Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

Source.

Alabama on Jan. 1 will become the latest state to allow people to carry a concealed handgun without a state permit that requires a background check.

The new state law ends the requirement for a person to get a permit to legally carry a concealed handgun in public. A person can still choose to get a permit if they want to do so.

The proposal had been introduced unsuccessfully for years in Montgomery, before winning approval this year. The legislation was championed by gun rights advocates who call it “constitutional carry,” in reference to the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Opponents, including state sheriffs and others in law enforcement, argued the permits help combat crime and enhance public safety.

[ … ]

The Alabama Sheriffs Association had opposed the legislation. “Alabama sheriffs are clear on the law taking effect Jan. 1 and have adjusted accordingly,” said Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones, president of the Alabama Sheriffs’ Association

Jones and Stringer said there are still reasons a person might consider getting a permit. Jones said, “maintaining an Alabama concealed carry permit is wise when traveling out of state; reciprocity applies — other states may require non-residents to have a permit from their state of residence.”

Boss Hogg won’t be happy with the loss of control or the loss of revenue from the permitting scheme.  But there is this dark language in the law.

Lawmakers included language in the new law reiterating an officer’s ability to temporarily take a handgun during a traffic stop or other investigation. An officer with a reasonable suspicion that a person was about to engage in criminal conduct can temporarily take a handgun and run it through databases to see if the gun was stolen.

An officer could also temporarily take a weapon if it is necessary for the safety of the officer or others. The weapon must be returned unless there is an arrest, or the person is posing a safety threat.

If I’m not mistaken, South Carolina also had to include that language to get open carry passed (constitutional carry still awaits further legislative action).

We’ve discussed this before.  It’s the height of stupidity to touch another man’s weapon.  Don’t do it.  Just don’t.

There is the risk of negligent discharge (and Lord knows there have been plenty of those where LEOs were the ones responsible).  There is the risk of dropping the weapon (which is a problem if someone tries to catch it).  And if no one tries to catch it, a weapon gets scratched and banged up, reducing the resale value of the firearm.  There are various and sundry types of handguns, from no safety, to pistols with trigger brush-guards, to 1911s with a classic safety, SA only, DA/SA pistols, pistols that may have been modified by their owner, etc., etc.

No one can know everything, and to assume that a weapon can exchange hands in all cases without unsafe things happening is the height of arrogance and stupidity.

That language is more likely to cause safety problems than make anyone safer.  There are exceptions of course, when all the rules of gun safety have been and are being followed, there isn’t a round in the chamber, no one muzzle flags anyone else, and so forth, as if you were at the range.  But in such a case, why does exchanging control of the weapon make anyone safer?

Do … not … touch … another … man’s … firearm.  Period.  If it’s being left alone, then continue to leave it alone.  That language in the law is idiotic.

Field & Stream has the details.

From my perspective, the new Bushnell scope fills a niche, i.e., a high power FFP scope with a large objective lens for taking in light, at a reasonable price.  The Crimson Trace scope does not.  Who needs a 1-10X28mm tactical scope for a price of $649?

I’m most interested in the German Precision Optics reflex pistol red dot sight.  It’s targeted towards pistols, but would be good for tactical or turkey hunting shotguns as well in my view.

F&S says it has a battery life of 25,000 hours, while GPO says it has 40,000 hours.  The price point is good at $379.  It’s a good competitor to the Trijicon RMR.

But when they says new, they mean new.  I haven’t found availability of this new optic anywhere.

One final question remains, and that is the footprint.  According to GPO it has the Leupold DeltaPoint interface.  This source says that Leupold DeltaPoint is compatible with the RMR footprint, while this site more assertively states that it has the RMR footprint.

If any knowledgeable reader has this optic or the Leupold DeltaPoint optic, and can confirm that it can be installed over the RMR footprint, that would be appreciated.

I like being confronted by things I’ve never thought about before – or in other words, I like to learn.  This is one of those many things.

