Archive for the 'Guns' Category

Tim makes the comparison and contrast.  I really like Tim and have exchanged email with him, with Tim being helpful with advice in a purchase I wanted to make.

But I think they are wrong in their conclusions on almost every account.  First, don’t shoot practice ammunition when you can shoot the real thing.  No, .38 Spl versus .357 magnum isn’t a good comparison.  If you intend to carry .357 magnum, you’d better be shooting .357 magnum at the range.

Next, I think the high pressures this cartridge generates is going to be problematic, including scorching the chamber and throat.  Also, until you see this gun running its high pressures in hot environments for years, you have yet to see what sorts of problems will develop.  Next, I think the weight is going to be problematic, both for the gun and the ammunition.  Next, I think no one is ever going to shoot this in full auto – it will be completely uncontrollable.  I could go on, but I think you get my main points.

What to do then?  The Stoner platform is great, and so is the 5.56X45 for distances short of about 400 yards.  For those who need to shoot further than that, they should have considered the 6mm ARC.  No, they shouldn’t have considered it, they should have purchased upper receivers chambered for this cartridge as fast as they could.

The upper receiver will fit an AR-15 lower.  The cartridge fits within the AR platform.  Weight stays the same.  Operation stays the same.  A new upper receiver and new magazines is all that is required.  For that, you get a 6mm bullet that weighs almost twice what the 5.56X45 does (103 grains, 105 grains, 108 grains) with the velocity of the 5.56X45, and a long bullet that has the ballistic design for effectiveness at 1000 yards. You do all of that with only 1 – 2 pounds more recoil.

Leave it to the DoD to make stupid decisions and waste money.

I think it’s fairly common knowledge that you cannot grip a revolver the same way you do a semi-automatic pistol.  You cannot put your finger near the gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone.

But some newer gun owners may not be aware of this.  If you cannot get some one to teach you to do it the right way, read articles and watch videos to teach yourself.

Wheel guns are awesome and every man should have one or more.  But like any firearm, they come with warnings on their usage.

TFB.  They’ve released the new compact ACOG.

• Model: 1.5x16S (TA44 Series)
• Magnification: 1.5x
• Objective Lens: 16mm
• Eye Relief: 2.4 in. 61.0mm
• Exit Pupil: 0.42 in. 10.7mm
• Field of View (in degrees): 7.4°
• Field of View: 39.0 ft.@ 100 yds. 12.9m @100m
• Adjustments (Per in. @ 100 yds.): 2 clicks
• Dimensions (L x W x H) w/o Mount: 4.0 x 1.6 x 2.1 in. (102 x 42 x 53mm)
• Weight w/ Mount: 5.1 oz. (144.5g)
• Illumination Source: Fiber Optics & Tritium
• Reticle(s): Circle Dot, RTR .223 Reticle, RTR 9mm PCC Reticle
• MSRP: $1,357

I put the MSRP in bold.  Yes, you read that right.  They’ve released an ACOG that doesn’t have the magnification of the classic ACOG, and increased the price.

Ha!  And I had the audacity to recommend to Trijicon that they consider their pricing and whether they really want a share of the American market!

Why on earth would anyone buy this for $1357?  It isn’t a 1X so both eyes open downrange will see some oddball things, and it isn’t powerful enough to really be an LPVO or legitimate prism scope.

Good.  It’s nice to see someone has come out with a .22 magnum pistol that’s reliable.  I dumped my KelTec because I couldn’t make it go more than a magazine without a FTF/FTE.  I wrote them and suggested that they reengineer the magazine to be aluminum rather than polymer, and they ignored me.

This one is polymer coated on the outside, but aluminum in the inside.  Also, I had found one link which suggested that the pistol was striker fired in spite of what he said in the video.  But TFB confirms with confidence that it’s a hammer fired gun.  The hammer is a bit hidden but the pictures are good.

That checks the other box for me.  I don’t shoot striker fired guns.

Finally, I like the availability. I hate to read about a new firearm and then find that nothing is available and no one knows when there will be.

His answer was the same thing I said not too many months ago if you recall.  Although I have to say that the idea of unreliability of semi-automatic firearms is very dated and incorrect now with shotguns like Beretta makes.  I’d prefer a semi-auto shotgun to a pump action for a number of reasons, including recoil management and the breakage of sight picture to work the pump.

