“Many Americans who recently bought guns open to political violence, survey finds” – The Guardian

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April 13, 2024

Armed Minnesotans protect businesses in their neighborhood from rioting looters

I haven’t done a good fisking in awhile, I’ve been busy. But thankfully the Guardian has provided something so shockingly and stupidly inflammatory that I’m dusting off the old keyboard. I haven’t seen such selective use of inference and misunderstanding technicalities to support a position in a long time.

So, let’s dive in. Guardian article, in Bold and responses thusly.

Large numbers of Americans who have bought guns over the past four years or who regularly carry their loaded weapons in public are willing to engage in political violence, even to the extent of shooting a perceived opponent, a new mega-survey has found.

Ooooh, a mega-survey. That’s so much extra survey. But if you know anything about survey data for large populations, a well-chosen 1,000 people can provide statistically significant data. Likewise, any chosen amount can say pretty much whatever you want them to say if you ask the questions right. Therefore a “mega” survey of 13,000 is just so you can say its a mega-survey. It’s a branding play to lend credence. I doubt the institution that did the survey, UC Davis, called it that. I get the feeling that this has been added by the media for dramatic flair.

Precisely what we need in our empirical data, drama. More fun that way.

The study of almost 13,000 Americans, drawn from across the US and weighted for demographics, provides alarming evidence of the openness of certain types of gun owners to the idea – and possibly the practice – of violence as a political act.

Alright, alarming, they say. Let us go quantify alarming, certain types (feels prejudiced), and the vagueness of ‘idea’ and ‘practice’.

The risk of violent behavior rose dramatically, the researchers found, with certain subsets of gun owners.

Which?

In particular, Americans who have bought their weapons since the disruptions of COVID in 2020 and those who often or always carry guns in public expressed high levels of susceptibility to political violence. A similar, though less marked, trend was visible among owners of assault-style rifles of the sort used frequently in mass shootings.

Oh. My. Gawd… People who chose to buy guns after witnessing some of the most widespread local political violence in recent memory, and the failure of the state to protect them from the mostly peaceful political violence, are ‘susceptible’ to it? Shocking.

Funny they do not mention how many of those new gun owners actually lean more politically left, or at least decidedly moderate, and aren’t otherwise the ‘nuts’ being very loudly ‘not mentioned’ aloud.

The study, Firearm Ownership and Support for Political Violence in the United States, was conducted by the violence prevention research program at the University of California, Davis. Its findings will ring alarm bells at an already exceptionally tense time for the country.

No they don’t, they should ring ‘Duh’ buzzers for this clownish lack of connecting the dots. 2020 was a summer that convinced a lot of people that the government wouldn’t do anything to stop them if they wanted to burn their jurisdictions dow n. At least a certain ‘subset’ of jurisdictions with a certain ‘subset’ of politicians running them.

See, I can infer, too. You readers know exactly who I’m talking about. The type of DAs, Mayors, and Police Chiefs I am referring to come to mind rather quickly. For many of you they even have specific names.

With seven months to go to the presidential rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the US is not only in the early stages of what promises to be a fiery election, but the prevalence of gun ownership as well as mass gun rampages are also running at all-time highs. A country awash with weapons and facing a fraught political clash, which both sides are portraying as an existential fight for the future of America, poses extreme challenges for law enforcement.

*Sigh*

Alright… let’s unpack that. Yes, this election is looking to be “2020: 2, elderly incoherent yelling at cloud boogaloo.” But I get a much more exhausted sense from this election than the last. We’re so much more tired of it, but it’s the selection we got because, of course, it is. Yes, gun ownership is higher now than last year, and the year before, and the year before that, and so forth.

Threats of bans, threats of riots, threats of crime, threats that are all very visible in real-time alongside a government that seems to be sitting on their thumbs arguing about recognition days and blaming the other team for every woe ever has left a very deflated and annoyed populace who, I remind you, was told they were on their own in 2020.

The economy was brought to a screeching halt, and people were handed about ~$2,500 each over about a year to make up for losses of 10-15x times that in prohibited income, mostly in the tighter service economies and lower-income households. But funny enough that’s enough for a few Glock s or one and an AR-1 5. I bought a bed.

You mean the government paid for this? On purpose!?!

No, I don’t ascribe them that much forethought. But they certainly are not taking any accountability for the post-stimi-bucks consequences. Did you know the average time-to-crime for a gun dropped dramatically for guns bought during the pandemic? Weird. People bought a lot of ‘comfort’ items with the extra money because they had either covered the other 90-95% deficit in other ways or were so short on money it wasn’t going to matter anyway.

Fun fact: When the government says the cops aren’t coming because they might get sick, owning a gun feels a lot more comfortable.

Since Trump announced his candidacy in November 2022, he has taken his inflammatory rhetoric to a new level. He has recast his supporters who have been jailed for the violent attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 as “hostages” and promised to pardon many of them.

That… just sounds like Trump. The man has never met an event he won’t try and cast for his advantage or his current opponent’s detriment. It doesn’t matter if they were friends prior or will be friends again next week after whatever wild and crazy thing was said. That’s just Trump.

At the same time, gun purchases have soared since the start of the pandemic. Last year the US endured a record number of mass shootings.

Actually, we didn’t.

Mass shootings, that broadly and wildly inclusive, therefore nearly useless term, were between 2021 and 2022’s in number, 2nd highest year. While mass killings were at a record 40.

Why doesn’t my tone read as more concerned about that? Total number of deaths and injuries are the lowest of the last four complete years. Lowest since the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the riots. So, no, I am not going to take my social barometer from the statistical outlier events, where a single death or injury can be reclassified without accounting for motive at all.

I will look at total deaths and injuries. Those are both down significantly. Hopefully, they will keep going down, regardless of the election, as the nation chills out back to the 2010s of Obama and, yes, Trump-era civility. Hopefully, we’ll drop even further than that by the time we’re out of the decade.

Like or hate the politics of either past president, or both, but I want that chill ‘things are working pretty well’ vibe back. I also want my $20 to not feel like a $5, but inflation has killed that nicely.

The authors of the study draw conclusions from their findings that will give federal and state officials pause. It is plausible, they say, that recent gun purchasers may be “arming up for anticipated civil conflict. Our findings strongly suggest that large numbers of armed individuals who are at least potentially willing to engage in political violence are in public places across the US every day.”

What an alarmist way to say that people who carry guns for protection, and who have absolutely seen significant political violence here and abroad, might consider using their guns under some nebulously defined circumstances. Of course they would, the number one reason for buying a firearm for decades has been protection. A significant, though exaggerated by the media, threat people think about is a violent political extremist or extremist group attacking them as a perceived enemy.

I don’t own and carry firearms to defend against only apolitical violence. They are for any emergency that requires a use of force response to increase my odds of avoiding death or injury, and protect anyone I am charged with protecting.

Participants in the UC Davis survey were asked whether they believed that violence was justified in the pursuit of a range of specific political objectives. About 39% of gun owners said yes, compared with 30% of non-owners.

So the supermajority, under some definitions (60% or more, three-fifths), of survey respondents, both armed and otherwise, said violence was not justifiable in politics, and about 1/3 of both groups say it is. Are we then surprised that gun owners, usually people who are more socially conscious of violence, make up a greater portion of the minority who are? We also are not given the parameters of ‘justified for political goals.’

Keep in mind that our government is absolutely in continuous use of violence, or the threat of it, for political and economic goals. Violence is a currency. No, you do not have to like that fact.

