Gun Nuts

Both are 17+1 capacity guns with 5(ish) inch slides for good sight radius. They both have interchangeable backstraps, trigger pulls in the same general area, and no external safeties. The FNS in my opinion is easier to reload and comes from the factory with better sights, the G34 on the other hand is a proven, reliable design with a huge amount of aftermarket support.

Which would you pick?

New manufactured 9mm ammo smells like liberty.

Whenever gun industry celebrities get involved in product design, there’s always a bit of skepticism from the non-fanboys about how good the product actually is. The G-Code INCOG holster that I’m wearing right now was one of those products, because it was designed in part by Travis Haley, formerly of Magpul Dynamics and now head of Haley Strategic. Me personally, I don’t care who designed a product so long as it works.

That’s why when I read this review of the INCOG I immediately wanted to try it. Why would a negative review make me want to try a piece of gear? Because of how well written and thoughtful it was. Honestly, I wish that all content on the internet could be as good as that review, because it managed to summarize how the product worked for the reviewer while also making readers curious about the product.

How I ended up with the INCOG is pretty simple: Lionheart has partnered with G-Code to make holsters for the LH9. I have an LH9 from Lionheart, and I wanted to actually carry this gun. I like the G-Co

I spend a lot of time talking about derp in the tactical training world. Today, I’m talking about the exact opposite of that: M3 Strategies and Stephen Pineau. Stephen’s a cool bro and is what up-and-coming trainers should be: thoughtful, articulate, and most importantly seriously about both his development as a shooter and developing his students. Check out his Fakeout Drill above and let me know what you think.

You put your gun on every day and go about your business like a normal person. But there are some things that you do a little bit differently because you carry a concealed firearm, and that’s okay. Because you get it. I get it. You’re welcome here.

1. Worrying about printing
You know what I’m talking about. When you first get your carry permit, there’s this little voice in the back of your head that screams “OHGODOHGODOHGOD EVERYONE CAN SEE THE OUTLINE OF MY GUN THROUGH MY SHIRT I’M GOING TO GET THE SWAT TEAM CALLED ON ME OH GOD”.

Relax, no one can see your gun, and most people are too wrapped up in their iPhones to even notice.

2. Having a drawer full of holsters that you’ve tried out and tossed because they didn’t fit quite right
We have all done this. Turns out, people are all sorts of different shapes and sizes, and what works best for me might not be best for you.

3. Making sure you sit in the restaurant section and not the bar when you go out (certain states)
Some states don&#

Today in “musings on self-defense” I want to talk about unarmed self-defense. Right now, the hotness for unarmed self-defense are techniques derived from MMA, because we have actually proved that all that stuff works really well to inflict violence on other people. BJJ, kickboxing, and traditional American boxing are the hotness and for good reason. Mixed Martial Arts has been the best thing to happen to the world of unarmed combatives in my lifetime, because it is absolutely no BS. Oh, you’re a super-ultimate fighter in 10 secret arts of ninja-dom? Saddle up, buttercup and get in the ring and prove it.

To be honest, the unarmed self-defense community is still a bit of a clown-show, because there are plenty of derp-instructors who teach techniques that are “too dangerous for the ring” and “can’t be practiced on living people”. You know, like the Five-Finger Death Punch or whatever. These days, there seems to be no bigger perpetrator of unarmed derp than teachers of Krav Maga.

What is it with Krav that attracts derp like flies? Is it for the same reason that 50% of the neckbeards on Arfcom wil

Yesterday afternoon Wilson Combat, purveyor of some of the most desirable custom 1911′s on the market, announced that they had paired up with Ernie Langdon to begin offering parts and custom work on the Beretta 92. Mr. Langdon worked for Beretta a while ago and from what I understand was largely responsible for some of the most interesting and desirable variants of the Beretta 92 that the company ever produced. He took guns like the 1st and 2nd generation 92 Elite pistols to multiple championships in IDPA and USPSA. After leaving Beretta Mr. Langdon put his expertise on the Beretta 92 to work (all too) briefly offering gunsmith services on Berettas. My first handgun was a somewhat beat-up looking 92FS that needed some competent attention, so I sent her off to Mr. Langdon to have the full armorer treatment including fitting and installing a new locking block and a trigger job. I was quite pleased with the result…so pleased that I had the gun refinished. I’m almost certain that I have the only hard-chromed, Langdon customized Beretta 92 on the planet. Take that, Tam.

