The Great Ammo Drought of 2013

My good pal Mark Keefe tackles the great ammo drought on his AMERICAN RIFLEMAN blog this AM:

 All the major ammunition companies have increased capacity and production over last year’s levels, which was a banner year. If the ammunition makers are producing more ammunition than ever before—regardless of government contracts—why is there no ammo on the shelf? Simply put, other people are buying it before you do. This is basic supply and demand. When demand is high and supply low, prices increase.

As you know, I believe we've stumbled into a REALLY REALLY perfect storm, which includes the drastic increase in domestic demand, the continuing war in the Middle East (and the depletion of our military reserve of ammo), worldwide tensions (major offshore ammo suppliers are pouring their ammo into military contracts), the final depletion of the great Cold War (and WW2) surplus ammo stashes in Europe, China and India competing for such commodities as copper and lead and generally bad juju. I suspect what we're seeing here is a "readjustment" of the domestic ammo market, which is a nice way of saying that while supply may stabilize (12-18 months from now), the "new normal" of higher pricing is here to stay.

Paul Erhardt in today's SHOOTING WIRE talks about "panic" and "hoarding" in his own inimitable style on ways to cope with the ammo crisis:

No. 6 - Panic. That's right. Nothing ever really gets done until you panic and waiting until the DHS armored vehicles start rolling down the street to start is too late. Panic now! And No. 7 - Hoard. Two words: Stock Pile. Maybe that's one, but whatever, you get the point. When Gideon blows that horn I want to be standing on top of a mountain of ammo, ready to take on all comers.

LOL! Having had a good laugh, I have to say that I actually don't agree with the current vituperation being heaped on "hoarders" and "speculators." Remember, I'm a "small L" libertarian at heart and I absolutely believe in capitalism. "Hoarders" are people who were smarter than you, or who saw the writing on the wall when you didn't, and were willing to commit their funds to protecting themselves and their families. In short, a hoarder puts his or her money where his or her mouth is.

Wouldn't it be better if everyone had 100 rounds of .22 as opposed to the current situation? "Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen!" LOL! Karl Marx's great dictum on equality of results — "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need," if your German's a little rusty — always assumed a world of abundance...there's plenty for everybody, so let's spread it around. Sort of like America in the Old Days, or at least the way we remember the old days.

But unfortunately the Age of Abundance has followed the Age of the Dinosaurs into extinction. We now live in an age of constraints and have to adjust our lives accordingly. I remember in the last drought (or, more correctly, the beginning of this drought) there was a post on one of the gun forums from someone who shot a match twice a month, On the way to the match, he would stop at Wally-World and buy just enough ammo to shoot the match. One Saturday morning, there was no ammo on the shelves of his Wally-World. On the forum he was ripping into the damned hoarders and the damned speculators...except that in my readings of the U.S. Constitution, the Bible and Das Kapital, I could not find one single reference to, "You have the [inalienable/God-given/provided by the All-Seeing State] to pick up just-in-time ammo on the way to your Saturday match."

On the DOWN RANGE Radio podcasts before the current shoe fell, I have been begging people to stock up when the prices dropped...because in an age of constraints, there is always going to be another crisis! I got letters from people who said, frankly, that they didn't want to spend their money on ammo or components. That is a perfectly legitimate decision, but as with any decision one has to live with the consequences.

Regarding those damn speculators, let's talk about risks. A speculator in any field places a bet, absolutely no different than you or I walking into the Stop-And-Rob and buying a $20 lottery ticket. Sometimes the speculator wins the bet — prices rise and the speculator is able to sell goods for a profit — and sometimes the speculator loses the bet, and all his or her money. Speculation is an inherent part of capitalism...another word for speculation is "investment." I invest in a product in anticipation of making a profit somewhere down the line. The market will decide winners and losers!

Heck, reminds me of an Ayn Rand quote: "Run for your life from any man who tells you money is evil. That sentence is a leper's bell of an approaching looter."

BTW, here's Julie Golob's tips on surviving the Great Ammo Drought:

Michael's Rant de Jour...

I think I gotta go all Big Bang Theory nerd boy on you today and talk about Niels Bohr, a Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1922 and one of the fathers of quantum mechanics. He was also 'way cool...Bohrs proudly referred to himself as a "dilettante," because he felt it was important to approach each new question from a starting point of total ignorance. When the Nazis invaded Denmark, Bohr's home, in 1940, he wanted to make sure the Nazis didn't find the Nobel gold medals awarded to Max von Laue and James Franck. He dissolved the gold medals in acid, then stored the acid on a shelf in his Physics Institute throughout the war. After the war, the gold was precipitated out of the acid and the medals re-struck by the Nobel Foundation. That, my friends, is the ultimate Nerd Save.

There are 2 quotes from Bohr that should be carved in the digital marble over the entrance to the Internet and memorized by everybody who passes that way. The first is:

An expert is a person who has found out by his own painful experience all the mistakes that one can make in a very narrow field. 

I'll tell you the second quote in a minute.

There are 2 memes on Ye Olde Internete that are driving me bonkers crazy these days. The first is this pompous navel-gazing on how we all might determine which are the "good" — read, people who agree with me — gun blogs versus the bad — read, people who either don't agree with me or are actually making money at this — gun blogs. Who's an expert, and who's not. Sort of reminds me of a "law" about science fiction a few decades ago, I believe attributed to author Ted Sturgeon, something along the lines of, "Ninety percent of all science fiction is crap, but that's okay since 90% of everything is crap."

Pantheon in Rome, built A.D. 126 and never restored

Of course that was a few years ago, and the percentage is not doubt higher today. When my Sweetie and I went to the Pantheon in Rome a couple of weeks ago, she marveled that this amazing structure, built in A.D. 126 was not only still standing, unrestored, but still amazingly beautiful. I noted that, hey, our culture has created Hangover 3!

Let's stipulate that, based on Sturgeon's Law, 90% of all gun blogs are crap. Okay, cool. But I would say our challenge is to sift wheat from chaff...even in the crappiest of the 90% there is still wisdom to be found. Even the least "expert" of experts might bring us the single nugget of truth that might, just might, be the one that saves your life on the day when the balloon goes up. And here's what I think is a critical point...experts, even experts under Bohr's definition who have actually done as opposed to reading about other people doing, often have radically different interpretations and opinions about similar topics. There are quite legitimate experts with who I drastically disagree (not to mention dislike), but that doesn't mean every word that comes out of their mouth is total dreck.

We live, for at least a little while longer, in an open marketplace of ideas. A key point of living in that open marketplace of ideas is that the individual is responsible for sorting through those ideas. Gosh, doesn't that sound just like what we say about self-defense, that the individual is ultimately the only person responsible for his or her self-defense? Do both those responsibilities put more pressure on the individual? You betcha!

Never trust "gate-keeprs," including me. The problem with gate-keepers — people who ostensibly want to steer you toward those blogs/experts/products/whatever that are "certified" (by said gate-keeper) — is first that they want to be gate-keepers at all. LOL! Use your own brain!

