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By the time you have purchased the equipment required to load your own ammunition, then bought primers, powder, brass and bullets, you will not have saved any money over purchasing commercial factory loaded ammunition. Trained snipers use commercial high-end ammunition made specifically for that task. Cost per round doesn’t matter, but repeatability, reliability and lethality mean everything. Hunters only take a few shots per year per rifle. They cannot make handloading pay off for them. Your typical handloader is a guy who shoots in competition. We shoot a lot. The cost-per round must be on par with the cheap ammo while the accuracy through OUR GUNS has to be nearer the high end. I shot DCM, then CMP, and […]
Results matter. Consistent results are even better. According to many historians, Napoleon was more interested in a pattern of good fortune for his generals than technical skill sets. “I know he’s a good general, but is he lucky?” – Napoleon Bonaparte – A friend and I were target shooting a few days ago. I was shooting my .22 pistol while he shot his .22 rifle, 9mm pistol and 12-gauge pump. He offered to let me shoot each. I did a few rounds with the rifle, then took his offer with one 12-gauge slug. I selected the top-middle of the pictured array as my target – about 35 yards away, sighting with a little-bitty bead at the end of a […]
Coulda-shoulda- dunnit sooner, but nevermind all that, I got my new Sightmark scope sighted in … and had fun in the process. The Wraith is an electronic scope that has now impressed me A LOT. It is my first non-mechanical scope, but not my most expensive. Yet it was considered a breakthrough at the February 2020 SHOT SHOW in that you could use it both day and night AND it was very reasonably priced at $400 on the street. For this particular rifle, thousand-yard shots are not on the agenda, nor even half that. A couple hundred is the outer reach for my 300 AAC Blackout. It doesn’t take a thousand dollar scope to reliably deliver accuracy at that […]
I once was an active NRA-certified junior rifle coach. More relevant, I am a very good teacher. Yesterday my three charges voiced and agreed that “He is a very good coach” – which is just about the finest compliment one can lay on me. Thank you for that one. That came up because a couple from the west coast passed through our neighborhood, and I gave them the opportunity to burn some ammunition on our short range (10-30 meters). I laid out a table of .22 semi-auto pistols, a 9mm Glock, 38 Special revolvers, .22 rifles and a 20-gauge shotgun, then helped them through familiarization, safety, handling, loading and shooting whatever captured their interests. We had FUN My standard […]
There are three standards in the shooting community that are simply not worth challenging within a group chatting behind the firing lines. Chief among them are the irrefutable power of the .45 ACP (“forty five”), the superiority of the 1911 (“nineteen eleven”) among handgun platforms, and the requirement that shotguns must be 12 gauge. Even if not a majority, the acolytes will be adamant, staunch and vociferous in defense of the aforementioned religions. You may not lose, but you will never win those arguments. Fortunately we are here not there. I brook no counter-arguments, in fact I don’t want to police a comments section so there is no possibility of any back talk. Thus ‘my truth’ is THE TRUTH. That’s […]
Inspired by the “10 Guns Worth Keeping” article that I copied and linked below is my more fundamental version of that here. Author Bob Campbell describes his double-handful with make/model specificity that is always welcome to people considering one or another of the recommendations. However, as I read through the article I was confident that my long and short guns were functionally every bit as good as his favorites, perhaps better in my opinion. Of course opinions are like ________ , everybody has one. I am a mid-pack shooter with at least a little experience in most shooting sports, and have at various times been student, competitor, certified and active as a junior rifle coach, range officer and president of […]
Closing in on three years in this homestead and I finally get around to establishing my pistol range. We have a lovely hillside that is safe, secure and convenient. I had previously carved out a flat area and merely needed to build some target stands. Missy’s birthday was my inspiration. Tradition has me gifting a firearm on her birthdays, but we were two behind in actually shooting them. I decided THAT was the big gift this year. We shot mostly her Buckmark .22 pistol, my old grandpa High Standard .22 , but also gave hers and my .38s a small outing. I prefer to force myself to focus on the fundamentals by shooting from 25 yards out. That didn’t work […]
I was asked to accompany a prospective first-time firearm purchaser to a gun store in North Carolina. She just wanted someone to cover her six. Good thing, as it turned out. The half-wit behind the counter wanted to sell her one of those Hollywood-cool-factor wrist-cracker 12-gauge shotguns. I helped her get out of the store and told her to find a different dealership. Even the much lower-recoiling 20 gauge pump-action shotguns I recommend would be uncomfortable and marginally controllable without the normal shoulder stock. If somebody is pushing the handgun-mode setup your direction, find a different somebody to work with. Much more recoil than a .38 Special is too much for beginner or intermediate handgun use. In shotguns, definitely a […]
Far and away the most popular rifle caliber on Earth is the .22 Long Rifle (.22LR). Ammo.com has numerous listings for under 4-cents per round, and as they correctly describe, “Easily the most prolific and well known firearm cartridge in the world, the .22 Long Rifle (LR) is great for plinking and small-game hunting. The .22 LR is also considered the best choice for introducing new people to the sport of shooting, due to its lack of recoil and low noise.” I will add the intuitive: inexpensive, wonderful training tool from cost of gear through expense to operate. You can defend and take small game with these, but far more importantly, you can learn to shoot on the most modest […]
A friend who rarely goes out unarmed was relating the attitude expressed by some in a hiking group of hers. Me, carry a defensive weapon??? Why should I, Jane has my back? (not her name) The question then becomes who has Jane’s back? Many of us are defensively armed for more than personal preservation. It is a civic duty, and obligation we feel for our community – both large and small. Could I watch a handful of thugs beat somebody to death? … and live with myself??? I know the answer is a lifetime of nightmares and recriminations about what I should have done. Yet I have no hopes of ever becoming a martial arts master … other than […]
with your clothes on. Okay, that phrase refused to stay where it belongs regardless of its limited applicability here. What I am talking about looks like a TON OF FUN, though. I have been hankering for and looking at various ways of having a carbine I could shoot inexpensively AND quietly. Quiet is nice for several reasons. #1 – It is neighborly. I live in a rural area where my neighbors are mostly shooters, accustomed to sight-in, target and hunting shots taking place, BUT they are also very appreciative of the peace and quiet we have most of the time. There is no GOOD reason for modern firearms to be so dang LOUD. #2 – Good hearing protection is […]
AmmoToGo.com published the results of an excellent, thorough and hugely informative defensive handgun ammunition test. I have never seen one better; rarely one even close. Quite noteworthy is that a bullet design may be excellent in one caliber but perform poorly in another. Velocity is an interesting factor, but penetration and expanded diameter are more important. Anybody with a chronograph can give you the former. It is normally listed on the box and in promotional literature. Only shooting into ballistic gel provides the latter. The best test fires bullets through simulated winter clothes into ballistic gel. AmmoToGo.co did exactly that with this test. In addition to their great knowledge base, they include good prices on ammunition you can order […]
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