My take: No glass is perfect, especially the less expensive glass used for fixed magnification sights (1X) and red dot optics.  There will be some parallax, refraction, and lack of clarity.

Think about how you want to set zero on your rifle for later use with only iron sights.  What Reid is saying is that you may not be able to co-witness the irons with the glass if both are to be correct.

Good point.  I’d like to take one of Reid’s classes.

NYT.

The Biden administration is closing a major loophole in a new federal rule intended to regulate the sale of pistol parts that can readily be turned into untraceable homemade firearms, in an aggressive expansion of its crackdown on so-called ghost guns.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives directed vendors who sell partially finished frames of Glock-style handguns — the pistol grip and firing mechanism — to treat them like fully completed firearms, which are subject to federal regulations. The move, outlined in an open letter to federally licensed gun dealers, requires sellers to mark the parts with serial numbers, and for buyers to undergo criminal background checks.

The guidance could severely restrict the sale of unregulated and untraceable “80 percent” frames and receivers that have been linked to thousands of crimes, a top goal of the gun control movement. Such parts only require simple alterations to become operational.

The move, should it survive likely legal challenges from gun rights groups, would be among the most significant executive actions President Biden has taken to fulfill his campaign promise to stem the scourge of handgun violence, an effort highlighted by the passage of a bipartisan gun deal in June.

But federal officials told The New York Times earlier this month that the leadership of A.T.F. had done little to stop retailers from continuing to sell the unfinished, unregulated frames, outside of the kits.

A.T.F. officials said that they had been simply weighing various legal approaches before issuing their guidance on handguns. But they were also clearly under pressure to toughen the policy, and have spent the past few weeks working on the new guidance in conjunction with senior lawyers at the Justice Department and White House officials, according to three administration officials familiar with the situation.

Under the new guidance, vendors and manufacturers who fail to comply with the technical requirements outlined in the letter would face penalties ranging from the possible loss of their federal licenses to criminal prosecution.

Yet the move, which the Justice Department described as a clarification of the regulation, is not without risk. Because the rule was created through executive action, rather than a statute validated by Congress, it has given companies confidence that they can keep selling individual gun parts.

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss possible litigation, said the new guidance would almost certainly be challenged in federal court on the grounds that it violates the Gun Control Act of 1968, which allows people to build firearms for their personal use without submitting to background checks or applying serial numbers.

Isn’t it a hoot how, when a regulation, law, or lack of regulation or law, doesn’t do exactly what some controller – rulemaker wants it to do, it’s considered a “loophole?”

Biden is just doing what Trump did in his precedent-setting move to ban bump stocks by rulemaking rather than forcing the Congress to do their job.

Biden’s plan may in fact suffer from an even further weakness, i.e., it explicitly contradicts another law.

How sweet.  Queue up the popcorn – the court cases will prove to be numerous and amusing.

He does a nice review of the gun, including reasons for owning one.  I consider the .22 magnum round to be a legitimate self defense round for bipeds, perhaps not for the bush.

There is another reason – in most states, you must dispatch deer with a .22 rimfire pistol, and nothing larger.  This meets the requirement.

I had never really thought of bolt throw in the practical terms he discusses it, i.e., interference with scopes and mounts.  That seems to be basically the only reason it really matters unless you’re really into the mechanics of bolt lugs and how they fit up.  Let me know in the comments if you disagree.

For the record, I could listen to Ryan Muckenhirn discuss tying his shoe for an hour and it would be interesting to me.  But even more interesting would be to get an invitation to a hunt with him.  Any kind of hunt – pronghorn, upland birds, anything.

Ian does a very good job of explaining head space and the potential risks of having it wrong.

Field & Stream.

There is a 150-grain hunting bullet that at 100 yards will penetrate at least 23 inches and expand as much or more than either with similar bullets. Not only that, but it will do so while producing just 13 foot-pounds of recoil energy when fired from a 7-pound rifle. That’s 6 and 11 foot-pounds less than the .308 and .30/06, respectively. So, what is miracle cartridge? It’s the .30/30 Winchester.