The second meme that is irritating me to death is the seemingly endless tripe about how the ammo shortage is the result of "hoarders." I have written and talked about on DOWN RANGE Radio my thoughts on the ammo shortage (here's the short list), to wit, that it is the result of a "perfect storm" that includes increased demand from the flood of new shooters (Gun Culture Ver. 2.0) and the changing shooting habits of existing shooters, the increased demand caused by the very real attempts by the state and federal government to restrict ammo purchases/possession, increased world-wide tensions resulting in preparatory ammo purchases by numerous governments, the continued U.S. war footing (including a depletion of the National Reserve of ammo) that guarantees massive Dot.Gov ammo purchases for the foreseeable future, the exhaustion of the massive WW2 and Cold War surplus ammo caches in Europe, the drastic increase in demand for baseline manufacturing commodities like lead and copper, necessary for ammunition production, from countries like China and India and probably a couple of other factors I have totally overlooked.

Whenever I read that everything would be just ducky if we all only bought only what ammo we needed instead of a case, it reminds me of where that thinking comes from: "Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen!" That rollicking Karl Marx! What a card! But in the last couple of weeks I read forum posts where shooters who always picked up a single box of ammo at Wally-World on the way to the Saturday match now bitterly attack "hoarders" who have made this stupid practice impossible; other shooters who explain how they have refused to take up reloading because it is 1) expensive, 2) boring and 3) takes a lot of time and now those damn hoarders have ruined it for them.

I have said this before...my definition of a "hoarder" is someone who was smarter than you. Given the current vicious meme about ammo hoarders, what does this tell us should the feces really hit the Schumer (as Jim Rawles says)?  How quickly do you think your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, will turn on you about the "hoarded" food in your basement, your "hoarded" medical supplies, that "Hoarded" Big Berkey water filter you bought to guarantee your family's fresh water or the solar panels you're "hoarding" on your roof? We are a nation of grasshoppers who like to tell ourselves we're ants right up until the point that we're tested on the very things that ants do. And keep in mind that a horde of locust can quite literally overwhelm a country.

For years I and many other people have talked about the necessity of taking responsibility for the safety of ourselves and those under our care. We have urged you to simply follow the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared!

For those of you bemoaning those damn ammo hoarders, what did you think "Be Prepared!" actually meant?

Finally, Niels Bohr's other great quote:

Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them.

Remember it!

TGIF!

Yep, it has been one of those weeks, but thankfully I've made it to Friday relatively unscathed. Yesterday was all day in the studio recording voice-over for the last episode of SHOOTING GALLERY. Today is a TBD: SURVIVAL day. Be careful what you wish for!

I'm also working on the outline for the DVD companion — the compete guide to carrying a gun in the backcountry — to TRAIL SAFE. The idea is that TRAIL SAFE provides the conceptual structure and the DVD gives you the nuts and bolts. You saw some of those nuts and bolts in THE BEST DEFENSE episode on being safe in the backcountry, which has (surprisingly) turned out to be the most popular episode of the season.

Also also, I want to try something really different for Season 10 of SHOOTING GALLERY — a viewer-generated episode where you guys get to pick what we film. Actually trying to figure out how it will work...obviously we'll use DRTV to set up the survey...we just haven't decided what's going to be on that survey.

Thoughts????

Some notes on the ammo shortage...I'm seeing a shift in the terminology as the shortage drags on...now even on some of the firearms forums we're "hoarders" as opposed to "people stocking up." An interesting, and totally normal, part of the cycle...blame the consumer and take the heat off the real cause, government's intentional and inadvertent  signals to the market. There are "ammo control" bills being introduced in statehouses all over the country, our enemies have said and continue to say that while they might not be able to "get" guns, they can get ammo or components; the current administration is unequivocally the most antigun in history and has repeatedly sent signals that it plans to "do something."

Given all those factors, I would like someone to explain to me why stockpiling ammo or reloading supplies is "irrational hoarding." In a normal market, increased demand would lead to increased supply, but no ammo supplier is going to tool up in the face of new government regulations and potential changes in U.S. foreign policy. It's also much harder for foreign ammo manufacturers to get their products to U.S. consumers...it's like a pipeline with big holes in it.

The market will stabilize. I say that with this caveat: the government does nothing to refuel the fire, a la Eric Holder's casual call for a new AWB a few weeks ago, which reignited a market that was showing signs of cooling off.

Where'd All the Ammo Go?

Ammoland is reporting that an analysis of various stats reveals that ammo sales in December 2008 came in at (get read for this):

1,529,635,000

Yeppers, a billion and a half rounds that could be tracked...I'd bet there's at least half that number (and I'm being very conservative). By the way, that doesn't count reloading components.

At the RangeMaster Tactical conference, one of the biggest dinner conversation topics was how instructors were cutting down ammo requirements for training because the students either couldn't afford the training with the higher ammo component or simply couldn't get the ammo. Several of the instructors reported students coming through classes with .22 LRs, something they probably wouldn't have allowed in years past but now is completely acceptable.

I TOTALLY agree on this point — training is critically important, and I think training with a .22 is still good quality training. We've talked about this on SHOOTING GALLERY last season and repeatedly on DOWN RANGE Radio. At this point, I'm doing most of my own practice with .22s, and I'm pretty worried about the big chunks of ammo we use each season in the television shows. I've already started drawing on my own "strategic reserves" for the shows...I'm buying on a weekly basis, but there's just not that much out there.

So I strongly urge you to augment your basic personal defense battery with a "mirror" .22s for practice. Best cases are conversion units because you get 100% "look and feel" of your carry guns. You guys know I work with Tactical Solutions...the reason I do is they make the best .22 conversion units in the business, not to mention their superb Pac-Lite top ends for Rugers and Browning Buckmarks. For 1911s, I can also recommend Kimber .22 conversion units. 

If you carry a snub revolver (and who of us doesn't at some point), take a look at this Charter Arms Pathfinder, 2-inch .22 LR snub with an MSRP of $379! I'm using my old Walther TPH .22 for BUG practice these days.

On rifle practice, conversion units are the best, but it's most important to match optics. Again, . I have a Tac-Sol unit fitted on a Stag lower and it is my main AR these days. The Black Dog mags are 100%. On your .22, as much it may simply be too expensive to go out and duplicate the optics. My "working" AR, an S&W M&P, is fitted with an Aimpoint M4 and 3X magnifier, which costs a tidy sum. The Tac-Sol .22 is fitted with an inexpensive BSA red dot, but it does the job and gives me the same red dot. Again, in full disclosure, BSA is a sponsor, but they've long been known for their great rimfire scopes. BTW, they have a reasonably priced fixed 4X coming out specifically designed for ARs...I've handled an advanced copy and like it. You don't need the top-of-the-line stuff on a  .22, but you do need rimfire optics that match what you use on the working gun.

If money is tight (and it is), look at a 10/22. I didn't have to tell you that, right?

Back from Big Boomer World!

I'm back from the .50 Cal Championships at Whittington...always fun. We filmed it a few years ago for SHOOTING GALLERY. This time, I was filming for the upcoming .50 BMG series exclusively on DRTV.

I shot my first 1000-yard group...pause for effect...5 shots in less than 10 inches! Of course, I shot it with a .50 BMG rail gun...a 150-pound steel and aluminum "sled" with a barreled action bolted into it. As the gun first, the action slides back on silicon "rails." The shooter then pushes the sled back into battery. The rail gun was designed by lee Jamison as a test bed for bullets and loads. Some of what he's learned about big boomer bullets is already at work in Afghanistan helping members of the Taliban on the long road to paradise.

