Paul Harrell Versus Gun Nuts Media
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 9 months ago
Watch all of this video (it’s long) or my comments will make no sense at all.
Allow me to weigh in a bit. I’ve never seen or heard of this guy (“Caleb” from Gun Nuts Media – I have no idea if that’s his real name or a nom de guerre). I have visited his site once as you’ll see below, and I’ll never visit again.
He impresses me as a spoiled little boy, a narcissist, a child who was never spanked, a liar, and a drama queen who writes click bait for his web site and soap operas for his YouTube channel. He’s much too emotional for my tastes.
If he was never spanked as a child, he certainly was by Paul in this video. He deserved it. I agree with everything Paul said, but even if I had not, there’s a moral issue at stake here. It comes from Leviticus 19:32. “Caleb,” if you need help with exegesis of that, write me a note.
On the issue of revolvers and “hitting” or slapping the ejector rod, I’ve done that as long as I’ve been shooting revolvers. I’ve never had a problem. The only problem I’ve ever had was with a S&W R8 revolver.
It’s tolerances are tight, and it’s very accurate. I’m sure those are related things. I could have taken the time to ream the cylinder a bit and gotten better performance, but there would still be the issue of the forcing cone being so tight against the cylinder.
Within 50 rounds without fail, shooting high power .357 magnum ammunition which of course runs very hot, the metal would expand and cause either (a) the brass to fail to come out of the cylinder (which necessitated me striking the ejector rod pretty hard), or (b) the cylinder seizing against the forcing cone until the gun cooled down.
I dumped the gun. It was a wonderful gun, but I just wanted to shoot more than it would allow without heating up too much. Every other wheel gun I’ve ever shot only had that problem to a much less degree, this one to a much greater degree.
So if you needed any more information about Gun Nuts Media, here is something they have to say about what should be your own choice.
Basically, it’s 2019, and if you aren’t shooting 9mm as a primary pistol cartridge, you need to re-evaluate your life choices. It’s now an undisptued fact that modern 9mm ammo can give ballistic performance on par with 40 S&W, 45 Auto, and pretty much every other handgun cartridge.
“Re-evaluate your life choices.” Being a bit dramatic, are we? If you shoot anything other than 9mm you need to “re-evaluate your life choices.”
Okay, first of all, it’s simply not true. Oh, it may be close for two-legged threats, but it’s certainly not true for four-legged threats. Moreover, if someone happens to shoot .45 ACP or .40 S&W better than 9mm, or .38 Spl better, they should be allowed to shoot whatever works for them without internet know-it-alls telling them not to. Some rounds push, some rounds snap and cause more pronounced muzzle flip.
Either way, I don’t think there’s a nickel’s worth of difference between someone telling you that you shouldn’t be allowed to have such-and-such gun, and someone telling you that you should shoot such-and-such a gun because I say so. Each is a different form of collectivism. I can’t stand collectivists. Mind your own business.
And “Caleb,” grow up, little boy, and quit being a drama queen. Maybe when you do, you can be like Paul.
On March 27, 2020 at 5:56 pm, John Deaux said:
There’s no shortage of idiots on the internet so when I go looking for advice youtube is not the place I go for information.
On March 27, 2020 at 7:24 pm, Fred said:
qualifiers
For Caleb, whoever that is, and for anybody else interested in things like Honor, Standing, Family, Integrity, Tribe, Nation; Exodus 20:12 would be a great place to start, it being the first commandment with promise. And then one could take a look at Leviticus 19:32 as Mr. Smith recommends, as a further example by way of command extended to all our elders, not just parents, that we live long and be upright, not to go as the animals do, but to go with Honor before Holy God. That promise by the way, is so that your days may be long upon the land. That promise comes with the potential of curses, specifically; a short mean little life, for not following this command of God as a mode of daily living one with another, being respectful, and therefore to be found as honorable before your elders.
That’s a “pedestrian” explanation. If you want the real explanation leaving you scratching your head just a little and 3 days (or less if your smart) of homework to do, then by all means do contact Mr. Smith. It will be well worth your time. I don’t mean that a slight at all.
I love this guy Mr. Harrell, oops, “qualifiers.” I don’t know Mr. Harrell, I very much enjoy his videos. See what I did there, that’s the difference between an emotion based state of being and a logical state of presentation. And that’s why I really enjoy his vids. It’s no surprise that Mr. Smith enjoys them as well. For me it’s obvious that he has a well structured, hierarchical, and logical mind. He uses what he recalls carefully, with qualifiers. I love qualifiers. I learned to use them working for the Dept. of Defense; will, may, must, likely, somewhat likely, etc. Mr. Harrell even, many times, will go as far as to be very specific about his qualifier; qualifying the qualifier if you will. That’s why he’s “long winded.” Well, I hope he doesn’t stop, because truth and logic and reasoning aka how one arrives at a conclusion, these things are in the details, and that is why they are important. Details and precision in language matter. (If only I could.)
