CheaperThanDirt Blog
Firearms/Guns Blog - Cheaper Than Dirt!
Updated: 2 hours 30 min ago
The General Purpose Handload
The Shooter's Log is often asked about the ‘best’ handgun load. Unfortunately, many correspondents fail to share the intended mission of the load. The mission has a strong influence as to the desired bullet weight, velocity, and penetration. As an example, you may be perfectly happy to run the .44 Special or .45 Colt with a 255-grain SWC at 700 fps for cowboy action or target practice. If hiking in country in which the big cats or bears may be more than a nuisance, the same bullet up to 1,000 fps would be a better choice.
The AR-10 and AR-15 — What are the Differences?
As far as handling and ergonomics, the AR-15 and AR-10 are brilliantly designed and function the same. Some new shooters may not realize that the AR-10 7.62x51mm rifle actually came first. In fact the AR-10 .308 rifle competed with the FN FAL and M14. In the end, the rifle was downsized into the .223 caliber AR-15, which was a response to the AK-47, but that is history and we are dealing with differences in application today.
Range Report: The MCX Rattler
What do you get when you take some of the finest firearm engineers in the industry and ask them to design the smallest AR-based close combat weapon imaginable? Stipulations include that the gun needs to be piston-driven for the ultimate in reliability and ruggedness, modular for maximized flexibility, and chambered in .300 BLK so it will run a sound suppressor well. The culmination of that ballistic quest is the SIG MCX Rattler. This thing just drips cool.
Throwback Thursday: How to Get Started in Benchrest Shooting
It does not take long before the simple pop of a primer, and the sound of the report are not enough. If this sounds familiar, and you crave a target with a single ragged hole, benchrest shooting should be your new hobby. Here's how.
10 Best Concealed Carry Handguns of the Past 20 Years
When I was challenged to come up with the best, concealed carry handguns of the past 20 years, I set down with a pencil and tablet and began making a list. This seems like an easy task, but there are many good handguns. The bad ones were easy enough to keep off the list. I […]
The .41 Magnum — Alive and Kicking
The .41 Magnum is a useful, powerful, accurate, and well-balanced cartridge. Perhaps, it is one of the best revolver cartridges ever designed. Yet, it seems to be almost on its last leg, and far down the list in popularity compared to the .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum. This is understandable in some ways, but the cartridge is just too good to die.
Make Mine an M1 Carbine — Inland MFG.
The Inland Mfg. M1 1945 Carbine and Auto-Ordnance M1 Carbine Paratrooper are reproductions of carbines built in the mid 1940s. The Inland is a copy of the last style of Carbine built for the military. The Auto-Ordnance (A-O) is a copy of the Model M1A1 designed for Paratroopers with a folding wire stock. These reborn Carbines offer a lot for collectors, competitive shooters, and home defenders.
Reader Comments of the Week — October 20, 2018
A recap or sampling of the most active, interesting, or on occasion, randomly selected reader comments from the previous week.
Top 6 Carry Pistols for Beginners
Everyone starts somewhere and at sometime. Concealed carry is no exception. Everyone feels at least a bit self-conscious when they start carrying a handgun for self-defense. Choosing the right pistol that is not too small, not too big, and manageable through recoil is a good start. This article goes through a handful of factors to consider when choosing a handgun, as well as six tops picks.
Review: Be Gun Smart With the New Generation Gun Guide
The Firearms Guide Flash Drive & Online Combo is modern, digital, searchable gun publication that combines a reference guide on antique and modern guns with printable gun schematics and blueprints library and with gun value guide. All that content is conveniently placed online, but also on a fast 16GB flash drive as offline backup for Windows PC or Mac.
Range Report: Charter Arms Classic Bulldog — Iconic Conceal Carry Revolver
The Bulldog Classic is Charter Arms’ iconic revolver that was first manufactured in 1973. It looks old school with the tapered 3-inch barrel, exposed ejector rod, and checkered walnut grips. In hand, the Classic is lightweight and feels a lot like a .38 Special except for the fatter cylinder which holds five rounds of .44 Special ammo, but the proof of a pistol's worth is on the the range.
The Chiappa 9mm M1-9 Carbine — The Best of Both Worlds
The Chiappa M1-9 Carbine looks like your granddad’s GI Carbine in dim light. However, a glance at the magazine gives notice that something is indeed amiss. The M1-9 is chambered for 9mm and is blowback operated. The M1-9 is fed from standard Beretta handgun magazines, but the similarities do not stop there.
Hornady Critical Duty/Critical Defense
There are few subjects as prone to create an argument as personal defense handguns and calibers. Some have a “devil may care” attitude and deploy anything, stating most are the same, while others go into great, even minute detail, in their testing and choices. Critical Defense and Critical Duty loads are not really variants of the XTP but fresh designs for a specific purpose. They have Hornady quality in common, however. These loads make the most of a handgun caliber.
Reader Comments of the Week — October 13, 2018
A recap or sampling of the most active, interesting, or on occasion, randomly selected reader comments from the previous week.
Review: Phoenix HP25A — Useful or Useless?
Affordable and reliable, the HP25A is a minimal pistol of the type that arms many American homes. Is it useful or useless?
Throwback Thursday: AR-15 Two-Stage Triggers
In the author’s estimation, a two-stage trigger offers the most secure, precise, and safest function in the AR-15 platform. There are a good many two-stage triggers available, but click to read the functional ideas behind all of them.
Range Report: Glock 45 9mm Pistol
A new offering from Glock is a pretty exciting pistol. The pistol isn’t just a black 19X, rather, it is a new take on the Glock line. It is configured in a similar manner to the Glock 19X but differs in important particulars.
Mass Shooting — Minimizing the Damage
The law may prevent you from carrying a defensive handgun, and in some places even from carrying a knife, but it does not prevent you from carrying a tourniquet, dressings, QuikClot, CPR masks, etc. The life that is saved may be your own.
Why I Have Never Owned a 1911…
I am not opposed to the 1911 platform. Most of us can agree there are some gorgeous 1911s. So, why do I own more than a dozen handguns and not a single 1911? One could start by saying I came of age at the same time as the Tupperware guns. Gaston Glock had really gotten his marketing ball rolling when I bought my first handgun in the dawn of the ’90s, but there is more to it than that.
The Anti-Gunners Are ‘Spending Millions’ in Midterm Elections
If you though the anti-gunners were beat with election of President Trump and one or two nominations to the Supreme Court, think again. The Washington Post has reported that anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety “plans to spend $8 to $10 million in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and New Mexico” to influence the midterm elections, via its “Action Fund.” And that is not the full extent of expenditures by the gun prohibition group’s fund, either.