Pandemic Gardening Part 7 – Compost, Mulch, and Water

By

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August 19, 2020

So far in this series I’ve talked mainly about growing the pandemic plants themselves. Today I’m going to branch out a bit into the needed “support” activities.

To grow well, plants need three things – soil, water, and sunshine. I can’t help much with the sunshine, but I will share a few things I’ve been doing to help with the water and soil situation. These activities are low to no-cost, and so are ideal for the “apocalypse garden” situation. Even if it’s late in the growing season, this can give you some things to plan for next year.

Compost

This first thing you can do to help your soil health is to start composting. I’ve written about it before a bit here. Composting is not only good for the soil, but also helps a great deal with the household waste stream.

Even if you only have an apartment balcony “garden”, the soil in your containers will benefit from compost you create from your own kitchen scraps. Compost will also help you “refresh” this season’s potting soil for use again next year, thus saving you money in the long run.

I have done cold composting in a plastic contractor bag in my garage for about three years now. The drawback to cold composting is that you need to chop things pretty small and try to keep seeds out of it as there won’t be enough microbial heat generated to kill them. Shredded junk mail makes a great carbon source to balance out the nitrogen source of the kitchen fruit and veggie scraps and also helps to keep down any smell. (Though I have not found smell to be a huge problem as long as you keep meat/dairy out of your compost and turn the bag regularly to aerate everything). Using that paper also reduces the household waste stream even further.

This year I started an outdoor compost bin mostly for the garden scraps. Having a spot to toss the trimmings that will eventually break down into soil amendment for next year is convenient and free, and doesn’t have to be unsightly. Mine is made of rebar and green mesh, tucked back against a forsythia bush that isn’t easily viewed from the street.

Urine as fertilizer

A second type of composting I’ve been experimenting with uses yet another free resource – urine. Bear with me if that grosses you out. But if you are fine with cow manure and horse manure for fertilizer, you need to know that human urine is actually a “cleaner” option, so it shouldn’t bother you to use this free resource.

Unlike manure, urine is actually sterile upon exit from the body. Unless you have an infection or are on serious chemotherapy drugs or something, urine makes a fine and free nitrogen source for your garden and compost. It has been well – studied in other countries.

I started down this particular path accidentally. I was experimenting with what to use in my “luggable loo” in an emergency to absorb liquid nitrogenous waste, rather than cat litter or other commercial concoctions. I decided to try the shredded junk mail and cereal boxes that I use for my compost as an absorbent material. Every couple uses I’d also add a layer of played-out potting soil from my window garden to the liner bag too.

Storing the bag in my garage when it was full (I live alone, so there’s no one else to object), after a few months with occasionally rolling the bag around to mix, I ended up with a nice broken-down dark compost. It has worked great as an under layer when starting a new planting bed or container – and it was free.

Urine/paper compost ready to enrich a garden container.

There are other ways to use urine as fertilizer. It can be deposited directly onto the compost heap if you are male and the compost is in a secluded area, or you can deposit it into a dedicated container like a peanut butter jar to then be poured onto the compost later. You can use it diluted as a weekly liquid fertilizer too, but but it should be applied directly onto the soil and not sprayed over foliage or edible portions of food crops.

In a collapse situation there probably aren’t going to be large amounts of chemical fertilizer available. If you don’t have livestock to provide manure for fertilizer, then human urine is an abundant and free source of nitrogen and trace minerals.

Cardboard mulch

Another free soil treatment I have tried came about as a result of the pandemic and my composting efforts. The lockdown stuff resulted in a lot of online ordering, which resulted in a lot of extra corrugated cardboard boxes arriving at my home.

The larger boxes worked well to suppress grass when starting a new planting bed. But what to do with the smaller ones? I decided to try shredding them and using them as mulch in the planting beds. I figured they were brown anyway, so they wouldn’t be as unsightly to the neighbors as my regular multicolored paper compost shredding.

Shredded cardboard boxes ready for mulch.

I decided to do a trial in the bed next to the house in the backyard. I first laid down wet newspaper and brown paper which also arrived in those cardboard boxes. That was followed by handfuls of shredded brown boxes, which was followed by a light watering to encourage it all to stick together rather than blow around.

Mulched bed resting while waiting for fall planting.

It’s been a couple of months now and I am very pleased with the results. The shredded cardboard and base paper combo are suppressing weeds nicely, while also holding on to moisture and helping keep the soil from drying out too much around the plants. Worms also love to eat cardboard, so this encourages their proliferation in your soil.

It’s really hard to find a downside to this mulching method – maybe it’s that you have to have a fairly heavy-duty shredder to handle the corrugated cardboard. This method not only keeps dozens of boxes out of the landfill, it looks neat and tidy, is completely biodegradable, and best of all – it’s FREE!

I’m calling it a win. Give it a try and see what you think.

Water

After soil, water is the next indispensable ingredient for a garden. While true that you can just use the hose in normal circumstances, in a prolonged dry spell it can be hard on your well or your water bill with heavy usage. In a collapse situation you may not have city water service at all.

With my pandemic garden this year I issued myself a personal challenge. I wanted to use the hose as little as possible to see how it went. This turned into a quite an education in the value and use of water.

Gray water

The first step I took was to try to use only “gray water” or other water that I would normally let run down the drain. I didn’t go whole hog and re-route the washing machine or anything, I started small.

The first step was sitting a bucket under the shower while the water warmed up. That gave me 2-3 gallons daily, which I dumped into a lidded Rubbermaid tub outside the back door. The lid helped to deter mosquitos and the idly curious pet or wildlife. This was completely clean, potable water which would have otherwise run down the drain. I was previously wasting it, so I considered it “free” garden water even though I was technically paying for it.

A source of garden water you probably haven’t thought about.

Then I started putting a small “Easter bucket” by the kitchen sink into which I poured water that I washed vegetables in and water that I wasted letting the spigot water get hot enough or cold enough. That gave me another couple gallons a day to dump into the outside storage container.

Later I started adding water in which I had blanched vegetables for freezing. Some people also do pasta water, but mine just seemed a little too slimy/starchy, and I didn’t want my outside container to start smelling like a garbage can. I also added the water from my basement dehumidifier to the mix. I used up that stored water pretty promptly, so it didn’t have much chance to sit around and get stagnant and smelly, and the residual chlorine from the “clean” shower water helped keep the bacterial load down.

Eventually as my garden expanded, I needed more water than my gray water collection could provide. Which brings me to the next category.

Rain water collection

When my gray water production became insufficient I started looking into rainwater collection. Although my DIY skills are improving, I really didn’t want to tackle a DIY rain barrel system. It would have saved me some money, but some things are worth the investment to me and this was one of them.

I first ordered the downspout attachment to get the rainwater from my gutters to the storage barrel.

Then I ordered a rainbarrel from Amazon. I can’t find the link anymore for the actual company, but it was made in Canada not China (which was important to me at the time).

I admit that I had a bit of drama while setting up the downspout attachment. My house has downspouts that empty directly into the french drains- they don’t just dump out onto the lawn.

Following the directions on the box, I started sawing through the downspout with a hacksaw in order to insert my redirect attachment. Somehow I failed to notice that the bottom portion of the downspout wasn’t supported by anything. As I finished the last cut, the downspout section dropped down into the French drain below ground about a foot beyond my reach! *insert f-bombs*

I tried reaching it with barbecue tongs, but no luck. So I rushed off to the home improvement store while thunder rumbled in the distance, still muttering profanity under my breath.

Not wanting to purchase an entire 20-foot length of downspout, I bought three two-foot sections instead and some flexible elbows to jury-rig my solution. Then I rushed back home just ahead of the thunderstorm. I finished the job as the first big drops of rain were starting to fall. Whew!

