization with points of connection for illumination, lasers, etc., perhaps also better capability for optics mounting (although no picture is provided so I can’t be sure).

They’ve also removed the capability for two-round burst.  This isn’t surprising.  My son never used the 3-round burst capability of the M4 in Iraq.  The only time he used full auto capability was with the SAW.  Lightweight rifles with full auto capability interfere with the main function of the semi-automatic rifle, i.e., being a battle rifle.

Full auto guns are area suppression weapon systems, and need the heavier barrel to keep from melting, the open-bolt system for cooling, etc.  That runs contrary to the concept of the battle rifle and the appurtenant doctrine.

Source.

The FBI is investigating the death of a tribal member in Arizona after U.S. Border Patrol agents shot him Thursday, authorities said.

Customs and Border Protection officials said agents from the Ajo Border Patrol Station shot the man around 10 p.m. local time on the Tohono O’odham reservation near Ajo, Arizona.

The shooting is under review by Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility, officials said. The Tohono O’odham Nation police also are investigating.

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According to Mattia’s family, Mattia called Border Patrol because there were “multiple illegal immigrants who had trespassed into his yard and he wanted assistance getting them out of his property,” they told Tucson TV station KVOA.

When the agents arrived, the family said, Mattia went outside and was shot, KVOA reported.

Apparently, the Border Patrol is not immune from the same stupidity that seems to affect most law enforcement.  Make a call, LEOs show up and shoot the innocent caller.

Move on.  Nothing to see here.

“You’re never in more danger than when the police are around” … except maybe when illegals are around.

There’s lots of danger out there.

When my children were young, I told them obedience was doing the right thing at the right time with the right attitude.

This cop is a mommy.  She wants the right attitude, whether she was right or not.  It was really a ‘he’ but he acts like a she so I called him she. [S]he wants to be mommy and sees everyone as her child who needs to be corrected.

Worst of all, she is perpetuating the mommy department of pre-crime, arresting men over what she thinks they might do in the future.

Honestly, where do they get these people?  How come law enforcement attracts awful people like this?

Gun Dog.

The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland said it best: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” How do you navigate the millions of acres of public land and walk-in ground just waiting for you to drop the tailgate and unclip your dog’s leash? Rather than wandering, perplexed as a hunter on Rodeo Drive, here’s how to map out your pheasant quest.

It starts with a destination, dictated in large part by how far you’re willing to travel. If you know how to read, you’ve already got an idea of where you want to go. Each region has sweet spots handed down from father to son, shared by multi-generational groups and “discovered” by newbies dazzled by clouds of birds darkening the sky at the end of a cut-cornfield drive. My revelation came at the nub of an ancient shelterbelt in South Dakota. It was being pushed by two friends while I shivered, hopes high and temperature low. Out of the mist rose a mob of what I thought were blackbirds they were so numerous, until a roar of wings and telltale cackles broke the still air.

I missed twice, shook my head, reloaded and dropped a late riser whose technicolor pelage vibrated against the pristine snow even when stilled by my shot. That was a good year, but even a bad year in South Dakota is better than most other places combined.

Other states have their proponents and having explored them all after three decades roaming public land, I understand the allure of each. Northeast Montana, Iowa, Nebraska, and western Kansas are all strong contenders for the bronze and silver medals. Not coincidentally, most of those states have sophisticated public-access initiatives to help hunters chase ringnecks across vast prairies and through shin-tangling thickets. “Walk-in” programs are the golden key that unlocks the door; start your quest there, long before you fill the tank and crate the dog.

Dickinson and Mott, North Dakota are worth your attention. They’re lower-key, smaller towns with fewer amenities than most, but surrounded by public access. Williston’s oil boom has subsided and lodging options are myriad. The rolling hills beckon, if you don’t mind the mix of drilling and development alongside your new favorite cover. Plentywood and other small towns in northeast Montana along the “High Line” are also on my radar. Western Kansas towns including Norton, Goodland, Jetmore and Osborne are podium-contenders, offering a 365-day license bargain and warmer late season weather.