That differential is moderate. But the gap becomes far more serious when the same question is put to subsets of gun owners.

Enlighten me.

About 42% of owners of assault-type rifles said political violence could be justified, rising to 44% of recent gun purchasers, and a staggering 56% of those who always or nearly always carry loaded guns in public.

People who buy fighting-style firearms are more likely to be willing to… fight in a justified way? For a cause they consider morally important? Shocking.

Let’s survey US service members and non-service member civilians and see which group is more likely to consider violence in service to their country (politics) justifiable.

The answer will not shock you. Odd how people whose job it is to literally fight for their country will see more reasons and be more willing to fight for their country. Often under more circumstances that they can see as justifiable than non-service members. They also tend to be more geo-politically aware, more informed on what the use of force in any given conflict would look like, aware of the risks, and so forth. But weird how they are much more likely to consider political violence justifiable… just in an ‘abroad’ sense under government direction.

The extent to which those subgroups said they were prepared to go in actually carrying out political violence was even more stark. The survey takers were asked to imagine they were in a situation in which political violence was perceived as justified.

Perceived AS JUSTIFIED. Are we forgetting that justifiable homicide is a legal term? ‘Justified’ implies having the support of law or society after review. It might only be ‘justified’ in their own minds. But asking someone to believe in its justification means that they are imagining a scenario, right or wrongly, that they believe will be vindicated under review.

What did people say…

In that scenario, 16.5% of gun owners who carried loaded firearms in public in the 12 months before the survey was conducted said they would go as far as to shoot someone. The proportion was also high among Americans who had bought weapons since 2020 (8.9%) and owners of assault-style rifles (7.9%), compared with those who do not possess guns at all (3.3%).

So… an overwhelming super majority of gun owners who own fighting-style firearms say they won’t shoot people under justifiable circumstances, and that is indicative of a problem? This seems, to me at least, to indicate an overwhelming sense on the subject of justifiable use of violence.

“Recent purchasers and always- or nearly-always-carriers were more willing to kill to advance political objectives,” the researchers conclude.

J U S T I F I A B L E political objectives, why do we now keep skipping that very important word?

The political mindset of the gun-owning subgroups is also skewed to more extreme positions lending themselves to political violence. Asked whether they believed that the US would erupt in civil war within the next few years, 29% of public gun carriers said yes, with the same answer given by 22% of recent purchasers and 20% of assault-type rifle owners, compared with only 13% of non-owners.

Once again, a group more socially aware of violence thinks it is more likely than a group less socially aware of violence. All groups have super majorities who believe the big violent thing (civil war) won’t happen. But let’s pick on the largest minority opinion, which also happens to coincide with the group logically most socially aware of violence (firearm carriers). And let’s point out that their percentage is the largest while also not mentioning it is still in the category of the super minority.

The study, published by Jama Network Open on Tuesday, was based on a survey carried out in May and June 2022. It is part of a series of peer-reviewed articles and papers from the violence prevention research program that has explored views on political violence in the US including by party affiliation and political ideology and among Republicans who support Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.

Oh no.. this is data from the middle of 2022!? When 2021 was the worst year? We are reporting on opinions fresh from the peak of US societal discontent, pandemic, economic, riot stress, and high violence like they are reflective of 2024 attitudes? After two years of diminishing violence and newer socio-economic worries?

I’m done. Get out.

Next you’ll tell me that older citizens tend to hold onto older ways of thinking for longer than younger ones. Really earth-shattering stuff here. Go stare at the sun until the next eclipse, that will provide more useful data than this.

The research team, led by Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis, approaches political violence as a public health problem. They hope that their findings will act as a guide to preventive measures as federal and state officials brace themselves for what lies ahead.

I don’t blame Garen here. I would bet if I read Professor Wintemute’s report, it is much more nuanced and, therefore, boring but useful than this alarmist tripe would have me believe.

The scientists draw comfort from their finding that most Americans, whether or not they own firearms, bluntly reject political violence as an acceptable option. They say that result should give hope, as it suggests that violence prevention measures could be effective among gun owners and non-owners alike who “publicly repudiate political violence” and could “help identify, dissuade, deter, and incapacitate likely perpetrators”.

You just spent the whole article telling us how much trouble these results indicate, and now you toss it back to the researchers who are saying what I am. That, even at the height of social tensions in the US, people believed that political violence is not the answer. Even when goaded to the very edge of imagining its justifiability.

They conclude that the very extreme fringe minorities, as there is always a minority and is always a risk from any number of small extreme groups with niche motives, are the appreciable threats. We’ve known that for centuries, it is a tale as old as civilization.

At no point in your rambling, incoherent report were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on the internet is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. Opinions surveyed in 2022… unbelievable.

Using Just the Box of the Optic

By

Travis Pike

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April 13, 2024

What happens when your batteries die in your r ed dot, and you don’t have suppressor height sights? Are you supposed to roll over and die? Give up? Run? Is there a solution? What if you just used the box of the optic as a rear sight? Put the target in the window and just pull the trigger. Will it work? I was curious if the idea would work, how well it would work, and how far it would work. I grabbed my P36 5, which is equipped with a Holosun EPS, and hit the range running.

Just the Box

I planned to run a number of drills with just the box versus the dot. The first thing I did was try to shoot a simple group at five yards. I shot the first group without the optic on, aiming dead center in a rectangle roughly the size of an ISPC A-zone. I fired six rounds, and they went low and right in a very long, vertically strung group. At a mere five yards, I was pretty far off my point of aim. I popped the dot on, shot another group, and created a nice tight group dead center.

There is a very clear difference at only five yards. I tried it again at ten yards. By then, three of the rounds were off the paper, and one was out of the A-zone. One shot landed in the A-zone. That’s not quite the group I want to see at ten yards. It is just an A-zone, and at ten yards, my rounds would have very likely still hit the threat as long as I was presented with a full-sized threat.

What about longer ranges with bigger targets? I know that I wasn’t going to hit the A-Zone at 25 yards. However, at 5 yards, I could likely point-shoot my way out if I needed to. Let’s back off the 25 yards and use an entire IPSC target. At 25 yards, I ‘aimed’ as dead center as I could and let it rip. Surprisingly, I landed two out of three. Two out of three became my mantra for this range. I always hit at least two out of three, and I always hit low, but I hit.

Toss In the Timer

My heart wasn’t racing, my adrenaline wasn’t pumping, and no one was moving and shooting back, and those are factors we have to consider. With that in mind, let’s try a timer and some faster-moving drills. I went to the range and began throwing lead a little faster. I fired from the low ready and tried my hand at a Bill Drill, then a Mozambique drill. The results were not great. Without the dot and just the box, I slowed myself while trying to find it.

The muscle memory of finding the dot kept me from shooting as fast as I could. My accuracy fell apart, and my shots still landed way too low. I dumped the six rounds in a group I’d never brag about. I felt like that guy who shouts ‘combat’ accuracy about his gun. The Mozambique was more like two to the belly and one to the neck.

Using just the box of the optic works, kind of, and if you’re in a pinch, it might be a way to get out. However, be aware your point of ‘aim’ is big, and you are likely to start throwing rounds all over the place. As the range increases, it obviously gets a lot worse. My advice would be to check your batteries and invest in suppressor height sights. Using the box of the optic isn’t the most reliable option.

I can get hits on the static range, but when you factor in performance flaws due to stress and a target that’s moving and fighting back, it’s going to fall apart really quickly. You can probably train and get better, but suppressor height sights seem like a worthwhile investment.

