Weekend Reading #77

Some longer or more involved reading:

•  Jon Low has posted his mid-month Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter. A few points I found especially notable:

    First, Jon has some comments regarding an article I had linked to about trigger control, which I will repeat in full (the original in regular type and Jon's comments in italics):

     ". . . I don’t think exact digit placement matters so long as you can pull the trigger straight back with each shot."  

[I disagree.  Consistency is accuracy.  The center of the trigger should be in the center of your fingerprint.  Everyone has a whorl, loop, or arch fingerprint on the pad of their trigger finger.  The center of the trigger should be on the center of your fingerprint.  If your trigger is not in the correct position for this to allow you to press the trigger straight to the rear, get a gunsmith to move the trigger for you.  Yes, as a matter of fact, a competent gunsmith can move the trigger on any pistol.  (Moving the trigger position on 1911's is especially easy by replacing the trigger.)  
-- Jon Low ]   

I think there is a bit more nuance to this issue. It has long been recognized that while the center of the pad works the best for firearms with a lighter trigger, the distal crease (i.e., the crease at the first joint of the finger closest to the tip) is best for heavy trigger pulls such as you will get when shooting double action. Massad Ayoob calls this the "power crease". This is why I prefer a smooth trigger face on double-action triggers. 

    A second item that stuck out to me were some comments Jon had quoted from Gabe Suarez about striking versus takedown/ground fighting in a street fight. Suarez's comments were in response to a piece from Pete Blair at Tactical Science arguing that police should use take downs because they present better to witnesses or a jury; and Suarez taking the position that in fights on the street, take downs are too dangerous because of the environment or the possibility of the suspect stabbing or cutting you while you are tied up with him on the ground. Jon agreed with Suarez, writing: "I agree with Gabe.  Don't grapple.  You will pick up all kinds of nasty diseases, fleas, lice, feces, urine, and such.  They will bite you.  They will scratch you.  (Yes, it happened to me when I was working in the hospital emergency rooms.)  Strike and twist to disengage.  Separate and weaponize." I've been told and read the same from other sources as well. Leaving out the chance of your opponent having a weapon, the street or sidewalk or parking lot is not the same as the practice mats at a dojo: a street fight presents a hard surface with curbs, rocks and other debris (possibly broken glass or other debris that will cut), with only the Lord knows what else. And if you assailant has buddies, going to the ground leaves you at risk of being kicked or stomped by them. 

    Third, Jon links to a short video that I think is important for everyone, but especially for women, older men, and boys, on fighting against someone that has you in a grip (for instance, grabbing your jacket or shirt or grabbing one of your arms). Jon summarizes and comments:

     Don't fight the grip, fight the face [gouge eyes, finger through the ears into the brain (Oh yes, your finger is long enough to reach his brain, if you are a petite woman your fingers are thin enough to get through his ear canal.  And if you've got long sharp glued on finger nails, well . . .  Can't imagine yourself doing that to a human?  Well, I can assure you that he can imagine raping and sodomizing you, and will.  So decide.), or cup your hands and clap over his ears to break his ear drums with air pressure].  Don't wait for him to hit you.  Strike first.   

    Finally, Jon comments about a video Massad Ayoob recently posted about speeding up your pistol reloads, where Ayoob recommended using the slide release instead of pulling back on the slide (the sling-shot method) to release the slide. Jon raises a good point:

     I disagree.  The reason you MUST rack the slide instead of hitting the slide stop, is because the slide might not be locked back.  You must always use techniques that work in all conditions, not just the pristine conditions of your air conditioned indoor range.   

I can affirm Jon's reasoning, albeit from a slightly different factual pattern. I had been invited by a friend to go to a shooting match and, since I didn't have a handgun suitable for such matches at the time, my friend let me use a 1911-style 9mm he had. Up to that point, I generally used the slide release; but the problem I quickly discovered when I did my first reload was that I couldn't quite reach the slide release with my thumb, so I had to resort to the sling shot method (and thank goodness I had enough experience I could make the shift smoothly and quickly). I think the advantage of doing it the same way each time outweighs the marginal time savings from using the slide release--especially if you find yourself, like me, under time constraints and suddenly discovering that using the slide release is not a viable option. 

    Jon has a lot more, so be sure to check the whole thing out.

• It's the weekend, so that means that Greg Ellifritz has another Active Response Training Weekend Knowledge Dump.  Lots of good stuff this week, so it has been hard to pare it down to a handful that particularly stick out. But here goes:
• I've grown to like some of the African hunting stories, but Greg links to one that is a bit unusual: an African hunting guide that used a MAC-10 submachine gun to deal with a large troop of baboons that had killed a village child and otherwise become a dangerous nuisance. 
• An article with good advice for concealed carry shooters entitled "Top 6 Things Every Concealed Carry Holder Should Know." Because there is much more to concealed carry than just knowing how to draw and shoot your handgun.
• But you need to be able to shoot accurately when it comes down to it as the tale of the mad dog illustrates. 
• A detailed article on getting appendix carry to work for men (or women, for that matter) with big bellies. 
• A good article explaining the difference between competition shooting and tactical/combat training. Key bit: "Tactical training isn't trying to win a match. It's trying to solve a lethal-force problem while minimizing unnecessary risk to yourself and others. A doorway on a competition stage is simply part of the course design. A doorway in a hostile structure may be a fatal funnel requiring an entirely different solution." However, if you don't care about winning a competition, you can approach it from a more combat oriented perspective.
• A detailed article from Swift Silent Deadly on putting together a more realistic bug-out bag. 
• A piece from Off Grid on the many uses for a triangular bandage. 

• And now for something completely different: "How Did the Tesla Roadster Fly? Here’s How It Works"--Motor Trend. From the lede:

The most staggering technology introduced on the new Tesla Roadster is a propulsion system pulled directly from SpaceX—the rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company also owned by Elon Musk. In the Roadster shown at the event, four metal nozzles sit just above the rear bumper and look for all the world like the exhaust tips on your standard supercar (think C8 Corvette but spread farther apart). But this is an EV, so those pipes are not venting exhaust gases, but high-pressure air, primarily nitrogen, that’s stored in a massive black spherical tank that sits behind the roadster’s two front seats. The ball is a composite-overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV), and it’s connected by two pipes that feed the four nozzles, which function as cold gas thrusters (CGT).

• "Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter Is The Archetype The Right Must Embrace To Counter Left Wing Nihilism And Degeneracy"--Fandom Pulse. Not the character presented in the Disney movie, of course, but from Burroughs' novels. An excerpt:

    John Carter is a chivalric ideal, a man who embodies all the masculine virtues in their perfect Aristotelian mean—or at least comes close to it. He embodies duty but not weakness. He embodies strength but not cruelty. He embodies adventure but not recklessness. To put it bluntly, John Carter is a masculine hero in the truest sense of those words.

    He’s a man who knows what he wants and takes after it with every ounce of his being. He does not shirk from battle; in fact, he’s a fighting man. Battle is in his blood, and he’s called to it as his vocation. He’s a leader of men, at all times honorable and fair. He’s the kind of man who can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. You’d rather have no one else by your side and rather anyone else against you. John Carter embodies the archetype of the king, which I would argue is completely lost on the world today. 

    When was the last time you saw a man portrayed so favorably on television? When was the last time you saw a man like John Carter?

    Because I can tell you this, it certainly wasn’t in the John Carter movie.

    Now I don’t want to rag too harshly on this movie as he does still become the hero. But it does illustrate the trend media took over the 20th century. Our culture swung from strong men being strong men, to weak men becoming strong men, and finally to weak men being weak men. You can see this everywhere, even in Peter Jackson’s acclaimed Lord of the Rings movies. Aragorn is not a reluctant hero in the books. He doesn’t second guess himself. But for some reason, such a thing was incomprehensible to audiences (or rather Hollywood writers) in 2001. And it has only gotten far worse from there.

