humor

Armslist fails: “RUGER 4.20″ SP101 GREAT COONDITION [CUSTOM]”

Posted on by Caleb

So PDB sent me this early in the morning, and it almost made me hit the tequila at 0800. I love Armlist fails, but this one? This may be the new world record. Let’s begin with the first photo, shall we?

armslist fail ruger SP101-1

I’m honestly sure whether this is a photo of a gun for sale, or a modern art piece. In fact, I don’t even know where to start with this one. I mean sure, there’s a partially consumed box of ammo, a set of car keys, and it’s nice to see that someone is taking my advice about carrying a hammer for self-defense seriously, I really have two questions about this photo. First, why does the guy appear to only have 4 toes, and second what in the actual f*** is going on with the grip of that poor SP101?

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self defense

Who’s There!? Hi Daddy!

Posted on by C. J. Daniel

In the last post I gave my thoughts on ensuring your personal narrative was based in reality when it came to a strange noise outside. Now I want to discuss how being “certain” you are encountering an assailant could lead to tragedy inside your home.

wrong house

Before I go any further I want to briefly discuss staying put versus clearing your house by yourself. If at all possible, AVOID CLEARING YOUR OWN HOUSE! Call the police, stay in a safe place and let the people that do it for a living come assist you. I will openly admit that staying put isn’t always possible. As an example, I’ll use my situation: the master bedroom is on an opposite side of the house from my kids bedrooms. The simple fact is I will not leave my kids alone and scared. I know my plan is not the best. I feel it is better to take my chances NOW than wait for the police; that is a choice driven by my home’s floor plan and not by my willingness to get shot.

The topic of this post is not whether you should or should not clear your house. It has more to do with mitigating deadly events. To start we need to acknowledge that humans have a tendency to “shut down” and become quiet when faced with danger. Millennia of evolution have taught us that being quiet can save our lives. This should be no shock as it is a case of survival instinct. If a wild animal was outside of your cave, you kept quiet.  However this is 2015 AD, not 4500 BC. At what cost do you investigate the strange sound in the middle of the night in total silence?

There are actual cases, albeit rare, of people shooting loved ones in a case of mistaken identity.  Was it fear, a preconceived notion of an intruder, or was it both? Hard to say without being in the moment, but this is something we (as responsible gun owners) should all agree is unacceptable.

To the point, is it really that critical that you “clear” your house in silence?

What might the response be if you ask “WHO’S THERE”?

Let’s ponder this:

  • Maybe there is no one in your house,
  • Maybe the lack of response means someone with ill intent is there,
  • But just maybe, you will hear – “Hi Daddy (or Mommy)”!

It may not be a 100% guarantee you will recognize a family member’s voice immediately under duress, but it beats the alternative. “Who’s there” are two simple words that have the potential to save yourself a lifetime of guilt and grief.  Some may ask is it worth giving up your “tactical advantage.” I feel the better question is, “How many accidental shootings could have been avoided by simply asking “who’s there”?

I still believe, if it must happen, a person is better off clearing their home with a firearm than without; but be smart about it.  In certain self-defense scenarios, a gun is the best tool available. However it is also deadly and should be respected especially when the person holding it is half awake.  Be honest with your abilities. Don’t let the gun in your hand turn you into a fool or worse; a murderer of an innocent person.

So yes, asking who is there in the dark might put you at risk; but what are you risking by remaining silent?  That is a question only you can answer.

self defense

The 5 worst guns for self-defense

Posted on by Caleb

Everyone has an inherent, human right to self-defense. Here in America at least, that right is obviously frequently exercised with the use of firearms. In the gun community, we always say “the first rule of gunfighting is have a gun” – and while that’s all well and good, we should also discourage people from picking guns that are terrible for self-defense. Because let’s be honest, some guns are not good choices for self-defense. Maybe they’re poorly made, maybe they’re a gimmick, but guns like this really shouldn’t be carried as primary defensive weapons.

