Articles by Herschel Smith

This is probably a dumb test.

Besides, I don’t believe there is any such thing as a “Winter Skin Walker” with talons.  I think he just made that up.  I think most things in the cold bush are furry and bad.  “The Alaskan” could help us on that one.

But if you like dumb videos where significantly “beyond design basis” conditions are imposed on machinery just to watch it fail, this may be mildly entertaining for you.

I would probably not choose to impose this particular set of beyond design basis conditions because of the thermal cycling it induces on the machinery (and potential for structural degradation due to cracks in the grain boundaries of the metal).

Via Instapundit, NPR discusses the upcoming famine beginning in Ukraine.

The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, Lebanon’s economy minister announced the country of 6.8 million people had enough wheat reserves to last just one month.

Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of agriculture, which Lebanon depends on. Ukraine alone exported more than $27 billion in agricultural products to the world last year. About 80% of Lebanon’s wheat comes from Ukraine.

So when the war started, so did worries of food shortages and price hikes.

“You could say the majority of the Lebanese population is living in survival mode,” said Maya Terro, founder of the non-profit organization FoodBlessed Lebanon, which feeds vulnerable people in Beirut.

Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, food prices soared. The invasion sent ripples beyond the immediate conflict zone, breaking supply chains and creating food shortages as two of the world’s biggest food exporters went to war.

In response, Egypt’s prime minister fixed bread prices, Bangladesh launched a nationwide food subsidy program, and consumers in Indonesia noticed a favorite instant noodle dish went out of stock.

It’s too late to salvage the situation now.  This famine was man-made.

China is doing it too.  It’s now too late for China too.

If you think your elitist betters aren’t capable of such a thing, think again.

This is happening, if I’m not mistaken, because the unions have been told to delay and curtail shipments.

Is it too late for America now?

Michael Yon discusses Panfawar.  Pandemic, war and famine all go together, are all related, and are all man-made.  Never forget that.  Famines are man-made.  Your betters apparently want you to starve to death.

This is warfare as surely as artillery strikes.

Outdoor Life.

Electrical tape is the best thing I’ve found to keep moisture and debris out of my rifle muzzle. Once I began hunting in Alaska in conditions that were often harsh and wet, I quickly inherited the trick of tightly covering my muzzle with electrical tape. I even keep extra tape rolled around the barrel just in front of the stock. Once I shoot through the first tape, I’ll eventually retape it with the extra roll. As a matter of habit, any rifle I have with me is taped from the time it’s uncased till I shoot. I simply shoot through the tape and cover it back up afterwards.

[ … ]

In fact, the bullet never even contacts the tape. The air pressure created by the tightly sealed bullet traveling down the bore blows the tape away from the muzzle long before the bullet ever gets there.

[ … ]

Group sizes and group center locations didn’t indicate any trends or notable changes across the rifles …

Tricks of the trade.  I’ve never thought of this before, but it doesn’t surprise me that he finds no difference in shots between taped and untaped.

It seems like a good idea in very wet environments.

And again it happens.

Philadelphia police say an armed home intruder impersonating a police officer was shot and killed by a Mayfair resident Sunday night.

Authorities say the shooting happened on the 7200 block of Battersby Street just after 10 p.m.

Officers from the 15th District responded to the scene and found a man outside a doorway with gunshot wounds to the head, chest and arm, according to officials.

Police say he was taken to Jefferson Torresdale hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:19 p.m.

According to Chief Inspector Scott Small, the deceased victim, who had a fake police badge around his neck, and another man approached an apartment where a 25-year-old was coming out.

Small says the two men said they were police officers and forced their way inside the apartment.

Officials say the suspects threatened to shoot and kill the 25-year-old as they were attempting to zip tie his hands.

When the resident realized the two men were not police officers, he pulled out his own gun and shot one of the suspects, killing him, authorities say.

We’ve documented posing as police here, here, here, here, here and here.

This is why SWAT raids must end and we cannot simply lay down our arms when someone busts in the door and announces that he is police.

And get away with it.

SAN ANTONIO (KABB/WOAI) – A woman has been fighting the China Grove Police Department for almost four years to retrieve property she says was unfairly taken from her family.

Brandy Napier lives in Seguin, but she and her husband have family they visit in China Grove.

That’s where her husband Franklin was pulled over by a China Grove officer in August 2018 for reportedly running stop signs.

Brandy says he had just left the gun range and had three guns in the car.

The officer confiscated them, but made no arrest.

No formal report was ever given to the Napier’s, just a burglary inventory sheet typically used to document items stolen in robberies.

“She stated that she didn’t have the proper documentation to give him, so that’s why she put it on that and she let him go,” says Brandy.

Brandy showed us receipts for two of the guns listed in her name and Franklin’s along with the serial numbers listed.

The third gun she says was bought at an auction.

She’s made several attempts to retrieve those guns since, making trips to the City of China Grove office.

Every time she says she’s been told the case is pending in the District Attorney’s office and that the guns couldn’t be returned without documentation from their office.

Brandy made a last ditch effort to retrieve the guns last month.

“He said, ‘I don’t have the documentation from the District Attorney’.”

KABB/WOAI made calls a few weeks ago requesting a formal police report from Franklin’s traffic stop in 2018.

KABB/WOAI also stopped by the department Monday to ask for the report and why the guns hadn’t been returned.

We were told we had to go through the DA’s office to retrieve any information about the case.

The DA’s office sent us a letter, stating that media requests had to be processed by the Attorney General’s office.

But the Napier’s lawyer says he’s checked: it doesn’t look like a case exists with Franklin’s name at the DA’s office and at this point, it’s too late to create a case.

