Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

AJC..com.

A teenager was hit by ricocheting shrapnel when a North Georgia sheriff’s gun discharged inside a Walmart.

Pickens County Sheriff Donnie Craig was wearing the gun in his waistband when it went off inside the Jasper store Tuesday night, according to the sheriff’s office. The round hit the floor.

Craig and several deputies were attending a “Shop with the Sheriff” holiday event and were standing near the front of the store during the “accidental discharge,” sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Kris Stancil told AJC.com. A 15-year-old boy in a nearby checkout line reported a minor injury, he said.

At the time, the teen told deputies he had not been hit and was OK. It wasn’t until later that he noticed a “small cut” that was barely recognizable as a wound from shrapnel, Stancil said.

The shrapnel that ricocheted was about the size of a pencil eraser, he said. The teen reported the injury to the sheriff’s office and went to a hospital for an X-ray.

“At the time of the discharge, the weapon was not being handled and the weapon was secured in the waistband,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “Sheriff Craig has stated how thankful he is that no one was seriously injured in the incident. All policy protocols will be followed during the investigation into the incident.”

The gun was a “backup weapon,” the agency said. It is not clear what caused the weapon to fire.

Sorry, but I don’t believe this.  I also don’t believe in gremlins, goblins (except in the halls of congress), the tooth fairy, or the Easter bunny.

Something mechanically interacted with the firearm to cause the discharge.

Rex reviews a few things, including a less expensive but decent rifle, and also the Black Nikon FX1000 6X24 scope.

I bought one of those and haven’t had a chance to shoot with it yet.  Gander was shutting down a local store because they want to try to compete with the camper / RV scene, and this store and parking lot didn’t have room for campers and RVs.

At any rate, guns and ammo was 20% off, and everything else in the store was 50% off.  I got the scope for half price.  I’m glad to see that Rex likes it.  Maybe it will be a good performer for me.

So before watching this I have to say a few things.

I don’t think the 9mm is a “wimpier” cartridge than the 10mm.  I think they serve different roles and functions, some of which overlap (think Venn diagram).  I could say that the 10mm is a wimp compared to my 450 SMC cartridges, and that would be technically correct since I can put 230 grains downrange as fast as a 10mm round, and I’ll take 230 gr. any day.

But that would be missing the point, just like those folks who criticize others for carrying a 9mm gun rather than the “mighty” 10mm gun.  I can shoot my 1911 with 450 SMC for a while, but my hand is going to take a pounding.  The 450 SMC isn’t for range shooting except for getting good enough with it to defend yourself in the bush from predators.  It’s not a good cartridge for anything else, and besides, it’s much more expensive to buy than standard .45 ACP.  He’s being cute, but he almost shoots his own argument.

As for the tools that can handle most everything (he’s exaggerating the case again here to make a point), the AR-15 and Glock is of course not the answer, since the 5.56mm/.223 round wouldn’t be the preferred round for deer or hog (or big game), and I don’t happen to like the 22° grip angle of the Glock, and much prefer the 11° for the 1911.  John Moses Browning understood ergonomics before anyone else did in the firearms world.

As for his reasons for liking lever action rifles, I agree with all of them.  Recall that we’ve had this discussion with Matt Bracken on having a rifle and revolver chambered in the same round.

I would prefer to wait until Henry Repeating Arms comes out with a side gate loader for .357 magnum.  I sent a note to Mr. Anthony Imperato and he responded to me that they have things in the works, but won’t announce until the firearms are on the shelves ready to ship.  Specifically, “We will expand the H024 Side Gate line, so stay tuned. We will keep you posted. We do not announce new calibers, models, variations etc until they are on the shelf ready to ship.”

I would like to think that rather than getting all twisted about this like some bloggers and gun writers do, i.e., “If you don’t like me and what I like and believe everything I believe you’re just an ignorant poser and have no right to an opinion,” we can be the rainbow coalition of shooters. Like what you like, do what you want to do, carry how you want to carry.

That’s the most libertarian-minded way to be, right?

Looks like they do.

I like the Langdon 1301 tactical shotgun, and had never seen one before.  Is this a competitor for the Benelli M4 and Mossberg 930?

When my former Marine was in the work-up towards his Iraq deployment, and even after that, he was shooting 1000 rounds a day for more than a year.  The author mentions 200-300 rounds per day.  I have neither the time nor money for that since I don’t make a penny off of this blog.  But if you’re able to put that many rounds down range, lead poisoning is a really big deal.

Shooting Illustrated.

Winchester began development of the 350 Legend in 2017. The primary motivation was the need for a straight-wall cartridge that would meet the legal requirements in several states previously only allowing shotguns and muzzleloaders for deer hunting. Though I would not call it a revolution, this straight-wall resurgence has increased the popularity of cartridges—like the .450 Bushmaster—that were waning in popularity. The 350 Legend fills this “specialized” need, but the question of whether it has any practical or tactical application beyond whacking deer somewhere in the Midwest remains.

[ … ]

… from inception, the 350 Legend was intended to work with the AR-15 platform. The 350 Legend case is only about a tenth of an inch longer than the .357 Maximum and just .12-inch longer than the .357 Mag. The real difference is the 350 Legend’s rimless design and operating pressure. The .357 Mag. is only loaded to 30,000 psi and the .357 Maximum to 40,000 psi. And, of course, neither of these revolver cartridges are compatible with Stoner’s semi-automatic (AR-15) design that has essentially become “America’s Rifle.”

