on June 30, 2009 9:26 AM
Gunblast's review
I'm apparently late to the party, but I just heard about this rifle today. I like it!
June 2009 Archives
I am getting a bit tired of hearing the same old arguments for gun control, so I thought I'd list out some responses. It might save us all some time.
Also, if you want to go right for the jugular, you can ask just one question.
A gun in the home means you are X times more likely to be killed
I've heard X range from 2 to 44.
First, correlation does not imply causation. Second, that study has been proven to be garbage.
Guns kill 70,000 people per year
The CDC lists just over 30,000 deaths per year attributed to firearms. That seems pretty high at first, but how does that compare to other causes?
Cause Number
Heart disease 710,760
Cancer 553,091
Stroke (cerebrovascular disease) 167,661
Chronic lower respiratory diseases 122,009
Doctor's negligence 98,329
Influenza and pneumonia 65,313
Motor-vehicle 43,354
Suicides (all kinds, including firearms) 29,350
Firearms (Total)* 28,163
Suicides 16,586
Homicides 10,801
Accidents 776
Accidents (six causes)
Falls 13,322
Poison (solid, liquid) 12,757
Choking on food or other object 4,313
Drowning 3,402
Fires, flames 3,377
Firearms 776
Homicides (all instruments) 16,765
You can make all kinds of interesting arguments from here. Doctors kill 3 times as many people as guns do!
Another way to put these deaths in context is to point out that there are over 2 million protective uses of guns each year.
From Gun Owners of America Fact Sheet 2004
Source: Except for the figure on doctor's negligence, the above information is for 2000 and is taken from National Safety Council, Injury Facts: 2003 Edition, at 10, 19-20, 129. The number of yearly deaths attributed to doctor's negligence is based on the Harvard Medical Practice Study (1990) which is cited in Kleck, Point Blank, at 43.127
*The total firearms death figure above is a summary of the "Suicides," "Homicides" and "Accidents" subcategories. The Total excludes two categories: Legal Intervention and Undetermined.
Yes, but guns only have one purpose, to kill!
I usually point out how my guns have never been used to killed anyone, and I've had some of them for over 20 years now.
Sometimes I'll bring up competitions (there are several Olympic shooting sports, for example) and hunting, but I've found the real moonbats don't care. They don't think that's a good enough reason, so therefore you shouldn't be able to own one.
Sometimes, if I feel like being antagonistic I might say, well, so does an abortion doctor. That's usually a lot fun, but it tends to derail the conversation.
You can also bring up that killing isn't always illegal or immoral, and a gun is a great equalizer for the physically weak, but sometimes this might be viewed as conceding the point.
Gun owners are knuckle dragging, poorly endowed, insecure people
Usually if this is taking place face to face, at this point the other person is incredibly worked up, with spittle flying everywhere. It's probably best to just be the "bigger" man here and walk away.
Resist the urge to make comments about how it was enough for the persons mother.
If you are online, there's a great WSJ article here to point them to. Here's an excerpt:
It turns out [gun owners] have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average. Furthermore, they earn 32% more per year than nonowners.
The data say that the people in the approximately 40 million American households with guns are generally happier than those people in households that don't have guns.
Why are gun owners so happy? One plausible reason is a sense of self-reliance, in terms of self-defense or even in terms of the ability to hunt their own dinner.
In 2002, they were more likely to give money to charity than people without guns (83% to 75%).
In 2004, they were more likely than those without guns to strongly agree that they would "endure all things" for the one they loved (45% to 37%).
Doesn't sound like such a bad group of people to me.
These are the things I hear the most. For other things, the Gun Owners of America website has some great information, as does Gun Facts.
For even more in depth analysis, I recommend John Lott (book) and Howard Nemerov (book).
The first rule of digging a hole is: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!
Here's a nice, fairly short article that sums up our failing welfare state.
Any sober examination of figures like these suggests that the system has promised more than it can realistically deliver. We are borrowing not to finance investment in the future but to pay for today's welfare -- present consumption. Sooner or later, the huge debt will weaken the economy.
I find it interesting that despite the fact the burden of these programs is starting to look unbearable, what are we trying to do? Add another program! (Health insurance in this case.)
Oh, I know, the spin is that it will save us money over the long term, and it will be funded by this tax or that and not add to the deficit. Yeah, right ... even if that were true, shouldn't you use that money to pay for the stuff you've already promised but can't pay for?
Ok, first, I am not a firearms trainer.
Second, I don't care what your "goto" home defense tool is. If you're happy with it, great, that's all that counts. (Now train with it!)
Third, by shotgun, I'm talking about the familiar pump action home defense variety. Remington 870, Mossberg 500, Winchester 1300, etc.
For giggles, here are my shotguns (although the second pic doesn't meet my definition):
The Mythical Shotgun
The shotgun is frequently recommended to first time gun buyers as the perfect home defense tool. They will often be told things like "just pump the action and the bad guys will run", or that they don't have to aim it, or one blast will fling the bad guys through the air, but at the same time the pellets won't penetrate through walls.
