(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

Let's face it, few of us can really afford to shoot enough to really get absolutely confident in our skill. It's not just the ammunition costs, either. Range time is expensive and with gas costs it's even expensive driving to the range. Then when we get there, we find there are all kinds of restrictions on how we can shoot. Some ranges don't allow rapid fire, most will go into hysterics if we try to work on a draw, and Lord help you if you need to practice engaging a threat from behind.

There is an answer, actually more than one. Primer powered wax, rubber and plastic bullets. Someone who is already a handloader is at least partially set up to use these handy little wonders. Someone who isn't will need some tools and some supplies. Some you have around the house already - a small hammer, a drill - some you'll have to buy, and there are other things that can speed the process up.

The first thing we need is modified cartridge cases. Unless you are already set up to handload, start with new, unprimed cases. Otherwise it's hard to find something that is thin enough to go through the factory flash hole yet strong enough to knock the spent primer out. Most outfits sell cartridge cases by the hundred. A little later on I'll tell you where to buy them and the priming tool you'll need.

The first thing we must do is drill the primer flash hole a little larger with a three-sixteenth inch drill bit. You'll need to hold the cartridge case with a pair of pliers and work the drill with the other hand...it's really a job for two people unless you have three hands. Hold the case as close to the rim as possible with those pliers, the metal is thicker down there and you won't be as likely to smoosh it and make it so it won't chamber. Whatever you do, do NOT omit this step. For technical reasons, a primer - fired with no powder behind a normal-weight bullet - will back out of the case and tie up a revolver. In an autoloader it might come completely out and get stuck in the works. Just trust me on this. I have the technical information and I'm not afraid to use it, it would only take about two pages to explain it.

Now, go to the hardware store and buy a package of nails that are long enough to fit from the casemouth to below the primer, with room for your fingers to hold the nail. There are fancier ways to get spent primers out of a case, but they are also more expensive. A tackhammer and a nail will do the trick. If you don't have a tackhammer, pick one up while you're at the hardware store. A hint - tap the nail point a little blunt.

Now we are ready to buy a priming tool and decide what kind of a projectile to use. If your shootin' iron is one of the 9 mm or .38/.357 chamberings, you are in luck. You are just as lucky if you have a .44 or .45, since X-Ring Rubber Bullets are easy to load. They can be re-used until you lose them and - at less than ten bucks per fifty - they're cheap enough to where the wax bullets are more trouble than they're worth. You can buy those from the same place you get the priming tool, I like Midway USA. They have a web site, but if you are a beginner, use their 800 number. Midway's customer service reps are first class and will keep a beginner out of trouble. The least expensive priming tool is the Lee Autoprime, don't forget to order the shellholder. This month the Autoprime is running $10.59, the shellholders are $2.69. Order the cartridge cases too, at this time. Just ask for the cheapest they have in your cartridge. More expensive is the RCBS hand priming tool at $23.49. although it's also sturdier. It uses a different kind of shell holder, and they run about five bucks.

Do yourself a favor, buy those rubber bullets a hundred at a time, that's how primers come so that's the way you'll be loading.

It's simplicity itself, the loading process. Start with an unprimed new case, stick the bullet in. Then, follow the instructions on your priming tool and prime the case.

Now you are ready to shoot. Find an old square of carpet or a floor mat from a junk car and hang it on the inside of a large cardboard box. Don't use a big bath towel, especially if it's one of your wife's favorites. I'm still hearing about that mistake. Tape your target on the opposite side of the box and start shooting. Those bullets will stay in the box, at least until you've shot it up so much that they bounce through the holes in the front. Then it's time to change boxes.

Now, pick those bullets out of the box and you're ready to go again.

Take the shellholder out of the priming tool and place the fired cartridge case in it. Stick that nail we talked about earlier in through the flash hole and whack it with the tackhammer. Do I need to say that we don't use the good furniture for this? At least not without padding. It won't take very long at all to get real quick at this. With a little practice it doesn't take fifteen minutes to make a hundred rounds.

If you happen to shoot a cartridge that the X-Ring bullets won't fit, the problem is easy to solve. Go to the supermarket and buy a few blocks of canning wax and an inexpensive baking pan. A fairly small one, 12 X 12 is plenty big. Prepare the cartridge cases exactly the same way. Then put enough wax in the pan to where when it melts it's a little shorter than your case, this will be trial and error but it won't take too many tries before you have it figured out. What we want is to be able to push the case through like a cookie cutter. You want the wax bullet to be as long as the length of your cartridge case will allow, the accuracy is better that way.

I've never tried using a microwave, it may or may not work, I just use an oven at low heat. By low I mean as low as will melt the wax, no more than 250 degrees F. A little lower won't hurt. Don't go higher. Get it too hot the wax will boil and the gas can catch fire leaving you with hours and hours of happy fun scrubbing the black smoke residue. A cousin of mine did that very thing - he was in a hurry and set the oven on high to melt the wax faster, then the phone rang. That was over forty years ago, Aunt Eleanor still clouts him over the head for that every time she thinks of it. 'Course, she's in her eighties now so her clouts aren't quite so authoritative anymore. It would be a lot funnier except that she always gives me a couple of whacks for laughing about it. I swear that is the last thing the old gal will forget. She can't hardly remember my name or where she put her teeth but she remembers that mess in the kitchen. At least now she's got a walker instead of a cane... Oops, sorry for the digression.... Set the pan on a flat surface and after it solidifies - but is still warm and fairly soft - just push the cases in like a cookie cutter. Do this before you prime them, otherwise the compression of the air in the primed case will push them back out.

Now we prime the cases and we're ready to shoot. As you might guess, the wax bullets can be re-melted and re-used. A trick to really speed the process up is that if you can find one of those hard plastic inserts that come in some boxes of cartridges, you can sand it down to about a quarter inch or so thick and push the cases through all at once. If you have access to a belt sander this takes less than a minute. Dig 'round the trash can at your shooting range.

The accuracy of these wax and plastic bullets is simply amazing out to about twenty-five or thirty feet. The noise level is low enough that if we turn the stereo about halfway to where a teenaged kid turns it down to the first time you yell, nobody outside the garage will ever hear it.

