Articles by Herschel Smith

I stumbled across this video and thought I would pass it along.  It appears to me to be a very efficient and utilitarian setup.  I’ve never seen a setup quite like this.

Here is the tarp he is using (he says 3 X 3 but that’s yards).  This is a very lightweight solution to the need for cover if you find yourself in need of emergency shelter, and also assuming you use trekking poles (I do unless it’s a hunt).

Source.

Team Beretta shooters recently achieved 14 podium finishes during the 2022 National Sporting Clays Championship at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, TX.

Team Beretta members in attendance at this competition included Zachary Kienbaum, Anthony Matarese, Jr., Joseph Fanizzi, Desirae Edmunds, Diane Sorantino, Dominic Grossi, Meagan Harrington, and Jared Greenwood.

Kienbaum, shooting with a Beretta DT11, secured his third HOA National Champion title with an exceptional score of 285 out of 300 targets, besting his nearest competitor by 1 target. With this accomplishment and his back-to-back National wins in 2018 and 2019, Kienbaum joins a select group of two other sporting clays athletes as the only competitors to have ever won 3 National Championship HOA titles in NSCA history. Kienbaum, shooting with a Beretta A300 Ultima, also took home an additional champion title in the 20 Gauge event with a score of 94 out of 100 targets.

This could arguably be one of the best jobs on earth.  I’m not sure who’s job to admire the most – this one, or Ron Spomer’s job as a pro hunter.

But then, jealousy is a sin, so I better leave it at admiration for a job well done.  And that DT11 starts at $10,000.

So after watching this video in its entirety, I can only conclude the following: (a) the ATF is crooked and corrupt (but we already knew that), (b) the ATF isn’t spending its time at the Southern border trying to end the trafficking of people, drugs and arms across the border into America, for that would be dangerous for them (but we already knew that), (c) the ATF is full if inept people (but we already knew that), (d) the ATF falsely arrested this individual, (e) the ATF took some very nice firearms (e.g., a Knight’s Armament rifle, other weapons, some suppressors, etc.), (f) the ATF doesn’t want to give them back, (g) the man did nothing wrong, (h) the ATF is so juvenile that they threatened the individual when he called to get his weapons back.

Now for the things I suspect: that nice Knight’s Armament rifle has become somebody’s Christmas present and the man will never see his weapon again – it will magically become “lost.”  That’s the cause of the delay.

This is your tax dollars at work.  Gaze upon the corruption, perfidy, and the repugnant and repulsive picture of a government agency that has become unhinged from morality.

Recoil.

Beretta Holding Group (owner of Beretta, Benelli, Burris, Steiner, and more) announced today their plans to invest $60 million in a state-of-the-art ammunition plant to be located in Savannah, Georgia!

After their recent acquisition of Norma Precision, the Beretta Holding Group now employs over 1,000 people in the USA through Beretta USA, Benelli USA, Burris, Steiner eOptics, and Norma Precision.

Dott. Pietro Gussalli Beretta, President and CEO of Beretta Holding S.A. said:

“I am delighted to announce our commitment to invest $60 million through our newly acquired US ammunition subsidiary, Norma Precision. Together with my Family and Beretta Holding, we are very proud to add ammunition manufacturing to our US presence. That is a very special moment as we can now provide our loyal and dedicated US customers with a full range of locally manufactured premium products spanning from firearms to ammunition and optics, all united under the same Group. We are also supporting the local economic network by creating hundreds of new jobs.”

You were aware that Beretta owned those companies weren’t you, including Benelli?  Now they own Norma Precision.

This is a nice addition to my series on Gun Valley Moves South.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Using the power of the state to punish your enemies isn’t a tactic limited to the beltway.  It happens all the time in small town America.

One commenter suggests this: “I know what happened here, the person who made the complaint had been feeding that deer and getting trail cam pictures of it. That person just happens to be a friend of that DNR officer. This was a jealously case, the person who was feeding the deer was pissed someone else shot his trophy buck and was using the power of the DNR to get the antlers for himself. I’m from WV, hope he sues the crap out of the DNR for public defamation.”

And law enforcement couldn’t be silent about it.  They just had to go and defame his character in front of the world, with no evidence that he did anything they said he did.

This really is an ugly look for local law enforcement, and also for DNR.  Jealousy is always and everywhere a sin, it and can control a man’s heart.

The only thing this guy did wrong is talk to the police.  Never, ever talk to the police.  Let your attorney do your talking for you.

I would love to have this gun, but they’ve priced me out of the market at just over $4000.  I’d also like to have the predecessor to this one, the 686.

Model 686 is no longer in production so it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find them for sale (although some are still out there).  They don’t a bit of upgrading and added $2000 to the price for the 694, making it less appealing that owning a model 686.

The comments in the video seem to prefer the 694 over the Browning.

Shooting Illustrated.

Faster?
Yup. No matter how good the shooter is with a pump. Many big 3-gun matches also have a side match for shotguns. There is usually a low target count, so nobody has to reload. The buzzer goes off and you shoot the targets. No reloading, running, jumping or standing on one leg, and no tricky targets. Just stand there and shoot the shotgun. Pump guns never win. No matter what the guy at the gun shop says, semi-autos are simply faster.

Semi-autos will not shoot all ammo.
That was an issue with that bird gun I mentioned and a few others, but not with most guns today. Today’s best semi-automatic shotguns can digest a wide range of ammo from low-recoil to full-power without a problem. Shotguns with the inertia system pioneered by Benelli, or the multi-port gas systems like Remington used in its guns, will handle all ammo. Most of the newer gas guns will likewise eat any ammo they are fed.

