30 Round Self Defense Practice Drill, Ken Hackathorn

With just one IDPA sized target, a sheet of target patches, and the Drills that I will enumerate below, one can now have a decent guide in teaching oneself the finer points of armed self defense. A friend with a competition timer will also come in handy. All Drills involve firing live ammunition and should only be performed in a shooting range or a place where there is no danger of hitting anything other than your target or its backstop. Oh yeah, you’ll also need a gun. The instructions below assume that you are using a semi-auto pistol, for wheel-gunners replace magazine changes with speed loader reloads.

Remember to observe and practice the four rules of gun safety.

1. From 5 yards, allowing 1 ½ seconds, beginning at “low ready” one shot to head. Repeat 3 times.
2. From 5 yards, allowing 2 seconds, beginning with gun holstered, one shot to head. Repeat 3 times.
3. From 5 yards, allowing 2 seconds, beginning at “low ready,” strong hand only, two shots to body. Repeat 2 times.
4. From 7 yards, allowing 2 seconds, facing 90° to left of target, gun holstered, two shots to body. One time only.
5. From 7 yards, allowing 2 seconds, facing 90° to right of target, gun holstered, two shots to body. One time only.
6. From 7 yards, allowing 2 seconds, facing target, gun holstered, two shots to body. One time only.
7. From 7 yards, allowing 4 seconds, while backing to 10-12 yards, three shots to body. Repeat 2 times.
8. From 10 yards, allowing 3 seconds, beginning with gun on target and round in chamber, change magazine and fire one shot to body. Repeat 2 times.
9. From 10 yards, allowing 3 seconds, beginning with gun on target and slide locked back, change magazine and fire one shot to body. One time only.
10. From 15 yards, allowing 2 ½ seconds, draw and fire one shot to body. Repeat 5 times.

Head shots only count if you hit the A zone of the “head” of the target. Body shots count if you hit the A, B, or C zones of the “body” of the target.

It is best to do these exercises with the same sidearm you intend to carry and with the same holster you plan to use. For most of us, this will be a concealed carry sidearm and concealment holster. Also wearing a shirt or vest that properly conceals the weapon is also recommended as the idea is to practice what you will do should you ever need to use your CCW piece in self defense. Assume that all Drills that require starting with a holstered firearm mean a holstered and concealed firearm. Using your star trek mod 1911 and an offset, fast draw holster won’t really teach you much about drawing and presentation which is what these Drills are mostly about. Think real world.

Don’t expect to be able to do all of these within the time required in your first few attempts, few meaning less than fifty. While this is not a substitute for proper training, it sure is a good start for many of us.

This one comes via hand gun law dot us

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Leaders in Benue, Nigeria, are seeking to give Christian farmers AK-47s for self-defense after suspected militant herdsmen killed at least 70 Christians in several days of attacks there.

Militant herdsmen is such an odd moniker. Who actually are they?

“We are standing on our request for the federal government to give us a license for our Volunteer Guards to bear AK-47s and other sophisticated weapons,” Morning Star News on Oct. 25 quoted Anthony Ijohor, a spokesman for Benue Gov. Samuel Ortom. “The security agencies have been overstretched and, that being the case, our people have to defend themselves.”

They are requesting permission from a distant capital to defend themselves. For all of her troubles, America still has some things right.

Gabriel Suswam, an area senator and former Benue governor, also called on Christians to defend themselves.

“Since the federal government has gone to sleep and does not care about the security of the people,” Leadership Nigeria quoted Suswam Oct. 22, “it is time for them to rise up and defend themselves. We cannot continue to allow herdsmen terrorists to keep on killing these peasant farmers and destroying their property.”

“herdsmen terrorists?”

Ijohor and Suswam made the comments following days of attacks during the week of Oct. 16 by terrorists suspected to be militant Fulani herdsmen. More than 70 residents in majority Christian areas of Benue state were killed, more than 100 were injured and thousands were displaced, Morning Star reported.

In 2018, 6,000 Nigerian Christians, mostly women and children, were killed between January and June.

“In just two days, over 70 Christians were killed by Fulani militiamen in Gbeji community in our local government area,” Morning Star quoted Terumbur Kartyo, chairman of the Ukum Local Government Council in Benue. Udei and Yelewata villages were also attacked, Terumbur told Morning Star.

[…]

Elsewhere in Nigeria, a mother and child were killed and others were injured during worship Oct. 16 at Celestial Church in Kogi state, International Christian Concern reported.

Two militants arrived on motorcycles, shot the woman and her daughter, and injured an unknown number of others, ICC said, attributing the report to Jerry Omodara and identifying him as Kogi’s top security official.

