Archive for the 'Guns' Category

John Farnam:

I don’t see a return to hammer-fired pistols with manual decocking-levers any time soon. That era is long-over.

Double-action revolvers still work just fine, but have their limitations.

And, the dwindling 1911 crowd will be around for a long time to come, but every year, they all get one year older!

So that’s the way it is, huh?  Cheap plastic junk is perfect but revolvers have “limitations?”  Those who shoot 1911s are dying off?  We 1911 shooters get a year older every year, but the shooters who choose cheap plastic junk have found the fountain of youth and will live forever?

Or maybe this is just click bait and exaggeration.

Via reader Fred, SJ:

“I could hear bones crunching, just like you read about,” said Tom Sommer, as he recovered in a Montana hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

There’s a picture at the link.

Good Lord.  This guy was probably without medical attention for four hours.  I’m sure it hurt.  You have to admire him for endurance and determination.  As for deploying the bear spray to end the attack, I’m sure a .44 magnum or .454 Casull would have ended it too.  I guess they didn’t have time to deploy the guns because of the closing time of the bear assault, if I read the report right.

I guess the lesson is that you’d better watch your six (and all other azimuths) in big bear country, continually.

The Chronicle:

ELYRIA – A mother of three chased a would-be burglar out of her house with a pistol after he broke in just before 8 p.m. Monday.

According to a police report, Brett Santo, 33, of Chestnut Street, walked into Sarah Long’s home on Fourth Street and approached her 15-year-old daughter. Long’s 17-year-old daughter was the first to see Santo and screamed, launching Long into action, police said.

Police said Long grabbed a pistol by her bed and she charged at Santo, but dropped the gun while in her home. She and the 17-year-old then chased Santo out of the house and down the sidewalk until they lost sight of him by St. Mary’s Church.

Officers were dispatched to the area on a report of a burglary suspect fleeing the area and Long was able to provided police with a description.

Police found him on Third Street between Middle Avenue and Court Street and he was arrested and charged with burglary.

During the ride to the police station, officers said Santo “let out an excited utterance that he in fact did burglarize the house,” police said.

Long said Tuesday that Santo had entered her home once before but left when confronted and Long didn’t call police. This time, Long said, Santo approached her daughter so Long sprung into action.

“I said, you picked the wrong (expletive) mother,” Long said, “I ran after him over the bridge and he turned around and was like, is this (woman) still chasing me.”

It was by chance that Long said her gun was near by. Her boyfriend, who Long described as “a big biker guy” had just left the house and encouraged Long to have the pistol ready.

“I’m thanking God it was by a fluke he told me to put that gun by me,” Long said. “Santo was walking in there like he didn’t care, like this time he wasn’t stopping.”

She didn’t have all of that super secret Ninja warrior stress control training like cops, and she even dropped the gun.  And yet, she was safer with the gun than without it.  Somehow this doesn’t fit the narrative told by either cops or the gun controllers.  They would have wanted her to die.

From TFB.  Those who live in big bear country can weigh in, but it looks to me like .44 Magnum is enough to get the toughest job done.

So I was shopping in Publix grocery store this weekend, and ask a manager about their policy on open carry.  I thought I had seen folks engaging in open carry there, but I told the manager that I knew businesses can have their own policies, which I support, and I didn’t want this to be awkward for them if I come back openly carrying.

He informed me that he has a number of customers who open carry, and Publix follows the laws of the state.  There is no problem with it at that store.  I appreciate their stand on the issue, and I will certainly reward them by continuing to shop there.

In case we’ve never discussed this before (and I think we have), I open carry because I hate concealed carry and told the manager so.  But there is a larger and more important reason.  I open carry “For the peace, good and dignity of the country and the welfare of its people.”  I owe that expression to Jeremy Bryant.

The Daily Caller:

You’d think the “caliber wars” would wind down, the firearms community would just accept that people like different things and be okay with it. It’s the adult thing to do and frankly makes more sense than pointlessly arguing over things that don’t matter.

For some reason, the .45 ACP and the .30-06 just can’t be left well enough alone. Every few weeks, there’s a new article in a gun magazine, on a website or something decrying one or the other. The 9mm is better, one might say, or the .308 or 6.5 Creedmoor doesn’t recoil as badly and is more accurate at 1,000 yards says another.

Folks, neither the .45 ACP nor the .30-06 are going anywhere and it is just time we all dropped it.

Look:

If there’s anything approaching truth regarding the efficacy of a bullet on a living target, be it a human assailant or a critter that you’re looking to eat/put on the wall, it’s that there are established “will always work” rounds. However, which one you use doesn’t matter all that much; accuracy and bullet design matter more than the rest of the ballistic data sheet.

Sure, 9x19mm produces less recoil. Follow-up is faster and it’s easier for more people to shoot. It’s also cheaper and subcompact pistols chambered in that round tend to work a bit better than those in .45. If it’s a 9mm, .40, or .45 ACP pistol you put in an appendix carry holster or other concealed carry holster, it really doesn’t matter; what matters is if you carry good rounds and can hit your mark.

Much the same is true of the trusty old .30-06. It’s a long-action round, ruling out compact, short-form rifles which some people can’t live without. While recoil is subjective, the .30-06 is a bit stouter than the trendy cartridges of today like .300 Blackout, 6.5 Creedmoor and .308/7.62 NATO.

And you know what?

It doesn’t matter at all.