Like the Oscars, I’m saving the best for last, but the supporting cast of South Dakota towns east of the Missouri River offer plenty of opportunity. Watertown, Aberdeen, Brookings, and Redfield welcome hunters and have plenty of public access. South Dakota counties with the highest pheasant harvest numbers include Brown, Beadle, Brule, Lyman, and Spink.

For those of us who don’t have trained bird dogs, we’re left at the mercy of outfitters and their dogs for guided hunts.  That can get expensive.

I’ve got the quail hunting covered.  If any of you have suggestions for Grouse and Pheasant, drop me a line in the comments.

Fearless.  Thick skin.  Mobile anatomy.  Without mercy.  And always goes for the balls of any opponent.

And at the end of it, he struts off like a dude.

Outdoor Life.

America’s hunters and wildlife managers are well into the feral hog war. More than 6 million wild pigs roam the country, gobbling down native flora and outcompeting native fauna. They’re also hell on agricultural crops. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hogs cause $1.5 billion of damage annually.

“Researchers think that number may be closer to $2.5 billion now, but more research needs to be done to determine an accurate figure,” says Ben Westfall, the National Deer Association’s conservation coordinator.

There are massive efforts by government agencies and private landowners to cull feral hogs and stop their spread. Whitetail deer managers are at the tip of the spear, because pigs can also have a negative impact on deer.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a lot of formal, university-led research on how pigs impact whitetails.

There doesn’t need to be university-led research.  Those are the same pointy head idiots who recommend against hunting to cull the hog population (but recommend government sponsored “sharp shooters”).

I can tell you what happens.  They compete for the same sorts of food and bedding areas.  If the feral hogs come in, the deer leave.  It’s that simple.  The deer won’t fight the hogs.  But I think the article does get to that.

When hogs first appear on the scene, whitetails tend to avoid them, meaning they settle for lower quality bedding areas and food sources. This is even truer for mature bucks, which seem to have less tolerance for hogs than younger bucks, does, and fawns do.

However, in areas where hogs have been present for years, deer seem to get used to them.

Well, that last part is only sort of true.  They are still displaced and still compete for the same food and bedding, they do learn to live in the same geographical area, but if you want to deer hunt in an area heavily populated by hogs, you’re best bet is to move on.

“Based on my observations, deer do adapt to hogs if they’ve been present a long time,” says, Dr. Grant Woods, a renowned deer biologist and founder of Growing Deer TV. “I see deer in South Florida ignoring hogs unless they get within 30 yards or so. I’m sure where hogs are new neighbors, deer give hogs more space. There’s certainly more food for deer if hogs are removed, and I suspect they’d be a bit calmer.”

Still, whitetails can be forced to move out of areas if hogs over-browse habitat and dominate resources. The higher the hog densities, the worse this problem gets.

That’s what I just said.

“It’s more about the food sources in the area,” he says. “If the hogs eat all the food, the deer will move to a new food source and return once the food source is available.”

The good news is that when hogs are removed (or severely culled) from the landscape, deer seem to bounce back. Anecdotes from the field are somewhat mixed but they are mostly promising. According to most deer managers I spoke with, whitetails generally return soon after hogs are removed. This can take longer in areas where the habitat is seriously degraded, but under average conditions, whitetails often return rather quickly. This is especially true in areas that offer adequate bedding areas, along with food, water, and security cover.

Once feral pigs become established, landowners can remove most of the hogs from their property. However, management is often very costly, and if neighboring landowners aren’t applying equal or greater management efforts, hog populations will continue to grow.

That’s why feral hogs can’t be eradicated.  Culling the population on a 100 acre plot of land (whether by hunting or trapping, or both) does no good if the neighboring farms don’t do exactly the same thing, and as I’ve pointed out before, that’s very, very, very expensive.

Feral pig managers have a mighty steep hill to climb. Typical hunting tactics have proven to be mostly useless as management tools. Sure, hog hunting is fun. And it might remove a porker or two from the property. But on a landscape population level, it doesn’t accomplish much, and it can make pigs even warier. Even when running dogs, hunting doesn’t remove enough hogs to decrease overall population densities.

Furthermore, fertility control isn’t in heavy use yet. The heavily debated toxicant called Warfarin isn’t permitted in any state, and there’s a chance it won’t ever be.