There is no recoil, so they shoot low to the sights. Usually the gun starts recoiling while the bullet is still in the barrel, pushing the point of impact higher. It's not something to get exercised about - just set a target to aim at high, and the one you want to hit low by trial and error.

These loads are useful for learning your trigger and sighting but they are most useful for learning to shoot from the draw and from weapon-retention positions. There used to be a lot of would-be gunfighters with bad limps from being slow on the draw and quick on the trigger. These loads sting bad enough that they'll teach somebody to never do that again, but there will be no permanent damage. How well do they shoot? The late Bill Jordan - the guy that taught me about these loads - had a routine when he gave shooting exhibitions. He'd line up aspirin tablets seven yards away and draw. Shooting from the hip, he'd blow them all off. Then he'd do the same thing with saccharine tablets. He could draw and fire and hit those tiny tablets in two tenths of a second. He'd shoot playing cards from the same distance, edgewise and cut them in half. From the Hip. At seven yards.

It should be obvious that these loads will not work the action of an autoloader, the X-Ring bullets do feed from most, but not all, magazines. Wax bullets don't from very many, they are a single load affair for the self stuffers.

A matter of safety...ALWAYS wear eye protection when priming cases and while you are shooting those primer powered loads because they can bounce. I don't know that a ricochet would put out an eye, but I have had them bounce off bare skin, and they smart a bit. Short barreled guns may be loud enough to require hearing protection. If you get the tiniest bit of ringing in your ears, STOP and put on ear protection. Wouldn't hurt to start with ear protection, for that matter.

Some may get an idea that these loads might work better with just a little pinch of gunpowder. Bad idea. If a reader cares that much about why it's a bad idea, leave an E-Mail addy in the comments and I'll bore you to tears with all the reasons why.

One more safety note. If you are a handloader DO NOT GET THE MODIFIED CASES MIXED UP WITH YOUR CASES FOR FULL-CHARGE LOADS! The larger flash hole will increase the pressure, perhaps to catastrophic levels.

Now, there are a lot of other places besides Midway USA to buy the cases and priming tools, I am telling you beginners to use Midway because I know their people on the telephone are knowledgeable enough to talk you through the process where you'll have everything you need. Other outfits may be just as good that way, I just don't know that. Midway USA: 1-800-243-3220. It's not that difficult, really, you need the cartridge cases, and the priming tool, plus shellholder and the X-Ring bullets if they're available for your shootin' iron.

Unless you live fifteen miles outside of Resume Speed, Montana, don't buy your primers by mail order or online. Each shipment of primers has a $20.00 HazMat Fee, kind of defeats the purpose of cheap practice. Do shop around, if you live in an area with a choice of places to buy primers, the markup really varies from place to place. The brand makes a difference on price, too. The price tags on the various primer boxes in my gunroom range from $12.99 per thousand to $34.00 per thou for my rifle match primers, which for some strange reason I don't use for powering these loads. Do buy those primers by the thousand. Not only are they cheaper that way but you'll be amazed at how addictive these loads are and how fast you'll burn 'em up. If you are stuck with online or mail order than call the folks at Graf and Sons and be sure and buy your primers at the case price. Handgun primers are running $65.99 per 5,000 for the Magtech brand, plus Hazmat of $20.00 and $4.95 for shipping to the lower 48.

Their phone #? 1-800-531-2666. Remember, there is more than one size of primer, be sure and double check, take a cartridge case with you the first time.

Give these loads a try, you won't believe how much fun you're having for so little money. There just aren't many things that are more fun that we can do fully dressed and zipped up.

Posted by: Harvey at 06:31 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Carnival of Cordite #9 is up at Resistance is Futile.

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(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

We've done all we could, taken every precaution and now we're faced with the choice of using our gun or else. What now? What training program or practice can prepare us for using a gun on another human?

There is a dirty little secret among all the shooting schools and just about every book ever written on the subject of gunfighting. That secret is that they are for police and military types and of only tangential interest to the armed civilian. We civilians don't give a rat's patootie about taking Hill 363 B nor are we going to be arresting anyone. Our strategic goals are different, and so are the tactics and tools. The next time you see a Police Officer, take a look at that belt he's wearing. Count the items you won't have. You won't have that radio, nor a set of cuffs and it's real likely that you won't have two high capacity magazines in a convenient pouch. You aren't going to have a big can of Mace or Pepper Spray, nor a baton or four cell Mag Light. You aren't going to be wearing Kevlar, either.

Still, practice and planning are essential. Without a plan we've practiced, the natural thing for us to do is panic. This, by the way, has nothing to do with courage. The bravest fireman ever can panic in a gunfight just as the bravest Police Officer can panic in a fire.

The plans will be different for personal defense outside the home and inside.

Life threatening situations happen up close. The armed citizen outside the home will be within feet, not yards of the threat. Forget the idea of standing in the perfect Weaver Position and picking out what button to put the first bullet through. The odds are you'll have to shoot from a weapon-retention position. Most civilian gunfights happen within touching distance. If we hang the gun out at the end of one or both arms, odds are we'll never get a shot off. Learn the weapon-retention position. The gun hand will touch the short ribs with the body slightly angled away from the bad guy, the other hand balled in a fist across the chest. Assuming only one bad guy, fire the first shot, then punch the gun out hard into the upper chest and fire the next. A contact wound with any cartridge big enough to carry for defense ends the fight. That white hot, high-pressure powder gas will follow the bullet into the chest and just destroy the bad guy's clockworks.

Do not try learning to shoot from the weapon-retention position with live ammo. In a future Carnival we'll discuss the primer powered wax and plastic bullets and BB Pistols. Learning weapon-retention and 'fast draw' shooting with real ammo is a very good way to put orifices in ourselves that God didn't design.

Criminals rarely work alone, if you need your gun you'll probably be outnumbered. This is another problem with the shooting schools, they teach using a lot of ammo. Double taps and what is called the Mozambique Drill, two shots to the chest and one to the head. This works fine if you are only up against one bad guy, if you end up against two or three then the others will ventilate you while you are blasting the first one. There is also the little problem of the cartridge capacity of most concealed carry guns. The most popular are the five shot revolvers and the smaller autoloaders. Your tactics must take your ammo supply into account. You don't win a gunfight if you kill two and are killed by the third.

