Guns

Range Day

Took a couple of guns to the range: a Smith and Wesson 10mm M&P pistol shooting Underwood 180 grain XTP bullets, and the 300 Blackout pistol that I jut built, shooting 200 grain subsonic ammunition through a Dead Air Sandman 2 suppressor.

The 300 Blackout was basically a bolt action rifle. It failed to feed nearly every single round. I am thinking that, since the rounds were subsonic and there was a suppressor involved, I either need a lighter buffer or a gas block with a larger port. I will work on that. The gun was very quiet. Accuracy was great, with every single round punching the bullseye at 50 yards. I put a chronograph on 10 of the rounds in two-five round strings:

String 1: 200 grains, 896 feet per second average speed, with a spread of 40 feet per second and a standard deviation of 14 feet per second. Minimum was 876 fps, maximum 916 fps.

String 2: 200 grains, 904 feet per second average speed, with a spread of 54.6 feet per second and a standard deviation of 20 feet per second. Minimum was 879 fps, maximum 934 fps.

The 10mm did well. Recoil was snappy, as usual. Accuracy was good, with 17 of my 20 rounds impacting within the ‘down zero’ ring at 20 yards. Of the other three shots, 2 were in the ‘down one’ ring, and the last was one I pulled, only striking the bottom of the ‘down two’ zone. I think I anticipated that one a bit. I measured a 5 shot string on the chronograph and got:

180 grain bullets, 1264 feet per second average speed, with a spread of 36 feet per second and a standard deviation of 13 feet per second. Minimum was 1243 fps, maximum 1278 fps. That gives us an average kinetic energy of 638 foot pounds. Underwood lists that load at 1300 fps and 676 ft-lb, so I am right there with expected performance from a 4 inch barrel.

and yes, I was practicing with full power defense loads. I try to shoot a box of full power loads at least once a quarter, even if it is more expensive than the range ammo I usually use.

It was too cold for the outdoor range, so there was no possibility of shooting any gelatin. Still, that load for the 10mm is giving an IPSC power factor of 227.5. There aren’t many autoloaders giving that kind of power. For common defensive pistols, on the .357 and .44 Magnums do better, and they are limited to six rounds with slow reloads. I have a 4 inch .357 Magnum, but I don’t yet have a .44. Maybe one day.

By Divemedic, ago

Gun Control Fails Again

Four men, two pairs of brothers, came to Florida to enjoy the state. One returned home, and the other three were standing in the yard of their rental home, preparing to head to the airport, when the man who lived next door shot and killed all three of them. Witnesses and police say that this was a random attack, and there had been no altercation before the shots were fired.

The man who did the killings was known to police. Ahmad Bojeh was arrested in 2021 for randomly firing a gun at people and traffic. He was acquitted due to insanity and released. He was charged with felony drug charges in 2015, and resisting an officer with violence in 2020, but again, charges were dropped. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office was asked whether there were any requirements or safeguards in place, given that he remained in the community and is now accused in a triple homicide. The sheriff’s office referred questions to the State Attorney’s Office, which released a statement saying it cannot comment beyond what has already been made public but will release information when it becomes pertinent.

In other words, the cops and courts didn’t do shit. Again. Our so-called justice system isn’t. It has become a jobs program for useless bureaucrats, and a green light for criminals.

The state claimed we needed red flag laws to stop people from having guns after they fell through the cracks. In other words, people just like this murderer are still killing people, even though the state now has the power to strip everyone else of their rights. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

By Divemedic, ago

FBI Reenters the Caliber Wars

Listen to the below video:

There are 9mm projectiles out there that are doing the same thing the forties are doing, but we can take the full power nines that are still less recoil impulse, high magazine capacity…

I own handguns in all of the major self defense calibers, including a few .40S&W and about three times as many 9 millimeters. I can’t tell you the last time I carried, or even shot, a forty caliber. When the FBI decided to use that caliber, they did so by neutering the 10mm. Why? Because female and limp wristed beta male Federal officers can’t handle the recoil of full power handguns.

I’m just going to say this: The 9mm has been a go to carry piece for me because of capacity and ease of concealment. If I were a Fed and could carry what I wanted without fear of printing or accidentally flashing, I would carry a full sized handgun.

