My Facebook “friend” Mark Taylor posted this video and it’s very useful. It involves a simple technique that turns a birdshot shell into a giant Glaser Safety Slug. This is a great money saver as anyone who shops for shotgun ammo will tell you. I just recently purchased a 25 round box of 2-1/2in 20 ga birdshot for $5.99 at my local academy sports. A five round box of 20 ga slugs at the same store cost about $4.50. If you use slugs for self – defense (something 20 ga users often do) this is a cheap, effective way to get self-defense rounds that won’t over penetrate. I assume that you can do this with all gauges, including the .410 though in that case buckshot would be much more effective than a slug of any type. Enjoy:
Category Archives: Survival Arms
Is the 20 Ga Enough Gun for Home Defense
I think it is and own two both specifically for defense against any goblins who think of besieging my castle. I like the lighter recoil but I honestly just got my first 20ga to be different. John Snow asked the same question at The Gun Shots and looks like the conclusion is the same among his commenters. I guess we’re all going to get lectured now by a bunch of people who claim anything under 3 1/2 inch Magnum loads of 000 buckshot just makes home invaders angry.
At self defense ranges indoors almost anything shotgun will be enough gun to stop an intruder, and when you’re talking about 12 and 20 gauges most birdshot rounds will be fatal on an unarmored intruder hit in the chest or face. Remember most people will be shooting across a room – maybe 6-10 feet away, sometimes closer. The blast itself might injure the person on the other end in that situation.
The only shotgun that’s iffy is the .410 though as I said before the popularity of the Judge has made a variety of self-defense loads that will work in a pinch. I have a .410/.45 Survivor I’m partial to because even if I’m sick, wounded or crippled with arthritis I can get it on target quickly. But I keep it next to some Winchester 225gr Silvertips and some a box of Federal Champion 225gr Semi-Wadcutter Hollow Points. As much as I love the .410 (and I love the .410) if some goblin is in the house I prefer more punch.
That’s why I reach for my Stoeger 20ga Coach Gun. It’s more than enough gun to meet a goblin with.
Modern Day Gunfighter Lance Thomas
By “modern day” I mean about 10-15 years ago, but Thomas was and is the real deal. The watchmaker survived four shootouts in his L.A. store and killed several of his assailants. His secret is simple. He practices a lot and thought realistically about what sort of threats he would face and made plans on how to deal with them. Given the predisposition for many modern survivalists to buy AKs and train in jungle fighting even though they live in suburbs I thought this would video would help them learn how to really prepare for a break down in law and order:
Korean Government Confused by Obama Ban on Surplus Guns – But I’m Not
Korea is trying to save money money by off-loading some WW II era weapons which cost them to store but they will never use. Their hope was that civilian collectors here would want them and that demand could raise much needed money for the country while in the midst of a global recession. The M1 Garand and M1 Carbine both barely can be called assault rifles, the Garand in particular is a nearly ten pound behemoth that holds only eight rounds in special metal clips, while the M1 Carbine is the underpowered fore runner of the commonly available Ruger Mini-14 line. Administration spokesmen are claiming that these firearms may end up in the hands of terrorists but they are actually less efficient in many ways than guns you can pick up at Wal-Mart.
Taking note of how the administration defined terrorist when they first came into power, I find their explanation more ominous than confusing. From Chosen llbo:
The U.S. administration has vetoed the Korean government’s plan to sell some 100,000 old M1 rifles used during the Korean War back to the United States. It also banned 850,000 M1 rifles already imported from Korea and other countries from being sold to civilians.
In order to save some W300 million (US$1=W1,181) on storing old weaponry a year, the Korean government decided to sell the 86,000 M1 Garands and 22,000 M1 Carbines to the U.S. and repeatedly asked Washington to approve the deal. The expected price was W130 billion in total, with one M1 Garand fetching US$220 and a M1 Carbine US$140. But the U.S. objected to the plan fearing that they could land in the hands of terrorists.