Don't forget that the bad guy gets to make the first move and it's very likely to be from behind. That's why I like those pocket holsters, I can have my hand casually in my pocket as I amble through the crowd and already have my hand on iron.

Keep an eye on who is around you as well as any available cover and concealment. Learn the difference between cover and concealment. A bush is concealment, an engine block of a car is cover. So is a wheel and tire. Learn to shoot from around cover.

Try your best to walk on the outside of the sidewalk. If I can duck between two parked cars I limit the directions they can come at me.

The best friend we have is distance. Criminals have to get close, if they have to shout to tell us we're being robbed, well that kind of defeats the purpose.

Speaking of distance, don't believe that crap about a guy so dumb he brings a knife to a gunfight. If a guy with a knife is close, you are going to get cut. The only practical way to deal with a determined knife man is to keep him busy with something unimportant like your off hand while you shoot the foo out of him with your gun hand. With a little luck, your knife man won't be that determined. Distance is our friend against knife or gun. The crook is a criminal, his weapon is illegal. That's your only advantage, you can spend time at a shooting range, he can't. Those jailhouse tattoos raise questions.

Remember, he has the advantage of the first move. Most of the time there are ways to take the initiative once he does. If he demands your wallet, give it to him, toss it to his feet, when he looks down, make your move.

Remember that a gun isn't a magic wand, a wave of a gun doesn't make people do your bidding. If you are up against an armed assailant, shoot. Don't stand there talking, pull the trigger. The wallet toss trick will gain you a half second to a second at the most, if you don't have a hole in the ten ring by then you're screwed. Practice until you can get that shot off and remember the maxim of the old west gunfighters. Speed is fine. Accuracy is fatal.

There are two schools of thought about multiple assailants. One school of thought is pick the leader and shoot until he's down before going on to the others. I'm not a big fan of that school - suppose I guess wrong or they're anarchists - I'm of the school that says one shot per bad guy and then shift fire to anyone still standing. If our weapon has the ammo capacity and we've practiced enough a double tap is almost as fast as a single shot each. The downsides to the double tap are that word 'almost' and the fact that to make those double taps that fast we must practice until they're almost automatic. In learning the double tap I had to practice it so much that a single shot became difficult. Then I'd put that five shot revolver in my pocket. See the problem?

My aim point is the upper chest. There is a box: the nipples are about the two sides, the top is about three inches above, the bottom two inches below. That's where the heart and upper lungs live, along with a lot of major blood vessels. My goal is to hit those on the way to breaking the spine. There are simply no wounding shots that are reliable enough to put an armed assailant down. Well, there are... trouble is they only work when the good guy is behind solid cover and out of range of the bad guy's weapon. If I were twenty yards away from a guy with a knife and had a car between me and him, then I could think about trying to break a hip. Of course a civilian would have a very uncomfortable time before the Grand Jury after taking such a shot.

Understand that I'll do almost anything to avoid a shooting scrape, especially with multiple assailants. I can make more money. I don't care what strangers think - if I can run away, I will. The only way I'm going to stand there like Marshall Dillon and shoot it out is if there is no other way.

If I'm unlucky enough to be in a business when an armed robbery goes down I'm going to stay out of it if at all possible. The money is probably insured.. Before buying into a play like an armed robbery, be aware that most professional robbers send a 'customer' in to hang in the background and shoot anyone who gets heroic. We're civilians, it's not our job to arrest robbers. Try to get out of the immediate line of fire and hunker down. If we start a shooting war in a crowded business the wrong people are going to get shot. Of course, if the bad guys start shooting, all bets are off.

Understand that if it gets to an armed confrontation, my only interest is my own survival, unless ensuring it means I must put innocent people in danger. I haven't the right to peg shots at a bad guy when there is a crowd of schoolchildren in the line of fire. And, of course, I'm old school enough that the survival of my family takes precedence over my own. If I have to play Horatio at the bridge to buy them time to get away, well that's my bad luck.

The inside the house defense is simpler, a single person or childless couple only have to defend the room they're in. Go to ground and wait for the cavalry to arrive. Children or other people in the house - your aged mother for instance - complicate the situation. Figure out a plan to get everyone you care about into one room and then defend that room. Keep your cell phone in the bedroom. Bad guys can cut the phone line from outside the house. Next to the phone and the bedside gun there needs to be a flashlight. A couple can divide the job. One on the (primary) gun, the other on the phone and flashlight.

There are a lot of techniques touted as the best for using a gun and flashlight together. My preferred is to hold the gun in my strong hand and the flashlight on the other shoulder. Yes, my aim is steadier with two hands on the gun. Still, with the light on my off shoulder and the gun in my strong hand I can see both sights. I'm more accurate with a good sight picture and a little more shake than I am with no sight picture and more steadiness. Your mileage may vary.

Women face additional challenges. Outside of penal institutions, there isn't a whole lot of man on man rape. We aren't going to worry about penal institutions, since it's pretty unlikely that we'd be using a gun for defense Inside, anyway.

Sisters, it's tempting to carry your shootin' iron in your purse. That's not the best idea. If you are attacked, the purse is the first thing they go for. A little acting ability can go a long way to buy you time to unlimber the artillery. Try blubbering something like 'don't hurt me, I'll do anything you want' and show some skin with one hand while drawing with the other. You can reclaim your dignity later when you spit on his grave, right? You are doubly behind the eight ball because - just like us hairylegs - you have to give the bad guy the first move, as well as the fact that the average man is bigger, heavier and has more muscle mass than the average woman. Not to mention that half the time y'all wear shoes that ya can't run in.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that rapists aren't the brightest of all God's little door prizes. If you keep your cool and use your heads you'll figure out a way to distract the sumbitch for long enough to ventilate him. Carry your purse in your offhand and chuck it in his face while you draw and fire with your gun hand. Get together with your girlfriends and brainstorm it. Think up ways to distract him if he's grabbed you from behind. All you need is the half second to a second that it takes to draw and fire. Do what you have to do to buy that time. You aren't just doing it for yourself. Rapists are almost invariably repeat offenders and they escalate the violence. In saving yourself there is no telling how many other women and girls you will save.