    You can visibly detect how masculinity has been increasingly portrayed more tragically as time goes on. When men are not outright evil, they’re to be demeaned as the fundamentally lesser of the two sexes. It is always the man who is less capable, less aware, less actualized. If the man is loving, he must also be bumbling and weak. 

[snip]

    Dissident literature, if it is to stand against Leftwing art, it must be uplifting to the soul—and especially to this masculine spirit. The heroic must awaken in men again. And while this does not mean all men are called to be warriors, all men are called to be as virtuous as John Carter, and as a man, to live life with that same vitality in whichever vocation he is called to. 

Read the whole thing. 

Distance and Reaction Time

You all have heard of the Tueller drill. It presupposes an attacker armed with a knife rushing a defender with a holstered handgun. Through the drill, it was determined that the shortest distance the average police officer could draw his handgun and fire on the attacker was if the attacker was 21 feet. But what about shorter distances? 

    In "Understanding the distancing and reaction time continuum" by Brian K. LaMaster at Buckeye Firearms Association, the author notes that most attackers will probably be initiating an attack at 10 feet or less. "On the average," he relates, "reaction times can vary from .4 seconds to .8 seconds. This means you have very little time to perceive their movement and react to it. Alright, you have about three-fourths of a second to react to someone who is moving towards you at ten feet away. If your reaction time is one half to three-fourths of a second, that leaves you with little or no time to react!"

    Unfortunately, the author continues, lateral movement does not create as much additional space (and time) as you might think. He conducted some tests, the gist of which is that at distances closer than 21-feet, even when attempting to create space, the defender was generally able to react fast enough to draw his handgun. For instance, moving the attacker to a 10 foot distance from the defender:

... The attacker made the first move and within one second the attacker was on the victim and had cut him at least once. After that, we had the defender move laterally by sidestepping. About one-half second into the attacker's movement the defender started his lateral movement. On the average, the defender was only able to cover about four feet of ground. Moving laterally does not created distance away from the attacker fast enough in order to survive especially when using the sidestepping method of footwork. In some instances the defender drew their gun only after being cut multiple times by the attacker.

A more experienced gunman did better, able to get off at least one shot even with the attacker at 5-feet. This was because:

When moving laterally the defender used cross-stepping method of footwork which kept the defender ahead of the attacker and out of reach for the most part. The defender was able to create about ten feet of ground before finally getting cut. I might ad that for the most part the defender only received cuts on his free side arm since he was drawing and shooting one handed! All of this happened in just a little over one and one-half seconds and it took that long only because the defender was able to create so much distance by cross-stepping.

Also, the experienced attacker was familiar with pre-attack indicators which gave him an edge. 

    At 5-feet starting distance, none of the inexperienced defenders could even get their gun out and the experienced gunman could not get a shot off. The foregoing was in normal lighting conditions. In dim light, even if a handgun could be drawn, the defenders were not able to hit their target.

    What the experiments did show, however, is that if the defender resorted to unarmed combatives first in order to give them time to create distance, and then to drawing their firearm, they did much better. 

In short, responding with unarmed combatives [to a knife wielding attacker] will keep you in the fight longer than by going straight for your gun. Going straight for your gun most of the time is not going to be a wise idea. And, if you move laterally or other directions with a step-n-drag method of footwork, you will not create enough distance to survive!

Related: But what about someone armed with a firearm? "Get to cover? A requiem for common sense." by Aaron Cowan. A good discussion of what is or is not cover (along with illustrations) with an emphases on what cover is offered by different parts of a vehicle.

A Lesson Here For Those Who Open Carry

 The New York Post reports on a "Shocking video shows 2 women leap on top off-duty cop at gas station — before trying to snatch his gun." The officer, according to the article, was working his second job as a security officer at the gas station/convenience store when he was assaulted by two black women. The Post relates (bold added):

    The crazed brawl started when one of the suspects, 20-year-old Nayonna Griffin, threw items at the officer, prompting him to approach her, according to charging documents seen by KDSK.

    Fellow suspect Shaniya Lewis, also 20, then intervened and struggled with the officer before throwing him to the ground, according to the charging documents.

    Lewis repeatedly punched the officer in the face while Griffin stomped on his head, before Lewis reached for the officer’s gun but was unable to remove it from its holster, police said.

It's hard to tell much about the holster from the photographs other than it was a drop leg holster, but it must have had a good retention system. 

Weekend Reading #76

 Some longer or more involved reading:

•  This week, we are starting out as usual with Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump for this week. Some of the links that caught my attention in particular:
• Part 3 of a video series on terminal ballistics and tactical anatomy.
• An article discussing what is called the violin technique to reloading a shotgun, given directions for both right handed and left handed shooters.
• An explanation of the blank paper drill and how to shoot and score it--as well as its dry fire equivalent, the blank wall drill. The idea is to remove a specific target point so you can concentrate on sight alignment and consistency. 
• An explanation of height over bore and why your rifle shoots low at close distances.
• And a piece from the Daily Mail on protecting yourself from pickpockets and how pickpocket teams work.  
• In my long ago article, "Concealed Carry--No Elegant Solution," I noted that most of the concealed carry articles I saw in gun magazines were written by then-current and former law enforcement whose experience with concealed carry was working as a plain clothes officer, and concluded that "[p]eople with law enforcement backgrounds have little useful to say about concealed carry for the average person." I didn't mean this as a disparagement, but that the circumstances of being a plain clothes sworn police officer was different enough from that of private civilian carrying a concealed weapon that a lot of what they had to say just wasn't applicable to the normal concealed carrier. I guess I didn't expressly state it in my article, but I remember from the time I was first learning about concealed carry that the occasional article from someone that worked as a body guard or an undercover police officer were far more useful. So, with that long winded background, Greg has linked to an article entitled "Concealed Carry Considerations for the Law Enforcement Officer tasked with Close In Protection"--i.e., officers acting as body guards--that covers many of the aspects that you as civilian carrying concealed or wanting a weapon to protect your family will need to consider. I recommend reading it.
• I've seen a lot of recommendations for videos on the SKS pop up on my YouTube feed recently, so it was interesting to see that Greg links to an article from Guns America about the SKS discussing a bit of its history, the countries that produced it, and issues with parts interchangeability. However, there was a point that was so wrong that I have to comment, and that is the comparison with the M1 Carbine. This is incorrect on two levels. First, the SKS was intended to replace the Mosin-Nagant as the primary infantry weapon, unlike the M1 Carbine which was intended as a weapon for support troops. Second, the SKS is not small and lightweight such that it cannot easily be pressed into the same role as the M1 Carbine. 
• Speaking of the M1 Carbine, Greg links to an article that has an in-depth look at the M1 Carbine cartridge and what makes it so enjoyable to shoot. 
• Greg also has a new "free books" column with links to Kindle books that are (or were at the time he published it) available at no cost at Amazon with an emphasis on prepping and self-defense related non-fiction and thrillers for the fiction. 
• "In France And Britain, Multiculturalism Is Leading To Authoritarianism"--The Federalist. The article mostly focuses on the fact that "[t]he leaders of France and Britain are calling for censorship regimes because enforcing multiculturalism requires suppressing freedom." The author begins, of course, by noting the riots and protests in France, explaining:

    The rioters are not calling for education reform or protesting poor classroom conditions, despite what the corporate press has reported. These are not “school protests” but rather an intifada. The rioters themselves are the footsoldiers of a “Red-Green alliance” between the radical left and pro-Palestinian Islamist activists, whose shared goal is to clear the ground for a “New France” that will replace the actually existing French nation.

    This “New France” is largely a Third World horde, imported in successive waves beginning in the 1970s, when France scrapped its immigration regime and adopted a family reunification system similar to the United States’ Hart-Celler Act of 1965. In the ensuing decades, and especially since 2000, France has seen a massive influx of migrants from its former colonial holdings in North Africa and the Middle East. These people have for the most part refused to assimilate, and instead have formed discrete Muslim enclaves, retaining the ethnic and religious identity of their homelands. They are not French in any meaningful sense, and do not wish to be.