5. Semi-auto rimfire pistols

taurus 22 LR pistol

When was the last time you heard someone say “man, that .22 is super reliable” and they weren’t talking about a Ruger? That’s the big problem with pocket-sized .22 LR autos. First off, they’re just not that reliable. They tend to malfunction, sometimes because of ammo issues, sometimes because of feeding issues. The ammo reliability is really an issue, because rimfire ammo has less reliable ignition characteristics than centerfire rounds.

Option: pocket sized .25 ACP pistols. From a 2 inch barrel, the terminal ballistics are basically the same between .25s and .22s, but small, pocketable .25 ACP pistols are going to be a lot more reliable.

4. Derringers

cobra derringer

I like derringers, and I even think they have a role in self-defense. Just not as a primary. I think that two shots of .38 or .45 or whatever you’ve got plugged into your derringer is a decent option as a last ditch. But as a primary? Hard pass. Derringers are tough to shoot well, most are single action, they recoil a ton, and they don’t hold any ammo. They have all the drawbacks of a j-frame and none of the benefits. But again, as a last ditch option? Not so bad. If you must, get one from Bond Arms, because Bond Arms makes legit good guns. If your derringer isn’t a Bond, it’s probably crap.

Option: honestly, a j-frame would be a preferable choice. It still doesn’t hold much ammo, and it’s still tough to shoot, but it makes a better choice as a primary than a derringer.

3. Gimmick guns

Monica Belluci COP derringer

What’s a gimmick gun, you ask? It’s a gun that’s designed around features that don’t make it better to shoot, easier to reload, or any actual feature that you’d want to have in a defensive pistol. I don’t want to bet my life on “cool engineering,” you know?

Options: Buy a Glock or an M&P, don’t be a special snowflake.

2. Single-action revolvers

Ruger Vaquero with Winchester PDX

I love single action revolvers, and like derringers I think that they do have a purpose in self-defense. Just not as a primary gun for the average dude. Because remember, the average guy lives in the suburbs and drives a crossover or a pickup truck, and probably doesn’t need to shoot a bear or a mountain lion in his backyard. If you do need to shoot a bear or a lion or something, a single action revolver makes a lot of sense. However, for every day self-defense for Average Gun Bro? Not really. There’s a pretty steep learning curve on SA revolvers, from loading to firing and unloading that makes them a poor choice as a primary defensive tool.

Options: Uh, a DA revolver? If you want a wheelgun, get a big DA wheelgun. You can even shoot it SA if you’re a bad person, but they’re easier to load, unload, and shoot than an SA gun.

1. Eastern Europe milsurp (other than Makarovs)
Let’s get real here for a second. If you’re buying your CCW piece with your C&R license, you need to fix yourself. The big problem with a lot of these former Combloc guns is that they weren’t designed for anything other than capping a dissident in the back of the skull at contact distances. Sure, they’re cool collector items and they’re fun to take to the range, but as a serious self-defense tool? No. Just no. Especially since a CZ-52 is pushing $300 these days, for that price if you shop smart you can get a used Glock 23, which is literally better in every possible sense of being better.

Options: Buy a Glock or an M&P, don’t be a special snowflake.

There you have it, some simple recommendations. If you think I missed one, or you think I’m off my rocker, let me know in the comments!

editorial

More evil than necessary

Posted on by Tim

By now you have likely heard that last Friday night Paris was attacked by what has proven to be a multinational group of terrorists flying the ISIS flag. Even now French and other European police forces are conducting raids in a bunch of neighborhoods dominated by islamic immigrants. The mastermind of the Paris attack was killed in Seine Saint Denise in a neighborhood that had been identified by the government of France as a “sensitive urban zone”, or what has been more widely known as a “no-go zone“.

There are many excellent resources on the web using the events in Paris to discuss concepts relevant to surviving should you find yourself in the middle of such an event. Greg Ellifritz (you’ve heard his name here before) has a superb blog that catalogs this sort of information for easy reference, often adding his own useful insights on top of the linked material. I strongly encourage everyone to go read his posts on the subject, and I’ll point out that a lot of what happened in Paris was discussed in the Unthinkable class I attended earlier this year.