He says it, but in a roundabout way:

I asked the guy at Hornady, why are we seeing huge gains in 9mm performance, but not in the other calibers? His answer was “you allowed us to increase velocity.”

This is a fundamentally misleading statement. The 10mm had plenty of velocity, but you forced the industry to slow it down and called it a .40. That’s why the “S&W” at the end is said to stand for “slow and weak.” The heart of the issue is at 12:45 (paraphrased just a bit):

10mm was fine for some agents, but you can’t hand that to a “Fleet” of 13,000 agents. The 180 grain bullet generates too much recoil, so let’s slow it down. Well, if you slow it down, you might as well go to a 40.

The other issue was the handgun chosen for the 10mm: The model 1076. He says half of the guns bought had to go back to the Performance center to be reworked because the gun didn’t function correctly. That’s a firearm, not a caliber problem. Still, recoil was and remains an issue.

All handguns are tradeoffs. Still, let’s be honest here- the FBI went back to the 9mm because women and soyboys are recoil sensitive, and the 1076 was just a crappy gun.

By Divemedic, ago

Using Your Rights as Weapons

There are only two ways for humans to deal with each other- voluntary interaction or coercion. In a voluntary interaction, both people are free to choose whether or not they will do things with or for each other.

In a coercive interaction, one party chooses to use force (or the threat of it) to control the other. A great example of the two follows:

A man asks if I mind that he smokes a cigar while sitting next to me in the restaurant. I am free to say yes, or to say no.

Or he can do this:

There are those who would see the actions of the steak diner as being the coercive one, but that is not correct in my opinion. By lighting the cigar and smoking it in a restaurant, he is forcing everyone around him to smell his smoke. His actions are affecting others whether they like it or not. The only response to this is to respond with force of your own. The steak eating man asked nicely, but the smoker felt that he would be protected by society’s rules, and used them as a weapon to force others into smelling his cigar.

Now apply that to those who stand in the road as a form of protest. They have taken their right to protest and turned it into a form of coercion: society is being forced to bend to the protesters’ will, or the protesters are not going to allow anyone to get where they need to go.

People are using the rules of a polite society as weapons to be wielded against the very society which protects them and their right to protest.

There are those on the right who would do the same. Carrying an AR-15 into Starbucks, simply because it is legal to do so is a similar tactic.* Don’t be an asshole, and don’t lecture me about how it’s your right.

It’s possible to have the RIGHT to do something and still be an asshole.

Just food for thought…

.

*You carry a handgun because you might be in a gunfight. If you WILL be in a gunfight, bring a long gun. Also remember that the best way to survive a gunfight is not to be in a gunfight in the first place. If your local Starbucks is that dangerous, perhaps you could get coffee elsewhere. There is a difference between being armed and being provocative.

By Divemedic, ago

Why I Stopped Shooting IDPA

Watch this video, then read the comments.

I used to shoot IDPA. I won some local matches, but never did well at state. I originally got into IDPA because I wanted to improve my skills in more realistic conditions than simple static targets at a standard range. I liked the shooting, and I liked some of the people. I got to meet some shooting celebrities, including Mas Ayoob.

What I hated were the people who were gaming it. I used to call it “the rules committee.” They would stand there with the rulebook as they disputed and debated nearly every single thing that happened. A couple of them figured out that it was faster to shoot magazines empty by dumping than it was for them to keep partially full mags. They were called on it, and debated for almost ten minutes that IDPA rules only said they have to keep partially full mags, but didn’t prohibit firing extra shots.

It was debates like this, and the ones in comments to the above video, that make shooting not fun. To those people, it isn’t about shooting, it’s about winning. It’s about debating and getting your way. It scares off new shooters who don’t want to deal with the bullshit. It’s tedious. I avoid people like that, so I stopped shooting IDPA almost 20 years ago.

By Divemedic, ago

Federal Firearms License

Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Act, legislation that would require that individuals obtain a federal firearm license before purchasing or receiving a firearm. A license would require:

  • Fingerprints and background checks
  • Signoff from local officials
  • Be required for each firearm
  • Expire in 5 years
  • even being arrested or accused of a crime is enough for denial
  • License holders would be placed on a ‘watch list’ called “RAP Back”
  • prohibit a licensee from giving or loaning a firearm to someone else without using a dealer

No. Just no. This is so incredibly unconstitutional.

