M16’s, ladies and gentlemen. Still in the crate and all of their select-fire fun still intact… What a find! The Texas couple had these delivered to their home ready packed. Some private somewhere, told to be decommissioning these crates for surplus, and their NCO are about to catch merry hell. The armory who are supposed to be in custody of these, and it might be contracted out too so a civilian agency woops, are going to have their books tossed by DoD and ATF as applicable.
Fun times.
To be fair, very fair, to the couple who bought the alleged surplus crates and only crates, getting found with missing military weapons that you just ‘didn’t get around to filing a report for’ after finding them would court all kinds of legal troubles. The ATF would probably be sympathetic, as they seem to be in this case, up to a point but that failure to report would likely result a charge or few. Probably a single violation of the NFA, depending upon how cooperative you were after discover, and that single violation can still catch you a 10 year prison term.
Not fun.
Still, the temptation to just not make too much noise about a find like that would be substantial. Those appear to be M16A2′ and those are largely decommissioned rifles pulled from all forms of duty. So they got fumbled in transit somewhere noncritical going to somewhere else noncritical since the military is fielded up with M4’s, A4’s, M4A1’s, and M27’s at the moment. No unit needing rifles would be missing these rifles, these are meant to sit dusty as an Indiana Jones artifact taken into government custody by “top men” and lost.
Which is exactly how the couple got them in the first place, they got lost in the .gov transportation pipes. That happens, a lot more than you would think. Just google search how many nukes we are missing.
Or don’t. It’s not a confidence inspiring number, nor how they went missing.
Mossberg created an entirely new fad in the shotgun world. They released the Retrograde series a few years back, and since then, everyone has made a retro shotgun. These can be both riot and trench guns. We are seeing lots of wood furniture equipped shotguns, some with heat shields, some with bayonet mounts, and most embrace that retro look. The Retrograde series has become a favorite of mine, and I own three of them. Today we are looking at the Mossberg 500 Retrograde.
The 500 Retrograde shotgun is a lightweight, pump-action shotgun that’s about as simple as a shotgun gets. The 500 Retrograde is very simple and is the most affordable of the Retrograde series. The Mossberg 500 is a very simple shotgun and is an American classic. The Retrograde series of guns harkens back to the good old days of the simplistic riot gun, and that’s exactly what the 500 Retrograde is.
The 500 Retrograde Riot Gun
So what’s a riot gun? Typically they are defined as repeating shotguns with 18 to 20-inch barrels and simplistic operation. Pump action shotguns are the most common riot guns. The term riot gun is a bit an old-school term that goes back to the first successful pump action shotgun, the Winchester Model 1897.
The Mossberg 500 Retrograde wears wood furniture with a dark finish. The wood furniture also takes an old-school approach. This includes the famed honeycomb pump action. This means you get a nice aggressive level of grip texture. The stock is also dark wood with a textured pistol grip. At the end of the stock sits a classic recoil pad.
The barrel is 18.5 inches long and fit with a standard gold bead sight. The magazine tube is capped at five rounds, and at the end of the tube sits a sling swivel. A matching sling swivel sits attached to the stock as well. The finish is a nice rich black finish that’s a bit glossy and deliciously old school.
The gun weighs only 6.75 pounds, so it’s nice and light. Light is good with shotguns, and a light gun is an agile gun. A light gun is an easy-to-manipulate gun.
The Mossberg 500 Retrograde At the Range
This little light gun handles well. It’s fairly ergonomic with a decent length of pull. It might feel a little long for some, but at 13.78 inches with the recoil pad, it’s not terrible. Mounting the gun is easy, and the comb aligns well with the bead sight. The aggressive texturing of the pump and the pistol grip texturing makes a good push-pull technique easy.
This helps you beat recoil and makes the light gun kicks a lot less like a mule and a bit more like a mad rabbit. Controlling the gun isn’t hard. The action cycles rapidly and fairly smoothly. Mossberg pumps famously have a bit of slack to them, but the 500 Retrograde feels smooth and rapid.
As a pump action, it’s awesomely reliable. The gun blasts through anything from two inches to 3 inches long. Some 1.75-inch mini shells cycle fairly well but are not reliable enough for anything but plinking. Adding an Opsol mini clip might be a great way to go if mini shells are your thing.
The main problem I have with Mossberg and their bead sights is the fact it’s pasted directly to the barrel. Other companies figured out long ago to raise that bead. The Mossberg appears to hit high if you rely on the bead sight. You have to aim at their belly button to hit them in the chest.
I added a set of TAC Star bolt on sights. Admittedly these sights aren’t very rugged and will be removed fairly soon and replaced with a red dot anyway. They work fine for plinking and blasting away for fun with slugs at 500 and 100 yards.
Classic Shoulder Artillery
The Mossberg 500 Retrograde is a handy little shotgun with some old cool stylings. Sure, you could add an M-LOK pump, a Magpul SGA stock, and all the tactical doo dads you want. However, that kills the joy of the Retrograde series. I added a Steiner Mk7 and the sights, and I might add a Velcro side saddle, but the wood furniture is staying put.