The fact is that .45 ACP is a very effective self-defense round. With good hollowpoints and good placement, it will put down a bad guy just as well as a well-placed 9mm round will. Some people find they aren’t as accurate with a 9mm or a .40, so who cares? It works for them.

Well, some people may say that about the .45 ACP, but some others (me) might say that they don’t like the snappy muzzle with 9mm and the slow recovery time to a good sight picture compared to the “push” of the .45 ACP.

Shoot whatever you shoot well.  But I do have one nit.  I’ll rewrite the sentence for you: “With good hollowpoints and good placement, it will put down a bad guy just as well as better than a well-placed 9mm round will.”

There.  Fixed it for you.

No, I’m not kidding.

If you purchase a rifle with an embedded cant indicator level from a source other than McRee’s Precision … it is not authorized by McRee’s and your may be liable for infringing McRee’s patents.

Oh dear.  Will gun manufacturers never learn?  The quickest way to make the entire gun community hate you is to threaten them.  It’s even faster than supporting the gun controllers in your state to get special treatment, viz. RRA and Springfield.  They didn’t threaten the infringers, but the people who purchased the products themselves.  Good Lord.

Does anyone at firearms manufacturing companies know how to think one step ahead?  Perhaps they should play chess for a while to learn the science of cause and effect.

Active Response Training:

You’ll notice that I didn’t provide any expansion data.  That’s because NONE of the .380 or .38 special rounds expanded at all!  All of the bullets except for the two 9mm rounds could have been reloaded and fired.  They had no expansion whatsoever.

They made that statement after testing .38 Spl, .380 ACP and 9mm in gelatin covered with several layers of denim.  But here’s the problem to me.  This data doesn’t comport with what Lucky Gunner found at all.  It’s not even close.

If you take a look at Lucky Gunner’s testing protocol and test results, which were performed under tight control and strict boundary conditions, it’s clear that there is indeed expansion of most PD rounds regardless of barrel length.  Mind you, some do better than others, and it’s also clear that the higher velocity imparted with longer barrels helps.  But I just don’t see anything in the testing done by Active Response Training that even comes close to what Lucky Gunner found.

But regarding Lucky Gunner’s test results, I will offer up a few comments.  First of all, the venerable .45 ACP, which I shoot, does well just about regardless of barrel length or ammunition type.  Second, there are some good performers and some weak performers for every caliber.  But on the average, the high performers seem to be Speer Gold Dot, Winchester PD rounds and Federal PD rounds (such as Hydra Shok).

Finally, I don’t really think anyone who ever gets shot with a .38 Spl round is prepared to call the gun that shoots it a “mouse gun,” even if it has a 2″ barrel.

American Hunter:

Comparing Hornady’s Precision Hunter ammunition, the .30-06 will deliver about 9 percent better performance than the 308. The trade off—there’s always a trade off—is this performance increase comes with a 16 percent increase in recoil. In other words, with what is arguably the best big game hunting ammo you can buy, the .30-06 gives you about half what you pay—suffer—for.

Some might point out the .30-06 will handle heavier bullets. True, but given our modern projectiles, 200 or 220 grain .30 caliber bullets offer no advantage. Back in Whelen’s and your grandpa’s day, this was not the case. At .30-06 velocities the weakly constructed 180-grain or lighter bullets of that time, shed lots of weight during penetration. 200 or 220-grain bullets didn’t because they impacted at slower velocities, thus penetrating deeper.

With bullets like the Partition, Triple Shock, AccuBond and ELD-X, those weighing less than 200 grains offer a better ballistic balance. This is why 200 grain or heavier .30-06 ammunition is almost as rare as flying frogs. Modern projectiles have even improved the performance of smaller cartridges. They can now hang with the ’06 and not whack you near as hard.

Consider the 6.5 Creedmoor. Comparing similar bullet weights, the Creedmoor will shoot flatter and just as hard as the ought-six. But, the .30-06 will kick 34 percent harder. Though some will argue you gotta get used to recoil if you’re going to hunt big game, it’s an established fact, the harder a rifle kicks, the more difficult it is to shoot with consistent precision.

Well, some of this is true, and the 6.5 Creedmoor is a very interesting cartridge, especially because it is a necked-down .308 and therefore a short action cartridge and capable of semiautomatic operation.  But I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about here.

He’s focused on recoil and the ability to shoot it well.  But according to this logic, there is no reason for the .300 Win Mag to exist in North America.  And he’s being savaged in the comments.

What do readers think?

Guns.com has the scoop.  I haven’t seen any reviews of the gun yet.  I’d like to see some serious, critical work to vet this gun and others made by Diamondback.

But the great thing is that their rifles – including this 6.5 Creedmoor AR – are less than $1300.  That’s right.  An AR 6.5 Creedmoor < $1300.  Competition is a wonderful thing.  Diamondback is selling their rifles for under $1300, and that includes their rifles that handle larger cartridges than the 5.56mm (e.g., 6.5 Creedmoor and .308, which are both still short-action rounds).

If you are a firearms manufacturer who fabricates ARs, you seriously need to recalibrate.  You need to ask yourselves if you really want to be in the business of manufacturing ARs if your MSRP is significantly more than $1300.  This is the sweet spot.  Because if a prospective buyer can buy yours for more, or a Diamondback for less, he must ask himself whether it’s wise to throw away his money like that in order to have yours.  The calculus is simple, and you absolutely must begin to match the cost of the least expensive manufacturer, or if you don’t, you’ll have to find a niche market because of some features or quality you have that others don’t.  Where do you think the real financial margin is in this calculus?

Diamondback Firearms can be found here.