But I do like the idea of reliance on a wheel gun.

From a reader, this report on new weaponry for SOCOM.

It has a 5.5″ barrel.  The propaganda at the link says, “One was to roughly match the ballistic performance of the Soviet-developed 7.62x39mm round, retaining accuracy and power when fired from a weapon with an extremely short barrel. The other includes a heavier bullet that is subsonic and ideal for suppression and close-quarters combat.”  It will “blast out of tight spots with a wallop similar to a full-size assault rifle.”

No it won’t.  It shoots the 5.56X45 and the 300 BO rounds.  The 5.5″ barrel will cause a tremendous loss of bullet velocity.

SOCOM released a statement: “After years of continuous market research, USSOCOM HQ has concluded that Sig Sauer is the only vendor that can fulfill USSOCOM’s need for the commercial PDW requirement.”

The only vendor.  Sig is the only vendor who could fabricate a PDW that shoots a bullet.  Any kind of bullet.  Pistol caliber or rifle caliber that behaves like a pistol round because of reduced muzzle velocity.

The only vendor.

My question is this.  Who at Sig has what on SOCOM?  What is this love affair with Sig and why does it exist?

I wouldn’t want to go into a gun fight with that thing.  Guys, make your rifles rifles, and your pistols pistols.  Stop trying to marry the two.

At Outdoor Life.

I’m not sure these are the best, and the prices are stunning in some cases.  They range from $2000 in some instances up to $3200 for the Zeiss.  It’s just not clear to me who would drop $3200 on a scope like that except professional shooters in the military (e.g., Army snipers).

Some expected names like Leupold (and whatever model they have up there will doubtless be discontinued within a year), and Athlon.

Some unexpected omissions.  Why wouldn’t they include Arken Optics give the features and reasonable price?

What do readers think?  Would you spend $3200 on optics for a hunting rifle or carbine?

The best deal I ever got on a scope was when Gander Mountain was closing their store in my town.  They wanted big parking lots to compete with Bass Pro Shop for selling RVs.

The last days of the store they had everything for 50% off (not including firearms, which were 15% off sticker).  I also used a membership from a friend which gave me another 10%.

I picked up a Nikon Black FX1000 FFP 6-24×50 for $190.  It was a deal too good to pass up.

News & views.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released a new slide show of firearms industry ads and catalog images exposing the common themes that gunmakers use in their marketing of militarized weapons such as the Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle used in the mass shooting this past weekend at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

In the introduction to the three-part slide show, the VPC explains, “Militarization dominates the public face of today’s gun industry, whether in magazine ads, manufacturer catalogs and websites, or the content of firearm magazines that cater to gun owners. In these outlets, three themes are consistently found”—

• Language and images that equate military-bred weaponry as the virtual embodiment of freedom. In this context, gun owners are often portrayed as brave men (and it is almost always men) standing alone, a front-line force against oppression, often from the government. Some companies harken back to the era of the Founding Fathers, encouraging these gun buyers to view themselves as modern-day patriots.
• The use of terms and images drawn from military or law enforcement extolling the virtues of the potential gun buyer, including hero. These descriptions are supplemented by words such as “bravery,” “honor,” and similar terms to describe an undefined “mission.” The accompanying images most often feature users outfitted in military-style gear.
• Language and images touting that the guns being sold are identical, or virtually identical, to the weapons carried and used by law enforcement or the military. Many manufacturers highlight the military and/or law enforcement pedigree of their firearms. Often, the only difference is that the weapons sold to civilians are semiautomatic, firing one bullet per trigger pull, as opposed to being able to fire in burst or fully automatic mode.

This is almost amusing due to its ignorance.

First of all, I reject out of hand the notion that something that’s military is somehow bad.  I do so for very good reasons that the VPC refuses to acknowledge.

Second, having watched hundreds of people – many of whom are new gun owners – purchase firearms over the last several years, I will observer that they tend to purchase the less expensive firearms, not the more expensive (which would be the corollary to highly marketed “military” firearms).

Third, women tend to seek out the simpler firearms, which tend to be wheel guns, or in other cases, subcompacts (for hiding in purses).  A full size pistol or rifle wouldn’t have impressed them.