“If they haven’t filed a criminal case against the person by now, the statute of limitations has run,” says attorney Patrick Hancock. “A lot more than two years has gone by, so I don’t think the DA can file anything against him and I don’t believe there’s a case sitting in the DA’s office by China Grove on this matter.”

Nearly four years later, no arrest or charges have been filed, a red flag for this attorney.

“If they can’t produce the guns that were taken, the personal property of the individual that was taken and they can’t produce a public police report to even verify that a China Grove officer stopped them and took an individual’s property, then they need to be investigated by the Texas Rangers,” says Hancock.

Sounds about right.  No arrest, no charges, no involvement by prosecutors, no guns returned.

Because shiny badges and DAs and judges in your corner.

Dean Weingarten.

As I collected documented incidents of handguns fired in defense against bears, a pattern emerged. The recorded incidents of pistols being fired in defense against bears overwhelmingly occurred from 1960 onward.

I’ve found 125 documented cases where handguns have been fired in defense against bears, from 1890 to present. Two of the 125 cases were considered to be indeterminate as to success or failure. An additional 20 cases, where handguns were used with other lethal means, are considered combination defenses. They are not included in this analysis.

The total numbers include indeterminate cases, but not the combination cases. 95% of all the documented cases occurred from 1960 onward. 76% of all cases occurred from 2000 forward.

Dean then goes on to examine the causes.

First, while pistols were used against bears prior to the development of the cartridge firing handgun, (about 1840 – 1870) much of the use was in hunting. There the handgun was used as an ancillary device to long guns.

Bears tended to be hunted hard on the outskirts of settled areas. They were considered pests. Bounties were offered for them. Bears had no legal protection. Bears, of necessity, became wary of humans, and seldom attacked humans other than when hunted and wounded.

Second, few records were written of handguns being used against bears during this period. Some hunts were recorded, as were a few incidents involving bears. Most involved long guns. What few records there were are difficult to find. Records became more common after 1960, and much easier to find after the Internet information explosion in the 1990’s.

Third, while human populations continued to increase, bear populations declined, then started to increase, with the greatest increase from about 1960 onward.

To sum up, an increase in effective handguns, record keeping and the ability to search records, and increasing populations of humans and bears do much to explain the rapidly expanding number of documented cases of pistol defense against bears.

It all makes sense.  Handguns firing centerfire cartridges were developed, and cartridges became much more powerful and with much higher muzzle velocity, with much better materials and construction to take the higher chamber pressures.  Next, record keeping and the availability of retrieval.  Third, bears are protected.  You can’t hunt the if they’re not in hunting season, and if you have to shoot one, even in self defense, you just might run afoul of game management officers.  Thus, population is on the rise.

Maybe depending upon how near we are to the bush, we all need to go back to carrying long guns for self defense.  Just a thought.

Long guns are heavy.  Then again, it might be good exercise.

Apparently, there are an awful lot of Savage rifles in use in Ukraine.  This adds to the AR and AK variants we’ve already documented.

Eventually they will want to standardize on both a cartridge and system of weapons, both semi-automatic and bolt.

Seen at Gun Feed, Norma is making a move.

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. — An ammunition manufacturer is relocating its U.S. headquarters to Chatham County.

Norma Precision Ammunition is a subsidiary of the leading European ammunition manufacturer RUAG Ammotec.

The Swiss-based company says it develops and produces high-end ammunition for sports shooters, special operations forces, and peace officers worldwide.

“With their facilities in close proximity to the Port of Savannah – the top port for U.S. exports – and our highly-skilled pool of talent, I’m confident that RUAG Ammotec will be very pleased with their decision to invest in the Peach State,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

“I am pleased with all that Georgia has to offer our company. I am confident that with our relocation, we have chosen the right community to partner with to ensure mutual long-term success,” added President and CEO of RUAG Ammotec Christoph Eisenhardt.

RUAG Ammotec has operations in 12 different countries. The company says in 2021, Norma Precision Ammunition imported over 400 containers of ammunition from factories in Europe, while also delivering over 30 million cartridges of ammunition made in the U.S.

But are they really moving their headquarters?  Where is it currently?

I couldn’t locate their headquarters, unless it’s a Swiss city.  These two articles (here and here) seem to suggest that there isn’t currently one in the U.S., and they are establishing one in Georgia.

This continues gun valley moving South, or in this case, gun valley choosing South.  See also Parts I, II and III.

By the way, I’ve never had any problems with Norma ammunition, and it’s always performed well for me,

David Codrea’s article at Ammoland should be read, entitled “Ask Dettelbach Tough Questions about ‘AFT’ Abuses During Confirmation Hearings.”

I also enjoyed reading this comment.

On that note, admit there is no epidemic of gun violence and that all 23,000 current laws are totally ineffective. The United States’ 1931 population was 124 million, and we had 11,160 murders and manslaughters, 7,533 committed with firearms.  The United States’ 2019 population was 328 million, and we had 13,927 homicides, 10,258 via firearms.

So…Over the course of 90 years, we increased population by 204 million, citizens built or purchased over 250,000,000 additional firearms, yet America experienced only 2,725 more homicides by use of guns in 2019 than we did in 1931.

Per population growth alone, much less Gun purchases, we should expect around 28,000 murders.  Yet the murder rate has plummeted.

The guns in law abiding hands are NOT a problem; they are employed in defensive means to prevent a crime against persons more than 5 times as often as guns in the hands of criminals are used to perpetuate a crime.

Source data:

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortstatsh_1931.pdf (page 53)

Any time you hear something like that, they’re trying to scare soccer moms.  Be a man.  Chuckle, point out the truth to people, and then ignore the hysterics.

He makes an interesting point about why he chooses a pack that doesn’t go above the top of his shoulders, or in other words, why an assault pack isn’t the same thing as a backpacking pack.