Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

I confess I didn’t even know they had made this firearm. Now I want one. Of course, as with all such unique and nice firearms, when they go out of production, they are “unobtanium.”

Every … single … rule. Every one.

It’s remarkable how slowly he tried to figure out how the other guy was. He just sort of sauntered over to him, huh?

A Polish Sport Shooting Federation judge accidentally shoots a contestant at a shooting event. pic.twitter.com/jp3qwFU5i5

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 17, 2024

Via Wisco.

American Hunter.

Forty-one percent of surveyed hunters used an AR-platform rifle at some time for hunting, according to the findings of research conducted by Responsive Management for the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation (OSCF). When asked a similar question during a 2014 study, the rate was only 25 percent. Fifty-one percent of the hunters who do not currently use an AR said they would if it were legal in their state.

Nearly half of respondents said their favorite hunting firearm is a traditional rifle—defined for purposes of the survey as any rifle that’s not an AR. Another quarter prefer shotguns.

Roughly 80 percent of AR hunters use their firearm to hunt large game, a significant increase from 57 percent in 2014. Thirty-one percent said their preferred quarry is small game, about the same as 2014.

Over a third of AR hunters cited ease of shooting as the primary reason for their preference. Another 31 percent said their main motivation was accuracy. Reliability and weight reduction were the next-highest responses.

“It was not surprising to learn that hunting with AR-platform/modern sporting rifles is on the rise,” said Jim Curcuruto, executive director of OSCF. “I was surprised, however, to see that more than 50 percent of hunters that are not currently using AR-platform rifles to hunt with, responded that they are likely to try hunting with these versatile rifles in the future.”

Well, that the main motivation is accuracy is a little weird. I’ll stipulate that AR pattern rifles have greatly improved over the last ten years, and my rifles are generally 1 MOA. Bolt action rifles are too as long as you spend the money to get good rifles, and something like a Tikka will give you << 1 MOA accuracy. But of course to get the accuracy in an AR pattern rifle costs a lot of money too. I’d have to say generally that since you can buy a Tikka bolt action for < $1500, and getting really good accuracy out of AR-10 pattern rifle requires something like a Daniel Defense or Seekins Precision, you’re saving 50% on your purchase by opting for the Tikka.

Where I think the AR pattern rifle really comes in handy is something like hunting hogs where multiple shots can be taken very quickly. There might be other applications (a deer stumbles but begins to run and you need another round quickly). Anyway, as I said, opting for an AR pattern rifle because of accuracy over a bolt action sounds strange to me.

But I don’t find it surprising at all that AR pattern rifles are beginning to take off among hunters. I would day that if you opt for an AR pattern rifle, spend the money necessary to get a good one. On a recent hunting trip I heard a guide say that the cheaper AR-10s shooting .308 had malfunctions that require slamming the butt into the ground. Normally, that comes from a double-feed.

Mrgunsngear reviews an American-made MP5 clone.

I think this is an interesting weapon, and I asked a friend of mine of adding a stock to this would make and SBR (knowing the answer before I asked).

He has a brace on it. You can argue that this is just a work-around to the NFA, or you can argue that this is an accoutrement that allows you to shoot the weapon in the best ergonomic configuration to be successful in a self defense situation. In the end, I don’t care how you argue.

The court has knocked down ATF challenges to the pistol-brace decision.

I think it’s instructive that the trigger is so heavy and has such large travel. I suppose if you purchased this model you’d have to get work done on the trigger (or a new one).

Me … not like this. I would assume that this method gets most of the debris out if it’s well dried. By well dried, I don’t mean with a towel. I mean with a vacuum chamber. I don’t have one of those. So I wouldn’t do this.

Friendly reminder to the homies to keep your guns clean. pic.twitter.com/HrME4GpDrA

— ☘️ Ƒʉͫcͧкͭιͪηͣ ‎ (@LuckyMcGee) October 15, 2024

I have long thought that Rossi needed to step up its game. I don’t like the looks of their model R92, but it looks like they have done much better with the R95.

Now Rossi USA is introducing additional straight-wall, rimmed-cartridge options for the R95 family including .44 Mag, .357 Mag, .444 Marlin and .360 Buckhammer. Every lever-action Rossi R95 carbine or rifle that shoots any of these four additional cartridge choices is still built to the same high standards and specifications as the rest of the Rossi R95 family, including the .30-30 Win. and 45/70 originals. Certain features and details, such as rifling twist rate and tubular magazine capacity, will depend on the specific cartridge, but each of the four new models comes standard with the same classically styled hardwood furniture set and 20-inch barrels.

Nice. I like Rossi making this in .444 Marlin. Here is the model. It looks sporty and gentlemanly and much more like a Marlin 336.

Now, the next step is to make one in .454 Casull.

I think the Vortex boys knock it out of the park with these two videos, and I’ve said before that I could listen to Ryan talk about paint drying and it would be interesting. I still await the invitation to go hunting with him.

From a reader, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.

Early Thursday morning, archery hunter Landon Clement was backed up against a rock in the remote Upper Green River Basin, hoping and praying that the three grizzly bears that were 10 yards away would just walk away.

It was the most intense, terrifying moment he’s experienced in his 31 years, he told Cowboy State Daily.

The bears, a female with two large cubs, had come downhill on his left and turned to cross in front of him.

