Streamlight Syclone Jr. Work Light: Bright and Small

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April 4, 2023

First noticing the Syclone Jr. due to how small it was, the idea of it was intriguing. A work light that is smaller than the palm of my hand? How does that work? After using it on the work bench, it made sense. The Syclone Jr. is an adorable little rechargeable light that has multiple features packed into a little bright package. Easy to throw in your backpack or set on your work bench without taking up any room.

The Lumens

Alright let’s just get it out of the way since this is going to be the first question that anyone asks. The Syclone Jr. has two settings that can be adjusted by pressing the button on top of the light.

Low: 85 lumens; 49m beam; runs 8.5 hours
High: 210 lumens; 79m beam; runs 3.75 hours

Don’t be scared off by the amount of lumens. It is really bright. It can fill an entire bedroom sized room with all other lights off when tilted to the sky.

lighting up a room with the setting on low — Please ignore the messy work bench. This photo was taken with all of the lights and off and the door shut to the bedroom sized room. This is with the setting on LOW. It definitely lit up the room.

A Micro-USB cable is included to recharge the light. The light will be red when charging and green when fully charged, similar to other rechargeable products from Streamlight such as the ProTac lights with USB-C rechargeable batteries.

Set It, Hang It, or Mount It

The coolest thing about this little guy in my opinion is all of the ways to use it. It comes with a housing allowing it to be placed on a bench. That housing also allows the light to be swiveled 360 degrees allowing to be pointed to the sky to fill the room or tilted towards what you are working on.

It also comes with a little hook that fits into the housing for storage. Use the hook to hang off of anything. It is a good size, not too wide not too thin, so it can fit on a lot. I personally hung it from the cord that powers my overhead work light. It gave me more light closer to the bench when I was working on something.

The bottom of the Syclone Jr. Also has two small but strong magnets allowing it to be thrown onto anything magnetized and still allow the light to swivel.

syclone jr on a bench — The housing allows for a 360 degree swiveling head and a way to set this on your bench. When set on a bench the head will still swivel.

hanging from a cord — The housing allows for a 360 degree swiveling head and a way to set this on your bench. When set on a bench the head will still swivel.

For context, these work lights are seeming to be aimed at mechanics, at least in their work light advertisement video it is. Mechanics need lights that can be strong enough to stick onto a hood and small enough to see into tight spaces. They also need lights that can withstand chemical contact. Due to this, Streamlights work lights all have chemically resistant lenses, yes this includes gun oil.

Specs

data sheet for syclone jr — Above is the Syclone Jr. Product Sheet showing everything from specs on water and chemical resistance to the runtime and lumens. For how small it is the Syclone Jr. is pretty durable considering its shock resistance.

The Price is Right

The lowest price I’ve seen is $36 for the Syclone Jr. on Amazon. The highest I’ve seen from other retailers is $40-$50. Either way, it’s a great price for how bright and feature packed this work light is.

light aimed at clp — The head can be swiveled to just focus on what you are working on. The lens is also chemically resistant so no worries if you spill on it.

Commonly Owned: AR-15 Confirmed

By

Lars Smith

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April 4, 2023

Commonly Owned AR-15 — Photo Credit: CRPA.org

1 in 4 guns sold in America is an AR-15.

1 in 20 Americans owns an AR-15.

10 of the 17 deadliest American mass shootings since 2012 involved AR-15s.

For all of these reasons and more, today’s @WaPo deep-dive on the AR-15 is a must-read. https://t.co/GbdqYpPA19
— John Feinblatt (@JohnFeinblatt) March 27, 2023

“Commonly owned” is a phrase you will see a lot if you follow the topic of firearms legislation and related court cases. Two pivotal SCOTUS decisions in the last century have used the phrase to describe those arms covered by the 2nd Amendment. Anti-gun lobbyists and legislators, who seem to be professionally underinformed on the topic will often attempt to make many separate cases to illustrate the rightness of their cause, stepping on the toes of each point they make as a new one is born. This is just another in the litany of such cases that are so numerous as to be exhausting to explain, but that’s what we’re here for, so here goes!

One normally doesn’t expect the opposition to airdrop a victory onto your doorstep. Usually a competent opponent will present such opportunities on purpose to disguise their true intent, or lead you into a position of their design, the better to attack and defeat you. Fortunately, those of us invested in preserving the right to keep and bear arms are not often burdened with competent opponents, and in the midst of their fervor to make one point (black rifle scary!), they invalidate another (AR-15s aren’t commonly owned or covered by 2A!).

In this latest example, not only does the Washington Post completely fail to grasp the mechanical and cultural details surrounding the proliferation of the AR-15 as a sporting, hunting, competition, and self-defense platform, but they also shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly, if you’ll pardon the expression. According to their data, 25% of firearms sold in America are AR-15’s, and 1 in every 20 Americans own one. They make this point apparently with the intent of scaring people, but seemingly fail to grasp that in doing so they articulate publicly that they are aware that their attempts to ban them are implicitly unconstitutional, given how commonly owned they are. While we don’t understand how it is they can be so entirely dumb, we are eternally grateful for it.

Gunday Brunch 94: Training Class Do’s and Don’ts

By

David Reeder

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April 2, 2023

So you’re signing up for your first or 500th training class, eh? Maybe you’re an instructor just hanging out your shingle. Regardless here are some handy tips from some guys who have countless combined hours of training

Shooting Around Corners – A Gear Retrospective From WW1 til Now

By

Travis Pike

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March 31, 2023

Peeking around a corner to engage a threat is always a little risky. What if someone is waiting right around that corner with a Kalashnikov and ill intent? That’s been a threat to deal with since cartridge firearms and open warfare have been fought. Throughout the history of warfare, there have been numerous attempts to figure out how to shoot around cover without exposing the shooter. Some are tactics-based, but others involve technology, and today we are examining the technology side of shooting around corners throughout history.

Periscope Rifles

World War 1 was a meat grinder involving trenches and brutal combat. The trenches provided protection and cover from the enemy. Peeking over a trench could result in some full-powered rifle rounds to the face. This brought about the idea of periscope rifles. These weapons varied depending on who made the gun. Some were quite complicated and split nearly in half to elevate the gun.