Don't fall for that tired old 'don't resist or he'll hurt you' crap. Too many graves are filled with women who believed that. Let me repeat. Rapists always repeat and they always escalate. Sure, a beginning rapist might not injure you too badly, but don't bet the farm that you're up against a beginner. The chances are you're going to be up against one that needs to kill to get off. Buy yourself that half second and put him down.

It's going to be very difficult to find a shooting range that will allow practicing real-life and real-death scenarios. A public range will not allow turning and engaging threats from behind. and almost none will allow draw and fire drills. The answer to this problem is the same as the answer to practicing firing from the weapon-retention position, primer-powered wax or plastic bullets. The average single car garage can become our shooting range with these. How does a one-time set up cost of about thirty dollars or so and then a practice ammo cost of less than twenty dollars per thousand rounds look?

I mentioned that most books and training classes offer little value for the armed citizen. There are two books that are good, both available from Amazon.Com and both by the same author. Look for Massad Ayoob's In Gravest Extreme and Stressfire Vol. One. Stressfire is a little police-centric but the insights on shooting under extreme stress are worthwhile. His courses are also great - again a bit police-centric - but if one can afford the class, it's worth it just to see the only living human that cusses more than the Emperor Misha, Jen Martinez and me...combined.

Posted by: Harvey at 09:16 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

Now that we're all armed to the teeth and have practiced until we can shoot a housefly out of the sky at a hundred yards it's time to talk about how to win a gunfight. Here is the dirty little secret, the only way to be sure to win in a gunfight is to not get into one. No matter how good we are if we have to use a gun we've a good chance of having a Bad Day.

There are some simple, and relatively inexpensive ways to cut the odds way down that we'll ever need to use a gun to save our lives or those of family members. Make no mistake, the gun is plan B.

There are only two places in the whole world that we need to be prepared to defend ourselves. At home and away from home. Let's talk about home, first.
How are your doors? Are they solid wood with stout locks? How about the door jambs? Strong hinges? A peephole or small window to see who is there before you open the door? Is your door locked right now? No gun in the world is going to save my ass if the bad guys are on me before I can grab it. Fix your doors. Windows aren't as big a problem, it takes time and noise to get through a window.

A lot of people buy alarms so they get early warning of intruders. That's fine, a better option is a dog. It doesn't have to be a starving Rottweiller or constipated Doberman or even an angry German Shepherd. Since our big dog died our watchdog is a fat black Pug, spoiled rotten. He can still hear and smell a lot more keenly than any human. All he has to do is let us know that someone is coming up to the house, this he does and very well.

If I'm ready to repel boarders before they're inside, home defense is a piece of cake.

The vast majority of home invasions involve one or both of two situations, drugs or a significant other with a psycho Ex. If we can avoid those we stack the odds in our favor.

We stack the odds in our favor also by not showing considerably more wealth than the neighborhood. If the newest car in your neighborhood is an '87 Yugo don't drive an '05 Seven-series Beemer. Matter of fact if the newest car in your neighborhood is that Yugo and you can afford a Beemer, move.

Be careful when driving up to the house. Most folks relax the second they hit the driveway. Before shutting the engine off, look around. Is there someone close that doesn't belong? Don't be afraid to put that car back in gear and drive off. People coming home are at their most vulnerable, we almost always have at least one thing in our hands plus juggling keys. If the guy hanging around is six foot ten, and covered in muscle and prison tattoos then use your head and get the heck somewhere else.

Simple common-sense things that work every time they're tried. We've just eliminated 90% of the reasons people need to use a gun in defense of the home.

How about away from home? We can eliminate that same 90%. Start with a trip to the local library, ask the librarian for the most recent crime stats in your town. Pay attention to the neighborhoods. Crime, and criminals, tend to cluster in the same neighborhoods. Let's stay our of those neighborhoods. Pay attention to the TIMES of those crimes. Until we get well into our thirties it's usually hard to admit that Momma was right, nothing good happens after midnight.

If we strike out at the library, check with the Public Affairs Office of your local Police or Sheriff's Department.

Life threatening situations happen in bars, the streets in front of bars, the parking lots of bars and the alleys behind bars. Not just any bars, two kinds of bars, the ones in the neighborhoods where all those other crimes happen and those trendy ones where the hip young twenty-somethings hang out. Thugs have learned that hip young twenty-somethings have cash and jewelry and are easy marks when they're about half lit.

Do everything you can to avoid areas where there is a lot of drug and gang activity, avoid the 'Ho Strolls'. Avoid areas where there are a lot of young men hanging around outside. Areas where there is a lot of prostitution ALWAYS have all the other crimes. Guys, if you're that damned horny there's a better way. Work out, buff yourself up, get a tight haircut and a Fireman costume and show up at the next comment party. The Bad Example Women will show you why they're bad examples.

Traveling is a different story. If you don't know the area, watch where you get off the freeway. Look for upscale stores, eateries and hotels. Stop and fill the tank when you still have enough gas to get somewhere else. If you get off the freeway and see bars on the windows and doors of all the stores or lots of young men hanging around, get back on the freeway.

Everywhere you go, profile. Learn to spot gangster styles and jailhouse tattoos. If you are, for whatever reasons, in a marginal or 'bad' area learn to spot the signs that things are going wrong. If you're going about whatever business you have and suddenly all the women and kids are getting off the streets something bad is about to happen.

Gas stations are prime spots for carjackers. Pay attention. If possible have someone in the driver's seat while you're filling the tank. Use the pay at the pump whenever possible.

Speaking of carjackings, even at traffic lights, keep a little room around your car. With ten feet to work with he's not a carjacker, he's roadkill.

The most important defensive weapon you'll ever have is between your ears. Use that and we won't need the gun.

Next week, Plan B, when we do need the gun.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:18 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

This week we are going to discuss long guns for home and personal defense. There are many reasons why a person would choose a long gun instead of a handgun, the most obvious being that some locations have Draconian laws about the ownership of handguns by civilians. A strong second reason is that some long guns are nearly impossible for a child, too young to understand, to shoot. In a later installment we'll talk about the fact that it is very difficult to childproof a gun kept in a ready state but quite easy to gunproof a child who is strong - meaning old - enough to work the action.

