Category: The Gun Thing

Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them

Quote Of The Day

QOTD, The Gun Thing

From Jim Wilson, talking (as we have been doing here for a week or so — and as has this article) about defensive chamberings:

The purpose of a firearm in the hands of a defensive shooter is not to kill an attacker. The purpose of the defensive handgun is to stop an attack and to stop it as soon as is humanly possible. What they seem to not understand is that these small calibers, while perfectly capable of causing death, may cause death hours, sometimes days, after the person has been shot.

And that’s it, right there.  In other words, “stopping power” is the sine qua non of defensive shooting.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD, The Gun Thing

From Bearing Arms:

[T]he idea of passing a law that won’t likely be enforced through most of the state strikes me as completely stupid.
Then again, this is gun control we’re talking about, so stupid is a given.

From my experience most police departments in New Mexico (the “African” state, as Doc Russia calls it) don’t bother enforcing a whole bunch of laws, not just this bullshit.

Not A Report

The Gun Thing

In the wake of last Saturday’s post about cheap carry guns, Reader Terry S. sent me this article, entitled “The Most Dangerous Handgun On The Planet?”  (talking about the Ruger SR40c).

I must be getting older and crankier [no shit] but I am getting sick of articles like this, which basically regurgitate the manufacturer’s spec sheet and throw in a little Wikipedia history on some part of the deal.  (In this case, the short history of the .40 S&W cartridge, linked back to the Miami Shootout.  Yeah, whatever — who cares? because we all know about that infamous stand-off between undergunned FBI agents and a couple of better-armed goblins.)

So what does this article tell us?  Nothing.  (Don’t even get me started on the breathless hyperbole of the headline, which is pure clickbait.) Here are a couple issues I would have addressed.

Sure, the .40 is more powerful than the 9mm Europellet.  How does that translate into a compact pistol like the SR40c?  My own experience with the .40 S&W has not been that pleasant:  the sharp snap! of the .40’s recoil makes target reacquisition slower, and the recoil affects my accuracy quite substantially — and this in a large-framed Beretta 92FS.  And I’m not alone in this:  several shooters have reported the same issues, and there are reports of female cops and agents having controllability problems when qualifying / requalifying with their weapons chambered in the .40 S&W.  So how does the SR40c handle the recoil?

Is this pistol better than, say, the diminutive Glock 27, with which the Ruger compact surely must compete?

The article does compare a few features (e.g. having an external safety — unusual in such guns), but those are peripheral issues.  Is the SR40c more reliable?  Can it feed a variety of different ammo brands and types (which the G27 seems to be able to do)?  Is it as rugged as the Glock or the mini-Springfield XD Mod 2?

(I have to tell you, I kinda prefer the Ruger’s looks:  that smoothed-down slide and grip just shouts “comfort” and “easy-draw” — but the article didn’t even give us that.)

Now I have to grant you that The National Interest  is most assuredly not a gun magazine, but that just means that in future I’ll be less likely to look at their gun articles if they’re going to be superficial puff pieces like this one,

And as for the silly headline:  does the Ruger even look  as dangerous as this SIG SG553P?

(My question:  is the SIG really a pistol, or just a chopped-down pistol-caliber carbine?  But that’s a topic for another day.)

A Tale Of Four Shitties

Gummint, The Gun Thing

…by which I mean shitty states to live in if you’re a gun owner, that is.

First up is our perennial anti-Constitutional state, California:

They’ve already proposed a requirement for gun owners to lock up their weapons, They’ve previously suggested a 10-year prohibition on firearm possession for anyone convicted of two drug or alcohol offenses within three years. They already have proposed a gun tax to fund violence prevention. It seems those things aren’t enough to add to their gun control basket.

Yup:  the Golden (Shower) State is going Full Europe (and you never  go Full Europe).  However, not even Europe is considering what Illinois is talking about:

That’s why [some asswipe from suburban Chicago — Kim]  is proposing gun buyers reveal their public social media accounts to Illinois police before they’re approved for a firearm license.

You have to know how bad a thing is when even the dickheads at the ACLU (who loathe  the Second Amendment) are opposing it.