How do these statements match up with reality?
If you rack it, they will run
Honestly, I'm sure it has happened, but can you depend on it working all the time? I wouldn't.
You don't have to aim
Buckshot will typically spread about 1 inch per yard of distance from the muzzle.
So, if the bad guy is across the average room, say 12 feet away, that means your buckshot will spread about 4". That's pretty small, certainly not man-sized. You could easily miss the person altogether.
It will launch bad guys across the room
Newton tells us that the force the target is being hit with is the same force that is being driven into your shoulder. If it could launch them across the room, it would do the same to you.
It won't go through walls
If it can't go through walls, it certainly isn't going to be sufficient for stopping an attacker. Depending on the load, it may go through less walls than a pistol or rifle, but you still need to be sure of your target and what is beyond it (and aim too), especially apartment dwellers.
Ok, but what about after passing through a bad guy?
The shotgun does deserve some credit in this case. With something like a #4 reduced recoil load, the risk of over-penetration is minimized, but the chances of under-penetration are increased.
There is a trade off that can't be gotten around: smaller pellets reduce penetration, but may under-penetrate, and bigger pellets increase penetration, but may over-penetrate.
So what is the right size? If you look around "the net" you will see lots of conflicting opinions on what is the proper home defense buckshot load. I personally use 00 buck in my home defense shotgun as its easily found, penetrates sufficiently, and has a proven track record. I wouldn't go lighter than #1 myself.
Birdshot can be lethal, but not dependably so. It's not recommended.
Shotgun strengths
Reliable
Pump action shotguns have a reputation for being dependable and hard to break. Since they don't use the recoil or gas of the previous round to work the action, they will pretty much fire anything.
Powerful up close
Shooting 00 buck is literally like shooting nine .32 caliber handguns with each shot.
A 12 gauge slug is a solid ounce of lead traveling at over 1600 feet per second. (Even faster if its a magnum shell.) That's over a ton of kinetic energy at the muzzle.
Easy to aim
You still have to aim, but most shotguns have a simple bead sight that should be easy to use and understand by everyone.
Compared to teaching a new shooter to be accurate with a pistol, the shotgun is very easy.
Versatility
Thanks to the wide variety of shotgun ammunition, with basically the same gun, I can go bird hunting, go large animal hunting, and defend my home. (There are capacity restrictions on migratory birds, and I might use a different barrel for hunting with slugs, so I may have to change a few things from one use to the next.)
Shotgun weakness
Lack of precision
This is a big one for home defense. As I mentioned earlier, with every yard of distance from the muzzle, the shot pellets will spread about an inch.
As distance increases it becomes more difficult to place shots accurately. Think about if you are having to protect a loved one who is being held by bad guy. Can you take the shot?
At some point the spread will be so great that it's possible to completely miss the intended target.
Different shotguns will pattern differently. Different loads will pattern differently in the same gun. To use the shotgun effectively, you need to know how your gun patterns your home defense load at every distance.
Ok, but what about slugs?
Slugs are more accurate, and extend your effective range to about 50 yards. The tradeoff I mentioned earlier is now in full force though. You're odds of over-penetrating with a slug are higher, and the recoil is pretty stiff.
Recoil
Compared to something like an AR-15, or pistol caliber carbine, the shotgun packs a wallop.
Smaller people may need to move down to a 20 gauge.
There are various recoil pads which are helpful in taking some of the harshness out, and I'm told there are certain stocks with "thingamajigs" that can really absorb a lot of the recoil. They do work from what I am told, but they are also one more thing that can fail. Also you may need that buttstock to smash someone in the head with, it needs to be durable!
Capacity
Most home defense shotguns will hold 9 rounds or less. An AR-15 holds 30.
30 > 9.
Switching ammo types
If you've got buckshot in the chamber, and a magazine full of buckshot, how do you get a slug into it to take a precision shot at 25 yards? Rack the slide, put a slug in the magazine, and rack again.
For me, this is too much to do during a SHTF situation, and the reason I will go for my AR first.
Another option would be to carry slugs exclusively, but you are still stuck with the other downsides such as low capacity, and high recoil.
I took the hogs over to Meyer's Elgin Sausage on Monday and had them make some sausage for me.
I went with the garlic sausage and had them smoke it too.
It's pretty damned tasty. Unfortunately I'm on a diet so I I only got a little piece, but it was excellent.
I was expecting the garlic to be a lot more potent, but it's fairly subtle. (That's probably better anyways since I'm going to be giving a lot of this away to friends and neighbors.)
There's not a hint of gaminess in the flavor, and it's got just the right amount of black pepper.
I like it.
I haven't, but I've been "shot near".
The best description I can give is, that it was surreal helplessness.
