The Gunner's Blog

The revolver is simpler to operate than an automatic. There is a good deal of subtle mechanical interaction going on among the parts inside, but from the user's point of view the revolver's operation is dead simple and intuitively obvious. Photo By: The original uploader was  Olegvolk at English Wikipedia -  Transferred from en.wikipedia to  Commons by OhanaUnited., CC BY 2.5,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/ w/index.php?curid=3450339 That simplicity extends to loading, unloading, function checking, showing clear and is especially obvious in failure-to-fire drills. You need to know two drills to deal with a stoppage in an automatic, tap-rack-bang and tap-rack-no bang darn. You don't need to know those if you pack a revolver. You don't need to remember to stiffen your wrist, because the revolver does not care if your wrist is firm or limp; it will work either way. The revolver is easier to clean; you do not need to take it apart and ...

This is a post I made on a gun discussion board; I have reposted it here. The question was whether birdshot was a good choice for self-defense. My answer has evolved from some years ago, when I  said that size T lead shot (.20 caliber; #4 buck is .24) could be ideal. I even said something positive about Federal Cartridge's attempt (since abandoned) to offer even smaller shot in a defense load. But I now conclude that #4 buck is the sensible lower limit of shot size for self-defense use, and it is a case where theory and practice bear one another out. #4 buck is already on the ragged edge where performance is starting to falter occasionally, in circumstances where the distance is a little bit far or there are heavy clothes or light obstructions involved, and that lines up closely with what you would expect if the military estimate of wounding energy were true, or else close to the mark. Thread :  Bird Shot for SD? View Single Post  Yesterday, 05:37 PM   ...

I posted this today on a discussion forum: I don't see why collectors are disturbed when an old gun is altered. When it happens, their pristine examples appreciate. They should like that; if they fully thought things through they would encourage sporterizing. If collector value were never lost through modifications, or damage, or rust or fires, or losing the rifle overboard, collector value would not exist, for all-originals would be plentiful. The value of any old military rifle would remain just where it started: pick through the barrel for one you like and give the man $89, or see if you can dicker him down a bit or get him to throw in some ammo.

American Rifleman | 9 Field-Tested Trunk Guns : 9 Field-Tested Trunk Guns by B. Gil Horman  - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 "Anyone who has spent much time wandering the online shooting forums or reading gun magazines has picked up on some of the less formal firearm categories folks like to talk about, such as BUGs (back-up guns), Kit Guns (small .22 handguns) and Perfect Packin' Pistols (for hiking). A Trunk Gun is a sturdy, reliable, and not-too-expensive firearm that can be kept tucked away in a car or boat for plinking, hunting and, in a pinch, self-defense. Here are a few of the guns I've worked with that make good passengers without breaking the bank. Don't forget to check regulations for legal methods of transporting firearms in your area." (Read more at the link.) My remarks: This repeat from last year showed up in my email "American Rifleman Insider" today. The author rounded up the usual suspects, and I recommend the article. But ther...

The shotgun "zones," A, B and C,  describing the shotgun's behavior at varying ranges, are not much emphasized in my practice sessions anymore, because it was always a clumsy teaching. It is easier to tell people that the farther away you are from your target, the more likely you are to pelt the downrange danger zone instead of putting pellets into your target. That is really all the zones have to teach us, and you can demonstrate the same lesson in a few minutes at the range. Here is how the matter was taught, and my critique. Zone A: Very short range. The pattern has hardly spread. All your pellets will hit the combat silhouette target, for they are hitting en masse. (Bad assumption. All your pellets can miss the target too--same reason. But, if you are reasonably proficient, it is quite likely that all of the shot charge hits--and the wad as well.) Zone B The pattern has spread out, but not so widely that you can't still put all your pellets on the target. ...