    The consequences of this failure of assimilation and acculturation are now apparent on the streets of French cities. For more than a week now the unassimilated children and grandchildren of migrants from the Third World have been  attacking police and firefighters (and teachers in some cases), burning schools and public buildings to the ground, and calling for the overthrow of the French Republic. They have done so in many cases while waving Palestinian and Algerian flags, and chanting Antifa and pro-Hamas slogans. 

    However, they are not doing this all on their own. French authorities said last week the riots were being organized by proxies of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left party La France Insoumise (“France Unbowed”), or LFI, which is, in addition to being a communist front organization, is also France’s “Great Replacement” party. Indeed, Mélenchon, who is running for president in next year’s national election, has been rather explicit in his desire to erase the French people and replace them with foreigners. On a recent panel, echoing remarks from Britain’s Jacob Rees-Mogg on how the English are a “mongrel people,” he derided the very concept of “native French people,” declaring that a “process of creolization has already taken place” in France, and that those wanting a “static world” are dreaming of something that is gone for good.

    No wonder, then, that Mélenchon has publicly supported the unrest, or that LFI politicians have been notably visible during the riots, in some cases appearing at the barricades around schools and urban centers, even as the party has officially denied fomenting violence. Simply put, there is broad crossover between radical-left political activism and pro-Palestinian, Islamist mobilization in France.

But, and this is the point of the article, the author then asserts:

    What is less well known is that mass immigration on this scale doesn’t just destroy a country and a people, it also ushers in forms of authoritarian government that become necessary as a way to manage the problems that arise from a population that includes significant unassimilated ethnic enclaves.

    This is why we now see the political leadership of western countries making hard turns toward authoritarianism, and especially against free speech. Freedom of expression is the one thing you cannot tolerate if the state is going to enforce multiculturalism and impose a large foreign population on a native one. Indeed, managing tensions between disparate ethnic groups, and each group’s relationship to the state, is a hallmark of imperial rule, not republicanism. It’s how the millet system of the Ottoman Empire operated.

He concludes:

    In the end, multiculturalism and authoritarianism are a package deal, and the global leftist leadership of the West is foisting it their native populations. There is only one way to avoid such authoritarianism, and it requires a total rejection of multiculturalism.

    What that means, in concrete terms, is mass deportations, denaturalization, and remigration. Anything less will not be enough to save these countries, assuming it’s not too late already.

•  And on that topic: "Virginia State University gave preferential treatment to Muslim student group while persecuting Christian one, lawsuit alleges"--Daily Mail. 

VIDEO: Massad Ayoob Discusses Why Not Use Your Handloads For Self-Defense

Massad Ayoob has argued for many, many years against using your own handloads for self-defense based on a couple potential problems: (i) a prosecutor or plaintiff's attorney arguing that you specifically manufactured the ammunition to be more deadly; (ii) issues as to powder residue on the target when the distance to the target is a critical issue. The point to using the commercial ammunition is that you can verify or document what was used and be tested. And, if you are really cautious, you may also want to use the same ammunition as the local law enforcement, which makes it even more difficult for a prosecutor to question your choice of ammo. 

 VIDEO: "Cases Where Handloads Caused Court Problems"
Massad Ayoob - Facts and Firearms (22 min.)

Gun & Prepping News #101

Some links that may be of interest: 

• "SAF Wants to Know Why ATF Thinks Rare Breed’s Patent Litigation Is Any Of Its Business"--Shooting News Weekly.  The ATF is trying to insert itself into a patent lawsuit between Rare Breed and competing forced reset trigger products. Presumably this is because the ATF knows that if it can help Rare Breed win its lawsuit, it will keep the prices high and supply low on forced reset triggers.
• "Gun Skills – Pieing a Room"--Shoot On. The author starts out by explaining:

    Knowing what’s going on inside a room is essential prior to entry, as pandemonium can ensue otherwise. Of course, what I’ve just stated is nearly impossible, especially in an unfamiliar environment; however, this doesn’t mean that we must rush straight in. There is a means of slowly revealing what is on the other side while mitigating our own exposure to danger. The process is called slicing the pie or simply pieing. It involves dividing the room of interest into angular sections based on your position to the door.

    Understanding the practice of pieing begins with learning the basic mechanics of a door by observing the hinges. Doors will swing toward this hardware. So, in most cases, it pays to be on the other side when opening them. Now, your starting position might change depending on the layout of the room you’re about to enter (if you know it), but for the sake of simplicity, let’s leave it there for now. 

The remainder of the article has instructions and tips for pieing a room and concludes with a couple drills you can run at an appropriate shooting range or favorite shooting area.

• "Tactical Intelligence: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Civilian Body Armor"--Bone Tactical. As an initial matter, the author notes the two basic reasons for your average citizen to own and use body armor: as part of a home defense plan or strategy; or civil unrest/SHTF. But in the latter case, he recommends something concealable and low-key, lest you become a target. He has other tips and advice, so be sure to read the whole thing. 
• "Faster, Accurate Shooting: Mastering Pistol Trigger Control"--Handguns Magazine.  An excerpt:

The first rule of trigger control is that pressure should be applied evenly to the front of the trigger. It’s vitally important that the trigger press is straight back because any uneven pressure will result in muzzle movement. This straight-back trigger press offers another advantage that few people consider: better recoil control. If I’m consistently pressing the trigger right to left, then the gun is moving in my hand. When the gun settles out of recoil the sights will be out of alignment. When you press straight back and the gun settles, the sight will be closer to centered (provided you have a solid grip and even pressure, but we’ll address this more later). 

And while he doesn't think it matters exactly where what part of the finger rests on the trigger, he comments:

What most certainly does matter is which joint flexes when firing the gun. There are three bones—known as phalanges—that compose each finger. The bones at the tip of the finger are known as distal phalanges, and they are attached to the medial (or middle) phalange. The finger bone closest to the hand is the proximal phalange. When firing, flexion primarily occurs at the joint between the proximal and medial phalange. This is the primary lever that you use when shooting, and this is the joint that you should flex each time you fire. Your knuckle joint should not move while firing. 

• "The AK-47: A History of Practical Design That Still Matters Today"--Ammo Land.  A brief history of the weapon, including its origin, production history, and impact. As the author observes: "The AK prioritizes reliability and ease of manufacturing over precision. It wasn’t designed to be perfect—it was designed to work, and to keep working under harsh conditions."
• On a related note: "Maintaining The AK Series Of Rifles: From The User To The Maintainer"--The Firearm Blog. This article covers the inspection of the rifle (including common wear and failure points), cleaning, and maintenance and replacement of components over time. For instance, the author relates that "AK barrels typically last 10-20k rounds" depending on use, and "it's recommended to replace all the springs at roughly 5-8k rounds."
• "Basic Defense Handgun: Taurus Model 82"--The Tactical Wire. Some people don't have the money to buy a Gucci priced revolver or defensive pistol, and don't have the time, money, and/or interest to put into a lot of training or practice. But they still need something basic for self-defense. That appears to be the niche for this weapon. The author relates:

    Like many, I’ve seen and read about Caleb Giddings’ extensive use of the most basic Taurus revolver. Described as a “security guard’s gun,” apparently a number of agencies, private and public, in South America make extensive use of the Model 82. 

    A fixed sight, four-inch 38 Special revolver, rated for +P ammunition, it’s analogous to the guns worn by US police and security since before WWII. 

    When last I took note of Caleb’s trek with the plain old 38, his gun had consumed around 13,000 rounds of ammunition. He shot it at matches where “modern” semi-autos and pistol-mounted optics covered the ground. He shot it at distance, with an enviable group, and shot it quickly in match prep and competition.

    And he’s carried it concealed more than just a little. 

    That’s confidence.  

He goes on to describe the pistol as well as the results of testing some ammunition through it. The firearm does appear to be regulated for 158-grain projectiles. Looking up the prices, it appears that the MSRP is about $540, but Sportsman's Warehouse was listing it for roughly $420. 