I’d like to say I was enraged by the barbarism on display in Paris, but unfortunately at this point it is just sadly predictable. It is yet another act of barbarism in a long line of barbaric acts by islamists bent on world domination. (No, that’s not an exaggeration. Go actually listen to what they say.) At this point my biggest gripe isn’t even with the terrorists anymore. They are murdering savages and if tomorrow I woke up with a big red button I could press that would cause all their brains to explode, I would put on a tuxedo and summon the media so they could bear witness as I pressed the button and danced the Charleston to the staccato rhythm of ISIS craniums being emptied across the world. They are loathsome creatures with a loathsome ideology and for the murder and misery they have caused I hope they all burn in hell…but they aren’t the real problem.

Our biggest problem is the complete failure of leadership in western civilization. Shortly after the Paris attacks a soccer game in Germany was cancelled due to concerns that it was going to be blown up and German citizens were warned not to walk in groups, presumably so it would be more difficult for terrorists to slaughter them wholesale if they weren’t bunched up. Anyone who has been paying attention to the news knows that the German government has been admitting thousands of “refugees” from lands that are hotbeds for terrorism…and these people are not widows and orphans as alleged in the news stories. Even the UN’s own data shows that the “refugees” are mostly men. The picture of the German government admitting a bunch of military aged males with backgrounds they cannot possibly verify on the one hand while shutting down soccer games and telling citizens not to walk in groups lest they be slaughtered by the wolves in their midst on the other is the perfect summation of what a clown show leadership in all of western civilization has become. I don’t have language to describe how utterly perverse it is for a government to throw caution to the wind in accepting anybody who walks to the border without even a trace of skepticism about their origin or purposes for coming while at the same time warning its citizens to not walk in groups so as to maybe avoid being slaughtered in the streets by the murderous elements they’ve allowed in. 

It’s like we’ve been unknowingly transported into some sort of alternate universe zoo where the harmless people are kept in cages while the vicious animals roam free.

Just about every form of electronic communication you engage in is being monitored in some capacity by various government agencies. If you want to fly anywhere for business or recreation, you have to be subjected to searches just shy of what prisons subject rapists and murderers to. And why? Because there are bad people in our midst and we must protect against their attack!

Bad people like the Tsarnayev brothers, who we let in the country as “refugees.” So was Beatrice Munyenyezi. And Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. And Fazliddin Kurbanov.

Bad people like Ander Grady, who we only put in jail for 18 months after he beat a man to death for fun. And Francis Benjamin, who will likely be out shortly for good behavior after attempting to murder rival gang bangers.

Because these bad people are in our midst, we must ban encryption! And we must ban more guns! Never mind that the Paris terrorists didn’t actually use encryption to hide from the authorities, and that they didn’t exactly buy their Kalashnikovs and bomb vests at the corner store.

We see this over and over again, and with domestic crime too. In 2013 Chicago PD’s clearance rate for murder was roughly 30%. The police couldn’t even bring charges for the worst type of crime in almost two thirds of cases, leaving heaven only knows how many murderers running around breathing free air but the President and his political allies would have you believe that the real problem in Chicago is insufficient gun control. Somehow the fact that I can buy a pistol is the real reason why people are getting shot in Chicago…not the fact that the streets are filled with so many violent criminals that their criminal justice system is completely overwhelmed, all this abetted by a street culture that is so diseased that police get minimal if any cooperation in trying to lock murderers up. Even when the victim is a child.

Nine year old Tyshawn Lee…NINE YEAR OLD…was executed in the street in Chicago and nobody is talking. But somehow all that’s on you and me. Right.

It is impossible to improve conditions if one refuses to at least be honest about what the conditions are…but time and time again the leaders of the western world are either too stupid or too cowardly to even admit to basic undeniable truths that are screamingly obvious to someone who hasn’t willingly taken leave of their senses. Stupidity is a luxury, the most ruinously expensive of them all…but the people pushing this idiocy are not the ones paying the bill.

It is high time We The People stopped listening to these damned fools. They should be sweeping floors, not making policies that impact the lives of billions. Government as an exercise is a necessary evil, but it’s a whole lot more evil than necessary if we put idiots at the helm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

concealed carry/editorial/gun stuff/Gunsite/handguns/news/self defense/shooting

At The Door

Posted on by C. J. Daniel

Let’s talk about home defense for a bit. Yes, I am shifting gears from competition for my next few posts. After delving deeper into my own situation and thinking about potential outcomes from what I experienced the other night, I have some thoughts that I felt were worth sharing. I offer them for what they are worth.

