The Truth About Guns

“With big game rifle season to open Saturday, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) reminds hunters that bears are still out and active throughout the fall.” And so FWP offer the following advice for hunters who may encounter Grizzly bear-shaped predators.:

- Always carry bear spray, have it within easy reach and know how to use it.
- If you are going to be alone in bear country, let someone know your plans.
- Watch for fresh bear sign.
- After making a kill, get the carcass out of the area as quickly as possible.
- When field dressing the carcass, keep your can of bear spray within easy reach.
- Use special precautions if y

Tyler’s mom thought that there might be some critters taking advantage of her pond late at night. The thing was practically overflowing thanks to the recent rains and attracting all sorts of nocturnal visitors. She wanted to find out if a local group of coyotes were using her pond for a clubhouse and I needed an excuse to try out some night vision monoculars that Optics Planet had sent my way. After asking around for a couple other goodies from some of our favorite gear suppliers, I marched out of the warm farmhouse into the cold and dark Texas night to investigate . . .

We as humans are engineered for daylight hunting. That’s what we’ve evolved to do; go hunt and gather during the day and then crawl into a tree and sleep all night. So when we venture into the darkness, we’re entering an environment for which we weren’t designed to operate. We don’t have the natural night vision required to get the job done,

The time gap between pulling the trigger and the ping of steel. (I was shooting .338 Lapua from an AI chassis. Guess the yardage.) I love that pause! Stretch it out to 1000 yards and you can make a cup of instant coffee while you wait. Hey I said instant. What do you like best about long range shooting?

Just before the head of Interpol told the world that arming citizens is the best way to protect against terrorist attacks on “soft targets” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder assured cops attending the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference that they’re The Man when it comes to spree killings. “In order to prevent additional casualties, it is often patrol officers — not necessarily SWAT teams — who serve as the tip of the spear in responding to these incidents,” he said. “That’s why all law enforcement officers must have the best equipment and most up-to-date training to confront these si

The buffer system on an AR-15 can be noisy. Which is kind of expected, since it’s a giant spring that sproings back and forth right next to your ear every time the gun goes bang. In normal guns this isn’t a problem, but when you’re running something whisper quiet (like a 300 AAC Blackout rifle) it becomes very noticeable. Thankfully, John Paul at JP Enterprises has a solution for that very problem: the silent captured buffer spring . . .

First, let’s outline the problem a little more clearly. This video was s

There’s been a fair amount of controversy surrounding ATF Agent John Dodson’s new book The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious. Initially, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (And Really Big Fires) blocked the book, claiming it would hurt morale and “have a detremental [sic] effect on our relationships with [the Drug Enforcement Administration] and FBI.” They retreated from that position and blocked publi

By Dean Weingarten

I have come to expect the New York Times to denigrate America’s gun culture and the Second Amendment at every opportunity. It’s interesting that they fail to note in their coverage of the Alamo protest that Texas is one of only six states that have banned the open carry of handguns. This small and shrinking minority of states (Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi recently changed their laws to recognize the constitutional right of open carry), which consists of California, Texas, Illin

“Ask yourself: If (the Nairobi mall siege happened in) Denver, Col., if that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly? What I’m saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control. It makes citizens question their views on gun control. You have to ask yourself, ‘Is an armed citizenry more necessary now than it was in the past with an evolving threat of terrorism?’ This is something that has to be discussed.” - Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble, After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders ‘Armed Citizenry’ [at abcnews.go.com]

A routine traffic stop in Hempstead, NY of a car that turned out to be driven by a bail-jumper turned into a police chase on Friday. When officers lit up their lights and siren, Oralus C. Sebea reached over and opened the passenger door and pushed his passenger, an unidentified female, out of the car. He then led cops on a merry chase while discarding a silver revolver out the passenger window, along with a box containing “a large amount of ammunition” and KG-99 handgun. (That’s the closed bolt semi-automatic version of a TEC-9.) When he was eventually captured, an “M1 Carbine assault rifle was also found on the drivers’ side floor of the vehicle,” according to news

The details on the Nevada School Shooting yesterday have started to emerge. Unfortunately, the story is all too familiar. A 13-year-old showed up at school with his parent’s gun and opened fire on fellow students wounding two of them. A teacher, Michael Landsberry, who is a former Marine and served two tours in Afghanistan (but who was unarmed) attempted to intervene and was killed for his trouble. The adolescent shooter then turned the gun on himself. Unfortunately for the gun control community, this event lacked some of their favorite elements; no “assault weapon”, no children killed (yet, other than the shooter who saved the state some tax dollars by dousing his own lights) and it remains to be seen whether or not a “large capacity clip” was used . . .

