Category Archives: Uncategorized

Less than ideal

.300 RUM, Elk, 225 yards, perfect side shot, well placed hit, Hornady GMX. Complete pass through with evidently no expansion.
I would say this is a perfect example of too much gun for the game/range. Well, specifically too much bullet.  Animal was tracked over a mile before it was located laying down… still breathing, still bleeding. The bullet had torn through both lungs and a ventricle of the heart, but not much actual damage. Without expansion, there was very little shock effect… almost no blood-shot tissues internally, and the exit wound looked like maybe a .40 caliber hole.  The hit was observed, clean, and animal was able to run away without so much as a limp.
Take the same situation, same animal, same range, same gun… and load the SST bullet instead of the solid, or a classic Sierra Game King, and I bet that beast would have been dead right there… because that’s what I’ve witnessed before. Bullets that open up faster will deliver more shock, and that is what’s going to put the animal on the ground. Roy Weatherby discovered this many decades ago, and evidently this is a lesson we are still learning.

Understanding the Gauge

I find it very odd that so many shooters have such profound misunderstanding of the shotgun. I am constantly encountering experienced shooters who still thing that the shotgun remains a 25 yard device and is only good for shooting ducks. These are shooters who should know better. Some of these shooters who don’t understand the shotgun tack the tac that they are against the shotgun and even get insulting of those that elect to use them. They continue to pass on poor stereotypes of the shotgun:
1. Shotguns have brutal recoil.
2. Shotguns are for short ranges only.
3. You don’t have to aim a shotgun.
4. Just the sound of a pump action shotgun being cycled will send goblins running away in panic, soiling themselves along the way.
Unfortunately, none of these are true.
1. My 12 year old has no problem handling any of my shotguns, each one a 12 gauge. If my young kid is tougher than you are… Drop and give me fifty!
2. This is one of the shotgun’s advantages… You can go from zero to two hundred yards with one weapon. Most defensive shootings are within 21 feet. If you have a defensive shooting that extends past that, the further away, the more difficult the time will be for you to justify your use of lethal force. For military guys, sure everything can be a nail and your hammer is a battle rifle so you are fine… But for civilians, going out for three yard shots isn’t really a good idea. So range doesn’t matter much for shotgun justification.
3. At normal defensive distances, inside twenty-one feet, the spread of a typical shogun load from a typical defensive shotgun is shockingly tight. I daresay the pattern will be tighter than what you boast you can can do with your carry pistol. The groups are typically just a couple of inches at those ranges. This makes it easy to fire a dramatic miss. You still have to aim. Part of this aiming is knowing what your shotgun and load is doing at every range interval. Once you gain an understanding of just what your gun is doing… How it patterns… Then it helps you apply all that delicious violence that your shotgun can deliver.
4. Racking the slide does make a good sound. We all love that sound. But for a defensive situation your sound might not scare anyone away, and you might have just gave away your position or warned your adversary that you are getting ready to fire. You might not have time. Get your shotgun ready before the bad guy is close enough to hear it.

Sanding the Glock.

I took some sandpaper to my Glock 23 RTF2. It’s not that the texture was rough on my hands… On the contrary, I liked the texture. Unfortunately my clothes didn’t like it. Underarmor brand shirts would snag badly. Work shirts.  Sweatshirts too. And if I didn’t wear a t shirt under it, it would savage my side. So I sanded the flats. The front and back straps remain RTF2 textured. Gripping the gun is pretty much unchanged. The pistol locks into the hand rock solid, as usual. I may try some stippling some time, but I’m in no rush. 

DEAD SIX!

You guys may not know Mike Kupari… But you should know Nightcrawler from many of the best Gun Forums such as WeTheArmed.com… And I know that you know Larry “Freaking” Corriea.  Mike and Larry have written one of the very best books I’ve ever read.  They have made Tom Clancy’s stuff look like an old lady’s knitting circle.  It’s called Dead Six.  It’s now available on Amazon.com. Go… Now… Order this book.