WHY I DO THIS: The Origin Story of The Suited Shootist, Why I Train & My Goals For The Channel

By

The Suited Shootist

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April 12, 2024

So, how did all this get started? Why did I decide that my opinions mattered? Well, let’s start at the beginning:

There seems to be a bit of a void in the training community. There’s a ton of information out there for people who are at a “white belt” experience level. Likewise, there’s a lot of “brown belt” and ” black belt” level content available as well.

Why I Train: Filling the Gap

What I haven’t found much of is the middle ground, the “blue belts” documenting their progression and experiences. The regular guys who don’t carry guns or teach people to shoot as part of their job. The dudes who may know what the FAST test or Bill Drill are but may be hesitant to share their own performance because it’s not good enough for The ‘Gram.

The other glaringly absent element (for me, at least) is the reality of living with a firearm in professional business environments or other social circles where going armed isn’t the norm.

At best, this is enough of a shared experience that other folks can benefit from my trial & error. At worst, it’ll be a record of my trainin g progress.

*yes, there will be a smattering of obscure pop culture references throughout my content.

In regards to training, everyone has different motivations as to why they do it. For some, it’s professional continuing education. For others, it’s what they do for fun. Certain people have had a life experience that has spotlighted the need to protect themselves.

Pondering My Motivation

I had the good fortune to spend some time chatting with Mickey Schuch of Carry Trainer at the 2019 Rangemaster Tactical Conference back in March. He asked me what my motivation was for continuing to train…and I didn’t have a good answer for him.

Driving to work the other day, I recalled a conversation I had with a good friend a few years back. During that chat, he asked, “If you were to hire someone to provide security for your family, would you pay someone with your current skill set and abilities?”

While I’m more comfortable with my present skill set than I would have been in the past, I certainly don’t feel that my abilities are at a level that would justify charging for services.

I may be the odd man out here. I’m not training to be the hero. I don’t have this scenario in my head about valiantly saving the day from a mass killer or a terrorist. I have no interest in Die Hard cosplay.

The reason that I train, and will spend my own time and money away from the family I’ve worked so hard to build, is because of exactly that—I have something to lose. My concern is that I’ll be confronted by somebody who is better than me and wants something that I’m unwilling to give.

So I work to ensure that pool of potential adversaries is as small as possible, to reduce the chances I’ll ever cross paths with one. Because “Live and let live” is a great philosophy for life, but it’s a poor defensive strategy.

The Revolvers of World War 1

By

Travis Pike

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April 12, 2024

World War 1 is a fascinating war for a great many reasons. One of the more interesting aspects to me as an infantryman was the transformation of warfare. The introduction of machine guns, planes, and tanks changed warfare forever. This massive war was a meat grinder, and interestingly enough, the close-quarter combat of trenches made handguns more valuable than they typically are in warfare. Handguns were small and easy to use in close quarters and offered rapid-fire capability compared to bolt guns. With that in mind, I wanted to look at handguns, specifically the revolver s of World War 1.

Don’t get me wrong, the rise of automatics was an interesting phenomenon, but it would be entirely too much to cover both the automatics of World War 1 and the revolvers of World War 1. If you’re interested in the automatics of World War 1, I will be penning that as a separate article. The revolvers of World War 1 represented a dying military technology. Revolvers would continue to be used until World War 2, but the writing was already on the wall. The thing was, no one had supplies of automatics lying around to arm their forces.

In fact, they often didn’t even have enough modern revolvers to go around. So, it wasn’t uncommon to see a gun we’d typically associate with the old west right beside a machine gun in World War 1. We are going to dig into the revolvers used by each major power of the Central Powers and the Allies.

Austria-Hungary – Rast and Glasser M1898

The Austro-Hungarian Army was served by the Rast and Glasser Model 1898. Prior to World War 1, the Austro-Hungarian military was looking to replace the revolver with two semi-auto pistols, but there simply weren’t enough. The Rast and Glasser M1898 combined new and old features from revolvers. It was a double-action, solid frame design with a side loading gate and extractor rod.

The round fired the 9mm Gasser, a now-extinct revolver round that wasn’t too far from being .38 Special. It propelled a 125.9-grain round at 790 feet per second. It’s not particularly notable, but interestingly, it made its way into Mauser C96 pistols. The Rast and Glasser M1898 is one of the less-known revolvers of World War 1 and was clearly behind the times.

Germany – M1879 Reichsrevolver

The Germans were very early adopters of automatic handguns and were ahead of the game when World War 1 jumped off. Still, with the war being so brutal and massive, they pulled out some old stock of revolvers. The Germans used over half a dozen different handguns in the war but only one revolver, the M1879 Reichsrevolver.

This was a single-action, solid-frame gun that loaded like a Colt with an ejection gate and ejection rod. Modern, it was not. The gun did have proper sights, more or less, and a very steampunk appeal. It fired a German 10.6x25mmR cartridge. This .41 caliber cartridge weighed 262 grains and flew 705 feet per second.

Turkey – S&W Model 3

Turkey, or, to be more accurate, the Ottoman Empire, carried the very cool S&W Model 3. To be fair, they mainly carried semi-auto handguns but had to break out the old Model 3s to supplement those automatics. The Model 3 is a neat gun that actually got around internationally quite a bit. It was a top-break revolver that made reloading quick. It was contained to a single-action design.

The Ottoman Empire purchased the gun to be functional with the Henry 1866 rifles they already had. This meant chambering the Model 3 in .44 Rimfire, a cartridge that was long obsolete even when the Turks adopted it. This was the only production rimfire pattern Model 3. These were also likely the only rimfire revolvers of World War 1.

France – Modèle 1892, Colt M1892, and S&W M1899

The French were in a rough spot in World War 1, and they, like all other countries, weren’t prepared. They used a ton of different handguns, some due to lend-lease with allies, others they purchased, and some were donated. The official French revolver of World War 1 was the Modèle 1892 in 8mm French Ordnance. This was a modern revolver that used a double action and swing-out cylinder. The 9mm French Ordnance was roughly the equivalent of a .32 ACP cartridge.

As part of foreign aid and sales efforts, the French obtained Colt M1892 revolvers and S&W M1899 guns. These were also modern double-action revolvers in various .38 caliber cartridges. These guns weren’t far from the Modèle 1892 in terms of use. So, it was likely an easy switch for French troops.

Great Britain – Webley Mk IV, Mk V, and Mk VI

The British loved revolvers enough that they didn’t want to upgrade even when World War 2 came around. Don’t take their advice to heart. They also rejected the idea of adopting SMGs after WW1. The British revolvers of World War 1 were all Webley models, and all essentially the same with improvements.

The Webley Mk IV, Mk V, and MK VI were all used. The Mk V was set to be the standard, but the Brits didn’t have enough, so they stuck with the Mk IV throughout the war. These are double-action revolvers with a top-break design for quick ejection and reloading. They fired the .455 calibre Webley, making them the most powerful top-break revolvers ever.

Russia – Nagant M1895

The Russians had it rough during World War 1. Not only did they have a World War to contend with, but a Civil War and revolution. The Russians came to war with the Nagant M1895. The Nagant is a double-action revolver with a side gate loading design. It was quite out of date in World War 1. The revolver famously used a gas seal system that utilized a special round and a cylinder that moved forward to create a gas seal. It’s one of the few revolvers that can be silenced.