Plus, verbal dead pan dry humor is something that I enjoy. If you want three stooges, well, you can find that type of entertainment all over youtube. It’s not for me. I like intelligent humor well delivered with a straight face and no laugh track.
On March 27, 2020 at 8:09 pm, Jon said:
I know Caleb – you nailed it, first try. I actively avoid him these days.
On March 27, 2020 at 8:27 pm, Elmo said:
That dude’s weird.
On March 28, 2020 at 10:07 am, George 1 said:
With regard to the old .40 vs 9mm debate. There are some advantages to the 9mm for defense purposes. Is the 9mm “on par with the .40 cal or .45” performance wise? Not really. You can set up a test to make it seem so. You can even take a preponderance of the data from shootings and try to extrapolate that the 9mm performs as well.
However it is just physics. The .40 cal is, on average, pushing a larger bullet at a similar speed. It can be loaded to produce much greater energy than a 9mm. The ballistic gelatin tests that are frequently used to judge performance have at least one flaw. They cannot show how the bullet would do if encountering dense bone or heavy muscle or even barriers prior to entry.
I know someone who hunts pigs regularly and has experimented with many different calibers. He has told me that you can really tell the difference in the 9mm from the .40 when shooting animals. According to him the .40 cal will put down a large pig more efficiently than a 9mm. In fact I think Paul Harrell has a video specifically about the 9mm vs the .40 cal.
Remember the new found affinity for the 9mm is being primarily driven by the law enforcement community. I know from my own experience that many women did not like shooting the .40 cal. Many will shoot better scores with a 9mm and that does come into play. It is one of the advantages of the 9mm. In a shooting it is always better to hit your target than to miss with a more powerful round.
People should be honest about that and not try to sell the “9mm is proven to be just as effective as .40 or .45. Well not per hit is isn’t.
On March 28, 2020 at 10:22 am, Bill Sullivan said:
Physics rules. Watch some of Ian McCollum’s and Karl Kasarda’s 2 gun matches on InRange. Hit a spinner or falling plate with a 9mm, and then hit it with a .45. Watch what happens.
On March 28, 2020 at 11:25 am, MTHead said:
The way I shoot. I always figured the bigger the caliber, the better chance I had of hitting the target!
On March 28, 2020 at 11:59 am, George 1 said:
Regarding the revolver reloading techniques. I am old guy and I did carry a revolver for some time. I was taught to reload by pushing the ejector rod smartly with the left had thumb. The right hand was reaching for the speed loader.
However most departments taught the method used by Mr. Harrell. That is using the right hand to push the ejector rod smartly, then going for the speed loader. Anyone who researched this even a little bit would know this. This Caleb fellow is obviously just trying to denigrate Paul Harrell. Since fewer people use or train with revolvers today Caleb is probably able to convince many of his assertion.
On March 28, 2020 at 1:22 pm, Ned2 said:
I’m sorry, I could only take a few minutes. This is the guy you’d sucker punch in the lunch line at school. Because you just knew you had to.
On March 28, 2020 at 1:26 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Short attention span, Ned2? You actually missed an informative video about how people like him have to caveat, qualify and stipulate.
I grok his pain. You have no idea how many times other bloggers have misquoted or misapplied me, how many times people read the first paragraph of a post and then hit comments to post their own thoughts, how many people read my post and never go to the source and thus never see that a question has already been answered or a point already made.
You also missed a chance to see Mr. “Caleb” in action, and thus to make sure you never do again.
On March 28, 2020 at 1:55 pm, Herschel Smith said:
I know what I’ll do. From now on, even though I’ll never link him or watch his video, I’ll start a meme and refer to him as “Ms. Caleb.” He sounds like he’s having … “his time of the month” … every minute of every day.
“Ms. Caleb.”
On March 28, 2020 at 8:10 pm, WarEagle82 said:
I was watching older Paul Harrell videos about revolvers and youtube listed the Caleb Giddings video among many others. I clicked on it, assuming it was someone else poking light-hearted fun at Paul the way several people have done over the years. I was completely wrong.