The murderer (yes, let’s use the proper word here) was described

Giovanna Borge told Port St. Lucie police that her boyfriend “said something to her she did not like.” tcpalm.com takes it from there. “Borge said she then grabbed a water pistol, squirting her boyfriend with water. The boyfriend, she said, then dumped a container of water on her and hit her with a pillow. She wound up in the tub in the bathroom after ‘mutual shoving.’ Meanwhile, the boyfriend said Borge started screaming at him and squirted him with the water gun after which the two made mad passionate love.” Just kidding. Domestic violence is a serious business even when it involves pillows and a squirt gun. An

Well look what the big brown truck just dropped off. Winchester announced their new LongBeard XR shotgun food a few weeks back, just in time for turkey season. It’s biggest claim to fame is that thing in the photo. No, that’s not a #6 Jell-O mold. That’s Winchy’s new Shot-Lok brainstorm that encapsulates the pellets in a nice, tight little package. They say it keeps the shot from deforming when the gun goes bang, resulting in tighter groups. In fact, they claim twice the pellets in a 10″ circle out to 60 yards. Just one problem . . .

They kindly sent me three boxes, one each of numbers 4, 5 and 6 in standard 12 ga

“The 12-year-old student who opened fire on a Nevada middle school campus, wounding two classmates and killing a teacher before he turned the gun on himself, got the weapon from his home,” ktar.com reports. “Washoe County School District police said they are still working to determine how the boy obtained the 9mm semi-automatic Ruger handgun used in the Monday morning spree at Sparks Middle School. The boy’s parents are cooperating with authorities and could face charges in the case, police said.” Once again, as in the Sandy Hook Spree killing, gun control advocates are waving the bloody shirt and bemoaning “easy access” to guns rather than, say, calling for an education campaign for parents on safe gun storage and/or recognizing signs of men

Heckler & Koch pistols and German beer. What’s wrong with that? Nothing unless you drink the beer and shoot the pistols. And maybe not even then, depending on the amount of beer and your weight and alcohol tolerance and safety protocols and who am I kidding? There’s no way a gun blog can recommend, condone or promote drinking and shooting. You’d think the same rule would apply to Heckler & Koch. But, as we all know, the Germans have a different sense of humor than the rest of us. H&K fanboy Marc Santos provided the pic posted on the gunmaker’s Facebook page. And there it is. So . . . das ist ein witz, yah?  FWIW, it’s

By Barry Green

I’m obsessed with terminal ballistics and personal protection through armed self defense. Thanks to my day job as a producer for Fiercely Independent Films I’ve got access to some fun toys. Put it all together and you get a YouTube channel (ShootingTheBull410) on ammo testing. One of the most recent tests is for Dynamic Research Technologies’ “penetrating frangible” .380 ammo. . . .

This is a totally different type of cartridge; there’s no solid lead slug at all. The “bullet” is made of compressed powder that’s intended to disintegrate into a fine dust when hitting the target.  DRT makes some rather aggressive claims for their ammo, both on their website and in a 19-minute interview

Check this from The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence’s blog [bolded text de-bolded]: “Robert Farago, a pro-gun blogger at ‘The Truth About Guns,’ has also been on a crusade against MDA because of their focus on domestic violence, writing a series of angry posts on 

Keene, New Hampshire is small New England town nestled in the southwestern part of the state near to the Vermont border.  There is no interstate highway access and the population is only about 23,000 people. It also would seem to be a breeding ground for dangerous terrorist behavior. We were first alerted to the high risk faced by Keene last year when the city decided to accept Homeland security money to purchase their very own Lenco Bearcat. While one might wonder why a town that’s had only two murders since 1999 thinks it needs a battlefield grade armored assault vehicle, you’d be foolish to let your guard down. Obviously, the peaceful small New England town facade is just a clever ruse employed by the evil terrorists to hide their agenda until they are ready to strike . . .

Some might think that I’m being overly paranoid here. But clearly, it’s a good thing I’m here to p

The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt was designed for close air support of ground troops and . . . that’s it. It’s slow, it’s ugly (they call it the ‘warthog’) and it’s a devastatingly effective way to silence enemy ground forces. To that end the jet’s nose is equipped with General Electric Aircraft Armament Subsystem A/A49E-6: a 30mm Gatling gun mechanism, double-ended linkless ammunition feed, storage assembly and a hydraulic drive system. Shooting some 3,900 rounds of armor shredding depleted uranium a minute, the mini-gun’s characteristic brrraaapppp sound means that someone somewhere is in a heap of trouble. The plane itself is also in peril; the Air Force is looking to cut all their A-10s from the fleet. Meanwhile, this flying gun’s getting it done.

TTAG reader David Wagner writes:

There was no shooting for me this weekend, as my wife – inspired by one of those many home improvement shows decided it was imperative that we clean and throw-away all the garbage we have stored away in the garage these many years. Now mind you most of the throw-aways were the result of her “hoarders” mentality, but that is clearly beside the point. However, as a result of this process, I did find a box containing many old gun magazines from back in the day. Attached is a pdf I created from a scan of one of articles in one of those old magazines [click here to download]. An October 1994 edition of Soldier of Fortune magazine . . .