There is a bewildering array of long guns. For simplicity's sake I shall lump them into three categories: full sized hunting and battle rifles, carbines shooting handgun rounds, and shotguns. Forget the full sized rifles for defense. Besides the fact that most (not all) full sized rifles are big and cumbersome and the scope sights that most wear are useless at inside-the-house or -store range, the bullets penetrate too much. No matter your religious beliefs, or lack thereof, you should know that there are evil spirits that possess any bullet that overpenetrates. That bullet will always shoot right through the bad guy and then the evil spirit takes over and sends the bullet through your single most expensive household item, the children's rooms, four walls, your neighbor's house, any handy baby carriages and a station wagon full of nuns before lodging in the Mayor's car.

The shotguns and carbines firing handgun rounds are, on the other hand very useful as home and store guns, each having some real advantages for us good guys, and gals.

We'll start with shotguns. The biggest single advantage to a shotgun as a defense weapon is the intimidation factor. The hole in the barrel is HUGE and very scary to look down. Since the very best possible outcome in a defense situation is the bad guy fainting at the sight of the homeowner licking his or her lips in happy anticipation of the carnage to come, and coming-to only when the police have him hooked up, this is no small advantage. If we survive a defense situation, we've won. If we survive without a shot being fired, we've WON BIG!

Shotguns come in single shot, double barrel, pump action and semiautomatic. All I can say about a single shot is that it's better than no gun at all.

When we get to the double barrels the possibilities start opening up. My home defense shotgun is an old fashioned short-barreled double barrel with exposed hammers. I've practiced reloading from the butt cuff full of five more shells so that I'm not at a disadvantage. After two shots of 12 gauge anybody that's not down is ducking, I've plenty of time to reload. The biggest advantage to a double barrel with exposed hammers is that it can sit for years, hammers down on loaded chambers with tape over the muzzles, covered in dust and cobwebs yet ready to go just by earring back those hammers. Another advantage is that the double barrel action is shorter than the semiautomatic or pump. My double is about five inches shorter than a pump with the same length, a real advantage in the house.

The disadvantage is the long practice required to reload fast enough if there are more than two bad guys. That's why most people prefer pumps or semis. Another disadvantage is that there is a learning curve on handling two different triggers. When I switched from a pump to a double I discovered that no matter how hard I pulled on that front trigger the second barrel still wouldn't shoot. It took a lot of practice to make the shift from front to back trigger automatic. The last disadvantage is that it's really hard to find an exposed-hammer double. To my knowledge only Norinco makes them anymore. I'm reluctant to recommend a gun made by virtual slave-laborers of the ChiCom government. Then again, slaves with something to do are better treated than slaves with nothing to do.

I don't like the idea of the internal-hammer doubles for defense, in order to be ready, the strikers have to be cocked over loaded chambers. That makes me nervous.

The autoloader has some advantages, most notably the softer recoil and the fact that we don't have to DO anything to be ready for the next shot. The normal magazine capacity is four or five shots although most shotguns have a wooden or plastic plug in the magazine limiting the capacity to three rounds, including one in the chamber. This is also true for pumps. This plug is easily removed and should be. The only reason the plug is there is because of federal laws on hunting waterfowl. There is a real good chance that we'll never have to defend our homes or businesses from armies of rampaging ducks. Watch out for the geese, though.

Still, check the local laws before throwing that plug away. I don't know all the laws everywhere. If you fall afoul of some local law I've never heard of, I'm afraid the 'Peter told me to defense' might not work.

The only disadvantage to the autoloaders is that most of them require adjustment when going from standard loads to magnum loads. This is more theoretical than real. The standard loads are plenty powerful enough.

The pump guns are what most people think of when the defensive or fighting shotgun is mentioned. Advantages include simplicity, comparatively low price, plenty of magazine capacity, and the ability to shoot any ammunition that is the right size. An advantage that many folks don't know about is that if the gun is cocked they can't work the action without either pulling the trigger or hitting the little action release button. This means that we can have a loaded magazine and an empty chamber and small children can't blow up the house. That's kind of nice.

There are many makes. You'll never go wrong with Winchester, Remington or Marlin.

Much is made of that intimidating ca-chunk sound of a round being chambered in a pump. Any sensible person will run away upon hearing this sound. Trouble is, sensible people don't commit many life-threatening crimes. Do yourself a favor. Get you behind something substantial before betting your life on this sound. It's fine when it works, awful when the bad guy pegs a couple of quick shots at the sound.

In the last few years there has been some real advances in ammunition for the defensive shotgun. Primarily due to increasing numbers of women and some smaller statured minority men in police forces, the ammunition companies have developed rounds that offer plenty of power at typical defensive ranges, yet lower recoil. These rounds are variously known as 'tactical', 'managed recoil' or 'low recoil' depending on the ammo company, but they all offer the same thing. They are standard buckshot or slug loads which travel at a somewhat lower velocity than the high speed hunting loads that we're used to.

The new buckshot loads are ideal for defense. The slug loads? Even the lower-recoil slug loads have too much penetration to use in the house. The slug is mainly used to penetrate car bodies or barricades. The instances where a civilian can shoot at a car are few and far between. The civilian shooting at a barricaded suspect is even rarer. The rural homeowner has a use for the slug loads, the urban or suburban homeowner can live quite well without them. Use your judgement.

In addition to a five shot butt cuff, I have a cheap cloth and elastic cartridge belt loaded with a variety of ammunition, including a few slug loads. They are not in the gun or butt cuff. If the bad guy is so far away or so well barricaded that slugs are indicated, well, I ought to have plenty of time to change ammo.

At typical inside-the-house ranges, the larger birdshot loads are quite effective, yet less destructive to the house in case of a miss. Many homeowners like the first round in their gun to be a duck load for that very reason and I can't fault the logic. If there is a chance that a warning shot will scare the bad guy off, the birdshot penetrates a lot fewer walls. If the bad guy is so close that a warning shot won't work, he's close enough that the tight pattern will be as effective as any other load.

