Articles by Herschel Smith

Shooting Illustrated.

It’s true that the best 9 mm loads are equal in performance to many .45 ACP loads. However, if recovered-bullet diameter and penetration mean what we think they do, the best 9 mm loads are not the equal of the best .45 ACP loads. Regarding capacity, a first-grader can see a 9 mm pistol holds more ammo, but most civilian self-defense shootings are resolved with between one and eight shots. So, capacity might not be all that important after all. But what about shootability? Are 9 mm pistols that much easier to shoot more accurately and faster? To find that out, I conducted a test to get to the bottom of the 9mm vs .45 ACP debate.

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The 6.32-cubic-inch crush cavity delivered by the Federal 230-grain +P HST load is impressive, but it comes with a cost, and that cost is an uncomfortable shooting experience and an increase in the time it takes to fire multiple shots. Measuring recoil can be subjective, but more never helps you shoot better. Everyone will have different limits, but at some point, you must decide if the terminal performance you gain is worth the reduction in shootability that comes with it.

What the information from this test—and the massive spreadsheet created to digest it—might do best is to explain why most law enforcement agencies have gone back to the 9 mm. With the best 9 mm loads, you get terminal performance similar to standard .45 ACP loads out of a gun that holds more ammunition and is easier to shoot fast and accurately. But, what this also shows is that with a .45 ACP, you can select a lesser-recoiling load and shoot nearly as fast and accurately as you can with a 9 mm pistol, while delivering similar terminal performance. If you do that, the only thing you’re giving up with the .45 is capacity.

This is an odd article by Richard Mann.  He spends most of his effort testing and discussing ordinary .45 ACP rounds, but frankly I’ve never seen PD .45 ACP rounds.  They are all +P ammunition.  Furthermore, jacketed ball rounds for dangerous game defense are certainly all +P, and some are +P+ (such as with Double Tap 450 SMC, Underwood and Buffalo Bore).

He admits as much in both the front and end of the article, and yet states that the only thing you give up by selecting the .45 ACP is capacity.  So he admits that the .45 ACP +P has more effect than the 9mm, and then discusses giving something up to carry it (like capacity).

I think this article needed an editor.

But there’s one more thing missing in this analysis beyond “recoil,” however that is felt.  The 9mm is a higher pressure round (35,000 psi chamber pressure) compared to the 45 ACP (customarily 25,000 psi, but admittedly higher with +P+ ammunition).  There is simply a difference in feel, some call it a push versus snappiness.  I would liken it to the difference between shooting the 30-30 and 5.56mm (the former being at42,000 psi, whereas the later is 62,000 psi).

For me the bottom line is purchase and practice with both.  Use whatever you feel the best shooting in the circumstance.  But I’d never liken the performance of the 9mm with 45 ACP +P+ for dangerous game.

For dangerous game, carry a big bore cartridge.

Outdoor Life.

There are some interesting takeaways from the above chart. First, the .350 Legend is by far the lightest projectile on the list at 150 grains, and it has a higher muzzle velocity than any of the others. The two 12-gauge slugs both produce 700 ft.-lb. more energy at the muzzle than the .350 Legend and 240 to nearly 400 ft./lb. more than the .45/70.

However, the ballistic advantage changes at the 200-yard mark. The .350 now has more energy than the 1-ounce rifled slug from Federal and the .45/70 impacts with more energy than any other load on the list. The .350 also shoots flatter than the slugs. At 200 yards, the .350 drops only 7.6 inches when zeroed at 100 yards. The Hornady 12-gauge sabot slug drops just under a foot at 200 yards when zeroed at 100, about the same as the .45/70. Hornady’s 20-gauge Custom Lite slug drops over 18 inches, and the 1-ounce lead 12-gauge rifled slug drops more than 2 feet at 200 yards.

As you can see from the chart, the 12-gauge slugs and .45/70 produce substantially more recoil than the .350 Legend, though Hornady’s Custom Lite 20-gauge projectile produces only slightly more recoil than the .350 Legend.

I’m not sure I’d try to take game at 200 yards with either a straight walled cartridge or a shotgun, so I’m not sure the 350 Legend ever really gives an advantage.

I see plenty of both straight walled cartridges and slug ammunition around, although slugs still seem to dominate where I am (not in a straight wall state).

Most of the guys who shoot 350 Legend seem to have problems with accuracy because of the choice of 9mm bullets they have to load.

Source.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WMBF) – South Carolina joined 24 other states demanding banks and credit card companies stop tracking, or monitoring, firearms purchased using credit cards.

The coalition alerted the chief executive officers of three major credit card companies that the recent adoption of the Merchant Category Code for the processing of firearms purchases from gun stores is “potentially a violation of consumer protection and antitrust laws.”

In the letter to the CEOs of American Express, Mastercard, and Visa, the attorneys general say the monitoring and tracking of firearms purchases creates a “list of gun buyers” and creates the obvious risk that law-abiding consumers’ information will be obtained and misused by those who oppose Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.

“Why would banks and credit card companies need a separate code to process gun purchases, if not to possibly track and monitor people who buy them?” Wilson asked.

The following states joined: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, West Virginia.

To read the letter, click here.

I like the SC AG.  In other decisions as well he’s been in the 2A corner.  But I’d like to see more states sign on.  Where is Florida?  Where is Idaho?  Where is Nebraska?

North Carolina isn’t on the list because of the communist AG.

