Here are my current defensive ammunition selections:
| Caliber | Bullet | Manufacturer |
| .380ACP | 90gr JHP | Speer |
| .38 SPL | 110gr FTX +P | Hornady |
| .357 Mag | 125gr FTX | Hornady |
| .357 Sig | 125gr JHP | Federal |
| .9mm Luger | 115gr FTX | Hornady |
| 9mm Luger* | 135gr JHP | Hornady |
| .45ACP | 185gr FTX | Hornady |
| 10mm | 180gr XTP | Underwood |
As soon as the weather cools down enough for outdoor range trips, we will begin ballistic testing and see how these loads really do.
Looks like the powers that be are desperate to identify 3D printers. Or they want you to think they can.
The Supreme Court recently upheld a Biden era ATF rule that requires serial numbers, background checks and a dealer to transfer their “buy, build, shoot” kits- ruling that selling a kit that could readily be turned into a firearm is the same thing as actually selling a firearm. This decision is going to put Polymer80 out of business. You can read the actual decision here (pdf alert, hosted offsite). It’s a major defeat for liberty, and a bellwether of things to come from this court. The only two justices who dissented were Thomas and Alito. Now you know why the left wants Alito gone.
The decision for now is narrowly targeted at the Polymer80 kit, which came with the unfinished frame, the jig, and the tools needed to convert the parts into a firearm. The court’s majority specifically said that this applies only to parts sold as a complete kit, so for now 80% frames and receivers from makers like 80% Arms are completely legal, but you can expect that to be dealt with in later courts.
I have said for awhile that Trump’s best attribute was his SCOTUS picks. Now that it appears that those picks and Congress have again turned their backs on the 2A crowd (as Republicans always seem to do, once they have the pro-2A vote in their pocket), the only difference between the two parties is the speed with which we are headed off the cliff. No matter what Trump does, he can’t overcome the inertia of the uniparty.
You can read the informational post from 80% Arms here. The reason that 80% is getting away with this, is that they are not selling the jigs or tools needed to finish their lowers. They are continuing to sell 80% AR lowers and 76% Glock lowers, even though the Glock lowers are sold out.
As I have pointed out time and again on this blog, no one is coming to save you, and there is no voting your way out of this. We are too far down the path to totalitarianism. SCOTUS is not going to be a big friend to the gun community, and this Trump administration is a mere speed bump on the way to tyranny. At this point, we are looking at a pretty bleak future for the country. The median income in the US is just shy of $40,000 a year- but those who make less than $40k don’t pay any income taxes, once you factor in refundable tax credits. Those who make less than $25k don’t pay any taxes of any kind. Those who vote for a living are out voting those who work for a living. There is no coming back from that.
What that means is that the Democrats are promising free shit to the poor while simultaneously using those votes to slowly enact a tyranny. That’s why they want you disarmed. So here is my advice- do one of the following:
Buy a 3D printer. The left is already making it a felony to use a 3D printer to make firearms, and a misdemeanor to exchange the files needed to do so. They are also pressuring the makers of 3D printers to encode blocks on the printers making it impossible to make firearms or firearm parts. If you have a 3D printer, I would make sure that firmware or software updates don’t happen automatically, or you may find that your 3D printer gets neutered. You can find a guide for making your own receivers here.
Or you can buy a Ghost Gunner for about $2500 that will allow you to make AR receivers from plain aluminum blocks, as well as do all sorts of metalworking like cutting slides for red dot sights.
I am planning on buying one or the other this summer, once my current projects come to a conclusion. I am nearing completion of my 300 Blackout project. Once that is done, I will put a deposit on a Ghost Gunner 3 or buy a 3D printer.
The disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I don’t think that I ever will. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.
Since we are getting tied into all of the holy grails of Internet gun arguments this month, I thought to myself, “Why not complete the circle and get people riled up about another one?”
Yep, reloading. I periodically hear from people who proclaim that reloading is the answer to whatever ammo discussion we are having, and I have even thought about doing it myself, but I just don’t see a reason to do it. I have blogged about reloading at least 4 or 5 times, but it’s been awhile, so let’s rehash it
There are a number of reasons given for getting into reloading ammo.
I examined that back in 2020. To begin reloading, I would need to get the equipment, so right there you are looking at $400 for a progressive press set, and another $300 or so for tools and accoutrements. Then there is the ongoing cost of supplies:
| Item | Average Cost, $ |
| Small Primers | 70/1000 |
| Large Primers | 140/1000 |
| Gunpowder | 50/lb |
| Brass | 60/1000 |
| 9mm Bullets | 200/1000 |
| .45 Bullets | 400/1000 |
9mm were the cheapest bullets I looked at, .45 were the most expensive (even more than rifle), so I used those two calibers to give us a good range of costs. So even assuming that we can get the supplies, it costs an average of $620 for 1000 rounds of ammo to be reloaded, plus the cost of the press and equipment, which would be amortized across the ammo you reload with it. It also takes about 2 hours to load 1000 rounds of pistol ammo. More for rifle.
Buying quality stuff, I can buy ammo right now for:
| Caliber | cost $/1000 rounds |
| 62gr, .223 Green Tip | 570 |
| 150gr, .308 | 880 |
| 9mm FMJ | 200 |
| 9mm JHP | 330 |
| .45ACP | 320 |
| 10mm | 1250 |
Except for 10mm and .308, it costs more to reload the calibers I have than it does to simply buy it, and that doesn’t even include what my time is worth.
