Articles by Herschel Smith

It’s a well-deserved and fitting end.  The board could never disconnect themselves from being Wayne LaPierre sycophants.

Moreover, the NRA always behaved as if its members should act like dogs eating crumbs that fall from the master’s table.  They supported the NFA, the GCA, the Hughes Amendment, the AWB, the bump stock ban, red flag laws, and just about everything that infringes on the rights of free men.

Prove me wrong.

I appreciate his down-to-earth approach to giving us his opinions.

Concerning the Henry rifle, it would have been much more impressive for Henry Repeating Arms to have fixed the problem to begin with rather than have a mechanic tell him everything is fine, only to have to respond later like they should after he posted a video of the problems.  They didn’t like the bad review – but they should have disliked having a dissatisfied customer much more.

As for the accuracy, I’m glad to see acceptable performance.  I had read and heard unfavorable reviews.

Ammoland.

Judicial Races

Equally large were gun voters’ judicial victories, where we made a clean sweep of NC Supreme Court and NC Court of Appeals races. Thanks to victories by strong constitutional conservatives Richard Dietz and Trey Allen, Republicans will now control the NC Supreme Court by a 5-2 margin – something that will serve North Carolinians well as we continue to struggle over redistricting and our as-yet-unimplemented voter ID law.

Congressional Races

Despite having a partisan, Democrat-led NC Supreme Court throw out and essentially redraw congressional districts, we were still able to send Chuck Edwards to the U.S. House in District 11. Edwards is a strong Second Amendment advocate who has been of considerable service to gun rights supporters in the General Assembly.

NC General Assembly (NCGA) Races

In unofficial results, it appears that gun voters achieved a super-majority in the NC Senate, with 30 seats, and 71 seats in the NC House, just one seat shy of a supermajority. Here too GRNC-PVF was highly successful, winning in 8 of 10 targeted Senate races and 10 of 16 targeted House races.

Well then, it’s time to get busy.  So now when another shooting happens, I don’t expect the GOP led Congress to buckle.  I expect the concealed handgun permitting process and the requirement to get CLEO approval of handgun purchase permits to be trashed by state law and replaced with constitutional purchase and carry.  I don’t expect the courts to roll over when anyone tries to send them gerrymandered redistricting plans.  I expect the GOP to vote pro-2A as a complete bloc rather than being splintered off.  I don’t expect open carry to be messed with or rescinded.

Is this too much to ask?  If so, we can be about our job of replacing you just like we’re going to replace that awful governor.

He has no control over his own dog.  He doesn’t rule the dog – the dog rules him.  All he could do when it was over is ask is the child is okay.

If the child had been harmed in any way, he should have been held legally liable for any damages or medical bills, and then worse if the child had been killed.

Real men have control over their beasts.  Don’t be this pathetic man.

Source.

Wildlife encounters are pretty common in the Greater Boston area, from wild turkeys at crosswalks to coyotes in yards. Well-publicized coyote attacks in recent years and an uptick in sightings this year have some people worried. Wildlife biologist Susan McCarthy from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife joined GBH All Things Considered host Arun Rath to help us understand coyote activity in the area. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Arun Rath: So first, could you start off by giving us maybe a bit of a coyote reality check? Are we seeing significantly more sightings in encounters than in the past? And does that mean there are more coyotes on the ground in Eastern Massachusetts?

Susan McCarthy: Well, what I can say is that it does seem as though there are more reports of coyotes in suburban and urban environments. But whether or not that means there are more coyotes on the landscape is a great question to ask. And so what we’ve determined is that over the past 10 years, the coyote population in Massachusetts has stabilized. Coyotes are existing at very high densities and they’re in all available habitats throughout the commonwealth of Massachusetts. We wouldn’t say that the coyote population is growing. … We know that’s not true. That’s not the case.

Yea, you go ahead and keep telling yourself that.  Mind you, don’t be so confused as to believe that Coyotes are afraid of you when you meet up with them.  With a buddy to help him out, this Coyote might have succeeded against that big cat.  But the point is that a single Coyote had the steel to go up against a big cat alone, even though he ended up calling it off in the end.

So as you walk your dogs in the evening and carry your cell phone to call 911 (but no sidearm), you tell yourself that Coyotes aren’t more numerous and there is no problem when those six eyes are staring at you from the bush.

Ever see a coyote and a mountain lion fight? 👀 pic.twitter.com/73GAYiMFr5

— Old Row Outdoors (@OldRowOutdoors) April 9, 2018

Ron Spomer answers some interesting questions.  I found it interesting that he recommends a slightly more squaring up against the gun with heavier recoiling firearms.  Also, the thumb over the pistol grip part of the stock (rather than around the stock) to prevent breaking the trigger pull badly with a jerking motion seems to have become customary.

Pat does a good job showing the results of the hog kill with his 45-70.  My recent hog harvest involved a very clean shot through the neck right behind the ear and he went down instantly.  The head (and especially bulging eyes) showed the effects of the high velocity and hydrostatic shock, but I’m not aware that much meat is taken from the neck anyway.

I got four huge shoulders (maybe I’ll use those for pulled pork like Pat), a bunch of ribs, and a lot of backstrap (what you’d find as pork tenderloin at the grocery store).  Feral hogs are too lean for bacon.

Now, Pat has opened this door, so he needs to pull this thread for us.  He was using the Hornady LeverEvolution.  What if he had been using Federal Fusion 300 grain, or a RNFP cartridge?  What would the damage have looked like?  I’m very interested in an ammunition comparison on this question.  Maybe the culprit is the ammunition selection, not the power of the 45-70?  Or in other words, perhaps 45-70 is in fact a great hog and deer cartridge, just not this particular brand?

I do agree with Pat that we “owe” the animal an ethical kill. I like his perspective. One could never charge the 45-70 with causing an unethical kill.

Does anyone have good pulled pork recipes – both grill and smoke time and seasoning?  Be detailed with your response.

As I expected, the Beretta A400 Xtreme Plus did a magnificent job at putting pellets in the bird (19:48).  My takeaway isn’t so much that one shotgun does better than another, but that you need to know what you’re doing and get your testing protocol and equipment settled out when you presume to test one against another.  Having to admit you screwed up a test should be just a bit embarrassing, but at least it’s honest.

I’ll also say that after a morning of shooting quail with the A400, I felt like I had plinked with a .22 rimfire rifle all morning.  The action and stock design manages the recoil better than any 12 gauge shotgun I’ve ever used.

I like the idea of an autoloading .22 magnum more than Tim does, and I also like the idea of a .22 magnum revolver.

I must say that I once owned a KelTec PMR-30 and it was the most unreliable firearm I ever owned.  It wouldn’t cycle a full magazine without a failure to feed or failure to eject.  I suggested to KelTec that they redesign the magazine out of Aluminum because in my opinion the polymer magazine was causing problems with moving cartridges up the stack and into the chamber. It caused too much unnecessary friction.

They didn’t listen to me.  They apparently think the weight is more important than functionality.  I ridded myself of that firearm.  Maybe the Walther WMP would be a better gun at some point in the future.  And by the way, I wouldn’t have any problems carrying the .22 magnum for personal defense against two-legged predators, although it probably wouldn’t be my first choice as I leave the house.

I think the ammo thing is easily fixable.  Just don’t run ammo that isn’t reliable.

I missed this, but our friend Andy at Practical Accuracy did a video on whether a 1:7 twist barrel does well with lighter bullets.

The answer?  It depends on the ammunition.  Ammunition selection seems to be the king-maker on whether you do well at the range.