Others used simple mounts and periscope optics to get the job done. The Australians designed one, as did the Dutch, Russians, French, British, and Americans. The American variant employed a 25-round trench magazine to help with the reloading issue. We wouldn’t see a big return to trench warfare, so the periscope rifle died in World War 1.

Krummlauf STG 44

The Nazis did a lot of meth, and that’s really apparent near the end of the war. Their creative ideas were often silly, but they were desperate for anything that would turn the tide of the war. The Krummlauf was one of those ideas. This design fits the STG 44 with a bent, curved barrel to allow the user to shoot around corners or in armor from a vertical mount.

The infantry version bent the barrel 30 degrees, and the Nazis dropped a periscope-style optic to allow the shooter to see and aim around corners. The entire idea was silly. The barrel life was about 300 rounds, and in US Army testing, the Army found that bullets were breaking inside the barrel at the curve. Needless to say, this didn’t work well.

The CornerShot

I tuned in weekly to watch this show called Future Weapons in the early 2000s. I loved the show, and watching back now, it’s still entertaining and interesting. One of the first episodes, if not the first, featured a device called the CornerShot. The name explains it all, it shoots around corners. The CornerShot wasn’t a weapon, but it was a stock system you dropped a weapon into. The device was the size of a rifle, and you fit a handgun into the end of it.

Below the handgun sits a camera, and a folding screen broadcasts to the user what you are seeing. A hinging component allows the user to fold the device and gun around a corner to either the left or right. The user can position the handgun around a corner, aim through a screen, and engage the threat. This Israeli innovation is still kicking around but only saw limited adoption.

Aimpoint Concealed Engagement Unit

One of the more practical means to aim around a corner came from Aimpoint. In 2008 they released the Concealment Engagement Unit. This device works similarly to a magnifier but with no magnification. It mounts behind a red dot and is curved, and works like a periscope. You gaze through it, and you can see around a corner.

Admittedly putting guns around corners will likely expose your hands, but not much else. I’d also imagine not shouldering the weapon and having a proper stance really limits your effective range. The CEU could spin from side to side and offer a variety of angles, and could quickly dismount to allow for normal use of your red dot.

The GunEye

The latest option I’ve seen comes from a company called GunEye. GunEye released a Picatinny rail-mounted camera that attaches to your firearm and wirelessly broadcasts to your smartphone. Point he gun around your corners and watch the video display on your phone. It premiered at 2023’s SHOT but is still in the preorder stage, so it’s tough to properly judge how well it works. While I like the idea, I’m not sure how much use it will be.

Tactics Win

As far as I’m concerned, the best way to clear a corner is still tactically based. It could be a slice-the-pie situation, a toss-a-frag, or throw a drone up, depending on your situation. While gear can help, good tactics still win the day.

The AK 200 Series – The Modern Russian AK Family

By

Travis Pike

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March 30, 2023

The world’s largest arm’s exporters is a pretty interesting list. America comes in at number 1 because we are the best at everything. Sliding into a distant second is Russia. Russia exports a wide variety of weapons, from small arms to its tanks. While most of their equipment has taken a reputation hit in the last year, the AK series seems to be one of the last successful Russian exports. Today we are looking at the AK 200 series of the famed assault rifle layout.

The AK 200 is another attempt to modernize the aging Kalashnikov rifles. In the early 1990s, the Russians produced the AK 100 series of rifles to do the same. The AK 100 series was produced for internal use by police and security forces as well as exported to numerous foreign countries. The AK 200 series seems to be solely designed for export. Russia built this series to be what the AK 12 became, but Russia went back to the drawing board and developed the AK 400, which became the modern AK 12.

The AK 200 Series – What’s New

The AK 200 series rifles first saw service in 2017 when they were unveiled as the AK-100M series, but the name was changed to AK 200 in 2018. This is a family of rifles consisting of both full-sized rifles and carbines in varying calibers. We’ll touch on each variant a little later.

They all share similar traits outside of barrel length and caliber. The AK 200 series of rifles all share the same degree of modernization. The guns feature stocks that both collapse and fold. They have four positions for the length of pull and were designed to withstand the recoil from a 40 mm grenade launcher.

The AK’s ancient safety is still in place, but a thumb shelf has been added for a more ergonomic design. The pistol grip is no longer a nub, but a polymer grip that looks like CAA designed it. The magazine is Kalashnikov’s latest polymer design as well.

Across the top of the dust cover sits a section of Picatinny rail for adding optics. The handguards are also railed for adding lights, lasers, and foregrips. Overall it’s a modern take on the Kalashnikov platform that was certainly due.

The real question is, does slapping a new stock and rail on what’s essentially a WW2-era rifle make a huge difference? It will never be an AR in its modularity, but Russia isn’t moving on from its famed platform anytime soon. The AK 200 series rifles have been purchased by India to the tune of 670,000 rifles. Any additional sales are unknown at this writing.

Models and Calibers

There are six rifles in the AK 200 family, and it’s easy to see why Russia made so many models. It’s a lot easier to sell exports if you have a bevy of calibers to offer. Let’s break down the various models. The full-sized rifles have a 16.3-inch barrel, and the carbine series has 12.4-inch barrels.

AK-200 – A full-sized assault rifle chambering the 5.45 cartridge.

AK-201 – A full-sized assault rifle chambering 5.56 NATO cartridge.

AK-202 – A carbine variant chambering the 5.56 NATO Cartridge.

AK-203 – A full-sized assault rifle in 7.62x39mm.

AK-204 – A carbine variant chambering 7.62x39mm.

AK-205 – A carbine variant chambering 5.45.

The AK 200 series is a dynamic family. I wouldn’t hold my breath to ever see one hit American shores, but maybe Kalashnikov USA can spin us up a clone? If not, PSA seems to be unafraid to try new things. Here’s hoping because the AK-203 sounds fantastic.