About 12 years ago, I went to visit my good friend in the big city of Dallas, TX. This was way before I had any kind of self defense training, or knew about situational awareness, and to be honest, I didn't even care for handguns back then.
We went out messing around, eventually ending up at Dave and Busters. I drop him off at his place, and the first stop light I come to is where it all went down.
I'm in the left lane of a 6 lane road, stopped. There's cars all around me, but I am the first car in my lane.
A white Mustang rolls up coming from my left. There are cars in front of him, and he just starts ramming them and burning rubber pushing them out of the way.
While this is going on a panel truck comes up behind the Mustang.
A guy gets out of the truck just as as the last car gets out of the Mustang's way. The Mustang takes off through the intersection.
Well, the guy is in the intersection now and starts shooting at the fleeing Mustang.
Now, at no time did he point the weapon at anyone else (besides the Mustang), but if he had, there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't go forward because of a car in my way that had been pushed there by the Mustang. Even if I could, I would still be vulnerable for a good while.
I won't say this was a life changing experience, because for the most part I just shrugged it off, but I do replay it my head sometimes and think about what could have happened.
Sometimes when I might be tempted to not carry, I remind myself that you never know what is going to happen.
I went on my first ever feral hog hunt today, and it was also my first ever "high fence" hunt. (I also took, Hsoi, along for his ever hunt of any kind.)
I wouldn't say it was the best hunt ever, but I will say it wasn't near as "canned" as I expected. I never walked so much on any hunt ever before.
I expected to sit in a blind, wait for the feeders to go off and then have my pick of piggies.
What actually happened was a lot of walking, finding the hogs, trying to get a shot, and then more walking to the next spot (if they run off before you get a shot, and they do, a lot.)
The first shot opportunity was an eye-opener. They don't stand still at all, and you can not take more than a few seconds (if that) to make a shot.
Soon after that I ended up getting the first pig, a small boar about 50-ish pounds. I didn't have time to think about it. There he was, I sat down, flicked the safety off, put the cross hairs on his neck, held my breath and pulled the trigger.
I knew it was a good shot, and he was DRT as they say.
I've blogged before about how I didn't think the combo of stuff on my rifle was going to work well, but it actually did. Also the load I worked up for it did great. (You do not ever want to get hit with a Barnes Triple Shock bullet, trust me.)
We tried to get Hsoi a shot via the same method, but they were scarce after that, and he didn't get any opportunities. The guide suggested putting him in blind, as the feeders were going to go off soon. So we did, and the guide and I walked on down the road.
It felt like we walked an hour. Then they put some corn out on the roads again, and we walked some more.
I had a couple of chances, but the combo of walking and little bit of nerves left me out of breath and never could get a proper shot.
Finally we came on another sounder, and some bigger ones this time. I never got a good chance at the bigger ones, but I did get a little bit bigger sow at that time.
She was coming towards us, and then quartered to me. I went for the shoulder this time since she was being even less co-operative than the first and I still had some nerves. She was also DRT, though she kicked a bit more.
When we got up on her, I thought I had made a really bad shot. She had a wound high in her mid section on her right side. I know the conditions weren't conducive to being super-precise, but I can usually call my shots.
On the way home, I thought about it some more, and I'm pretty sure that wound I saw was the exit wound. She must have rolled over while I was recovering from the recoil.
The left shoulder was torn up, which would be impossible if she was quartering towards me and I shot her high in the middle.
It's the only thing that makes sense.
Anyway, we went to go find Hsoi after that.
I think he called me an F'er for getting a second before he got the first. :)-~
So, we walked some more. We got real close on a sounder and Hsoi missed a shot. I think he missed because it was so close that he need some hold over, or it just got too heavy.
So, then we walked some more. Again we get close, but no good shots.
So, the we walked some more. We come on a sounder and a bit unexpectedly, he took a shot through some brush and got a small one. Both the guide and myself thought he was going to wait for them to come out. No big deal, but I wasn't holding my ears for the shot and an M1A with a muzzle break is frickin' loud in the brush.
It wasn't a great shot, but it wasn't getting up. Our guide walked over and gave him the coup de grace.
It wasn't 5 minutes later that we get another chance and Hsoi takes #2 at this time. This pig made it about 40 yards before expiring.
I think with a lighter gun, Hsoi will be making better shots.
A lot of our shot opportunities weren't fully supported and there's not time to hook into your sling. That heavy gun gets hard to hold still pretty quickly, at least from what I could tell.
Anyway, I had a good time, and tipped our guide a well. He worked his ass off for us and deserved it.
Now, I got to figure out what to do with these two pigs. :)-~
After 4 weeks of unhealthy eating, I decided I need to reboot my fitness and diet plan.
I haven't really worked my legs hard in years, but I went back to my plan from 5 years ago that has pretty grueling leg workouts which are far beyond my current level of fitness today.
Long story short, I can barely get out of my chair today.