The Personal Defense Narrative

When a person buys a gun, they seldom plan on not using it. No matter the reason you purchased a firearm, you probably planned on shooting it, unless you are a high-end cork sniffing collector – but even some collectors like to shoot their guns! So many times people “know what they will do” when someone breaks in to their house.  They have created their own personal defense narrative and it normally involves shooting the intruder.

Unfortunately I feel this might lead to problems. When planning your own household defense  should you really imagine someone breaking into your house?  Might you better served imagining ALL probable “bump in the night” scenarios with a solid basis in reality.

Let me offer a scenario; a noise At The Door:

You awake to a noise outside your house. Might someone be there? Maybe, but the fact you heard someone or something doesn’t necessarily mean you are facing harm? Nevertheless, in your head you have played out this scenario countless times and at 3am, it can only be a bad guy, there is no other option. You’re sure of it!

You grab your gun and go investigate only to realize that someone (or something) is trying to beat down your door. Fearing for your life, (or that of your family,) you aim at the door with your firearm and yell STOP! You are greeted with a torrent of obscenities. Assured in the fact your personal narrative is correct you aim, you take a deep breath and pull the trigger.  You open the door to horror.

Congratulations! You fired your weapon at an unknown target and have either wounded someone or worse. Your narrative convinced you it was the only choice you had.

But let’s back up. What if it wasn’t a thug, but instead it was your neighbor? Perhaps he was drunk, disoriented and making a racket at your door because “their” key wasn’t working in “their” door. But, but, what about the swearing? Maybe it was directed at the lock, or maybe they thought you were pulling a bad joke on him. After all, he thought it was “his” house.

Before you comment that my scenario couldn’t happen, make sure you first tell that to the family of Carter Albrecht. This excerpt from the article linked in his name explains it all:

“He was shot to death as he tried to kick in a neighbor’s door in an apparent drunken rage after beating his girlfriend, police say. The neighbor reportedly thought Mr. Albrecht was a burglar and fired a pistol up high through the back door as a warning. The shot hit the 6-foot-4-inch Mr. Albrecht in the head instead.”

Was the late Mr. Albrecht a nice guy? I am not sure, I never met him. The article alleges he beat his girlfriend. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, I don’t know those facts. Did he deserve to die? I would say the odds are in favor of, NO. The take away is you should NEVER assume.

In both the scenario I offered, and in the actual event I linked, Jeff Cooper’s Rule #2 and #4 were disregarded with disastrous results. The end result was a needless death, and a shooter that will live with a horrible guilt the remainder of his life. Why?  Because the person holding the gun never took the time, on a peaceful day when there was time, to explore the possibilities and their options.

The takeaway is simple, you must know what is there; but you must gather information without exposing yourself. There are many different ways to accomplish that and I hope to review them in a later post; but before I do I have some thoughts on the noise inside of your house that I will review in my next post.

Before I sign off, let’s review Jeff Cooper’s 2nd Rule

NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO DESTROY – You may not wish to destroy it, but you must be clear in your mind that you are quite ready to if you let that muzzle cover the target.

And Jeff Cooper’s 4th Rule

BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET – You never shoot at anything until you have positively identified it. You never fire at a shadow, or a sound, or a suspected presence. You shoot only when you know absolutely what you are shooting at and what is beyond it.

Revised January 4, 2016 for typo – ed.

training

What’s the equivalent of dry fire in other sports training?

