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December 7, 2005

When Being a Good Guy Isn't Enough - A Tactical Analysis of the Tyler Courthouse Shooting and the Tacoma Mall Shooting by Syd

November 19, 2005

Black Hills IWB Holster Model BH76

November 15, 2005

Bianchi Agent Slim Speedloader Pouch

Aker Magazine and Flashlight Carrier

From the master:

" It remains clear that minor-caliber cartridges are not working in Iraq. The consensus we get back from the war zone is that while the .223 is a reasonably reliable stopper when hits are delivered to the upper-torso region, it is not a really good answer to a fight. The Parabellum cartridge of 1908 is simply not a good idea, except possibly in the full-automatic mode, as with the machine pistol. As a sidearm cartridge it does not measure up--or have I mentioned that before? " -- Jeff Cooper, Guns & Ammo, July 2005

Best Gun Quote of the Year:

“An ordinance that seeks to reduce the murder rate by disarming those owners who are not criminals makes about as much sense as fighting alcoholism by prohibiting beer sales to Mormons.” – Steve Chapman on RealClearPolitics

November 13, 2005

Safariland Comp 1 Speedloader
A J-frame revolver speedloader I really like

November 9, 2005

Proposition H

It's truly tragic when a group of people vote to give up their constitutional rights. Early returns indicate that "Proposition H," the gun ban in San Francisco has passed. Approximately 40% of registered voters turned out to vote. It is particularly ironic given that San Francisco is a city so keen on asserting "civil rights," especially for gay people, a "right" which stands on a considerably more flimsy basis from a constitutional perspective than does our right to keep and bear arms. Hopefully, this unconstitutional city ordinance can be overturned in the courts, but it's sad nonetheless. It seems that the benighted folk of San Francisco have forgotten that all of our civil rights, including the "right" to live unconventional lifestyles, is grounded in the universal right to self-defense and self-determination. The first and fourth amendments would not exist without the second.

It appears that the citizens of San Francisco, or at least 22% (56% of 40%) of them, are willing to trade their freedom for Orwell's dark vision of an all-seeing police state which will protect them from all threats at the price of their souls. They seem to want to bask in the benefits of freedom, without bearing its responsibilities, and it never works that way, never.

San Francisco appears to have learned nothing from 9-11 and nothing from Katrina. They seem to have learned nothing from twenty years of successful concealed carry legislation. They have learned nothing from England's failed experiment in gun control. It’s pathetic and contemptible.

What San Francisco has done is to join into that elite club of murder capitals such as Chicago, Baltimore, Washington D.C., London and New York. They have condemned their own citizens to a reign of terror. I feel deeply and genuinely sorry for them. Their nightmare has just begun.
 

November 8, 2005

Galco Classic Lite Shoulder Holster

November 2, 2005

The Smith & Wesson Model 60-15 3” .357 Magnum
“Stretch” Snubby is a Solid Performer

October 25, 2005

The Brazilian Gun Ban Fails

The Brazilian gun vote is huge. It may be bigger than the “Protection of Lawful Commerce Act” in the long run. Bravo to the freedom loving citizens of Brazil! The Brazilian Gun Ban was a campaign driven, guided, and funded by international gun control interests, and was backed by the government of Brazil, the Catholic Church and the United Nations, among others.

NRA public affairs director Andrew Arulanandam called the proposal's defeat "a victory for freedom." "It's a stunning defeat for the global gun control movement. They poured millions of dollars and millions more man hours trying to enact this gun ban and they failed. The aim of this gun ban movement was to use Brazil as the rallying point to enact gun bans in the United States. We're happy they were defeated," he said.

Anti-gun campaigners said the defeat was the result of people's desire to protest against the government's security policy. "We didn't lose because Brazilians like guns. We lost because people don't have confidence in the government or the police," said Denis Mizne, of anti-violence group Sou da Paz. "The 'No' campaign was much more effective. They are talking about a right to have a gun – it is a totally American debate."

If it is a “totally American debate,” that kind of makes me proud, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s a human debate about the right of free people to maintain an effective means self-defense and self-determination.

