Archive for the 'AR-15s' Category

Paul Markel writes a fawning piece at AmmoLand on the AR-15 being the king of home defense.

What is the most effective tool to engage and defeat these vermin as rapidly as possible? Handguns are carried for convenience, not power. No handgun, regardless of caliber or configuration, can produce the same effect as a centerfire rifle.

This is not opinion, this is physics. Crunch the numbers and even the mighty .44 Magnum pales in comparison to the 5.56x45mm or 7.62x39mm. Many years ago an instructor friend of mine offered that “a handgun is simply a rifle waiting to grow up”.

Also, it cannot be denied that a long gun (rifle or shotgun) as a tool is much easier to aim and index on a target than a handgun. Again, this is simply physics. A rifle has four points of contact with the body and a long sight radius. By comparison, a handgun has only two points of contact, the left and right hand, and a short sight radius. Rifles are infinitely more forgiving of slight errors in sight alignment and body movement than are handguns.

As a practical matter, during the panic and adrenaline dump of a life threatening attack, the rifle will be inherently easier to index on target and as an added benefit transition to additional targets more quickly than will any pistol, regardless of make, model, or caliber. While you might desire to argue this point, your energy might be better served elsewhere.

Here is a quick number crunch for the doubting Thomases in the audience. The following numbers come directly from Hornady. The Hornady .44 Magnum 180grain FTX load generates 610 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. By comparison, the 5.56mm 75g. BTHP generates 1410 FPE and the 6.8mmSPCII cartridge with a 110g. BTHP bullet produced 1588 FPE.

To be sure, I like the AR-15 for home defense, and I’ve written so before.  But it’s more complicated than Paul makes it out to be.  I recommend (as I have before) that you send your wife and children to the movies one night, turn the lights out, and practice turning corners and developing your sight picture in rooms with a rifle and tactical light.  I have.

I also carry my weapon from room to room with me at night.  One of my handguns isn’t sitting too far from me as I write.  So I recommend that in order to get the full effect of using a rifle exclusively for home defense, you tote your AR-15 from room to room with you at night.

You see, there are legitimate reasons for handguns, portability being one, maneuverability being another.  No one argues that a rifle will deliver more punch due entirely to muzzle velocity.  But don’t tell me that a .45 caliber 230 grain fat boy won’t deliver enough punch to handle most situations.  And don’t tell that to John Basilone.  Toward the dawn of the battle, Basilone fought Japanese soldiers using only a .45 pistol.

From Shingleton, Michigan:

Police say an Iraq War veteran thwarted two would-be burglars at his northern Michigan gas station by kicking one of them and ordering them away with an AR-15 rifle.

State police said Shawn Schank was inside the gas station about 4:10 a.m. Sunday in Shingleton, an Upper Peninsula community in Alger County, when two people wearing ski masks forced their way into the building and approached the cash register.

Police say Schank kicked one of them, retrieved the AR-15 from his office and ordered the burglars to leave.

Police say one of the burglars took off his mask and pleaded with Schank not to shoot him before both suspects fled on foot.

Police say they arrested a 17-year-old from Shingleton and an 18-year-old from Munising. They’re jailed pending charges.

“Pleaded with Schank not to shoot him.”  “Jailed pending charges.”  Could this report get any better?  It’s yet another example of AR-15s benefiting mankind.  It makes me all warm inside.  How about you?

Prior:

No One Needs ARs for Self Defense Or Hunting

Save The Planet – Buy An AR!

AR Category

Local Connecticut News:

NEW BRITAIN, CT (WFSB) – One Connecticut gun maker said it would move out of the state if lawmakers expanded the ban on assault weapons, but now that same company is taking a look at modifying the AR-15.

Before some of the toughest gun laws in the country were passed, officials with the Stag Arms in New Britain said further modifications to the AR-15 would make it impossible to sell in Connecticut.

Eyewitness News has learned that the company is working on making a modified assault weapon to fit the ban.

“We are carefully looking at the new law and there are some things we interpret to be legal,” said Stag Arms owner Mark Malkowski. “We have gotten a lot of feedback from our customers and they have given us ideas for changes.”

Malkowski said the company is putting together a prototype, which they plan to show the weapons unit at the state police on Friday.