There are more modern options for home defense, but if classic stylings are your cup of tea, then the Mossberg 500 Retrograde is about as classic as it gets. The 590 series are nice guns, but they aren’t classics like the 500 series, and I feel the 500 series is as classic as it gets and wears the wood furniture well.
Check out the Retrograde series. Mossberg started the trend and, to me, still has the best Retro riot gun on the market.
If like me, you’re a fan of classic cinema then you are no doubt familiar with Steve Martin’s “The Jerk”.
While there are several iconic scenes in the movie, the relevant one to this article is where Navin is writing settlement checks and goes on his famous “This is all I need” rant:
I see a lot of concealed carriers getting caught up in similar thinking.
All they need is this pistol.
And this spare magazine.
And this red dot.
And this tactical knife.
And this med kit.
And this backup gun.
And this pepper spray.
And this handheld flashlight.
And this weapon-mounted light.
All of a sudden you have someone that works in accounting or IT that’s carrying a load out that rivals what you find on a police officer’s duty belt!
It’s easy for newcomers to the concealed carry lifestyle to find themselves caught up in this cycle of gear acquisition, especially when driven by the mantra “it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”.
There are, however, practical limitations to that thought process, otherwise, we’d all be running around with rifles and plate carriers.
Many of my friends and mentors are fond of an expression coined by the late Pat Rogers “Mission drives the gear train”
If your job is to run towards the sound of gunfire or to detain people that really don’t want to be detained, the equipment necessary to do that looks very different than the toolset needed to “break contact” (to steal a line from Claude Werner, the Tactical Professor).
This is challenging because it requires a really objective, self-aware analysis of your needs and risk profile. It’s much easier to just whip out the credit card and buy another solution.
If your lifestyle realistically supports carrying all that equipment, that’s awesome. I won’t sit here and tell you that you’re wrong, or that there’s even a better way to do it. Unfortunately “optimal” and “practical” are sometimes in opposition. Don’t let your desire to be “ready for anything” override your needs and reality.
Image of ArtPrize Exhibit "Right to Bear Cute Arms"
A troubling current trend in the wake of any tragedy involving firearms and violence is to mock and belittle those who offer their thoughts, prayers, condolences, and even open their personal resources to help the victims and community. Unless you are rapidly attacking the very existence of firearms and proposing absurdly impractical solutions to solving the complex equations of violent motivations, you aren’t doing enough.
But those impractical and entirely unworkable solutions, along with most efforts to bring “awareness” to the violence (believe us, everyone knows), are just another spin on the same idea. We are sorry this even happened, we do not like that it happened, we want to support the victims… thoughts and prayers.
So, to ArtPrize we go… (A delightful interactive Art Exhibition in Grand Rapids, Michigan if you weren’t aware)
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Moved by the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in May, a Danish artist decided she would create a piece for ArtPrize that illustrates the number of lives lost in mass shootings in the U.S.
Fair, it is a topic we are bombarded with comparative to its risk for a number of reasons. The most sickening being that the clicks sell, they generate traffic to the sources covering the horrific event. It isn’t that we cannot or should not cover a horrific event, but the attention has a distinct negative effect too when it is a deliberately caused event. This is an unavoidable negative consequence of our largely open information system.
Publicity fuels these particular type of dangerous people. This pastel modeled AR-15 and its pile of rounds representing the slain will fall into the evil amalgamation of motivational forces that drive these terrifying killers. Someone, someday, somewhere, will want to add to that total. That isn’t a normal, moral, or rational thought, but it is going to be one someone has sometime in the future. There is dickall we can do to stop that thought from forming and being acted upon, we can only disincentivize it. We can only make it cost too much, to be worth too little, and we cannot possibly make it too costly or too worthless for every evil person.
There is value in life… and therefore there is value in taking life.
“We heard a lot about that in Denmark and about the statistics…,” Junette Bay, the artist behind “The right to bear cute arms,” said. “…I read a lot about mass shootings in America and I heard a lot from podcasts and about how many weapons there is here.”
I would be curious to hear and read these sources.
Which ones are more emotive hot take versus the far less emotive data from which we try and make best practices, policy and response improvements, search for better indicators, and any number of other things we and try and do to generate positive outcome interventions earlier and prior to an event. What we constantly fail to acknowledge is that this isn’t just a herculean task, it is impossible without removing human free agency entirely. Media and LE sources have been focusing heavily on any stopped event than can, due to the very toxic public perception of law enforcement ineptitude after Uvalde.
We can’t switch off evil (minus ballistically under very specific legal circumstances). We can’t get people to return their shopping carts, an act that costs nearly no effort and provides the small reward of knowing you helped the staff of the establishment, and yet we seem to believe
Bay is a designer, muralist and street artist in Denmark. She said that her ArtPrize entry is “very different” than what she normally does.
