Gun Nuts

From NSSF:

I imagine that if you did a google search for “the best gun for x” you could spend days and days wandering forums and blogs reading thousands of different opinions and ideas on what the best gun for a given task is. But what if you only want one gun? What if you want the best all around gun that will be good for concealed carry, competition, home defense, hiking, and just be as good at everything as it can be. Good luck with that. However, here’s the best all around gun I’ve ever had.

If you have been interested in the topic of self defense for a while you have likely heard the term “Force on Force” used before, and you likely have a rough idea of what it involves. For those who don’t, FOF at its most basic involves at least two people using “weapons” that fire non-lethal projectiles trying to shoot one another.Simunitions or similar type systems are the most professional FOF tools because they use real weapons specially modified to fire only a marking cartridge instead of a live round. Glock, for instance, makes a dedicated “FX” pistol with a distinctive bright blue frame that won’t chamber or a live cartridge but otherwise feels and operates exactly like a full sized Glock pistol.

Get a first look at the Glock 43 at GunUp the Magazine

Ain’t nothin’ sweet about how I hold my gun

If I asked you, dear reader, what you thought the most popular pistol-based shooting sport in America was based on participation, what would you say? IDPA? USPSA? GSSF? Well, if you picked any of those, you’d be dead wrong, because the answer is bullseye.

I actually did a serious video this time. Taking a look at the revolvers I carry, and I why I carry them.

How many of you out there in reader-land have a knife on you right now? Carrying a knife every day as a normal part of life has been pretty common behavior for a significant chunk of human history. Think about it: Your grandfather’s grandfather probably had a small knife on him most of the time…and so did his grandfather. They are incredibly useful tools that always seem to be in demand. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a situation and heard someone say “Anyone have a knife?”

Good against watermelons is one thing. Good against the living? That’s something else.

You don’t believe in the Judge, do you?

Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen *anything* to make me believe that one “all-powerful” revolver/shotgun hybrid is ever going to be anything but marginal. Marketing hype doesn’t control my purchases. It’s all bunch of simple tricks and nonsense.

The second block of instruction I attended at the 2015 Tactical Conference was on weapon retention and disarms as taught by Paul Sharp of Sharp Defense. As a police officer, Paul has found himself in a scrape or two with bad men and has had to defend against weapon snatch attempts. Police departments these days usually mandate some sort of security holster but at least in my experience people often misunderstand the point of such a holster. It’s not a hip-carried bank vault that prevents unauthorized access. A good security holster (and there are certainly bad ones out there) buys the officer time. Hopefully enough time to do something significant and useful in their own defense.

If you have an internet connection and have seen the inside of a gym at least once, you’ve heard of Crossfit. If you’ve never heard of Crossfit and exercise scares you, this post probably isn’t going to be for you, because it’s going to be heavy (unlike Crossfit lifts) on exercise metaphors. Similar to Crossfit, if you have an internet connection and own a shotgun, you’ve probably heard of 3-gun.

If you’ve seen my EDC pocket dump video, you’ve probably figured out that it does actually contain my regular EDC items. The Spyderco knife and the S&W 640 Pro Series go everywhere I go, so long as the latter is legal. In the video, I mention that I carry 148 grain target wadcutters in the j-frame, which has lead some people to ask if I actually do that.

Today I’m taking you guys on a rare look at my EDC, the stuff I carry with me every day of my life at all times.

Okay, if you made it past the jump, you realize now that was a joke. I did however have my actual EDC stuff in there – if you watch the bits about the 640 Pro and the Spyderco knife, that would cover it. I also carry a LED lenser pocket flashlight, because that thing is useful as all get out. I wanted to make this video because I’ve seen so many ridiculous EDC videos on youtube that basically consist of “most tactical man” ever contests; people who seriously carry three guns every day, and some fishing line in a fanny pack or something like that. Those people need to calm down.

What I’d really like to do is deconstruct the very idea of having an “EDC” – people treat it like some kind of loadout that they have to prep all the time. Maybe…just carry you gun? Stop making a big deal about it, carry it, practice with it, and train hard.

Beretta PX4 Storm 9mm, buy it now $399

Taurus Model 82, buy it now $249

Beretta Nano 9mm, buy it now $299

Auctions end today, get ‘em while the getting is good!

I took the Henry Big Boy .45 Colt to the range the other day to test it out, and unsurprisingly it was an absolute blast to shoot. However, there was one little problem.

It absolutely would not feed the Fiocchi cowboy ammo with anything that resembled reliability. I would get all kinds of weird failures to feed. I was worried, but then I would feed it Hornady cowboy ammo and Winchester PDX and it gobbled those up no problems. Based on the “doctor it hurts when I do this” philosophy, I’ll just feed it the good stuff. It’s just too bad, because the Hornady and the Winchester are about $1.00 a round, and the Fiocchi is $0.45 a round. See what I mean? Gun nut problems.