Officials with Stag Arms sells AR-15s, the only product it produces, all over the United States and to other countries, but less than 5 percent of its sales are made in Connecticut.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy supported the ban, but did met with the gun manufacturers because he does not want them to leave, especially since the industry creates hundreds of jobs.

“It says gun companies will do anything to sell guns,” Malloy said when recently asked about the topic. “I can’t prejudge something that I haven’t seen or analyze. People make things to sell them.”

As for leaving Connecticut, officials with Stag Arms said it is still an option. Last week, Malkowski said he met with the governor of Texas and next week, the governor of Kansas.

I’m surprised that Stag Arms got anyone in the gun owner community to contribute to this bastard firearm.  And by the way, it doesn’t comport with the notion of peaceful law breaking and smuggling to defy unconstitutional laws.

I’m not sure what will happen to Stag Arms.  If they stay in Connecticut they will waste away as a viable firearms manufacturer.  But I’m certain what will happen to this ridiculous, bastard firearm.  It will be a laughingstock, the embarrassment of the gun range.  No one who has it will be a proud owner of this long gun.  Why do it?  Why not smuggle and get real AR-15s?  Why acquiesce to the totalitarians when you can do better?

Watch.  Learn.  Think tactically.  Why would we practice a drill like this?  Spend time.  Practice.  Get good like Jerry.  Be like Jerry.

I’ll only note one thing that pops out to me. Jerry doesn’t use a forend grip. Also consider Travis Haley’s advice concerning forend grips (“Art Of The Tactical Carbine”), for guys who grip it like a broomstick. It lends itself to over-sweeping the target rather than landing on it, as well as rocking of the carbine.

Haley recommends use of the magwell-style grip, where the hand is firmly on the firearm and using the forend grip as a brace. Jerry avoids use of the forend grip altogether. I’m not recommending anything – merely observing and taking notes for my own drills to see what works best for me.

Yahoo:

“The AR-15 now is probably the Number 1 economic engine in the gun industry,” said Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, N.C. “We sell every one we get, almost as quick as they come in. We’ve never seen the demand that’s here today.”

Gun store owners and analysts alike say it’s one of the bestselling guns in the country; roughly $1 billion of the estimated $4 billion firearms industry is made up of sales of AR-15 rifles and their accessories.

“These are expensive guns that people think about a lot before they buy them,” said Hyatt. “They’re not protesting on the street against the government, they’re buying AR-15s and ammunition. It’s not advertising, it’s not marketing, it’s political.”

Larry is a quiet, unassuming man who walks about Hyatt Gun Shop looking for ways to help his employees and move guns and other equipment.  I have bought several guns from Hyatt Gun Shop.  I think what Larry is saying is that you can forget about the silly notions of firearms manufacturers or the NRA spinning up the population (the same point I have made multiple times).

Nor is this about going on silent marches through the streets to “send a message.”  This is about freedom and politics, and if a message needs to be sent, it will be in a much different way.  After all, people have to spend big money on well-made weapons today.

Washington Examiner:

“You know, they make fun of my saying about use a shotgun if someone’s invading your home – guess what, use a shotgun  someone invading your home and you don’t kill your kids – use an AR-15, it goes through your wall and it can kill your kid in the bedroom.”

Now I point you to Box O’ Truth concerning shotguns and rifles through drywall.  I’ll let you read the whole thing, but the bottom line is that rifle rounds and shot penetrate drywall.  To be clear, my opinion is that if this had been tissue (or ballistic gelatin), the AR-15 rounds would have begun to fragment because the drag coefficient is so much higher.  They are after all frangible rounds and they are designed to do this (except for steel core such as PMC green tip and similar rounds).  But if you miss, drywall is no protection regardless of what you’re shooting – handgun, rifle or shotgun.

Know you backstop.  Use of a gun anywhere is dangerous, and you must observe the rules of safety.  It is a gun. It is dangerous by definition. And for heaven’s sake, don’t listen to the court jester concerning anything.

Prior:

5.56 mm Ballistics

The AR Is A Legitimate Home Defense Weapon

Someone has been reading my Save The Planet – Buy An AR concerning the blight of feral hogs on the landscape, American ecology and farming industry.

