VIDEO: Is Carrying A 5-Shot Snub Nose "Stupid"?

The author lays out a strong case for why the 5-shot snub nosed revolver is a good concealed carry choice for him. 

 VIDEO: "Why I Still Carry a 5-Shot Revolver in 2026"
Ratmothy (20 min.)

Some Firearms Are "Just Because"

A recently came across a video from Paul Harrell from about seven years ago comparing the Walther PPK/S against the Bersa Thunder .380. About 3/4 of the way through the video, as he was doing his wrap up, Paul related an incident where he had gone with a friend to a gun show to help him select a pistol. His friend was looking for a PPK (not the /S model) and specifically one in .32 ACP. Paul convinced him to purchase one in .380 because it was going to be a better choice for self defense. As he relates, this was a mistake on his part:

Now Joe did want to get a good gun that could be called upon if he needed it; but what I didn't understand, and this was a big mistake on my part, is that what he really wanted was to be able to say that he has James Bond's gun. (This would have been back just after the Roger Moore days when he still had a PPK in caliber 32 ACP). Because it was important to Joe to be able to say something like Walther PPK caliber 7.65 millimeter or however the line goes; and although that kind of thing is totally irrelevant to some of us it is very important to some people to say they have Dirty Harry's gun or as I heard somebody say once this is just like the gun they use on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea or in some cases being able to say they've James Bond's gun.  

Shortly after that, following some recommended links at Massad Ayoob's blog at the Backwoods Home Magazine site, I happened across an article he had written in 2013 entitled "Just Because." In it, Ayoob started out:

    I generally recommend that people buy guns the way they’d buy power tools, or automobiles, or homes. Assess your needs, analyze your budget, correlate it all with your ability to utilize the thing you’re buying, and you’ll probably be happy with your purchase and get a lot of productive use out of it.

    It’s the logical thing. Unfortunately, we humans are not always creatures of logic. Sometimes, we are creatures of emotion, and anyone who has dealt with emotion-driven arguments that are without logic — oh, most of the “gun control” arguments, for example — know the downside of that. But emotion isn’t always a bad thing.

From there, he went on to describe certain firearms he has, and sometimes wears on his belt, because of nostalgia, sentiment, or because it was a "grail gun"--something he'd always wanted and finally had the means to get. Or, as the title put it, firearms selected and used "just because" rather than pure logic.

    I too have a few firearms that I purchased just because. I've written before that the reason I purchased a Beretta 84 was not because I researched it and decided it would make a great concealed carry gun--I had never even picked one up before I purchased one--but because one was prominently displayed on the cover of one of my favorite roleplaying games when I was a teenager: TSR's Top Secret. Because of that, it was, to me, the quintessential "spy" gun--even more so than the Walther PPK. So when surplus models started coming into the country for low prices, I snatched one up. That it turned out to be a very nice carry gun was just an added bonus. 

VIDEO: Review of the Taurus Deputy Single Action Revolver

This video looks at the features of the Taurus Deputy single action revolver (there is a separate shooting review video). As you can tell from the thumb nail photo, this revolver is modeled after the Colt SAA revolver, even offering the "4 click" hammer cock. The main feature that sets this revolver apart from others is that if comes with two cylinders: a .38 Special/.357 Magnum cylinder and a 9mm cylinder. Given that 9mm is easier to find and often less expensive, it is a nice option. The other nice feature of this revolver, in my mind, is that it uses a transfer bar safety system so it is safe to carry a fully loaded cylinder with the hammer down. 

 VIDEO: "This Revolver Shoots 3 Different Calibers | Taurus Deputy Review"
Hook & Barrel Magazine (5 min.)

VIDEO: .380 - Does An Extra Inch Of Barrel Matter?

Short answer: Yes. Yes it does.

Longer answer: Well, you will have to watch the video for that. The author compares three pistols with varying barrel lengths: the 2.75" Kimber Micro .380, the 3.25" Glock G42, and the 3.81" Beretta 84, shooting Federal 95 grain FMJ and Hornady 90 grain Critical Defense. The half inch difference between the Kimber and the Glock was negligible but the longer barrel of the Beretta made a significant difference versus the Kimber and Glock: 60 fps faster with the Winchester ammo and 80 and 60 fps faster than the Kimber and Glock, respectively, using the Hornady. 

VIDEO: "380acp - Does an Extra Inch of Barrel Length Matter?"
The Bacon Nation (13 min.)

