Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Choosing Defensive Shotgun Ammunition
Justin provides an informative wake up call for those of you who think birdshot is the best home defense load. The article doesn’t mention it, but the recommended Federal FliteControl low recoil buckshot does not function well in some semi-automatic shotguns. If you want a really tight pattern but can’t find or use the FliteControl rounds, I’d recommend the Hornady TAP/Black loads. They have a tighter pattern than any other shell except the FliteControl, but enough velocity to cycle even the most finicky semi-auto shotguns.
No, The NFA Isn’t Dead – GUNS Magazine
A quick look at the details behind your ability to purchase NFA items following the recent court decision.
September Rangemaster Newsletter
Lots of quality information in this month’s issue.
Determining What is a Reliable EDC Concealed Carry Handgun?
How many rounds should you fire through your defensive handgun to consider it reliable?
.38 Special VS .32 H&R Magnum
Is carrying a revolver that holds one or two extra rounds a useful feature or a “stopping power” mistake?
Are You Being Served?
“I’ve said it before; what we need the most right now is the firearms equivalent of a personal trainer, someone you’d check in with on a monthly or even quarterly basis. They’d ask you questions like,
“What problems are you running into carrying your gun with you everyday?”
“When’s the last time you trained? What did you work on?”
“How can I help you achieve success?”
And you’d work with those students to achieve your goal of living the armed lifestyle, much like a weight loss coach teaches you how to eat and how to work out.
However, in order to make this work, we need to make living a lifestyle our goal, and not a sub-second draw, and I’m not sure that trainers WANT to make the focus of what they teach. In their eyes, it’s up to the student to quit smoking, their job is confined only to what happens in the gym.”
To Intervene — Or Not?
Is intervention worth the potential consequences?
Federal Punch 22LR: Gel Test [Video Review]
I’m currently carrying Punch rounds in my .22 carry revolvers.
Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History
What I’m reading…
Doing a bit of research for new article series I’m going to be starting here on my site. I don’t know how it happened, but it seems like I’m now one of the official “old guys” in the tactical training space. I’ve spent almost 40 years studying combative firearms use and martial arts. Over the course of my lengthy career, I’ve seen how the events encountered in historical police gunfights have completely changed training doctrine and equipment use for both police and armed citizens alike.
It’s important to understand how these events have changed the arc of combative firearms training. Unfortunately, lots of instructors in this space have no real interest in the history of our art and knowing why certain weapon systems and training doctrines exist.
I’m planning on doing a brief article that includes a summary of the incident, how the event altered training/tactics, and a list of links for more exploration of each individual event. The article series will be like a “Cliff’s Notes for Firearms Instructors” providing an easy to read history of each event and why it is important. I plan on doing debriefs of some of Jelly Bryce’s gunfights, the Texas Tower sniper, Newhall, the Onion Field, some of Jim Cirillo’s “stake out squad” gunfights, Norco, the LA Bank Robbery, The FBI Miami gunfight, and Columbine.
For those of you who have never heard of Norco, this article will get you up to speed. The Norco Bank Robbery
Improvised Weapons: Forever Armed
I teach Mike Janich’s “cycling hammerfist” in some of my edged weapons and impact weapons classes. In this article, Michael Janich describes this very simple and effective impact weapon technique.
Warning that mammoth nationwide blackout could last 18 MONTHS as power grid’s appalling weak spots exposed
If you are reading this site, you probably have an adequate firearms/ammunition emergency stockpile. I bet most of you have more stored food and water than the average person as well. How are your emergency power preparations coming? After reading this piece, I’d probably spend some time and money to make sure you are capable of surviving a long term power outage.
Whole house generators are great (and I have one), but they are loud, consume a lot of fuel, and make you an easy target to identify when your house is the only one on the block with power after everyone else hasn’t had electricity in a week.
I think a better strategy is to have a smaller generator you run intermittently to charge up a large electrical power bank portable battery that you can then use to run a few appliances and power computers, modems, and a couple of lights. I have a power bank that recharges with solar panels, but the charging is really slow. It works much better being charged from a small generator.
If those options are too expensive, you might be able to power some critical needs by running your car engine with a power inverter in place of the generator.
More Random Thoughts from CCW Qualification
“My class had about two dozen students, and most all of them had their three guns to qualify with [our state requires you to list the serial number of the gun(s) you will carry on your permit, and prohibits you from carrying a gun that’s not listed. The state generally limits you to three guns total on the permit, and you’re required to qualify with each of them]. We had somewhere in the vicinity of 60-70 guns being fired, and I’m pretty sure I had the only revolver in the crowd. There may have been another, but I didn’t see one, and didn’t hear anyone else identify as a revolver shooter when the instructor asked.”
An interesting take on what some instructors have called “The Revolver Renaissance.” I teach revolver classes and they are full. There are also at least two national revolver centric shooting conferences every year. We would have never been able to fill those classes 15 years ago. Those facts have led some instructors to opine that revolvers are “coming back.”
They aren’t. If you are reading this and enjoy taking training classes, you are 1% of the gun owning population. The average gun owner is not like you and me. We’ve taken all the training classes and are bored with the standard “performance pistol” classes out there. We keep excited by learning new things about different weapons systems (like revolvers). The average gun owner doesn’t see shooting and training as a hobby like we do. The average defense oriented shooter has approximately zero interest in revolvers.
For the few of you who do care about revolvers, you might enjoy Self-Defense with a Revolver: Fundamentals and Tips
“Six Inches of Steel”: Bowie Knife Instruction by Louis Juan Ohnimus
Some historical knife fighting instruction. You may also like Very Perilous: A sword wounds compendium by the surgeon Ravaton.
Before You Need That Phone Call: Understanding Self-Defense Legal Plans and Insurance
I get lots of questions about self defense insurance. That’s not my area of expertise. If the question interest you, I’d suggest checking out this article.
When Good Cops Hesitate, Bad People Win
A realistic look at police de-escalation issues. If you liked this article, you may also like Standards Matter, But Standards Are Not the Point
The “Three S” Test
Wisdom from Dave Spaulding.
300 Blackout Ballistics by Barrel Length: What the Data Told Us
For you .300 Blackout shooters.
Practicing Unhappiness
Are you practicing unhappiness? How is that working out for you?
“To be sure, some people have always “practiced unhappiness.”
Your Boomercon relative who settles down to yell at Fox News every night is practicing unhappiness. And so is his gray-haired-hippie counterpart with Trump Derangement Syndrome who is obsessing over CNN or whatever.
But social media makes it easy and almost guarantees that at least someone else will know that you’re screaming at the TV.
Maybe it makes guys feel “seen.”
I encounter this in my feed all the time when someone new follows me or likes a post or makes a comment. I check their profile—hoping maybe they’re cool—and scroll through a catalog of daily shit-posting going back months or years.
If most of what you have to share with the world has to do with what makes you angry, what does that say about who you are?”
Quote to Ponder:
“Public policy generated by a handful of crazies is never sensible and isn’t the norm in American life. We don’t limit food distribution because of bulimics, we don’t limit car distribution because of terrible drivers, and we don’t limit bridges because a few people jump off them.”
– Marty Klein
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