A Korean government official said, “It’s difficult to understand why the U.S. opposes the deal now, when we already shipped tens of thousands of these firearms to the U.S. in the early 1990s. We are trying to grasp the real underlying cause of this reversal through diplomatic channels.” He added that because these firearms were originally made in the U.S., selling them back needs approval from Washington.
A U.S. State Department spokesman told Fox News on Wednesday, “The transfer of such a large number of weapons… could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes.”
The Fox News story is here and they trot out morally suspect Brady Campaign flaks to spread some interesting lies about these weapons:
Gun control advocates praised the Obama administration for taking security seriously.
“Guns that can take high-capacity magazines are a threat to public safety,” said Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Even though they are old, these guns could deliver a great amount of firepower. So I think the Obama administration’s concerns are well-taken.”
But gun rights advocates point out that possessing M1 rifles is legal in the United States — M1s are semi-automatics, not machine guns, meaning the trigger has to be pulled every time a shot is fired — and anyone who would buy a gun from South Korea would have to go through the standard background check.
“Any guns that retail in the United States, of course, including these, can only be sold to someone who passes the National Instant Check System,” said David Kopel, research director at the conservative Independence Institute. “There is no greater risk from these particular guns than there is from any other guns sold in the United States.”
M1 carbines can hold high-capacity ammunition clips that allow dozens of rounds to be fired before re-loading, but Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, noted that is true about any gun in which an ammunition magazine can be inserted — including most semi-automatics.
“Anything that accepts an external magazine could accept a larger capacity magazine,” Cox said.
Indeed. And what they don’t mention is that Garands, because of their loading mechanism, cannot accept high capacity magazines. If anything, a government worried about “too much ammo capacity” would want Garands to be the civilian weapon of choice because it will hold less than a dozen rounds at a time.
The way I see it there are two things going on and perhaps there’s a third possibility that should worry Americans. The first is obvious. Obama and the left want to limit the amount of guns Americans have access to for ideological reasons.
The second is more important. The Garand is the rifle that won WW II. It did so because it fires the powerful 30-06 round which has much more range and penetration than the .223 our troops are issued now. It’s bulk and weight keep recoil down (and make it less than ideal for a replacement for a modern “assault rifle”) meaning it’s great for marksmanship. If you were ever thinking about invading a country, with say a peace keeping mission full of poorly trained and unmotivated United nations troops, this would be the rifle to worry about. Given the Obama administrations internationalist bent, and his recent report to the U.N. on our “human rights violations” the stage has already been set for the left to ask for, and receive, U.N. “observers” if civil unrest kicks off in America.
Then there’s this:
“We are working closely with our Korean allies and the U.S. Army in exploring alternative options to dispose of these firearms.”
This sentence worries me. Obama’s “civilian security apparatus” harken back to the old “home guard” idea we see in some communist countries, and in those countries political paramilitaries are often armed with surplus weapons. Keep an eye out for how this is resolved, if the Obama administration “takes possession” of the guns without allowing sale it’s likely they will be issued to the civilian paramilitary the left has always dreamt off.
h/t Firearm Blog
Nutnfancy Reviews the Smith & Wesson 638 Bodyguard
Another great review from The Nutnfancy Project. I have a snub nosed revolver myself and I’m a fan (though I understand they are severely limited) mainly because I’m at heart an inner city boy and think of guns as something you pull out quick because someone or something is coming at you. I like revolvers, as I’ve said before, because I’m a simple and old fashioned man. The snubby in various calibers is ideal for a “kit gun” or what some old timers called a “tackle box gun” because it was kept in (you guessed it) an angler’s tackle box. My kit gun is a inexpensive Charter Arms .327 Federal which I happen to love, even though it is much maligned in gun shops and on the Internet.
TNP does a great job going over the negatives of the Bodyguard (and really most snubnose revolvers) without overstating them. The S&W is not a cheap gun, but they are not terribly expensive if you’re going to have one handgun and want a snubby. If you’re getting a snubby for a second gun or as back up I’d shop around. The video is about 40 minutes long so settle in but this is an in-depth review that is useful for anyone considering snubnosed revolvers in general as well as the Bodyguard in particular.