My initial impressions are that this grip has a lot of potential. I like the idea and the execution, and I think with a few tweaks it could be really brilliant.

A guy who would know said “they’ve built entire graveyards for guys killed by 9mm NATO ball ammo.” While the team here at Gun Nuts always recommends quality defensive ammo, we also believe that having a gun with bullets of some type in it is better than nothing.

For a number of reasons, I’m a fan of 9mm NATO ammo, and if I had no choice but to carry FMJ ammo in my guns, it’d be NATO spec ball ammo. Important things to remember about 9mm NATO, it is loaded to a higher pressure than regular 9mm 115 grain FMJ, and usually produces a snappier recoil impulse. What’s funny is that whenever someone starts talking about “stopping power” they mention how .45 ACP ball ammo has been dropping guys for 100 years. They then conveniently forget that 9mm ball ammo has been doing the same thing for just as long.

Handgun stopping power is a myth, so the title of the article is a bit misleading. I know that NATO ball ammo isn’t going to be any deadlier than any other FMJ 9mm ammo, but I still like it. It’s like a security blanket. I know that ammo loaded to this exact specification is i

This past weekend marked the beginning of the 3 Gun Nation’s 2014 Pro Series Tour. In Owasso Oklahoma the best of the best met and kicked off a competition that will continue until early 2015. Janna Reeves, the newest member of the Noveske 3 Gun Team, is one of 12 women who make up the women’s division. Having won the Qualifier back in February, Ms. Reeves went into this weekend with high expectations of herself. Unfortunately, she came back to her new Georgia home, less than than thrilled with her performance.

Janna recently relocated from the Midwest to the southeast to shoot with her Noveske team mates and help establish new marketing offices for the ammunition company she represents through social media, Freedom Munitions. What I discovered during our conversation about the Pro Series Event is that Janna is not all that far from the Beginner-to-3 Gun status that I proclaim so proudly. I found it inspiring to find that while shooting next to lady competitors with 13 years under their belts, Janna has only been at it for about six months. Further, she only pi

The internet is a funny place. This morning, I read an article on Jezebel, a site I normally only read if I want to pressure test my cerebral arteries. The article is written by a woman to explain why she doesn’t trust men. It’s actually quite sad when you read it, but it also got me thinking about how we teach self-defense tactics. From the article:

[T]his afternoon found me out by the river, choosing a patch of grass near a tree and sitting down to read. As I did so, I took note of the two men hanging out nearby—safe, ordinary guys, I thought.

An hour later, I…put away my book, stood up, wrapped the scarf around my shoulders once again. It was only as I started to walk away that I noticed two faces turning to follow me and caught the words being thrown in my direction. “…Mademoiselle. Excusez-moi, s’il vous plaît.”

The cartridge and the keyboard.

Technically, this is a 498 round update, but so far the LH9 has ticked along pretty boringly. In this case, boring is a good thing. Exciting guns are ones that constantly malfunction and I have to spend time and energy figuring out why they’re not acting the way I want them to act. 1911s are frequently exciting. So far, the LH9 is boring in all the right ways.

