Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

I’m not certain that every shotgun needs to be patterned.  If you purchase a shotgun of the same make and model, using the same choke, it’s likely that your pattern will be the same.

However, it’s enough fun to shoot shotguns that why not?  It’s an excuse for another trip to the range.

Shooting Illustrated.

Dry firing is one of those controversial subjects upon which everyone seems to have an opinion. I am a big proponent of dry firing handguns and rifles, particularly when using my Wall Drill to improve. It also helps sustain trigger control and sight alignment as a collective rather than a separate effort. Dry firing against a wall keeps the eye on the front sight through the pull of the trigger, which maintains follow-through, allowing detection and correction of deficiencies in the foundational skills of shot delivery.

With the exception of rimfire revolvers and revolvers with the firing pin mounted on the hammer, I see no hard and fast reason that snap caps are needed to dry-fire your revolvers. That said, there is certainly nothing wrong with using them in either of your revolvers just to be on the safe side. If you want a second opinion, I recommend contacting the manufacturer of your firearms and see what it has to say. I suspect the manufacturer will agree with my suggestion, but there is always the chance it will have a different perspective. I would support the manufacturer’s opinion in that manufacturers usually know more about their products than individuals not in their employ.

Although snap caps and dummy rounds are often lumped into the same category, they are slightly different in nature.

Dummy rounds are available in different colors and can be made of metal or plastic in the external dimensions of a specific cartridge. Typically, they have a solid base or occasionally a hollow opening where the primer pocket would be located.

A subset of a dummy round is the action-proving cartridge, which is loaded to the external dimensions and weight of live ammunition, but is without propellant and is visually identifiable from live ammunition. Its purpose is to validate proper feeding, chambering, extracting and ejecting of ammunition through a semi-automatic firearm.

Dummy rounds are also used as a diagnostic tool when interspersed with live ammo in a shooter’s magazine to detect deficiencies in shot release. When the shooter pulls the trigger on a dummy round, the gun should not move any more than it did prior to pulling the trigger. If additional movement of the gun is experienced, there is work to be done to improve shooting performance.

Snap caps differ from dummy rounds in that they have a rubber or spring-loaded mechanism located in the base of the cartridge to cushion the impact of the
firing pin when the trigger is pulled.

A snap cap provides something for the firing pin to contact, like the primer in a live cartridge. In fact, the snap cap is intended to replicate what the firing pin experiences when firing live ammunition.

This is important in older firearms, especially shotguns, because without something like a primer to impact when the trigger is pulled, something must absorb the energy generated by the released spring tension powering the firing pin. This could be internal metal parts or springs, all of which will fatigue over multiple impacts. This fatigue often leads to broken parts and failure of the gun to function properly.

Older firearms, especially shotguns, should be stored with snap caps in place, enabling the springs driving the firing pins to be relaxed by pulling the trigger(s) prior to being put away. Think of it in this manner: The firing pin is designed to impact a primer, which stops its forward movement when firing a gun. The snap cap provides the same feature in stopping the firing pin with the addition of a little “give,” similar to indenting a primer.

In addition, snap caps are generally brightly colored to distinguish them from live ammo, which helps to maintain the separation of live ammunition and the gun especially during storage and dry-fire exercises.

It is always good to have a few snap caps of the appropriate caliber or gauge in your range bag for dry-firing or storage purposes. Such a simple piece of gear can really help take your training to the next level.

I have to say, I won’t drop the hammer on a rimfire revolver or semi-auto handgun without ammunition being chambered.  But as long as the firing pin isn’t banging on anything, I have never worried about that with either a rifle or shotgun.

I also won’t drop the hammer on an AR-15 while the upper is off of the lower (for obvious reasons).  Grab it and gently let it fall.

Comments or observations?

This looks like fun.

Reddit/Firearms.

Here is an another video.

I see that some folks recommend the LM choke for quail.  I’ve used the IC choke with some success.  Any experience out there with choked for quail?

Eddie Hall had the world dead lift record when in 2016 he became the first man to lift more than 1100 pounds (1102 pounds).  He was bested in 2020 by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson who lifted 501 kg (1,104.5 lb). This is entertaining to watch.

You can make up your own mind on that.  Here is the scoop.

And here is a reddit/Firearms discussion thread.  For me it all boils down to this one thing.  Sure, the if the FedGov wants into your safe, it’s going to get into your safe.  They’ll turn it over and take a crowbar to it if they have to, or simply cut through the sides.  There is this interesting tidbit from the thread.

… as I did some research on this yesterday. SecuRam electronic locks have a recovery code. The default is “999999”. This doesn’t open the lock, but it gives you a random string to give to Liberty. They then use that to give you a recovery code that resets the safe code to the factory default.

Now, there are several important notes here:

1. The code from your safe is generated upon request and only valid for 20 minutes. So having it in a database somewhere isn’t realistically a threat.
2. You can change the recovery code. You have to go through a process that involves calling Liberty to do it, and they’ll try to talk you out of it, but you can change it.
3. When I called up they explained their security process to me: they’ll only give the recovery code to a Liberty-certified locksmith. Even you, the owner, have to have a locksmith that Liberty has certified present to do it.

But for gun safe companies, there shouldn’t be any back door code for entry into the safe, and that seems to me like a selling point for gun safes.  Something like this.  “We know that you are buying our safe to make it as difficult as possible for people to get into your safe and touch the possessions you value.  So we don’t provide a back door code for entry by anyone.  Thus, warrant or no warrant, we have nothing to say to law enforcement because that feature isn’t a part of our products.  Therefore, if you get locked out and forget your code, you should use the key we’ll send, or if you’ve lost that too, you may as well bring out the grinder or cutting torch, because we’re not getting into it for you.  We can’t.  If you’re considering out products, we know that’s what you want.”