“The art that I do is very cheerful. I use pastel colors and patterns and people always tell me that it is very uplifting to look at my art. But when I heard about this happening in America, I felt that I was not going to do a piece that was going to be uplifting. So I wanted to do something a little more serious,” Bay said.
“Serious” art, something looking to generate a darker introspection, takes a tremendous amount of effort, not least of which comes from the context of the art and the context viewers bring to the art. Some art works in that regard very well, viewers perspectives help shape their experience in the viewing but they all grow with the experience.
This, by contrast, well…
During her research, she said she wanted to depict an AR-15 because “it is the most commonly used for mass shootings.”
It is not. Handguns are. By a substantial margin…
So here, in her carefullyresearched work from Denmark via podcasts and the internet, she already has failed her viewers and herself in trying to depict the costs of violence upon the innocent. She has taken inaccurate information, easily verifiable, and used it within her messaging. So to her viewers who know better, she is lying or ignorant. To her viewers who do not know better, she is spreading false information and making them ignorant liars by proxy.
And if the counter argument to that is, “Well this is art. It’s really only to make you feel a certain way. Make you think, you know?”
Oh? Make me think? To generate thoughts and pray we come up with a solution? That is a noble effort, except the piece is actively mocking what it is itself doing. Perhaps she only means the thoughts and prayers of politicians, which I would concur are often as worthless as their promises, and if so I think that message gets lost in the overgeneralization.
Perhaps she could take specific statements from politco types over the various events and point those out specifically, not mock everyone who feels sorry the community who is hurting by telling them they aren’t helping right, followed up by doing nothing particularly useful yourself because you don’t know any better solution either.
“I tried to get a replica from Denmark but that is not possible. So I ordered a replica from a California company that (makes) props for the movie industry,” Bay said.
Hmm, looks possible
She painted the replica AR-15 with her signature style of pastels and patterns. She said the contrast between the cheerful colors and childlike patterns and the deadly weapon gave her a constant knot in her stomach.
This comment, not a quote but a comment within the story, feels like hyperbole. Some of the same we’ve seen around the AR-15 before when trying to describe its destructive capabilities in ludicrous fashion. PTSD inducing effects… in a rifle that a six year old can fire without discomfort.
“I was feeling sick really because the light and cheerful colors and the object that is designed for killing, combining theses two, just feels so wrong,” Bay said.
Umm.. yours is fake… these are not.
Bright colors were embraced by the firearms community for fun a long time ago. This color scheme is far from an original concept and has been done repeatedly upon working firearms, some even that parents have done for their children to making shooting a more fun experience for them.
Because shooting is fun, is safe, and can be learned in a safe manner as children mature and learn other safe practices. This has been done for centuriesnow.
Along with the AR-15, the Danish artist created 3D printed bullets, each one representing a different mass shooting that has happened in the U.S. this year. As of Sept. 19, there were 573. The bullets have the words “thoughts and prayers” on them.
If you couldn’t tell, this is where the art project really fell off the track for me. Mocking thoughts and prayers with an art exhibit that is nothing more than something to provoke thought and praying it will ‘trigger meaningful change’ or some other such lofty ‘goal’ that doesn’t translate well into policy, mental health awareness, criminal prosecution practices, or any of the other myriad topics that influence rates of stress triggered violence, recidivism, criminal mischief, extreme sadism elements, and all the other influences that combine to form a violent outburst seems unproductive too.
People insist upon treating gun crime like it is this linear item we can do very simple things about, when it’s more like watching for natural disasters forming by reading as much sign as we can.
A mass shooter is a tornado, a wildfire, a hurricane in human skin, except we have exceptionally more superior tools for tracking weather effects and atmospherics (and still get it wrong on the daily) and we’re nowhere near to being able to track the emotional atmospherics of a person, to say nothing of 330,000,000 of them (for the US) or 7,000,000,000 globally.
Especially if they are motivated to hide problems, which they are.
“(These) words are used a lot here, and these are just words. It doesn’t seem like there is any action behind the words,” she said.
Like making a brightly colored AR replica might be an image worth thousands of words, but it isn’t delving into motives, causes, multi-tiered effects of policy decisions, and other things that take the problem on in a more direct manner? Because those are hard? Because those don’t always have nice clean answers? Because those don’t always end in an ‘answer’ at all?
She said she’s excited to hear people’s arguments for and against guns as well as their personal experiences. Since installing her artwork at the DeVos Place Convention Center, she said she has received a lot of feedback from visitors.
“I’ve seen some of the reactions and some of them almost made me cry,” Bay said. “There was some teachers coming up to me and saying, ‘Thank you for doing this,’ and also younger people are thanking me.”
That is fantastic that the piece is garnering attention and generating a dialogue, those fall into the thought category of thoughts and prayers. The question remains does anyone have a good idea on what to do now?
I do mean a good idea, one that has been thought out to its second and third order effects. The realistic likely effects of the policy or policies and their positive and negative outcomes, possible or probable consequences, and any unintended consequences that can be speculated on like the opening of additional illegal market spaces to compensate for a demand.
