Archive for the 'Guns' Category

This is probably a dumb test.

Besides, I don’t believe there is any such thing as a “Winter Skin Walker” with talons.  I think he just made that up.  I think most things in the cold bush are furry and bad.  “The Alaskan” could help us on that one.

But if you like dumb videos where significantly “beyond design basis” conditions are imposed on machinery just to watch it fail, this may be mildly entertaining for you.

I would probably not choose to impose this particular set of beyond design basis conditions because of the thermal cycling it induces on the machinery (and potential for structural degradation due to cracks in the grain boundaries of the metal).

Outdoor Life.

Electrical tape is the best thing I’ve found to keep moisture and debris out of my rifle muzzle. Once I began hunting in Alaska in conditions that were often harsh and wet, I quickly inherited the trick of tightly covering my muzzle with electrical tape. I even keep extra tape rolled around the barrel just in front of the stock. Once I shoot through the first tape, I’ll eventually retape it with the extra roll. As a matter of habit, any rifle I have with me is taped from the time it’s uncased till I shoot. I simply shoot through the tape and cover it back up afterwards.

[ … ]

In fact, the bullet never even contacts the tape. The air pressure created by the tightly sealed bullet traveling down the bore blows the tape away from the muzzle long before the bullet ever gets there.

[ … ]

Group sizes and group center locations didn’t indicate any trends or notable changes across the rifles …

Tricks of the trade.  I’ve never thought of this before, but it doesn’t surprise me that he finds no difference in shots between taped and untaped.

It seems like a good idea in very wet environments.

This page is yeoman’s work.

Unfortunately, we recognize there are so many variances in our state to state laws, the average individual may have difficulty keeping up with those laws well enough to prevent them from breaking the law, especially as they travel. Since we have the ability to research those laws and create an informative Concealed Carry specific site, we have done so.

Each State is hotlinked to an excellent and user-friendly outline of that State’s gun laws.

Dean Weingarten.

As I collected documented incidents of handguns fired in defense against bears, a pattern emerged. The recorded incidents of pistols being fired in defense against bears overwhelmingly occurred from 1960 onward.

I’ve found 125 documented cases where handguns have been fired in defense against bears, from 1890 to present. Two of the 125 cases were considered to be indeterminate as to success or failure. An additional 20 cases, where handguns were used with other lethal means, are considered combination defenses. They are not included in this analysis.

The total numbers include indeterminate cases, but not the combination cases. 95% of all the documented cases occurred from 1960 onward. 76% of all cases occurred from 2000 forward.

Dean then goes on to examine the causes.

First, while pistols were used against bears prior to the development of the cartridge firing handgun, (about 1840 – 1870) much of the use was in hunting. There the handgun was used as an ancillary device to long guns.

Bears tended to be hunted hard on the outskirts of settled areas. They were considered pests. Bounties were offered for them. Bears had no legal protection. Bears, of necessity, became wary of humans, and seldom attacked humans other than when hunted and wounded.

Second, few records were written of handguns being used against bears during this period. Some hunts were recorded, as were a few incidents involving bears. Most involved long guns. What few records there were are difficult to find. Records became more common after 1960, and much easier to find after the Internet information explosion in the 1990’s.

Third, while human populations continued to increase, bear populations declined, then started to increase, with the greatest increase from about 1960 onward.

To sum up, an increase in effective handguns, record keeping and the ability to search records, and increasing populations of humans and bears do much to explain the rapidly expanding number of documented cases of pistol defense against bears.

It all makes sense.  Handguns firing centerfire cartridges were developed, and cartridges became much more powerful and with much higher muzzle velocity, with much better materials and construction to take the higher chamber pressures.  Next, record keeping and the availability of retrieval.  Third, bears are protected.  You can’t hunt the if they’re not in hunting season, and if you have to shoot one, even in self defense, you just might run afoul of game management officers.  Thus, population is on the rise.

Maybe depending upon how near we are to the bush, we all need to go back to carrying long guns for self defense.  Just a thought.

Long guns are heavy.  Then again, it might be good exercise.

Apparently, there are an awful lot of Savage rifles in use in Ukraine.  This adds to the AR and AK variants we’ve already documented.

Eventually they will want to standardize on both a cartridge and system of weapons, both semi-automatic and bolt.

Outdoor Life.

During the 10mm vs .44 Mag. test, none of us were looking forward to running the S&W 329 PD with the Hornady 240-grain JHP loads I had brought along. But while our hands were fresh we shot the revolver first.  According to Hornady’s data, the XTP bullets from a 7.5-inch barrel clock at 1350 fps and generate 971 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. And I can vouch that you feel every one of the foot-pounds when you pull the 329’s trigger. (I’m glad I didn’t bring the 305-grain hardcast bullets I normally carry in the revolver, which step out at 1,325 fps with 1,189 foot-pounds of muzzle energy.)

Not only was the muzzle flip difficult to control, but running the revolver quickly was painful as hell. And quickly was a relative term. Our average run on the five-target array was 5.5 seconds with a -1.3 accuracy score. (Meaning we missed an average of 1.3 targets during the drill.) Interestingly, one of the misses was an edge hit that failed to knock over the steel popper, which drove home our collective observation of how difficult the revolver was to control while going for vital hits.

Well no wonder.  They were shooting a Scandium frame wheel gun.  I also don’t understand why they were shooting JHPs.  No one would carry JHP for bear defense.

We all shot the 10mm Autos much better, despite the fact that the webs of our shooting hands were swollen and bruised after running the .44. We alternated through the pistols, running them in no particular order, but recording our impressions after each run. For ammo we ran 180-grain JHPs from Federal and Hornady loaded to similar velocities. Published data gives speeds of 1,275 fps and a muzzle energy of 650 foot-pounds.

So what?  I confess that I just don’t get this fascination with 10mm guns for the bush.

I can push 230 grain 450 SMC (Short Magnum Cartridge) bullets at 1150 FPS, and Buffalo Bore +P .45ACP almost that fast.  I don’t consider those rounds difficult to shoot at all.

If you wanted to take a step up for semiautomatic handguns, you could buy a new barrel (with compensator and new spring) and shoot the 460 Rowland and have all the advantages of the rapid reload.

But to each his own

I like what he’s done.

Once again the greatest bear and firearms researcher in the world helps us with new data.  I’ll let you go to Dean’s article for the scoop, but I’ll lift this out.

Of these 20 cases, 15 involve a single, known, pistol caliber. Here are the current numbers of cases for those calibers:

• 9mm – seven documented cases, all successful
• .38 Special –  four documented cases, three successful, one failure
• .357 magnum – nine documented cases, eight successful, one failure
• .40 S&W  – five documented cases, all successful
• 10mm – six documented cases, all successful
• .44 magnum – 37 documented cases, all successful
• .45 Long Colt – 2 cases, successful, this includes the .45 Colt/.410 revolver.

Caliber seems far less important than the willingness to use the firearm and kill the bear.

These were all newly found cases.  I’m surprised to find no .45ACP in the list.

But it isn’t clear to me what Dean’s list means.  This totals to 70 cases, not the 20 new ones he listed.

“The Collector” again.

I left a comment.  Awesome range, but does the ventilation system include charcoal adsorbers and HEPA filters to remove the lead and copper before discharge (there are other things to consider, but these are just two)?

From reader Ned.  That’s fine shooting in my book.