“It looked like it was organized against that particular church, because their altar was burned with petrol they went with,” ICC quoted Omodara.

Who would do that, random motorcycle terrorists?

In Nigeria, more Christians are killed for their faith than in any other nation, Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors said in its 2022 World Watch List report. An estimated 4,650 Christians were killed in the 2020-2021 reporting year, Open Doors said, compared to 3,530 the previous year.

Open Doors ranked Nigeria as the seventh most difficult nation for Christians to live.

The Voice of the Martyrs, in its 2022 Global Prayer Guide, designates Nigeria as a hostile nation.

Why won’t the article call them Muslims? Are they Islamo-fascists? Muslim Jehadists? The author and editor seem at pains to avoid calling this what it is. If you won’t directly confront the reality of what’s happening and who and what your enemy is, you will never defeat it.

Are those precious Christian souls being killed for their faith by enemies of Christ or not? Seems like these Christians need to start forming militias. And ChurchLeaders.com needs to hire some editors that are, ahem, Church Leaders.

While Christians are not called to take the world by force of arms, at the same time, we have a duty to God to protect life (Exodus 20:13), especially those weaker (Psalm 82:3, Exodus 22:22)  and particularly of our own family (Exodus 20:12, 1 Timothy 5:8). For history and context, see this short post by Herschel on gun control in Nigeria and the rise of Boko Haram Muslim mass murderers.

Pastor John Weaver Oct 9, 2022

While Americans are busy searching headlines to find what chapter of Revelation they think we’re in, the truth is even more disturbing. It’s not Satan’s fault, it’s ours, and we’re the only ones that can do something about it. They are looking in the wrong book, both for the problem and the solution.

Hopefully, this sermon upsets you as much as it does me. Pastor Weaver only scratches the surface of all we could say. There’s nothing we can do to fix you or America. Each man must make himself upright before a Holy God.

Where is the power of the Christian? It’s in Christ, or there is none. There’s the root of the problem. American Christians have taken the grace of God as license to breeze through a sin-cluttered life, and that’s wrecking civilization. Therefore they have no power to fix it. If being Christian is only a part of who you are, perhaps you’re only partly converted, which is to say, not at all. Watch the whole video, but first, carefully read the topic section of Scripture, Deuteronomy 28, particularly from verse 15 onward.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68:

“15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

35 The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36 The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.

38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.

42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;

48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

54 So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:

55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;

59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.

61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.

63 And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68 And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

The story from a couple of years ago on TCJ:

Tennessee landowner removed a game camera secretly strapped to a tree on his private land by wildlife officials in order to monitor his activity without apparent sanction or probable cause. Repeat: Hollingsworth’s residence was searched by U.S. government and state officials, dressed to the nines in assault gear, seeking to regain possession of a trail camera—the precise camera they had surreptitiously placed on his private acreage after sneaking onto his property at night, loading the camera with active SD and SIM cards, and zip-tying the device roughly 10’ high up a tree—all without a warrant.

Here’s the update:

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) said Mr. Hollingsworth was illegally baiting. He plead his case and got his hunting license suspended or revoked. Then he filed suit in federal court, alleging his privacy rights were violated and that TWRA had no warrant. A federal court threw out the case. Hollingsworth said the government will bleed the average person of resources and time; there’s no real way to fight this.

You have no right to privacy on your own property, and no warrant is needed to surveil you. TWRA and US Fish and Wildlife are doing this to others as well, that’s according to the news source. It’s not some conspiracy theory.

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The U.S. Navy of the 1980s provides a reminder what serious peer competition in the naval sphere looks like and the resources and human willpower that it requires. E. B. Potter describes the 1980s buildup to counter the Soviet Union as the “most expensive peacetime military buildup in the nation’s history, to cost $1.5 trillion in five years . . . the Navy would be built up from 456 to 600 ships, including 15 carrier-centered battle groups.”¹

The 1980s maritime strategy and naval buildup was advocated by senior officers in uniform, approved by civilian leadership, and then laboriously implemented across all levels. Growing pains were worked out, and complex exercises in frigid environments executed. The renaissance of naval strategic thought in the late 1970s and subsequent buildup of the 1980s should provide a source of strength and inspiration to today’s sailors and civilian defense officials. Lessons in strategy, fleet exercises, and force structure remain directly relevant.