In short, this is nothing that will be solved by abstract art and people agreeing that violence against children is a bad thing. It doesn’t make the exhibit bad, or wrong, or useless, but it isn’t anything more than another form of condolences.
I’m a man who appreciates minimalist gear. I’m a Florida man, it’s hot, and wearing plate carriers all the time isn’t fun. Little rigs can be a blast, especially when I want to LARP as a modern-day version of Neil McCauley. Since the Forgotten Weapons Heat vests sucked, I had to settle for the Dank Robber.
Settled sounds mean. The Dank Robber is an awesome rig that would do any larper proud. Beyond LARPers, I could certainly see something like this being fairly handy for police officers who might need to employ a patrol rifle on occasion. The rig is small and easily stowed out of the way until it’s needed. When ended, the Dank Robber provides enough at-hand gear and ammo to stay in the fight. The Dank Robber comes from Unobtainium Gear and is one of their many awesome rigs.
Its small size and broad adjustments make it easy to squeeze over armor and deploy in a flash. Its design also allows it to be fairly versatile and be used for more than stacking mags.
The Dank Robber Defining Minimalism
I don’t think a minimalist rig gets much smaller than the Dank Robber. It’s ultra-small and is basically the sum of its many pockets and attachments. It’s hanging pockets essentially, and that’s not bad for a minimalist rig. The base of the Dank Robber is three layers of mil-spec elastic. These three layers form two rows of pockets.
The straps are just simple straps without anything fancy on them. There is no padding, just buckles and adjustment tabs. You can utilize the strap in a few different ways. I set the rig up using the two rear straps as an X strap, but you can wear it any way you want.
Keeping Things Versatile
We have the rear, larger pockets designed for rifle magazines, and the front panels designed for smaller, handgun-sized mags. The larger pockets are big enough to hold AR or AK magazines. These pouches are fairly large, and you can fit a variety of tools in them, from H bandages and beyond.
The front pockets are perfectly sized for handgun mags or similar-sized tools. Shove your favorite sheathed knife, multitool, tourniquet, or whatever in here. These smaller pockets are also big enough to fit SMG-type magazines. If you want to ignore the reach pouches and make this an SMG-themed rig, you easily can.
To the side, you have two large pouches that allow you to fit radios, a small IFAK, a Nalgene bottle, or dang near anything else you can shove into it. It’s a little extra room that allows you to fit a variety of goodies. Below the mag pouches sit a few elastic loops that will fit a tourniquet just right, but you can also shove a pair of gloves in there, a light, or whatever you need.
For such a small kit, it has tons of potential and room to store goodies. The Dank Robber provides in a surprisingly gracious way.
Feeling the Heat Around the Corner….
None of the above matters if the kit just doesn’t work. The elastic is fairly tight, and retention doesn’t seem to be an issue. I’ve used the rig for several months now, and I leave it loaded. That keeps things fairly reliable. Even under different levels of movement, the mags don’t move.
Jump, run, kick, and practice your sweet karate moves with the faith that your magazine is staying put. The elastic eats up most of the mag, but enough is left exposed to make grabbing and going easy. Reloading isn’t hard, and you can get a good grip on the mag before it gets tossed in the gun.
If you are an extendo fan, watch how long your magazine is in regards to your magazine. It can get in the way if it’s too long.
With the Dank Robber, your pistol and rifle pouches are clung together. My SIG 21-round P320 mags seem to be just the right length to stay out of the way. On the flip side, you might find that Glock 19 mags and those of similar size are just too short to easily retrieve. You have to find the right balance to make it work.
When you have three loaded 9mm mags and three loaded 5.56 mags, things can feel a little heavy. It’s no combat load, but the thin straps let you feel that weight. You pay for minimalism sometimes, and straps show that.
Still, even with my meager complaints, the Dank Robber is one of my favorite minimalist rigs. It’s ultra-light and very small. Easy to keep tucked away in a go bad but always ready. It’s about as small as you can go without getting ridiculous.
In pushing to keep people who comply with state law (instead of going around it as can easily be done by anyone motivated enough) from exercising their constitutional rights, Biden’s DOJ has really laid their animosity for gun owners and legal cannabis users bare (link above). Federal arguments that historical revocation of 2A rights by “dangerous groups” like Native Americans and Catholics allow the current American government to bar gun ownership by legal potheads aren’t even the wildest part.
In the ongoing lawsuit against the DOJ, the department recently filed a motion to dismiss, in which, the government described law-abiding citizens choosing to use cannabis products as ‘tramps,’ ‘mentally ill,’ ‘criminals,’ ‘lunatics,’ ‘panhandlers,’ and ‘unvirtuous.’ and unworthy of the 2A rights we grant to the average alcoholic?