How could the ancient .30/30 possibly outperform two 30-caliber cartridges that are considered by many to be the best big-game cartridges of all time? The answer is simpler than you might think. With conventional bullets, the higher velocities of the .308 and .30/06 cause more bullet erosion, which reduces weight, and in turn, penetration.

You might argue that the higher impact velocities of the latter tend to create more tissue damage. That’s true, and if sufficient penetration is reached by all three of these, the ones fired from the .308 and .30/06 might in fact put an animal down faster. But not any deader, and none of that is quantifiable. What really counts is penetration …

In his 1970s book, The Hunting Rifle, Jack O’Connor talked about an old hand he’d encountered who’d hunted Wyoming, Montana, and the Yukon, and typically took 17 or 18 elk with a single box (20 rounds) of .30/30 ammo. He told O’Connor that a moose, lung shot with a .30/30, would run about 75 to 100 yards and die. Well before that, African professional hunter Wally Johnson took a .30/30 Winchester to Africa and used it to kill lions. The effectiveness of the .30/30 Winchester on big game should never be questioned; it has more than a century of proof sanctioning it.

Given the untold numbers of deer taken with Winchester Model 94s and Marlin 336s over the last century, it should come as a bit of a shock that some of today’s younger hunters will ask: Is the .30/30 good for deer hunting? Um, yes. For decades and decades, it was consider the deer cartridge.

Right on.  Preach it!

The normally reliable Ron Spomer did a recent video favorably comparing the 300 Blackout to the 30-30.  It’s so wrong in my opinion that I’m not even linking it.

The 300 BO has a 125 grain bullet travelling at 2215 FPS.  The box of 30-30 I’m looking at now shows a 150 grain bullet travelling at 2390 FPS.  25 grains and 175 FPS is enough difference to make a difference.  Remember, the energy computation squares the velocity.

This comes via Ken’s site.  It should be a daily stop for you.

Remarks: Listen carefully to what the CEO said when they brought the idea for the predecessor to the Model 70 to him.  In my own experience, CEOs rarely if ever make good or right decisions for companies.  It would nearly always be better to put major company decisions up to a vote of the employees, bit a second option would be to use a random number generator to make company decisions.  It would usually be better than what corporate officers decide.

Slav Guns has this fun video of unboxing of his new Savage 110 Switchback, which apparently was only built in a limited run and only available through Sportsman’s Warehouse.  He obviously intends to remove the action and put it inside a chassis.

One commenter remarks, “I’m waiting for the Ruger Predator.”  I didn’t know they were intending to build a 6mm ARC bolt action gun, but he might have meant the Savage 110 Carbon Predator, which is available in 6mm ARC.  He said that the Savage 110 Tactical was being built in a 16″ or 18″ barrel, defeating the point of the 6mm ARC.  The Savage 100 Carbon Predator is also being built with a 18″ barrel.

Right now not even the Savage web site shows this in 6mm ARC, while Shooting Illustrated says it is.

Field & Stream has an article up on low recoil deer cartridges.  Their list is as follows.

• .223 Remington
• .224 Valkyrie
• .243 Winchester
• .257 Roberts
• .25-06 Remington
• .260 Remington
• 6.5×55 Swedish
• 6.5 Creedmoor
• 6.8 Remington SPC
• 7mm-08 Remington
• .30-30 Winchester
• 350 Legend

It’s beyond me how you could write an article on the best low recoil deer cartridges and not mention 6mm ARC, using a bullet twice the weight of the 5.56/.223, essentially the same velocity, with only slightly more recoil.

Perhaps it’s the lack of viable bolt action rifles in this round, but you can still use an AR for the hunt.  Grendel Hunter has as many or more 6mm ARC uppers as they do 6.5 Grendel.

I remain disappointed at the slow adoption of this cartridge.