Snapping Cylinders Shut And Slamming Slides--Just Don't Do It

Massad Ayoob discusses the wear and tear that can result from snapping a cylinder shut on a revolver or letting a slide slam shut on an empty chamber of a semi-auto pistol. With the semi-auto pistols, the problem generally arises in regard to pistols with metal frames using cross pins:

     A cross-pin pistol is something like a 1911, CZ-75, Browning Hi-Power, or Beretta 92. All of these use a transverse pin or slide stop that passes through the frame and often supports the barrel. Sometimes by way of a swinging link, like in the 1911. In these systems, the pin is under some direct stress when the slide slams forward.

     Snapping the slide once probably won’t hurt anything. But snapping it every day over time can start to peen that pin or oval out the holes it rides in.

    On a 1911, especially, you might start to see premature wear in areas that weren’t meant to be load-bearing in that way. Eventually, that damage spreads. I’ve seen peened frames, cracked locking lugs, and loose lockups; all from repeated “dry slamming” of a 1911.

 Thus, "[a]s a rule, when running a cross-pin gun, drop the slide only when you’re feeding a round off a magazine. Otherwise, ease it forward and respect the mechanical design."

    As for revolvers, he writes, "[w]hen you snap a cylinder shut, what you’re doing is forcing a rotating, precision-fit piece of metal into a detent by inertia. Every time that cylinder slams home, something has to absorb the shock. And depending on your revolver’s action, different parts are taking the hit." The parts that take that shock or start to wear depend on the type of revolver: Colt, S&W, and Ruger are all a bit different in how they lock up and so the impact of snapping the cylinder shut depends on which design we're talking about. He explains it all, so read the whole thing. 

Wilder: The Poor Get Hit First

In his latest piece, "The Poor Get Hit First," John Wilder points out signs that money is tightening and prices are starting surge all across the globe. This will be a problem in the third world and those living on the margins:

    Let’s talk basics.  Even if the price of rice tripled, I wouldn’t notice much.  Rice is still cheap for me.  If I have to give up steak, I can just eat some rice, right?  But that’s not a universal truth.  If all a person in some third-world hellhole can afford is rice, and the price doubles, welcome back, world hunger.

    What a lot of people missed is that world hunger was a solved problem.  People just didn’t starve anymore, except in Hollywood®, and that wasn’t real starvation, it was just skinny starlets mainlining Ozempic® and calling it a diet.

    Global food production had climbed so high that famine was basically extinct outside of war zones and socialist experiments.  Now the dominoes have started falling.

    I expect revolutions popping up like mushrooms in Africa.  Hungry people turn into angry people, and angry people with AK-47s equals a revolution. ...

But, he predicts, it won't stop there, but will hit India and poorer parts of Asia.  It will strike Europe as well: limiting grandma to just one small meatball a week isn't enough to save the system. The refugees that have flooded into Europe will get restive. And here in the U.S.? I've been seeing local news stories featuring farmers complaining of not having enough illegals to work the farms and the high price of diesel fuel--and, if you don't know, almost all the equipment on a farm relies on diesel. But Wilder continues:

    Inflation didn’t hit the hedge-fund guy first.  It hammered the guy stretching a paycheck from one tank of gas to the next.  Fast-food prices doubled, rent climbed, and the folks at the bottom discovered that “essential workers” are only essential until the margins get squeezed then they can be easily be replaced by illegals or H-1B Indians.

    The poor lose first because they have no cushion, no skills that the market values, and no margin for error.  When times get tight, luxury items like $272,000 non-profit jobs disappear, and even the mid-level grift starts to evaporate.

    This culling isn’t random.  Societies have always had layers.  The top layer produces, saves, and innovates.  The bottom layer consumes more than it creates.  When the pie stops growing, the bottom layer gets the smallest slice first.

    The credentialed political-grifter class is about to get the same lesson.

And, according to Peter Turchin, these are exactly the type of people that will resort to revolution or civil war.  

A Few On The Decline Of Civilization

• "EU country ‘punishing’ the elderly with crazy meat restriction of just 2.8 ounces per [week] — because they ‘screwed up’ the climate"--New York Post.  The politician is a liberal white woman, of course. 

    Birgitte Kehler Holst of the left-wing green Danish party The Alternative was also accused of saying old people in nursing homes should be “punished” by restricting their meat intake in comments made in a meeting of Copenhagen’s City Council on April 30.

    She was speaking against plans to exclude nursing home residents from guidelines in the Danish capital that restrict meals at government-run sites to just 2.8 ounces (80 grams) of beef, lamb, or veal per week.