That first storm filled the 54-gallon barrel and lasted me for an entire week’s worth of watering. My roof isn’t that big and the downspout was only draining one section. It only took that first storm to convince me of the utility of a rain barrel. I had no idea I could channel that much water that easily.

However, if things filled up with one storm then I needed to decide what to do about overflow. I decided against setting up a second barrel in series. I didn’t want to over-invest in my first season. The barrel did come with a flattened “hose” of sorts that was supposed to handle overflow, but it didn’t work very well.

I ended up jury-rigging a better solution for the overflow using an old vacuum cleaner hose ( I am not a a hoarder…), zip ties, and duct tape. It has worked well for me so far. I added knee high pantyhose to the ends of the hoses as an insect filter, too. Standing water can be a mosquito breeding ground and nobody wants LaCrosse Encephalitis, West Nile, etc., trust me.

My rain barrel complete with jury rigged down spouting and overflow hose.

As of this writing I’ve saved myself roughly 400 gallons of city water and the growing season isn’t over yet. This was accomplished with comparatively little effort, so it was definitely a good investment. Yes there was bucket-carrying involved but I’m not getting much exercise otherwise, so it was all good for me. Aren’t gym kettle bells really just glorified buckets anyway?

Another advantage to having a rain barrel is that it provides an alternate source of water in an emergency. Because god-knows-what is on my roof getting washed off (bird poop, mold in the gutters, etc) I wouldn’t want to drink the water straight. But boiling and a Life Straw filter would probably fix that in an emergency. That water would also be useable to flush toilets (as long as the drains work) and for hand-washing if boiled. You could even boil the water with your SilverFire Survivor Stove.

This whole exercise has really made me appreciate water much more than I used to. It’s easy to take such a precious resource for granted when you can just open a tap whenever you want. But when you have to save your water carefully and hand-carry it in buckets you realize how much you’re using, what it weighs, and what an achievement it is to have clean water piped right to every household. It also makes you realize what a shame it is to flush perfectly drinkable water down the toilet. But that’s the way things work until society comes up with a better plan.

All of that convenience isn’t likely to be there during an apocalypse, so planning ahead for garden and household water is a really good idea that you probably shouldn’t put off any longer. I’m glad I’ve started to address it.

I know that all of these measures I’ve talked about sound like a lot of work – and it was. But it was accomplished in small baby steps. This year’s reality is that I’ve had a lot of time on my hands and gardening has been a productive way to channel that energy and time. Honestly, all of this garden related activity has kept me sane and focused during a really difficult season. So, gardening is therapy I don’t have to pay someone for AND I get to eat the results. Win-Win.

The pandemic gardening isn’t over yet, so stay tuned for an update piece on how things went, what grew, what didn’t, and plans for next year.

Nyet.. Optic is fine. Works on everything.

By

Keith Finch

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August 19, 2020

The Soviet Union was very pragmatic. If they had something that worked, they didn’t really change it. They had AK, they kept AK. They just changed caliber and improved a few items here and there for both production ease and effectiveness.

The PKM is another example, just an AK that Kalashnikov made into a belt-fed for the 7.62x54r. He kept the proven piston and rotating bolt, built around a non-disintegrating belt and open bolt firing mechanism. He just flipped the carrier and piston essentially.

And as for optics and mounting… they had a method, they kept it. Side rail with a clamp. For dots, for sniper scopes, for carbine scopes, for machine gun scopes, and for rocket launcher scopes. All used the Warsaw Pact Side Rail Bracket.

Henry and Josh of 9-Hole Reviews speculate the ‘why‘ of the optical choice and I concur with their hypothesis. With a, perhaps, surplus of RPG sights available and RPG-7’s being more limited in their use than the AK-74’s the optics were of greater use as observation tools even if iron sights were still the primary method for engagement.

The ability to observe targets, observe and adjust for impacts, and even simply observe whether or not someone is or is not a threat make adding the sights an advantage to the Red Army soldiers, especially in Afghanistan where the distances being fought over were much greater than in Europe.

The Soviet military was well known for very simple fixes to tech conundrums, perhaps most famously when they took pencils to space while NASA spent millions on a Zero-G pen. If they have something that works okay they see no need to develop better. It’s contrary to the American arms race, especially in 2020, where everyone is on the race to make a better mouse trap.

Essentially if the Soviet Union found a solution, they took the Frank’s Red Hot approach and put that sh*t on everything.

Mail-In Ballots & Dangerous Myths the Media Spreads

By

DRGO

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August 18, 2020

(from courier-journal.com)

[Ed: Economist John Lott, Jr., Ph.D. does the soundest fundamental research on gun control in the business, far better than the “public health” research DRGO routinely critiques. This is his latest (August 8) biweekly or so report on his work and appearances that he sends to subscribers. It’s well worth a spot in our post rotation, and it’s well worth your subscribing and donating to his non-profit Crime Prevention Research Center.]

This past week we released a new study showing that most countries ban mail-in ballots for citizens living in their countries and that even most of those that do allow mail-in ballots require Photo-IDs to obtain them. You can download a copy of the study here, and I think that you will be impressed by how much work our team lead by Margarita Masiukova-Robl put into collecting this information. The study got a very large news story at Fox News, and I published an op-ed on it at Newsweek.

Other op-eds that I have written include another piece at Newsweek on the New York Attorney Generals’ abusive lawsuit against the NRA, how gun control activists are now also pushing to defund the police, and also how Michael Bloomberg uses his media outlet The Trace to push gun control articles in the rest of the media.

An op-ed that I had at Real Clear Politics summarized five of the three dozen gun control myths that I discuss in my new book with that name. I think that you will find it particularly well written. I have also done 65 interviews in the last two weeks that have primarily focused on the book. On Friday, I was on the Sean Hannity radio show for an hour, which has an audience of 13.5 million people, but I haven’t had a chance to put that interview up yet. I also spent 3 hours on George Noory’s Coast-to-Coast AM,which has 9 million listeners. Out of all the recent interviews that I have done, I thought that the ones that I did on KABC in Los Angelesand WMAL in Washington, DCwent particularly well.

I did several television news appearances on NewsMax TV, the videos for two are linked below.

For information on activities at the Crime Prevention Research Center, here is a link to our “info deck.” Please view in full-screen mode and scroll using the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen.

But we need help getting this message out. If you have any friends who you think might find our emails of interest, please encourage them to sign up by sending them the link here.

Thank you very much for all your support. These have been difficult times for everyone, and I just want you to know how much your support has been greatly appreciated.

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New Research

Original Research: Why Do Most Countries Ban Mail-In Ballots?: They Have Seen Massive Vote Fraud Problems

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Op-eds

Newsweek: Voting Fraud With Mail-In Ballots Is A Real Concern. Just Look Around The World

At Real Clear Politics: Myths The Media Perpetuate About Gun Control

At Newsweek: New York Abuses The Legal System To Target The NRA

At National Review: Limiting Gun Rights While Defunding Police Is A Recipe For Disaster

At The Washington Times: How The Liberal Media, With Michael Bloomberg’s Help, Are Biased Against Guns

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Radio interviews/Podcasts

Three Hours On Coast-To-Coast AM: “Gun Control Myths”

On WMAL With Larry O’Connor: “Gun Control Myths”

On KABC With Larry O’Connor: “Gun Control Myths”

On The Larry O’Connor Show To Discuss The New York Attorney Generals’ Lawsuit Against The NRA

On Sunday Morning Newsmakers With Larry Marino On Los Angeles’ 870 AM: “Gun Control Myths”

On The Bill Meyer’s Show On KMED About “Gun Control Myths”

On The Michigan Talk Network: You Can Defend Your Home Today, But Maybe Not For Long …