Rolling Stone:

For gunmakers, the political fight over assault rifles and high-capacity pistols is about more than just profits – it’s about the militarization of the marketplace and represents a desperate bid by gunmakers to prop up a decaying business. The once-dependable market for traditional hunting guns has fallen off a cliff. To adapt, the firearms industry has embraced a business strategy that requires it to place the weapons of war favored by deranged killers like Adam Lanza and Jared Loughner into the homes and holsters of as many Americans as possible. “They’re not selling your dad’s hunting rifle or shotgun,” says Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a top industry watchdog. “They’re selling military-bred weaponry.”

The Violence Policy Center.  But who else would Rolling Stone go to but the Violence Policy Center?  Of course.

So this article makes it sound like gun manufacturers are just struggling to stay in business, and have had to adapt to give people what they want, which is not really old fashioned rifles, but rather, these awful, evil black guns.  If this is true, I guess the cost for a nice Remington 700 series rifle has dropped like a rock.

Oooopppps!  I guess not, since the MSRP is still $800 – $1200.  Not good.  A broken narrative.  But let’s continue.

Less than 20 percent of Americans born after 1980 report having a gun in the home. “For the industry, the problem is ‘Who is going to buy the guns?'” says Sugarmann. “To borrow the language of the tobacco industry,” he says, “they need to find ‘replacement shooters.'”

Good grief.  Maybe he should have focused on people born between 1980 and 1990, since people born much later are prohibited by law from owning firearms.  What a dumb ass.  And any shooter knows just how hard it is to order firearms now, what the demand is, and how many new and young shooters there are at ranges.  But this author isn’t a shooter.  He is a dumb ass.  The narrative has changed too, from one of simply meeting creepy customer demand to making that market themselves by a slick strategy.  Does this guy have an editor?  Was he drunk when he wrote this crap? But going backwards in the article, we get this little gem.

AR-15 enthusiasts brag they can fire up to 400 rounds in 60 seconds. Paying roughly 50 cents a bullet, such shooters are blowing through $200 worth of ammo in a hot minute.

Maybe he should have gotten up with me.  I could have told him that the going price for 5.56 mm is about $1.00 per round.  I want to know what store told him they could sell at 50 cents per round?

Oh well.  This is what you get when writers at Rolling Stone weigh in dramatically and breathlessly on things about which they are ignorant.

UPDATE: Oh look!  It’s like watching a train wreck.  Rolling Stone was picked up and parroted by … you guessed it … MSNBC.  The only thing better than progressives choosing to look like dumb asses is progressives falling in line to be like each other and looking, well, like dumb asses.  Daily Kos, anyone?  What other progressive rag will run with this meme?  How rich.

Montana Outdoor:

Jeramiah Mathis, of the Hamilton, Montana area, has been hunting his entire life, and before he was legally able to hunt, he was tagging along with his Dad while he was hunting and laying traps.  Jeramiah wasted no time having his first successful hunt and shot his first deer at the age of 12.  His passion for hunting increases with every hunt he does.

Now 29 years-old, Jeramiah went on ”his” first cat hunt up the West Fork on February 10th of this year.  He had been out before with his father-in-law, a local outfitter at Rocking W Outfitters in Darby, assisting out-of-state hunters with their mountain lion hunts, but Jeramiah hadn’t ever been the one trying to fill his own cat tag.

Jeramiah’s hunting buddy on this particular trip was his six year-old daughter.  “Hunting is in her blood”, Jeramiah responded with when I asked him if his daughter has any interest in hunting when she is old enough.  “She is always asking me to take her up in the snow to look for animals” he added.  This lucky youngin got to be right there with her parents when her Mom shot her first whitetail and her Dad shot his first mountain lion.

The cat was taken with Jeramiah’s AR-15 sporting rifle.  This particular gun is his gun-of-choice while hunting nowadays, and it certainly proved to be effective with this hunt!

You mean you can actually hunt with an AR-15 – or as some prefer, a modern sporting rifle?  Maybe it’s sort of like hunting feral hogs, the ones that run in such huge packs that you need a high capacity magazine for them, except that with hogs you take a lot of shots and with the big cat he apparently took one.

And Stephen Bayazes defended his life with one too.  I guess you can just do all sorts of things with them.

UPDATE: Rick Keyes comments over Facebook that “I have used mine to deer hunt for 8 years since my last shoulder surgery.”

This guy finds it “disturbing that people feel they need to be armed against the government.”

He tore up his AR (Armalite Rifle, not “assault rifle”) in order to prevent nut jobs from getting hold of it.  He’s a nut job alright.  I’d say he succeeded in his goal.  One less nut with a gun.