[…]

A clearly defined naval strategy with concrete operations and tactics guided the 1980s naval expansion. John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy from 1981 to 1987, notes that President Ronald Reagan “approved the Navy recommendation to begin at once pursuing a forward strategy of aggressive exercising around the vulnerable coasts of Russia,” and “this demonstrated to the Soviets that we could defeat the combined Warsaw Pact Navies and use the seas to strike and destroy their vital strategic assets with carrier-based air power.”⁴ Active-duty naval officers such as Admiral James Holloway, Admiral Thomas Hayward, and Admiral James Lyons had long been advocating for such a strategy. These officers, as well as many others, rejected the consensus view of the previous Carter administration on the role of the Navy in a war with the Soviet Union:

We’ll get back to that. We have questions about the differences between then and now. The real threat to America is from the south. The border is wide open. Russia and China’s vested interests are in letting the US continue its long, slow, ugly decline into the wastebin of history, although America seems bent upon hastening that demise. Who is going to man, oops, person this Navy; Nigerians, Nicaraguans?

The primary lesson is that when it’s not your money, who cares what it costs? That 1980s Navy never got paid for.

Carter subscribed to the NATO strategy that called for employing most of America’s military resources to support the Allied front in Germany. The Navy’s primary role would be defense of the Atlantic SLOC [sea lines of communication], a task that would not require many large deck carriers. Carter’s SLOC strategy prompted Admiral Holloway and a number of naval analysts to warn that if the Navy implemented this policy, it would be unable to perform other vital wartime tasks . . . the strategy essentially ceded the Pacific theater to the Soviets.⁵

It takes years or a decade to develop warfare systems technologies. We’re no fan of Carter, but one thing he never gets any credit for is signing the bills that enabled a massive technology uplift to all branches of the Department of Defense. The foundation for many technologies that would be used in Desert Storm was started in the 70s and early 80s.

I joined the Navy in the 1980s. The training was excellent. There was a no-nonsense business approach to all phases of operations. The enlisted men were trusted and respected (if they worked). There was no radical transformation at the time using the military as a testbed for the integration of the perverse.

Lehman (SecDef in the 80s) describes how the Navy visibly drilled around clearly defined operations and tactics that flowed from the 1980s global maritime strategy:

Nine months after the President’s inauguration, three U.S. and two Royal Navy carriers    executed offensive exercises in the Norwegian Sea and Baltic. In this and subsequent massive exercises there and in the northwest Pacific carried out every year, carrier aircraft proved that they could operate effectively in ice and fog, penetrate the best   defenses, and strike all of the bases and nodes of the Soviet strategic nuclear fleet.¹⁰

[…]

In a 1986 defense of the maritime strategy in Proceedings, Lehman described the scale of the naval exercises of the 1980s and how strategy guided this training:

Title 10 of the U. S. Code charges the Secretary of the Navy with ensuring the highest level of training appropriate to the responsibilities placed upon both the Marine Corps and the Navy. That is what strategy provides to us—a framework within which to train. For example, U. S. naval forces recently conducted a major training exercise, “Ocean Safari 85,” with our NATO allies and the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force. The “Safari” assembled off the East Coast of the United States and fought its way across the Atlantic, moved north of England and east of Iceland, and ended up in the Norwegian Sea. Approximately 155 ships and 280 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters operated for four weeks in this environment, against 19 real Soviet ships and submarines and 96 Soviet aircraft sorties.¹¹

Taking “great-power competition” as more than just a buzzword requires robust naval exercises so that the Navy can practice like it would fight when confronting a peer adversary. Exercises of such magnitude require depth in the force structure.

Penetrating deep into areas where Soviets had significant assets required electronic deception and emissions control. Admiral Lyons explained how central these concepts were to his fleet exercises in the Norwegian Sea and High North:

The first thing I did after taking command was to tear up the old canned Ocean Venture OPORD [operation order] . . . They were still using World War II carrier formations . . . such a formation was easily tracked by Soviet satellites. What we did was plot out Soviet satellite area footprints and time of exposure. We then went to dispersed dispositions. We used a number of cover and deception decoys and tactics.¹²

Lehman describes one exercise where Lyons endeavored to make “his entire strike group disappear” through emissions control and foul weather, then reappearing in the Norwegian Sea to the Soviets’ surprise.¹³ Utilizing military deception and emissions control effectively is a skill that requires practice and risk management but is necessary when operating within a peer adversary’s weapon’s release range.¹⁴

[…]

The 600-Ship Navy occurred without hollowing the force or falling behind in technological advancements. The 1980s buildup centered on proven platforms while at the same time making critical investments in precision-guided munitions, electronic warfare, and standoff jamming.¹⁸ Admiral Hayward (1980s Admiral who would climb to Chief of Naval Operations, the top naval man over all ships and units able to put to sea) made very clear that naval expansion must be made without a decline in readiness:

. . . units which are incapable of meeting the threat are, in a sense, worse than none, because they give some a false sense of our total capabilities vis-à-vis the Soviets. This means that quality cannot generally be traded off for quantity. At the same time, quantity does matter and there is clearly an absolute minimum in numbers of combatant units below which we cannot safely go.¹⁹

It’s almost laughable to think that the US could do this now. Maybe the Navy should focus on hiring MBAs in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion from Wharton Business School. This seems like the equitable thing to do.

