Articles by Herschel Smith

You’ve all heard about FFLs and gunsmiths being pressured to tell the FedGov everything about everyone, as well as banks in the pocket of big government and tracking gun and ammunition sales.  Yes, you have.  Well, there is nothing new about this.

The colonies fought a war over this sort of thing.  But then, I think they were of stouter stock than we.

Always remember the roots of the desire to control others.

Source.

In the 1840s and 1850s, companies in Liege, Belgium, produced thousands of double-barreled percussion shotguns. These imported 12-gauge models were popular among American hunters. At the onset of the Civil War, there is no evidence that state or national entities purchased these weapons in any significant number, but many merchants would for private sale.

While most of these imports did not have many markings on them, some did bear the popular Liege stamp, and a few had information linking them to American dealers inscribed on their barrels. Markings were typically located on the gun’s lock. Some, however, displayed markings on the barrel rib, the piece connecting the two barrels.

When they enlisted, many mounted Southerners brought their personal shotguns with them. The 52-inch length allowed a cavalryman to reload easily while riding, and the two barrels delivered heavy damage at close range. They could also be reloaded quicker than the 20 seconds it usually would take to load a rifled musket.

Southern blockade runners continued importing inexpensive Belgian shotguns throughout the war, as verified by the presence of several cases among many U.S. naval vessels’ prizes-of-war lists. Some of these captured shipments show markings of the Confederate gun companies to which they were being shipped, put there by an agent who had inspected the weapons for his company before it was shipped from a European port.

At the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Mo., in August 1861, and during the 1862 New Mexico Campaign, close combat favored Confederates armed with shotguns against Union troops carrying rifled weapons.

Shotguns have always been, and will continue to be, used in warfare.  It’s a great CQB weapon and for that reason also a great home defense weapon.

My understanding is that it takes a shell of 2.5″ in length, or more precisely, 2 + 9/16″.  You cannot shoot modern 2.5″ shells in it.  It’s also my understanding that these go for around $200 – $300, although when someone tells you that “This gun was used in the civil war,” that’s almost impossible to prove unless it has papers and was associated with some well-known officer.

But if you could find such a gun with papers and proof or ownership and history, it would be a nice find as a C&R.

From what I understand, Moose are at least as aggressive as bears and much less prone to flee the presence of humans.  And they can stomp you to death.  Those are huge animals.

I don’t think this guy would have had time to unholster a firearm, at least initially.  But when the bear came back around on him he could have had a firearm trained on it.  I think I would have.

I suspect cubs are somewhere in the mix.

Mountain Climber Fights Off Bear (2022) pic.twitter.com/70DTpPsfSL

— Billy (@Billyhottakes) October 17, 2022

This is Mike on the recent shooting in Raleigh.  Well, not exactly the shooting, but rather, what the police did afterwards.

I live in North Carolina and I can comment on what Mike is saying.  While it’s true that there is no law against handguns in hospitals in NC, it’s also true that hospitals are private property.  They are owned and operated by corporations – they aren’t public property. The same thing goes for churches. Guns in churches is allowed in NC as long as the owners agree to it. It’s private property.

All hospitals I know about have rules against the carry of handguns on their premises.  You can either abide by their rules or refuse to patronize their establishment. However much I might disagree with their stupid decision, property rights supersede my right to carry. As gun owners, we can always work to change corporate policies. That’s the solution here.

Having said that, what Mike says is true.  They have metal detectors upon entry to the ER and it’s not possible to get around the rules.  The police were not needed.  They wanted to inject themselves into the fray, unnecessarily so.  They added nothing at all to the security that night.  The shooting had ended, and the shooting occurred nowhere near the hospital.  One wonders exactly what the police thought they were doing, and why?

Recoil.

NEW from Daniel Defense comes the SoundGuard Suppressors, powered by KGM!

Boasting multiple patent-pending design features, Daniel Defense says their three new suppressors (SG-556, SG-30, and SG-30Ti) utilize cutting-edge gas-flow dynamics that eliminate over-gassing and direct gas forward, substantially decreasing the amount of blowback.

These patent-pending gas-flow paths also help stabilize rounds as they pass through and exit the can, thus proving a “negligible” point-of-impact shift.

If that isn’t enough, patented baffle stack design and proprietary coatings reduce the flash signature to almost zero.

Combined, these are big claims and would represent some major innovations in suppressor technology. But with the surge of popularity in cans, we’ve seen some huge changes in recent years.

Daniel Defense is backing their SoundGuard Suppressors with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

MSRP is $750 for the SG-556 and SG-30, $1,000 for the SG-30Ti.

Ammoland also covered this, but almost like a paid advertisement with even less information than you see above from Recoil.

Honestly, this is just poor reporting.  So let me ask the most obvious question that wasn’t asked and answered above.  I had talked to the folks at Daniel Defense about removing the welded and staked flash hider on a 14.5″ barrel in order to install a SureFire flash hider.  The reason?  Because SureFire makes a suppressor that installs with a clamp over their own flash hider, so installation and removal is as simple and quick as that.

Does the Daniel Defense suppressor install with a clamping device over their own flash hider?  Do they make a model like that?  If not currently, do they intend to?

Again, lousy reporting.  Daniel Defense should have contacted me to announce this and I would have asked the hard questions.

FWIW, Daniel told me to let a gunsmith do the removal and reinstallation of a new flash hider, that they had a procedure that had to be followed so as not to harm the barrel.  But (and here is the nit I have) they also told me that they had fielded other calls to this effect and knew that folks wanted to install flash hiders that clamped on.

So if they knew this, why didn’t they include it in their own design?  If they did include it, why didn’t the press release say so?

Does Daniel Defense need to hire me?

They say this is going to be a series.  If so, I’ll be sure to watch it.

On another note, he says that Rossi is beginning production again of its 454 Casull rifle.  That’s nice, although I suspect they will be very difficult to obtain.

Light weight rifles in the news.

New Begara Crest rifle, carbon stock.  Somewhere on the order of $2000.

American Hunter on the Bergara Premier MgLite.

Carbon barrel and carbon stock.  And it looks about as skeletonized as you could get it, running at 6.8 pounds but a bracing $3300.

And just today Game and Fish came out with a nicely written article on eight guns that run between 6 and 7 pounds, but also run somewhere mostly around $2000 each.  Carbon seems to be the common element.

The goal is weight mitigation in the bush and especially in the mountains.  As a man who has carried heavy weight in the mountains, I can sympathize with the goal.

These are some nice rifles.  If readers have experience with any of them, please weigh in with comments.  We may revisit these guns in the future.

Reason.  But of course it does.  The notion that the founders, free men, would have begged the government for permits, licensed their firearms, or scratched numbers on the pristine work done by the gunsmiths of the age so the government could track them, would have made them vomit.  They went to war over things like that.

"These scenarios make clear that Section 922(k) is far more than the mere commercial regulation the Government claims it to be. Rather, it is a blatant prohibition on possession." pic.twitter.com/EFfIXznBTy

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 13, 2022

"Finally, I can find no authority for the idea that a firearm without a serial number would meet the historical definition of a dangerous or unusual firearm." pic.twitter.com/mxNrvjiuZK

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 13, 2022

From Guns.com.  Here is the video.

That gun sure is jumping around in her hands.  I’d like to understand the differences between this model and what Langdon Tactical does with the Model 92 low mount red dot optic cut slide.