Gun & Prepping News #7

 Just some articles that caught my attention for one reason or another:

• "The Blackest of Fridays"--Shooting Wire. Some tips on making the most of your Black Friday experience. One of the tips from the author, Paul Erhardt, is to use the website  CamelCamelCamel.com see a product’s pricing history at Amazon. "Using this you can figure out if the Black Friday sale they’re promoting is a good price or if they sell at a considerably lower price during the Amazon Prime Days sales. It can also show you if the price has been inflated recently in order to convince you their discount is worth hitting that ‘add to cart’ button."
• "The Pocket Pistol and Lessons Learned Toting Them"--Guns America. The author admits that he didn't use to be a fan of pocket pistols, but a new job with different dress requirements made carrying OWB or IWB impractical. The rest of the article is his experience with pocket carry, and some of the handguns and calibers he has gone through in his journey. His current pocket carry pistol is the S&W 432 Ultimate Carry revolver in .32 Magnum. He also notes that while he still uses a P365 for concealed carry when he is out and about with his family, it is too big for pocket carry. 
• "Are Micro Compact 9mm Pistols the Best for Concealed Carry?"--Shooting Times. The author goes over the basic size categories of defensive handguns as well as some history leading up to the modern micro compact weapons. He next compares the the “shootability” of a Springfield Hellcat and SIG SAUER P365 with the larger Glock 19. He concludes with a discussion of ammo performance and a table that compares the dimensions of popular micro compacts. Nevertheless, as the article on pocket pistols above points out (and I can confirm based on my own experience), even the micro 9s are generally too large for pocket carry.
  
• "New Users Basic Home Defense – S&W Model 10"--Tactical Wire. You may have seen references to the usefulness of a revolver being on an inverse bell curve, where the usefulness is highest for inexperienced shooters and the most experienced, but low with those with moderate experience and skill who are better served with a semi-auto. Rich Grassi takes this idea to not only argue that revolvers are good for new or unskilled shooters for home defense because of the simple manual of arms, but specifically recommends the current Model 10 S&W with a 4-inch barrel. He also reviews some .38 Special loads that he thinks are good for self-defense.
• "Said I Never Had Much Use For One. Never Said I Didn’t Know How To Use One.”--New Rifleman. A good article with plenty of photographs (including some animated gifs) on gripping and shooting a semi-auto pistol. 
• More: "How to shoot a handgun accurately"--Massad Ayoob. Covers much of the same ground as the article above, but has additional tips including on using the trigger.
• More: "How to Shoot a Pistol Accurately"--Outdoor Life. This article is geared toward the target and competitive shooter, so besides the basics it also discusses breathing and shooting from rests.

I include multiple articles because different authors tend to put a little more emphasis on certain points than others, and may have different ideas or techniques which are useful to consider.

• "How To Perform Proper Handgun Maintenance and Why It Matters"--Handguns Magazine. The author discusses how to get "white glove clean," "duty clean" and "carry clean." He also relates:

    For the longest time, I used to over-clean and spend a lot of time cleaning. As I got older and had more responsibilities that occupied my time, I wanted to get my guns into the most efficient type of clean in the quickest amount of time. If cleaning becomes a chore and eats up a lot of time, people will either stop shooting or stop cleaning altogether. I’ve seen it get to the point where guys do not want to shoot their duty handgun on the range because they don’t want to clean it to “Duty Clean” levels.

    This type of attitude towards using and cleaning a gun doesn’t help anyone. It’s prudent for you to learn your firearm and to know what level of clean will keep it running reliably. Some guns require higher levels of clean. I’ve seen Glocks run for thousands of rounds with no maintenance besides a small amount of lube from time to time. I’ve also seen really expensive 1911 handguns jam up after a couple hundred rounds. Those are two totally different types of handguns but without a doubt require a different level of maintenance.

• "ATF Banning Beretta 1301 Tactical Shotguns"--Guns America. The ATF is apparently having a fit over the Beretta 1301 Tactical models with the extended (7 round) tube magazines, forcing Beretta to halt import while they try to work through the issues with the ATF. In the interim, Beretta will be selling a version, the 1301 Tactical C, with a 5-round magazine. 
• Old news in the shooting community, but consider its source: "Gun Ownership Is Rising Among A New Group, Poll Shows"--HuffPost. From the lede: "Gun ownership rose sharply among Republican women over the last five years, while firearm ownership became increasingly aligned with party affiliation, Gallup survey data released Thursday shows."
• "Stockpile diapers, medication, baby food: NATO members Sweden and Finland advise citizens on how to survive war"--CNN. 

    Booklets distributed to millions of households in the Nordic nations include instructions on how to prepare for the effects of military conflicts, communications outages and power cuts, as well as extreme weather events.

    From stockpiling bottled water and sanitary products, to growing edible foodstuffs at home, government authorities offered tips on how residents could sustain themselves in the event of war. The brochures also include advice for parents and caregivers, instructing people to preserve diapers, medication and baby food. 

• "Review: Olight Warrior Nano"--Jerking The Trigger. I have an Olight Warrior, which is a "standard" sized tactical light with a pocket clip intended for everyday carry. The Nano appears to be a shortened version of Warrior, that I supposed would make it easier to slip inside a jacket pocket or in the often smaller pockets on women's clothing. In any event, the author writes:

    In my opinion, this light has one of the most complete, easy to understand, and useful user interfaces I have come across. It is this interface, split between two buttons, that lets the Warrior Nano move effortlessly between a multi-functional EDC light and a full-on tactical light.

    The Warrior Nano (an other lights in this series) has just two buttons: a tail switch and a separate button on the body close to the head of the light. The tail switch is a “gas pedal” style of switch which I prefer. In fact, I only found the Warrior series because I was looking specifically for lights with gas pedal switches. It allows me to press lightly for Medium output and push more heavily for a either Turbo and Half-Turbo. Basically, you just push for light and push harder for more light. It’s so simple and most of what I need from this light can be done with this switch.

•  "Essential Backpacking Gear List: The Gear You Need"--All Outdoors. As I've mentioned before, even if you are not a backpacker, these lists are good to review if you are putting together bug-out kits and/or 72-hour kits. This article is useful because it has multiple lists: a list of the necessaries; additional items you might want to include for safety/rescue reasons; optional "fun" times (which would be useful for kids or just keeping your mind occupied if you have to sit and wait somewhere for a long time); gear for longer trips; gear for cold weather hiking; and gear for warm weather hiking. The author also includes tips regarding clothing, both the materials and how to best use the clothing to keep you comfortable. 
• "If Hurricane Milton knocks out cell service, you can still dial 911 and send messages — here’s how"--New York Post. This is an article from October. While the hurricane is long past, the tips are still good. The article explains:

    And even faced with long-term service outages, iPhone 14, 15, and 16 are all capable of reaching 911 via satellite with no setup needed — as long as users have a clear view of the sky.

    Beyond that basic function, and as part of iPhone’s major iOS 18 software update that was released in September, many devices are now capable of seeing messages through satellite services as well — even when there is no cellular signal or wifi available.

The article also states that "Google Pixel models Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold also have emergency satellite features in the continental U.S."