The Nagant’s 7.62x38mmR cartridge was nearly rifle length. The round sits beneath the mouth of the cartridge, and it has a fairly unique look. The rounds weren’t known for their power. It propelled a 108-grain cartridge at 1,000 feet per second.

United States – Colt M1917 and S&W M1917 (And Tons More)

I saved the best for last, right? The M1911 was the standard handgun of this era, but the American forces didn’t have enough. They turned to S&W and Colt to produce revolvers that chambered the .45 ACP cartridge. S&W and Colt both produced M1917 revolvers that were similar but with somewhat small differences. These were popular enough to stick around until World War 2.

The United States contributed a ton of revolvers to World War 1. Even with M1917 production, stocks of old guns were brought out. This includes various Colt and S&W revolvers in various .38 caliber cartridges. These guns were built to last, and last they did. The United States even brought back the Colt M1873 Single Action Army so the American cowboy could right one more time.

The Revolvers of World War 1

This article just covers the major parties and their revolvers. It’s certainly not exhaustive. There were tons of revolvers used in the Great War. Logistically it was likely a nightmare, but when you need guns, you take what you can get. This was the last major conflict where revolvers were considered the norm, and it’s fascinating to observe the number of different revolvers that made it to war.

THE PHLSTER ENIGMA: Drawing From Under a Tucked-In Shirt. Watch Me Make a VERY DANGEROUS Mistake.

By

The Suited Shootist

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April 11, 2024

A cursory search of the internet yielded a few articles on drawing from a tucked-in shirt. Most of them are thinly veiled ads for the products that sponsored the post (article on XYZ holster company’s page). Several of them suggested that the draw stroke is “drastically different.” I haven’t found that to be the case, at least not with AIW B carry.

Drawing From Under a Tucked-In Shirt

Admittedly, I haven’t carried behind the hip in a decade, but I can’t imagine it’d be any different. I was curious to find out how much slower a tucked cover garment potentially was. Given how involved the setup always was and that the cover garment was pinched between the belt clips and the holste r body, I suspected it would slow things down somewhat.

Now, unfortunately, my DryFire Mag wasn’t loud enough to register on the shot timer, even with the sensitivity dialed all the way up. So, I had to watch this back at 1/4 speed, record the start and stop times for each shot, and do the math myself. That is to say, these are not necessarily 100% accurate numbers.

That being said, my assumption is that my delay in the reaction time is roughly the same on the front and backend, registering the beep & the click. The times themselves are less important than the difference between tucked vs. untucked…or lack thereof.

I was surprised to see no appreciable difference between the two! When I think about it logically, it makes sense since there’s no real difference in the draw stroke. At least without introducing a secondary cover garment like a jacket. Now, technically, the tucked draw was faster. However, the difference was so minimal that I’m chalking it up to just being warmed up by the time that segment of the drill started.

There are ABSOLUTELY some unique considerations that come into play when you’re working with tucked shirts and dress clothes in general. But that’s going to be its own video.

Try it out for yourself, and let me know what you think! Was your experience the same as mine?

“Florida is tied for 2nd most mass shootings in U.S. in 2024…”

By

Keith Finch

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April 11, 2024

This headline in Tallahassee Democrat is highly, and I do mean, highly disingenuous.

The implications are, unremarkably, that Florida’s gun policies are to blame for their ranking in mass shootings. This is nonsense. If gun policy were the maker/breaker, then its twin, Illinois, couldn’t be its twin. The current leader, California, also couldn’t be the leader, right? It couldn’t, they have “strong” gun laws, and Florida has “weak” gun law s.

Why is Florida Really in the Top Four States for Mass Shootings?

How do you explain this lack of congruence between stringent non-permissive gun policies, like in Illinois and California, compared to permissive ones, like Florida and Texas? Those are currently, as of this April 9th, the four top states for ‘mass shootings.’

Strangely enough, unless you actually look at and have an understanding of statistics, they are also four of the six most populous states. The 5th state, Pennsylvania, also has a high mass shooting total for the year, with only one fewer instance than both Illinois and Florida. The outlier is actually New York, which only has two mass shootings. We’re about to hit summer, and that means that crime in the cold states is going to start criming. But this data still remains consistent.

Your “strong” gun policies don’t stop ‘mass shootings.’ Stop playing around like the prohibitions matter when we aren’t enforcing anything with any consistency. How many felons aren’t getting hit with possession charges when they warrant them? How many PPOs filed are not getting rigorously followed up upon?

Follow the Money

How long are we going to pretend these vapid differences in ‘stringent’ firearms policy are actually reducing deaths and saving lives when all the evidence points to the general stability of and affluence of the population as the strongest determinants? Why does California have the most mass shootings? Largest population and enough criminal or socio-political motivated crazies. Why is their overall firearm homicide below the national average?

Lots of money.

Not laws, money. It doesn’t pay to leverage violence at the higher income brackets. This isn’t rocket surgery.

Data shows that the safest class in the US from violent crime is the upper middle class. You get a small uptick again when you get into the truly wealthy categories (household incomes above $400,000, if I recall correctly). However, that uptick is minor compared to the much greater risks associated with the lowest income brackets.

When you track out all that data, it makes sense when you consider that most violence is transactional. It has a financially quantifiable motive. If you don’t need violence as leverage because you have money, you use the money. In higher income brackets, emotively motivated violence becomes the norm—it also occurs at those lower rates.

If we were to filter financially motivated violence out of the lower income brackets, I bet we would see the amount of emotively motivated violence track with the rest of the population pretty consistently.

Anyway,… end rant.

The Holosun HS510C – The Best Budget Red Dot

By

Travis Pike

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April 10, 2024

Good gear costs. It’s a fact. If you want the best gear and guns, you’ll have to pay for it. It’s a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless. Sometimes, you can find a pretty good deal on a budget piece of gear. Mil-surplus chest rigs rock, P-MAGs aren’t pricey, and the Holosun HS510C is a great budget optic. A budget optic can’t perform to the standard of Aimpoint or EOTech, but the HS510C has to be one of the best budget-grade optics out there.

Inside the HS510C

The Holosun HS510C is an open-emitter long gun sight designed to be fairly basic but usable. It’s a red dot, to be clear, and comes packed with Holosun’s most famous features. This includes the multi-reticle system. You can pick from a 2 MOA dot, 65 MOA Circle, or a dot and circle reticle that combines the two.

We have a solar panel built into the optic for backup power. The battery has a handy side-mounted slot that’s easy to remove and swap batteries in and out. The optic has the famed Holosun shake awake tech that shuts it down when it’s left motion-free. When it detects motion, the optic fires back to life.

The HS510C features an integrated mount that makes it acceptable for rifles with inline stocks like the AR-15. Yet, it is low enough to be fairly comfortable on a wide variety of rifles, like AKs or PCCs, such as the CZ Scorpion. The mount is a QD type with a lever that makes it easy to install and remove.

It’s a bit of a universal optic, and I say that because I’ve been using it for a multitude of purposes and firearms. I typically come to the HS510C when I have a new gun to review that requires some form of sight.

Through the Looking Glass

The HS510C gets quite bright and packs ten brightness settings and two night vision options. We get a fairly aggressive notch filter that likely helps keep that reticle bright while cutting battery usage. The look through the glass is quite clear for a budget-friendly optic. It’s likely due to the fact it’s an open emitter, and we only have to look through a single pane of glass.

Holosun delivers a nice, crisp, and clear reticle. Holosun’s parent company is an emitter manufacturer, so the company should excel at this role. The multitude of reticle options is quite nice. The 2 MOA dot provides that super crisp and clear dot that occupies very little of the screen. It mixes well with a magnifier and gives you the longest battery life.

