Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

There were too many useful reviews of gear and guns to make into individual posts, so they’re all dropped into this one.

Outdoor Life has a review entitled The Best Gun Belts of 2022.

All Outdoor has a review of the Mystery Ranch Three Day Assault Pack.  They like it, and so do I (from a distance).  I saw a SpecOps guy wearing it while taking my family biking in Virginia one time and stopped him and asked him about it.  He saw me eyeballing him and I didn’t even finish the question before he gave me an answer.  He especially liked the 3-Zip design that lets you get into the pack for needful items without emptying the pack.  But at $385 it’s a bit pricey for me.

Outdoor Life has an article on how quarter of a million dollar shotguns are made if you’re rich and that’s your thing.

This guy is yet another satisfied customer and user of the Beretta 1301 combat shotgun.

Shooting Illustrated has a review of the CZ 600 Alpha hunting rifle.  We’ve discussed this many times before.  The polymer furniture makes it capable of being in the rain or taking a bump or bruise without showing the damage, but the Walnut stocks are so pretty.

TFB: Don’t buy Turkish made shotguns.

SOFREP has a review of the Franchi Affinity 3 field shotgun.  Is it me or do shotgun manufacturers seem to be dovetailing into the same sort of external design as the Beretta A400, Benelli and Browning Maximus 2?  No, it’s not just me.  While some things will never change (Beretta is gas operated while Benelli is inertial), the external features are trending towards the same sort of smooth lines, large controls, large charging handle, Camo pattern wrap or Cerekote, etc.

Readers can add in the comments or discuss guns or gear you’d like to see discussed or reviewed.

Writer Nick Harvey (from Australia) addresses a question from a reader.

Q: For years Marlin promoted Micro-Groove rifling as enhancing the accuracy of their rifles. If this is true, why don’t they use it on their big-bore rifles in .444 and .45-70? This has got me wondering if Micro-Groove rifling isn’t just another sales gimmick.

– Dave Edwards

A: Over the years I’ve tested quite a few Marlin rifles which had Micro-Groove rifling and found them to be very accurate.

For a while it was used on big-bore rifles, but then a problem reared its ugly head: the fine rifling does not work well with lead bullets unless you are super careful when reloading with regard to the alloys and velocities you are using.

Many handloaders found that when using lead bullets, especially at higher velocities, Micro-Groove barrels leaded up badly.

Marlin got so many complaints about this that they went back to ‘regular’ rifling, which Marlin calls Ballard-type. I believe the .30-30 and .35 Remington still had Micro-Groove rifling, because these calibres are generally used with jacketed bullets.

Ruger has now begun limited production of Marlin lever-guns under its ownership, and so far only of the Model 1895 in .45-70 with standard six-groove barrels. It’s not yet clear whether they’ll use Micro-Groove rifling future production.

On the subject of accuracy: back in the 1960s Marlin claimed a Micro-Groove barrel was 25% more accurate one with than conventional rifling. True or false? Search me! I’ve never noticed any difference when shooting lever-guns with either type of rifling.

Great answer, and thanks for the perspective and information.  I didn’t know that.

I was talking to an FFL a few days ago about Marlin’s production line, and he said that word on the street is that the 30-30 won’t be the next rifle they produce.  I forgot which one he told me was next, but I hope it’s the .35 Remington.  I don’t think it was.  Of course, there are still Marlin 336s in .35 Remington to be had, but the ones in excellent condition are going for > $1500.

If any FFLs out there are reading and have access to more information on what Marlin (Ruger) is producing next in line, let us know in the comments.

I’d like to have one.  On a final note, I’ve never seen 30-30 ammunition that was unjacketed, so his answer makes good sense.

Source.

Four Walmart customers were injured on Sunday afternoon in a mishap involving the mishandling of a handgun.

The incident took place at a Walmart location in Lovejoy, Georgia, at around 12:20 p.m. According to Sergeant Akeem Turnbull with the Lovejoy Police Department, a patron at the store, 29-year-old Michael Walton, was carrying a handgun in an unsafe manner, causing it to slip and go off.

“The gun was in his waistband not holstered and loaded,” Turnbull explained to local news station WSB-TV. “The gun slipped down his leg, he attempted to grab it, and was somehow manipulating the weapon and discharged the firearm.”

Four at one time.  My goodness!

Don’t do that.  Bob Owens was quick to point out that if your gun drops, don’t try to catch it.

Unless of course you’re carrying a 1911 with a legitimate safety.

Firearm retention is more than just about making sure undesirables don’t snatch your weapon.  It’s also about making sure you don’t lose it yourself.

I think both bullets did their job very well.  I take it the Hornady round would be great for Eastern white tail, while the Buffalo Bore monolithic round would be great for defense against dangerous game.

Dean Weingarten has an exposé on the status of Young v. Hawaii.  I knew this and had read the reports, but the interesting thing about this is that in the comments section, Charles Nichols drops by the make an extended comment.

