Archive for the 'Guns' Category



Testing For Home Defense Ammunition For Carbines

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

Shooting Illustrated.

For us, the main takeaway is that if you have a bad guy hiding behind a common interior wall, concealment is all it’s really providing. With an AR-15 carbine, there’s a high probability your bullet will perform nearly as well after passing through that wall—even if it hits a stud—as it would if there was no barrier between you and that bad guy at all.

We also learned that the 150-grain 300 HAMR load is rather wicked with regard to terminal performance. Though it may provide deeper-than-desirable penetration in a home-defense setting, from a wound-cavity standpoint you can see why this cartridge is one of the best available for big-game hunting with an AR-15. And finally, do not discount the 125-grain hollowpoint .30-30 Win. load for personal protection. It should not over-penetrate, and it creates a reasonably large crush cavity. It’s clearly a great choice for home defense if your life-saving gun is a lever-action carbine.

If I had to pick one of these cartridges/loads for home defense, I’d probably go with the 110-grain 300 HAMR load because of its consistent 12 to 14 inches of penetration and the lack of over-penetration concern associated with it. The Speer Gold Dot load for the .223 Rem. and the FTX load for the .300 BLK delivered similar, but slightly deeper performance. There are, of course, lots of other loads and carbine cartridges to consider. This test is only a glimpse. But, it does give you an idea of what can be expected with carbines, and even the ancient .30-30 Win., if they must be fired inside a home to save your life.

Well, the .30-30 is a venerable cartridge, and stands today as the load that has probably taken more white tail than any other cartridge.  It would be an awesome home defense round.  It’s also noteworthy that lever action rifles are very popular within the AR community, and for good reason.  Every man should have lever action rifles.

The summary is a bit strange though.  The graphs show the 300 HAMR as over-penetrating, and the last thing you want inside a home is over-penetration.  Moreover, availability is an issue, as is cost.

Red Dots On Turkey Guns

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

9mm Versus .45ACP

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

Garand Thumb titles his video “we end the debate.”  BLUF: There will always be a debate.

Choke Tubes for Home Defense Shotguns

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

Continuing his great video content and presentations, Chris Baker at Lucky Gunner discusses chokes for home defense shotguns.  Sure enough, as soon as he said Lucky Gunner had gotten a shipment of Federal Flight Control in and it may be gone by the time this video was viewed, yep, they’re out of it.

Garand Thumb Reviews The Beretta 1301 Tactical Shotgun

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

Just to be clear, the price he cites isn’t related to the gun he’s shooting.  The price he cites pertains to the stock Beretta 1301 ordered from the factory.

The gun he’s shooting is modified by Langdon Tactical with an extended mag tube, forend including Magpul attachment points, Aridus Industries adapters, and a Magpul stock.  This raises the price a bit.

A .22 Magnum AR?

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

I love the .22 WMR round, and have always believed that the .22LR was underpowered for anything other than plinking on trash can lids (which is what I did with it when I was a boy).

But in an AR?  Will it work?  Will the bolt extract the case without major modifications?  Will it be reliable?  How will the mags work without rim-locking?

Color me skeptical until it proves itself.  I won’t be buying one.

I ruined my barrel with a bronze brush!!!

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 9 months ago

He makes his point well enough.  Bronze is softer than steel (although I suspect he’s using a brass brush).

Stupid Guns

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 10 months ago

Elk Hunt With The 270 Win.?

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 10 months ago

Review Of The Langdon Tactical Beretta Pistol

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 10 months ago

If you can get past the stupidity of the rest of the video, they do a good enough job of explaining what Ernest Langdon does to the Beretta pistol.

I think it’s fairly popular, maybe not at the level of competing in popularity of the CZ Shadow 2 at competitions.


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