On Chicago’s WIND: On Chicago’s Violence And St. Louis Gun Couple

On The Michigan Talk Network: How The Liberal Media, With Michael Bloomberg’s Help, Are Biased Against Guns

On Bill Martinez Live: “Gun Control Myths”

On Breitbart News Sunday With Joel Pollack: Media Bias Regarding Policing And Guns

On The Giant 50,000 Watt WWL: On The Benefits From People Being Able To Protect Themselves With Guns

On Salt Lake City’s KNRS: Discussing Testimony William Barr’s Before The House Judiciary Committee

On The Lee Matthews’ Show On Oklahoma’s KTOK To Discuss “Gun Control Myths”

On The Gary Nolan Show: “Gun Control Myths”

On Connecticut Today To Discuss “Gun Control Myths”

On Philadelphia’s 990 AM: “Gun Control Myths”

On Houston’s KSEV AM 700: “Gun Control Myths”

On Missouri’s KLPW To Discuss The New Book “Gun Control Myths”

On The Andy Caldwell Show: “Gun Control Myths”

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Television

On NewsMax TV’s American Agenda: Did The St. Louis Couple, The McCloskeys, Behave Properly When They Confronted Mob With Guns?

On NewsMaxTV: How Democrats Are Refusing To Prosecute Rioters But Charging Those Who Try To Defend Themselves

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News on the CPRC

Fox News Report On Our Research: Strict Mail-In Voting Rules Maintained By Foreign Nations, New Report Finds

The Crime Prevention Research Center In Politico: Whose Policies Are Actual The Racist Ones?

CPRC In The News: Issues & Insights, Business & Politics Reporter, Daily Wire, NewsMax, And More

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Other News

Detroit Police Chief James Craig Explains How To Stop The Riots

Gang Member Released Without Bail In New York City Commits Three More Shootings

Still More Problems With Mail-In Ballots

“Peaceful Protests” Result In Many Dozens Of Police Officers Injured

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John R. Lott, Jr.

President
Crime Prevention Research Center
http://crimeresearch.org
johnrlott@crimeresearch.org
(484) 802-5373

The Henry Axe 410 – Fun For Days

By

Travis Pike

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August 18, 2020

The Henry Axe 410 is an odd cookie. You see, fun guns are my favorite, I love fun firearms, and most of my weapons are fun guns. Fun guns also tend to be cheap guns, and not necessarily well-refined guns. The Henry Axe is undoubtedly the best made, most refined fun gun I’ve ever handled. The Axe falls into the same realm of weapons as the Mossberg Shockwave. It’s a firearm that fires shotgun shells.

This specific model is a 410 and features a 15-inch barrel with an overall length of 26.4 inches. There is no stock, just a grip. The grip look is what inspires the name. The pistol grip looks almost like an axe handle, and it’ an accurate description.

The Henry Axe is the perfect option if you want to feel like a Terminator Junior. We’ve already talked about how this gun is already inherently weird, and that’s ignoring the fact that lever-action shotguns are intrinsically odd. The combination of a shotgun shell firing weapon that’s not a shotgun and is also a lever action and is incredibly well made makes the Axe a real standout.

Style and Substance

Lever action guns are inherently stylish. Maybe it’s their old west appeal or the fact you get a visceral thrill from working the lever. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for lever-action guns. Add in the fact that I’m a shotgun nerd and think the NFA is abhorrent, and you get a weapon I’m bound to love.

The Henry Axe 410 keeps the finely made design, and high-quality Henry is known for. The Axe feels solid and extremely well made. The finish and wood furniture are both fantastic. The finish is a dark, blued steel that is extremely strong and durable. I’m not a gentle man, and I live in a humid environment, so any signs of rust would be present immediately. The wood is a dark brown American walnut that looks and feels great. It’s part of that style that keeps me loving lever action guns.

The Henry Axe features a single gold bead that’s large and eye-catching. The gun is topped with front and rear sling swivels, and you can load the weapon through a loading gate or directly through the top of the tube.

The lever glides back and forth and smoothly to manipulate. The Henry Axe only has a 2.5-inch chamber, so the lever throw is short and comfortable. There is no manual safety, just a transfer bar, and anything else would be an abortion on a lever-action gun. Lastly, the gun uses Invector chokes that are easily removable.

The Henry Axe is a very high-quality package, and it cuts no corners in its production inside or out.

Range Time!

As much as I love working the action on a pump-action shotgun operating a lever is much more addictive. It’s a shame 410 shells are so expensive because I keep running through them. The recoil on this gun is nearly nothing and the massive combination of wood and steel results in a 5.75-pound gun. To put that into perspective, it weighs more than the 12 gauge Mossberg Shockwave.

Even the heaviest load of buckshot is a kitten in this gun. It is not painful or difficult to control and doesn’t make the lever impact your fingers due to recoil. The Axe can quickly be fired with one hand, but it’s still almost six pounds, so I don’t suggest trying to flip cock it. The Axe ejects spent shells with a good bit of authority and power and sends them flying from the gun.

The gun is pretty easy to aim, and the lack of any real recoil keeps you from flinching or smacking yourself in the face. Adult shooters of almost any size or experience level can handle it. It’s even fun for new shooters. My girlfriend is a petite little thing with minimal experience with guns and has a blast with the Axe. Setting up a series of clay pigeons on the berm and blasting away against a timer is a ton of fun.

As a lever-action, the reliability is all on you and your ability to cycle the gun manually. It doesn’t fail to eject, load, or fire in the last few hundred rounds. While ammo is dried up all around me, I can still find plenty of 410, so this gun has been going to the range with me more than usual.

What’s the Purpose?

What could you do with this gun besides have tons of fun? It can be tough to find a real use for the weapon, and I’m not someone who needs a reason to buy a gun. If I searched my mind, I can find a few ways the Axe can be handy.

As a Floridian, I live in a constant battle with venomous animals of all sizes and shapes. Even the nonvenomous intrusive python is an issue here. The Henry Axe is a short and handy means to dispatch snakes with extreme prejudice.

The lack of a stock can make it a fun and challenging small game hunting tool. Squirrels and rabbits would be perfect prey for the Henry Axe.

You ever get one of those Wal-Mart clay pigeon throwers and get some buddies together for the most informal game of Skeet ever? If so, then the Axe is a blast to try and shoot clays with.

As a defensive weapon, it would work, but there are a lot better choices out there. A full-sized 9mm handgun would be a more practical choice, as would a braced AR 15 pistol.

The Henry Axe – Because Why Not?

The Henry Axe is not a cheap gun with its MSRP of 970 dollars, and thats a lot of dough for a fun gun. However, it’s also a very well built gun, and its the highest quality ‘shotgun shell firing firearm’ on the market. It has that classic Henry look, feel, and quality we’ve all come to know and love. That kinda quality costs money, and as someone who has spent more money on less fun (aka my first marriage), I’ll pay for quality when it brings a smile this big to my face.

Rifle is Rifle.

By

Keith Finch

-

August 18, 2020

This past weekend I drove back to the wondrous Alliance Ohio training facility to attend Sentinel Concepts Essential Carbine. I try and make it to at least one of Steve Fisher’s courses each year, more if I can, because the phrase “No two classes are the same.” is something that needs to be experienced to be understood. It is the absolute truth.

Every chance you have to pull the trigger on your rifle or handgun, under a structured informational environment, with informed supervision, to improve your shooting should be capitalized on. Even with ammo tight. Keep training.

What I did differently this time around (that I haven’t in previous training events) was cycle rifles.

Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch put it thus,

“Everyone in this room, right now, needs to know how to operate an AR-15. Load it, unload it, and hit a pie plate (or a B8) at 25 yards off hand. Everybody in this room needs to know how to operate an AK. Load it, unload it, pie plate at 25 yards.”