Speaking of which, I saw something really cool at the match....50 BMG polymer-cased ammo that was actually being shot in the match. The ammo, being developed by Mac LLC at the request of the Marine Corp, has about an inch of brass at the base, bonded to a polymer rest of the cartridge. The ones in use were 640-gr ball, and while it wasn't specifically developed as match ammo, it was turning in 20-inch groups at 1000 yards out of a Steyr HS. Joe Gibbons of Mac told me the push for the development of the polymer .50s was one for weight reduction...the plastic fantastic .50s weigh in at 25% or more less than a standard round of .50 ball. That means 25% more ammo for the helicopter machineguns, critical in mountainous Afghanistan where a helicopter's ability to lift weight is compromised by the high altitude. Gibbons said the ammo runs fine in the MGs, whihc are notorious for the violence of their actions. The Marines would like to have this stuff yesterday, if possible. Defense Review has written about some of the poly ammo development for the military...you can read it here. And, no, they wouldn't give me one as a souvenir!

I also one of the new Bushmaster's BA50s, the production version of Skip Patel of Cobb Manufacturing's .50. Cobb, as you recall, was absorbed into the Cerberus Borg Community, with Skip emerging as the head of R&D for Bushmaster. The thing shot like a house afire and was delivering sub-MOA 1000-yard groups. The 10-round magazine-fed bolt gun is a beast, dwarfing my Barrett 99 single shot. The Patel-designed muzzle brake is super-efficient...you could see a clear reduction in recoil when comparing the BA50 to some of the other guns on the line. Of course the concussion off the brake caused one of my arms to fall off.

I'm going to devote most of Wednesday's podcast to the .50 Championships, and, of couse, you'll be able to see the whole thing in video in a couple of months (maybe soon if I have an epiphany and can find a decent local editor...I might pop up the video of me shooting the rail gun tomorrow, depending on how crazy it gets.

On other subjects, the NRA has identified a whole new mental pathology — "anti-gun anxiety," or AGA — apparently bought on in media types by the Heller ruling: Fortunately, this epidemic appears to be almost entirely confined to politicians, newspaper editorial writers, and activists predisposed to the condition by years of bias against guns, gun owners and freedom. Normal people are immune from AGA, thus no vaccine is required, and the only known antidote is an open mind, a willingness to accept the facts, and a respect for the rights of one's fellow citizens.
[...]
In some instances, AGA is apparently complicated by other conditions, such as utter confusion. Getting the core elements of the Second Amendment backwards, the Salt Lake Tribune claimed, "No fair reading of the plain language of the amendment or its history could have reached the conclusion the court announced." But in other cases, symptoms are less severe. USA Today simply expressed the hope that the Heller decision will allow for gun show restrictions, regulations to drive gun dealers out of business, and an "assault weapon" ban.

Given the way that anti-gun groups behave normally, it's difficult to say whether their Heller-related comments are attributable to acute AGA or a more chronic variety. In any case, the Brady Campaign said Heller will "embolden criminal defendants, and ideological extremists," while the Violence Policy Center said that it "turns legal logic and common sense on its head.

There is some evidence that the epidemic may become a pandemic, too. A German Green Party member said, "All European cows are registered Europe-wide, so why not guns if it can save lives? Civil liberties can be sacrificed if we can prevent people from being killed." And on the French newspaper Le Figaro's web site, a writer declared that America "is the only society which will go directly from barbarism to decadence without ever passing through civilization."


AH, the French...BTW, I'm posting this off ScribeFire, a FireFox 3.0 browser plug-in that let's me post directly to the blog. It's convenient, but I'm not crazy about it...obviously, I can't figure out how to get by to regular type rather than a quote...he "strip formatting" command doesn't actually strip formatting...in fact, it doesn't do anything I can tell.

I also can't add trashy colors to the text, which I know annoys the heck out of most of you but I enjoy it, and since I do this for me, viola!It also flatly refuses to let me upload pictures from my own computer...it demands some sort of authentication that I am at a loss to figure out. Can anybody tell me what I'm missing here, aside from a brain?

That Time of Year

Even though it was beautiful outside today, I'm kinda neck deep in corporate taxes (not to mention the podcast)…so no range time for Mikey.

On the plus side, it's looking more and more like the ATF stepped in the poo-poo by acting as B-Ho's antigun utility. Here's an excellent summation of where we stand now from The Federalist:

Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery and later helped lead the abolitionist movement, once remarked, “A man’s rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge box.” Unfortunately, Barack Obama’s administration apparently wants to ban the latter without ever putting it to the test at the former.

I've got about another day or so crunching, stomping and obliterating numbers before I can sneak outside and make something go bang.

UPDATE ON AMMO BAN:

From the Washington Examiner this AM:

52 senators warn of sweeping ammo bans, say Second Amendment 'at risk' 

A majority in both the Senate and House — 52 senators, 238 House members — have joined to oppose the Obama administration's move to ban a popular type of ammo used in the top-selling AR-15 rifle and pistol because it pierces police body armor. 

A week after the House members, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, sent a letter of opposition to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley echoed that in his own letter signed by 51 others. 

In their letter, the senators said that the 5.56 M855 "green tip" cartridge was exempted in a 1986 law, along with other rifle ammo from bans on armor-piercing rounds. The reason: popular rifle ammo is typically not used in shootouts with police. 

They also raised new concerns that the administration appears poised for a much wider ammo ban. 

"Second Amendment rights require not only access to firearms but to bullets. If law-abiding gun owners cannot obtain rifle ammunition, or face substantial difficulty in finding ammunition available and at reasonable prices because government entities are banning such ammunition, then the Second Amendment is at risk," said Grassley's letter.

In the Studio Today...

...with the video podcast and wrapping up the audio podcast. One thing that really struck me at the NRA show was how many people who's primary contact with Down Range is through the audio podcast...interesting!

I wanted to mention that my good friend Larry Weishuhn now has a signature Thompson/Cener Encore package with his name on it. Here's the press release from Ammoland:

The new Encore pistol bears Weishuhn’s signature on the right side of the blued receiver along with his personal antler logo created in gold inlay. The esthetically pleasing handgun remains true to its original platform with its single-shot break open design and interchangeable barrel capabilities. The blued frame Encore Pro Hunter is chambered in .308 and is standard with a 15-inch blued barrel with fluting. As part of the package, each Encore pistol will be shipped with a new Nikon Encore pistol scope, Pachmayr grips and a soft carrying case. The pistol features Thompson/Center’s patented automatic hammer block safety with bolt interlock and a highly accurate precision barrel. The Larry Weishuhn Signature Series package will have an MSRP of $1,199.

I ran into Larry for a few minutes and he was pretty stoked about the gun. It got my attention because I've had Contenders for, like, 30 years — mostly to experiment with stupid calibers...I was the first on my block with 10-inch 45-70 barrel from J.D. Jones back when 45-70 was still obscure. I shot a .308 Encore at Boomershoot and it reminded me of what big fun it was to lob big pistol calibers at distant targets. Might be something single-shot-ish in my future.

