Friday, July 25, 2025

Gun & Prepping News #39

Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful: 

  •  First up, Greg Ellifritz's most recent Weekend Knowledge Dump. Articles on such diverse topics as old time advice on gripping a handgun that is still applicable today, the best scope magnifications for hunting (which obviously depends on environment), some good advice on "the gray man" concept, a report that Antifa is starting to check the IDs of people showing up at their protests, understanding the mindset of criminals, and more. Here is a little nugget of wisdom the mindset article:

Unlike many of us whose lives are governed by laws, ethics and empathy, criminals often grow up in an entirely different moral ecosystem—where violence is normalized, manipulation is survival, and victim selection is a tradecraft.

  • Magic Prepper has a new video up where he apologizes for having recommended--even pushed--the Sig P320 as a prepper handgun given the release of the FBI report and death of an airman from an uncommanded discharge. My initial thought watching the video is "why should he apologize, he didn't know." There was a warning: the drop safe issue when the P320 first released which Sig was forced to by the military to correct, but to which Sig never admitted anything being wrong. Perhaps its no longer taught in marketing classes, but back when I was in collage, Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylenol poisonings in the early 1980s was used as an example of how to correctly react to a product issue (see, e.g., this case study). But the gist is that after several people died from consuming cyanide laced Tylenol capsules, Johnson & Johnson not only told the public to immediately stop using Tylenol until the matter could be investigated, but quickly issued a recall for all of its products. As the case study notes: "By withdrawing all Tylenol, even though there was little chance of discovering more cyanide laced tablets [sic--capsules]; Johnson & Johnson showed that they were not willing to take a risk with the public's safety, even if it cost the company millions of dollars." Sig has done the opposite, both initially and with the latest issues.
  • Apparently knowing of my fondness for the Beretta 84 pistol, a reader sent me this link: "Travis Pike’s Review of the Beretta 80X .380." Pike's video review is embedded at the link. This line sort of sums up his opinion: "It's an Italian sports car in a field of Honda Civics."
  • "ONLY ACCURATE (REVOLVERS) ARE INTERESTING…"--Civilian Defender. The article is mostly a comparison of the accuracy he was able to achieve with a handful of revolvers commonly used by police back in the day. But the subject was prompted by his decision to enter a shooting competition:

I recently entered a weekly pistol league at my local gun range. I decided to enter the revolver division, since I enjoy revolvers, and also because the competition is good, but the pool isn’t necessarily as deep as the more-common semi-automatic pistol division. I also believe that if you are a competent revolver shooter, you are probably competent with most any self-loading pistol, whether it is striker-fired, double action-single action or double action only of course.  ...

  •  "Dragon’s Breath Shotgun Ammo: Cool as Hell, But Not for Everyone"--The Truth About Guns. An overview of the Dragon's Breath ammo and some considerations if you have ever been tempted to try it out. If you are not familiar with Dragon's Breath ammo, it is a boutique incendiary shotgun ammo that spews out burning magnesium powder or pellets. There are tons of videos of it on the internet if you want to see what it is capable of. It is, nevertheless, a novelty round and not something for serious self defense. Because of the high potential to start a fire, it is illegal in several states, which the article discusses. It may also be illegal to use in smaller jurisdictions or on public land. For instance, it would be prohibited under the BLM fire protection order in place here in Idaho. 
  • "Preview: Wyoming Sight Drifter"--American Rifleman. From the article:

    Adjusting the fit of iron sights in their dovetails typically requires complex jigs or a hammer, punch and gun cradle, which can be awkward to handle or take to the range. The Wyoming Sight Drifter helps avoid such complications and is not much larger than a common ink pen.

    The ingenious design uses a simple extension spring attached to steel sections that feature finger grooves and end pieces of nylon and brass. Simply hold either end against the side of a dovetailed sight with one hand and use the other hand to momentarily pull up on the spring, then let go. Once the stored kinetic energy is released, the two steel sections will collide, impacting the end in contact with the sight and drifting it. The force is easily controlled by how far the spring is stretched, and the nylon and brass are non-marring. 

To summarize: bad guy in a car, cop decided he was a suspicious person and went to investigate; stuff went sideways, lots of shots were fired, cop was hit 3-4 times, bad guy was hit 22 (Twenty-Two) times with 40 caliber bullets and eventually succumbed. 

Also:

    ... Saying “Center Mass” sounds cool… it has the sound of the expert about it, I guess. But these terms are ANYthing but meaningful. They are not clearly defined, not clearly understood, and the result of this is that good people are getting injured and killed.

    That’s right, I said it: if you persist in teaching your people to shoot “center mass”, YOU are contributing to a training scar that is going to get good cops/armed citizens KILLED.  