[ … ]

Current count shows more than a half-dozen available factory 350 Legend loads. Winchester offers a 145-grain FMJ load rated at 2,350 fps, a 150-grain poly-tipped bullet at 2,325 fps and a conventional lead-tipped 180-grain Power Point at 2,100 fps. Hornady is offering a 170-grain Interlock at 2,200 fps, and Federal is on board with two 180-grain soft points at 2,100 fps and a 160-grain Fusion load. For the hunter, all of these—with the possible exception of the 145-grain FMJ—are more than sufficient for any whitetail deer or feral hog.

[ … ]

Some cartridges chambered in the AR-15 will shoot fast and flat, while others will hit harder. Picking one over the other means you must plant your feet on one side or the other of the fence or try to walk a balance right down the middle. The .223 Rem. will shoot the fastest and flattest—at 300 yards the bullet will drop half as much as the 350 Legend. The 350 Legend on the other hand will hit harder—almost 50 percent harder at the muzzle than the .223 Rem. At distance, cartridges like the 25-45 Sharps and .300 HAM’R offer more middle-of-the-road performance between the .223 Rem. and the 350 Legend.

So, what you have with the new 350 Legend is the hardest-hitting factory cartridge that will work in a standard AR-15 with the standard .373-inch bolt face. (Of course, the .450 Bushmaster will hit even harder, but requires a different bolt.) This means any AR-15 originally chambered for the .223 Rem. can be converted to 350 Legend. What you sacrifice is the ability to carry that power anywhere past what most shooters now consider short range. Due to the low ballistic coefficients of the bullets used in a 350 Legend—compared with the bullets used in other cartridges designed for the AR-15 platform—velocity falls off fast. From the general-purpose standpoint, the 350 Legend is at its best inside of 250 yards, which, of course, is more than fine for defensive purposes.

[ … ]

The niche the 350 Legend fills is that of a one-gun solution for self-defense and big-game hunting inside of 300 yards in a compact carbine—bolt-action or semi-automatic. The 350 Legend should be of particular interest to self-defense-minded deer hunters in the several states that require the use of straight-wall cartridges. Essentially the antithesis of the .223 Rem.—a tactical cartridge sometimes pressed into duty as a big-game round—the 350 Legend is a hunting cartridge that can excel in a tactical environment.

I think that’s what would be it’s attraction for me.  A legitimate multipurpose tool is always better than a tool that does one thing.  The thing you lose is the ability to reach out to 400-500 yards.  On the east coast, that’s not an issue.  This is a hunting and self defense gun for the bush, with ammunition that is significantly cheaper than the .458 SOCOM or .450 bushmaster, and not nearly the recoil.

And I’d like to have one, but don’t.

Shooting Illustrated.

Often recognized as being a success story of small-arms design and development, the .45 ACP M3 submachine gun was born of the exigent circumstances of industrial mass production during the Second World War. It had the enormous virtue of low manufacturing costs that made it cheaper to produce than all other American submachine guns.

At peak production, M3s were a bargain at $20.94 each—less than half the cost of the mass-production version of the Thompson submachine gun (which was itself cheaper than the pre-war model). Although low cost was a major factor in the M3’s success, so too was the speed of its development and adoption.

The project went from a concept on paper, to the T20 prototype, to adoption and production within just seven months—a record that no other firearm in U.S. military history has ever rivaled. When it went into production in May 1943 at GM’s Guide Lamp Division plant in Anderson, IN, the M3 was a reliable open-bolt submachine gun weighing slightly more than 8 pounds with a fully loaded, 30-round, detachable-box magazine.

Its design made extensive use of sheet-metal stampings to include the two halves of the receiver assembly, the trigger, the rear sight, and a crank handle on the right side of the gun used to retract the bolt before firing. Not only did the M3’s sheet-metal construction make it lighter and cheaper, it also gave the gun an appearance resembling one of the most-ubiquitous tools of the auto-repair shop: the mechanic’s grease gun.

On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, U.S. troops used the M3 Grease Gun in action for the first time. During the weeks that followed, it fought a vigorous campaign stretching from Normandy through to the liberation of Paris and the push to the Siegfried Line. Soldiers carried it up hills and down valleys through the adversity of dust, rain and, eventually, even snow. M3s fought the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the Rhine River by boat, parachute and glider, and they eventually even blew the locks off of the front gate of OFLAG XIII-B.

Concentration camps were liberated by men carrying them, and islands in the Pacific were captured by men fighting with them. Although Gen. Patton described the John Garand’s M1 as “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” perhaps the same can be said about George Hyde’s M3. When you consider how quickly this paragon o of rugged dependability went from drawings on paper to the gates of the prisoner of war camp at Hammelburg, it certainly seems like Patton’s endorsement fits the M3 just as nicely as it does the M1.

I wish someone would sell me an M3 for $21.  America was a better place then, yes?

This reminds me of something Tim Lynch told me one time.  Tim blogged when he was a contractor in Afghanistan, and he said when he went into villages carrying the M3, no one messed with him, including the Taliban.  One villager told him, “We’re all scared of that thing.”  Tim replied, “Yes, I understand.  I would be too.”

Uh oh.  There is war between the manufacturers.

I don’t have a dog in this fight.

I guess ultimately it depends upon exactly how the patent paperwork reads and exactly what they took credit for.  I know a patent and copyright attorney.  It gets really complicated, very quickly.