Articles by Herschel Smith

At Shooting Times there is a good history of the 1911, including how the design transitioned into the double stack 2011.

Also of interest, there is a discussion of the Series 70 versus Series 80 modifications. Or, you could just purchase a Springfield Armory 1911 (Series 70) in which case they’ve handled the drop safe issue with a Titanium firing pin.

The Silver Eagle shooting range called the ATF on a man using an FRT resulting in his arrest with the ATF claiming it is a machine gun. They should be IMMEDIATELY boycotted and informed of the shooting communities displeasure. Contact info is below https://t.co/NrfPlx690A pic.twitter.com/bGYoWgEGo5

— Dr Death (@DrDeath1776) October 10, 2025

Here is their web site. If this is incorrect or didn’t happen, or if this is the wrong shooting range, the linked company can feel free to correct me in the comments.

So to begin with, the employees of the shooting range are apparently uneducated and untrained chimpanzees who can’t tell the difference. I would have asked to borrow the gun and found out within ten seconds what it was. Besides, they had no way of knowing whether the individual possessing the firearm had legal ownership of a machine gun or was an FFL SOT.

In response to this display of liberty, the untrained chimps called in other untrained chimps (the ATF) to make problems worse.

They should be ashamed. As for Silver Eagle Shooting Group, I hope your company sees an ignominious end and you go out of business.

Source.

Towards the end of September, comedian Bill Maher provoked social-media outrage by asking a simple question: why does the coverage of Gaza get so much mainstream-media attention when the persecution of Christians in Nigeria gets almost none?

‘They are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria’, he said on his talk show, Real Time:

‘They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches… These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country.’

You wouldn’t think of someone like Maher – a self-described ‘apatheist’ (‘I don’t know what happens when you die, and I don’t care’) – as suddenly becoming the most prominent voice on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. But he’s absolutely right. They are being slaughtered en masse.

I have several remarks.

First, the Nigerian Christians needs to find a way to obtain firearms and go on a holy war a crusade against Muslims. It could be that the Muslims have benefactors and thus can obtain those weapons easily. As for world wide Christians, we don’t disobey laws against trafficking arms, do we? American Christians think Jesus was a Bohemian, peacenik, flower child pacifist. But either way, with benefactors or not, the Christians needs to stand up an well armed army of men.

As to the question ‘why’, it’s a shame that the likes of Bill Maher would have to ask the question. As for America, the corrupt, heretical and unbiblical seed of dispensationalism is to blame. As for the rest of the world, I have one sentence that can answer that.

Follow the money.

Nathanael Greene proved a military genius, and the contributions of Dan Morgan cannot be overstated. He tactically lost most engagements in order to achieve strategic victory.

And never forget that during the battle of Kings Mountain, only one British fought that day. The families of the south bore a heavy burden for liberty.

Francis Marion. Patriot and father of Robin Sage.

Land from down under.

The bodies of two women were discovered in an isolated region of the Australian wilderness.

Emergency services were called to Lendenfeld Point, an area of Victoria’s alpine region, on Friday, Oct. 3, at about 12:50 p.m. local time after two hikers came upon the bodies, according to a media release shared by Victoria Police.

While the identities of the women are not yet known, police believe they were in their “20s or 30s.” Authorities also believe the women “may have been in the area to hike and camp,” and they said no foul play is suspected at this time, per the release.

In a statement to the media, Inspector Paul Hargreaves said the extreme weather conditions in the region likely played a role in the tragedy.

“The weather in the last two to three days has been down as low as minus [27 degrees], winds were up around [52 miles per hour], and there has been snow falling,” he said, per ABC.

He added, “They are exceptionally hard conditions, blizzard conditions, and it’s likely that the two people have succumbed to the weather conditions, causing severe hypothermia leading to their death.”

Likely in the so-called Australian Alps.

Closer to home.

A 21-year-old man was found dead in Great Smoky Mountains National Park after a multi-day search, according to the National Park Service.

Ryan Lake was last seen in Nashville on Thursday, with officials locating his vehicle on Saturday, the NPS said in a press release on Sunday.

On Monday, park officials said Lakes was found dead at approximately 2:45 p.m. on Sunday in the Big Creek area of the national park.