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, who is party to the lawsuit in her official capacity, has responded to the uncharitable characterization as “…as ‘contradictory and unstable’ as their overall marijuana policy…”. Merrick Gardland, the listed defendant in the lawsuit, has spoken publicly on the topic, and described cannabis use as “nonviolent” and that it “does not cause societal harm”. Other states have figured this out, and made their own rulings. Oregon settled the issue internally in 2011, with the state supreme court ruling that simply having a medical card could not disqualify someone from exercising their 2A rights. Apparently the Feds don’t care.
So where do we find the meeting of the truth and federal policy? The DOJ might organizationally believe what they are saying (though one would hope that they don’t actually think referencing a ban on catholic gun ownership is a valid argument), but the people in charge apparently don’t. Is the institutional inertia of the drug war too great? Is the 2A aspect of this making them twist themselves in knots to justify something the don’t believe? Are the financial interests and political influence of the Private Prison system too great? Is this schizophrenia just part and parcel of the current justice system?
In the 1911 world there are several frame sizes. The Government Model, Commander, and Officer’s Model are the most common. Both steel and aluminum frames are common. These handguns feature 5, 4 ¼ and 3 ½ inch barrel lengths.
The Commander has the full size firing grip of the Government Model with a shorter slide. The Officer’s Model features a shorter grip frame. Then there are new variations. The four inch barrel which eliminates the barrel bushing and uses a belled barrel for lock up is used in many modern handguns. Then there are 3 inch barrel variants.
One of the more interesting variants is the CCO. This is the Commanding Officer’s Model. At first this was a non standard lash-up by custom gunsmiths. The Commander length slide with its 4 ¼ inch barrel with barrel bushing was used along with a short Officers Model frame. The pistol was the best of both worlds they said with a Commander length slide and sight radius for balance and accuracy and an Officer’s Model frame for concealed carry. Some of the custom guns ran well and of course some did not. Colt made a short run of these pistols in factory form.
Enter SIG Sauer doing what they do best, manufacturing a reliable and accurate pistol at an affordable price.
The Comfortable Concealed Carry SIG C3 features a Commander length slide with Officer’s Model frame. This comes off the best of any CCO type in my opinion. The stainless slides features a slide contour unique to SIG. The barrel is 4.25 inches long and uses a standard 1911 type barrel bushing. If you design a pistol shorter than 4.25 inch you must use a bushingless lockup to allow the barrel to tilt sufficiently. The C3 neatly uses the standard length. The ejection port is generous. It allows not only easy ejection of spent cases but ease in removing a full length unfired cartridge from the chamber, something that is iffy with original small slide windows. The pistol features a trouble free external extractor. Cocking serrations are well cut. The hammer is skeletonized. The beavertail grip safety leads the hand into the frame, reduces the bore axis slightly, and even helps spread recoil about. The slide lock safety is positive in operation.
Trigger compression is a smooth consistent 5.5 pounds even. The slide is stainless steel while the aluminum frame is nicely anodized. The pistol features nicely done front strap checkering. The mainspring housing is also checkered. The grips may be rosewood or cocobolo. They are nicely checkered. The combination of checkered grips and properly checkered front strap and mainspring housing make for a good gripping surface. The pistol’s short grip fits most hands well and conceals easier than the true Commander length. Be careful and take your time first in dry fire and then in live fire as you fire the pistol. There is a tendency to fire low for those of us used to the full length handle. It is easily adjusted to.
On the range the C3 was fired with Remington 230 grain FMJ load. This is my usual outdoors load when hiking and makes a formidable anti personnel loading. While we should take advantage of expanding bullet technology the .45 is an effective cartridge with hardball loads. The pistol comes on target quickly. Combat accuracy, firing quickly, is good excellent. The pistol is controllable and allows fast follow up shots. Slow fire accuracy isn’t as important but always interesting. The pistol is properly sighted for 230 grain loads at 15 yards using the six o’clock hold. I fired a five shot group at 15 yards with both the Remington 230 grain FMJ and Federal’s 205 grain Syntech hollow point. Three shots went into 2.0 inch on average. The pistol is reliable, fast handling, and features SIG reliability. It is a formidable handgun for those who prefer the 1911.
In this episode of Gunday Brunch, the boys are describing their “I wish the industry made this gun” and accidentally end up building guns for a cyberpunk fire team.
But this week we have a special giveaway! Post your “I wish the industry made this gun” in the comments and you could win a gift certificate for a free slide milling from C&H Precision!
PHLster makes excellent holsters and concealment systems Photo Credit: PHLster.com
Rhett Neumayer of Demonstrated Concepts LLC has been pushing the boundaries of what concealed carry, especially deep concealment looks like for several years now. Not only does he offer low or no cost training to people with little disposable income, but plenty of problems in their lives, he also does things with small handguns and Mossberg Shockwave style firearms that most people would consider crazy. If you’ve heard of the “cheek pistol” lately, this dude is why, and a lot of people are skeptical, but he’s got the video evidence to… uh… demonstrate these concepts, if you will.