Revolving Madness

By

P.E. Fitch

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March 30, 2023

.38 Special casings along with revolvers Smith and Wesson

Revolvers Are Stupid Guns

Hear me out before you rage fire that email to me or my editor. This isn’t the first time I’m saying this nor will it be the last: revolvers are pistols with very low capacity, have triggers that are harder to master and require additional care and consideration to keep in working condition. When these guns fail, they can go down hard and become merely blunt instruments. Unless you take the time and effort to handload, their ammunition costs more too. Revolvers are so damn stupid when you think about it! I could go on and on about what a waste of money they are. In fact, these days, a box of .38 Special costs approximately $12 more than a box of 9mm at standard retail pricing. As another point, it is said that serious revolver shooters carry around toothbrushes in order to clean out the star in between higher round counts. And of course, they own a Lewis Lead Remover too.

The Joy and Pleasure of Revolvers

Revolvers are guns that have conceptually been around since the first quarter of the 19th century, and yet an early Colt revolver or a Pepperbox is nothing like a Smith and Wesson Model 66. That they have not fundamentally changed in nearly two centuries makes them fascinating. And when it comes to shot-for-shot satisfaction, revolvers are extremely seductive weapons.

It isn’t just their lines or sleek finishes. These are pistols of panache–heavy and archaic. I think the reason they draw me in the way they do comes from the fact that a revolver is technically more challenging to shoot, and nothing strikes dopamine receptors like when the target and timer show evidence of proficiency with these guns.

After all, with their fixed barrels, they can be extremely accurate. Perhaps this emotion comes from the same place in the heart where the satisfaction of knowing how to shift gears in a manual transmission also comes from. There is certainly a sense of appreciation for the craftsmanship and quality of American gunmaking of times past, when shop floors in Springfield or New Hartford (and other places) were full of expert smiths’ benches. Both their tools and their careful hands would carefully lay parts into a working weapon with a level of care and detail that would (and does) cost a premium today. There’s something certainly appealing from their analog nature–how one must load the charge holes in the cylinder and how the trigger pull actuates the entire gun. Shooting double action revolvers is pure pleasure.

The results at 25 yards with two cylinders full of American Eagle 158-grain .38 Special Lead Round Nose bullets shot out of a Smith and Wesson Model 66.

Because the revolver’s trigger has to not only turn the cylinder but also cock the hammer, it has a long trigger pull path and usually a hefty pull weight with it. But I believe that mastering this trigger unlocks all of the other trigger styles as well. The similarity is obviously there when controlling a TDA (traditional double action) semi-auto trigger. Taking advantage of a single action or striker-fired trigger then feels like cheating. The revolver trigger also teaches you how to naturally ride the trigger reset and to forget anything about pinning the trigger–it’s a waste of time, especially on a double action revolver.

Smith and Wesson Model 34-1 Kit Gun, .22 LR. It’s a J-frame and handles exactly like a Model 36 or Model 60, except the sights on the Model 34 are actually nicer. This gun is pure fun.

The Classic .38 Caliber

I prefer using .38 Special (and .22 Long Rifle ammo in revolvers). Because I shoot these guns purely for pleasure, I eschew the added expense of shooting [.357] magnum rounds. The classic .38 Special loadings work just fine, be they 158 grain lead, jacketed or coated round. The 158-grain bullet has been the classic loading for generations and most .38 Special revolvers’ sights and barrels are optimized for this weight of projectile. Adding to that visceral and emotional appeal of shooting these revolving contraptions is that lead ammunition leaves gunsmoke and leaves a certain smell wafting about the shooting bay. (Of which, lead ammunition also fouls up bores and part of the extra care and concern involves removing lead deposits from the bore). In addition to the classic 158 grain bullet, the .38 Special 148 grain wadcutter and 130 grain FMJ rounds are great to shoot too. Wadcutters are extremely accurate and even more gentle on recoil as their powder charges are milder. My favorite 130 grain factory load from American Eagle is a great round too. I find it to be very accurate and it groups consistently across various revolvers. Its only downside is that it does not shoot to some wheelguns’ fixed sight point of aim, something to keep in mind. When it comes to handloads, my goal with revolver loads is to stay within the classic specifications for consistency’s sake. After all, I don’t want my loads to interrupt my shooting and the sights are already regulated that way.

My Latest Madness

A few months ago and under poor impulse control, I accidentally bought a used Smith and Wesson 686-5 revolver with a four inch barrel. This fifth revision does not have the maligned “safety lock” hole on the frame, but it does have the more modern frame mounted firing pin arrangement which is actually easier to upgrade and mitigates failure from the exposed firing pin being damaged on the face of the hammer. This revolver is also new enough that it comes with a topstrap that is drilled and tapped from the factory. This only meant one thing! Time to dress up this L-frame with a red dot! My friend Caleb Giddings suggested an Allchin mount which I subsequently purchased. I picked out a mount with the Holosun/RMR/SRO footprint for my HS407C. Installing both the Allchin mount and the Holosun directly on top of the mount was extremely easy.

.38 Special loaded in cylinder — Smith and Wesson 686-5 L Frame revolver with Holosun 407C RDS. Extremely easy to mount and even more fun to shoot.

I had Tony Mayer of JM Custom Kydex bend me a dot cut appendix L-frame holster to further enable my madness. An L-frame revolver with rubber boot stocks is a very tall gun to conceal in the appendix position, but I am not too concerned about that as this gun and holster is solely for my pleasure. I can’t wait to sight this dot in and shoot some drills with this holster on a range bay. Life is too short to not enjoy shooting revolvers. And you can’t argue with the trigger control that carries over to other types of pistols.

Look at the soot that accumulates after a range session shooting mostly cast lead handloads. Yes those bullets are coated with a special coating, but they still produce more smoke and smell a certain way. It’s romantic.

Just wait until tell you how I really feel about 1911s.