• CCI has released some new .22 LR options:
• "The Rimfire Report: What's Different About CCI's Golden Boy Ammo?"--The Firearm Blog.  This round uses a 36-grain projectile and is supposed to be optimized for feeding a lever action.
• "CCI’s New Hunter Series .22 LR Is Hitting Shelves"--The Truth About Guns. This comes in a standard super-sonic loading and a sub-sonic loading, both using a 40-grain lead flat-nose Small Game Bullet (SGB). The author points out: "A flat-nose solid lead projectile tends to retain its mass through soft tissue and bone rather than fragmenting the way a hollow point will — which is exactly the trade-off squirrel and rabbit hunters care about. You want the round to kill clean, but you don’t want to pick lead out of the meat or lose half the quarter to pulp." 
• "Manticore Arms Ripley Rail: The 1980’s Aliens Upgrade Your AR Needs"--Recoil Magazine. A product that allows you to mock up the M41A rifle used by the Colonial Marines in the movie Aliens using a short barrelled AR as the base weapon (sorry, no display showing the number of rounds remaining, though). 
• "Yes, Airsoft Guns Can Be a Useful Part Effective Firearm Training"--Shooting News Weekly. The author points out:

    Training is where you go and what you do to learn how and what to practice. Practice is what you do on your own to develop and maintain skill. In addition to learning how to press the trigger without disturbing the sights, there are many other things we learn in training; holster drills, moving and shooting, multiple target drills, etc.  

    For those whose only option is the local indoor range with severely restrictive rules, much of what you learned during training, things you want to practice, might be forbidden. This is when setting up your own airsoft practice range in a basement, garage, or backyard might be a legitimate idea.

    Also, some of us live on the opposite spectrum of the indoors-only range. I have lived in rural areas where the only ranges were outdoors and during the winter, blowing and drifting snow prevented access. When I lived in the northern part of the United States, I spent many January and February afternoons in my basement airsoft range getting in some valuable practice.  

• "Craig Boddington: How to Pick the Perfect Hunting Scope"--Rifleshooter Magazine. The author notes:

The vital zone of deer-sized animals isn’t small. Modern rifles that lack this level of accuracy are rare. So, you need the skill to hit that vital zone. Within 100 yards, with average vision and in decent light, this should be possible with open sights. Beyond that distance, and in the critical periods just before sunrise and after sunset, it’s your scope that enables you to properly see your animal, resolve your point of aim, and make the shot. 

The last sentence is probably the most critical one, so a scope with better glass but a lower power will be better than something with higher power that has poor quality glass. You also don't need too much power. The author reports good performance from his Leupold VX3 3.5-10x40mm. But, he adds, "a good quality 3-9X (or thereabouts) will do everything most of us need done. And that is about the maximum power you can have without parallax adjustment (which adds cost)." He likes the 32mm tubes over the 1-inch, but recommends against the 36mm which he believes are too big and heavy for hunting. 

• "The Budget Hunting Knives We Actually Use and Recommend"--Outdoor Life. Several knives ranging from $13 to $68. 
• "Undertsanding Elk Vocabulary is an Important Hunting Skill to Master"--Petersen's Hunting. Some of the calls discussed as those of the estrus cow, the calf call, and a couple bugle calls that the bulls will make.
• "Walker Razor Walkie Talkie Review: Real-World Range & Frequency List"--Modern Survival Blog. The ranges advertised for most walkie talkie radios are for ideal (and, frankly, unrealistic) conditions. The real-world ranges are generally much, much less. For instance, the Walker radios tested in this article had an advertised range of 2 to 3 miles, but the author's test put the good communication range as 300 feet, and essentially no communication beyond 1,300 feet. On the other hand, he purchased these specific radios because they integrated with the Razor electronic ear muffs and the real world ranges were sufficient for what he needed. 
• "Microprepping for People with Small Homes"--Urban Survival Site. The article begins:

    When most people picture an emergency stockpile, they imagine a basement lined with shelves, a spare bedroom packed floor to ceiling, or a garage full of five-gallon buckets. And if you've got that kind of room, great. But a lot of us don't. If you live in a small house or apartment, you might have nothing more than a single closet to work with.

    Here's the good news: it absolutely is. This is where microprepping comes in. Microprepping is all about squeezing a bunch of survival supplies into a tiny space by being organized, intentional, and clever about what you choose to store. Emergency supplies can take up a ton of room if you're careless, but if you plan well, you'd be surprised how much you can fit in one closet.

    In fact, you can put together a full 60 days of supplies for two adults in a single linen closet. We're talking food, water, health items, self defense, all of it. It just takes a bit of thought about what earns a spot on the shelf.

The article goes over 9 steps to putting together a "microprepping" stockpile, plus links to an video demonstrating how to transform that bathroom linen closet into your storage for preps. 

Weekend Reading #75

 Some longer or more involved reading:

•  Jon Low has a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter. First up, Jon has included a link to where you can download a PDF of Jeff Cooper's "Principles of Personal Defense."
• Some words of advice:

     When issued a radio, or someone gives you a radio, or you pick up your radio out of its charger, IMMEDIATELY do a radio check.  Finding out that your radio does not work in the middle of a crisis is no fun.  

     If you check it, it will always work.  If you don't check it, it won't work when you need it.  That's how life works.  Murphy is nasty.  

     Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time; not when it's convenient for you, not when it's easy to fix.  

•  Greg Ellifritz also has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump with links to articles on better using a red dot, the biomechanics of an incapacitating shot, some thoughts on being the gray man (as well as a great story of an encounter with a couple of criminals), a link to this month's Range Master news letter, and more.
• "Your Car Is Sharing More Private Data Than Your Smartphone. Who’s Getting It?"--The Drive. You might want to think twice before plugging your phone into your car. An excerpt:

Even if you only use the official apps pre-installed in your car, some of these may connect to your phone and ultimately open your browser. Once it does, the whole flow of data changes because it follows your phone’s browser settings, not your car’s. This means your car is now receiving cookies and browsing data and sharing them in ways you weren’t aware of or expected.

• "Why The Cheering For The Woman Who Killed Her Children Was Aimed At You"--Wilder, Wealthy & Wise. Some thoughts about Lindsay Clancy, her supporters, and modern feminists. An excerpt:

    This then, is the ultimate sacrifice to Moloch.  Innocent children painfully murdered.  It goes hand in hand with the other sacrament of the GloboLeft and GloboLeftElite:  abortion.

    This is why feminists celebrate Clancy.  They demand in every respect full autonomy for women.  What autonomy?  All of it.  Want to kill a child that irritates you after you’ve shopped doctors to put your mind on numerous drugs?

    Why, that’s perfectly allowed.

    Want to have sex with two, three, heck, seven guys in public on the floor?  Why not!  If she regrets it later, she can just call it rape.  And if she and the guy, or guys, are both equally drunk?

    It’s still rape by the guy.

    And if she is a teacher and rapes a minor, gets pregnant and opts not to sacrifice her child to Moloch?  Yeah, the kid will have to pay his rapist for his rape-baby.  Oh, and she’ll probably get probation, because rape is only icky if a guy does it. 

•  "When The Music Stops, Matt Bracken"--The Grey Enigma. From the article:

    In response to recent articles in mainstream military journals discussing the use of the U.S. Army to quell insurrections on American soil, I offer an alternate vision of the future. Instead of a small town in the South as the flash point, picture instead a score of U.S. cities in the thrall of riots greater than those experienced in Los Angeles in 1965 (Watts), multiple cities in 1968 (MLK assassination), and Los Angeles again in 1992 (Rodney King). New Yorkers can imagine the 1977 blackout looting or the 1991 Crown Heights disturbance. In fact, the proximate spark of the next round of major riots in America could be any from a long list cribbed from our history.