I agree with the video from Backfire more than I do anything I’ve read or heard on this.

Lee Williams writing at Ammoland.

The story was written by one of the Trace’s senior fabulists, Jennifer Mascia, who is “currently the lead writer of the Ask The Trace series and tracks news developments on the gun beat.” Mascia has also led the Trace’s hilarious we’re journalists, not activists, propaganda campaign on social media.

Mascia claims her story was a response to a reader’s question: “Many gun owners claim to buy assault-style rifles for defense. So how many documented cases are out there where someone actually defended themselves with an assault-style rifle?”

You can read the rest at Ammoland.  Jennifer is trying to assist the controllers in changing the subject from “in common use for legal purposes” to actually having used a weapon for self defense.  First of all, she doesn’t know anything about that regardless of what she claims.  No one can go to news reports and find every instance they need for a comprehensive study.  For example, use of the weapon might have been to flash the rifle muzzle at home invaders only for the invaders to run.  With that said, I think I could come up with quite a few instances myself, but that’s not really the point of this, and we’ll get to more later on this subject when you listen to Professor Mark Smith below.

Let’s turn our attention to Jennifer for a moment.  I’ve had an exchange with Jennifer before.  Let’s review, shall we?

I had a rather protracted conversation with someone who writes under the nom de guerre Tommy Gnosis.  Not that I care that deeply, but something sounded strange about the comments, like they had no particular bearing, were inconsistent, or feinted support for individual rights but didn’t do a good job of hiding the fact that it was all just a distraction.

So I did a little bit of research.  Tommy Gnosis is someone named Jennifer Mascia, who has her own web site.  In fact, she was one of the authors of the now defunct “The Gun Report” for the New York Times.  Recall that report?  That awful, hideous, dreary rundown of shootings every day?  As if all we have to do is remove those awful guns from society and sin goes away because evil is located in things rather than the heart of man (a noted neo-Platonic and stoic view).

Anyway, I did an IP trace and found that the address was owned by Bloomberg.  It makes sense, since I also found out that she works for Bloomberg via Everytown For Gun Safety.  Her Disqus account is active, and features snark, misdirects, sarcasm, insults, and most of all, prose designed to demoralize and demonstrate the complete impotence of whatever group she is berating at the moment.  The prose is designed to cause depression and dejection.

Here is the lesson.  Bloomberg is paying her to visit web sites – particularly gun rights web sites – and spread discontent and dejection.

The exchange continues.

Hi Herschel,

I am not paid to comment here, or anywhere, nor have I ever been. There is no “tactic.” I have never worked for a political organization or a nonprofit, only media companies, and before that, restaurants. No one at Everytown knows I comment here. I actually don’t work with the advocacy arm of Everytown. The news site will be staffed with journalists, not lobbyists. We have zero to do with elections or phone banks. We won’t be working with Everytown staffers.

Her Disqus account was by “Tommy Gnosis.”  I outed her and she posted as “Guest.”  She responded that she isn’t paid to comment anywhere.  There is no “tactic.”  She claimed no relationship at all to Bloomberg.  Now we find out that her use of an IP address that pointed back to Bloomberg was no coincidence.  She is indeed trafficking in propaganda, and she is in the employ of Bloomberg.  Let’s continue with Codrea’s second article on Bloomberg’s next move.

“Tommy Gnosis is someone named Jennifer Mascia,” Herschel Smith at The Captain’s Journal posted in March. He was describing someone who, under cover of anonymity, “visits web sites — particularly gun rights web sites — and spreads discontent and dejection.”

That’s consistent with the “elaborate subterfuge” technique for “infiltrating and disrupting alternative media online” used by those with an agenda. Per Canadian research, such “Internet trolls aren’t just mean — they’re sadists and psychopaths.”

That would also seem consistent with the control-all megalomaniac who hired her, in a company-he-keeps kind of way. Mascia is one of two paid flacks “attached prominently to the Everytown news project,” an experiment in virtual Astroturf that billionaire Michael Bloomberg will be rolling out this summer.

David then goes on to explore her past as daughter of a mob hit man.

What drives Mascia is anybody’s guess, but chances are her father having been an underworld killer with multiple hits under his belt had an influence. That probably comes as a surprise to many gun rights advocates, unaware that Al Jazeera told its readers “America’s best hope for tracking gun deaths is a mob enforcer’s daughter,” and Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action gushed on social media that her story was “Amazing.”

[ … ]

As for pushing Jennifer around, I’ve made clear that if you want to come in this back yard and run with the big dogs, you’d better be prepared for some rough business.  And as for Jennifer herself, you weren’t entirely honest with us, were you?

David Codrea’s First Article

David Codrea’s Second Article

Well there you have it.  She’s bought and paid for by Michael Bloomberg.  She came in under a nom de guerre to spread hate and discontent.  I outed her.  Even then she denied it because she’s a liar.

So why is she trying to assist the controllers in this one specific issue?  Listen carefully to Mark Smith below.  They want the supreme court to change the test in Bruen and Heller from “in common use for lawful purposes” to something else, and they have chosen the Rahimi case for all of their hate towards gun owners.  They see this as their golden opportunity.

I’ve told you what I think.  I think the women on the court, including Barrett and Roberts, side with the controllers and end of changing the rules back to something the DOJ and ATF likes much better.  I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.  There was no particularly compelling reason for them to have taken this case to begin with.

One commenter to the video below remarks, “As I recall, when the DOJ bought AR-15s a few years back, the Request for Purchase form listed them as “personal defense weapons.” Can’t have it both ways.”  I’ll add to this.  If the AR-15 is so bad for use in defense situations, tell me why the U.S. government agencies have so many rifles – some noted as “assault rifles” – in their inventory as personal defense weapons?