Good Lord.  There’s that awful, horrible idea floated again of putting a toxicant into the environment.  For heaven’s sake, don’t do that.  We have enough toxicants in the environment already.  Besides, the unintended consequences of such a introduction could be terrible.

Generally speaking, it’s easier to trap pigs when food is scarce in the winter and early spring. This is when bait is most effective. It’s also best to trap when the most sows are pregnant. (This is easier than trying to trap sows and their piglets together.) Capturing the entire sounder is the goal—from the biggest sows down to the smallest members of the group. Of course, hogs like to stay closer to water, so bottomlands, marshes, swamps, and other lowland areas are all good locations to try.

As I’ve said, sounders don’t stick together in proximity the way this tactic makes is seem.

“The best thing the average land manager can do is cooperate with their state wildlife agency and familiarize themselves with the management efforts taking place as well as various programs that may be available to them,” Westfall said. “Many states have hog specific or cost-share programs in which they will work with landowners to help control the problem. It is our responsibility as landowners, managers, and hunters to know what our state wildlife agency is doing, understand that their efforts and methods are based on scientific research, and do our best to assist with their efforts in any way that we can.”

The best thing land managers can do is kill as many hogs as possible as quickly as possible, whenever and wherever they can.  This means trapping, hunting, night vision, game cameras, research, communication, and all the things they already know about.  I would find it hard to believe that land managers in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and other states, don’t already know all about the problems.  I’m sure they’ve been engaged in this war for years now.  If they haven’t, they need other land managers.

Why is he doing this?  I cannot fathom a good reason.

I don’t do personalities.  I don’t follow “people,” I don’t engage in loyalty to “persons,” I don’t hero worship, and as for the previous disagreements between Dakota Meyer and Garand Thumb, I don’t have a dog in that fight.  Each can take care of himself, although I saw no reason for Meyer to have ever said anything to begin with.

As for this most recent kerfuffle, as I said, it makes no sense to me.  The most disturbing thing is how Dakota sees law enforcement.  Quite literally, he is berating men who have no spent time in the U.S. military, and equating law enforcement with the U.S. military.

Perhaps this is just about ensuring he makes his own people happy with him.  Perhaps he knows how his bread gets buttered and is helping the process along.

But let me make it clear to Dakota if he happens to be reading this.  I couldn’t care less about the dollars he gets from training LEOs, or the company he keeps.  A cop is not a warrior.  My son spent time on the streets of Fallujah – street cops in America have not.  Nor should they.  Nor do they have to in order to function in their jobs.

America needs peace officers, not street warriors, and no SWAT teams.  I couldn’t care less about the war on poverty, war on drugs, or war on crime.  These are not my wars.  SWAT teams shouldn’t exist, and a home break-in executed by cops is no different to me than a home invasion perpetrated by criminals.

I hate it when people equate cops with the military, and I especially hate it when military folks do this.  It does nothing but add to the problem of a military policing culture in America.

Reddit/Firearms has a post on someone who’s having issues with their new Benelli M4 jamming after addition of the mag extension tube on the gun.  Who knows – perhaps this is a gun problem, perhaps a modification problems, perhaps a gunsmithing problem.

James at TFBTV recently uploaded a 500 round test of his Benelli M4.  It seemed to work fine except for bird shot loads.  Back to the reddit post, the comments point to a need to “break in” the shotgun.  James points to a need not to run cheap ammo in the gun.

Remove cheap ammo from your own equation with firearms.  I never run cheap ammo.  All I can tell you is that the Beretta 1301, modified by Langdon Tactical, (a) runs everything, from bird shot to buck shot to slugs, (b) and needs no “break in” procedure.

Like everything else, you make up your own mind.

James is headed to Ernest Langdon to discuss the Beretta 1301 next.  I await this video – it’ll likely be good and I have a lot of respect for Ernest.

What’s the deal with Smith & Wesson?  I would have expected more devotion to a job well done and proper QC, especially in the Performance Center.  And I also wonder if the agreement they made with Hillary on the lock for wheel guns runs to perpetuity?  Why else would they still be putting that crap in guns?

This one is full lug, so I’m not sure which exact model this is – the Model 19 on their web site is not.