Some defense planners today advocate wagering the future on unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and cyber at the expense of traditional platforms to counter China.²¹ While these disruptive technologies undeniably require investment, using them to justify broad cuts in traditional platforms at a time when the Navy needs to grow would take on a dangerous level of risk. Indeed, the Ford, Zumwalt, and littoral combat ship highlight the pitfalls of betting that new technology can revolutionize naval warfare and offset a reduction in hulls. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) recently called for a more prudent approach to force structure, imploring “the return to an Aegis-type development model in which critical subsystems are matured before the Navy procures the lead ship of a new class.”²² Admiral Holloway wrote an entire Naval Warfare Publication to assist force-structure planning and emphasized the centrality of risk assessment:

Naval force structure is derived from consideration of strategy, threat, and risk. If proper strategy is projected, the threat correctly assessed, and risks accurately identified, uncertainty can be minimized and naval requirements can be established.²³

All of our lives, we’ve been told that Reagan’s military buildup is what collapsed the Soviet Union. But, we ended up expending those munitions and fleet capabilities to destroy Iraq, a fourth-rate power.

American Hunter.

Had this scope been a first-focal-plane (FFP) scope, it would not have mattered at what magnification the scope was set, and we likely would have had 300 pounds of meat to haul out. In a FFP optic, as the reticle is etched or marked on a forward lens in the scope, the holdover hash marks below the crosshair would have been the same value, placing a bullet in the same place at 4X as they would have at 12X. However, this was a second-focal-plane scope, which means the reticle was marked or etched on a lens in the rear, closer to where you look into the scope.

Being a SFP scope, the reticle on my 4X-12X Bushnell will always appear the same size as the magnification is adjusted, but changing the magnification does change the hash marks on the reticle in relation to the target. This is where some of you readers may want to start looking through your scope and twisting that magnification ring. In the story above, at 300 yards, the second hashmark represents approximately 10.5 inches (3.5 inches x 300 yards) of drop at 12X magnification. At 4X magnification, that second hashmark just turned into 31.5 inches (12X = 10.5 inches; 12X/4X = 3 times more value; 10.5 inches x 3 = 31.5 inches). This hold at 4X put the bullet 20 inches over the intended point of impact.

With a FFP scope, the reticle will grow and shrink as you adjust the power ring. This does little good on a scope with a standard duplex reticle, as your only holding mark is the crosshair itself, centered at any power. Where FFP is a help is when you have a drop reticle with hashmarks for simple holdover or when you are using a system such as MIL-DOT. If the scope on that rifle had been a FFP scope with MIL-DOT subtensions, the magnification power would not have mattered as the second hashmark would always be a 10.5-inch value at 300 yards.

That’s all well and good, but that reticle sure does appear small on any power for a FFP scope.  If you plan on shooting from one ridge to another, a FFP scope is the best bet.  If you plan on shooting east of the Mississippi, you’re probably better off with a SFP scope.  I’ve had a FFP scope mounted and wished I had a SFP scope.

But YMMV and everyone has his preferences.

This is an interesting idea.

I wouldn’t choose to replace the beautiful wood stocks on any legacy JM stamped Marlin 336, any of the modern Marlins, or any Henry.  We’ve discussed this before.  Fine Walnut stocks are too pretty to replace, and they make heirloom guns for the family.

On the other hand, if you have one of the polymer stock Henry rifles, it makes sense to consider something like this for hunting season for multiple reasons, e.g., water swelling of wood stocks in the rain, banging the stock around, etc.

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What Is the Difference Between 300 WSM and 300 Win Mag?

The 300 Winchester Magnum has been around since the 1960’s and has been a favorite for military snipers, big game hunters, and benchrest shooters alike. It is truly in contention for the title of America’s Favorite Magnum Cartridge and is the gold standard by which all belted magnum cartridges are measured.

The 300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM) is a relative newcomer to the shooting community being released in 2001. The 300 WSM embodies the ballistic advantages of the 300 Win Mag and crams them into a short action rifle.