There is nothing on this earth that guarantees you will be in a gunfight carrying your gun.

I brought four rifles.

I confirmed four rifles.

This does requires a level of familiarity with these rifles. You cannot expect to pull it off with a new platform you have not run yet, that’s what Clint was going for when saying ‘know how to operate’. For new rifles, take the platform through a course front to back. But rifle types you are familiar with, check on their readiness.

First up, my SCAR 16, it has grown since the TDP article and is still bar none my favorite rifle. It just shoots and runs like nothing else and that makes it worth the price tag, for me at least. YMMV, that’s fine. But the SCAR is just a smooth running machine.

But beyond the subjective nature of me liking the rifle and running it, it is my designated general purpose rifle. It is my first choice to be the tool for the job, especially if I’m uncertain what the job might be. That’s why its running a Modlite PLHv2 and Razor HD Gen III, and offset RDS. All purpose light, all purpose optic suite. From 6ft to 600 yards this rifle is going to be able to make something work.

That’s its job. It isn’t my only rifle with a job though.. so after several drills it got put on the table and another rifle came out.

The X95 is a shouldered profile as small as an MP5K but with full 5.56 carbine muzzle velocities. At 13″ in barrel length the little Hebrew Hammer can do work. I picked it up and went right back to the drill list we were running. I’ve also spent a lot of one on one time with the X95 and the IWI Academy, but this reaffirms that work in an alternative environment surrounded by ARs (and one SCAR 17).

My X95 is a house gun, it lives inside 50 yards and its optic and light are set to help me in that role. I can move and shoot at odd angles with it, easily open doors and take corners, and even switch shoulders effortlessly. It’s a fine rifle that is very good at its job and I love letting it work on the range.

Shooting the drills, same B8’s, same practical accuracy standards.

Day 2 we started with a quick 10 round confirmation… and I grabbed my ‘Truck Gun’.

Rifle Dynamics RD NATO. Fresh out of the carry bag just like I had last shot and zeroed it and just like it would have been grabbed in an emergency.

How did it do?

10 rounds from a Geissele Super Duty AR wearing a Razor 1-6 and 10 rounds from my CompM5 wearing RD NATO. 10/10.

More drills, more B8’s, more confirmation that these guns run the way I want them to and will do the job I ask them when I ask them. I ran through the 6 loaded magazines I had for the RD and put it down.

More like KILLigan’s Island.. am I right? Right..? Okay, I’ll see myself out.

Working standing, kneeling(s) and back to standing while also working a longer and more fatiguing drill. With ammo being scarce round counts are likely going to be reduced in classes for awhile to allow you to still get out and train.

And now. Rifle number Four!

An everyday AR-15 amalgamation that approximates an M4/M4A1 with common parts. Even a stock mil-spec trigger (since changed) and my old school middle-GWOT Marine ACOG. This was put together because it is still the reining standard of AR world. The M4 with quad rail, fixed front sight, and an Aimpoint or ACOG. LPVO’s are coming… but they aren’t here unless you’re rocking your own somehow (on a department, authorized, or DoD gun) or have SOCOM’s checkbook.

The old warhorse still does work, and you should still be able to do work with it. There are a lot more older rifles with older set-ups than new ones. The proof was in 2 others being in class. Gear changes and upgrades when it actually gets purchased to move forward, but don’t be in a rush to abandon working systems until you can transition well to the new item.

The M16/M4 and ACOG are my oldest and most trusted friends in the fighting rifle world. That’s home base, systems I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of rounds go through with a high degree of success from shooters with widely varying skill levels. From basically trained to truly proficient.

Rifle is Rifle

It does not and should not matter what rifle I pick up, I need to make it work. Do I have preferences? Certainly! SCAR 100% with an Razor Gen III, offset secondary optic, and a rock solid white light. Funny how that’s how mine is set up… This doesn’t make me dislike my X95, or AR’s, or XCR any less. It doesn’t make me trust these rifles any less or enjoy them less when I shoot them.

It means that if I need a rifle, it can be damn near any rifle, and I will make it work. It can be any optic and I can make it work. I can pick up, or be handed, a wide variety of carbines and ancillary supporting equipment and I can make it Do Work. The longer I have that rifle, light, optic, the more I can make it work for me.

If it’s a pick-up or hand off during a ‘spicier’ time in life, I’ve got what I got. If I can put a quick zero on it and check batteries and the like, awesome. That puts me even further ahead and more likely to succeed. Knowing that I might not fight with one of my rifles or handguns is a very real and driving force behind my desire to have a working knowledge of and share that working knowledge of systems with you all.

You can have a favorite, that’s great. But you should have a tempered respect for any rifle you might encounter, enough at least to know how it works. The shooter with the old FAL, G3 clone, M1A, SKS, or Mini-14, who knows how to run it can run circles around the Gucciest of Gucci rifles in the hands of someone who is non-proficient.

Spend some time and know the guns. Because Rifle is Rifle.

The Myth of Tactical Shooting

By

Caleb Giddings

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August 17, 2020

One of the most pervasive bad ideas in the firearms community is the idea that there are different kinds of shooting. “Range shooting vs real world shooting” is a comparison that is brought up often, but the problem is that it’s incorrect. Today we’re taking a look at the myth of tactical shooting.

Why do we even say that there is a myth of tactical shooting? Because it’s founded in the idea that somehow people shoot their guns differently when they’re in a life or death situation vs when they’re on a range training. The truth is far from that. When you shoot a gun, regardless of the environment, two things are happening. The first the physical act of shooting, which consists of aligning the sights, pressing the trigger, and managing recoil. Those are three factors are influenced by grip and stance, and together make up the complete athletic act of shooting. The second category is environment – what’s going on around us. “Environment” in this application means everything but the act of shooting, so it includes weather, your physical condition, the situation that you’re in, etc.

Confusing environmental factors for shooting factors is what created the myth of tactical shooting. The act of lining up your sights, pressing the trigger, and managing recoil is exactly the same if you’re shooting a 3×5 card at 7 yards as it is if you were shooting an axe-wielding psychopath in the face at 7 yards. That hasn’t changed, but what has changed is your environment. In the latter situation, your stress level is going to be jacked through the roof, and stress will rapidly degrade your ability to perform the act of shooting.

The myth of tactical shooting originated from people trying to create training scenarios to manage stress. Think of your brain during a stressful situation like a computer. If it’s devoting 50% of its computing power to the act of shooting to get optimal performance, it can only devote 50% of its power to the real world situation in front of you. However, if you’ve trained to become a proficient marksman, your brain can devote say…25% of its power to the act of shooting, leaving 75% to manage the “tactical” situation in front of you.

We accomplish this goal by two types of training. First is marksmanship training. The better we are at shooting, the fewer resources our brain needs to carry out the act of shooting when we need to do it. The second type of training is stress inoculation. Essentially, we want to use environments like competition shooting or quality force-on-force training to vaccinate our brains against stress, so that when we’re in an actual life or death situation, we have a level of familiarity with stress. This keeps us from falling apart, and mirrors the methods the US military has been using for years to train people for combat.

So when we say “the myth of tactical shooting” what we really mean is this: shooting is shooting. We prepare to solve shooting problems by training for those, and we prepare for the different environments we may encounter by vaccinating ourselves against stress by inducing stressful scenarios. But how to shoot a gun doesn’t change.

BLACKHAWK’s Trident 6″ Ultralite Boot

By

Scott Smith

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August 17, 2020

DSCF7286 — Good boots like BLACKHAWK's Trident and a quality day pack, make light hikes a pleasure.