There is another very interesting option available. An ammunition company named Sellier & Bellot that makes rubber buckshot and ball loads. At near-contact range, these loads are lethal. At across-the-room, the ball-loads will knock a guy down, but - unless we are real unlucky - not kill. The advantage is obvious. Our object isn't to reduce the population but to save the lives of our families and ourselves. If I can do that without killing, so much the better. There is also the simple fact that if I kill or wound a bad guy, the LEAST that will happen is that I'll have a long, uncomfortable time before the Grand Jury. There's a good chance that I will be indicted and I will almost certainly be sued in civil court as well. If the first shot I fire is a shot that is normally non-lethal it will go a long way toward making my good guy status clear to all who hold my future in their hands. We will explore surviving the aftermath of a shooting in further detail in a future Carnival.

In the past few years it's become popular to outfit defensive shotguns with all kinds of sh..., um stuff. Pistol grips with no buttstocks, magazines that hold a year's worth of ammo, lasers, lights, sirens, beer-taps, and dancing girls. Most of these modifications are horsesh..., um fertilizer. Those super-long magazine tubes add nothing useful. If we can't do it with four or five rounds, we can't do it. Furthermore, those extra-long magazine springs have a tendency to kink, tying up the gun. That sexy-looking pistol grip is gonna bust you square in the beezer if you hold the shotgun up where you can use the sight. And if you don't use the sight, you don't have a weapon - you just have an extremely loud and destructive noisemaker. Shooting from the hip is for TV cops. I know a guy that tried one of those buttstockless pistol grip shotguns - fortunately, at the shooting range. He missed trying to shoot from the hip so he reloaded and held it up so he could see the front bead. Knocked himself plumb out cold. Y'all think I'm woofin', try it yourself. I'm not gonna. I never did get as purty as Momma wanted me to be in the first place... I sure don't need my face rearranged on top of that.

There are three - and only three - useful modifications to a defense shotgun: a decent recoil pad (if it doesn't come with one); a high visibility front bead (if it doesn't come with one); and, lastly, one of those little flashlight mounts. The worst thing in the world is to blow away your spouse during a late night bathroom trip or blasting a drunken Harvey showing up in the wrong house for a comment party. We don't shoot at noises, we don't shoot at shapes.

Here is a trick. If we are awakened in the middle of the night, don't go charging out. Grab your shootin' iron, get BEHIND the bed and loudly and clearly repeat the following sentences. "Who is there? I have a gun! I'm calling the police!" Unless other family members are in danger, stay there. The bad guys can take everything you own, the deductible on your homeowner's insurance is still far cheaper than the legal costs of even the most justified shooting. This can be enraging but, right or wrong, it's the world we live in. Some jurisdictions allow the use of deadly force in defense of property, some don't. Some people's ethical standards or religions allow the use of deadly force in defense of property, some don't. While my state allows the use of force to protect property, I figure I'll never go wrong using deadly force as the very last resort. During my life, I've stuck myself into some very stupid predicaments due to my somewhat-less-than-genius-like choices on how I made my living. But I'm retired now. Anybody wanting trouble has to bring it to me. They'll get mighty hungry waiting for me to come to them.

Before this turns into a book, let's discuss the third option: the carbine shooting handgun-cartridges.

There are two main options, the little semiautomatic Marlin Camp Carbine, and the lever-actions in handgun cartridges like .38 Special/.357 Mag, .44 Special/.44 Mag and .45 Colt.

Those who were here for last week's Carnival might wonder why I recommend that beginners should stay away from autoloaders in handguns but make no such statements about long guns. Simple. The carbine or shotgun, being longer, makes us much less likely to lose control of where that muzzle is pointing. While there is still a somewhat increased possibility of an unintended loud noise, we're much less likely to hit someone we care about. We still need to drill a little more on safety, but it's an acceptable risk.

The Marlin Camp Carbine is a nifty little weapon. It comes in nine millimeter, 40 S&W and 45 ACP, all - with the right ammo choice - proven combat rounds. Advantages include: much lighter recoil than the low recoil shotgun loads; muzzle blast that won't damage one's hearing nearly as much as shotguns; and the ease with which they can be shot with acceptable combat accuracy. Disadvantages include being a bit more fussy than some other shootin' irons as to what ammo it will digest. They are short, light, and easy to shoot. Maintenance is fairly simple and straightforward. Not a bad choice at all. It's an even better choice for the man or woman who also has a pistol in one of those cartridges.

Rule number one of gunfighting is to have a gun - any gun. If you don't have a gun, you can't go to a gunfight.

Rule number two of gunfighting is that the only reason handguns exist is to buy time to get to a long gun.

I can't find the Camp Carbine on Marlin's Website, it may be discontinued. I still see them in gun shops so, if this is your choice, best move quickly.

I happen to love the little lever-action carbines in handgun rounds. Marlin's 1894, Winchester's 94, Rossi has one, and there are several others. There is a Marlin 1894 within arms reach as I sit in my little study. I can hit as accurately at one hundred yards with it as I can twenty-five yards with my revolver. This is comforting, since I live in the country, where the nearest patrol car might more than ten minutes away. It's even more comforting knowing that two-legged varmints aren't the only challenge. I live where rabid critters are a very real problem. Two-legged or four-legged, even with the brush, trees, and rolling contours of the land, if I can see it, I can hit it. My choice is the .38/.357 Mag model, primarily because that's my go-to handgun cartridge. An arcane fact of gun lore is that the longer the barrel, the higher the velocity of the same cartridge. Depending on the load, the carbines hit as hard at fifty to one-hundred yards as the same load hit at powder-burn range. In a close range defensive situation this means a bigger hole in the bad guy. Counter-intuitively, this doesn't mean the bullet will have a lot more penetration. That .38 Special, +P, lead hollow-point will actually penetrate a little less from the carbine than from a revolver. It expands more, so the bullet hits more of what it's tearing up, and it stops a little quicker.

A lever-action can actually be fired - accurately - just as quickly as a semiauto. With a little practice, you can learn to work the lever in the time it takes to recover from recoil and get your sight picture back.