The Female Active Shooter And The 72hr Rule

By

Lars Smith

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March 29, 2023

Nashville: Female Active Shooter — Photo Credit: @MNPDNashville

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nashville-school-shooting-covenant-school/

<Editor’s Note: Female active shooters are vanishingly rare, so when we heard that the tragedy Monday in Nashville involved one, we had to take a look. Early reporting on active shooter events is often flawed, unreliable, or outright incorrect, but multiple national news outlets confirmed it. Knowing that the narrative on these types of events in the 72hrs immediately post-incident are regularly changed or updated with new, more accurate information, we held fire until some more time had passed, and it indeed turned out to be more complicated than that. So here’s an article on how uncommon a female active shooter is, and a lesson on waiting until things settle down to comment on a breaking news story.>

According to the FBI, a female active shooter in the US from 2000-2018 was found in less than 4% of the total incidents, and other homicide data follows a similar trend: Women murder less, per capita, than men. So much less that the female active shooter is functionally an anomaly within a dataset that’s made up of tragic but already uncommon incidents. Regardless of what the media might have to say about it. the FBI reports an average of 143 casualties/year due to Active Shooter incidents, with 57 of those being deaths. While any number of senseless deaths are horrific, keep in mind that somewhere around 2 and a half million Americans die every year, and consider the perspective this brings to a conversation that is often tilted toward accepting that this miniscule yet terrible problem is an “epidemic” of some sort.

While school shootings are an horrific, if thankfully rare phenomenon, the meat of this analysis is the fact that the now-dead suspect was a woman apparently armed with two “assault-style rifles” and a handgun (Odd that, according to recent news reports, a shooter with one such weapon was an insurmountably lethal obstacle for dozens of cops @ Uvalde while someone with *two* of them was easily overtaken and killed by police, but that’s an entirely different article). Men are over 25x more likely to commit such an act, but why?

Explanations for the minimal appearance of the female active shooter range from hypotheses surrounding the purported closer relationship with interpersonal violence that men have, to differences in social routines and norms, and the generally depressed numbers of women vs men familiar enough with guns to practically consider such an act. The only completely truthful answer is that there is no one definitive answer, and that more research is necessary.

Nobody wants to see more dead innocents, regardless of their stance on guns. What would be nice though, is an attempt at a sober discussion of the problem at hand; honestly analyzing proposed solutions that come with a realistic appraisal of both their feasibility and efficacy, and abandoning the easy, emotional route when it comes to this topic. Unfortunately such an approach doesn’t generate clicks, or bring in the donation money though, so both sides will keep shooting from the heart when it comes to gun violence of any stripe in America, regardless of who is pulling the trigger.

GWOT: The Green Berets And The 1911 Pistol

By

P.E. Fitch

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March 29, 2023

The 1911 is no doubt “America’s Gun” and recently I stumbled upon an older video Jeff Gurwitch made and shared. He chronicles the use of 1911 pistols by Special Forces soldiers during the GWOT (Global War On Terror) era. I was very intrigued at the concept of carrying .45 Auto relics in modern combat spaces, but he made a great video and we’re lucky to be able to learn from a primary source. As a 1911 lover, there is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about these guns.

Today, in 2023 (the 1911’s adoption anniversary as well by the US Army), we are all in on the 9mm cartridge and we use it for everything: defense, duty, training, competition and recreation. The first emotion that this video evoked was amusement at the reminder that it wasn’t that long ago when serious American shooters still had a different outlook on pistol calibers and their terminal effectiveness. Today, it can be easy to chuckle and brush off old-fashioned concerns, but these didn’t spawn out of thin air either. The old ways came from hard-learned lessons paid for in blood from the past. No matter what, guys are always trying to make best with what they have and they know.

Reaching For Ol’ Reliable

From the video, we learn that right after the 9-11 Terror attacks, elements inside of the Special Forces community made arrangements to get a supply of USGI M1911-A1 pistols. Twenty years ago, thought leaders, tactical shooters and competitors at the highest levels of the American shooting establishment still had a preference for 1911s and the .45 Auto cartridge. 1911 pistols were seen as the expert’s choice, and there was already a long history of established 1911 use in the American Military. 20 years ago, strong biases were still held against the Beretta 92 with their TDA triggers and its 9mm Luger cartridge. Special Forces soldiers much preferred to carry the expert’s gun with the single-action trigger that was carried cocked and locked instead. Gurwitch describes the pile of guns they received: a trove of USGI 1945 made Remington-Rand M1911-A1s that looked exactly the way they did the day the Second World War ended. All of these guns had been rebuilt with new “old” stock USGI parts to ensure they were in working condition, but again, these guns looked like they were getting ready to re-take Italy from the Nazis in 1943. These 1911 pistols being made to the A1 spec, still had the dinky little sights, diminutive safeties, short-triggers and their curved mainspring housings. Fortunately, these guns were issued with modern 8-round magazines instead of the original 7-round USGI magazines. Modern magazines were provisioned by Wilson Combat or Chip McCormick (these are still decent 1911s magazines today, btw).

USGI M1911-A1 with improved sights, trigger shoe and stocks. Note the original M1911-A1 spur hammer. image credit: Jeff Gurwitch

Still Doing Work

Training at Mid South Institute. image credit: Jeff Gurwitch

Besides rebuilding the warhorses back to their specs and securing a stash fresh magazines and ammunition, Special Forces soldiers spent time putting in work and training with these guns prior to their deployments at Mid South Institute. Gurwitch said that each man got to fire approximately 3000 rounds of .45 Auto while also weeding out the problem pistols from their pile of old Remington Rands and leaving those behind. Special Forces soldiers typically neutralize enemy personnel with their rifles more than they use pistols. I am guessing that this meant that having to go to war with M1911-A1 pistols wasn’t such a big hindrance. In spite of any action these pistols saw, their enemy KIA numbers were not at all that high. These guns truly were their sidearms, after all. Besides, shooting at Mid South provided ample time to build skill. Gurwitch elaborates that the vetted pistols that passed the high round counts during the training work-up proved to be very reliable overseas. Traditionally, military grade 1911 pistols were always built on the looser side with some play and rattle between the frame and slide. These looser tolerances resulted in better reliability against the harsh dusty and sandy conditions of the Middle East. The video explains more detail about the holsters, rigs and support gear the Special Forces used to carry these pistols. Over time, he explained, one could find subtle upgrades and modifications amongst this fleet of old fighting pistols. It was small items like extended slide stop levers and safeties, more modern stocks and longer trigger shoes (things that come standard in today’s 1911s) naturally made their way into these guns.