In my summer ventures to the mountains of Wyoming and Montana, I experienced all four seasons in a week. Literally we had rain, cold, wind and snow about 100 miles northeast of Cody. Once Mother Nature was done throwing all this nasty weather at us, it got high desert hot.At altitudes of over 3000ft; the air is clear and dry and the sun is bright and hot. If you are going hiking, sightseeing or shooting you need supportive shoes with an aggressive sole without a waterproof liner.

Several years ago my choice would have been BLACKHAWK’s Light Assault Boot. This boot was a practically perfect boot for hot dry conditions with its Cordura upper and Vibram Multi-sport sole; this boot was a tank. Fortunately BLACKHAWK has come out with a new boot, the Trident 6” Ultralite.

The Trident’s multi-sport sole gives you good traction is mud, loose soil and sand as well as on rocky inclines. The Flex grooves reduce fatigue and pressure on the Achilles’s tendon.

With a name like Trident (the Navy SEAL badge), I suspected this was a tough boot. It is available in black or coyote in men’s sizes 5.5 to 14 with a MSRP of $129.95. I chose coyote because black would show the dust from the mountain trails.

Like previous BLACKHAWK boots, the Trident Ultralite uses 600 denier Cordura. This material is lightweight and durable. Unlike its heavier cousin 1000 denier, 600 denier Cordura is flexible and breathable. This helps to keep your feet from sweating and the Agion lining prevents foot and boot odor. Nylon by itself is not very supportive, so the Trident is reinforced with rough out leather. It wraps the body of the foot and heel for maximum support without additional weight.

Support is further increased with the NATO Speedlace System. This system uses the leather reinforcement to cinch up the boot at key locations like the lower portion of the foot arch and around the heel. When you snug up the laces, the boot feels like it is part of your foot. The gusseted tongue also helps keep your foot secure when wearing the Trident loosely laced by keeping your foot in the boot.

The gusseted tongue keeps debris out of your boots and the tongue from sliding.

Once BLACKHAWK ensured the Trident was supportive, the boot had to give you cushioning. This was accomplished by using Phylon for the midsole. Phylon is compressed EVA pellets that are heated and cooled in a mold to give a precise fit to the upper and outsole.

Comfort is further increased by using Ortholite for the insole. Ortholite is open cell foam that compresses barely 5% over the life of the insole. Combing the Ortholite insole with the Phylon outsole you should not have tried feet or an aching back at the end of the trail or shooting match.

A rolled toe helps prevent the sole from separating and give your grip on a vertical surface like a hill or wall.

When out on the trail or range we want a comfortable boot and one that gives good traction. The multi-dimensional tread clears debris and grips even on wet grass or muddy clay. The outsole rolls up the toe and up the angled heel. This gives you traction at toe off and when descending a slope. The angled heel allows your foot to roll and stay in contact with the ground where a boxed outsole may not give you traction on a slope with loose dirt or gravel. This is a feature that is generally found on high end hiking boots not boots with a $129.95.

The angled heel gives you traction descending a hill and it allows your foot to roll, this helps prevent twisted ankles.

BLACKHAWK’S footwear team packed the Trident Ultralite Boots with loads of features. These features make this boot ideal for hiking, hunting and competitive shooting when it’s hot and dry. If you get caught in a summer cloudburst they do dry fairly quickly. Quality footwear like the Trident Ultralite Boot will make your ventures more enjoyable by reducing strain on your feet, legs and low back. This definitely will help you stay safe and have fun

The Banshee Mk17 – The New Beast On the Block

By

Travis Pike

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August 17, 2020

I don’t think it’s a big secret that people like PCCs. They dominate the market, and people like me eat them up. The majority of PCCs are straight blowback guns, and there is nothing wrong with that inherently. However, it does have it’s downsides. Whenever I see a PCC using something alternative to direct blowback, I get excited. The Banshee by CMMG is one such example, and the Banshee line of firearms includes various calibers, variants, and magazine platforms, and it recently grew by one, the Mk17.

The Banshee Mk17 is named because of the SIG Sauer M17 service pistol. You know, the P320 that won the MHS contest and is being adopted force-wide. The Banshee Mk17 takes P320 mags and is one of the first PCCs to do so. The Mk17 uses a rotary delayed blowback system that was invented and patented by CMMG. The rotary delayed blowback system utilizes a custom bolt that does resemble your everyday average 5.56 bolt.

It’s Technically Retarded

If you look closely at the bolt lugs, they vary slightly from standard AR 15 bolt lugs. This allows them to rotate inside the chamber and create a delayed rotary design. This design offers a lot of advantages over traditional blowback operation.

First, the Banshee design can accommodate calibers ranging from 9mm up to 458 SOCOM reliably. We also get fun oddballs like the 5.7 and 10mm in a reliable carbine-action.

The purpose of the Banshee’s delay is to allow pressure to escape before the bolt cycles rearward. The rotary delayed system eliminates the need for heavy buffers, bolts, or springs. This makes charging the weapon and fixing malfunctions easier and keeps weapon weight lower.

Lastly, if you’ve ever fired a blowback PCC like the Scorpion, you may have noticed the recoil seems a bit much for a 9mm carbine. Blowback recoil isn’t bad, but a 9mm feels like a 5.56. The rotary delayed system reduces that recoil and makes it feel more like a 9mm and less like a full-powered rifle round.

Screamin’ Good Ergonomics

CMMG’s Banshee offers similar ergonomics to the AR 15 platform. We must be specific here because there are several different series of Banshee. This is the premium grade 300 series. There also exists a 100 and 200 series that offer fewer features, but a lower price.

The 300 Series of the Banshee includes an ambidextrous safety and a large ambidextrous charging handle. Both are fantastic, and the charging handle in particular is outstanding. The gun is absurdly easy to rack, and the bolt glides rearward.

The magazine release is moved backward to accommodate easy reloading, and you can reach it with your trigger finger without swapping grips. Magazine releases can be a challenge with how pistol magazines lock into an AR lower, and CMMG figured it out well enough.

Short little fella’

The Mk17 sports a 5-inch barrel with a slightly shorter handguard that offers enough room to fit your support hand. The handguard has a built-in handstop that’s clever, small, and looks great. It also keeps your hand from getting a hole in it. I do prefer a mag well grip on a gun like this, but the handguard is just long enough to work.

The Banshee Mk17 uses the CMMG Ripbrace. The Ripbrace is a modified SBA3, and it is the same five-position design, except that it deploys to your preset position with nothing more than a quick tug. You set the position with a set screw and can pick from any of the five. It’s great to grip, rip, and have the brace set at your desired length.

The gun is a short 18.9 inches with the brace collapsed and weighs a mere 4 pounds and 10 ounces. The Banshee Mk17 is superbly light and capable. It would be an outstanding home defense weapon, especially for those smaller framed, weaker, or less trained shooters.

Range Day with the Banshee

Ahhh, the fun part of the review. The Banshee comes with one P320 21 round magazine, and I think it needs to come with at least one more. Luckily I have extra because loading one at a time would be terrible. I tossed on my Meprolight Foresight to act as my optic of choice and started at 25 yards.

At 25 yards, this thing owns everything. It’s an absolute beast that drops rounds into one small hole measuring less than an inch. Inside of this range, you can easily hit the vital portions of a torso or to make critical headshots. It’s a superb shooter even out to 50 yards.

My groups were 2 inches on the large side at 50 yards from nothing more than a hasty prone position. You could still quickly ring a target’s bell without trying very hard. Going beyond 50 yards and out to 100 yards starts bringing in the effort associated with bullet drop. At 100 yards, there are roughly 12 inches of drop from a 9mm round. Not only that, but the round starts becoming a little less predictable.