Fourth, true gun guys aren’t impressed by sales pitches.  For example, videos like this one or this one don’t in the least make me want drop a wad of cash on the new Sig squad rifle.  I have no desire to own that weapon, nor to shoot ceramic cartridges.  Let it prove itself in a half century of war.  I’d rather have a lever action Marlin 30-30.

Fifth, the AR style platform is still so highly regarded and sought after because Eugene Stoner engineered it so well, not because of marketing.  If firearms manufacturers are spending a ton of money on marketing, they’d do better to improve their QA.  Parts failures and lack of 1 MOA shooting make it to the forums and cause users to pan the weapon.  Advertising gimmicks don’t matter.

They’re looking for a boogieman in the dark, and finding one every time they bump into a lamp.

News.

The last thing we need in this world is more guns. But we’re getting them whether we like it or not, so wouldn’t it be nice if those guns had safety mechanisms like our phones, making them impossible for anyone but their owners to use? That’s what Biofire is building, and it has raised $17 million to finalize and commercialize its biometric-secured firearm.

Founder Kai Kloepfer said he began looking into the idea after the Aurora mass shooting in 2012.

“I started to think, what could I possibly do to have an impact on this? How can I apply product building skills to what would appear to be a public health challenge? The problem of children and teens finding guns, accidents and suicides — that was the place where I really saw tech and a physical, product-based solution having an impact,” he said.

Good.  I hope the investors raise even more money than that, and I hope this becomes a money hole.

I will never buy one, but I’ve said what I will do.

“Perform a fault tree analysis of smart guns.  Use highly respected guidance like the NRC fault tree handbook.

Assess the reliability of one of my semi-automatic handguns as the first state point, and then add smart gun technology to it, and assess it again.  Compare the state points.  Then do that again with a revolver.  Be honest.  Assign a failure probability of greater than zero (0) to the smart technology, because you know that each additional electronic and mechanical component has a failure probability of greater than zero.

Get a PE to seal the work to demonstrate thorough and independent review.  If you can prove that so-called “smart guns” are as reliable as my guns, I’ll pour ketchup on my hard hat, eat it, and post video for everyone to see.  If you lose, you buy me the gun of my choice.  No one will take the challenge because you will lose that challenge.  I’ll win.  Case closed.  End of discussion.”

To date no one has taken the challenge, and no one will in the future.

Oooo … an Ashville MSM journalist writes a breathless article about ghost guns.  We should all be askeerd.

“In the case of the pistols here that you see, these were all purchased in undercover investigations by ATF,” Mein said.

The area of the frame or receiver where a manufacturer is required to add crucial serial numbers on these kits is blank.

“Those markings give us the ability to trace that gun. By tracing the firearm, we’re finding out who manufactured it, who retail sold it and who the original purchaser is,” Mein said.

The firearms anonymity is driving up their presence at crime scenes.

Let’s stop right there.  Firearms anonymity cannot possibly do or cause anything.  Maybe they don’t teach journalism or logic in college any more.

If unserialized firearms (that’s what we should call them) are more prevalent than in years gone by, that could explain an increased prevalence in crime scenes.  It would only stand to reason if the firearms at crime scenes are a cross section of the firearms in circulation.

As for the notion that serialization is “crucial,” that’s preposterous.  Person-to-person sales are still legal and the work to trace a firearm all the way back to the original buyer means absolutely nothing.  This is a raw ploy to scare the ignorant and easily scared into demanding laws against manufacture of their own weapons and person-to-person sales, and the ATF isn’t just going along with it all, I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea for the story came from them.

A federal rule change in April now makes those kits easier to trace. It will require serial numbers to be included on the frame or receiver. Sellers must also be licensed.

“It would provide that background screening,” King said.

Licensed manufacturer Phil Flack agreed serial numbers help investigators with cases.

“I think so, in one sense for the law enforcement community,” said Flack, owner of P.F. Custom Guns in Buncombe County.

Still, Flack continued, “The law has always allowed for individuals to manufacture their own firearms.”

He is worried new rules could impact enthusiasts and hobbyists more than criminals.

“If you’re going after somebody who’s not really a threat, what have you accomplished,” Flack said.

Phil, haven’t you learned how this works yet?  Don’t talk to the press – nothing good can come of it.

Via correspondent Roger.