This all may be a bit overdone in my opinion.  Drop a BCG in and run the gun.  If you have problems, note that and get another BCG.  Well made guns will work right.

I like Battle Arms Development BCGs and Radian Raptor charging handles.  The two taken together make the parts feel like glass.

But not all BCGs are created equal.

GOA.

Here are the TEN gun control provisions hidden in the FY 2023 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill:

1. Massive ATF Budget Increase to Facilitate Biden’s Pistol Ban
2. Gun Registration Funding
3. Gun Confiscation Law Funding
4. Financial Benefits for Families of Deceased ATF Agents Killed or Injured on the Job while Enforcing Gun Control
5. Ammunition Background Check Study
6. Gun Control Research, Unbound by the Dickey Amendment
7. Anti-gun Community Violence Interventions
8. “Domestic Violence Firearms Lethality Reduction Initiative”
9. “Violent Anti-Government Ideology” Research
10. Gun Control Earmarks

You know they want to know who is buying ammunition and what sort.  Don’t bother trying to control the guns, they say.  Control the supply of ammunition.

Here is the full take down of the garbage in the bill.

If I’m not mistaken, he was having a little bit of sticking with those 45-70 rounds.  Maybe it was just the ammo and he needed the Hornady Leverevolution ammo.  Or maybe it was just that the action needs to be smoothed out from use.  Or maybe it’s just Henry rifles.  His other rifle didn’t seem to have that problem, nor did the Henry 44 magnum I shot have that problem.

The ATF is asking Congress for a massive raise to:⁰⁰Upgrade their gun registry;⁰⁰Design a background check system for ammo purchases;⁰⁰And offer a pension system for ATF agents & families if injured or killed on the job (right before they start banning millions of firearms) https://t.co/XrXMkHTs1a

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 19, 2022

You know, that registry that’s supposed to be illegal for them to have, and those background checks on ammo purchases that infringe on the 2A.

That and those, in case you were wondering.

How can anyone left in the ATF actually believe they are doing any sort of good for humanity?  How can they look their families in the fact knowing the oath they swore and what they do every day as ATF agents?

The silly and trivial Mark Esper offers solutions.

The fact is the pool of Americans aged 17-24 who are qualified and interested in serving continues to shrink. When I was secretary of the Army in 2018, 71% of these 34 million young people could not meet the military’s entry requirements due mostly to obesity, drug use, physical and mental health problems, and criminal misconduct. Four years later, that number is even higher. Further, of the 23% eligible to serve today, another 10% don’t meet the military’s academic standards. Worse, of the 3.5 million young Americans remaining, only 9% (~320,000) have a proclivity to serve. A nation of 332 million people should do better than that.

It’s even worse than that.  Readiness is at an all-time low, and the existing enlistment mostly treats the military as a jobs program.

Then he gives his solution.

The scope and scale of these trends are beyond the ability of the Pentagon to remedy. There are actions the services can and are taking, but these only address the problem at the margins. Because the ability of the military to defend the country depends directly on a sizable force of top-notch volunteers, this is a national challenge that must be addressed at the highest levels.

This means the White House and Congress must work together to reverse the underlying trends. They could begin by standing up a bipartisan commission of esteemed leaders, much like President Richard Nixon did in 1969 when he decided to end conscription. This time, rather than creating the AVF, the new panel’s mission would be to save it. As such, commissioners must focus on the key issues: increasing the pool of young people qualified to serve and raising their interest in doing so.

For reasons that also extend beyond the military’s needs, the commission should look at ways to improve the health and fitness of America’s youth, review and update eligibility requirements, expand JROTC nationally, create new ways for civilians to interact with their military brethren, eliminate misconceptions about military life, and ensure recruiters unfettered access to high schools across America. Meanwhile, the Pentagon must steer away from lowering standards, reducing the size of the military, or creating hollow combat formations. We must field the force we need to win our nation’s wars, not take shortcuts.

Get a commission.  Make a law.  Engage in talky talk.  Make people believe lies about the situation.  Convince them of things that aren’t true.

Nothing at all about a woke military, gender neutral pronouns, women in combat, and nothing about discipline.

Nothing about letting the Marines do what Marines do – sending recruits or boots to the “room of pain” if they screw up.  The focus is on exoskeletal machines to assist in carrying heavy loads, giving them better weapons, manufacturing drones for stand-off warfare, and making sure transgender celebrations are had by all at the Pentagon.  Nothing at all about the fact that the generals want to train the military to fight Americans.

So the beat goes on, and the military continues to decline because no patriot wants to join a force that kills Americans.

So sad that anyone would float stupid ideas like Esper did.

Dean Weingarten.

An illustration from the April 19, 1884 issue of the National Police Gazette

Rather than have gentlemen of fine upbringing carrying weapons in public, the authorities today would rather men get beaten nearly to death with baseball bats on the NYC subway.

Or get shot in NYC while being mugged.

Never mind the fact that after criminals figured out that they will get shot while perpetrating crimes, NYC would be much more peaceful.  The controllers thrive in chaos.  It suits them just fine.

You see, this isn’t about you or what keeps you or your family safe.  It’s about what helps the controllers to amass power.

I hadn’t heard anything about this.  If you want to skip the gun review, skip to about 14:30 of the video.

The claim is that a former CZ employee has stated that Colt is now beginning to ruin CZ like Colt management did with their own company so many times before.  Tim also shows the discontinued product line from CZ.

If true, what a shame.  CZ is making fine products.