The PPSh-41 was produced (all sources including postwar China) in about twelve million copies. It is a cheap basic tube gun, like many others originating in the WWII period. Per Wikipedia : The PPSh-41 fires the standard Soviet pistol and submachine gun cartridge, the 7.62×25mm (Tokarev). Weighing approximately 12 pounds (5.45 kg) with a loaded 71-round drum and 9.5 pounds (4.32 kg) with a loaded 35-round box magazine, the PPSh is capable of a rate of about 1000 rounds per minute, a very high rate of fire in comparison to most other military submachine guns of World War II. It is a durable, low-maintenance weapon made of low-cost, easily obtained components, primarily stamped sheet metal and wood. Its job is to throw lots of lead downrange, the bullets arriving approximately where directed. The rate of fire is more than twice as fast as the USA's M3 "Grease Gun." I do not think the high rate of fire was particularly advantageous, but it was an understandable desi...

As regular readers know, keeping a snubnose revolver ready to hand is an essential element in my self-protection plans. This gun from Korth costs a lot for a snubnose, nearly a thousand list price. It has some interesting features including Picatinny rail, is chambered in 9mmP and works without moon clips. It might be of great interest to someone who uses the 9mm in an auto pistol and wants a backup gun of the revolver sort. Heck, it might interest anyone who likes cool guns that are a bit unusual.

For Pearson's web page, click here. I have not yet had a chance to try one of these scout mounts for the great old Winchester 94, but the system looks stronger and more secure than some of the other efforts to make such things. So I thought I'd place the information out there to see if the rest of you are interested. If you've actually used this system, please leave a comment as to your impressions. The lever .30-30 continues to be one of the best light rifles available, despite being an idea from the century before last. Modern optics only make it better, if you can get them mounted solidly on there.

Note the code words! Per Ms. Willy, it's not a city problem. It's not a community, racial or demographic issue. So then, the problem is not big cities and certain demographics within those cities, or even the drug trade, that is driving the shootings. No siree! It's too many guns! We have to do something. What do we need to do something about, per Slick Willy Redux? The guns, of course. We have to do something about guns, because doing something about people  or circumstances is probably a statement of privilege bias. I stand on my privilege. I have never murdered, pillaged or raped anyone, nor even stiffed a taxi driver. My gun, Ms. Willy, is not your problem. It is, further, off limits to you. The evil megalithic gun lobby you refer to is just guys like me, paying dues to organizations that are saying what makes sense to us.

Click for article:  American Rifleman | Combat Shotguns of the Vietnam War : The above is a rerun of a 2002 article. It tells you about the guns the military bought and issued during the Vietnam conflict. The commonly used shotguns were pump guns, a mixed bag of Stevens, Winchester, Ithaca, and Remington. The long history of US combat shotguns underscores what I have claimed all along . There is no better personal weapon than a shotgun when the shooting is at short range. Compared to the select-fire rifle its hit probability is twice as good. Compared to the submachine gun, it is very nearly half again better. To me, this means that if my first choice defensive long gun is not a repeating shotgun of some sort, I am making a mistake and selling short my chances to offer the best defense I can. Nearly all justifiable self-defense shootings are at short range or very short range. Right tool for the job, and all that. . . "Winner and still champeen..." (NRA photo)

Now and then the sword collector meets up with a curious specimen that has a saber hilt paired with a narrow thrusting blade of hollow-ground triangular cross section. Such a blade, when found in such a mounting, is referred to as a Préval blade. Examples of this sword type are most often French, from the 19th century, and custom made. The examples here are from https://sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/46663/french-m1822-light-cavalry-artillery and depict the French 1822 saber, which was the model for the American 1860 pattern. Préval variation The original model  The name comes from a General Préval, who liked and recommended triangular-bladed thrusting swords. His ideas were liked by some soldiers, who equipped themselves with private purchase swords of the kind. The swords were hilted to match the sabers official to the soldiers' units, thus maintaining the appearance of the official pattern. The scabbards were straight instead of curved but the authoriti...

Here Are The Most- And Least-Trusted News Outlets In America - Business Insider Several interesting conclusions can be drawn from the chart included in the above-linked article. One is that liberals are far more trusting of most of the news outlets than are conservatives. Source: Business Insider 'via Blog this'

From the Baltimore Sun: "Three brothers who live near the police station have been charged in the gunfight. Police have described it as an attempt by the suicidal oldest brother, 22-year-old Michael Ford, to provoke officers into killing him.  Police say Ford was driven to the station by his two younger brothers and began firing at the building and at passing vehicles, causing officers to return fire. Ford fired more than 20 shots, prosecutors said in court Wednesday.  Police said Ford's brothers aided him before and during the shootout and used their cellphones to record video of the gunfight. They also recorded video of Michael Ford offering a "last will and testament," police said." http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-police-shooting-20160316-story.html If the behavior of the Ford brothers is as reported in the story linked above, we have now, as a society, hit rock bottom, with a civilization (so-called) in which the members can no ...