In the above video, he provides evidence that NPEs (Non Permissive Environments), casual, hot-weather clothing, and a one-handed draw+firing grip need not be considered a hindrance to effective deep concealment, or armed self-defense. Using the Clown Car of carry guns, known for its sharp recoil as much as for absurd capacity, carried in the versatile PHLster Enigma, he teaches a B8 to sit the fuck down at 15 feet under sub-ideal conditions.
Concealed carry is commonly taught to be a series of compromises between comfort, efficacy, and firepower. Certainly a slung rifle would be a better choice for putting down a threat, but since most of us can’t, or won’t do that, it’s good to see what remains within the realm of possibility for people willing to put in the work, and think outside the box. Everyone looked at the stockless shotgun offerings that hit the market following the Shockwave, and we all laughed at the “Dumpster Defender” until Rhett showed us all how wrong we were. Then he did the same thing with large frame pistols clearly intended to use a brace, or be SBR’ed, carried in a shoulder bag. With the right grip and enough time on the gun, you can turn what was once broadly considered a gimmick range toy into a wildly effective SD gun.
Check out his YouTube channel if you’d like to see the crazy shit Rhett gets up to in Colorado, and hit up his website if you’re interested in taking a class from the Rocky Mountain Space Wizard.
Press Release: August 2022 (Bainbridge, GA) – Taurus, manufacturer of premium handguns for defense, hunting, and sport shooting, is pleased to announce the release the second model iteration in the company’s popular GX4 series pistols. The new GX4XL combines all the performance features of the original GX4 micro-compact 9mm with a new slide and barrel configuration for enhanced accuracy and terminal performance.
The GX4XL is built on the same award-winning polymer receiver as the GX4. Hailed for its exceptional handling characteristics in a micro-compact profile, the GX4XL’s hybrid stainless steel and polymer receiver includes a modular grip with standard or high-swell backstrap options for a custom fit, industry-leading grip texturing for optimal firearm control, an ergonomic and reversible magazine release to promote no-fumble mag swaps, and a class-leading flat-face target trigger with a generous trigger guard to accommodate all hand sizes.
What separates the GX4XL from the GX4 is its extended barrel and slide assembly. The GX4XL barrel is .64 inches longer than that of the GX4. This extended length translates to an increase in muzzle velocity and harder hits downrange. With this increased barrel length comes a longer slide profile and subsequent extended sight radius. Already noted for its remarkable accuracy, the GX4XL further tightens the point-of-aim/point-of-impact ratio. In short, the deep-conceal GX4XL’s micro-compact design gives up nothing in the kind of terminal performance, accuracy, and handling serious EDC practitioners demand.
The carbon steel slide found on the GX4XL is treated with a gas nitride finish to enhance surface hardness and reduce wear—a key consideration for a handgun intended for reliable everyday carry. Equally protected from wear and corrosion is the DLC-coated stainless-steel barrel. Not only does the Diamond-Like Coating boost surface durability, the coating’s inherent lubricity also reduces friction for smooth, reliable operation in the most austere conditions.
As with the GX4, the GX4XL comes with a serrated blackout steel drift-adjustable rear sight and a fixed white dot front sight. The rear sight dovetail cut and front sight mounting hole are compatible with that of common aftermarket sight systems, making tritium night sights an upgrade option.
For your comparison pleasure with the GX4 and GX4XL
For those who favor a micro red dot for their EDC handgun, the GX4XL is also available with the T.O.R.O. (Taurus Optic Ready Option) slide. This optional slide features a direct-thread (no plate) mounting system that accommodates the most common micro red dots on the market today:
Shield RMSc
Holosun HS507K X2
Sightmark Mini Shot A-Spec M3
Trijicon RMR® cc Red Dot (with adapter plate P/N: 10028170)
The GX4XL comes with two magazines—one 11-round and one extended 13-round magazine in both standard and T.O.R.O. slide configurations, and two 10-round magazines in standard and T.O.R.O. configurations for capacity-restricted states. All feature magazine and grip cuts to aid in magazine stripping, if necessary.
In keeping with the Taurus G-series handguns’ industry-best performance-to-price ratio, the new GX4XL pistols are priced at a consumer-friendly $429 MSRP for standard slide models and $459 for the T.O.R.O. slide option.
Taurus GX4XL Specifications
Caliber: 9mm Luger
Capacity: 10/11/13 rounds
Magazines: 1×11 + 1×13
Firing System: striker
Action Type: SAO
Front Sight: fixed
Rear Sight: serrated drift adjustable
Safety: striker block, trigger safety
Frame: stainless steel frame insert and polymer grip
The G36 has had a rough few years after its controversy about accuracy with the German military. It is still, and will remain, the iconic 90’s rifle. It was forward thinking and slickly designed and built to the standards of the time in the typical German overengineered way.
It has been thoroughly and independently proven that the assertions, like those made by certain members of the US Military that the M4 was a death trap for its soldiers, were hyperbolic in nature. The guns were built to spec, the guns are in the hands of professional soldiers not professional shooters. Professional soldiering is a multi-tool approach, competency with a rifle is a mere single bit within the whole.