And of course, New York is trying to be even worse than Illinois:

Fuckwit Didech says his bill is a less intrusive version of a similar measure that’s been proposed in New York state. That version allows police to recover a gun license applicant’s entire browsing history.

And then there’s Connecticut, which is trying to limit ammo purchasing through taxation:

A first-term Connecticut lawmaker wants to hike the price of ammunition in the state through the application of a special tax.
…
“I’m hearing push back about the need to protect one’s home… but how much ammunition does someone really need to do that?” Gilcrest said in a post to social media.

Anytime I hear someone say something like that, I buy another 500 rounds of ammo.

Man, it’s a Good Thing I don’t live in either Illinois or the Northeast anymore;  I’d be fucked harder than a $5 whore during Fleet Week.

The best thing I ever did was leave Chicago for Texas.  The second-best thing I did was toss my Illinois FOID card into the Mississippi River on my way down.

Cut-Price Popguns

The Gun Thing

Yeah, I’m exaggerating a little, but still.  Shooting Illustrated just published a list of cheap handguns, and the contents thereof are about what you’d expect.  I want to beat this drum just one more time.

Small-caliber handguns are useless as self-defense tools. 

There;  I’ve said it.  And yes, I know, I know:  having any gun is better than having no gun.  Sort of.  And yes I know too that women and older men sometimes have controllability issues with the larger-caliber handguns — my own Daughter carries a .380 ACP pistol — and let’s be honest:  as a backup, the .380 gun will do simply because you can cram it in your pocket.  But will  that .380 Beretta Pico do anything for you in a life-and-death situation?  Not as much as the 9mm Para Diamondback (also a cheap gun) can provide, and less still than (say) the .38 Spec/.357 Mag EAA Windicator or Taurus .357 Mag revolvers.  (How long that Taurus snubbie will last when shooting the magnum loads is a topic for another time;  my experience has not been good, although YMMV.)

So yeah, if you absolutely cannot afford to spend more than $300 on a handgun, then go ahead and get something from SI’s list of pistols.  I just hope you’ll never regret your decision.

Remember that I’ve recently been agonizing over using a 9mm Browning High Power as a carry piece, and I’m still  not convinced that I should use it as a substitute for my .45 ACP 1911 (especially as the lighter 185gr bullets seem to be doing the job)… but if I’m grudgingly going to concede that the 9mm (out of the BHP’s 4.5″ barrel) is just barely acceptable, it’s going to take a lot more convincing for me to accept the same ammo coming out of a shorty 2″ tube.  Hell, I consider my .38+P Spec S&W 637 to be my backup piece, and that’s way more powerful than anything delivered by the little budget pistols listed in the article.

So to sum up:  if you want a cheap, effective self-defense piece, then get a revolver — or alternatively, ignore the .380 ACP pistols for anything other than backup pieces.  But we all knew that anyway.

Oh, and one last thing.  The SI  article opens with this line:

“In the past couple of years, soft demand for firearms in general has led to great deals for anyone looking to buy a gun.”

Perhaps it has.  Just not on my planet.

Update:  If you are looking for a new/different carry gun, see what sold the best (both new and secondhand) in 2018.  (Note the positions of the BHP and 1911…)

Knocking Them Over

The Gun Thing

I said yesterday that at the Lewisville ELGS I purchased some hot loads in .45-70 Govt for a future hunting trip (S. Texas hogs, maybe?).  As there was no Buffalo Bore on sale anywhere, I went with a local reloader:

As a benchmark, I’ve used the PMC 405gr (“Cowboy”) load.  Here are the stats, from left to right, according to their data:

PMC 405gr:  1550 fps (muzzle velocity), 1639 ft lbs (muzzle energy)
Tx Wheeler 405gr:  1750 fps, 1845 ft lbs
…and a lighter bullet:
Tx Wheeler 300gr:  2100 fps, 3105 ft lbs

(yes, that’s a .45 ACP cartridge at the end, for size comparison)

I can’t wait to do a little oomph!  testing of these bad boys on some “solid” targets (e.g. wet newspaper bundles wrapped in heavy canvas or denim).

And if the unspoken question is:  “O Kim… are you sure your rifle can handle such power?”, then this picture of my Browning 1885 High Wall should reassure you:

Watch this space.