A little known - and seldom thought-about - advantage of the lever-action carbine is psychological - it's a good-guy's gun. If you end up having to use one in self-defense, it's the conditioning of everyone we will be dealing with in the aftermath - cops, prosecutors, grand juries, and (if it goes that far) judges and juries - to think of it that way. We've all grown up on Roy Rogers, Marshall Dillon, the Rifleman - all those guys. The guy in the white hats all had lever-action carbines. The villains we grew up with all had handguns, AK-47's, sawed-off shotguns, and the like.

It's a small thing, but it can be the difference between Justifiable Homicide and Manslaughter.

Next week? How about how to avoid a gunfight and what to do if we can't?

Posted by: Harvey at 08:02 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

I like to think that I've learned a bit in the fifty years I've spent as a shooter and gun owner. I'm a pretty fair amateur gunsmith, I've been handloading ammunition for forty-five years now and there was a time when I strapped on a holstered service revolver to go to work every day.

Over the years I've both been asked by non-shooters about that first gun and been present when other gunnies have been asked. That first shootin' iron is today's topic.

The mistake we gunnies make most often is recommending our favorite iron to that non or new shooter, Lord knows it's a mistake I've made myself. Trouble is, the right iron for an experienced enthusiast is not necessarily the best first gun for a beginner. As a matter of fact it seldom is.

The vast majority of non-shooters who are thinking about that first gun want something for home and self-protection. Let's begin there. Another time we can discuss fun guns and hunting rifles and shotguns.

In most cases when we are discussing firearms for self-protection we are speaking of a handgun. In some locales handgun ownership is very difficult, in those areas a shotgun or short rifle, perhaps a carbine shooting a handgun round makes sense. Still, let's discuss the handguns first.

The first handgun should stay away from the extremes. Avoid the very large, the very powerful and loud. Avoid the tiny little guns, they are very difficult to shoot. Avoid the extremely cheap as well as the extremely expensive. Most extremely cheap firearms are unreliable. The extremely expensive should be avoided simply because the new shooter may decide he or she doesn't like having a gun around, by avoiding the extreme that person won't take a bath selling it. There is also the strong possibility that the new shooter will find out how much fun it is and want something with more features down the line. When we stay in the middle we maintain the best trade-in value.

Avoid both extremes in power. A hand cannon will certainly put a bad guy down but a cartridge with a huge muzzle blast and horrendous recoil will never be shot enough to attain proficiency. Especially if each cartridge costs more than a dollar. By the same token, the mouseguns will kill. That is very small comfort if the bad guy dies from infection four days after he's ripped your arm off and beaten you to death with it.

Above all, avoid complexity. Most serious professionals use autoloaders these days, the Glocks, the Sigs, the wonderful old 1911, there are a host of good autoloaders in serious cartridges. Great Guns! If I were on my way to a gunfight and restricted to a handgun I'd pick one. Well actually if I were on the way to a gunfight I'd change directions and go to a picnic or maybe the library, instead.

Still an autoloader isn't a beginner's gun. Complexity breeds accidental discharges. During the great shift from revolvers to autoloaders during the late '70s through the '80s police departments endured an almost tenfold increase in inadvertent firearm discharges. There were also Officers killed because of problems manipulating safeties. The beginner doesn't need complex. The beginner doesn't need to worry about in which order to remove the magazine and clear the chamber. The beginner doesn't need one recoil spring for light target loads and another for business loads.

Speaking of springs, in my youth autoloaders were considered less reliable because to be loaded and ready a few springs had to be under constant tension. Improved metallurgy has made that mostly a thing of the past. The modern autoloader, fed good ammunition is just as reliable as a good revolver. Still, the autoloader is not the best choice for the beginner.

While there are some tactical situations that the increased cartridge capacity and easier reloading are an advantage, home and personal defense aren't those situations. A civilian in a defense situation won't have the time to fire six rounds, the gunfight is won or lost within three seconds. The rule of thumb is that if we need more than six shots it ain't a gunfight, it's a war.

That leads us to the double action revolver. Which one and in what chambering?

The very best for the beginner is the mid sized four inch barrel length six shot in .38 Special or .357 Magnum. Unless one has someone experienced, stay away from the used guns. If, on the other hand, we have someone who can tell the difference between used and abused, a good used revolver is not only a great bargain but will hold it's value. A good gun shop that has a variety of used revolvers will often let the shooter put a box of ammo through a used revolver and, if it's not satisfactory, allow the purchase price in trade for a new one. Ask.

If our new shooter can afford the price difference, Stainless Steel is a useful upgrade. It's not THAT difficult to avoid rust but again, the less the new shooter has to worry about, the better. An adjustable rear sight is another nice option but, again, not absolutely necessary. Legions of bad guys have been brought toes up by fixed sight revolvers.

Brands? Smith and Wesson, Ruger and Taurus. Unfortunately Colt has downsized it's line of fine .38 and .357 revolvers.

In S&W we look for what is called the "K Frame" There are too many model numbers to keep track of but if the clerk at the gun shop doesn't understand .38 or .357 K Frame Smith, leave.

In Ruger we might get lucky and find the old Security Six in good shape. If not, the slightly heavier GP100 is a fine revolver.

In Taurus we again look for the medium framed four inch .38 or .357.

No matter the choice, forget buying .357 Magnum ammo for now. All .357s shoot .38 Special ammo just fine. Our new shooter doesn't need the muzzle blast and, in the lighter weight guns, unpleasant recoil. We want to start with the load we call the target wadcutter. This is a bullet shaped like a little bitty beer keg at a moderate velocity. The relatively quiet report and light recoil make it easy to shoot. The peculiar shape of the bullet makes it more effective than it's energy numbers suggest. Once our new shooter is accustomed to the mild loads we can introduce him or her to the most effective .38 round, the old FBI load, the 158 grain lead hollow point Plus P load. The civilian won't need the full charge .357 Magnum ammo. With the likelihood of being indoors in a defense situation the very loud muzzle blast is disorienting to the shooter.

While there are many directions a shooter can go once the experience is there, this is the starting point. While the four inch medium frame revolver is not as easy to hide as some other firearms, with the proper holster neither is it impossible.

There are smaller cartridges that are easier to shoot, they are lacking in that hard-to-define thing we call stopping power. There are heftier cartridges, they are more difficult to shoot.

Of all the bewildering choices, the medium frame revolver shooting the .38 Special is THE choice for the beginner.