Retirement: After 100 Years

No matter how wonderful 1911s are, no matter how great their triggers are, or no matter how they make their carriers’ chest swell with pride, the 1911 pistol has a capacity issue. Gurwitch explains how this capacity challenge really became inconvenient with evolving combat and shooting tactics. The pistol’s frame was designed over one century ago and was done so to accommodate a single stack magazine–it would be a few more years before the first viable staggered column magazine designs showed up. Furthermore, the .45 Auto cartridge is relatively large and also heavy, so the simple logistics of moving it around whether through a supply chain or on your person just makes it less convenient. This is why the use of the 1911 pistol only lasted ultimately lasted a few years before the Green Berets basically replaced them with 9mm Glock 19s. It is hard to argue against a simpler and more reliable sidearm that holds nearly twice as many rounds and is lighter to carry.

Rest assured though, that the 1911 will never die. If the current popularity of 2011 pistols serves as a barometer, the American shooter is still trying to have their cake and eat it too.

Big Tex Ordnance Announces New Website!

By

Keith Finch

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March 29, 2023

Conroe, Texas 3-29-23

Firearm and Accessory online retailer Big Tex Ordnance announced today the launch of a new website focused on firearms related gear and equipment. Big Tex Ordnance is known for their selection of high quality Pistol and AR parts, fast shipping times, amazing customer service, and support for the training, 2A, and Veteran communities.

“Due to increasing hostility and anti-2A pressure we wanted to have a website and social media channels that would be less likely to be removed or have its content shadow banned because of being directly linked to a site that is heavily focused on the selling of firearms, magazings, and other items that are deemed evil. Launching BTOGear.com will allow us to continue to put out content and communicate with customers despite these attacks.” States Co-Owner and founder Ike Stephens.

“We are always adding new products and partnering with awesome new companies in the training, self-defense, and LE/MIL communities and it is increasingly difficult to house our growing inventory on one website. BTOGear.com will give us the ability to separate items between the two sites resulting in a better overall customer experience.” Said Chris Greenfield, Vice President of Operations for Big Tex Ordnance.
BTOGear.com has been live for several weeks, offering items from brands like Modlite, Surefire, Kestrel, Magpul, Vertx, and more. BTO has even dropped an exclusive BTO Gear t-shirt not available on the Big Tex Ordnance site as well as a “Why BTO Gear?” video on their Youtube channel. The Texas based company plans to continue to expand the offerings of both sites with more projects in the near future.

Smith & Wesson’s Equalizer 9mm

By

V. Caldwell

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March 29, 2023

A clean design with good features the Equalizer is a good concealed carry piece.

The aptly named Equalizer is among this year’s newest introductions and one with a bright promise. This isn’t a Shield or Military & Police variant save for Smith & Wesson’s broad naming of M & P handguns. This pistol is a single action concealed hammer (hammer fired) handgun based on the EZ rack handguns. The Equalizer has good features including a grip safety and manual safety. Three dot sights offer a versatile sight picture. The trigger action is decent, good for the price point. The slide is stainless steel but features a black coating. The frame is polymer. The handgun is basically a high capacity version of the EZ rack. It is worth noting the Equalizer isn’t as tall as the EX rack offering good concealment while upping magazine capacity.

The Equalizer features well designed forward cocking serrations. The pistol is supplied with three magazines in ten, thirteen and fifteen round capacity. These steel magazines are well designed and robust in construction. The tapered magazines are easily slapped into the magazine well. The higher capacity over the previous handgun doesn’t result in a larger grip frame. With the ten round magazine in place the pistol is actually shorter than the original EZ Rack, ideal for concealed carry. There are few handguns this size that handle as well as the Equalizer. The pistol is optics ready I did not mount a red dot. The safety lever on my pistol is ambidextrous and positive in operation. The pistol is just slightly over an inch wide at its widest point and weighs only 23 ounces. Despite the compact size the barrel at 3.675 inches long offers good performance with modern 9mm Luger loads. When carried close to the body the black Armornite finish should prove corrosion and wear resistant. An advantage of the Equalizer is that the pistol may be loaded with the safety engaged as the safety does not lock the slide. The grip safety prevents the pistol from firing unless the grip safety is fully depressed.

The Equalizer 9mm is supplied with three magazines.

The magazine springs are stiff. That is a good thing as the magazine must feed a long column of cartridges from full compression to almost no compression. A supplied UP Lula loader gave me an edge when loading these magazines. I loaded the ten round magazine by hand and usually loaded only fourteen cartridges in the fifteen round magazine. The supplied Uplula magazine loader made a tremendous difference in ease of loading. The Equalizer was tested with a wide range of bullet weights. Lightest was 92 grain Fiocchi and the heaviest 150 grain Federal. All functioned well. The Equalizer never failed to feed, chamber, fire or eject with the ten and thirteen round magazines. I had a couple of short cycles with the fifteen round magazine. Maybe a break in malfunction? The Equalizer is fast on target and the trigger while not target grade offers a clean reset. Like many Smith & Wesson handguns the Equalizer pistol is designed with a good grip angle providing a natural point.

Recoil is greater than the Glock 19 or SIG P320 size pistols as expected, about in the Shield Plus 9mm range. At defensive engagement distances the Equalizer is fast and effective. I was surprised at how well I was able to connect at longer distance. Using the MTM Caseguard K Zone shooting rest I fired two five shot groups, one with the Black Hills Ammunition 115 grain EXP and the other with the same maker’s 124 grain JHP. This was at 25 yards, long for a light handgun. Each cut a five shot group of less than 2.5 inch, 2.25 inch with the 124 grain load. This gun is a shooter! I think the Equalizer will prove a popular handgun and a good defensive pistol.

