Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

In no certain order, these discussion crossed my path this week.

American Hunter:

There are other benefits to the .224 Valkyrie aside from the availability and component standpoints. The cartridge feeds from a 6.8 SPC magazine and requires a 6.8 SPC bolt—parts that are common and easy to place in an AR-15. Other aspects of the case design make the round desirable, too. Measuring 1.6 inches long, the .224 Valkyrie case is .16 inch shorter than both the .223 Rem. and the .22 Nosler. Yet, the .224 Valkyrie case’s extra neck length of .025 inch allows for more flexibility in bullet lengths and changes in seating depth. This aids in fine-tuning loads and allows for more bullet weight options while keeping the jump to the lands minimal. The .224 Valkyrie willingly accepts long, heavy bullets with high ballistic coefficients, while keeping overall cartridge length within the dimensional limitations imposed by the AR-15 magazine. Most case dimensions are very similar to the 6.8 SPC, including body taper, so magazine capacity is not inhibited in any way. Federal recommends a 1:7-inch twist rate to stabilize the 60- to 90-grain bullets typically loaded in the cartridge.

We had discussed the .224 Valkyrie earlier.  From an article earlier in the year, Andrew Tuohy writing for Omaha Outdoors (in a very long discussion) loves the Valkyrie round.  As we speak, it looks like Savage and CMMG jumped quickly and are offering the best Valkyrie guns, both manufacturers at a reasonable price.

American Hunter on how to build the perfect Western big game hunting rifle.

• 6.5 Creedmoor: Great for youth and recoil-sensitive hunters. Fantastic for Coues deer and pronghorn. Somewhat light, but with careful bullet selection and shot placement, adequate for elk. A bit anemic compared to other cartridges on this list.
• 6.5 PRC: Hot new round that is superb on lighter game and adequate for elk. Fast and flat, and comfortable to shoot. Be sure to choose a tough projectile when hunting bigger game like elk.
• .280 Ackley Improved: Very good round that is perfectly adequate for anything from Coues deer to elk and moose. Boasts almost the same performance as the 7mm mag. but with greater efficiency and slightly less recoil.
• .28 Nosler: Fast, flat and very hard-hitting, the .28 Nosler is one of today’s finest. It’s hot, though, so not ideal for recoil-sensitive shooters.
• .300 Win. Mag.: Less ideal for the small species like Coues deer but great for the big stuff, this cartridge is a thumper—on both ends. Tons of projectile and load options available almost anywhere in the world.

This is a rather odd article to me.  There is little discussion of the traditional big game hunting rounds like .30-06, 7mm Magnum or .270 Win, all of which are more powerful than any of the above except for the .300 Win Mag.

But you be the judge.

Tim does a nice job figuring out what’s happening and troubleshooting a solution.  I confess I didn’t know that striker drag for smallish sub-compact 9mm pistols is a thing.  Then again, I don’t shoot striker fired guns, and I don’t shoot 9mm guns.

TFB:

What a difference a year makes. Last June we announced that Gemtech was breaking ground on a new world headquarters. Last night we learned that in six to nine months Gemtech will no longer exist in Idaho. At a company meeting yesterday, the remaining Gemtech employees were told that the facility would close and that all business would be moved to Smith & Wesson’s headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Some manufacturers are so tone deaf it amazes me they’re still in business.  S&W has been told time and again by me and literally everyone else that they need to move operations completely and with prejudice away from their current state and come South.  Or West.  Idaho would be fine, or somewhere in the Northwest redoubt, or South would be better.

Leaving the liberal politics behind would be a requirement, of course, but instead of doing this, S&W is buying smaller companies and moving them to Massachusetts.

Procedure: [1] Find the worst possible thing you could do to alienate your customer base, and [b] do it.  If you’re dumb.

Following up this post, this video documents the legal response to the Miami Beach Police Department thus far.  The LEO point that they are allowed to point weapons at armed men even if armed legally (for the purpose of officer safety) is idiotic beyond belief.

If that’s true, they should go around pointing weapons at everyone since anyone could be concealing a firearm.  At any rate, this point of logic will be lost on LEOs since .. well, just because.