I tend to really like the 65 MOA circle and 2 MOA dot reticle. It’s just a big and eye-catching reticle option. The 65 MOA circle can be used for range finding in the field, but I don’t really use it for that function. Snapping in and on target is quick and easy with this reticle.

It can be used to pattern your shotgun. If you pair this optic with the 65 MOA circle reticle and some buckshot, you can pattern it at different ranges. Smart observers will learn the range in which their chosen buckshot will exceed the circle.

The HS510C In Action

I’d love to give you a round count that I’ve shot with the HS510C, but I have never bothered to keep one. I can tell you it’s been on shotguns, AR-15s, an AK, various PCCs, and likely a few really big pistols. The optic has been used a ton, in and out of rain, cold, and heat. It’s been zeroed for what must be a dozen different guns.

I have found rain to be its greatest enemy. The open emitter design does not play well with rain and water. A drop landing on or near the emitter makes your dot basically useless. The reticle disappears entirely. This is the big reason why this is not a duty-worthy optic.

Outside of rain, the optic has taken a beating and never delivered problems. It’s been dropped, both purposefully and accidentally, knocked off the shooting table. Everything still functions as it should, and the zero never drifted.

While it might not be a good duty-rated optic, it is a dominator in the competition field. By dominate, I mean it’s prevalent, especially in PCC competition. It’s a lightweight, easy-to-use optic that’s affordable and perfect for the PCC field. Some higher-level competitors are even rocking dual HS510C dots for those hard, lean shots.

The open design does provide a great field of view with menial disruption. The thin sides of the open emitter design make it easy to see around for that greater field of view and a higher level of situational awarenes s.

Throwing Lead

The Holosun HS510 C is a great option that still sits at the budget-friendly price point. It works well with magnifiers and is reportedly okay with night vision. The design is feature-filled, and if you want a solid home defens e red dot or a competition option, then this one is tough to beat. For me, it’s a great optic for gun reviews and perfect to toss around as I see fit.

SME Tips – Shotgun Lights and Batteries

By

Travis Pike

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April 10, 2024

I’m calling this subject matter enthusiast (SME) tips because pro tips seem awfully cringy for me to say. I’m not a pro, but I do tend to shoot a good bit, and I’ve learned a few things on my journey to be better at this whole pew pew thing. Today’s subject matter enthusiast tip concerns shotgu n lights and batteries.

Shotguns are weapons with lots and lots of recoil. As a shooter, you can help reduce felt recoil but can’t dissipate it. We might toss in the push/pull style control to save our shoulders and increase our control, but that doesn’t stop the freight train on our guns. Shotgun light s are subject to that recoil.

What’s inside a light? Batteries!

Batteries aren’t made to get beaten up, yet recoil beats them up. This gets exceptionally worse if you mount the light to the pump of a pump-action shotgun. The batteries begin to break, and when they break, they break hard. There is lots of bad stuff in there that can hurt the light and probably the user.

Should You Remove Your Shotgun Lights?

No, not at all. If it’s a defensive weapon, it needs a white light for positive threat identification. My base-level SME tip is to remove the batteries when conducting daylight training. If you are at the range without the need of a white light, pop them out and preserve them.

I’m one dude with one dude’s experiences, but the batteries tend to break during intense training with high round counts. This isn’t a huge concern in a defensive scenario. You aren’t likely to fire more than a few rounds in a defensive encounter, which won’t break your light. With shotguns, the high-round shooting situations are for training and Fallujah.

Drop the batteries for training purposes. If you are doing low light training, I’d even switch batteries during the training, maybe midway through, to keep them from getting too beat up.

Securing Your Batteries

Removing the batteries during high-round-count training is one way to prevent the issue. However, other ways exist to prevent the issue or at least mitigate the problem.

If you are running a pump action, my recommended method would be to get a Surefire DS F. This issue doesn’t seem to affect that light. S urefire likely encountered it when designing the light, so the company seems to have mitigated it. The Surefire DSF is only made for the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500 series shotguns.

Another high-quality option is the Cloud Defensive lights with the battery jack. This was designed to prevent battery bounce, and this also helps them with shotgun recoil.

When you mount a light to your shotgun, you want to mount it to something that doesn’t flex. If the mounting platform is flexible, the light can move more with the recoil impulse. If the shotgun light moves, the batteries move.

You can also reconsider your battery type. Heavier rechargeable batteries get beaten up more than lighter options. Your typical 18650 batteries are nice and heavy and tend to be victims of recoil. Lighter CR123s will still get beaten up, just not as fast. Also, if your light can use them, flat-top batteries tend to be less abusive to each other.

Protecting Your Light

Hopefully, we’ve spelled out a few things about shotgun lights. Batteries are not meant to be abused, and anything involving shotguns is abusive. While you can mitigate the problems through careful gear selection, mounting solutions, and light and battery options, you can also just remove the batteries when you train, and you’ll be fine.

STOP BEING POOR: Gun Snobbery, Lazy Gear Selection, and Lack of Critical Thinking.

By

The Suited Shootist

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April 9, 2024

This is another one of those tropes you hear if you’ve spent any time on social media, especially in gun-oriented groups. The problem is that it’s a lazy, throwaway response that is either elitist and alienating or insufficiently detailed to give the subject of the comment an idea of how to improve.

Gun Snobbery for the Gram

The expression certainly has some validity because there are plenty of people out there playing Pokemon Gun. And they’re just interested in acquiring as many as possible, with little concern for actual performance. As long as it looks cool and gets likes on the Gram, that AAA light, Sightmar k optic, and gun show laser all work just fine!

These people generally own multiple low-quality firearms for a total cost that’s the same as one with a more proven track record. This is generally accompanied by unnecessary cosmetic “upgrades” like color fill, gold barrels, etc.

This is what most people mean when they say, “Stop being poor.” Don’t buy three $200 guns with $50 accessorie s. Buy the best quality possible once.

The Only Option Available

Now, the other common usage for “stop being poor” is a little more myopic and less compassionate. It’s a refusal to acknowledge that there are instances where a firearm of sub-optimal quality may be the only option available due to either availability, immediacy of need, local restrictions, or budget.

Greg Ellifritz has a phenomenal articl e on this that I think is very relevant.

It’s easy for folks who live this every day to lose sight of what “normal” or “acceptable” is to the general population. Especially when they lack the technical knowledge to readily understand the value proposition associated with higher-dollar items.

The amusing part is that a lot of these same folks will drop $1,000 on a carry gun, $300 on a flashlight, and $500 on a custom knife and then balk at the idea of a $2,000 suit or wristwatch. Because “buy once, cry once” is relative, and everyone has some aspect of their life where “good enough” is acceptable.

Now, I’m not saying that you should compromise your defensive equipment for superficial trappings of luxury, but simply to put it into context.

If you don’t want to do a lot of research, go with the most overbuilt, duty-grade stuff you can get your hands on. That way, you’re virtually guaranteed not to do anything to it that it can’t handle.

For me personally, I don’t need equipment that was built to sustain the rigors of a HALO jump. I need something that can get knocked into door jambs, fall from tailgates, and bounce around in range bags.

