The Gunner's Blog

As readers know, I push the Gunsite Four Rules whenever I get the chance. Glock is on the same bandwagon now. Welcome aboard to them. Avoiding accidents is in everyone's interest. If they feel they must rephrase Rule One, I would say "Treat every gun as a loaded gun!" is better phrasing than what they went with, but hey, it's the thought that counts. GLOCK Safety Pledge | #FollowTheFour | GLOCK USA : 'via Blog this'

Quoted from The media couldn't be more blatant in distorting Trump's words on Charlottesville | TheHill : Has the media ever so deliberately and consistently misinterpreted what a president said? It certainly seems as if the media finally found its proof that President Trump is a racist. ABC News’ coverage was all too typical: Trump quickly blamed both sides for the conflict, adding that there were "very fine people" among both the protesters — which included white supremacists and white nationalists — and the counterprotesters. "I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides," Trump said today. "You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides," he added. With wall-to-wall news coverage repeating this misreading of Trump’s statement, it’s not too surprising that politicians from both parties quickly condemned the “very fine people” comment. NB...

The snubnosed double action revolver is my favorite type of concealed carry gun. It's durable, simple to operate and, if it is given periodic function checks, highly reliable. Here are my top three tips for shooting the snubnosed revolver--a gun widely acknowledged to be a handful to shoot. Using the right techniques will make it behave. Crush grip I suggest you squeeze the handle of your snubnose as hard as you can. This has several good results. It keeps the gun from jumping so much in your grasp--for snubnose recoil is brisk. It prevents the gun from shifting in your grasp as you perform the long and heavy trigger pull needed to fire the weapon. It also keeps you from hitting poorly due to tightening your grip momentarily, in anticipation of recoil, because if you are already squeezing as hard as you can, you cannot make that mistake! Deliberate trigger You do not want to dawdle when a shot needs to be fired. But an even, steady rear...

My previous post about the tomahawk's use  drew several responses, none of them showing any clear indication that the commenters had read the article. Apparently they were here to leave links to their own enterprises. Undaunted, I here make note of something I've noticed since I posted about my tomahawk method. The moves would be useful if you were armed with a kukri or a hawkbill knife. They would, moreover, adapt quite naturally to some improvised and makeshift weapons including hammers, entrenching tools, kitchen cleavers and wooden clubs. As I implied in the former post, it is all right if you add techniques to the method if you see that as an improvement. If you add things, though, I suggest you keep and rely on the two basic techniques I describe, using them as the core of your enlarged method. Downward tierce and inward carte are very sound and reliable techniques. Both techniques, as I do them, begin and end in the saber 3rd guard (tierce) and, when us...

Via JR24 on The High Road

I'm sure you've heard all about the SIG fiasco from other sources. What I find interesting is that, despite changes in technology, and dissimilar mechanisms, the SIG 320 is prone to the same failure mode as the Colt Single Action Army pistol of 1873. If dropped rearward at an obtuse angle, either is prone to fire on impact. Plus ça change, mes amis, plus ça change. Something I find interesting is that this matter was reported from the grass roots, from the gun enthusiasts and amateurs. So I count this as a victory of freedom of speech, of amateurism in its best sense, and of the Internet. The company will retrofit all affected pistols free of charge. That, surely, was not something they expected but I think it is very good of them to fix the problem on their dime. If someone or other is spared the consequence of being clumsy and dropping his pistol and taking a bullet behind the ear, then the Internet has justified its existence.

Executive summary: This post outlines a very simple method of tomahawk use in self-defense. The method is one of continuous attack by means of moulinets.  I have elsewhere suggested that the tomahawk or hatchet was more often used as a tool than a weapon on the American frontier. It was a frontier weapon simply because it was an ever present tool. There were better weapons available. The cuttoe, the smallsword, the hanger or even a properly fashioned wooden club was a superior weapon. Those were purpose-made for fighting and carried for reasons quite apart from day to day utility. A hatchet, though, was something every forest traveler found useful for routine tasks, to get kindling and cut up game for the cookpot, and so on. I further opined that present-day attempts to make elaborate martial arts out of the tomahawk's use are neither historical nor practical. The weapon offers too few possibilities, too little variety in its practical uses...

Despite the heartbreak hotel tone and the hokum and hoplophobia, this propaganda film does manage successfully to underline why we have the Four Rules . I contend that if you internalize the Four Rules, make them inflexible and fully habitual, and furthermore take the sensible safety precaution of taking your gun with you rather than leaving it lying around where children might get at it, no scenarios like those following can arise. The tone and tenor of the video, though, are plainly of the 'guns are baaaad, m'kay?' irksome ilk. That it is a gummint production sends an odd message, even granted that this was the eighties and even the military hated the military. It almost says that by training and arming you we have burdened you with a curse. It should be treated as an honor, with heightened responsibilities.

This is the third time I have taken up the matter of Burton's New System of Sword Exercise for Infantry . Here is my first article about it, a book review, not altogether favorable. http://shootery.blogspot.com/2013/07/simplified-swordsmanship-burtons-new.html Second I examined some good aspects of his system and modified them slightly, to better suit my own tastes.   http://shootery.blogspot.com/2013/07/improving-upon-burtons-saber-method.html Now I am going to consider Burton's method of attacking the opponent's sword hand, wrist and forearm. It is the flower of his system. Indeed, the whole system makes little sense without manchette attacks as its focus and best purpose. Continuing what I started in my second article, I am going to propose some changes that I take to be improvements. I think Burton's manchette method as he wrote it down is hampered by certain technical inconsistencies within it and by the terse and in places opaque explanations he gave. But I...