KU 13592

Model: S&W® EQUALIZER™ NTS
Caliber: 9mm Luger
Capacity: 10+1, 13+1, 15+1
Length: 6.75
Front Sight: White Dot
Rear Sight: White 2-Dot
Action: Internal Hammer Fired
Grip: Polymer
Barrel Material: Stainless Steel with Armornite® Finish
Slide Material: Stainless Steel with Armornite® Finish
Frame Finish: Matte Black
Barrel Length: 3.675″ (9.3 cm)
Weight: 22.9 oz.

Average retail less than $500 in my neck of the woods.

Course Review for Larry Lindenman/Point Driven Training’s Saps & Jacks

By

The Suited Shootist

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March 29, 2023

Saps became legal in Texas a few years ago, and given my penchant for travel, both national and international, as well as my regular appearance at many local watering holes, I figured that a better understanding of purpose built tools might also improve my understanding should I be in a position to have to fashion an improvised alternative.

The first time I’d heard of Larry Lindenman was his interview on Ballistic Radio, and I kind of knew that he was loosely affiliated with the Shivworks crowd, but beyond that I didn’t really know much about the guy. And, if I’m being completely honest, his was only 1 of 2 classes that was available on the Sunday morning of Tac-Con in 2019, and I figured I’d rather get some hands on experience with something rather than sit through a lecture on ammunition (nothing against Dr. Topper, it just wasn’t my flavor). So I went into this with literally 0 expectations because I basically had nothing else better to do. Well Dunning Kruger is a motherfucker, as I’ve said on more than one occasion, and the universe decided to choke me on my own ignorance.

I am so glad that I took this class! Aside from the fact that Larry is an incredibly gracious guy (I ended up being able to pick his brain the night prior over a wide range of topics), he takes a refreshingly pragmatic approach to impact weapons. To provide some context, in different Facebook groups you’ll generally see people that talk either about brass knuckles or the “biker’s special” padlock/bandanna combo. The amusing part is that nobody ever seems to address application and targeting, as if it’s as easy as swinging a hammer! As you might imagine, it ain’t exactly that easy.

His application of impact weapons jives well with a grappling foundation, as you’d expect from both a member of the Shivworks crew and a competitive fighter. Access and application were all tight, with elbows almost pinned to the ribs. The blows were thrown not from the wrist, elbow, or shoulder, but from the hips like a boxer’s cross. Larry took great care to specify preferred targeting areas (clavicle, floating ribs, outer thigh), and made it abundantly clear that any blows to the head would likely constitute deadly force. (Check your local laws and, if at all possible, your local law enforcement’s policies regarding batons. I’m in no way a lawyer and none of this constitutes legal advice in any way)

We drilled some scenarios, working (briefly) through MUC (look it up), and into the access and deployment of the sap/jack. What’s different about Larry’s material as opposed to some of the other Shivworks members is that, because of the nature of the sap, access & preparation is actually part of the verbal engagement process. We’re able to get away with this partially because the impact weapons are generally viewed as less lethal force, and the visual presence of a hunk of leather isn’t as overtly hostile as a firearm or blade. Therefore once the aggressor decides to initiate the assault, the sap/jack is already chambered for its first strike and you’re not having to contend with in-fight weapon access. He also showed us a nifty little hack that he’d picked up from Claude Werner about how to make a sap sheath out of an old milk jug.

In between the drills there was also a show & tell where he showed of a wide collection of leather goods that could only be rivaled by Jack Clemons. Larry broke down the anatomy of both saps & blackjacks, the advantages and drawbacks to each, and what he personally looks for in a defensive impact tool. There was also some discussion on makeshift/improvised impact weapons, however that is Larry’s proprietary content, reserved strictly for the course, so you’ll just have to sign up and find out for yourself. That alone is worth the cost of admission in my book.

As stated at the beginning, I’m almost embarrassed at how cavalier I was going into this. Impact weapon knowledge is something that I think everyone could benefit from. If for no other reason than they’re the most universally available. My wife and I love to travel, especially outside the US. Firearms are a non-starter, and blades are dodgy at best. Having an understanding of how & where to hit people, and what to hit them with is invaluable in areas where more conventional weapons may not be an option. There’s only so much that he could cover in the limited 2 hour window we had, but every minute was productive and I cannot speak highly enough about this course.

Shamelessly stealing the Short Barreled Shepherd’s 3×3 Model for AARs, here’s the breakdown:

The top 3 things covered in the class:

The anatomy of saps/jacks & what to look for
Positioning/staging/accessing the tools
Targeting & application

The top 3 things I learned from the class:

There’s a lot of instances where a sap/jack may be preferred over a knife/gun
How to make improvised impact weapons
I have a tendency to over-extend my fence.

Top 3 things I’ll do differently:

Invest in a decent purpose built sap (for when I travel places that it’s legal to carry)
Put together a travel kit
Keep my damn arms in!

If you’re within driving distance of Dallas, TX and are interested in getting more formal instruction with impact weapons, I strongly suggest you sign up for the Small Impact Weapons Instructor course that Steve Moses hosts. He’s also a contributing author on the CCW Safe Blog. Go check him out.

Maglula AR Bench Loader – Make Loading Easy

By

Travis Pike

-

March 28, 2023

I’ve always enjoyed magazine loaders and found them convenient, but I didn’t know the definition of need until I took a rather impromptu class. With little time to prepare, I graded my gun, my mags, and an ammo can. As I zoned out before the class loading mags, I realized my thumbs might be a little weak. After loading just five mags, they were hurting, and by the time I hit seven, I was convinced my thumbs needed to work out more. I was also convinced I needed something besides them to load mags, and that led me to the Maglula AR Benchloader.

I initially went to Maglula to grab one of their basic mag loaders but quickly stumbled across the AR Bench Loader. GunmagWarehouse had one for a great price, and here we are. With the loader in hand, or rather on the table, I’ve freed my thumbs from the weight of their labor. Am I benign dramatic? Maybe, but I can’t get over how easy this thing makes loading magazines.

Load Em Up With the Maglula AR Bench Loader

This thing isn’t exactly compact. It fits in my Blackhawk Range Bag, but isn’t going to fit in my cargo pocket. It’s designed to be laid on a flat surface. You dump a maximum of thirty rounds into the tray. You then plug your magazine into the loader. It has active retention and plugs into the magazine release slot. Once plugged in, drop the rounds into the loader, grab the handle, and push those squirrely bastards into the magazine.