 * * *

    Center Mass isn’t a place, or an anatomic structure, or a physiological zone of incapacitation. Center Mass is a bullshit police trainer term that means nothing more than “shoot them somewhere in the middle”. People use it to sound cool, like they know what they’re talking about, like they’re experts. It’s not just a bullshit term, folks: it’s a term better suited to use by posers than by actual trainers. 

  •  "The Deadliest Marksman’s Cold, Brave Stand"--Narratively (via Get Pocket). An article about Simo Häyhä, the famous Finnish sniper that fought against the Soviets. Somewhat like Carlos Hathcock, his serious injury was the result of being pulled from his element and doing regular soldier work. For Hathcock, it was going on a mechanized patrol which was ambushed. For Häyhä, it was part of a squad counterattacking against the Russians. 

... After the Russians had been pushed back for a time, they reemerged with a furious charge. A shot rang out, and suddenly Häyhä was on the ground, bleeding profusely from his face, the grisly victim of an exploding bullet that had been banned by most nations. According to one account of the battle, while unconscious, with his left upper jaw blown away completely and his left lower jaw cut in two, Häyhä was placed in a pile of bodies killed in action. Later, a fellow soldier, looking for Häyhä on orders from his commanding officer, noticed a leg twitching among the grim grouping. So began Häyhä’s 14-month-long recovery from the wound that, even after 26 surgeries, would leave his face disfigured for life.  

  • "Upgrading The AK Rifle: A Critical View" (Part 1) (Part 2)--The Firearm Blog. Part 1 is somewhat disappointing. It ostensibly covers upgrades for ergonomics and the technical capabilities of the rifle, but it just lists some upgrades without any real discussion and recommends that such upgrades be done by your unit's armorer and recorded. Part 2 covers sighting systems and lights. While there are no specific recommendations, he does cover some issues with lights (barrel shadow and cable management) and a couple issues that can arise with sight mounts.
  • "A Common Weakness: One-Handed Shooting"--Shooting Illustrated. This article discusses why you should practice one handed shooting, but doesn't discuss any techniques. Since one handed shooting was the default technique prior to the popularization of two-handed techniques in the 1960s and '70s, this is where going back to older books and articles could prove useful. Having done a bit of fencing, I like shooting one handed in a fencing stance, the body bladed toward the target. But this is a poor position if you are using body armor because you are presenting an unarmored part of the body toward the target.
  • "Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up Real-World Harms"--Electronic Frontier Foundation. The article discusses the problem of "police claim to use FRT just as an investigatory lead, but in practice officers routinely ignore protocol and immediately arrest the most likely match spit out by the computer without first doing their own investigation" leading to mistaken arrests. 
  • "The Ancient Persian Way to Keep Cool"--BBC Future (via Get Pocket).  A look at a Persian architectural feature called the wind catcher, or bâdgir in Persian, an open tower or projection rising above the main part of a building. The article explains:

There are two main forces that drive the air through and down into the structures: the incoming wind and the change in buoyancy of air depending on temperature – with warmer air tending to rise above cooler, denser air. First, as air is caught by the opening of a wind catcher, it is funneled down to the dwelling below, depositing any sand or debris at the foot of the tower. Then the air flows throughout the interior of the building, sometimes over subterranean pools of water for further cooling. Eventually, warmed air will rise and leave the building through another tower or opening, aided by the pressure within the building.  

2 comments:

  1. American buildings, especially those in the south or being used to house wine fermentation operations, used to have something like a wind-catcher. Not nearly as involved, but there was a common design feature where a small tower that was too narrow to be especially useful for anything else was equipped with windows and shutters at the top. The buildings would also have relatively low, wide patios that were covered. The shaded areas all around the building allowed the air flowing underneath to cool a little bit (mostly from flowing past surfaces that weren't quite as hot as those in the sun) and when the tower's shutters were open the updraft would draw air from ground level up through the building.
    Further, the old white-wash that was common on European and American architecture used to be made of a thin slaked-lime solution. This became regular lime (calcium carbonate) which is not only white and good at reflecting a lot of light that would otherwise be absorbed, but emits thermal radiation in a narrow band of the infrared that the atmosphere is very nearly transparent to. Surfaces with this coating are very good at not heating up in the sun, and if the underlying material is even mildly good at thermal conduction, they can become cooler than the surrounding environment even when in full sun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had thought about the structures on old Southern buildings, but didn't feel I knew enough to comment, so thank you for the information. Also, good information on white wash. Something for preppers in warm climates to keep in mind.

      Delete

Today in History: The Great Chicago Fire Broke Out

“ On Oct. 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; over 300 people died and over 17,000 structures were destroyed during the three-day blaze...