When you consider the whole of the circumstances that surround the alleged controversy it becomes easy to see the series of events that triggered the inquiry. To be fair, the Germans were in need of either updating the 36’s with a few more modern creature comforts and ditching some of the good idea fairy items the 90’s spawned anyway, but ditching the 36 as a whole was probably unnecessary. An A1 variant with an updated accuracy requirement and modern ancillary compatibility would have done it nicely. But it is possible that the costs of doing so and the design itself would not be conducive to the changes, although the aftermarket has certainly shown it is feasible to do physically.
The Germans are very likely joining the US in an AR pattern rifle, HK416, that has been announced. Until they’re in Bundeswehr hands, that’s just something someone has written down and maybe spent a little money on.
The G36 typified the Kraut Space Magic image started by the G11, with the extensive use of polymers and the profile of the rifle looking distinct and futuristic. It used ambidextrous controls earlier than most people, folding stocks, an advanced optical sight system (for the time), and runs on the proven AR-18 short stroke piston setup. This gas system and barrel setup are used by the majority of modern service rifle variants.
The G36 has served a long time, and its phase out will probably not be hurried. The M16 is another well served weapon that won’t be gone for a very long time, especially with the M4A1 in service. These rifles were well designed, well built, and do their jobs, and the modern refinements are just that, refinements of working systems.
SIGs new MXC SPEAR LT doesn’t game change, it’s just doing its best to be ideally built for the current game.
The G36, like the M16, is sunsetting into a classic instead of a contender, and that’s alright. Appreciate the classics, they still do work.
Go follow 1911 Syndicate and James Williamson on the Tube of You’s if you aren’t. Good places to watch.
Footwork wins fights is a phrase I’ve heard way too many talented boxers say to ignore. I’m not a boxer by any means, but I do recognize the value of good footwork. In any fight, your footwork is pretty important, including in a gunfight. Having to move and shoot or just move while being shot is an important skill to have. The last thing you need to do is trip in a gunfight. Today we are going to explore what boxing can teach us about footwork in a gunfight and talk about a few drills you can practice to improve your footwork.
The Basics of Footwork
The basics of boxing footwork easily apply to gunfighting footwork. Obviously, they are two very different things, but the basics are largely the same. Like a boxer, you generally want to be facing the direction. You are moving with your head and feet oriented in the same direction. Lateral movements are important but should be used only for short movements.
When moving laterally, do so with a purpose. When taking a lateral step, lead with the foot that is already in that direction. So if you need to take a lateral step, right lead with the right foot and have the left foot follow.
When possible, you want to avoid crossing your legs. Crossed legs can make you off-balanced and make it easier for someone to knock you over, and increases your chances of tripping. It’s not necessarily bad footwork to cross your legs and sometimes can’t be avoided.
Move onto the balls of your feet. This helps you do a few things. First, it allows you to detect and potentially avoid tripping hazards. Second, it makes it easier to keep your knees bent, your weight balanced, and your body weight forward. If you bend your knees, you can absorb and cushion your impact, resulting in less upper body movement, which makes accurate fire easier.
To help you maintain control of your gun, lean forward slightly as you walk forward. This allows your body weight to help resist recoil. With your body bent forward, tighten your core to lock into the position. Avoid taking large steps and keep them short and steady to limit movement in the upper body.
Practical Footwork Application
It should go without saying that you have to walk before you run. With shooting footwork, it’s more like you have to walk really slow before you walk at a normal pace. This takes effort and practice just to accomplish basic accuracy standards. There is also the fact you are wielding a gun while moving, and there is some inherent danger in that, so practice with dry fire, and when you go live, I’d suggest doing so under competent instruction.
If dry fire is a bit too boring for you, then check out an air gun that’s semi-auto. Maybe an airsoft gun, or something like a SIRT. I’m a huge fan of the Mantis Blackbeard if you want to take the AR rifle route for this training.
There are also two drills I like to practice footwork with that can be sued with dry fire, air guns, and dry fire devices fairly well.
The Box Drill
This isn’t the box drill you are used to, but a literal box. It can be made of cones or markers or anything that can create four corners anywhere from 7 to 10 yards apart.
Start at the left rear corner and move forward with good form, with your gun up, dry-firing at the target. When you hit the front corner marker, begin making right lateral steps to the next corner. From there, make backward steps until you hit the final rear right-hand corner. From here, make left lateral steps to the rear left corner. Then repeat.
Keep the gun up and practice dry firing at a target, or you can use four different targets for each piece of movement. Keep the gun up, focus on the basics of good footwork and keep moving. This drill gives you four different basic methods of movement.
Mike Seeklander’s Shooting and Moving Multidirection Live Fire Drill
That’s a mouthful, but this drill comes from Mike Seeklander’s Your Defensive Rifle Training Program book. The whole book is rock solid, and this particular drill is perfect for practicing more dynamic footwork. You’ll need two obstacles. They can be big trashcans, blue barrels, or poles.