The groupings open up quite a bit, and I saw 5-inch groups at best. Pretty standard for a pistol round outside of its max range.

The Recoil of the Banshee

The Banshee Mk17 is a soft shooting little gun. The Banshee has barely any recoil and muzzle rise is also non-existent. It’s a soft shooting and capable gun. It’s impossible not to want to mag dump when you can.

There is a big difference in the recoil between a standard blowback action and the rotary delayed system the Banshee Mk17 offers. The Banshee is a little beast that’s perfectly suited for home defense.

Does the Banshee Eat?

Ammo is on short supply right now, so I only have what’s in my stash. This includes a lot of Winchester White Box 124 grain FMJs and a good share of SIG M17 124 grain JHPs. The Banshee ate it all and did so with little effort. Not once did I experience a jam, misfire, fail to fire, failure to extract, eject, or anything else. The Banshee goes bang with every trigger pull.

It’s not picking about being clean or lubricated. I have done neither, and the gun doesn’t seem to mind. I can also hold it anyway I want, and the gun doesn’t care. The Banshee Mk17 is one helluva PCC.

The Banshee is a lightweight, easy shooting gun that feeds from an up and coming pistol platform that will be around for a very long time. The Mk17 is a perfect new entry into a successful platform born to be short and light. It’s an expensive platform, but the quality makes it worth the price. My only complaint is that the gun only comes with one magazine.

That small complaint is one overshadowed by a competent and high-performance weapon. The CMMG Banshee Mk17 is a classy broad in a category of guns often occupied by plain jane operating systems. Give them a peep here, and you can see the Mk17, as well as models based on Glock magazines, FN 5.7 magazines, and more.

“A Stone of Stumbling, and a Rock of Offense”

By

DRGO

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August 14, 2020

(from en-volve.com)

[Ed: Dr. Petrocelli sent this letter to the mayor of Richmond, Virginia earlier this week in response to the mayor’s attempt to ban firearm possession anywhere near all city-permitted events, demonstrations, parades, etc. As Dr. Petrocelli notes, no one likes it. Write and call your own elected leaders, regardless of their party or existing position. It does matter and the more we do, the greater difference we make. (Title quote from Isaiah 8:14).]

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Dear Mayor Stoney,

Congratulations on distinguishing yourself as a newly-minted member of the elite circle of “guns for me, none for thee” authoritarian rulers. Although you saw fit to accept an armed security detail–whose size and cost remain shrouded in secrecy–you decided that the average Richmonder should be denied their inalienable right to self defense if they should stray too close to an event that is, or “should be,” “permitted.”

Your proposed “ban” isn’t a ban at all, because there are no provisions for perimeter security or metal detectors, which would be required to ensure the absence of guns. Instead, you turned the exercise of an inalienable right into a new, victimless crime. Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media ran with your proposal as a “ban” because it didn’t take the time to think this through, perhaps because they were still mesmerized by your meeting with #BLM protestors two months ago. They should have realized that your proposed law provides an additional source of new recruits for Virginia’s prisons. That’s why your statements to the press carefully avoid any discussion of what penalties are attached to your new crime, because doing so would alienate your base and reveal that your ban is no ban at all.

Your proposal, sadly, is just another government infringement in an unbroken chain of abuses that proves that gun control is racist. It’s obvious to everyone except your local sycophants that you introduced this missive just days before a Black Guns Matter event was scheduled to occur in Richmond later this week. I had hoped that your connection with Bloomberg during his failed campaign’s tour through Richmond would have stopped a veneration in return for his financing of your party, but sadly it seems you’ll be emulating him as well. The only question that remains is when you’ll begin to implement his stop and frisk policy targeting people of color.

Your public statements regarding your proposal have been completely vacuous. You said:

“The City of Richmond proudly hosts hundreds of public events each year, but I believe it’s in the interest of everyone’s safety to take guns out of these spaces when neighbors, visitors, and families gather,” said Mayor Stoney. “Under this proposed change, Richmond residents will be able to attend public events with a greater sense of security, knowing that the city is actively prioritizing their safety.

“As a city, we must exhaust all possible options to reduce gun violence in our communities and neighborhoods,” said Mayor Stoney. “I’m thankful the state has finally given us a vital tool in building a safer Richmond.”

Apparently we are to conclude that the guns of law abiding citizens pose a risk, but the guns of your armed security detail do not, which is all the more interesting given the data that shows that concealed permit holders are more law-abiding than the police. It is entirely unclear how disarming people without providing security should somehow engender a “greater sense of security” when the evidence shows that gun-free zones attract atrocity. I do appreciate your candor regarding “all possible options.” I know that no amount of “gun control” or “gun safety” will ever appease hoplophobes and you have admitted to as much. All of your “bans” are just dress rehearsals for the next infringement. You banned guns in city buildings, as if there was an “epidemic of gun violence” breaking out there, and, when that accomplished nothing, you introduced the next infringement, and it is clear that you won’t stop.

Please understand that your constituents have cleaned out local guns stores of their inventory. Every time I’ve done my part to contribute to the record number of gun sales during this plague I’ve been impressed by how many new gun owners there are, and how many people of color have joined the welcoming family of gun owners. Your constituents bought these guns to defend themselves, not to occupy safes at home. There is no reason to believe that they will take kindly to being told that their inalienable rights end, and their career of criminality begins, when an event that “should” be permitted happens, unbeknownst to them, along their path of travel.

Enjoy the support of the gun-grabbers that espouse this nonsense, because you’re losing the support of everyone else. Twitter blew up yesterday in reaction to your proposal, from all political corners: #BLM, Libertarians, Conservatives, even Antifa, were not pleased. I guess throwing in with the confiscationists is one way to finance what is no longer an uncontested re-election campaign.

Sincerely,

Dennis Petrocelli, MD Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership

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–Dennis Petrocelli, MD is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist who has practiced for nearly 20 years in Virginia. He took up shooting in 2019 for mind-body training and self-defense, and is in the fight for Virginians’ gun rights.

All DRGO articles by Dennis Petrocelli, MD

California Mag Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

By

Travis Pike

-

August 14, 2020

On August 14th, 2020, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that California’s large-capacity magazine ban is not-constitutional and does meet Judicial merit. The judgment comes after an initial decision in which California was gifted a freedom week by Judge Robert Benitez. This week allowed Californians the means to obtain standard capacity magazines. The week ended with the order rescinded as the Attorney General of California went to the U.S. Court Of Appeals.

The magazine ban started as a prohibition to import, manufacture, and sell high-capacity magazines in the state of California in the year 2000. In the last twenty years, the law changed and changed, growing increasingly more restrictive until 2016. California declared the possession of all standard capacity magazines to be illegal, and even grandfathered magazines would need to be sold out of state, destroyed, or turned in. This is known as California Penal section 32310.

Violators faced the potential for up to a year in jail for possessing a combination of polymer, metal, and springs that would be otherwise legal in most of the country. This started a legal battle that finally ended today.

The 9th Circuit has this to say:

“Applying this court’s precedent, we hold that strict scrutiny is the proper standard of constitutional review. California Penal Code section 32310 cannot withstand this level of scrutiny and is unconstitutional.”

2020 has been a rough year for us all. It’s bound to get a little rougher, but this is a little silver lining for Californians. It’s a reminder that the fight is never over. I applaud the California Rifle and Pistol Association for their fierce fighting and this beautiful day. While this victory is wonderful, California is still a rough place to be a gun owner. Keeping fighting folks.

Read the full PDF here. It’s a great read with many solid points. I hope to see this ruling shock the antigun world.

Have a Plan for your Firearms – Because You Never Know

By

Dr LateBloomer

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August 14, 2020

D96106DF-5445-45A1-900C-E30D3D91C7CA — NOT the firearm in question.