I wanted to answer a comment from yesterday's post on the utility of 12 gauge Quick Strips for pumps and semiauto shotguns...I see the utility mostly in 3 pretty specific areas — ammo sorting and ammo storage. As most of you know from the podcast, I'm more a fan of single round reloading than long tubes on defensive shotguns. My primary defensive shotgun is a Vang Comp 870, which does come with a tube. Once the tube is empty I don't care about it one way or the other...rather, I'll simply single-load the pump. IMHO, it is faster to single-load than trying to stoke the tube (and if I was taking a shotgun class, I might pull the tube to take some of the weight off the gun). The reloads are loose in bag on my left side. I now have 6 slugs in the Quick Strip in the bag...that way I can tell the slugs from the buckshot by feel and I don't have the added weight of 4 or 5 slug rounds in a carrier on the gun. Ammo storage should be self-explanatory...I keep ammo with my stubby Super-Shorty 870, for example. Six rounds of TAPS buckshot and 6 slugs should get me home. Having the ammo oriented on the strips makes it wasier to carry than loose shells in a pocket as well...

Beaver-Proofing!

Sorry for the light posting...I spent yesterday beaver-proofing the Secret Hidden Bunker, making sure we had defensible space in case of a "flash swarm" of social media-active rabid beavers attacked. Plus, we had to make sure there were no trees that could reach the house if they were felled by the furry bastards. On the way to the range yesterday I was amazed — amazed, I tell you! — at the beaver sign...they're everywhere.

That aside, yesterday was a weak point practice day on the range, mostly focusing on one-shot draws. I think one-shot draws are one of the basic building blocks of shooting...practice them a lot in dry fire, then go to the range to verify. I have another range session scheduled this week to work with Ruger Rimfire guns, especially my regular RRC rifle, a 10/22 Target now fitted with a set of really ugly Tech Sights so I can shoot Limited at the World Championships. I had considered building up a new rifle...you can do that with 10/22s since they don't break the bank...but I've got a lot of rounds through the Target 10/22 and I'm very happy with it. As I mentioned, most of the internals are Volquartsen. Hopefully, this will allow me to focus on my Sweetie's rifle, a very plain vanilla 10/22 I bought mega-cheaply from CDNN on their Memorial Day Sale. Assuming it groups well, the only changes will be a Volquartsen trigger group.

Otherwise, I'm hoping to get together with Marshal Halloway later this month for a mini-9mm "shoot-out." I've read some interesting criticisms of the little nines lately, largely that one doesn't "need" such a gun because of advances in .380 ammunition. Sort of sounds like me a few years back talking about .40s and 9mms. Having shot most of the mini-9mms and most of the pocket .380s, I'd say if you're making a choice noe=w it comes down to how well you can shoot the mini-9mms.

They are a handfull, but not that much of a handful if you're a regular shooter. By that I mean I was able to get the follow-up hits as easily with the mini-9mms as I was with the .380s. I would define a real handful as the ultralight small frame revolvers shooting .357s or some of the semiauto mini-.40s, neither of which I want any part of. Why? Because I subscribe to the lotsa bullets philosophy of life...no such thing as a one-shot stop, so I want a self-defense gun that allows me to readily deliver the necessary follow-ups.

If you don't put a lot of rounds downrange, that's going to push your selection criteria to the pocket .380s (or the small frame revolvers in .38, .327 or even .32 H&R. If you do put a lot of rounds downrange, check out the mini-9mms. The slightly larger polymer-framed versions (the Ruger LC9, the Taurus Slim and the Kahrs) seem to me to shoot a tiny bit lighter than the Kimber Solo, which is truly pocket-sized, but I haven't had any problems shooting the Kimber, either.

Again, I don't usually do ammo tests...there's always something that a semiauto won't shoot. Over the many decades I've been testing guns, I've managed to accumulate a lot of weird ammo, and some of it would choke a single-shot T/C! In the case of 9mm, I have found the Fiocchi 147-gr truncated cone 9mms, won't run in a lot of guns, including my BHP. But so what? The stuff shoots amazingly well in a Para LTC lightweight commander. All I'm looking for is will the gun run with ball and a couple of different rounds of my favorite self-defense ammo (Corbon and Hornady are the usual choices). And yes, different ammo does group differently, but that difference is usually pretty small if you stay within a reasonable sample...for example, 9mm defensive ammo, 115 grains. And I'm not looking for competition accuracy out of a pocket self-defense gun. Sometimes you'll get it...Walt Rauch once told me that a Taurus 9mm I-frame revolver he'd gotten for T&E was the single most accurate small frame revolver he'd ever shot, and he's shot a bazillion of the things. It happens. But little bitty groups is not why one carries a pocket pistol.

Second Try...

Let's see if I can get through a second draft of today's blogpost without being ZAPPED by BlogPress' nonsensical "features!" BTW, yes, I treid another app, Blogger, but amazingly, I couldn't figure out how to enter text into it. Call me crazy, but wouldn't you think that entering text should be easy in an app for blogging? Oh well, maybe it's just me.

anyhow, I wanted to talk about a note I received after I talked about my preference for pump shotguns over semiautos. The writer noted that he would give up his home defense semi, a new Mossberg, when I gave up semauto pistols and rifles.

I thought, darn, he has a good point, but so do I, so I thought I should expand on it a bit.

I totally agree that modern semitautos like the Mossberg are far more forgiving than their earlier brethren. I have an FNH semiauto that is a tank, and the new Berretta defense gun that I shot was amazing...we ran tube after tube of mixed lot ammo -- ultra light target loads, high brass field loads, buckshot of various flavors and LE slugs -- without a burp. In fact, if you were adamant about using a semi, the Beretta (http://www.beretta.com/Defence-Pistols-Carbines/Defence-Shotgun/Tx4-Storm/index.aspx?m=82&f=2&idv=46&idc=208&id=1275 ) would be my first choice.

However, this is in a home defense context. With a home defense gun, you're controlling the ammo (as my commenter said), etc. Let's think about this in a more macro context...a good pump, say an 870, will pretty much feed anything. Since I'm a competitor, I keep cases of light target loads around, plus some field loads, #00 buck and LE slugs for self-defense (my self-defense round of choice is Hornady TAPS buckshot) and some "exotics'" like short shells for various reasons. The exotics will choke my FNH and even a pump '97, but an 87 just digests it all.

Think abut a situation where ammo is in short supply or some types not even available...that can't happen, can it? Wait, t happened last year! If you've got to compromise on ammo availability, you can't beat a pump.

In the case of a really serious dislocation -- say the New Madrid Fault, upon which I've been sitting for the last couple of days -- goes Full Japan, the situation may well be ammo scrounging, and again a pump shines in this situation.

I can load a pump faster than a semi by single loading into the chamber, either cop-style up from the bottom or cowboy-style over the top. I admit that is largely a training function...as long as you keep the semi's tube filled, you're good to go. However, IDPA teaches us that sooner or later, you shoot the gun empty and you need to get it back in action fast. Single loading a pump keeps you in the fight until you get to cover and can load the tube, if necessary.