Yeah, I get that you can load ammo when it is unavailable commercially, but it’s also true that there can be shortages of primers, bullets, and other reloading supplies. I think this is a wash.
Reloading carries a risk. A person loading in their garage is more likely to make an error than commercial reloading. While it is a small risk, it can’t be ignored. If you are running a 4 Sigma reloading operation, then there is a .006% chance that a round will be improperly loaded. That seems pretty good until you realize that one round in every 17,000 will cause a problem. This doesn’t happen in commercially loaded ammunition because they use lasers and precision scales to make sure that defects are rejected before they are sent out.
That leads us to the end. The first thing we see from this post is that there are not many things that we haven’t already looked at in the nearly 7,000 posts and 18 years that this blog has been around.
With that being said, reloading remains a poor choice, at least for me. You may feel differently with regards to your own situation. If you like to sit at the reloading bench, then this may be a good way to spend a Saturday. Some people like to tie flies, some like to load ammo. To each their own.
As a newbie with a number of pieces including a stock M&P 9 Shield 2.0, curious about your Apex preference. Can you go into some depth about the reasoning for that choice one day? What might the CCW neophyte gain by the switch? Thanks!
That’s a great question. I own a few different brands of handguns, but the one I own more of than any other is Smith and Wesson. Beginning with my very first handgun (you never forget your first), a model 59, I have bought dozens of handguns from this manufacturer. I had a few examples of the third generation S&Ws. I stopped buying them for awhile when the company went rogue, then returned to the brand when the began producing the M&P line. The M&P autoloading pistols are, in my opinion, the best that Smith and Wesson has ever made.
But they aren’t perfect. For that reason, there are modifications that I make to every handgun of any brand.
The first thing that I have done to every handgun I have ever purchased is put better sights on it. I have tried a fair few: XS DXT sights, with their large front post allow for a quick sight picture at the expense of a little accuracy, or even the TFO night sights from TruGlo, which have fiber optic for daytime use and Tritium for night time, and the latest, microdot sights.
My favorite microdot sight is currently the Holosun 507k in green. I like the green because I find that I get faster acquisition with it. I have been putting microdots on my handguns since 2019, when I bought a Performance Center Shield Plus because I foolishly thought that I would be able to volunteer for Florida’s Guardian program.
The next modification (going back to at least 2012) that I make is particular to Smith and Wesson M&Ps: an Apex Action Enhancement Kit. This doesn’t apply to the Performance Center, nor to the Shield Plus. I find both of those examples have a decent trigger. Don’t get me wrong, the M&P 2.0 has a much better trigger than the 1.0, but it still needs work. The M&P triggers are by no means the worst triggers I have ever felt. That distinction goes to the Taurus Millennium, because it feels like the trigger is dragging an iron plate across a gravel parking lot. Still, I don’t really like the M&P trigger, as it feels sloppy and gritty at the same time. It just isn’t smooth enough for me.
The Forward Set Trigger kit that I put in this pistol is nice. It comes with springs, trigger, sear, and other parts that allow you to smooth out the trigger pull and set your pull weight. I currently have my pull weight on the 10mm set at about 4 pounds. The new trigger also has a nice, smooth feel with a crisp break.
Installing it is a breeze- just follow the company’s instructional YouTube video, and as long as you have a proper set of tools, it’s a breeze. Essential is a good set of punches, a pistol armorer’s block, a sight pusher tool, and a good set of quality screwdrivers, you can do all of this yourself.
So that is what I generally do to make my handguns feel right for me. Don’t get me wrong, most of the handguns I have owned are perfectly fine right out of the box, but through trial and error, I have found what works for me. You may have a different experience.
The disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I don’t think that I ever will. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.
I once bought some hard to find parts from an online firearms dealer that usually has hard to find parts. The company had a logo that looked like a country boy or hillbilly. I can’t remember the name of the company. I seem to remember that it has something in the name like junior or sonny.
If anyone knows of a company like that, please let me know.
A Federal judge has ruled against the Bureau of All Things Fun and Exciting (BATFE) when they banned Forced Reset Triggers.
O’Connor cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down a ban on bump stocks, another device that allows a gun to be fired at a speed similar to a machine gun. The court found that the legal definition of a machine gun requires the gun to fire continuously while the trigger is held, which neither bump stocks nor forced reset triggers do…[The Mass shooting in Las Vegas was terrible] “But no matter how terrible the circumstances, there is never a situation that justifies a court altering statutory text that was democratically enacted by those who are politically accountable,” he wrote. “That responsibility belongs exclusively to Congress.”
With that being said, I wonder if the window isn’t open for the manufacture of things like the Super Safety, the plans for which can be found on this very website.
Here are pictures from someone who went and made one of the conversion kits for an AR. It is a 3D printed, drop in kit that converts a semiautomatic AR into select fire.
To the ATF: These are not my photos, they have never been in my physical presence, and I don’t even own a dog. I don’t have any weapons that you would consider illegal. I am publishing this strictly for educational purposes. I am advising people to never make one of these, because they are illegal and we are law abiding citizens.
Speaking of DIY, here is a great example of hacking the AR into select fire. As precision machining, 3D printing, and 3D metal printing becomes increasingly miniaturized and cost effective, the debate about gun control becomes more and more useless.
Hamas released a video of their rifle making process.
This is why gun laws don’t work. These guys are making rifles with basic machine shop tools. Now imagine what you can do with a CNC machine.