Posted on by Caleb

First off, I’m genuinely surprised I spelled “equivalent” correctly in the title of this post on the first try. But anyway, on to the point. I’m not going to do a post on whether or not dry fire is useful, because duh and or hello it is. Whether you believe that dry fire is a place to practice getting faster at draws and reloads, or a place to perfect the motions at a slow pace, dry fire works. It has its limitations of course, you can’t get better at Bill Drills doing dry fire. I think a lot of people who dismiss the utility of dry fire aren’t really involved in other sports training, because every sport has its own version of dry fire.

basement gym

Weight training
We’ll start here, because it’s what I’m spending a lot of my training time on right now. When you’re lifting, one of the most important things that people frequently get wrong is form. There are thousands of videos of people lifting with poor form on the internet, all of which will eventually result in injury if not corrected. So we train for good form by lifting with a broomstick or just lifting the empty bar. If you can’t do a proper form deadlift with a 45 pound bar, you’ll never do it with 200 pounds.

Combat sports
Here’s another easy one: no, it’s not sparring. Sparring is like shooting a club match, a better comparison to dry fire would be either shadowboxing or bag work. I personally like bag work as a comparison, because like in dry fire you can either go full speed and work on improving power, or you can go partial speed and work on improving form. This could be either a heavy bag or a speed bag, when you really think about it.

Baseball
Uh, batting practice? Yeah. Batting practice.

The point that I’m driving at here is don’t let people pooh-pooh dry fire to you as a waste of your time and energy. It’s a useful tool that when employed correctly will help you get better at manipulating your gun. Take my current situation as an example: my local range doesn’t allow holster draws during public use hours, so the only place I can practice my draw is in dry fire. When I’m at the range, I’ll start “holster” drills from the #2 position (or whatever you want to call it) and work it from there. Dry fire: it works, and it works best when you understand its limitations. You’ll never get stronger just lifting the bar, and you won’t get better at shooting El Pres just from dry fire either. At some point you’ve got to make a loud noise with your gun.

self defense

The Noise that Wasn’t There

Posted on by C. J. Daniel

As I write this it is the morning after the event. It made me think about my own personal preparedness, complacency and norms.

Last night I was in bed reading. It was about 11, my wife was asleep and my kids had been asleep since 8:30. The house was quiet, and then I heard a sound I had heard before – a door opening and closing. I had heard this before as I have two kids and it normally results in one of them barging into our room and declaring, “I’m sick”, “I’m scared,” “The dog is bothering me,” etc. I braced myself for one of my kids walking into the room, only they didn’t. After about 20 seconds I got up and went looking for the kid thinking they might be vomiting or getting water from the kitchen.

Gunsite Day 1 Night Shoot 020

 

What I found was both kids sound asleep, as were the dogs that sleep with them each night.

At that point a terror shot through me, there might be someone in my house and I was ill-equipped with only boxer shorts and fist at my disposal.

With trepidation I started turning on lights and checking the house. Ultimately I found nothing. Not. A. Single. Thing. In the past my wife has heard doors open and close and believes our house to be haunted (tongue in check). I on the other hand, am pretty sure it is something less sinister than a poltergeist. Nevertheless it was an eye opener. I was so sure it was my one of my kids I had never stopped to consider the worst. I am grateful it was nothing, but what if I wasn’t lucky? What if my family and I were now just a statistic? A simple headline in a newspaper. A prime example of what not to do.

With this fresh in my mind I am reviewing my own procedures. I have long entertained creating something similar to the Intruder Defense Bag as shown by Sootch00 on YouTube. I even have the bag, but I got side tracked and never finished. My goal now is to finish the bag and have something usable. As I work through this I will update and track it here. It may be a one simple post or more, I honestly don’t know yet.

Ray Wylie Hubbard has a song called Conversation with the Devil. In it has says

Some get spiritual, ’cause they see the light
And some, ’cause they feel the heat

A little extrapolation and that applies to my situation completely!

What or how have you prepared for the Bump in the night. Have you ever entertained the possibility you might mistake an intruder for a sick kid?

Edited: December 11, 2015 to correct typos.

ammo/Hornady

Ammo review: Hornady Custom Lite Reduced Recoil .308 Winchester

Posted on by Caleb

Jeez, that title was a mouthful, wasn’t it? I swear, ammo manufacturers are getting carried away with their product names these days. But that’s not the point, the point is to talk about this product from Hornady. Today we’re reviewing their reduced recoil .308 Winchester load, which is loaded with Hornady’s 125 grain SST bullet.

Hornady Custom Lite .308 Win

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