Articles by Herschel Smith

Well of course it doesn’t suck.  Whoever said it did?  That person is an idiot.  Avoid people like that.

Listen, you can like and shoot whatever you want to.  The 1911 is the best shooting and most ergonomic handgun on the planet, bar none.  There are legitimate reasons to choose something else, e.g., magazine capacity.  But there are other options, namely, a double stack 9mm 1911 design.

And yes, Tim is right.  There are 1911 designs now with optics cuts on the slides.  You can get what you want with a 1911, you just have to pay the money.  But remember, you get what you pay for.

And for the record, I don’t consider a commander size 1911 any heavier than any other carry gun, but it’s a lot narrower and easier to carry – for me.

You don’t have to spend 3K – 4K on a Wilson Combat pistol. You can spend much less and get a Dan Wesson (CZ currently owns Dan Wesson, and CZ is making fine products).

Outdoor Life.

You just bought a new rifle—or maybe had a new barrel installed on an old gun—and are about to head to the range. As much as you want to put a bunch of rounds through it, there’s a little voice in your ear urging caution: Be sure to break in the barrel first!

Chances are you’ve heard this warning from the guy behind the gun counter, or your buddy who’s a ballistic know-it-all, or perhaps from the maker of the barrel or rifle itself—they often include instructions on barrel break-in.

Yep.  I have.

When I was first introduced to the concept some decades ago, the explanation given to me was that the first shots through a barrel would smooth out imperfections in the bore left by the tooling that was used to cut the chamber and impart the rifling in the bore. But you also needed to clean the barrel frequently to begin with so that fouling wouldn’t accumulate too thickly on some of these bumps leading to worse problems down the line. If a smear of copper was allowed to form on one of these rough spots and grow, it would degrade accuracy and would be difficult to remove once it established itself—so the story goes.

I know that’s the alleged problem.  I don’t believe it.  Copper will only foul so far until it gets beaten down and worn off by bullets.  Besides, copper needs to fill in the microcracks and grain boundaries in the metal.  That’s why I’ve stopped cleaning bores with a wire brush and favor polymer brushes now.  I see no need for anything else.

I’ve had many conversations with barrel makers about the break-in procedures they publish and most of them have confessed that the only reason they have a break-in process is because their customers think they need one. Wade Hull at Shilen has come right out and said as much. The general shooter is convinced that a break-in procedure is needed, so the barrel makers have responded by creating them—even if they don’t believe they are necessary.

Third, I’ve tried all these techniques over the years, and I’d be lying if I told you I ever saw a measurable benefit.

Exactly.  As you can tell, I don’t believe in barrel break-in procedures.  I’ve done it before.  I don’t do it anymore and analogize these procedures to superstition.

If you disagree or you can point to actual data that proves otherwise, drop a note in the comments.

Source.

Police in a Massachusetts town said a dog had to euthanized after seven coyotes attacked it, just hours before a man was also attacked and bitten while walking his dogs.

Massachusetts is home to the Eastern Coyote, a medium-sized predator and opportunistic feeder, according to MassWildlife.

Reportedly, officials estimate there are around 11,500 coyotes in the state, as per 2021.

Cohasset, a town in Massachusetts, saw two different attacks in just one day on August 27, police told local media in a release. In just a few hours, two dogs were attacked outside a home by a group of seven coyotes while a man was also bitten during an attack on his two dogs.

In the first attack, police said the dogs were off leash when approached and attacked by the group of coyotes. The owner described it as “coordinated” when speaking to WCVB.

“It was almost a coordinated effort. It was absolutely incredible,” Jeff Pratt said. “Three came out one way, four came around the back way and attacked the second dog. I had seven coyotes in my driveway.”

Dog Bella sadly did not survive the attack as she was later euthanized due to the extensive injuries she suffered. Fellow pup Sadie was also left with serious injuries.

You better get yourself a gun and carry it boy.

Oh yea.  This is Massachusetts.  Never mind.  Talk to your “leaders” about the local cops who exist to “protect and serve.”  I guess they did that when they put your dog down.

I don’t know where this was.  I paused the video enough times to see that he was using a pistol.  I’m guessing that this was a sow with two cubs on the larger end of things and felt a bit threatened.

He did the right things as best as I can tell.

Bro almost became a victim 💀😭 pic.twitter.com/V5HER3AzGM

— Simba (@m0e_almighty) September 4, 2022

David Codrea.

Licht’s Ronnie Barrett reference, of course, recalls a 2002 letter the President of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, sent to then-Chief William J. Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department, about his company’s .50 caliber rifles:

“I will not sell, nor service, my rifles to those seeking to infringe upon the Constitution and the crystal clear rights it affords individuals to own firearms.”

Barrett again sent similar letters, one to the State of California in 2005, the Honolulu Police Department in 2008, and the State of New York in 2013.

I recounted these and more in my 2018 AmmoLand article, “More in the Firearms Industry Should Follow Hornady’s New York Example,” documenting President Steve Hornady’s announcement saying in part:

“Hornady will not knowingly allow our ammunition to be sold to the State of NY or any NY agencies. Their actions are a blatant and disgusting abuse of office and we won’t be associated with a government that acts like that. They should be ashamed.”

Yes they could stop the disarmers, and yes they should be ashamed.  But they’re not – they are only interested in the revenue.  I’ve pointed out that Cloud Defensive has taken such a stand, and it cost them money to do it.

But here’s the question.  We can point to Barrett, Cloud Defensive, Hornady, and a few others, perhaps, but what pistols and rifles do the disarmers shoot?

Until Smith & Wesson, Glock, and a host of other large manufacturers can be persuaded to join the club of those who truly respect the 2A, this effort won’t go anywhere.  It will be symbolic, and not much else.

I think it would be a good thing to do if someone took it on to mail each and every CEO of the manufacturers, but this is too much time for me to spend.  If some enterprising reader wants to start a thread on this, I’ll find a way to host it.

This rifle is “unobtanium” except for used, and even then, simply not available.  The comments section features educated folks.  One commenter remarks that “I’ve been writing to Henry trying to get them to chamber one of their rifles in .454 Casull.”  So have it to no avail.

Another commenter questions “Did you get any blow back shooting the 454? When they first came out the only gun store here that had them. The counter man said every one they sold had to be sent back because of blow back from the action. And thats what made me get a 44mag instead back then.”

I don’t think Rossi makes this rifle anymore.

The cost is somewhere around $3000, which is right in line with their other rifles (unless you count the fancy Walnut upgrade).  This one is in S&W .500 Magnum.

But overpriced compared to other such rifles in my estimation.  This will limit the sales, but they seem to be fine with that.  I’d love to have a .454 Casull Rifle, but it’s too pricey for me.

Every engineer loves real data.

Here is the court decision.  Of course, it’s the right call, but that doesn’t mean it will stand the rest of the appeals through the cicuits of black robed tyrants.

I discussed this with friends today.  The source is here.

Mike does a good job of breaking it down.  I was just trying to recall the compliance rate with AR-15 registration when Connecticut tried this stunt.  As best as I recall it was < 10%.  This is different, i.e., declaring a SBR, but even worse because for those who comply, they can’t even carry the firearm across state lines without ATF approval.

I never got into the pistol brace scene, but there are a lot of them in circulation, many more than I suspect will be registered with the ATF as SBRs.