Archive for blogs

Rolling Out the Big Guns

By Iain Harrison

First off, I must apologize for being away. Without giving too much away, I spent last week north of Los Angeles with Chris Cerino, George Reinas, Kelly Bachand, Adam Benson and Peter Palma and the opportunities to comment on the show were somewhat limited due to the amount of time we spent without any contact with the outside world. I'll it leave you to figure out what we were doing.

September 09, 2011

The Bill Drill

The Bill Drill is intended to improve speed and accuracy in self-defense shooting by teaching trigger control, sight tracking, recoil management and sight picture. There is some controversy as to who actually developed the Bill Drill, but it we’re pretty sure it was one of the Bills, as in Jordan, Rogers, or Wilson.

September 09, 2011

Those Compact Guns

The defensive handgun industry went nuts over the.380 auto over the last couple of years, even though there were signs that more powerful 9 mm guns were coming. By any standard, a pistol chambered for the century-old 9 mm Luger cartridge is more effective than one of comparable size chambered for the century-old .380 Auto. However, as of early last year, there were about twice as many medium-sized, single-column .380s as there were 9 mms.

September 07, 2011

The Armed Citizen® September 7, 2011

NRA

September 07, 2011

Unknown Money Men of the Gun Business

Who are the Wall Street money men investing in the gun business? The Insider is more than casually curious about three private equity investment firms that have taken significant positions in the shooting industry. Frustrating this inquisitiveness is the operative word in “private equity company,” that word being “private.” There is precious little public information about what’s going on—and the principles aren’t talking.

September 06, 2011

Help! I Can't Buy The Hottest Gun In America

The hottest selling pistol in America right now is impossible to find. Brand-new, yet a century old, this handgun is literally flying off dealer shelves. It’s not a self-defense pistol and it’s not a limited edition collectible. What is it?

August 31, 2011

The Decision to Defend

Recently a neighbor asked my advice on purchasing a home-defense shotgun—his first gun in fact, and the first one he would shoot since the .22s of his Boy Scout days. Actually, he wanted me to accompany him to an upcoming local gun show, and if not for a sales meeting scheduled for that weekend, it would have been fascinating to hear a newcomer’s take on the gun show scene.

August 29, 2011

The Shrine of Gun Design

I recently returned from a trip to Odgen, Utah, that included an afternoon touring a veritable shrine for anyone interested in gun design. As museums go, the John M. Browning Firearms Museum is fairly small, the lighting is stark and the presentation rather plain. But none of that matters given the importance of what’s on display, which amounts to a family-album-intimate retrospective on Browning’s prolific and hugely influential career.

August 29, 2011

Top-End Custom 1911s Sell Fast

Wilson Combat can't keep up with orders for their best models.

August 26, 2011

Shotgun Mastery

This week sees me on the road again, headed to the largest 3-gun match of the season in Kentucky, so it was perhaps apt that Episode 3 of "Top Shot" would feature one of the biggest names in the sport as shotgun expert. Taran Butler demonstrated his prowess with a Benellli and showed why reloading is such a critical skill to master.

August 26, 2011

.380—What You Use to Fight Your Way to a Handgun

In our offices, we often discuss issues that matter—at least to us—such as carry guns. One American Rifleman staffer carries a Ruger LCP in .380 ACP with Winchester PDX1 on a daily basis. While this staffer was visiting the office of American Hunter Managing Editor Jeff Johnston (we don’t have the budget for a water cooler), the host came up with a line that is not entirely original, yet completely relevant. “You carry a .380? That’s what you use to fight your way to your pistol.” This is, of course, is a play on firearms trainer Clint Smith’s axiom: “The only purpose for a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should have never laid down.”

August 25, 2011

Bad Situation

In my blog on light discipline, a reader commented that advising someone to search with a light is wrong and unsafe, and in many situations he is right. However, I personally think that each person must make that decision for himself. I cannot tell someone exactly how to protect his or her family and home because I don’t have enough information about the person’s home or skill level. My job is to provide hints, strategies and training tips to make you think so you can survive a deadly encounter.

August 24, 2011

Light Discipline

While many know that it is unwise to flip on the lights when going to investigate a potential burglar in the home, many these same people will continuously run a flashlight when searching their homes. This is bad light discipline.

August 22, 2011