Without getting into details, let’s just say that there was a death in the family recently.

My adult children and I were tasked with the clean-out of belongings. Found among personal papers was an expired pistol carry license that no one knew existed. But that also meant that there was likely a pistol stashed somewhere amongst personal belongings and apartment contents.

I cautioned the kids to be on the lookout as I was concerned that there was an unsecured handgun floating about which, given its owner, could be anywhere and in any condition. Fortunately, I’ve made sure over the years that my kids have a basic understanding of firearms safety.

Ultimately after a few days my adult daughter found the pistol case in a random cardboard box of stuff in the apartment garage. She called to inform me and because of her prior training was able to unload and clear the weapon before transporting it.

This experience illustrated clearly for me how important it is that if you own firearms, that they be stored safely in case you aren’t around anymore. Moreover it is extremely important that everyone in your household knows how to render any firearm safe that they might come across, should you leave this earth in an unplanned fashion. If your family does not want that responsibility then they should be instructed to NOT TOUCH anything, and to notify someone of your designation to come secure the firearms.

It’s also not a bad idea to make sure that some close gun buddy or family member knows where your safes and other storage places are and/or what the combinations are. I’m currently mulling that one over myself.

This is one reason that I’m not a huge fan of firearm “staging” inside specialized furniture and shelving units and clocks and such. As “covert” as these systems are, if no one else knows about them and you die unexpectedly, what if that furniture goes to the Goodwill or something? Maybe I’m being too much of a nervous nanny with this stuff, but it does make my eye twitch.

How many widows or grandchildren every year are left to deal with firearms that they know nothing about? Take some time to make life easier for them and come up with a plan for your firearms in the event you are incapacitated or suddenly deceased.

It’s not been a fun couple of weeks in my neck of the woods and this was one thing which really tripped my switch. Thus, you all get to hear about it. Thanks for listening. 2020 can seriously eff right off.

The Revolver Super Test

By

Caleb Giddings

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August 14, 2020

We’re big proponents of people getting better at shooting. In the same vein as the 5 best low round count drills, here’s another drill that doesn’t use a lot of rounds and is easy to set up: The Revolver Super Test.

The Revolver Super Test is a modified version of a drill called The Super Test, which requires the shooter to fire 10 rounds at a B8 target at 15, 10, and 5 yards for a total of 30 rounds. The Super Test was created by Darryl Bolke and Wayne Dobbs of Hardwired Tactical Shooting to be a simple evaluation to see where shooters are at. The Revolver Super Test takes those same ideas and applies it to the limited capacity fighting guns of yesteryear. In Darryl’s own words:

“When asked to do a revolver version we wanted to go back to what was plowed into our heads as cops who depended on Revolvers for dealing with some of the worst crime period since the 20’s and 30’s. Hitting with precision in the first couple rounds was CRITICAL, especially with .38. So, the emphasis was always on high deliberate control. It is why the times are a bit generous compared to the semi’s is that you are trying to develop a sub conscious clock that stresses hits in black (fist size) as so critical as the reality is….you ain’t getting a reload in the fight.”
Darryl Bolke

That’s the critical point of the Revolver Super Test – accuracy matters a lot, especially in a fight where you don’t have the luxury of 17+1 rounds. One might wonder what the practicality of this test is in an era where we do have that luxury, but the truth is that the revolver is still a very relevant defensive tool in certain applications. Being able to get on demand hits on a small target area is absolutely the correct recipe to stop a fight, and that’s what the Revolver Super Test measures.

SIGN THE PETITION!

By

Keith Finch

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August 13, 2020

Yes, Ian. Yes, John Wick.

SIGN HERE.

While so many other things in the world are irritating, irrational, or even inconceivable, this is some thing fun. We need fun. Ian next to Keanu Reeves would be fun.

I know ammo is ridiculous and hard to find. I know most everything is out of stock that you could be looking for here or there. I know that builds are taking longer and getting the parts and accessories that one might want is a game of waiting and beating the in stock to out of stock notifications.

I know politics are looking more and more ridiculous and it looks like, as November edges closer, we may end up with a tremendous series of legal battles against the Biden/Harris combo.

So right now, let’s do something fun and put Ian in John Wick.

DA/SA Guns – The Top 5 Most Influential and Innovative

By

Travis Pike

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August 13, 2020

The Double action / single action design was once called a “Solution looking for a problem,” by Jeff Cooper. I don’t have the gravitas to argue with Jeff Cooper, but I’m afraid I have to disagree with the idea that DA/SA guns are silly. It’s my favorite system of firearm operation. DA/SA guns have a long history of innovation. Now every new pistol is some variance of the Glock for better or worse. With that in mind, I’ve collected five of the most innovative and influential DA/SA guns.

Walther P99

The Walther P99 is innovative because those pesky Germans took a concept traditionally designed for hammer-fired guns and made it a striker-fired system. As far as I know, this was the first DA/SA striker-fired pistol.

Its a polymer frame piece that is available in 9mm and 40 S&W. It comes complete with Walther’s trigger guard magazine release that you either love or hate.

The P99 does not get the respect it deserves, yet clones of it tend to be quite popular.

Those clones include the Canik series, as well as the Magnum Research MR9. S&W even teamed up with Walther to produce the SW99, a unique P99 model in which each company made critical components for the gun.

The Walther P99 has the best stock double-action trigger pull of a production gun. The single-action is superb and it’s a fantastic trigger design. The P99 features a button decocker placed on the slide and a pointy striker that lets you know whether the gun is cocked or not.

The AS trigger is also a unique trigger mechanism that makes your single-action trigger a two-stage design for the first shot. The first stage is nothing but dead air and length without weight behind it. It clicks and stays into the second stage. The Walther P99 is an odd duck, and unfortunately, it didn’t inspire any separate DA/SA striker fire designs, but it has been cloned a time or two.

HK Mk23

The HK Mark 23 is a legendary firearm in its own right. It was developed as the first offensive handgun as part of the Offensive Handgun Weapon System. This early 90s project sought to arm Special Ops Commandos with an ultra-modern pistol for a close quarter’s battle role.

The HK Mk23 beat out the competition and was paired with an Insight and Wilcox Laser Aiming Module and KAC Suppressor. The Mk23 is a massive pistol and was not afraid to be a real chongus. The Mk23 is an extremely rugged weapon that’s strong enough to handle 45 Super loads without parts changing.

The weapon was subjected to extreme testing, including a 30,000 round endurance test, a hot and cold test, and was heavily exposed to dirt, mud, and sand. It functioned without issue and broke a mold on handgun design.

Of course, the Mk23 was a hammer-fired DA/SA design, and the choice made sense. Austere conditions might mean your ammo is subjected to less than perfect circumstances. The DA/SA design ensured you could get a second strike on a stubborn round if needed.

The manual single action also ensured you had a light and smooth trigger on command should you want to take a longer or more precise shot. The Mk23 broke the mold by being the first handgun designed for offensive use.

Plus, its the chosen handgun of Solid Snake, and if DA/SA guns are good enough for Snake they are good for me.

Beretta Px4 Storm

The Beretta Px4 Storm is an odd choice in the face of so many different DA/SA Berettas. The 92FS could easily make the list for its long life of service, but I find the Px4 Storm series to be more innovative. The gun is most certainly underrated and oft-ignored for reasons I can’t comprehend.

The Px4 Storm is a polymer frame, hammer-fired gun with a DA/SA action available in a full range of different sizes and calibers. The most innovative design feature is the rotary barrel, which dissipates recoil as the slide cycles. This rotary barrel makes the gun insanely easy to control and very comfortable to handle.