I suspect that the Young v. Hawaii en banc panel would like to issue an opinion that says states can ban Open Carry in favor of concealed carry. However, there are a couple of jurisdictional problems with the en banc panel doing that.

The first is the Young v. Hawaii three-judge panel was bound by the Peruta v. San Diego en banc panel opinion and held that there is only a right to Open Carry. Neither side fled an en banc petition challenging either that holding of the three-judge panel opinion or the Peruta v. San Diego en banc panel opinion.

The State of Hawaii did file an en banc petition limited to the Open Carry holding of the three-judge panel, which was granted.

During the en banc oral argument, Mr. Young’s attorney (Alan Beck) was asked point blank if he was challenging the Peruta v. San Diego en banc opinion which held that there is no right to concealed carry. He said that he was not challenging Peruta v. San Diego, en banc.

Putting all of that together, the en banc panel does not have the jurisdiction to decide anything other than whether or not the denial of Mr. Young’s permit to openly carry a handgun violated the Second Amendment. And the en banc panel might not even decide that question because there were a couple of reasons given by the en banc panel, that were independent of the Second Amendment, for upholding the decision of the district court.

My California Open Carry lawsuit, Charles Nichols v. Gavin Newsom et al, does not challenge the Peruta v. San Diego en banc panel opinion either. My lawsuit is not limited to handguns. I challenge California’s bans on openly carrying loaded and unloaded rifles, shotguns, and handguns. I also challenge the license requirement.

My three-judge panel asked for supplemental briefing. The Young v. Hawaii en banc panel has not. Supplemental briefing was completed in my appeal on August 8th.

So if I read this right, Young was about open carry alone.  Peruta was about concealed carry alone.  The Nichols case is about open carry alone, and in California, not Hawaii (although presumably deciding for Nichols in California would be favorable to Young and vice versa).

The trouble is that Bruen didn’t decide open carry, and thus we are left with patchwork rulings and patchwork laws in states.

I continue to maintain that gentlemen, good citizens and men of fine upbringing don’t mind openly carrying their weapons in public.  It is for the good and peace of the country.

It might be more accurate to do this while the rifle is in a vise.

This is an interesting project, and it goes to show that if you’re good with the mechanics, you can shoot any firearm well and accurately, even at distance.

I don’t believe there are many bolt action 45-70 firearms out there.  There are many lever actions, but the single shot tube loading rifles tend to go at auction for high prices.  The demand is so high that even the newer lever action rifles are sometimes sold at auction.

This is likely a one-of-a-kind build.

Source.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Some of the state’s religious leaders are going beyond church policy and asking for action on gun control from lawmakers.

This resolution from the state’s largest African American denomination may seem like it blurs lines of politics and religion, but Dr. CJ Rhodes explains it this way.

“One way you can look at it is this is an act of pastoral care. We shepherd people in our pews and our communities that are impacted by this, not just in terms of their physical well-being but mental, spiritual, [and] social well-being,” described Rhodes, Third Vice President of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi.

The General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi wants lawmakers to repeal the state’s open carry laws.

“There are a lot of sane gun owners out there,” said Rhodes. “And of course, living in, you know, Jackson, you know, you got to make sure you got something out you sometimes. But the fact of the matter is, so many of our people are being terrorized in our communities. We’ve got to do something about that as well. So, yes, I understand the Second Amendment. I understand, you know, bearing arms, but we also need to make sure that we can ensure that folks feel safe in their communities.”

Regarding the bit in italics, what?  What did he say?  Does he even know?

However, the Mississippi Justice Institute says that’s a complicated request.

“The first problem I see is that these advocates would have in trying to do this is that the Mississippi Constitution, in fact, protects the right to openly carry a firearm,” said MJI Director Aaron Rice.

And right now, there’s not a process for a constitutional amendment to be filed. MJI Director Aaron Rice says the resolution raises a similar concern for him as the Jackson mayor’s attempted order to ban open carry during the pandemic.

“Which is to point out that there’s high violent crime, and then to kind of make a boogeyman of open carry laws and making no attempt to actually link that high rate of violence to the open carry laws,” noted Rice.

They’re fake pastors.  They should be teaching theology to their congregants.  Instead, rather than connecting even a single crime to open carry, they’re out in public making things up, which of course is called lying in the Holy Writ.

Rice is right.  Open carry is protected by the Mississippi constitution according to OpenCarry.org.  Specifically, the constitution says as follows.

The right of every citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question, but the Legislature may regulate or forbid carrying concealed weapons.

Of course I don’t agree with regulating any carry at all, but if we’ve got to throw them a bone until passing constitutional carry, I’d actually prefer this scheme over regulating open carry.

As the saying goes, fine and well-ordered gentlemen openly display their weapons, while criminals hide them.

First, how not to do it.

FBI training ? pic.twitter.com/128RmDvBkA

— Víctor (@raqrockyjones) August 10, 2022

Now for how to do it the right way.

American Excellence pic.twitter.com/IdrH7qyc9j

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 7, 2022

I wish I was that good.