    We have seen them all before, and we shall see them all again as history rhymes along regardless of the century or the generation of humankind nominally in control of events. But the next time we are visited by widespread, large-scale urban riots, a dangerous new escalation may be triggered by a new vulnerability: It’s estimated that the average American home has less than two weeks of food on hand. In poor minority areas, it may be much less. What if a cascading economic crisis, even a temporary one, leads to millions of EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards flashing nothing but zeroes? Or if the government’s refusal to reimburse them causes supermarket chains to stop accepting them for payment? The government can order the supermarkets to honor the cards, but history’s verdict is clear: If suppliers are paid only with worthless scrip or blinking digits, the food will stop. 

Another Leftist Lie About Guns Debunked

A persistent lie from the Left is that 99% of women with guns will be disarmed and the firearm used against them. But in "The '99 Percent' Myth About Women and Their Guns," the author digs into the statistics. The most relevant portion:

    The best place to look for this kind of question is the National Crime Victimization Survey, or NCVS. It’s the country’s main source for how often people get hit by crime, paid for by the Bureau of Justice Statistics within the Department of Justice and run by the Census Bureau. The survey doesn’t just count crimes reported to police. Researchers gather accounts straight from those who were victimized, covering incidents whether or not police ever heard about them, plus facts such as the victim’s gender, any weapons that came into play, and whether the person was hurt.

    A study in the Journal of Criminal Justice by Lawrence Southwick — “Self-defense with guns: The consequences” — analyzed that NCVS data to see what happened when crime victims tried to defend themselves. Southwick’s core finding on women is that women who resisted an attack without a gun were about four times more likely to be seriously injured than women who resisted with a gun. Slone’s own read of the Southwick data goes a step further: among women who used a firearm defensively, she calculates that 98.75 percent were not injured, for an injury rate of just 1.25 percent.  

So, as usual, the Left have inverted the facts: it being that 99% of women who use a gun defensively will not be injured.  

Weekend Reading #74

Some longer or more involved reading:

• For those interested in gun and self-defense topics, Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump available. Some of the links that caught my attention in particular:
• First up, it looks like Trump has come through again with the DOJ now taking the position that the ban on the sales of handguns to 18-20 year olds being unconstitutional. This is a great start to nibbling away at the Gun Control Act of 1968.
• A piece from SWAT Magazine on lubricating the AR.
• A video from Spyderco with advice for left handed people (some 10% of the population) about selecting and making use of folding knives with, obviously, an emphasis on Spyderco products. 
• Just because I have posted about this topic in the past, a Q&A with Giles Stock about the Scout Rifle and what Cooper intended. Interestingly, he recommends against anyone trying to custom build one today "as the Steyr Scout does it better out of the box."
• A great article from Guns Magazine on the use and practicality of using a strobing flashlight, including the history of the strobing technique. Notably, the original technique was not built around a strobing light; rather, it was two or more officers taking turns to quickly turn on and off a flashlight to distract a suspect while allowing the other officer to move. 
• A video with tips on hardening your doors.
• A couple articles on the importance of concealed carry guns needing to be truly concealed--i.e., no printing or inadvertently peeking out at times. 
• Attaining combat accuracy, with "a good standard to aim for; 4" group at 25 yds with a pistol and 4 MOA at either 100 or 200 yds. with your carbine."
• And an article that argues that locked classroom doors don't have any effect on reducing the number of victims killed in school shootings and may actually make things worse, with the author noting:

    During the two high fatality school shootings of the past decade, lockdowns and locked doors made the situation worse. In Parkland, students were trapped in the hallways with the gunman because they couldn’t get back into their classrooms after the doors locked behind them.

    In Uvalde, students and staff who were following lockdown procedures instead of evacuating from the campus were hit by bullets that went through the walls and doors. Just the idea that the classroom door was locked cause police officers to wait outside for more than an hour. 

There's more, so be sure to read the whole thing. Also, Greg has a recent post linking to some free (at the time, at least) Kindle e-books from Amazon.  

• "Cheap Prosperity Or A Logistics Trick? Time Will Tell."--Wilder, Wealthy & Wise.  A look at supply chains and fragility. For instance, John points out:

Right now, gasoline and diesel demand are dropping because their costs are going up in a painful way.  This is impacting the cost of every physical good, from water to steak, and not in the good way.  There are only two results from this situation:

1.     Recession, or,
2.     Inflation.

We have gone far beyond the time when politicians will allow a recession.  At any sign of those, the money printer goes brrrrrrrrr.  The result?  Huge inflation in things like wheat in poor countries, which leads to revolutions and uprisings.  People can’t eat, governments can’t govern.  

• A brand new report from Pew Research: "Tradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S." An excerpt:

    Several of Pew Research Center’s surveys dating back to 2007 have found that Latter-day Saints are, on average, among the most religious adults in America.

    For example, about seven-in-ten Latter-day Saints surveyed in the Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) say that religion is very important in their lives. This is roughly on par with evangelical Protestants and members of historically Black Protestant churches – and far higher than the shares of U.S. Catholics (44%), Jews (27%) and Buddhists (21%) who say religion is very important to them.

    Latter-day Saints also have remained overwhelmingly attached to the Republican Party over the past several decades. About three-quarters of the church’s members identify as Republican or lean toward the Republican Party, as of 2023-24.1 Previous Center surveys conducted in 2007, 2011 and 2014 also found that Latter-day Saints were, on the whole, among the country’s most politically conservative groups when asked about their ideology.

    Amid these signs of stability, however, are indications of change within the church. ...

Some of the areas of change noted in the article is that the Church--in the U.S.--is becoming more ethnically diverse, slightly less religious, and "modestly" more liberal. However, some of the declines stopped over the past 5 years. 

Gun & Prepping News #99

Some links that may be of interest: 

• "Sling Manipulation for Home Defense: Making Slings Work Around Corners"--Ammo Land. The author begins: 

    A rifle sling is often treated as little more than a carrying strap. For a gun owner relying on a rifle, shotgun or pistol caliber carbine for home defense, that is a mistake.

    A properly set-up sling helps retain the rifle, frees a hand when necessary, and gives the shooter more control in hallways, doorways, and other confined spaces. A poorly adjusted sling can bind the rifle, slow a shoulder transition, or leave the gun swinging around when the shooter needs both hands.

    In a recent training video, Travis Haley of Haley Strategic demonstrates how sling configuration affects shoulder transitions, body exposure around corners, and the shooter’s ability to keep a rifle in action after an injury. Haley discusses those techniques primarily through the lens of close-quarters operations, but several of the underlying lessons have direct value for civilian gun owners who keep a carbine for home defense.

• "Close Encounters of the Revolver Kind"--Revolver Guy.  A look at concealed carry in the Old West with an emphasis on revolvers, including what some famous (or infamous) gunfighters used. An excerpt:

    All the same, most 19th century Westerners weren’t pistoleros by circumstance or experience and didn’t have the need or ability to tote large hog-legs for personal protection. Even so, the Western society of that era expected men to defend themselves against nutjobs and violent bullies. Thus, it was common for many Westerners, including some women, to be discreetly armed. Added to this was the dominant Western belief that a man’s personal honor and safety should be backed up by lethal force. 5

    Among the first to take advantage of these concealable arms were gunfighters on both sides of the law who wanted compact firepower in addition to their full-sized revolvers made by Colt, Smith & Wesson, Remington and other companies as backup heaters. Moreover, some boomtowns’ politicians forbade carrying firearms, especially open carrying such hardware. Therefore, many folks who worked in higher risk jobs carried small hidden firearms for self-defense. In those bygone days such weapons were known as hideout guns, cutdowns, pocket guns, vest pocket pistols, and bicycle guns. Today, our modern versions are called belly guns, snub-nosed revolvers, snubbies, micro pistols, backup guns and so forth. 

    So, a lot of Westerners who worked in mercantile stores, banking, gambling, bar tending, prostitution and stage coach transportation sought small equalizers that could be inconspicuously carried or stashed nearby. Quite a few manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, recognized a lucrative market and produced an assortment of small revolvers, some well-made and others clearly substandard. 