Semi-autos jam.
They pretty much don’t anymore. At least, no more than other firearms. Pumps do, though. I shoot a pump shotgun a lot. (I never said I don’t like them.) When it counts, I will now and then inadvertently short stroke and jam it up.

It’s not just me. I have seen even the very best pump-shotgun shooters in the world short stroke their guns when trying to go fast. The simple fact is that operating a pump shotgun is a human function. When subjected to stress, humans do not beat well-designed machines, because machines are not subject to emotional stress.

I agree with all of these remarks.  I think that a commitment to pump action shotguns over semi-auto shotguns because you believe that semi-auto shotguns are less reliable is based on a false paradigm that may have been correct 50 years ago, but certainly isn’t now.

Specifically, he’s reviewing the latest Savage tactical shotgun, the Renegauge Security.  It appears to want to compete with the Beretta 1301.  I doubt that it can come up to the level of the 1301, but since Savage didn’t send me one to review, I have no way of knowing with certainty.

It’s a nice looking gun, and maybe I’ll get a chance to shoot one some day.

Reuters.

A federal judge has blocked New York from restricting the carrying of guns on private property under a Democratic-backed law adopted following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling that struck down the state’s strict gun permitting regime.

Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge John Sinatra in Buffalo struck down a provision in the law that made it a felony for a licensed gun owner to possess a firearm on any private property unless the property owner allowed it with a sign or by giving express consent.

From the decision.

Property owners indeed have the right to exclude.  But the state may not unilaterally exercise that that right …

We believe in property rights, even against the state.  That certainly includes property owners who do not wish for you to bear arms on their property.  But you see what NY did there, yes?  They exercised that right on behalf of property owners.  In other words, they didn’t respect the rights of property owners to make the decision on their own property.

What NY did runs exactly counter to the notion of property rights, and thus the judge reached the right decision.

It always happens.  When the small Green Beret team was ambushed in Niger, Maj. General Bob Scales escalated his whining about the M4, demanding that it be replaced with a piston AR (a point completely irrelevant to anything that happened in the engagement).  The engagement was poorly planned, ill-conceived, and undermanned.  There was no QRF anywhere near them, the team was too small, they had no light or medium MGs (and certainly no heavy MGs), and I could go on with the failures.

But it’s the gun.  It’s always the gun.  It’s never the stupid Colonels and Generals who plan the missions.  It’s always the gun.  True to form, the reason they fielded the Sig XM5 was to bring battlefield superiority against – wait for it – the PKM.  It’s never the planners who put FOBs in the valleys between mountains and waste time even doing that, allowing the enemy to mass forces and field fighters that outnumber our troops by ten to one.  It’s the gun.  It’s always the gun.

No battle rifle can compete with a crew-served, belt-fed medium MG.  There are always answers to medium MGs, such as: taking the high ground, overwatch, QRF, CAS, using our own medium and heavy MGs, and maybe re-introducing a role for the long-forgotten grenadier (the M203 is not a sufficient replacement for the M79 in terms of range).  These things mean rethinking doctrine, weapons systems, TTPs, and training.  But they don’t want to do that – it’s always the gun.

If you want somewhat increased penetration and distance with the AR platform, I’ve already told you what to do.  Switch uppers to the 6mm ARC.  It’s a simple change, and would be the cheapest and most effective remedy for what is currently really a very small problem.  And in-between remedy for this would be to return the 20″ barrel Eugene Stoner originally designed.

But for whatever reason I cannot fathom, the U.S. Army has some sort of sordid love affair with Sig.  And for whatever reason I cannot understand (unless someone has pictures on active generals in the DoD complex), they always need a new rifle.  So here it is, all 13 lb of it.

This is yet another interesting video from Target Suite.

I do have a personal interest in this issue.  I was previously wondering if having a Marlin Model 336 30-30 and Marlin Model 336 in 35 Remington is redundant.  I also stumbled across this article in American Hunter magazine.

Which is the more useful cartridge? Of the two, which serves the hunter better? Traditionally, the tubular magazines of the popular lever-rifles restricted the cartridges to using round or flat-point bullets, to avoid the possibility of magazine detonation, should a pointed spitzer bullet hit the primer of the cartridge ahead of it in the magazine. The exception to that rule is Hornady’s LeveRevolution ammo line, which uses a pliable tip on a spitzer bullet to afford a much flatter trajectory in both cartridges. With the traditional loads, the .30-30 will drive its 150- and 170-grain bullets to a muzzle velocity of 2400 and 2250 fps respectively, while the .35 Remington launches its 180- and 200-grain bullets at 2100 and 2080 fps. Both generate between 1,800 and 1,900 ft.-lbs. of muzzle energy with traditional loads, and the hot-rod LeveRevolution will certainly offer an improvement in ballistic figures, but the advancements are parallel between the two cartridges.

I did find it a bit amusing at about the 6:20 mark.  He should have left the stated value of 35% alone without “correction” in the video.  Comparison of areas would be done by the square of the radius: (0.358)^2 / (0.308)^2 ≈ 1.35.

Please weigh in with comments.  Do readers have a preference for 35 Remington over the 30-30, or vice versa, or none at all?  Then again, fine gentlemen of find upbringing have fine weapons, and there shouldn’t be a problem with a collection where both calibers are a part of it.