Finally, in both home defense and larger area-wide disasters, I'm a big proponent of the "lowest common denominator" for defense guns...that is, all the people in the house should be familiar with the manual of arms, including malfunction clearances, for all the standard defense gun in the house. Jam clearance on a semiauto shotgun isn't hard, but everyone who has access to the gun needs to be up to speed on it. Ditto for the pump, but a pump is so darn simple it might make more sense in a case where the Spousal Unit or older children aren't handing the gun on a regular basis...

Rob Haught on Shotguns...

...at least you can still get ammo! This from Wilson Combat via AmmoLand: 

Berryville, AR - Have you been to your local sporting goods or gunshop lately? Have you tried to find 5.56 or 9mm ammunition? Likely it was a frustrating experience.

My local WalMart who normally has a fairly well stocked sporting goods section now has bare shelf space where once was a wide variety of ammunition. Management confirms that the warehouses are empty and that what little does come in is allocated to several stores in the region so everyone gets a little.

If WalMart, the nations largest ammo retailer is in this fix what does that say for the small Mom and Pop gunshops? The frenzy that is driving this shortage is not likely to get better in the near future either.

The one thing that is available however, at least at present is shotshells. The shotgun is one of the most neglected weapons in our arsenal of defensive firearms.

We think of the Carbine and Pistol as being more fun or sexy to shoot and tend to leave the scattergun at home when range time comes around. With the price of rifle ammo skyrocketing many shooters are forced to cut way back on their consumption. I was used to shooting a couple hundred rounds of 5.56 a week and now only shoot around fifty in carefully selected drills designed to get the most out of my training.

Many trainers are seeing attendance drop and classes not filling due to the rising costs and availability of ammo.


Rob Haught of Wilson Tactical
Back to the shotgun….., at least for now we should take the opportunity to stock up on training ammo and dust off the shotguns and get back up to speed on this very versatile tool.

A Bit of Catch Up

On the Ruger .327 SP101, whatever birthing problems the gun/cartridge combo had seems to have been cleared up. Ruger never recalled, which leads me to believe it was a limited occurrence. The hot Federal loads we had all ejected just fine. Of course, that's just one gun.

As I said on the podcast, am I going to rush out and buy a .327 snub? I don't think so, though if one fell into my hands I'd probably keep it (my Sweetie shoots .32 H&R Rugers in cowboy action shooting, so there's always .32 H&R around). Yes, you get an extra round in an SP101, but I don't that's likely to be a big deciding factor in a civilian shootout, especially if I'm carrying a speed loader or a second gun. Secondly, the .38 +Ps are easy to shoot in my own SP101, which I know to be a 100% gun. If I had a relative or a client who had issues with recoil or medical conditions that affected the hands, I'd take a good look at the .327.

I would like to see the cartridge in a Blackhawk single action platform...it would be a 32-20 for the new century and a superfine little varmint cartridge with the ability to do double duty as a self-defense in the woods.

RE: the endless comments on whether Ruger .22s ran/run all the time, Mr. Smarmy, here's a flash — NO .22s run 100% with all ammo! Welcome to the real world. .22s are the most finicky animals out there for several reasons:

1) Generally, .22s are inexpensive guns...inexpensive is as inexpensive does.

2) Semiautos require a certain amount of necessary UMMMPH to run the action, and .22 ammo is pretty much all over the charts. That's why you have to try a bunch of different .22 ammo in your gun until you find one your gun "likes."

3) Externally lubricated .22s are dirty dirty dirty, and they gum up a gun pretty quickly. You have to clean a .22 more than you would a centerfire.

I have bunches of .22s, and to one extent or the other ALL the semis are ammo-sensitive. My Lou Lombardi-tuned S&W M41 wants Eley 10X; the Tac-Sol 1911 conversion will run with anything hot; my 10/22 Target is pretty forgiving until you get into the really really cheap stuff, and it just won't run. Both my S&W 617 DA revolver and my Ruger Single Sixes will gum up and jam after a couple of hundred rounds of Aguila Target, which my semis tend to like and is superbly accurate. For some reason none of my guns like Winchester, but they're mostly okay with Remington cheap stuff.

Ask Mr. Completely, who is an active .22 competitor and knows more about this stuff than I do...every competitor I know — including Olympians — keep special batches of their gun's favorite ammo for major matches. So did some of the Rugers jam at the Rimfire Challenge? Yep...but so did the big dollar Marvel 1911 conversions, Brownings, S&W big dollar and small dollar, etc.

BTW, perversely, the single most reliable .22 I own is an ancient Walther TPH, a notoriously unreliable little gun. Mine will run with everything, and I don't believe it has ever jammed on me.

BTW BTW, there's been a bunch of buzz about the S&W M&P15-22 .22 LR AR clone...while a complete gun in .22 LR is a welcome addition to the market, .22 AR conversion units abound, from the inexpensive CMMG to the workhorse Tactical Solutions version to the premium Bill Wilson product, and all of them are perfect for marksmanship training and teaching AR operations, plus you get to keep your own trigger group. You all know I have a relationship with Tactical Solutions, but my Tac-Sol unit on a Stag lower runs like a top. I strongly recommend you purchase a conversion unit for that AR you bought this year!

JP Rifles 9mm Group

I took a quick lunch break to sight in the JP Rifles 9mm carbine, which I am considering using in a carbine-only match of Saturday if it's not snowing sideways and crazy cold, because I'm a wuss.. The group above is my reference group at 50 yards off my bench. The flier on the low left was my first round and I did call it...heck, I'm surprised it wasn't farther out than that!

I'd been shooting it with an Aimpoint, but at the last minute I threw on a Leupold Mark AR 1.5-4 I used at the He-Man heavy metal world championships a couple of years ago...hmmmm...the scope was designed for the 55-gr 5.56; parenthetically, I've never used on a 5.56. Maybe Leupold can cut me knobs for 9mm!

Ammo was Bill Wilson Signature Match 125-gr, the most accurate 9mm ammo I've ever shot. Groups were a spec larger and maybe half-an-inch left with cheapo Federal American Eagle 124-hr FMJ. The Wilson ammo probably won't quite make the 150 power factor minimum for USPSA multi gun matches. I have high hopes for the DoubleTap match carbine ammo Mike McNett is cooking up! It's not like the little gun had any recoil at all.

Busily Trying to Relax!

My plan for yesterday was catch up, then knock off for the Thanksgiving week. Ha! Today my plan is to catch up, then knock off for the Thanksgiving week. Tomorrow my plan is...you kinda get the drift. I've got to cook Wednesday, or at least cook a little Wednesday. Hopefully, I'll be doing a little 3-Gun shooting this weekend, then begin the sprint to the end of the year...well, at least until the world ends just before Christmas.

I realize I've talked about the Spike's/JP .22 LR AR but haven't gone into it too deeply. That's because it's a SHOOTING GALLERY project gun, and you'll see us put it together on the show next season, then use it at the Project Appleseed event. The genesis for the project was that I love .22 LR AR-platform guns, because they make wonderful and adaptive trainers for newbies, provide a platform for tactical training in a time of dreadfully expensive ammunition, serve as a great tool to bring young video gamers into the shooting sports, etc. I have shot most of the .22 conversions and dedicated .22 ARs. I have a Tactical Solutions upper on a Stag lower that has been a very good gun and crazy fun to shoot. But it was my observation that the vast majority of the .22 ARs couldn't shoot alongside a high-end 10/22 when it came to pure accuracy.