2024 April Fools and the Gun Industry

By

Travis Pike

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April 9, 2024

I love April Fools Day because I work in the gun industry. I don’t know why, but the gun industry really embraces April Fools Day wholeheartedly. Sometimes, the jokes become permanent parts of firearms culture. For example, the Magpul Waffle maker still gets brought up. I honestly can’t believe they haven’t had one made. In the gun industry, April Fool’s jokes are typically release announcements that will make you take a second look. I picked a few of my favorites to share with you, just in case you missed them.

The Trijicon MGRS Hand Gun Announcement

The Trijicon MGRS isn’t an optic that a ton of people know about because most people don’t have access to heavy machine guns. MGRS stands for Machine Gun Reflex Sight, and it’s an optic aimed at guns like the M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun. As such, it’s a big beastly thing. Trijicon went ahead and announced a method to mount your MGRS on your favorite handgun. They touted the following benefits of the MGRS on a handgun:

Large Window
Included 3X magnifier
Less Recoil
Picatinny Rail for Lasers
No Printing

T.REX Sidecar SD Attachment

Most April Fools Jokes are just jokes. There is no intention to ever release them. However, I’m pretty sure T.REX Arms not only released the Sidecar SD Attachment as a joke but is willing to sell it. The Sidecar SD attachment mounts to your T.REX Arms holster and allows you to carry a suppressor covertly. Is it necessary? No, but do I want it? Yeah, kind of.

S&W Model 500-J

Is the .357 Magnum not enough for you? Is the .44 Magnum a sissy option for concealed carry? Clearly, you need a S&W 500 Magnum, but concealing one of them is a pain…until now! S&W announced the four-shot 500-J. That’s right, a J-Frame S&W 500 Magnum. It will surely pop your wrist into a couple of pieces, but man, you got that real stopping power!

VZ Grips Brings Us Optics-Ready Daggers

VZ grips make grips for guns, but they also dove into the dagger game. This April Fools, they are bringing us the world’s first optics-ready dagger. These daggers are available exclusively at VZGrips.com and allow you to easily mount the red dot of your choice to better aim your tactical dagger in the direction of your enemy.

Springfield Armory M2A

Springfield Armory has kept the boomer generation supplied with their precious M1A rifles but has now announced the revolutionary M2A. The M2A is kind of like Spinal Tap’s 11. It just goes one more than normal. With the M2A, this means it was two barrels that feed from one 40-round magazine. The M2A promises to give you two rounds of .308 per trigger pull to make double taps a single trigger pull. Recoil be darned!

Beretta Goes Retro

The most believable April Fools joke has to be Beretta announcing their latest accessory, the Beretta Retro Fanny Pack. This denim fanny pack offers you the latest and greatest way to carry a gun from 1982. This stylish accessory makes carrying your favorite Beretta a breeze. It’s perfect for being low-key casual and fancy. I would definitely buy one of these to pack my Tomcat in.

Barrett Brings Us Pa Deuce

The famed Ma Deuce, or M2 Machine gun, has served its country since the 1920s. Finally, Barrett has introduced us to Pa Deuce. Pa Deuce is a Barrett rifle fit with a set of spade grips. According to the one-pager we saw released by Barrett on April Fools Day, the gun is fully automatic and has a capacity of 15 rounds. Well, sign me up!

The April Fools Industry

I love April Fools and the gun industry. Ultimately, it’s a day everyone can enjoy. We get a laugh, and the companies get tons of social media engagement. It’s a real win-win. With that said, Magpul, c’mon, make the waffle maker!

YOU’RE PAYING TOO MUCH! Spend That Money On Ammo & Training

By

The Suited Shootist

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April 8, 2024

Many times, you’ll hear someone say, “You don’t need a $X thing. You need a $X-Y thing and $Y in training and ammo.”

This is usually used to justify buying their 3rd meme-tier pisto l or rifl e so that they can dress it up for Tha ‘Gram!

However, there are absolutely instances where people are, in fact, paying more than they have to, and there are alternatives that are truly “just as good.”

A lot of dudes I encounter roll their eyes at the idea of dressing well (which isn’t the same as dressing up, but that’s going to be another video). But regardless of whether we’re talking jeans and a T-shirt or a three-piece suit, what if there was a way to spend less money on the same products? Not “just as good” products, the SAME products.

With just a little time and research, you can either get MUCH higher quality for the same dollar or just spend less for the same product. Consignment shops are your friends! And even if there isn’t one around you, there are plenty of second-hand options online.

EBay and Poshmark are pretty ubiquitous. And all it takes is a little education to know what to look for.

“Spend that money on ammo & training” has been a meme on the gunternet for a while, but why not actually take advantage of that opportunity if you’re not sacrificing anything to do so?

The Gideon Advocate Prismatic Sight

By

P.E. Fitch

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April 8, 2024

I recently dipped my toe into the world of prismatic sights with Gideon Optic’s new Advocate. I included the Advocate in my review of a Romanian-made WASR-10 7.62x39mm AK with the help of an RS Regulate mount. This was my first time spending any amount of actual trigger time with any prismatic sight, so my inner optics-nerd was very excited.

Prismatic Optic Background Info

Fundamentally, prismatic optics work exactly like traditional riflescopes: they capture and handle light in order to magnify an image to the shooter’s eye. Riflescopes accomplish this by passing light through stacks of lenses whereas prismatic optics use a series of strategically placed glass prisms to do the same. The different arrangement of prisms in these types of optics allows them to be more compact as well; both their magnifications and prisms are fixed in place, and their placement is proportional to magnification.

Non-magnified prismatic sights, especially compact units, seem to be increasing in popularity as alternatives to the traditional reflex (red-dot) sight. All red-dot sights work by emitting a small beam of LED light that is caught and reflected off a coated lens back to the shooter’s eye while allowing all other light to pass through. Reflex sights are simple and effective; but one of their drawbacks for many is that dots appear starburst or blurry for those with astigmatisms. Because prismatic optics employ etched reticles the way traditional riflescopes and LPVOs do, the blurry-starburst effect is non-existent. There’s no emitted beam to reflect.

The etched reticles are always visible, whether the illumination is on or off like with any other scope. In the case of a 1x optic like the Gideon Advocate, it helps to think of it as a “zoomless” mini-scope that takes the place of a red-dot. Like any other scope, the Advocate still has objective and ocular lenses and utilizes a diopter to adjust the prescription (focus). This also means that there’s an eyebox involved when looking through the optic, unlike with red-dot sights.

Gideon Advocate Overview

Gideon Optics Advocate reticle — This diagram doesn’t list the width of the triangle’s base, but I used the Pythagorean Theorem to roughly determine it is approximately 14 MOA in width. One can also observed that approximately each sixth of the triangle’s height corresponds to 2 MOA.

The Gideon Advocate is a fairly compact 1 x 20mm “micro” prismatic sight built with roof prisms. Its external housing is made from 6061 aluminum and has an IPX7 waterproof rating. The etched and illuminated reticle consists of a simple upright triangle that’s 12 MOA tall and approximately 14 MOA wide that sits inside a segmented circle. Similarly, its click values are straight forward, with each click moving either windage or elevation 1 MOA at 100 yards. The Advocate uses the standard Aimpoint T1 mounting footprint, so finding mounts and adapters isn’t difficult.

The Gideon Advocate’s illumination array is fueled by a single CR 2032 battery and offers eight different daytime illumination settings with two that work under night vision. The system is motion activated (shake-awake) and shuts down after four minutes of inactivity. The unit has an adjustable eyepiece in order to set the correct focus. Eye relief is approximately 3.5 inches and I found the Advocate’s eyebox to be fairly reasonable. Field of view is listed on Gideon’s website as 79 feet at one hundred yards.