It takes very little effort, and the rounds fly into the magazine without issue. None became lost or disturbed as I drove the handle home and filled the magazine. Over and over, it worked flawlessly, giving me a fresh batch of loaded mags without the pain of sore thumbs from metal mag lips.

Does it save time? A little, but it does take time to drop the cartridges into the slot. You can’t just pour them in freely. You have to properly align them with a lip. When put against a stopwatch, the Maglula AR Bench Loader just barely beats thumbing each round into the magazine. Where it really shines is just making life easier. It preserves the integrity of your thumbs and keeps things remarkably simple.

Specs and Facts

The Maglula AR Bench Loader works, that’s clear, but let’s get specific with things. The device is 16.5 inches long and weighs 12.7 ounces. It’s made mostly from a high-impact polymer. The Loader has two slots that allow you to either chain the loader down or screw it to a surface. It’s clearly designed for a high-volume shooter who would mount it and use it when necessary.

I loaded well over seven hundred rounds at this point through a wide variety of magazines from standard aluminum to polymer PMAGS and hybrid Lancers, and it all works without issues. The Maglula AR Bench Loader isn’t magazine picky by any means. Maglula produces Bench Laoders for the AUG and G36 as well as the AR-15, although those are more likely more popular elsewhere.

If you are a high-volume shooter, it’s a great tool to have. If you own a range, then again, it’s a convenience for your customers. I’d certainly bolt it down because someone is liable to enjoy it enough to steal it. Check them out here and give your thumbs a break.

Why Is the Uzi So Iconic?

By

Travis Pike

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March 28, 2023

There are a few guns out there that are household names. I don’t mean just known in gun households but in most households. Everyone knows what a Glock is, an AR-15, and an AK-47, and of course, everyone knows what an Uzi is. Why is the Uzi so iconic? What makes it such an icon and, dare I say, the most well-known? A while back, I wrote about the Uzi and its history, and part of that research was looking at its effect on pop culture. That leads me to a few conclusions on why the Uzi has become so iconic.

The Uzi Name

Legend has it that the creator of the Uzi, Uziel Gal, did not want the weapon he designed to bear his name. Well, we all know how that went. The Israeli Military Industries didn’t really care what he wanted. In 1954 I didn’t think they were thinking about branding, but it worked out well.

Uzi is easy to pronounce, short, sweet, and fun to say. Plenty of famous guns have model numbers in their name, but mixing numbers and letters aren’t always solid branding. The term Uzi, however, is short, sweet, and effective. It’s a brand name popular enough that IMI used it for name recognition with Jericho handguns and attached it to knives, batons, and more.

There is a reason why the term uzi became the go-to name for seemingly any handheld submachine gun of the era. Guns like the MAC series, TEC-9s, and more would be generically known as Uzis at times.

These big intimidating weapons made their way into rap lyrics, and now a search of the word Uzi results in hundreds of mentions that represent music internationally. You can’t escape good branding.

Right Place, Right Time

The Uzi hit the market in 1954, just in time to find itself in the Suez Crisis of 1956. From then onward, the gun participated in Israel’s numerous conflicts and was often on the winning side. This gave the gun and the men carrying them a great deal of quick fame.

In the 1960s, the United States Secret Service adopted the gun, leading to two iconic photographs. The first was a group of hard-looking men in suits riding on all sides of a convertible carrying Uzis. The men were responding to a hostage taker at Augusta National Golf Course.

The second was another Secret Service agent named Robert Wanko pulling an Uzi when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan.

Innovative Design

The Uzi was fairly innovative for the era as well. Fitting the magazine into the pistol grip saved space and made the weapon shorter, making it more compact and handier than guns like the M3 and PPS-41. A folding metal stock guaranteed it could fit in a briefcase and still function like a full-sized SMG.

The telescoping bolt design was quite the revolution and allowed the gun to remain compact. Inside sat a fairly simple, open bolt, direct blowback gun. It’s not complicated by any means and performed reliably in numerous environments.

Worldwide Sales

Israel isn’t shy about exporting their weapons and selling them around the world. By 1995 they had already made 2 billion from selling Uzis to 90 different countries. The Uzi was also cloned unofficially by China and licensed by numerous other countries. This has put the weapon in the hands of soldiers and police officers around the world.

It’s become internationally iconic because it’s a firearm that transcends borders and remains in service to this very day.

The Iconic Uzi

A simple submachine gun, domestically produced for a struggling military force, really took the world by storm. It’s become a cultural icon and a household name. I think business schools should cover the Uzi and its success due to branding, mass appeal, and innovation, but that likely won’t fly these days.

Shotgun Basics: Buckshot (Part 2)

By

P.E. Fitch

-

March 27, 2023

_{This article is the second part to Shotgun Basics: Buckshot (Part 1)}

Double Aught Loads (.33 caliber)

The 9 pellet double-aught buckshot (00 BK) load became the standard for 12 gauge loads because 9 “00” pellets reasonably fit in a 2.75 inch shotshell and those pellets weigh approximately 1 ⅛ ounces–a “standard” weight in the shotgun world. This is why virtually every ammunition company sells cartridges with 9 pellet loads by default. While “00” pellets nominally measure 0.33-inches, in reality they can sometimes be a tad smaller in diameter depending on the manufacturer. With the on-going defensive shotgun renaissance, 8 pellet loads are also becoming more popular. The 8 pellet load’s biggest benefit is that it provides the tightest patterns since they lack the extra pellet that always seemingly turns into the stray flyer. Besides the inherently tighter pattern from the 8 pellet load, it is easy to be more accountable downrange without the errant pellet.

The nuanced differences between fielding an 8 pellet load vs a more traditional 9-pellet load are worthy of their own separate article. Truthfully, the difference on that last pellet depends on the specific shotgun and the capacity and circumstances in which it is employed.