Secondly, some of my friend who are putting thousands of .22 rounds through their guns are telling me the guns aren't holding up as well as they'd hoped. I'd like to say quickly that has not been the case with the Tac Sol conversion unit. I do have friends who shoot Ruger Rimfire a lot have gone from dedicated .22 ARs back to 10/22s for reliability after thousands of rounds.

Finally, there's the largely undefinable "feel" of a gun. Ideally,  a rifle should del solid, like well, a rifle, not an adaptation of a paintball gun.

So the goal for the build was a .22 AR that would should alongside a good 10/22 (and I have several). It needed to be very accurate, very reliable and rock solid. I did about month of research, talking to shooters (especially Ruger Rimfire veterans) and reading on the Internet (AR15.com was invaluable), then posting questions.

My decision was to go with a Spike's Tactical upper with a Lothar Walther barrel. I have a lot of experience with Spike's products, and they have been uniformly excellent. I'm familiar with the Lothar Walther barrel, and it is hard to find better. I chose a JP lower after talks with John Paul at JP. He put in his own trigger system with an eye toward .22 LR. We finished the lower with CMMG parts and I used Magpul furniture. Magazine choice was also a major consideration, and the hands down winner was the Black Dog magazine with steel lips. I chose the first generation Fowler/Pride Rapid Reticle 3-9X .22 scope because i had it and because Mickey Fowler, who has forgotten more about shooting .22s in the last 30 minutes than I will ever know, told me it was the single best .22 scope he'd ever used. I went with the Midway USA mounts because they were the only ones I had for a 1-inch scope.

I was prepared to go through my .22 ammo bin and see what the gun liked. The first ammo I tried was the CCI "Tactical" .22s, 40-grain plated. My "reference group" with that ammo was, as I mentioned, a 5-shot one hole group at 25 yards. I didn't try any of the other ammo.

Will have pictures of the rifle, accessories and groups when I finish chasing my tail this AM!

Another Lying Weasel

This from one Justin Peters from Slate. You can always tell that anyone who starts out by explaining what a huge supporter he or she is of the Second Amendment will end up lying through his or her teeth. Here's a moron explaining  he has no direct knowledge of, like, guns, but he like, is an expert because he, like, you know, has read a copy of GARDEN & GUNS, and he's, like, smart, you know, and he might buy a gun if he could, or, you know:

In terms of repelling a home invasion—which is what most people mean when they talk about home defense—an AR-15-style rifle is probably less useful than a handgun. The AR-15 is a long gun, and can be tough to maneuver in tight quarters. When you shoot it, it’ll overpenetrate—sending bullets through the walls of your house and possibly into the walls of your neighbor’s house.

Wow! I've learned so much about ARs over the last few weeks. Did you know, for example, than an AR is only accurate out to about 75 yards? Or a mile or two, depending on the article. Or that the 5.56 can penetrate all the walls in your house, go on to shoot through your car and probably knock a satellite out of orbit? That the only purpose of an AR is to "hose down a room" with bullets? That only John Wayne wannabes and terrorists own one? That owning an AR means my penis is little? That owning an AR and being a Life Member of the dreaded NRA means it's okay to call on other people to kill me?

Wow! Who knew?

Meanwhile, I'm going to start doing more and more on training with .22s, because that is our reality for at least a year, even if we manage to survive this feces-storm unscathed. The ammo just isn't out there, and what is out there is painfully priced. I'm a little worried about ammo for the shows...shows eat ammo! Hopefully, all of you have purchased either .22 conversion kits for your ARs and/or a .22 trainer like a 10/22 and have some sort of .22 handgun. Ideally, you'll have a .22 conversion unit for your regular handgun. I'm using a Ruger SR22 for CCW training.

My friend Tom Yost and I will be filming a video training guide to using .22s both for training and in competition. we're planning on filming in March, and the video should be available long before 5.56 ammo gets back in the pipeline.

Facing SHOT Show and a Couple of Thoughts on AR Calibers...

I guess it's time to get on with it, huh?

Goes without saying I'm not ready for SHOT, either mentally or in terms of clean underwear. The underwear situation I can fix. I've got a "hit list" of must-sees, and Iain Harrison and I talked about his must-sees earlier this week in Phoenix.  BTW, I can't believe I've never spent any time looking at these custom AR handguards from Unique-ARs.comhttp://unique-ars.com! Hopefully, we'll have approval at DRTV to give away some really nice custom ARs, and maybe a custom handguard would be a nice touch.

Unique ARs "Spiderweb"

Shooting in Phoenix earlier this week for SG, Marc Christenson from DS Arms brought down a custom AR in .204 Ruger with a 20-inch barrel from Montana Rifle. I've never even messed around with the .204 Ruger, with the possible exception of shooting John Paul's personal JP long range bolt gun in .204. A 32-grain bullet moving at 4000 fps...pretty cool. Marc said the .204 was crazy accurate as well as crazy fast. It was developed in 2004 by Ruger and Hornady as the fastest  production cartridge in the world. Uses regular AR magazines. March popped his upper on a registered full auto lower, and it ran like a champ. Might be a fun cartridge to fiddle around with. JP has some interesting parts for building a long-range .204. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

I also finally got to run my 10 1/2-inch .300 Blackout upper on a registered lower rather than a pistol. Shoots just wonderfully...I definitely want to finish up that pistol/SBR project. Another surprise was the AR upper in 5.7 X 28. Sucker ran like a scalded ape, no malfs of any kind and incredibly fun to shoot with those 50 round magazines. The AR57 is a really neat set-up...stuck in the provided heavy buffer, popped the upper on just like any other upper and away we went. I like this!

AR-57

What didn't work was the .458 SOCOM. The Wilson Combat upper shot great on single shots, but we couldn't get it to run with any magazines. Might have needed a heavier spring to shove that big cartridge in. We were also running reloads — the only rounds we could get, courtesy of my friend Mike Barker — which are always tailored to the gun. It was a thumper, though, and heaven knows Bill Wilson has killed about a million hogs with the .458...his obviously works!

I also got a chance to shoot Iain's "bastard" AR — in 7.62 X 25 Tokarev, of all things, with a Czech barrel, a Russian optic and an weird collection of parts. He built it to make use of the cheap Toke ammo, which has now gone the way of the Great Auk (below):

The Great Auk, as rare as cheap 7.62 X 25

The idea was that he could shoot the cheap Toke ammo when there was cheap Toke ammo in local 3-Gun matches where the longest distances were under 100 yards. It was fun to shoot, although Iain cursed me for condemning him to an evening of cleaning out the filthy and corrosive surplus ammo residue.

JP GMR-12 9mm

I have a similar plan for the superb JP GMR-12 9mm rifle when I can finally lay my hands (and my credit card) on one. A less-than-3 MOA 9mm rifle that takes 33-round Glock mags, topped with the brand spanking new Burris AR-1X, would be killer on local 3-Gun matches with rifle shots at sane distances. Secondly, you can actually buy 9mm ammunition without a second mortgage on your home.