They should be spaced about five feet apart but in line with each other. Now with your stance assumed and practicing those footwork drills start walking in a figure 8 around the obstacles. You’ll face one direction the entire time and practice dry firing as you walk through the figure 8.
This drill is a little tougher than the box drill because it constantly changes directions, and the movement is more complicated. Still, it’s easy to set up and practice even inside the home for your nightly dry fire practice.
Keep Moving
The good thing about having a gun is that you can hit a bad guy from a distance, so moving isn’t always required. However, it’s smart to be well versed in a multitude of skillsets, and being able to move and accurately shoot is certainly one of them. Like everything, it takes time and practice, but you’d be surprised by how effective you can be at landing shots while moving your feet if you get some practice in.
Citing the Bruen standard of constitutional-era law, and the vital role that young men under 21 played in the military and political efforts to form this nation, FPC (Firearms Policy Coalition) lawyers successfully made the case for striking down a ban on handgun carry by young Texans aged 18-20.
Precisely what threat legally vetted, law-abiding young people with firearms present to the general public is still unknown. What we do know is that Bruen is here to stay, and the consequences for arbitrary gun laws like this are dire. In this specific case, the law is not gone, but currently “on hold” for 30 days, to give the state time to appeal, and seek a stay of its own. In a state like Texas, one would imagine the argument is going to have to be pretty convincing to elicit much support from the general public, or their elected representatives.
Thanks in large part to national and regional pro-rights groups like FPC, the courts are currently filling with cases filed against the unconstitutional restriction of 2nd Amendment rights, such as this carry ban, and it’s looking like things are going to go the way of RTKBA for some time.
Photo Credit: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
"'The Supreme Court has basically made clear that it wants to see courts be more skeptical of gun laws, and do more to protect the Second Amendment,' Winkler says." https://t.co/b6HpsK3EIe
It hasn’t even been 3 whole months since the Bruen ruling took the legs out from under most of the gun control objectives of organizations like MDA, the Brady Campaign, and Giffords. In that brief span, it seems like the gun-grabbing crowd continues to throw AWB (Assault Weapons Ban) and concealed carry bills that Bruen would seem to obviously preclude at the wall, hoping anything will stick. Why they want to get as many nails in their own coffin as quickly as possible is anyone’s guess, but you love to see it. NY and CA have garnered the most attention for their attempts to regulate shall-issue concealed carry into oblivion, generating an absurd circus of requirements, restrictions, and obligations on legal concealed carriers.
Colorado seems to want to join the club, getting in line behind California and New York to eventually get slapped by SCOTUS for their blatantly unconstitutional laws. Two such bills recently passed on Boulder and Superior county have had Temporary Restraining Orders placed on them by judges in a flurry of lawsuits filed by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. The prognosis for these cases seems more and more to be in favor of liberty, especially for wildly onerous concealed carry regulation and of course the much vaunted AWB.
The anti-gun orgs seem to want to use Bruen to disarm it, claiming that what Clarence Thomas meant when he said that regulations on especially “dangerous” or “unusual” weapons, was AR-15s. You know, the most commonly purchased and owned longarm in the country? Somehow they are supposed to be unusual, if you listen to the gun-grabbers. While this interpretation could fall either way for state or federal judges, its impressively unlikely that SCOTUS would agree with any AWB, which effectively smothers these efforts in the cradle, no matter how long their zombie corpses wander the legal landscape.
Whether these recent middle fingers to Bruen die in lower courts, or make it to SCOTUS, it seems more and more likely that the anti-gun lobby is eagerly shifting into 6th gear as they speed toward a brick wall.
Just when we thought Expert Voice was a lost cause due to more and more brands being removed off the special pricing list they redeem themselves with adding suppressors!
Expert Voice, a well known website that offers deals for industry professionals on various brands is now offering the previous OSS now HUXWRX silencers we know and trust for 30% off MSRP.
The Products Available
In short, it looks like almost everything that is currently listed on the HUXWRX website.
This includes Suppressors, Accessories such as muzzle devices, and various merchandise.
In the past Expert Voice is known to not allow returns of products bought off their website. Due to a suppressor being a very different item versus say shoes, tents, etc, there may be different rules when it comes to this. Currently the website lists standard restricted states and FFL transfer rules. If you want to be sure how it will work when it comes to defects etc, it may go straight through HUXWRX but it is recommended to give expert voice a shout just to be sure in case something does arise.
Who Can Qualify for Expert Voice?
After checking the website for the latest in who can qualify it looks like almost anyone can have access to these deals. Previously they would ask for military, LE, first responder proof. While they still do that they also allow company email addresses with any company in any industry almost. They also state that even if you don’t have a company affiliated email to prove you are working with them a picture will suffice. Also to all the “influencers” out there. Look what they have to say about you.
“If you’re an influencer, pro athlete, personality, or just someone who talks to people every day about the products you love, you still can get in. Submit an application to verify your status.”-Expert Voice
See here to see who qualifies and sign up. The worst that can happen is they respond with a no.
Below is how the affiliations with Expert Voice works to get access to certain brands.