    That is less than the amount of beef in a standard McDonald’s Big Mac, which contains two 1.6-ounce beef patties — for a total of 3.2 ounces.  

 Malte Larsen of the populist Danish People’s Party pointed out the hypocrisy:

    “According to a politician from The Alternative, it’s because our elderly have been the biggest climate sinners throughout their lives. And therefore, they must be punished,” he added.

    Larsen also ripped the rhetoric of “self-righteous climate fanatics” as “grotesque,” adding that it was a pointless gesture.

    “No, we’re not saving the entire world by having our elderly eat only 11.4 grams of beef per day. Denmark emits 0.1% of the world’s human-caused CO2,” he added, taking aim at the hypocrisy of many climate activists.

    “Many of these climate fanatics who implement this kind of draconian climate measure have no problem flying back and forth to attend irrelevant climate conferences,” he said. 

This has nothing to do with saving the environment and everything to do with saving money. The welfare state is running out of money and the foreigners from the Middle-East and Africa which were supposed to work and pay into the system have instead merely increased the burden on social services. But rather than get rid of the foreigners, the leftists want to kill off the elderly white people that actually contributed to the system. 

• "Guess Why a Chicago Alderman Wants to Charge Walgreens With Crimes"--Townhall. Chicago Alderman William Hall wants to punish Walgreens for shutting down stores. The stores are being closed because the out-of-control shoplifting by Hall's constituents means that they lose money hand over fist. Hall says that Walgreens should be charged with "corporate abandonment". It's not a crime, yet. But this probably reflects ideas being circulated among leftists. This is probably a test to see how people react to the idea. 
• The usual suspects: "Violent teens clash with cops at NJ carnival — prompting officials to cancel beloved yearly event." The article reports:

    Unruly teens violently overwhelmed a New Jersey community carnival, sparking several fights and cursing out police officers, forcing organizers to prematurely shutter the beloved annual event.

    A large gathering of “unsupervised juveniles” descended on the Maple Shade Tigers Youth Football Carnival at JFK Memorial Field in Maple Shade, NJ, on May 1, inundating the yearly gathering that raises funds for the youth sports organization, according to township officials.

    “Officers on scene, along with event organizers, directed those involved and other unruly individuals to leave the carnival grounds in an attempt to restore order and maintain public safety,” Maple Shade officials said.

    “As a result of the incident, the carnival was closed for the remainder of the evening.” 

Interesting, If True

A CIA psy-ops? From the Daily Mail: "Religious leaders told 'prepare now' for UFO disclosure to unleash Bible-changing revelations." The article relates:

    Perry Stone, a well-known evangelist, author and Bible teacher from Tennessee, warned that fellow pastors were recently invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for the release of secret files on extraterrestrials.

    According to Stone, the officials warned a small group of pastors with a large reach in the Christian community that the government was about to release reports and possibly videos of aliens and spacecraft which were not from this planet.

[snip]

    Last week, Trump said that the first files would be released 'very, very soon' and would contain some 'very interesting' things for the public.

    However, officials in this secret meeting allegedly said the information on its way may cause some Christians to question how the universe was created and even lose faith in religion.

    Stone said: 'You're going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you're going to have people that's going to apostatize and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they're about to hear.'

That Carjacker Shot Dead In Texas? He Was An Illegal Alien

From the New York Post: "Illegal immigrant ID’d as attempted carjacker gunned down by Texas dad protecting his family of 8." 

    An illegal immigrant from Mexico was identified as the suspect who was fatally shot when he tried to carjack a Texas father who was defending his family.

    Jose Ramirez, 30, is accused of trying to steal several cars off Highway 66, about 18 miles outside downtown Dallas, before he was shot and killed on Sunday, according to Fox 4 Dallas. 

    Investigators told the outlet that Ramirez was a Mexican national living in the US illegally and wasn’t a Garland resident. It is not known when or where Ramirez entered the US.    

The article adds that the father fired more than 10 rounds at Ramirez. 

F-18 Fires On, Disables Iranian Oil Tanker

The New York Post reports that "[t]he US military fired on and disabled an Iranian-flagged tanker that tried to break the naval blockade around the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday[.]"

“After [the M/T] Hasna’s crew failed to comply with repeated warnings, US forces disabled the tanker’s rudder by firing several rounds from the 20mm cannon gun of a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet launched from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72),” CENTCOM wrote on X. 

In other news, France has deployed its sole nuclear aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, and its battle group to assist with peacekeeping operations should the U.S. and Iran reach a peace deal. The carrier and its retinue of ships is en route to the Red Sea.