Sigh...am still wickedly depressed, but I know it'll get better. SHOT'll be crazy busy, and that's a good thing.

Don't Worry...It's Not That Late!

So I'm in the gun room drilling the crap out of the darned Remington magazine tube crimps so I can put the BRILEY 10/shot tube on the Versa Max...so far, so good. Be Saturday before I find out if it works. If it doesn't, I'll be shooting the FNH with a light duct-taped to the tube next week in Portland.

At least I've got enuf ammo, I think. If I don't, I'll borrow it from Patrick Sweeney, who has never forgiven me for cribbing far too much of his match ammunition at the Single Stack Nationals a few years back. He makes great ammo, even if he works for InterMedia! Bring extra ammo, Patrick. And duct tape.

Anyhow, I'm as ready as I'm likely to get for the Crimson Trace Midnight 3-Gun, especially since I'm having dinner in Philadelphia tomorrow and Thursday. My ace in the hole is that I've drafted Alan Samuel, ace zombie killer and 3-gun shooter, to accompany me to the match. His role is to resuscitate me when I pass out...and convince Patrick to give me ammo.

BTW, got the readers' copy of the new Bob Lee Swagger novel, THE THIRD BULLET, today in the mail, just in time for my yo-yo'ing across the country! As always, I'll fill you guys in.

Hornady TAPS

A small controversy has developed over something I said, and while it's no big, I thought it ought to be cleared up. Here's what I said, in OUTDOOR LIFE:

I know what you're thinking—those little .22-inch-diameter bullets zipping right through walls—but ammunition technology has kept pace with the evolution of firearms. There are a host of low-penetration 5.56mm/.223 rounds for law-enforcement use and civilian self-defense, including my own choice, Hornady 55-grain TAPs.

Here's a short summary of the controversy from regular commenter James at Hell in a Handbasket:

Mr. Bane says that TAP bullets are low penetration, while this article on PoliceOne.com by Jeff Chudwin refers to them as barrier penetrators! The author even says that soft point bullets are necessary for reduced penetration, not the "Hornaday TAP barrier penetrator".

Who is right, Mr. Bane or Mr. Chudwin? I don't know for sure, but one of them has to be wrong. Whoever it is, their advice might just get someone killed when the load they chose on their recommendation doesn't perform as expected.

Here's my reply from H in a H:

It's not conflicting info...Hornady makes a whole LINE of TAP ammo, with different intended uses for the various offerrings. The 55-gr TAPS are designed for higher fragmentation and lower penetration. At least, that's what the Hornady reps told me, that's how the ammo is marketed and that's what several top SWAT and military trainers have told me.

Hornady has been marketing a less-penetrative 5.56 tactical round for at least 5 years.

RE: Rifles/carbines as self-defense options in urban scenarios...never said that one size fits all. I do think that most people don't have the slightest idea of how penetrative a specific cartridge actually is. A few years back, I did some penetration tests on various 9mm ammo though standard wall-type material that scared the crap out of me.

Bill Murphy makes a point in his GUNSITE shotgun class that all types of buckshot are much more penetrative than many people think (and moreso than many handgun and some rifle rounds)...and buckshot often gets recommended as a good "urban" self-defense load!

Here's the pop quiz...for an apartment dweller, is the best option a 9mm Glock, a Marlin Camp Carbine in .40 S&W, a 12-gauge Remington 870 or a Taurus "Judge" loaded with .410 shot?

The answer is "maybe"...can't answer without more info...the experience and skill level of the apartment dweller, the construction of the apartment itself, the threat level, the ammo, etc. If I was ramping someone up from zero, I'd go for the revolver; I'd probably end up with a "progressive" cylinder loading something like shot (#4); shot (#4); followed by 3 .45 Colt; Glaser Safety Slugs. Not ideal, but enough to get you through the night.

Everyone's situation is different, a point I have emphasized again and again.

Recommending firearms and/or ammunition is an inexact science. There are indeed substantial differences between credible people in many, many areas. Let me give you a "blunt trauma" example — the .30 Carbine cartridge out of an M1 Carbine...I have been told in excruciating detail by credible — credible being defined as people who used the round and the firearm in the field — LEOs and military that the .30 Carbine is a wildly overpenetrative largely ineffective round. I have also been told by equally credible LEOs and military that the .30 Carbine is the pure-D Hammer of Thor. In effect, both sides are correct — bullet performance is ultimately a chaos system, a singularity in which actual performance is based on quite literally thousands of individual factors, from the nature of shootee's clothing to his or her mental state at the time of the shooting. That means that simulated bullet performance is exactly that — simulated.

I base my personal self-defense decisions on both my own experience, testing and evaluations and the experiences, testings and evaluations of people I respect. I do my best to open my decision-making processes to my viewers and to my readers (and I suppose with my podcasts to my "hearers"). Unfortunately, I have no "revealed truths," no marble tablets brought down from the mountain. I can tell you want I like, what I use and why. Beyond that, you have to make your own decisions.

I am acutely aware that that I am talking about issues of life and death. I routinely get "you're going to get someone killed, you irresponsible fool" notes from people who either dislike things I like, like things I don't or just don't agree with me. I have already received viciously offensive emails based on James' imminently reasonable post on this blog (and his posted question on my blog), which I hope I have answered fairly. Not your fault, James!!!!! Just comes with the territory. My personal favorite is the one who said he would have posted his remarks on my blog, but couldn't find it. I guess my marketing needs work...although I did type "GOOGLE," then "MICHAEL BANE BLOG" and, well, there I was...in 18 of 20 of the first Google entries...darn...I was hoping for a grand slam!

Keep up the great work, James, and I appreciate your occasional comments on my blog!

Your friend,

Michael Bane

An Interesting "What If"

Of course the Internet is full of "what if" gun scenarios, up to and including a EMP that triggers a zombie outbreak in the middle of an economic collapse during the worst snow storm in history. Over at the All For Guns blog, the guys spun up an off-grid living in Alaska battery:

Consider what the Alaskan DNR says about it: "Select a gun that will stop a bear (12-gauge shotgun or .300 mag rifle) and practice firing it at a rifle range." When the people who don't want you to shoot a brown bear tell you to bring a big gun, you'd better listen. Let's not forget that the Coastal Brown Bears of Alaska are the four legged apex predator of North America. Ranging 800-1,400 pounds for grown males, which is bigger than a Rocky Mountain (inland) Grizzly by a good bit. They can and will kill anything they find appropriate in the moment. And they are meat eaters. People are made of meat. You don't want to find yourself looking eye level at a brown bear that's standing on all fours and then wish you had brought a bigger gun. That's like swimming in the ocean and then wishing you had a boat when a Great White swims past you.

Interesting "what if" story…since I own or have owned most of the firearms mentioned (except the Mosin, which IMHO make excellent lamp stands), have spent some time in Alaska and presently live 100% off-grid in Colorado, I thought I'd throw in my own $0.02-worth!