While shooting it, I didn’t think about the specific FOV but it felt like most any other 1x optic in this regard. Parallax is minimal to the point where it’s not relevant, and whatever amount of distortion present is another non-issue given this optic’s use case. Gideon Optics also includes by default a Picatinny compatible rail mount as convenience, and this is something else that’s hard to complain about for its cost.

The Gideon Advocate On the Range

So far, my only experience with the Gideon Advocate has been in the review of the Century Arms WASR-10 AK which consisted of 220 rounds with shots fired at distances of 15, 25, 50 and 100 yards at various targets like IPSC paper targets and NRA B-8s. Regrettably, I didn’t have access to steel targets at further intermediate distances like 200-300 yards. I’d still love for a chance to try shooting the Gideon Advocate that way.

The Advocate’s 12 MOA tall triangular reticle favors CQB distances. For example, at 25 yards, when aiming at an NRA B-8 target, all three corners of the triangle will touch the edges of the 5.5 inch B-8’ black scoring area. Keep in mind that this bullseye at 100 yards would measure 5.5 MOA. Again, the reticle is “coarse” for fast shots. On Gideon’s official IG account, one will find the Advocate mounted on a Beretta 1301 shotgun, which makes a lot of sense for a 12-gauge weapon. Similarly, this optic would be right at home on a subgun, PPC or any other firearm set up for quick, close range shots.

Gideon Advocate Prismatic Sight Target — A 25-yard NRA B-8 with a mock up of what the sight picture looked like at that distance with a hasty 8-9 round group of 7.62 steel-case AK ammo. Windage was slightly off to the right, but with this same exact elevation, POI was 15-yards (see photo on right) on the tip and just a few inches below “inside” the triangle at 25-yards.

On A Kalashnikov

In the case of my Kalashnikov review, I zeroed the optic at 100 yards with the upper tip of the triangle. This adjustment resulted in having impacts dead-on at 15-yards with the same upper tip of the reticle. At 25-yards with the sight picture I just described (the reticle being imposed over the entire black portion of the B-8) all shots were landing comfortably inside the center of the B-8. At both 50 and 100 yards, this same zero gave me impacts just underneath the upper tip (with a little variation).

Distance Challenges

At 100 yards, it’s still easy to aim and strike any “full-size” target. However, due to the inherent design of the reticle, precision takes a backseat. Even shooting from a bench/rested position, I struggled to consistently hit B-8 targets or even the 8.5×11″ sheet of paper they’re printed on. Groups looked more like patterns, with too much lateral deviation–more than is reasonable even for an AK shooting 7.62×39 ammo. This wasn’t an AK problem as much as it was an aiming reference issue. Without magnification, it’s simply challenging to precisely align the top of the triangular tip with respect to both windage and elevation. Furthermore not having any other reference to help align, center or bracket the reticle also makes it challenging because its easy to swing too wide on both the X & Y axes.

Without the magnification, it’s like shooting at a target with a front sight or bead only. It wouldn’t matter at close distance but at further distance the lack of a rear sight as a reference becomes a hindrance. Keep in mind that this specific critique only concerns shooting smaller targets, say 6″ or less at distance. There is no doubt the optic will still help a shooter get hits on A/C-zone sized (or bigger) targets–but the challenging in precision is something to be aware of. This isn’t to say it can’t be done, but it will take more work.

Further Thoughts

For its price, the quality of the construction and glass found in the unit is hard to complain about. I can’t honestly speak as to what extent the Gideon Advocate will hold up long-term because I haven’t had a chance to run it hard for a longer amount of time. With its current price, it’s quite competitive in its optics peer-group. When zeroing this optic, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the clicks were sharper and crisper than I expected.

I had an issue seeing double in a way that doesn’t happen with LPVOs or riflescopes, so I shot the Gideon Advocate with one eye closed 99% of the time. I’m unsure whether this double-vision is my own issue or something inherent to prismatic sights (which I’m new to). I yet can’t say, but in the meantime I’ve been shooting with one eye closed. Twisting the diopter did nothing to solve the issue, and the further the target, the further the images on my double vision sit apart.

CQB-wise the Advocate’s reticle works just fine, but I’m still on the fence on about that 12×14 MOA triangle due to how coarse it can be at distance, especially for firearms chambered in intermediate or larger cartridges.

As an upstart optics company, Gideon Optics has really been getting in gear with their product launches over the past few months. They started out with pistol dots only and are now selling LPVOs and prismatic sights. For a smaller upstart in the affordable optics tier, the company is starting to get really aggressive in their offerings. With regards to a non-magnified prismatic sight, the new Gideon Advocate represents another affordable option.

WASR-10 AK w/ Gideon Optics Prismatic Sight — WASR-10 AK with Gideon Advocate Prismatic Sight

The Williams Gun Sight LRS – Keep It Low

By

Travis Pike

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April 7, 2024

Williams Gun Sight might not be a familiar name to the non-hunters in the audience, but it made its name with high-visibility and easy-to-see iron sights. The company is very well known in that field and was revolutionary with its original Firesights, which are still popular. They aren’t an optics company. I’m sorry, they weren’t an optics company. They are now. The Williams Gun Sight LRS is the company’s latest and greatest gun sight and first red dot optic.

LRS stands for Low Reflex Sight. At first glance, you might think it’s an enclosed optic, but you’d be wrong. You might also assume it’s a pistol optic, but you’d be wrong again. Well, you’d be mostly wrong. The LRS is not an enclosed red dot, but there is a cage around it. The reason for the cage comes from the low profile design. The LRS is basically a mini red dot flipped upside down. The roof of the optic contains the emitter.

How Low Can You Go?

How low does Low mean with this sight? It’s easily the lowest red dot sight on the market. The key to the whole design is the upside-down design and unique attachment method. Instead of using an established normal rail mounting system, the legs of the optic’s body mount directly to your Picatinny rail adapter or specific shotgun adapter.

There is no optic body, so it sits about 30% lower than the standard red dot. I mentioned shotgun mounts, and it’s worth mentioning that the LRS was made with the intention of utilizing standard shotgun stocks and Monte Carlo-style stocks that position the head lower than normal. The LRS isn’t designed or tested for reciprocating slides. The design is unique, and it doesn’t seem possible to attach it to a reciprocating slide anyway.

The LRS will work on pistols like the Buckmark or Ruger MK series. They’ll also work on my Glock 43X turned PDW. This setup uses the Recover Tactical 20/20 as its base. The RT 20/20 has a separate optics mount, but in the interest of keeping the kit as compact as possible, I want an optic that sits as low as possible. The LRS had fortuitous timing to land when my PDW experiment started. Fortuitous for me anyway.

Blasting Away With the LRS

With the optic mounted and sitting low on the gun, I began the zeroing process. In those first shots fired, I noticed that the optic had a very light notch filter. There is a slight blue tint, but not terribly so. The reticle is a non-traditional but ultimately very nice circle and dot design. It’s a segmented circle that’s cut in half, and there is a small dot in the center. The dot has a 32 MOA design, and in the center sits a 3 MOA dot.

It’s big, easy to see, and can get crazy bright. In fact, it gets impressively bright for an optic that falls into the budget price point. There are six total settings for brightness, and it provides enough range of brightness to be easy to see in any lighting condition I’ve encountered. The optic has an auto shut-off after six hours of use, but the optic doesn’t have a shake-awake design, which is its real Achilles heel. This makes it tough to use for home defens e because you might have to manually turn the optic on when the gun is needed.