H/T to The Well Armed Woman LLC via Facebook

This teaser from The Firearm Blog hints that Aguila is at least making noises about again offering for sale the old 5mm Remington cartridge.  http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/03/15/aguila-reintroduces-the-5mm-rrm/ It will be splendid news if Aguila follows through on this. The 5mm RRM is a brilliantly conceived little cartridge. It was ahead of its time and did not catch on in a big way. Only two rifle types were offered to shoot it and eventually the supply of ammo dried up. These days, though, the market is ready and willing to accept rimfire cartridges that are not .22 caliber.This one is a little bigger than a .17 and a little smaller than a .22, and has distinctly zippy velocity numbers. I had a chance to buy a mint condition 5mm rifle, some years back, and passed it up because I had no idea where to find ammunition for the thing. I'm now wondering if I made a mistake.  Of course, a listing in a foreign ammo catalog is not a sure guarantee that you will actu...

Gun writers have been rehashing this tired old question for many, many years. It is one of those stories that is dredged up again and again, possibly when the store of other ideas runs low and they need something to fill the empty spaces on pages 43 and 86-87. The example below, from the year 2010, is a clear and well reasoned example of the type. However, it supplies no conclusion you could not have read in 1910. The startling conclusion: ". . .the old cliché seems to fit. It's better than nothing." Shooting Illustrated | .22 LR for Self-Defense? : I have a few thoughts on the subject. (Mine are not all that original either.) Reliability of the .22 LR cartridge is not good. Ignition failures are commonplace. The above article looks at CCI cartridges, which are better than most in that regard, and far, far better than some other brands. Still, reliability is rather lackluster even in the better brands of rimfire cartridges, far behind what you expect from centerfire ...

Via  Facebook : What King says above does not really make much sense. If I am being assaulted, you're darn right I want an assault weapon. I want the most efficient tool I can get, if the job is to save my life or the lives of family members. At that, most shootees these days survive, if they are near to a hospital and someone phones 911. I seem to recall some people in King's novels facing gruesome deaths. As a reader, I sided with the victims, not the monsters. Maybe I am missing the point of his stories, but in real life, I would much rather the victim shoot holes in a deadly attacker. Justifiable self defense is something the law approves, and it stands up also to the closest moral scrutiny. It is better if the person perpetrating the crime is the one who gets hurt, not the victim who had no evil intentions going into the situation where the violence occurs. Of course, death is unfortunate in and of itself, but did you ever notice, in real life, how many times ba...

Tell them what they want to hear! By CHAD DAY, Associated Press  WASHINGTON (AP) — Broadcast TV viewers in New Hampshire should recognize Hillary Clinton's stance on gun control by now. One of every four political ads she's aired in the state over the past month has been about tougher gun laws. But in Iowa, only 1 in 17 of Clinton's spots has featured her stance on gun control. Television viewers in the rural southeast corner of the state haven't seen a single ad about guns from the Clinton campaign in the past month, according to an Associated Press analysis. Read more:  Clinton TV ads hammer guns in NH, shy away in Iowa - US News : 'via Blog this'

Those who were thinking that the revolver is a dead letter in the modern world can think again. I prefer the revolver for roles in which it is suitable, for it is simpler to operate than an automatic and a good revolver is vastly reliable. I also do not need to chase the brass for reloading. I simply bring a coffee can to the range and at the end of the day my empties are right there for convenient reuse. Apparently the thinkers and planners at Kimber have not let all that slip past them. The company, best known for its pistols on the 1911 pattern, has introduced a six shot .357 snubnose. Its size and weight are similar to those of the old Colt Detective Special, which was a six shot .38. The Kimber has the popular double-action-only configuration. Clearly slanted toward the everyday carry market, it looks like something I'm going to need to check out further. More info here: Kimber America | Revolver . Photo: Kimber America