Next Carnival we'll cuss and discuss the choices for those who are restricted to a shotgun or rifle for a home defense gun.

Posted by: Harvey at 10:49 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and, indeed, ALL Viet Nam veterans, were invaluable in keeping Kerry out of the White House. Blogdaughter Boudicca of Boudicca's Voice e-mailed me this poem, and I thought it was perfect (although I think the use of the term "whore" does a disservice to honest prostitutes everywhere ;-)

I'm dedicating this to blogless Viet Nam vet Peter who went above and beyond with his service this year in getting his story out.

The Last Battle of Vietnam

It never occurred to me, ever before,
That our Navy would win the Vietnam War.
When they took to their boats in this year of elections,
With the mission of making some major corrections
I shared their belief, John should not be elected,
And their view overdue, truth should be resurrected.
Yet I questioned the course they'd set themselves for,
Knowing how John was loved by the media whore.

Ignored and dismissed by the media queens
Being shrewd, savvy sailors they still found the means
To reach out to the people, to open their eyes
To a phony John Kerry and his war story lies.
With their very first ad, they torpedoed his boat,
A Cambodian Christmas would no longer float.
His heroics unraveled, his stories fell flat,
Especially that one 'bout his magical hat.

John called on his lawyers and media whores,
And threatened the Swiftees with vile legal wars.
But these warriors kept charging back into the fire,
And made the folks wonder, "Is Kerry a Liar?"
Till the question of whether he's telling the truth
Was still in their minds in the election day booth.
So the brave Swiftees gave us what we'd not had before,
They gave us our victory in the Vietnam War.

Those brave, stalwart sailors, falsely labeled as liars,
Stood firm and stood tall, kept directing their fires,
Steadfast, unrelenting, they served once again,
And defeated John Kerry, these honorable men.
All Vets can take pride, yes all, not just some,
That we won the last battle of Vietnam.
It took far too long to bring an end to our war
But we did, November Second, Two Thousand Four.

To our Brothers, forever, on that long black Wall,
You've been vindicated now, one and all.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

Russ Vaughn is the Poet Laureate of The American Thinker

Posted by: Harvey at 07:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Peter, the Viet Nam vet you may remember from previous posts, is stealth blogging in the comments over at Hog On Ice.

I don't have a mountaintop to shout this from, so my foothill will have to do:

Further, it doesn't take long to spot a bogus 'veteran'. Many of those telling the lurid stories had never spent one day wearing Uncle's suit. Others never set foot in Southeast Asia. Poseurs misuse the military jargon. I've been out of uniform for three and a half decades I still have to force myself to, when I start walking, step off with my right foot, stepping off with the left foot is ingrained in Boot Camp.

Every infantry type I ever saw who spent time in the Southeast Asian War Games has little round scars spread about from infected leech and insect bites, we called them 'gook sores'.

You can tell me that The Hee-row didn't know that he was lying through his teeth. I won't believe you but you can tell me. He knew it then, he knows it now. Kerry stood over the open graves of some fifty-eight thousand Americans, some of whom I served alongside, and pissed on their bodies. He pissed on every one of those neatly folded flags that were all that mothers and fathers, wives and children and brothers and sisters had left to hold.

He is now trying to wrap himself in those flags. It will not work, I, along with many who served with far more distinction than me, shall not allow it. It's bad enough that our children were taught those lies as fact in their history classes, I was able to refute them. What about the children of the dead? Who told them that their Daddy wasn't really a murdering rapist?

What about the parents of the dead? Most of those parents are gone now. How many of those parents died still wondering if those accusations about their sons could be true?

Those men, those children, those parents, they deserved better.

May the seventh of this year marked the thirty-ninth anniversery of the first man in my platoon to die in that war, he fell off the net climbing off the troopship and was crushed between the ship and the landing craft. He never got ashore. Over my two and a half tours there were many other young men that never grew old. Young men that I sweated with during the dry seasons and shivered with in the monsoons. Men that shared the joy of a letter from home and the tears of the Dear John. Men who helped carry my load when I turned an ankle on a long hump as I did when it happened to them. Men that I loved like a brother and men that I could barely stand. Men that for years after that war used to visit me in my sleep. Men that I thought had finally stopped visiting, that constant prayer had allowed to rest comfortably are back. Civilians mostly don't understand those visits.

They're visiting again, those men. They want something from me, just one thing. "Tell them" they say. I try. Shall I try to tell you about the young man who's last act on this earth was to put his body over a wounded man who lives today because his body stopped the mortar shrapnel? His name was Steve. He was a Corpsman, he joined so that he could go to medical school on the GI Bill.

He never became a Doctor, he saved a lot of lives.

Shall I tell you of Mike? A farm boy having his Big Adventure before he settled in to a life of growing things. A piece of shrapnel hit a white phosphorus grenade on his web gear, there's no way to put that stuff out. After it finally burned out pieces of him kept falling off as we were trying to get him into the body bag. He was twenty. Every day he wrote a letter to his mom and another to his girlfriend. We lied when we wrote that letter, told her that he died instantly from an artillery shell.

How about Jack? A lifer, veteran of Korea. A Viet kid was out in the middle of a VC minefield, this father of three bled to death after both legs were blown off trying to retrieve that kid. He had made the promotion list and had orders sending him back to take the course to be a First Sergeant. Three weeks left in the field.

There are many more stories like this, some who's names I know, some, like the pilot of the medevac bird killed going into a hot LZ because he knew that there were men that would die if they didn't get to the hospital, I never learned his name. The crew chief pulled his body away from the controls so the copilot could fly the bird. Our men lived.

Those are John Kerry's war criminals. Those are the men that I have spent my life trying, and mostly failing, to live up to. They deserve a better spokesman than me, someone famous, heroic and eloquent. I hope they get such a spokesman, I pray for it. They deserve a spokesman who can speak of them without tears.

I only know that the young men, and now women, wearing the uniforms must be protected from this man, John Kerry. It's not just that he isn't fit to command them, he is not fit to speak their names.

"They deserve a better spokesman than me"

Possibly, Peter, but I can't imagine who it would be.

Posted by: Harvey at 06:33 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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