Although he already had his Glock 10mm semiautomatic drawn and leveled at the bears, all he wanted was for things to end peacefully.

“But that’s not what happened,” he said.

Instead, the mother grizzly charged Clement and sank her teeth into his left thigh, and he ended up shooting the bear to death.

“She lunged right at me,” he said. “I saw nothing but her head and her white teeth coming right at me.”

He described the attack was incredibly fast and violent, as the bear locked her jaws down on his leg and started shaking her head.

He was too pumped full of adrenaline to feel any pain, he said. That came later.

What struck him in that awful moment was the sheer force of the grizzly’s jaws.

“I did not feel the pain in the moment,” he said. “I could feel the force that it put on me. It felt like a freight train. I’ve never felt that much force in my life. It’s unbelievable that something could do that to me, and how fast it happened.”

Clement’s ordeal was the third time this hunting season that grizzlies in the region have attacked archery hunters, and the hunters used handguns to kill the bears in self-defense. The two previous incidents were in Idaho and Montana.

Clement said he considers himself lucky.

He suffered four deep puncture wounds to his thigh. Doctors at the Pinedale Clinic “stitched me up really good,” said Clement, who is from Blue Ridge, Georgia, but frequently hunts in the Upper Green River Basin near Pinedale.

They told him that he hadn’t suffered any permanent damage and should recover fully.

[ … ]

The four of them rode to a remote spot in a side-by-side, and then started hiking. Before long they split up. Clement’s father and cousin decided to keep going farther back in to do some scouting.

Quintrell and Clement selected good spots to set up and wait for elk to come within bow range. The two hunters were about 300 yards apart, with Quintrell downhill from Clement.

Clement found what he thought was the perfect spot, a large boulder with some deadfall timber leaning against it.

Then the bears came into full view.

“I knew right away it was grizzlies,” he said. I could see the shapes of their heads, the shoulder humps, everything.”

At first, it looked as if the bears would just keep going downslope, passing him by and leaving him with nothing but a great story to tell.

Then the grizzlies turned, taking a path that would put them right in front of him.

“When those bears cut down that trail and veered toward me, I knew I was probably going to have an issue,” Clement said.

So he drew his pistol.

“I was still backed up against the rock,” he said. “And when I realized that they were coming my way, I just backed up even further against that rock, I was practically glued to it.”

As the bears came up in front of him, his only hope was that they wouldn’t notice him and would keep going.

But they caught his scent.

“They stopped on a dime. All three of them, with their noses going in the air,” he said.

The mother grizzly locked in on him and silent tension exploded into absolute chaos as the bear charged Clement, and he opened fire.

The cubs bolted and ran off when the shooting started, and Clement and his companions never saw them again.

The mother grizzly’s attack was utterly ferocious, he said.

“She just leaped. She just charged right at me with her mouth wide open,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast, she covered that 10-12 yards in less than a second.

“When it came at me it was making this noise, not really growling, but more like a ‘huff, huff, huff.’”

Clement fired as fast as he could; he’s still not sure how many rounds.

“It bit into my left thigh, and it would not let go,” he continued. “It just bit into my thigh and starting shaking its head.”

It was then Clement he noticed that, although he was still pulling his pistol’s trigger, nothing was happening.

“As the bear was still clamped onto my leg, I was finally able to look down and see that my gun was jammed,” he said.

Clearing a jam in a semiautomatic pistol can be chore even under the best of circumstances on a shooting range.

Clement managed to do it with a 600-pound grizzly clamped on his leg trying to ragdoll him.

“Once I cleared the jam, I put the gun as close to its head as I could and shot a couple of more times,” he said. “It let go and rolled off me. I knew that I had killed that bear.”

Let’s stop right there. You can read the rest of the horrible story at Cowboy State Daily.

While I don’t like or own Glocks, they certainly have a reputation for being a reliable gun. This isn’t the first instance I’ve read about 10mm guns jamming (FTF, FTE) in all sorts of make and models. And then this happened.

As things started to settle down, “I looked down at my pistol, and it was jammed again,” he said.

“It jammed right after the kill shot,” Clement said. “If it had jammed again before then, I don’t know what I would have done. The Lord was looking out for me.”

I’ve also heard it said that you just have to test it out to find what ammo the gun “likes.” Okay, whatever. You know what? My 1911s like everything. Even the 1911 that I modified with the 22# spring to take 450 SMC will shoot lighter loads without complaints or hiccups.

With the possibility of shooting a .44 magnum wheel gun, or a 1911 shooting 450 SMC, or a modified gun shooting 460 Rowland, I don’t see the attraction of 10mm semiautomatic pistols. You know how to unjam a revolver, right? Pull the trigger again (assuming the cylinder isn’t locked for some reason).

I’m sure some readers will rush to the defense of the 10mm semiauto lineup, especially Glocks, but you have now heard this anecdotal evidence that there was something very wrong with this picture.

If you’re going to be in the bush, choose wisely.

I don’t do that. I don’t care about impressing people. I don’t care what other people think. I like things that work well for the least expensive price I can find.

Sad news concerning Paul Harrell.

It’s especially said that his own brother didn’t know his views and doesn’t know what will become of him.

Make sure to avoid that fate for yourself.

I will miss him. I would like to see him one day in heaven, but who knows?