Via reader JoeFour, this link is an veritable encyclopedia of knowledge of the 1911.  I intend to print it out, read it, and keep it handy.  In the mean time, it would be nice if readers would peruse the contents and lift the important things out for us here, or merely the interesting things to you for commentary and discussion.

Shooting Sports USA has an interesting article on changing barrel lengths and the necessary adjustments to everything else.  I confess I had never thought of most of that.  There is this interesting deliverance of their testing.

Accuracy testing with a six-inch barrel resulted in an approximate 30 FPS drop in velocity when the same barrel was shortened to five inches. Surprising to some, accuracy actually improved by ⅜ inch (.375) with the shorter barrel. This was likely due to a balance of velocity and stabilization.

I’ve got a trip into the bush coming up soon and this is the rig I’m carrying.

I like the 5″ barrel and the weight added by the tactical light and the Wilson Combat magazine.  To me it assists in stabilization versus shooting .45 ACP from a 4.25″ barrel (which takes me a little longer to recover sight picture due to muzzle rise).

American Rifleman:

The review was positive all around, just like mine of the CMMG PSB .45 ACP.

What I find particularly interesting is that they found that the 16″ barrel supplied a non-trivial additional muzzle velocity compared to pistols.

What I would like to do is get a chronograph and meter velocity with the full length carbine barrel, my CMMG PSB and my 1911s, with standard ball ammunition, PD ammunition, and the faster .450 SMC round.

Alas, that all takes money.

Ammoland:

The Valkyrie takes standard .224-inch diameter bullets just like the .223 Remington but handles higher weights. Common loads among those released so far range between 60 and 90-grains, and 90 is the most common so far. Like the 6.5m Creedmoor, the bullets are by definition long for their weight, so the .224 Valkyrie also carries velocity downrange much more efficiently than .223 Remington alternatives. Let’s consider some examples.

[ … ]

A similar phenomenon happens with the .224 Valkyrie. When comparing to the common “long range” version of a .223 Remington cartridge, the 77-grain bullets, it carries velocity down range more efficiently. A Federal Premium .223 Remington loaded with a 77-grain Sierra MatchKing leaves the muzzle at 2,720 feet per second. At 500 yards, it’s still zipping along at 1,674 feet per second. At 1,000 yards, it’s gone subsonic to 1,056 feet per second. The Federal Premium 90-grain .224 Valkyrie has a muzzle velocity of 2,700 fps. At 500 yards, it’s still cooking at 1,994 fps and carries 1,422 fps at 1,000 yards. Depending on your altitude and other conditions, it can remain supersonic past 1,300 yards.

The ability to “lose less speed over distance” is what makes the 6.5mm Creedmoor and .224 Valkyrie perform well at long range.

Tom McHale likes both the 6.5 Creedmoor and the .224 Valkyrie.

I’ll also comment that after making some rather cryptic remarks about the 6.5 Grendel several weeks ago, I’ve both looked out for good, well-reviewed 6.5 Grendel guns, as well as the availability of 6.5 Grendel ammunition.

There aren’t a lot of guns out there, and the ones that manufacturers do make are quite pricey if the barrel is any good.  There are .224 Valkyrie guns everywhere, some for quite good prices.  I’ve also see a fairly good bit of .224 Valkyrie ammunition in stores and online, but absolutely no 6.5 Grendel in local stores.  Not a single box in any gun store, Cabela’s, or anywhere else.

The .224 Valkyrie sends a 90-gr bullet down range as fast as the 6.5 Grendel 90-gr round, and it seems to hold its velocity better at distance.  If so, then the 6.5 Grendel probably won’t ever be anything more than a “wildcat” round and the Valkyrie will become more popular.

TCJ reporter Fred Tippens has quit his union and I’m paying him the same thing I was before.  He sends this.

A Georgia grandmother won a life and death battle against a rabid bobcat earlier this month by killing the animal with her bare hands after it attacked her in the backyard of her home.

Hart Country resident DeDe Phillips told the Anthens Banner-Herald on Thursday that the will to survive helped her overcome the ferocious predator threatening her life.

‘I thought, “Not today.” There was no way I was going to die,’ Phillips recalled while detailing the June 7 attack.

‘I’m very lucky,’ the 46-year-old added.

The incident occurred around 6pm after Phillips spent most of the day working on her truck.