By Divemedic, ago

Ballistics

I made the post about the rifle stand that is 600 yards from Trump’s aircraft, pointing out that a 600 yard shot on a moving person is MUCH more difficult to achieve than the 150 yard shot made against Charlie Kirk. I immediately got people coming on here talking about how a 600 yard shot is easy. I stand behind what I said, and I can show evidence as to why I think I am correct. As usual for this blog, I show my work.

Let’s start with this hit probability calculator from Bison Ballistics.

Let’s say that our would be assassin is armed with a 300 Win-Mag. Production rifles with a Sub-MOA guarantee are fairly few. Let’s use a Weatherby in the sub $1000 price range. We can use a 180 grain bullet, leaving the barrel at 3,000 fps. With that ammo, our shooter is good enough to make hits in the neighborhood of 1 MOA. That translates to 6 inch groups at 600 yards. We will assume that the shooter and the glass is good enough to perfectly get the best performance from this rifle and ammo combination. We will also assume that his standard deviation in muzzle velocity is +/- 40 fps.

The target is 2.1 MOA, or about 13″, wide (the size of a large man’s A-zone).

Weather at the Palm Beach airport is pretty standard: 83 degF, humidity is 74%, and winds are blowing at 4 mph from over the the shooter’s 2 o’clock. Barometer is 30.02 inches of mercury and steady. There is a slight 0.3 mph and 8 degree random variation in wind.

Let’s type all of that into the calculator, and see what we get. In all, I pushed that button 40 times. Out of 40 pushes, 16 of them hit the target. So a 40% hit rate. I think that we can agree that this is pretty good conditions for a shot like this, good rifle, ammo, weather, shooter, and in this calculator, the target isn’t moving.

Our shooter is going to have to make his hit with the first shot. Assume that the SS detail that Trump has now is the best that the SS has to offer, unlike the Pennsylvania shooting, when he was assigned DHS employees who were working overtime. Counter sniper and counter assault teams are going to do their best to ensure that a second shot doesn’t happen. So he will have to make a first shot count.

That’s a tough shot. Yeah, I know. Some guy is going to come on here and tell me how he is hitting a 2 inch circle at 600 yards while wearing a blindfold, using iron sights and factory ammo. Just like Lee Harvey Oswald made a head shot on a target in a moving limo from 85 yards with a ragged out Carcano (known for its 2 MOA accuracy). Now tell me that your average leftist can do the same.

By Divemedic, ago

GIGO

Every so often, a set of statistics comes up where I can show evidence that it is likely false. Like this one:

Look at Florida. This claims that there are under 29% of households with a firearm in it. Let’s take a look at the actual numbers.

There are approximately 14.6 million adults over the age of 21 in Florida. About 2 million of them are ineligible for a concealed weapons permit because of criminal history, immigration status, domestic violence orders, etc.. There are 3 million people licensed to carry firearms in the state (including cops, retired cops, judges, and others), even though they aren’t required for concealed carry. This likely means CCW holders are underrepresented, but it’s the best proxy we have. Still, this means that roughly 24 percent of Florida’s eligible adult population has a CCW permit. Now assume that not all legal gun owners have a CCW permit, and not all people who are ineligible for a permit or gun ownership are without a firearm. (In other words, have a gun despite the fact that it is illegal for them to do so.)

This makes me believe that this number is not accurate. What likely happened was that a survey taker called random people and asked them “Do you have a gun in your house?” and the person said, “Nope, lost them all in a tragic boating accident during the last hurricane, when the gators ate them.”

Now extrapolate that to the three states where less than 10% of the households own guns: Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Do you think the numbers there are likely higher?

In researching this post, I also came across this interesting fact: There were 15 million hunting licenses issued in the entire US in 2018. At the same time, more than 21 million people have concealed weapons permits, even though the number of people with permits is dropping as more states become Constitutional Carry states. This indicates to me that gun culture 2.0, the move from guns being about hunting to guns being about defense, has taken over the entire gun culture.

By Divemedic, ago