Zeroing was quick and easy, and once the LRS was zeroed, I was ready to rock and roll. I began blasting away at fifty and twenty-five yards and moved back to fifty. I had no trouble staying on my target at fifty yards. The bigger pain was issues with the RT 20/20, but that’s a different story for a different day.

Staying Low With the LRS

For close-range snapshots, the 32 MOA circle worked quite nicely. At the beep, all I needed to do was get the big circle on target and pull the trigger. If it’s a man-sized target, all you need is a good portion of the target in the circle, and you’ll land hits. The LRS held a steady zero and made it easy to produce good tight groups. The big reticle will obscure small targets at longer range, but this is most certainly a close quarter’s optic, so there isn’t a big concern to me.

Williams Gun Sight sent a Mossber g shotgun mount, which was super easy to attach to my Mossberg 590 in 20 gauge. The mount keeps the LRS even lower than the Picatinny rail adapter. A low mount on a shotgun means a low cheek weld, which is a more comfortable sight picture. The 32 MOA reticle is also perfectly suited for buckshot and provides a reticle I can pattern my ammo into.

A Niche Option

The Williams Gun Sight LRS would be mounted too low for most other weapons. It’s not going to be the best option for many firearms. It’s too low on guns like the Scorpion and most certainly too low for an AR-type rifle. The LRS is most certainly a niche optic, but I appreciate the original design and the ease of use. It might not be for everyone, but it’s well-suited for shotguns and apparently even PDWs. Check it out here.

Gunday Brunch 143: We’re Putting a Crew Together, Pt 1

By

Keith Finch

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April 7, 2024

Imagine that you had to select a heist crew from the firearms industry. That’s exactly what Caleb and Jack are doing on this episode of Gunday Brunch.

Your Daily Dryfire Workout

By

Travis Pike

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April 6, 2024

Whenever we discuss the importance of dry fire, we rarely talk about how to get out there and dry fire. It’s easy to see: hey, dry fire is good, go do it. However, that isn’t always productive for new shooters. Pointing at a light switch and dry firing gets boring real quick. Experienced shooters know what to practice, but newbies might feel lost. You don’t know what you don’t know. With that in mind, I put together a quick and easy dry-fire workout you can do in around ten minutes or so.

I designed this to be a bit like a workout. There are exercises and reps. You’ll practice a variety of exercises. If you get to a portion you don’t know how to do properly, well, great, now you have an opportunity to learn. Let’s use reloading as an example. You might say, I don’t know how to reload properly. Take this opportunity to use the internet machine in the palm of your hand to research how to reload, specifically how to reload a handgun. Now, take what you learn and apply it to dry fire. With that in mind, here is your simple dry-fire workout.

Your Daily 10 Dry Fire Workout

The Marine Corps used to have a thing called the Daily 16. It was an old-school calisthenics program that Marines could conduct nearly anywhere. The Daily 10 is my version of that. A dry fire program you can do anywhere. You’ll need your gun, two magazines, a holster, and something to create a malfunction. This can be a snap cap, an old piece of brass, or anything similar. As always, ensure your gun is unloaded, ensure your magazines are unloaded, store ammunition in a different room, and recheck your gun if you happen to set it down during practice.

Round 1 – Ten Presses Slow Fire

Our first round of the dry fire workout will be ten basic trigger presses. Establish a good two-handed grip and stance, and extend into a firing position. Find a small target, like a light switch, and work on your basic dry fire presses. Your goal is to press the trigger until the weapon dry fires without the sights moving off the target. Practice this ten times; focus on a good, consistent grip to ensure your sight does not move through your trigger press.

Round 2 – Ten Presses Dominant Hand Only

Switch to a one-handed grip with your dominant hand. Your support hand can hang low, grip your chest, go in your pocket, or do whatever else. Aiming at a small target once more, pull the trigger and maintain a consistent grip. The entire goal is to maintain a perfect sight picture throughout the entirety of the press. Repeat this round ten times.

Round 3 – Ten Presses Support Hand Only

Move the gun from your dominant hand to your support hand. Tuck away the dominant hand and work only with the support hand. Work on that perfect press without disturbing your sight picture. It’s awfully tricky with the support hand, so feel free to take breaks during your dry-fire workout.

Round 4 – Draw and Press

Don your holster and place your firearm in the holster. You should practice exactly how you carry. This means concealment, if applicable, with the holster you EDC and the position you carry in. Practice drawing your handgun and committing one press per draw. When drawing, work to establish a good grip and utilize efficient movements. Do not put your finger on the trigger until the gun is pointing at the target. Speed is important, but getting a good basic first is critical. Practice this ten times and take a break.

Round 5 – Dominant Hand Draw and Fire

Just like before, you’ll be drawing carefully, safely, and efficiently. This time, you will not utilize your support hand. You’ll draw and fire with your dominant hand only. Ensure that the shot is aimed carefully, and even with the draw, you are not interrupting your sight picture.

Round 6 – Reloads

You’ll need a spare magazine, empty, of course. A snap cap or TRT device can be used to ensure the slide doesn’t lock open. Place your spare magazine in a magazine pouch. If you do not have a magazine pouch, I’d invest in one. If you still don’t have one, you can set the magazine on a table, although it’s not the most realistic reload. Pull your slide to the rear and lock the slide. Aim and simulate firing a shot and your gun going empty.

Now conduct a reload. Ensure you ‘release’ the slide. If doing a sling shot release on an empty magazine, then the slide will not move, but ensure the practice of tugging on the slide is sufficient. Practice this part of the dry fire workout ten times.

Round 7 – Malfunction Drills

Setup your handgun with a malfunction. There are two types of malfunctions. The first is a simple malfunction, and it occurs when the gun goes click instead of bang. When this occurs, there is a need to slap the bottom of the magazine, rack the slide, and then attempt to fire again. You can simulate this without a snap cap or piece of brass.

The second malfunction is the complicated malfunction. It requires a piece of brass or an accessory of some kind. Pin the accessory between the slide and barrel. This represents a complicated malfunction. To remedy this you remove the magazine, retract the slide and clear the malfunction. Now reinsert the magazine, rerack the slide, and attmept to fire. Repeat either malfucntion drill ten times, or each five times.

Round 8 – Dry Fire With a Handheld Light

There are several handheld light techniques you can use with your firearm. Utilize your chosen method of handling the gun and light at the same time. Now practice getting a good trigger press in with disrupting the sight picture. Bonus points if you practice in the dark with the lights on.

Round 9 – Dry Fire Around Cover – Dominant Side

You will need a wall, couch, or anything else you can pretend is cover that allows you to lean around on your dominant side. Assume a good firing position and practice leaning out from cover, acquiring your small target, and pressing the trigger. After one press, go back behind cover and reset. Practice this ten times total.

Round 10 – Dry Fire Around Cover – Support Side

For the last session of our dry fire workout, we’ll need another wall, couch, or whatever to act as cover. This time, you’ll need to be able to lean out from the weak side. Just like before, we want to assume a good firing position, then lean out the weak side of cover and engage the target with a well-aimed shot. Between dry fire presses, tuck behind cover and practice rolling out for ten trigger presses.

The Dry Fire Workout Is Over

Drink some water, reload, call it a day. If you practice this simple workout daily, you’ll see some serious gains in your pistol handling. Eventually, you can add speed and a timer, which will increase your training potential even more. This is aimed at beginners, and if you’re a beginner it’s great way to get those dry fire reps in.