According to the NPS website, the Big Creek area is a “dense forest” and a “secluded area on the northeast edge of the park near the North Carolina-Tennessee border.”

The area is also known for “numerous streams and waterfalls,” according to the NPS website.

Strange things happen in the Smoky Mountains National Park anyway. Many people have been found dead there.

Florida Hunters Struck by Lightning.

Don’t ever leave your hiking / hunting party. Splitting up is almost always a bad idea.

This man took pictures of the bear that killed him. Dragged away, apparently. He was alone.

What Chuke carries with him on an Alaska hunt. It seems to me that shooting a .454 Casull with a handgun would be unpleasant.

Be careful in the bush. It’s dangerous out there.

Press release.

I'll take two, plus 5000 rounds of ammo. I'm entitled: Trench Coxe, "every other terrible implement of war" belongs to the citizen militia.

cc: @dcodrea @Stambo2A @WiscoDaveTRO

— CaptainsJournal (@BrutusMaximus50) October 1, 2025

Source.

A lost hunter survived two nights alone in a remote and snowy Colorado wilderness area, deputies said.

The man from Illinois texted his group he was lost at 3:21 p.m. Sept. 22 in the Rawah Wilderness area, near the Jack Dickens Trail, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

His hunting group contacted authorities after 6:30 p.m. to report the missing 57-year-old man, deputies said.

But rescuers couldn’t search for him that evening because of “deteriorating weather conditions and darkness approaching,” authorities said.

The hunter, who has military experience, was prepared with warm clothing, a sleeping bag and water, deputies said.

Search teams spread out to find him the morning of Sept. 23 amid “snowy, cold and windy conditions,” deputies said. They looked for 10 hours but couldn’t find him, describing the area as having difficult terrain.

More efforts continued Sept. 24, and included using search dogs and a helicopter to find him.

During the search efforts, the missing hunter called 911 several times, and he was found at about 1 p.m. Sept. 24, deputies said.

“He was found to be in good health and credited his survival to staying calm, starting a fire, and using his sleeping bag and clothing to stay warm,” deputies said.

This ended nicely, but it could have been far worse. Again, carrying essential survival gear is a must in the bush. Don’t go out without it. Fire starter, large bore firearm, tarp, parka, tactical light, knife, water, energy bars and cordage. He carried a sleeping bag, which was smart and probably didn’t weigh much if it was down-filled. Another good option is mylar survival blankets.

By the way, here’s a nice option for emergency fire starter (although I’ve never done it exactly like this before).

BLUF: 6.5 Creedmoor.

It’s nice to see the 7mm PRC up and coming, although my single complaint about this cartridge after having shot it is that you don’t have the ammunition selection – yet. Nosler, Hornady, and Federal make it.

There are a whole lot of unanswered questions. The reason for this is obvious: something foul is afoot. I don’t claim to know who took the shot, or from what angle, or with what caliber weapon, or for what reason.

But here are the things I know with an extremely high degree of certainty. Charlie Kirk was not shot with a 30-06 rifle. His head would have been decapitated from his body if he had been. If you follow my X account you would know I have said this from the beginning. My belief hasn’t changed. The deer you’re getting ready to shoot this fall wouldn’t survive your high powered rifle shots (30-06, 300 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag, 7mm PRC) if they were wearing AR500 armor plates.

Here is something else I know with a high degree of certainty. That kid whom they blamed didn’t take down a rifle, stow parts of it in a backpack (that by the way wouldn’t be able to fully enclose the parts anyway), reconfigure it on any building, change his clothes, take a shot, disassemble the rifle again and stow it in a backpack, and drop in anywhere.

Here is something I know with probable certainty (by that I mean more probable than not). That kid they’re blaming didn’t take the kill shot. He may have played a role in some part of the events of that day, up to and including being a scapegoat or patsy, but he didn’t kill Charlie Kirk. I also know with probably certainty that there is no medium in the body in the vicinity in which he was shot that would cause a deflection away from a close exit.

Someone else did. I have absolutely no confidence whatsoever that we will ever know the truth. But if I were on a jury, with the current narrative (the kid shot Charlie with a 30-06 round and the bullet didn’t leave the body, i.e., there was no exit wound, rather, the bullet stopped just under his skin), I would never convict him. It’s sinful to convict men of crimes because you don’t like them.