The result is a lighter rifle with identical barrel length and extremely similar external ballistics. Having a shorter, more maneuverable rifle can be extremely handy when elk hunting in thick brush.

Both rifle cartridges are extremely accurate and can easily achieve MOA to sub-MOA level accuracy with match grade factory loads or properly tuned handloads.

Although both cartridges are excellent for hunting or target shooting, they are not without their disadvantages.

Some detractors of the 300 WSM will point to its rebated rim, claiming that this might inhibit the ability of the bolt to push the cartridge from the magazine into the chamber. The 300 WSM’s steep 35-degree shoulders also play a part in this critique, as some forum users theorize that the sharp angle might hinder smooth feeding into the chamber.

Although I will say that feeding a 300 WSM is not as smooth as the experience with other cartridges, I’ve yet to experience a jam.

For the 300 Winchester Magnum, most of the complaints center around the useless belt on the cartridge case. As you’ll learn later in the history of the 300 Win Mag, the belted case is an artifact from the parent 375 H&H Magnum case.

Early rifles used the belt for headspacing, which caused premature case stretching and thereby reduced the lifespan of the brass. If all you shoot is factory ammo and you aren’t into reloading, this is a non-issue. However, for handloaders it’s a serious problem as it means you will have to replace your 300 Win Mag brass more frequently.

Many 300 Win Mag rifles now have their chambers reamed to headspace off the case shoulders, which eliminates premature case stretching entirely.

The last strike against the 300 Win Mag is the painfully short case neck. Some long range target shooting gurus state that the 300 Win Mag’s neck is not long enough to securely hold the projectiles and maintain concentricity. In theory, this could cause the bullet to enter the rifling off-axis and affect point of impact for long distance shots.

However, based on the lack of complaints by military snipers who routinely shoot well past 1000 yards with a 300 Win Mag, I’m guessing this critique is more an online forum talking point as opposed to a real-world issue.

In the following sections, we will analyze the 300 WSM vs 300 Win Mag in detail so you can understand the differences between these two rifle cartridges.

The article discusses Sectional Density, Ballistic Coefficient, Trajectory, Reloading, Ballistics, and other aspects.

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Generally, the defensive handgun crowd does not spend much time on training for real accuracy with the pistol. Due to the nature of most defensive gun uses, shorter-range engagement is the focus of defensive pistol training. And even action shooting sports such as USPSA and IDPA primarily involve engaging larger targets quickly at closer ranges. There is simply no emphasis placed on exceptional pistol accuracy in action shooting sports or defensive pistol craft.

This author readily submits that having a reasonably quick draw to a first-round hit to a target the size of a vital template in the chest area of a person within short distances is a more relevant and important skill than punching tight groups in bullseye targets at twenty-five or fifty yards. However, I also submit that the complete abandonment of such accuracy by most defensive pistol practitioners is to the detriment of the overall skillset.

The discipline of accurate bullseye shooting appears completely different than the craft of defensive pistol shooting. And there are, indeed, significant differences between these two crafts. However, the principles of marksmanship remain essential to defensive pistol craft even though the accuracy problem is usually not very demanding. Bullseye shooting at longer distances puts every aspect of marksmanship under the microscope. Unless every part of your fundamental shooting skills are dialed in, you cannot hit such demanding targets. Therefore, I suggest that spending some time on long-distance accuracy shooting with your carry gun is exceedingly beneficial. Even if you have no aspirations of being a bullseye shooter, spending some time doing that sort of marksmanship will greatly enhance your skills at close-range shooting as well.

Real-World Applicability of Fine Accuracy at Distance

Before analyzing the skills development involved in distance accuracy, which are beneficial in their own right, consider the real-world defensive application of such. With every year that passes, we see more examples of longer-range defensive gun use that contradict the long-held tradition that states civilian defensive gunfights only happen at close range. The most recent at the time of this writing was the incident at a mall in Indiana where an armed citizen shot and killed an active shooter from forty-three yards away with his pistol. This is certainly an example of a far longer distance than those usually observed in self-defense gun use.

Although such events are still very rare, the likelihood of finding oneself in such an event grows by the day. In the past two decades, even as violent crime drastically reduced (though it has sharply risen again in the past two years), active killer events have increased to some extent.

While prioritizing our preparation for such events over other, more common, forms of violence may be misguided, at least considering it is sound. Practicing accuracy at distance provides two important skills. First, the shooter develops the ability to make accurate shots at extended distances. Second, the shooter develops a good understanding of their abilities at different distances, which is exceedingly important.

There’s more at the link.