And you might find this note about the homicide rates interesting:

 In current-day America, 35 murders per 100,000 people is considered extremely high. Yet those figures pale in comparison to homicide rates in the Wild West. Adjusting for population densities, boomtowns Bodie, California, and the five main cattle Kansas cattle towns sported murder tallies that ran from 116 to 317 per 100,000 inhabitants. As bad as these statistics are, in the early 1850s the Pueblo of Los Angeles’s murder rate was 1,250 per 100,000 people. Historian John Bosessenecker believes that was by “far and away the highest homicide rate in American history.” Volunteers formed the Los Angeles Rangers to subdue the criminality.

• And some more firearms history: "The Beretta M1935: A Classic .32 Caliber Pistol"--The Shooting Wire. The author relates:

    The Beretta M1935 isn’t a fancy gun by any means. It’s a direct descendant of the Beretta M1934. The M1934 was a 9mm Corto (.380 ACP) Italian service pistol that served with the Royal Italian Army. The difference between the two is the caliber. 

    The M1935 is a direct-blowback .32 ACP pistol that feeds from a single-stack magazine. Like most guns of the era, it’s a hammer-fired, single-action-only pistol with a manual safety and heel-mounted magazine release.  

    The magazine holds eight rounds, which is one more than the M1934. The Italian Army already had the M1934, but the Navy and Air Force chose the .32 caliber M1935. The .380 had a bit more bite and nearly twice the free recoil of .32 ACP, so I imagine forces less focused on ground warfare wanted a little less oomph. 

    Beretta probably also had an eye on sales to police and external military forces. The .32 ACP was a popular cartridge amongst European police and military forces, and offering both made a lot of sense. Finland, Japan, and Nazi Germany all fielded the M1935. You didn’t have to redesign the gun to swap from .380 to .32. 

• And on to something more modern: "Meet the HK VP9CC: The New Micro-Compact With a Familiar Family Name"--The Truth About Guns. One thing that HK does now (not so much in the past) is get the ergonomics down (unlike another company whose name rhymes with "lock"). The author notes:

    Heckler & Koch did not skimp on the total package for the new pistol. The custom H&K-branded pistol bag includes six interchangeable backstraps, more than most other handguns on the market, to ensure you can get the exact grip you want on the VP9CC. The backstrap plays an important role in how you grip any handgun. If the backstrap is too elongated, it can prevent smaller-handed shooters from reaching the trigger.

    If the backstrap is too thin, it can give you “too much” trigger finger, where you’re having to curl your trigger finger uncomfortably outward to make a proper trigger pull. If shooting fundamentals have taught me anything, it is that building a good grip is the foundation of pistol shooting. If the backstrap makes or breaks a good grip, then you need the right one for your hand size.   

And look at the arch to the backstrap. You shouldn't be shooting low and left with this weapon.  

• "Concealed Carry Corner: Keys to Success"--The Firearm Blog. The first point the author raises is to know your limitations. He explains:

    One of the biggest issues I’ve seen with people in the concealed carry space is the concept of forcing a handgun to work no matter their body type or carry style. Some people are hell-bent on carrying a specific handgun, whether it's a full-size 1911 or even something larger like a Desert Eagle. There was an individual I met in the Detroit area who carried a Desert Eagle in 50 AE by having it in an OWB leather holster. I saw him walk into an indoor range where he proceeded to almost miss the target, hitting the D Zone 5 out of the 7 shots he fired. 

    If a firearm's too heavy to easily carry all day long and you can't shoot it accurately under pressure, why are you carrying it? ... 

• Think twice before getting involved: "Good Samaritan, 21, trying to stop robbery is shot three times before staggering down bloodied Seattle street where passersby refused to call 911 and FILMED him instead"--Daily Mail. From the lede:

    A 21-year-old man was shot three times while trying to stop a robbery in Seattle, and was left staggering through the streets as heartless passersby filmed his ordeal and his friend was left dying on the street.

    Matthew Lanske had just finished dinner with his friends in the city's Belltown neighborhood on September 6, when they witnessed an illegal street takeover, his family said.

    When Lanske and his friends then crossed the street near the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Clay Street, a man and two women tried to rob his friend, Isaac Elijah Rios, 20, at gunpoint. 

    Lanske immediately jumped in to help, bravely trying to grab the gun from the man, when he was shot three times – twice in the stomach while the third shattered his pelvis and struck a major artery, his sister Rebecca Garberding said. 

• "Why Boomers Grew Up Loving Guns"--The Truth About Guns. The author posits:

    The world these children grew up in was saturated with firearms long before any toy Colt reached their hands. World War II left behind enormous quantities of military arms and industrial capacity. As veterans returned home and factories shifted back to civilian production, the American firearm market absorbed both the surplus and the influence of wartime design. Affordable surplus rifles and handguns introduced many civilians to firearms, while Winchester, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Remington, Ruger, and Savage repositioned themselves for a peacetime market built on hunting, target shooting, home defense, and outdoor recreation.

    Popular culture reinforced the connection without needing to invent it. The number of American households with televisions jumped from a handful to more than nine in ten between 1946 and 1964. Westerns filled those living rooms with images of Colts, Winchesters, lawmen, and frontier justice. Even when the stories were fictional, they tied firearms to history and identity in the minds of the audience. So a Boomer child grew up with a father who may have carried a rifle in the war, a household that owned a hunting shotgun, and a television that ran cowboy dramas after dinner. The replica toy was a small part of a far larger picture.

The author also theorizes that the Cold War had its own impact on the Boomers. But the culture is an impact: I do not believe anyone could deny the impact that video games and GWOT had on Gun Culture 2.0.

• A different type of boomer: "Big boomer guns"--Backwoods Magazine. Massad Ayoob discusses the large magnum or express rifles, handguns and shotguns. An excerpt:

    I never did go after elephant intentionally, but being in elephant territory and knowing horror stories of humans crushed to doll rags by the giant mammals, it was reassuring to have a .375 and a .458 along. I later acquired a .416 Rigby caliber Ruger Model 77 Express rifle.

    Machismo value? About 9 out of 10. Practical value if you live in the “lower 48” United States and don’t have to worry about humongous bears of the Polar and Grizzly variety? Well, probably close to zero. But the ability to shoot these monstrously hard-kicking guns fast and straight? Well, in Macho Guy Terms, the value is probably incalculable.

    You’ll see alongside this article my friend Justin Schortmann shooting his brother-in-law Caleb Gunter’s .470 Express double barrel elephant rifle. Watch the muzzle rise. Watch the body rock backward. I can only say—YEE-HAW!

    If you aren’t in elephant country, do you need an elephant rifle? Well, heck, if you’re in a country with a 70 mile an hour speed limit, do you need a car that can race at over a hundred miles an hour? In a free country, it’s about what you want, not just what you need. Me, I kinda go with a point that Ross Seyfried first made when he was a professional hunter in Africa. I’ve owned .375, .416, and/or .458 caliber elephant rifles when I lived in New Hampshire, and when I lived in Florida.

    During all that time, no elephant has ever attacked me or my neighbors. One can only conclude that there is a deterrent effect at work here. You’d think my Yuppie neighbors in the New England suburbs would have appreciated more than they did, the fact that I, alone, obviously kept herds of elephants from trampling their Volvos into their rock gardens.

• A good argument for not allowing Flock cameras or similar automatic monitoring systems: "FBI’s Secret NICS Monitoring Tracked Lawful Gun Buyers"--The Truth About Guns.  From the article:

    For years, the FBI ran a program that let federal agencies watch what guns you buy — even when you’re perfectly legal to buy them. It’s called NICS Monitoring, and on September 15, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed it exists.

    The confirmation came during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. Sen. Ted Cruz laid it out plainly. Gun Owners of America, he said, “discovered a secret FBI program called NICS Monitoring, used to track firearm purchases of Americans who were legally eligible to buy a gun but were suspected of a crime. Is that right?” Patel’s answer: “Yes.”

    That one word ended a five-year fight. GOA has been suing the ATF over the program since a 2021 FOIA request first surfaced records the government has tried to bury under redactions and gag orders ever since. 