Experience teaches me that at 25 yards, a modern shotgun that either has a high quality barrel, is jug choked or both can dump a modern double-aught buckshot payload (like any of the three different Federal Premium Flite-Control loads) inside the A and C zones of a standard IPSC cardboard target consistently–flyer or not. This is roughly an eight to nine inch spread depending on the individual gun and batch of shotshells. Shotguns have been around for a long time, but this is truly a modern shotgunning miracle. There is good reason why the Flite-Control line has its ardent devotees.

#1 Buckshot Loads (.30 caliber)

Though double-aught buckshot loads are the most commonly found and used, many defensive shotgun savants and serious shooters favor 12 gauge #1 Buckshot loads. The #1 Buckshot pellet is slightly smaller than the double-aught buck pellet (.30 cal vs .33 cal), but these pellets are still large enough to provide the necessary level of penetration while also throwing a denser pattern. Whereas a typical 12 gauge double-aught buckshot load has 8-9 pellets, the typical #1 Buckshot load has 15-16 pellets instead. The trade-off shooters have to make with #1 Buck loads is accounting for larger patterns with potentially more fliers and pellets that start to veer away from the main pattern. They will have to weigh their needs and specific defensive contexts to see if there is a benefit. Federal used to offer a #1 Buck Flite-Control load, but it has been off the market for a few years now due to inconsistencies between the smaller #1 Buck pellets and the specific shape of the Flite-Control wads. This is something Federal is currently working on figuring out, but in the meantime they did announce a #1 Buckshot Vital-Shok copper plated and buffered load at SHOT Show 2023. Realistically speaking, most #1 Buckshot loads are offered to and marketed towards hunters. All major ammunition companies that load shotshells typically offer some #1 Buckshot load.

A cut-away FFC 1 Buck load. image credit: That Shotgun Blog

MAGNUMS AND DEFENSIVE BUCKSHOT PATTERNS

Both double-aught and #1 Buckshot loads can be had in magnum shells larger than 2.75 inches, but these are best suited for hunting large game. Magnum buckshot loads incur not only a financial cost (as if ammunition today wasn’t expensive enough) but also provide more punishing recoil that makes it harder to recover in between shots. In spite of the extra power and payload, these magnum loads do not really make any difference compared to standard or low recoil defensive loads with regards to terminal ballistics.

Regardless of the quantity of pellets, their size, or anything else found in a cartridge, every shotgun must be patterned along with the ammunition it will fire in order to understand how that load performs out of that specific shotgun. Two shotguns made next to each other on the factory will not pattern the same shells from the same box equally. Different lots of the same product SKU will even pattern differently! Proper patterning also teaches us what kind of performance to expect from a shotgun and how that shotgun can be used. For example, in a home where the longest shot is going to be less than 20 yards, the difference between an 8 or 9 pellet load might not make too much of a difference, but at longer distances it may. Or if those defensive shots will be made inside of 10 yards, patterning can teach that shooter the margin of error and teach them that their pattern will probably be a few inches maximum, regardless of whether their loads have premium wads. On the other hand a police officer who has to be accountable for any and all projectiles they send downrange may only use very tight 8-pellet loads. Ultimately, patterning an individual shotgun and its intended ammunition is always the best policy.

BUCKSHOT: THE PERENNIAL AMMUNITION

No matter how rudimentary (as in a handful of lead balls chucked into the muzzle of a black powder blunderbuss) or how sophisticated (Federal LE 13200 or LE 13300 Flite-Control loads in a Blink gas system Beretta semi-auto decked out with everything Aridus), buckshot has been and will continue to be the go-to choice for defensive and tactical shotgun use. There are very few firearms that can influence the outcome of a deadly-force encounter the way a shotgun can. Similarly, the buckshot-loaded shotgun is still equally useful for harvesting big game or protection from large, backcountry dangerous predatory animals. As modern shooters, we are really fortunate to have the opportunity to take advantage of the latest developments in shotgun ammunition loaded with plated pellets, grex, advanced wads and propellants.

To learn about shotgun slugs, click here.

_{Special thanks for past and on-going support from Nathan P., author of That Shotgun Blog. There are others and they know who they are.}

The One Benefit of Competition Shooting No One Mentions

By

Travis Pike

-

March 27, 2023

I think, as a gun community, we’ve gotten past the idea that competition shooters make you a worse defensive shooter. The idea that competition will get you killed in the streets seems to be a dying idea. Competition shooting makes you a faster, more accurate shooter who can act better under stress. There have been much better, much more experienced competition shooters who have shared the benefits of competition shooting. However, one benefit I’ve seen mentioned is how competition drives you to train.

The Unknown Benefit of Competition Shooting

I used to think I trained, but honestly, I had gotten lazy. Don’t get me wrong, I took classes, but if it wasn’t live fire practice, I really wasn’t training that often. I certainly wasn’t practicing every day. Prior to shooting in a competitive environment, I trained to be a defensive shooter. The thing is, I haven’t been in a fight for my life since 2010. I’m not in a gunfight every other month.

However, I can compete once every two weeks or at least once a month. This drives me to train more. It seems silly, and I know how it sounds. Training to defend your life seems incredibly important. Why would competition drive you to train harder versus defending yourself and your family? Because I’m actually doing one of those things once a month at a minimum.

I agree that one should have a higher priority, but it’s a lot easier to play COD MW2 for an extra half hour rather than dry-fire practice when it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever be in a gunfight again. On the flip side, I will be out shooting some form of action shooting event next week. So I put the controller down and worked on my draw.

Do my defensive skills increase when I train for competition? Yeah. A draw from AIWB is different than an OWB, for sure, but drawing a gun is still drawing a gun. My AIWB concealment draw has gotten faster alongside my OWB draw. I’m even going to shoot my next match from concealment if the rules allow it.

Focus and Motivation

I am far from good at competition shooting, and for me, it’s a casual hobby I love to indulge in. However, it’s given me a drive, motivation, and reason to keep training and to train harder. Not only that, but it tests me every time I step up to shoot my course of fire. Is my training working? What do I need to tweak? What can I improve on?

That’s the untold benefit of competition shooting.