I’d give you a stats breakdown, but 498 rounds with zero malfunctions is it. I’ve run it through various drills and exercises, and I will share some of those here. The first is about the DA+ trigger system, which is definitely taking some getting used to. I’m trying really hard to resist the urge to stage the trigger, which is something I illustrated in this video. When I’m shooting quickly, it’s easy in DA+ mode to just pull the trigger straight through and not stage it. However, when I’m taking a precision shot such as on the Practical at 25 or 50 yards, or shooting Dot Torture, the temptation is really strong to stage the trigger to the SA notch and then finish it from

Yesterday, in response to the current situation in Russia/Crimea, the President issued an executive order and everyone freaked out. They freaked out because a casual reading of the executive order would make it seem like the President banned the import of any guns/ammo made in Russia…except he totally didn’t do that. Politico has a reasonable article about the EO which has this important bit of text:

Monday’s order authorizes Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to work with Secretary of State John Kerry to impose asset freezes and travel restrictions on “any individual or entity that operates in the Russian arms industry, and any designated individual or entity that acts on behalf of, or that provides material or other support to, any senior Russian government official,” the White House said in a statement.

That’s important, because it means they’re not going after companies like Wolf and TulAmmo that sell and important ammo in x39 calibers (5.45×39, 7.62×39), so for the time being at least those rounds will still be generally available in their classic, steel-cased cheap form.

We awaken this morning in bizarro world. Hilton Yam of 10-8 Performance and Modern Service Weapons has started…shooting a Glock 22. Yes, the Glock 22, the notoriously hard recoiling gun that I’ve oft derided as “silly” because it doesn’t offer an real performance gains over the 17. But his reasoning is solid:

As a full time firearms instructor and trainer, I feel that it is important to have at least one pistol in each of the common LE calibers in order to be able to speak intelligently to their performance aspects. Further, with the current volatile state of the ammunition industry, it is nice to have guns in various calibers so as not to become a victim to supply. I recently burned up a lot of my 9mm, but realized I still had a lot of .40 piled up from when I thought I was going to shoot a lot of Limited and Limited 10 in USPSA. Thus enters this Glock 22.

I get where he’s coming from, and I generally agree with his premise. I also agree that the Gen4 Glock 22 imp

Two single stack 9mm Beretta carry guns, separated by time and design philosophy. I like both of them for completely different reasons.

I just realized I’ve never owned a Glock 19. I had to think about it pretty hard, because I’ve owned the following Glock models:

• 34
• 35
• 17
• 22
• 29
• 21

But never a 19. Despite the fact that it’s the first carry gun I recommend for people, I’ve never actually bought one with money. Weird, right? But being a gunwriter takes you down a lot of strange gun roads, I mean right now I’m carrying a DA/SA pistol imported from S. Korea that takes 3rd Gen S&W magazines in an appendix holster designed by Travis Haley. And you know what? I like this gun a lot.

That’s just an example of some of the strange roads I never thought I’d be travelling. I’ve been running this blog for 8 years now, and it’s taken me to places I couldn’t have possibly imagined. If you’d told me in 2008 that my blogging would have turned into a full-time job, two successful companies, and opportunities to literally travel the world I would have laughed at you and gone back to work at the hotel I was managing at the time.

But this post is abo

But some guns are loaded-loaded. One of the interesting side effects of working in the firearms industry and constantly being around guns is how Rule 1 (all guns are always loaded) gets treated in different situations. For example, in my immediate area right now there is one loaded gun (my carry gun) and 12 guns that I know for a fact aren’t loaded. Now, does that mean I’m going to pick up those unloaded guns and not check them first to make sure they’re unloaded? Of course not.

This can actually lead to an important discussion of the four rules though. Yes, we want to treat all guns like they’re always loaded, but we also have to acknowledge that some guns really aren’t loaded. I know that the gun I’m dry firing with isn’t loaded, just like you know that the gun in your safe isn’t loaded. But we preserve the intent of the first rule by visually and manually guaranteeing that any gun we handle is unloaded. Here’s an example from real life – I’m dry firing a gun in the office. I get done, and I pass it to Shelley for her to dry fire. Once she gets it, the first thing she does is press check it to