• Speaking of a police state: "Texas police department shut down for failing to provide ‘public benefit’ after arresting mom over dirty water Facebook post"--New York Post.  The woman was arrested because she made a post critical of the city's mishandling of the municipal water system. Apparently the State of Texas can shut down local law enforcement agencies, and did so in this case.
• The Conference of Catholic Bishops urge the Supreme Court to leave Americans helpless in the face of violent crime. One of the key groups that aided and abetted the invasion of the United States under Biden now urges the Supreme Court to uphold local and state AR15 bans. 
• "Unconventionality Reigns Supreme with the CRKT Mah-chete"--Gat Daily. So this is one of those blades that tries to provide the utility of a machete with a smaller blade--in this case, a 12 inch blade--giving you something big enough to chop, but small enough to serve other knife roles. The author reviews the tool and ends with this:

Not only does the CRKT Mah-chete perform like a true powerhouse outdoors, but it also offers a coolness factor that cannot be denied. Its untraditional design allows it to perform like a traditional machete, while accomplishing a lot more. It can slice and dice for meal prep, split wood like an ax, and puncture like a spear. The Mah-chete retails for only $80.00 and when weighing quality versus price, it’s no contest. The Mah-chete pays for itself with its unrelentless performance in the field. 

The blade shape and curve is very much like that of a parang, except with a more pronounced point; and the handle is slightly offset above the line of the blade which would, IMHO, increase the power of the cutting stroke.  Very similar to the now discontinued K-Bar Swabbie or Schrade's Decimate Parang. I have a Schrade Bush Sword (now called the Decimate Brush Sword) which is a similar concept (albeit with a longer blade) which I have found very useful around my yard. 

• If the grid goes down in the winter, you might not be able to do your business in a heated bathroom. "Pooping In The Cold"--Blue Collar Prepping. The author links to a video on YouTube. As the author notes, "While this video is about using outhouses in cold weather, the same principle applies in the woods; just find a log to sit on." And one of the comments notes: "Replace the toilet seat with a piece of rigid foam insulation with an appropriate hole. You will think the seat is heated!"
• "The Potato Hole"--Backwoods Magazine. A mini-root celler, if you will:

    We had talked of putting in a regular root cellar, but digging one by hand on our property would have been a daunting task. Just below the meager layer of topsoil which grew wonderful vegetables was a gigantic layer of solid concrete-like clay. So we got by with storing potatoes with the canned goods in the basement where the temperature hovered in the 50s. Unfortunately, sprouts were plentiful by spring.

    But one day a few years back, we decided we had had enough of a 15-foot chokecherry bush that was sending suckers into the garden several yards away, so my husband cut it down then dug the roots out — a task that required the pickax, saw, and shovel. The resulting hole looked like it wouldn’t take much to make it big enough to sink the 2 foot by 30 inch (inside diameter) concrete riser we had on hand. “Then,” I said, “we could store potatoes in it.”

Weekend Reading #73

Some longer or more involved reading:

• Jon Low has his most recent newsletter available at his Defensive Pistolcraft blog. A few points that stood out:
• Because I live in Idaho, this caught my attention:

     If you ever find yourself in the Idaho State [History] Museum in Boise, Idaho, ask to see the Elmer Keith Commemorative .44 magnum revolver.  Donated in 1985 A.D.  The gold inlaid engraving is fantastic.  

     If it's still on display when you get there, it will be on the bottom level of the museum.  Walk down the stairs.  There will be a glass enclosure displaying many things.  Front and center you will see the revolver.   

If you like weapons, you should also go to the Old Penitentiary which has a museum on the grounds with a large collection of historical weapons from roughly the Renaissance through WWII on display.   

•  Jon linked to this article--"The Apprehensions Women Have About Carrying a Firearm — And How Training Helps Overcome It"--which caught my attention because, like many of the articles aimed at women, it tries to create a false dichotomy between male and female shooters. In this case, the author begins: "For many women, carrying a firearm is not about politics, power, or recreation. It is about wanting the ability to defend themselves and the people they love if they are ever faced with a dangerous situation." What a degrading attitude toward men! Sure there are the exceptions (which seem to only show up in the comments online), but I don't personally know any men that daily carry for reasons of politics or power or recreation. Because daily carry is a pain in the butt, the people who carry daily, day-after-day, are motivated by defending themselves and the people they love. The article goes on to describe various fears that women have--fear of having an accident, making the wrong decision, fear of being judged or criticized by family or friends--but these are also concerns of most men. It is why so much ink is spilled on topics of safe gun handling and the law (and practicalities) of self-defense. I suppose the fear of criticism is perhaps less with men simply because men are not as driven by competition for social affirmation. The rest of the article continues with the false dichotomy because many of the concerns will be common to men who have no past experience with firearms and/or older men or men that suffer from physical disabilities. As I've mentioned before, when I see this false dichotomy, it seems primarily to be a marketing ploy to convince women that they need a female instructor. 
• Jon has some commentary about Cooper's rules of gun safety, including the following about Rule 1: "All Guns Are Loaded".

     This rule is not saying to treat all guns as if they were loaded.  This rule is commanding you to keep all guns loaded at all times.  

     If you don't understand this, please read "The Modern Technique of the Pistol" by Gregory Boyce Morrison https://dokumen.pub/qdownload/the-modern-technique-of-the-pistol-0962134236-9780962134234.html Page 8.  

     Instructors who teach "Treat all guns as if they were loaded." Are telling you to PRETEND the gun is loaded, even if you know that the gun is not loaded.  Col. Cooper is telling you to BELIEVE, not pretend, that all guns are always loaded, because you keep all guns always loaded, as a matter of safety.  

     So the "safety" rules of the IDPA matches, the USPSA matches, and the NRA courses that require you to unload your pistol when not actually shooting create horrible training scars, that you must be 
aware of.   

Later he adds:

That means always keep your gun loaded.  That means a round in the chamber.  This is a safety rule.  With a loaded gun, you can defend the safety of yourself and your loved ones.  With an unloaded gun, you cannot.  No, as a matter of fact, you will not have time to chamber a round.  No, as a matter of fact, you won't have a support-side hand available to chamber a round; you'll have to chamber the round one-handed, possibly support-side-hand only.  As we saw in the above cited incident.  You can do that, right?  Because you've had training and practice regularly (weekly at least).  

     Last week, I stopped to eat at the In And Out burger shop in Twin Falls, ID.  It was all cleaned up and running smoothly.  We did notice 3 discreetly armed private security officers and one private security office with a full duty belt rig.  All were directing traffic and patrolling around the parking lot.  

     I also noticed that the two ladies behind the counter were carrying concealed.  Well concealed, I had to look carefully to see.  Idaho has the best gun laws in the country, according to the anti-gun group EveryTown.   

 Check out his other commentary on the rules.

•  I had recently linked to an article by Greg Ellifritz on the downsides of evacuating after receiving a bomb threat, with Greg specifically discussing a recent incident involving a high school in Tennessee. Jon adds some additional thoughts:

     I have taken classes in which we were taught to never move people into well defined (as in written in a plan) rally points.  Rather the instruction was to disperse them / send them home / send them to another site, etc.  

     It's hard to get a big bomb into a building.  It's easy to get a big bomb into a parking lot.  So drive the car or truck bomb into the parking lot and cause an evacuation into the parking lot.  Lots of documented cases of such.  So, if the plan is to evacuate to a well defined (written in a plan that the enemy knows, one must assume spies) rally point, the planners are idiots and should not be trusted, because they are not competent.  In such cases, tell your children to run away, run home, run away and call you to pick them up.  Tell your children to NEVER hang out in a well defined rally point.   

This goes hand in hand with another terrorist tactic which is to set off a bomb, then, after first responders show up, set off one or more other concealed explosives outside the original target in order to kill first responders and people that have been evacuated. As Jon says, get out of defined rally point. 