In short order, it was clear Giddings had either NEVER watched the video he was ripping or was intentionally mischaracterizing the video. Somehow, Giddings thinks he was going to build himself up by attacking Harrell. It didn’t work.
He has left his awful video up but disabled comments and reset the likes/dislikes counter. I assume he got his ass handed to him in the comments. So, like a man-child, he hid everything.
Even worse, he posted a 4 minute video “thanking” Harrell for sending so many visits and views to his page and generating a spike in ad revenue. I suspect that spike will be temporary. He even pinned a post praising him to this short, self-serving video. The speculation is that the account is a sock puppet. I suspect he will shortly disable comments on his recent video as well. I think comments were running were otherwise running against him and there were 257 likes and 4.7K dislikes. If you want to tank a new channel, this is the object lesson in how to do it. He currently has 52.6K subscribers. I wonder how that number will hold up.
I thought Giddings might have the common decency to apologize. I was wrong. Evidently he is a stupid and shameless man-child. Don’t be Caleb Giddings.
I noticed he had locked his wikipedia page as well.
On March 28, 2020 at 8:12 pm, WarEagle82 said:
Oh, and “life choices?” I have been practicing with several 9mm over the past few years. I still shoot my .45 ACP 1911 better. Some guns just work better for some people than other guns. I kind of think people need to figure things out for themselves and avoid people who know everything.
On March 29, 2020 at 11:49 am, Heywood said:
Sorry about your penis, Caleb!
On March 29, 2020 at 12:32 pm, MTHead said:
I grew up in the day when “thee” cop gun was a Colt python. They didn’t have speed loaders. They had what was called a Dead man pouch. Basically it unsnapped, folded down and the cartridges rolled out into your hand. You held the revolver in your cupped left hand so that if you missed a drop the cartridge would fall in your hand. Not on the ground.
That aside, go watch Jerry Miculek reload a revolver.
On March 29, 2020 at 3:17 pm, Sully said:
I only saw Caleb’s video after watching Paul’s rebuttal. Talk about someone with a poor grasp of consequences.
He quite obviously tried to gain some numbers by slagging off Harrell. The gravity of this mistake is something I suspect Caleb is only just beginning to graps. Paul is immensely popular and respected, and Caleb just looks like a punk taking a swing.
He’s already complaining about the conduct of Paul’s supporters. He ain’t seen nothing yet. Wail til the big-hitter YouTubers get hold of him. I hope his extra few hits were worth it.
On March 30, 2020 at 3:44 pm, Paul Bonneau said:
I think 99% of the time, it makes no difference if you hit or push the ejector rod. How many defensive shootings take more than 2 shots?
We get into these discussions about nit-picky details because we forget one important thing: The vast majority of the scenario is not under our control. Only our own body is under the control of our own brain, and even that is exaggerating because we are dealing with a huge adrenaline dump and our fine motor skills are out the window.
We are human beings, not robots. If we can get a few basic things right, such as having a gun in the first place, and not letting our adversary get within stabbing range, drawing without snagging, etc. then that is about as good as it gets.
As to internet arguments:
“Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” — Mark Twain
On March 30, 2020 at 3:50 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Paul,
That’s a pithy quote, but it’s always worthwhile to shun and humiliate those who should be shunned and humiliated.
On March 30, 2020 at 5:08 pm, JFP said:
Yay, internet slap fight drama. I lasted two minutes with Caleb’s revolver rant video. He can hate Mr. Harrell all he wants but when he mentions Massad Ayoob as his revolver technique hero, I’ll hate Caleb just as much for all the silly reasons Caleb hates Harrell.
On April 22, 2020 at 1:03 pm, TZH said:
I’m a longtime Paul Harrell subscriber, I even remember when he had a porno ‘stache and disco music intro. I respect the man. He clearly dosen’t do all of his sensible and well thought of videos for popularity. The man does it purely for the love of his profession and to share it with others.
The other guy? Typical douchebag who thinks it was clever to make a video edited to make a good man look bad. Him and his dumbass clicque of supporters who think they’re too cool.
All that in the name of gaining revenue and boosting his ego. That little man is doing his very best to do damage control and pretend so hard that he wasn’t crying in bed at night with the gigantic mistake he made.
Tthe gun community is actually filled with decent people who won’t take bullying like this sitting down. I’m proud of everybody who stood up for Paul.
On May 14, 2021 at 3:17 pm, Terry Smith said:
Col. Cooper, Massad Ayoob and Paul Harrell!!!!! All the input I need!!!!!! Caleb???? NEVER HEARD of him!!! Am I sure? DID COL.COOPER CARY A BIG BORE???