My current "hiking gun" is a 2.75-inch Redhawk .44 magnum (44 ounces, rather than the 47 ounce 4-inch). It is generally loaded with hot Buffalo Bore .44 Specials. In the spring and late fall, when our local bears are either hungry or grumpy (probably the same thing), I switch to a Ruger Alaskan in .454 Casull and Corbon hunting loads. If/when I go back to Alaska for a visit, I'll be taking the Alaskan. While I love the looks of the S&W 69 (and own several 29/629 revolvers), it is a BEAR to shoot, even with 240-gr JHPs, the baseline .44 Magnum loads. I shutter to think how the little L-Frame would handle with heavy bullet heavy loads.

As you guys already nowI used the Ruger Guide Gun in .300 Win Mag in Africa on plains game, and it worked great on an eland the size of a Prius (call it 1500 lb) and various zebra. It is my number 1 go-to rifle. I took it to FTW Ranch in Texas and spent 3 days and 300 rounds at distances from 300-800 yards. I like the .300 Win Mag over the .338 for ammo availability and versatility. My producer John Carter used a .338 Guide Gun in Africa, and he ended up severely limited in bullet choice (for example, I was using Hornady GMX bullets, which performed spectacularly; he was limited to Hornady SSTs, which proved to have not as much penetration). If I was specifically hunting brown bear (I wish!) I would go with something heavier…I've shot the Guide Gun in .416 Ruger, and given my familiarity with that platform I'd probably go that way.

Within the Lower 48, I'll always default to my .308 GUNSITE Scout…lighter, crazy accurate, incredible ammo versatility/availability, including the spectacular Hornady TAP anti-personnel ammo and the various A-Max match ammo.

Shotgun-wise, I wouldn't ever argue the 870 12-gauge. My 870 is one of the old Remington Police models, which had almost no plastic parts, rebuilt by Hans Vang, the greatest shotgun mechanic on earth. The modern selection of 12-gauge rounds pretty much negates the advantages of the Vang Comp system. My personal 870 is loaded with Hornady TAP #00 buckshot backed up with Remington Reduced Recoil Slugs, which shoot really well in that gun.

If I was going to a semi auto shotgun, I think I'd probably default to a Benelli M4. i shoot a Rem VersaMax in 3-Gun (and a Benelli Nova pump for the Heavy Metal division), but I have spent a lot of time at Benelli in Italy going through the design parameters of the M4, and it's impressive. The gun was designed from the grind up for the Marines, which pretty much says it all!

Your thoughts?

Why I Never Fell in Love with the .40 S&W

Okay, here's another muddy quagmire for me to wade into!

Yes, I know that the .40 S&W, occasionally known as the .40 Short & Weak, has been hailed as the most lethal round from a hand-held weapon since the RPG, packing the pure stopping power of a cement truck filled with molden lead. You can read the adulatory entry in the Wikipedia or, if you've got some time on your hands, you can read all 11,400 entries in the Google search "stopping power comparison between 9mm and .40 S&W." Yes indeedy, the power of a .45 ACP with the capacity of a Wonder-9! Better than peanut butter and jelly in the same jar!

Okay, so no sane person, given any sort of choice, would opt for a 9mm or a .45 ACP when he or she could have this amazing miracle round.

I've certainly shot enough .40...I competed in USPSA with an STI EDGE in .40, the absolute baseline gun for USPSA Limited competition, and it rocked. I shot IDPA with a .40 High Power . When the first little bitty .40s came out — as it happens, it was a Star FireStar M-40 — I shelled out far too much money for a Spanish gun, sent it to gunsmith Mike LaRocca, who bitched mightily but did a flawless action job on the gun, whined until Tim Wegner at Blade-Tech made me an IWB for the little gun. I carried it for several years and put a couple of thousand rounds through it before I changed first to an STI LS-9 9mm, then the SIG P225 in 9mm.

Now why would I voluntarily "downgrade" myself from this Jedi knight light saber of a round to a plain vanilla 9mm, which as everyone who reads gun magazines knows is only slightly more efficient than a spitball from a 13-year-old schoolgirl?

Okey-dokey...let me step you through it:

1) Sophisticated computer-aided bullet design has drastically narrowed the gap between the handgun cartridges. To a large extent, the drastic differences in "handgun stopping power" have involved comparisons with ball ammo.
2) I'm not a cop nor in the military; I can choose to carry any bullet I want. The military has numerous constraints on their handgun ammo, and so does law enforcement. One of those big constraints is price. I buy the round I'm the most comfortable with — Hornady TAPS — and, yes, it's more expensive than the average bear.
3) My experience has been that I can deliver more accurate rounds faster with either a 9mm or a .45 ACP than with a .40 in the equivalent small frame semiauto. I believe this has to do with the recoil impulse of the .40, which is sharp and nasty in a little gun...and I've shot a lot of them.
4) The .40 S&W has a spooky pressure curve, especially related to overall case length. If the bullet is driven back into the case, pressures can spike sharply. I don't like high pressure surprises, no matter how remote the chance.
5) I HATED developing loads for the .40...it seemed to me to be a far more finicky beastie than the .45 ACP (or the 9mm, which I typically don't reload). When I finally got a load that rocked in my EDGE, the High Power flatly hated it. The loads that ran well and were super accurate in the H-P jammed the EDGE up. The loads that worked best in my single stack STI Trojan sucked in everything else. My experience with the .45 ACP and the revolver rounds found much less "swing" with the same loads in similar guns. My baseline .45 loads work pretty well in everything.
6) There's the undefinable "take it to the range" factor...I always take an additional gun (or guns) to the range no matter what I'm there for, just to do a little practice or plinking when I'm done with my main shooting. I found that the .40s stayed in the safe. Hmmmmmmm...David Caruso would call that a "clue."
7) On travels, I have on occasion had to buy ammo from Wally-World or the random K-Mart...in those cases where I know I have to buy ammo, I invariably carry a .45 ACP and buy 230-grain FMJ ball. .45 ball works.
8) Finally, "stopping power" is wildly secondary to bullet placement. Let me say that again...in a handgun round, bullet placement is everything. What I want in a carry gun is the absolute knowledge that I can deliver the shot with that gun and that load. The little .40s required more from me than the 9mms and the .45 ACPs.

So anyhow, shoot what you want to and what you can shoot well. Your experiences may differ from mine, and you're every bit as correct as me. Not as handsome and scintillating, of course...

Ammo

The short story?

The end is not on sight.

"If everybody in America stopped shooting tomorrow afternoon, it would take us 3 months to clear the backlog, best case."

That quote is from a friend in the ammo industry who knows his stuff. Consensus I heard was the huge shortages continue until AT LEAST through the year and maybe through Q1 2010. And - again the consensus view - when "normal" returns, it's going to be the "new normal," not the normal we remember. We've proven what we're willing to pay for ammo and components, so don't expect a return to $89/1000 5.56.

Civilian demand, military and police contracts, and issues/prices of components was sited as the culprits.

Re: primers...off-the-record advice was buy what you can find at a sane price...reloading components may well be the last to recover as the industry sucks up all the available components for loaded ammo. Some of the back orders for primers at the big Internet sellers are being filled at roughly 4-5 months lag time.

Wish I had better news on this front! Everybody seems mostly resigned for the long haul. Expect to see more consequences on events and training as the shortage continues to ping pong through the industry.


-- Post From The Road