This one was huge, not just for Brazil but for all of us. As Steve Kingstone of the BBC said, “For the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that any government will feel able to revisit the guns issue – such was the deafening volume of the ‘No’ vote.”

Now, our hope is that freedom will dawn in places like Great Britain and South Africa.
 

October 5, 2005

Why Carry a Revolver?

July 9, 2005

Concealed Carry and Terrorist Threats By Syd

July 7, 2005

The Danger in Covering the Ejection Port While Racking the Slide - Bullet explodes injuring hand (ouch!) By Warren

June 29, 2005

Defensive Pistol Practice and Training – Some basic understandings By Syd

June 22, 2005

Why the M1911 Pistol?
Thoughts and testimonials from soldiers, cops and trainers on the M1911:

“The 1911 pistol remains the service pistol of choice in the eyes of those who understand the problem. Back when we audited the FBI academy in 1947, I was told that I ought not to use my pistol in their training program because it was not fair. Maybe the first thing one should demand of his sidearm is that it be unfair.”

— Col. Jeff Cooper, GUNS & AMMO, January 2002

June 18, 2005

The Sight M1911 Blog
Well, hell. Everybody else has one...

June 11, 2005

Revisiting the .38 Special Snub-nose

If you like this art, visit Oleg's site. Click Here.

June 3, 2005

“I read in American Rifleman a couple of months ago a review of one of the many, I don't remember which, but it was one of the high price spread 1911's out on the market. The reviewer went on about how nice a gun this was and how he'd just love to own one. At the end of the article he tells how the slide will not stay open on the last round and this is with the factory supplied magazine. He states that the gun needs a little "tweaking". Does anybody but me find this a little odd that you shell out $900.00 or so for a pistol and you can not expect it to work properly when stone cold new out of the box.”

You're right. A $900 pistol should work right stone cold new out of the box. It took John Browning, the Colt shop, and the Army Ordnance Board six years to develop the M1911, and that came on the heels of another 10 previous years that JMB had spent tinkering around with autoloader designs. And also, a part of that process was the design of a cartridge with a particular powder, bullet, and case which was built with and for the pistol. If today's manufacturers, including Colt, would build them just like they did in 1911, and if people would only load them with 230g GI ball ammo, they would have the legendary reliability that saved the lives of countless GI's in the 20th Century and beyond.

Today's manufacturers seem to bring out a new pistol every week, often with "design innovations" that haven't been adequately tested. We, the consumer, want something new to write articles about and show off at matches. We want a gun that weighs four ounces of rare metal, that conceals in a watch pocket, that launches exotic death ray hollowpoints that run at 2400 fps., that prints a .5" pattern at 100 yards, that's lawyer friendly, California approved, with internal locking systems, loaded chamber indicators, firing pin blocks (so that if we drop them off the Empire State Building on their muzzles they won't go off) and we want it yesterday. If they don't do this, they go broke. Colt went broke. Dan Wesson had to sell out to CZ. Ithaca went broke. Charter Arms has gone broke so many times that it's comical.

I'm not saying that it's our fault as consumers, but the competitive marketplace plus consumer and legal demands on gun builders is not the ideal environment for the production of this gun. The M1911 is a great design – in my humble opinion still the fastest and best shooting of the autos – but it is a design from an era in which quality handguns were hand fit by craftsmen who cared about what they were doing. Consequently, it's wise to let someone who knows these pistols to give them a good looking over before they're deployed for serious business.

The Elements of a Trigger Job on an M1911 Pistol

Kimber Pro Carry: A Modern Classic by Syd

The True Story of the Beretta M9 Pistol. by Tim Chandler

Kimber Pro CDP II - by Syd
Review and survey of what's happened with the M1911 since 1905 (well, sort of...)

Colt Commander - Evolution and Development
Pictorial history of the Colt Commander

Background Information on the United States Pistol Caliber .45 M1911 - Development history of the M1911 .45 Caliber Automatic Pistol including the Thompson-LaGarde cadaver tests of 1904

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