I would go as far as to say that the rotating barrel reduces muzzle flip and recoil as much as a compensator. This same technology is now being applied to the Glock 46.

The slide design is also smooth and slick for concealment purposes, and the Px4 series was a significant design leap from Beretta. The polymer frame made it a modern departure from the Beretta 92 series. At the same time, it kept the Beretta style safety/decocker that I’m admittedly not a fan of.

The Px4 Storm may have missed the boat popularity-wise because it was produced when the polymer frame striker-fired pistol took the throne as king of duty pistols. This might be one of the most modern DA/SA guns out there.

SIG P226

It’s hard to choose between the P220 and the P226 for this position. The P220 was the first modern P series SIG Sauer, but the P226 was the gun that put this Swiss/German gun maker on the map. The P226 is a very modern pistol chambered in 9mm, 40 S&W, and 357SIG. The design was initially built for the XM9 pistol trials in which it reportedly tied with the Beretta 92.

The P226 was adopted by the SEALs as the Mk25 and still sees service to this day. The all-metal pistol is very robust and durable with a bombproof design.

The P226 used a double-stack magazine and is still one of the better DA/SA designs. The decocker is truly a genius part of the design and allows for quick and easy decoking. The trigger can vary between a duty style standard trigger or a slicked up SRT trigger.

The P226 has grown and evolved to incorporate modern design changes to allow the pistol to keep up with the latest handgun designs. While the world may be obsessed with the polymer frame duty pistol, the SIG P226 is still, without a doubt, one of the best combat handguns ever designed.

Little Tom Pistol

I bet you’ve never heard of this gun. I don’t blame you because it is an old gun design from the 1920s produced in Austria. The Little Tom Pistol was the very first DA/SA pistol. It was a top-loading pistol chambered in 25 ACP and 32 ACP.

The magazine is removable, but it comes out the top instead of the bottom. The magazine was made of brass too, which is an odd choice. Even odder was the fact that even when the hammer was cocked to the rear, the trigger had a rather long trigger pull. The pull was just as long as the double-action trigger, just lighter.

The Little Tom Pistol was never as popular as the Walther PP series, but the Little Tom Pistol came first and saw a production number of around 45,000. The Little Tom Pistol is quite the collector’s item these days.

How could I have a list of the most innovative DA/SA guns without including the very first?

The Wild Card – Spectre M4

The Spectre M4 is not a handgun, but instead, it is an SMG. Pistol variants exist in the same way that MP5 pistols exist, and that’s solely a legal description. The Spectre M4 is a submachine gun with a striker-fired system that can be carried in a double-action mode.

While the gun is uncommon and wasn’t very successful, it is an innovative SMG. It’s a unique design, and its a shame they didn’t succeed in both the military and civilian market.

DA/SA Guns for All

The DA/SA mechanism might not be the trendsetter it used to be, but its still a valid and capable system. DA/SA guns are still quite popular and continue to be innovative in a market where every other polymer-frame striker-fired pistol is the same gun. DA/SA guns stand apart from their contemporary counterparts by at least somewhat different from each other.

SIG Takes Home Multiple Industry Choice Awards

By

Keith Finch

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August 12, 2020

NEWINGTON, N.H., (August 10, 2020) – SIG SAUER, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has been recognized with two 2020 Industry Choice Awards. The Industry Choice Awards are awarded to manufacturers based upon a comprehensive independent evaluation by industry experts including competitive shooters, trainers, enthusiasts, law enforcement personnel, and retail associates for fit, form, finish, and functionality.

SIG SAUER was the recipient of the following 2020 Industry Choice Awards:

2020 Frank Desomma Innovation of the Year Industry Choice Award – SIG SAUER CROSS Bolt-Action Rifle: The SIG SAUER CROSS features a precision free-floating stainless-steel barrel fitted to a one-piece aluminum receiver, with no need for bedding or action screws, to deliver extreme accuracy; an aluminum M-LOK™ handguard for quick and easy attachment of bipods, rails, night-vision or thermal clip-on optics; familiar AR-15 styled controls for a seamless transition to the CROSS platform; a unique two-stage match-grade trigger that can be adjusted from 2 to 4.5lbs, and AICS pattern magazines for the ultimate compatibility across calibers, platforms, cartridges, and loads. The unique folding and locking precision stock of the CROSS offers toolless adjustment that can be modified for any shooting position while in the field. With folded stock the CROSS measures as short as 25” making it the ideal hunting rifle to fit in any backcountry backpack.

The SIG SAUER CROSS was recognized by the judges for its “adjustability” to fit a wide range of hunters and shooters, it’s “smooth loading cycles,” and having the, “adaptability of a modern PRS chassis except that this rifle is very pleasantly light weight.”

“When our product management team and engineers researched developing a bolt-action rifle from SIG, they looked at what was missing from the market, and what new innovation SIG could bring to hunters and precision shooters,” began Tom Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President, Commercial Sales. “Hunting rifles are typically focused on less weight, and accuracy is secondary. Precision rifles are designed for extreme accuracy, with no weight limitations. What was missing from the market was a true crossover. The SIG CROSS is the best of both worlds, featuring the characteristics of a hunting rifle, with the accuracy of a precision rifle, and we are very honored to be recognized for this innovation with an Industry Choice Award.”

2020 Handgun of the Year Industry Choice Award – P320 XFIVE LEGION: The SIG SAUER P320 XFIVE LEGION is a 9mm striker-fired pistol, with the TXG tungsten infused heavy XGrip module, a Legion Gray PVD Slide with lightening cuts, 5” match grade bull barrel, and a lightened and skeletonized trigger. The recoil assembly of the P320 XFIVE Legion has been upgraded to include a one-piece stainless steel guide rod and a 14lb. 1911-style spring, plus an extra 12lb. spring, allowing the end user to easily adjust the recoil spring for a customized shooting experience. The pistol comes optic ready and is compatible with a SIG SAUER Electro-Optics ROMEO1Pro Optic or a standard DeltaPoint Pro Optic, features Dawson Precision® Fiber Optic front and adjustable rear sights, and comes with three 17-round magazines with anodized aluminum Henning Group base pads.

The SIG SAUER P320 XFIVE LEGION was recognized by the judges for its, “overall feel and ease of use,” its “ability to place accurate shots quickly,” and noted that the, “the new material is innovative, and the additional weight allows for more control on the handgun making follow up shots faster.”

“The P320 XFIVE LEGION embodies the forward-thinking mindset we have at SIG SAUER when it comes to product development, and we are very proud that this has resulted in the 2020 Industry Choice Award for Best Handgun of the Year,” continued Taylor. “The P320 XFIVE LEGION changed the game for competition pistols, and its innovative features beginning with our patented tungsten infused grip module, giving it the weight of steel with the flex of polymer, are designed to enhance the overall shooting experience by substantially reducing felt recoil and muzzle flip for outstanding on-target accuracy.”

The 2020 Industry Choice Awards was sponsored by Oneida Molded Plastics and hosted virtually on July 28, 2020.

About SIG SAUER, Inc.
SIG SAUER, Inc. is a leading provider and manufacturer of firearms, electro-optics, ammunition, airguns, suppressors, and training. For over 150 years SIG SAUER, Inc. has evolved, and thrived, by blending American ingenuity, German engineering, and Swiss precision. Today, SIG SAUER is synonymous with industry-leading quality and innovation which has made it the brand of choice amongst the U.S. Military, the global defense community, law enforcement, competitive shooters, hunters, and responsible citizens. Additionally, SIG SAUER is the premier provider of elite firearms instruction and tactical training at the SIG SAUER Academy. Headquartered in Newington, New Hampshire, SIG SAUER has almost 2,000 employees across eight locations. For more information about the company and product line visit: sigsauer.com.