After finishing up, Phillips said she wanted to send a photograph to her husband of a bumper sticker she placed on the vehicle that read: ‘Women who behave rarely make history.’

Cellphone in hand, she walked out of the house and into the backyard.

‘My neighbor’s dog was barking and it drew my attention,’ she said.  ‘I saw the cat and I took a picture. The cat took two steps and was on top of me. … It came for my face.’

Fortunately for Phillips, she was familiar with the animal’s behavior after spending a lifetime out in the country, where her father-in-law was once a bobcat trapper.

‘They go for your jugular … because when they can get the vein you’re dead in a couple of minutes,’ she said.

‘It caught me slightly on my face, but I got him before he could do much damage there. I took it straight to the ground and started inching my hands up to its throat. I knew that was the only way I was getting out of this,’ she added.

Phillips said she refrained from screaming for help during the struggle, aware that her five-year-old granddaughter was in the house.

‘I was scared if I screamed for help that my granddaughter would come out and I didn’t want that to happen,’ she said.

‘Once I got him where he wasn’t moving I started screaming for my daughter-in-law to call 911,’ she said. Phillips’ son was also called and arrived with a gun and knife to help finish off the animal.

Good Lord!  This woman must be a bad-ass.  I’d hate to tangle with her.

I’m guessing that the cat attacked so quickly that having a gun wouldn’t have been of any use early on in the fight.  At least he didn’t show up to hear “Just shoot up here amongst us – one of has got to have some relief!“

News from Tulsa:

In less than 24 hours, police made their first arrest in a rolling gun battle that played out on a busy Tulsa street.

Police booked Aundre Rogers into jail Tuesday.

Leaving his first interview with detectives, Aundre Rogers said he is innocent.

Sawyer: “Have you thought about what would happen if somebody had gotten hurt?”
Rogers: “I did get hurt. I’m the victim.”

But police aren’t so sure.

Officers arrested Rogers as he left the hospital Tuesday morning – his arm in a cast after being shot during a rolling gun battle near Jasper and MLK Tuesday afternoon.

“How our person in the hospital ended up getting shot in the arm…What we think is he is hanging out the window shooting at the car behind him,” Sergeant Dave Walker said. “It’s a shame he got a booboo on his arm, but he shouldn’t be hanging out the window shooting at people.”

The incident happened in the middle of a busy intersection Monday.

Police said a stray bullet hit the car of an innocent woman as she was driving home from work.

Officers collected more than a dozen shell casings scattered a half mile down the street.

“These bullets go somewhere, and they are not the best shot and they don’t practice, and so the chances of somebody else getting hit that is innocent is great,” Walker said.

“They aren’t the best shot and they don’t practice.”  For some reason this rolling gun battle comes to mind.

The more than 600 rounds that Stockton police fired during a rolling gun battle with bank robbers last year that left a hostage dead by officers’ bullets was “excessive” and “unnecessary,” an independent review found.

The Police Foundation, a research group based in Washington, D.C., released a detailed report Monday on how Stockton police responded to the July 16, 2014, armed robbery of a Bank of the West branch, where three gunmen took three women hostage and fired at officers from a speeding SUV.

The group found that 32 officers unloaded more than 600 rounds during the hour-long rolling gun battle, which spanned three counties, 63 miles of highway and reached speeds of 120 mph. One of the hostages, Misty Holt-Singh, was killed when she was struck by 10 police bullets, authorities said. The two other hostages jumped or were thrown from the vehicle during the chase and survived.

Police officials said they fired on the vehicle to potentially save lives because the men in the car were shooting indiscriminately. The gunmen disabled 14 police cars with gunshots, the report stated.

[ … ]

The report said that a few officers engaged in “sympathetic fire,” in which officers fired their weapons because others were shooting.

In some cases, officers opened fire while colleagues were in front of them. The report highlighted an example during the final standoff, in which one officer lay prone on the ground and did not shoot while an officer next to him, standing, fired “round after round.”

“‘What’s your target?’ the prone officer yelled, thinking he was missing something,” the report stated.

“‘The car!’ responded the officer,” according to the report.

Or if you wish, you could consider a much less dynamic situation.  Either way, insulting a thug’s ability with weapons isn’t really the best strategy at this point, sir.