•  And in defense of engaging in competition, Jon explains:

      Disparaging competition shooting as not relevant or counter-productive to combat shooting because it is not realistic, is not intellectually honest.  All training is not realistic.  Because civilian trainers cannot tolerate 3% casualties and 1% fatalities in their classes.  They actually strive for 0% casualties, including heat casualties.  (See Greg's article elsewhere in this blog posting.  "Two Contemporary Training Issues to Ponder" by Greg Ellifritz)  

     Even in our U.S. Armed Forces training, where 3% casualties and 1% fatalities are tolerated in combined arms exercises, the training is still not realistic.  Because in combat much higher casualty and fatality rates are expected and tolerated.  In the U.S. Navy, the surface warfare fleet expects a ship to continue functioning, being combat effective, with 50% of the crew dead.  Sorry, that's just reality.  

     When I was young and stupid, I was working intel for an exercise.  We told the command staff that the winds were too high and advised them to abort the jump.  Lt. General Klingston ordered the airborne paratroopers to jump.  Every Lieutenant aboard every aircraft ordered their men to jump (as would be expected of any officer).  They suffered 3% casualty, 1% fatality.  Now that I am older and smarter, I understand how essential such training is.  Failure to train realistically ensures defeat in combat.  

     But the civilian self-defense industry would never tolerate such.  Look at who attends your classes.  They are predominantly there for entertainment and to have fun.  It is rare to have a student who has recently survived a traumatic event that motivates her to learn to defend herself, because she knows that her life depends on the skills to be learned.  

I believe it was Massad Ayoob who noted the competition shooting was as close to shooting under pressure that most of us will ever experience until we are involved in an actual defensive encounter.

 Anyway, Jon has a lot more, so be sure to check out his newsletter.

• Next up is a new Weekend Knowledge Dump from Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training.  Some of the links which were for one reason or another notable to me:
• "Terminal Ballistics 1: How Pistols 'Stop' Bad Guys". The author emphasizes:

Because of this I would like to stress (over and over and over again) the importance of accuracy to win a gunfight. Marginal hits with any caliber cannot guarantee a stop. Period. Full stop. Nor can marginal hits with “magic” bullets guarantee a stop. The latest, greatest hollowpoint - or now the “external hollowpoints” - cannot guarantee a stop without hitting something vital. To guarantee a stop, we must hit something that matters. Most of the human body is fairly unimpressed with handgun bullets. Someone shot with a pistol - unless hit in one of a few small areas - can continue to be a deadly threat to you for quite some time, if they choose to be. 

Similarly, he notes, just because you are shot does not mean that you are going to be out of action.

• A link to an article about the Federal 8-pellet FLITECONTROL buckshot load for self-defense. It is hard to find these in my area. I had a source that carried them for a while (for those of you in the Boise areas, it was the bulk ammo store on 5-Mile between Franklin and Emerald streets, in the old Eddy's bakery building) but the last few times I've been in there, they've only had the 9 pellet version. Greg recommends as an alternative the Hornady Critical Defense because it also uses the same wad. But the problem with those is that (i) the pellets are bare lead rather than the plated shot in the Federal load and (ii) there is no buffering powder between the shot. They don't open up as bad as cheap buckshot ammo, but they do open up faster than the Federal rounds and the deformation of the pellets further increases the spread.  
• Caleb Giddings tests some defensive rounds in .38 Special from different guns with different barrel lengths. 
• An article on what makes a good holster. One thing in particular caught my attention:

Starting with the most important, a holster needs to safely hold a handgun in such a way that it cannot be inadvertently fired when in the holster. An object that won’t do this is not a holster as far as I’m concerned. It might be a very nice, tooled-leather gun-holder thingie you put on your belt, but a holster it ain’t. “But, Tam,” you say, “A lot of classic revolver holsters back in the day had cutaway trigger guards! For speed!” I think we can safely say we did a lot of things in those days that weren’t very safe in retrospect, like chain-smoke while pregnant or dump raw sewage in rivers. Let’s not do those things anymore.

In defense of the holsters with cutaway trigger guards, I would note that they are perfectly fine for the single-action revolver because with such weapons the exposed trigger does not enable the firearm to be fired inadvertently, assuming, of course, that the hammer is down. (The downside to such holsters is that they more easily allow dirt and grime to enter the action). Just don't use them--the holsters--with more modern handgun designs. 

• An article that asks the question: "Does Temperature Affect Bullet Point of Impact?" The answer is "yes" because temperature can affect the burn rate of the powder. Unfortunately, the test outlined in the article only tested the temperature of the ammo, but not the ambient air temperature which can also affect point of impact because cooler air is more dense than warmer air. (See, e.g., "How Air Temperature Changes Bullet Trajectory"--Ron Spomer Outdoors). 
• A very detailed article with advice on choosing a carry gun. One point in particular that stood out to me was the advice on portability because it runs contrary to what you often hear from people that should know better:

Like cost, portability is sometimes viewed as a secondary consideration. I think this is a mistake, because it is one that I have made. It's often said that a carry gun, "should be comforting, not comfortable." I disagree. I have too many things competing for my energy and attention to endure an uncomfortable gun. As a result I didn't actually carry very much when I chose guns that were too large. I have tried to carry hardware that was too large, or too uncomfortable. After a few months when the novelty wears off it becomes very easy to talk yourself out of shoving that big holster in your pants and lugging two pounds of steel around all day. 

• Finally, it is a well known maxim that the average gun fight takes place at 3 yards, last 3 seconds, and expends 3 rounds. It has been noted by John Correia, after watching thousands of security footage of armed encounters, that he has never seen a civilian self-defender have to reload their handgun. But, although the odds may be incredibly rare for the civilian, there are still the outlier cases, some of which have been collected into an article, "Self-Defense and the Law: Cases Where Magazine Capacity Limits Cost Lives."

 Greg has a lot more, so be sure to check it out.

• John Wilder has some funny memes for you, including a video of an Indian woman acting, well, like an Indian. Also, my selection of loadout if I was being hunted by an unknown cryptid would be "D". I almost went with "A" but decided I would rather have a small pack of attack dogs for the extra eyes, ears, noses, and teeth. 
• "The Mommy Standard"--According to Hoyt.  Key part:

    Some — dear Lord — 20 years ago, Libertarians who were friends of mine became very alarmed that our standard for who was human and a life worth keeping had changed. Now, it had effectively become “You’re human if mommy says you are.”

    No? Look at when a pregnant woman gets killed. Whether the child gets counted as another homicide depends on whether the child was wanted or not. A lot of states have not only abortion till birth but, like Colorado — COLORADO! — you’re allowed to kill the baby for some time after birth with no consequences.

    You’re human if mommy wants you.

    If mommy doesn’t want you, you stop being human even as labor pains start. She can say “My body, my choice, I want the fetus terminated.” If mommy wants you, on the other hand, she’ll send your sonograms at two months around with “Look at my baby. He has my nose.”

    And that decision can change in a minute. Sometimes on a dime.

    This is not tenable. It is particularly not tenable for a secular humanist society. (Religious societies have their own answers to abide by. That’s different.)

    It’s not tenable because “humanist” rests on “humans” and if what a human is depends on the whim of the woman (and usually a woman who is stressed, hormonally off-ballance and possibly exhausted and ill) the foundations of the society crumble.

Secular humanism rests on a Christian moral foundation, but that is a topic for another time. 

•  "Have You Ever Kippled?"--Chicago Boyz. This article is mostly about the enduring popularity of Rudyard Kipling and his works--at least among normal people. For one of the more interesting parts of the article was this comment:

This topic was brought to my mind when I commented on David Fosters’ Amelia Does Kipling post – that admitting to a liking for and knowledge of the prose and poetry of Rudyard Kipling is a kind of secret conservative/libertarian handshake, by which we recognize another of our kind. Recognizing and readily quoting something like The Gods of the Copybook Headings, or When the English Began to Hate, The Sons of Martha, or The Dane-Geld, and being familiar with his vast and varied body of work is something which goes bone-deep among us but also leaves those of a woke inclination utterly cold. ...