Mike is serving in The Stan over there running around defusing IED’s and shit… Keeping US Forces safe… So while he’s doing the Hurt Locker thing, being a “Big Damn Hero”, the least you can do is order a copy of his book!   While you are on Amazon, order a copy of Uprising USA, and the latest Monster Hunter International book and Grimnoir Chronicles… on that order you are going to get free shipping, so its like you are getting Uprising USA for free!   Can’t beat that. Do it…That’s the Utah Brotherhood Trinity right there!  Mike, George, Larry… Kinda the Utah version of Larry, Moe and Curly.  Still… order the book.  It really is an awesome read.  Full of gratuitous violence with much grit and harshness.  Kicks profound ass.

No matter what you do… Get Dead Six, because every time you do, a Taliban Terrorist cries.

Polymer cased ammunition.

The Firearms Blog has posted a bit about polymer cased ammunition.  Check it out here.

At the last SHOT SHOW’s Media Range Day, I observed some of this.

Plastic Fifty

I don’t remember the name of the company, but I believe they were either Utah or Idaho based.  Cost savings is a big benefit, but the biggest boon is the weight savings.  30% reduction in the weight of a loaded cartridge.  Now imagine the benefit of that when you are a soldier or sheepdog using Surefire’s quad stacked 60 or 100 round cases.  Think that might be helpful? You bet it is.  At the Media Range Day, I was also told that the cases are easily reloadable.

 

Gunfighter Cast

This most recent post of Gunfighter Cast talks about MAG-40, Slipstream, and the crushing defeat I handed to Shaw of Japan.

Okay, I have to give some clarification here.  The Gun Dudes and Shaw of Japan were mostly way over on the far left side of the Range, with Gundoc… Positions 1-15 over there.  I was in position 32 or something… the very last shooting position. This wasn’t planned.  What happened was that we were told we would not be shooting on Day One.  So I didn’t go get my ammo before getting in there that first morning.  I planned on buying the ammo and shooting on Day Two.  Well, it turns out you do shoot on Day One.  I was offered guns and holsters and ammo… an the generosity was humbling. But I feel bad for shooting another man’s ammo, especially when ammo is so expensive these days.  So I humbly stood back.  I also had a raging migraine, and part of me just didn’t feel like blasting.  Okay, so the next day I had my ammo, my gun, my holster, my magazines… and my headache was very diminished thanks to Gator-Bull with breakfast.  Now when we lined back up, everyone was told to take your same positions as the day before.  Ah… I didn’t have one, so that meant I was in the back of the bus… out there at the far right where I was stuck with Stan of the Gun Dudes.  What it was, was Shaw of Japan was relieved that he didn’t have to stand side by side with the Ogre.  Yeah, I shot a higher score, but I have to hand it to Daniel, the man can seriously shoot.  His groups were much better than mine and I thought he was stomping me.  See, I was shooting during the first rotation, and Shaw of Japan was in the Second.  Since I was at the very end, I had no shooter I had to back up, so I got to go keep tabs on our young Marine.  I honestly thought he was kicking my trash… so I walked away, getting ready to eat crow pie.  I was surprised that I had won.  Shaw dropped his shots firing from the required Weaver position, which he hates. If he didn’t have to fire from Weaver – Shaw would have won.  But he did… so I did.  But now the challenge is on.  Next time he’s out this way, we’ll go for again… with M-4’s.  His weapon of Choice.

Back to the pod cast.  This is a good one to listen to.  When you get these guys together, that’s some dang good Pod Casting.  If you are not listening to these Pod Casts – you really are missing out.  I know there are a ton of them out there… but Gunfighter and Gun Dudes are the ones to listen to first.

Spending

Men spend money primarily on two things.  If you want to sell your product you have to tap into those two things:

Sex and Violence.

If something looks sexy and dangerous… it’s going to sell.  If it’s not selling, it’s not sexy or dangerous enough.