June 09, 2011
Picking up where we left off with the Insider’s trip to Hartford, Conn., to visit Colt, we come to the storied company’s most distinguishing product. It’s not the legendary Single Action Army nor the venerable Government Model—those are so last century. It’s the M4A1, the U.S. military’s official issue-rifle.
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June 09, 2011
I recently picked up a gun that establishes just how small a true functional automatic pistol can be made. In fact, this tiny Bernardelli pistol is a fine example of the gunmaker's craft.
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June 08, 2011
Four young men loitering near a dumpster approached a Wing Zone takeout driver while he was making a delivery. According to witnesses, the suspects demanded money and one of them flashed an illegally possessed gun. The driver, a concealed carry permit holder, didn't hesitate.
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June 07, 2011
Little did I suspect this past February that the Insider had momentarily become some sort of unknowing psychic—more accuratey an idiot savant in my case. I was hunting in the Central African Republic with my favorite rifle, a .375 H&H Magnum custom built on a Winchester Model 70 by noted gunsmith Sterling Davenport, and also shooting a handload featuring my nominee for the single-best, all-around, big-game bullet—Swift A-Frame. I had no clue that I held in my hands two entities that soon would merge in a business deal.
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June 06, 2011
I’ve often wondered why the TV self-defense experts always rack the slide when performing a speed reload on a semi-auto handgun rather than releasing the slide via the slide stop. I always though it was to provide that extra eighth-of-an-inch of spring power to ensure the gun went fully into battery.
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June 06, 2011
It’s quite common for Alaska bear-hunting guides to carry revolvers for backup, but outfitter Greg Jannen from Valdez, Alaska, told me he’s interested in getting a semi-auto pistol for that purpose. He likes self-loaders, only he wants one more powerful than a .45 ACP when he has to face down angry brown bears or other dangerous critters.
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June 02, 2011
Two people had just pulled up to a bank's drive-through automated teller machine when a man
approached them on the driver's side of the vehicle. The man drew a gun and demanded that the driver withdraw $600 and give it to him.
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June 02, 2011
All things, apparently, are a matter of perspective. When I told my teenage son that I was going to interview Emmy-nominated and Tony-award-winning actor, producer and writer Joe Mantegna, the first words out of his mount were, “Hey, isn’t he Fat Tony on the ‘Simpsons’?”
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June 02, 2011
Wall Street executives are scrutinized for their compensation packages, stock option plans and other bonuses. Personally, the Insider doesn’t have a problem with a free market exchange of services for compensation, especially when the paychecks are approved by a board of directors representing share holders.
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June 01, 2011
At the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Pittsburgh, a great many members stopped me to say hello and chat for a few minutes. This is one of the most rewarding aspects of the job. Conversations of this sort are fun, develop new gun information and provide a lot of data on what shooters might really want to read about. But I fear that some of those who approached me may have come away with a wrong idea about my responses to their questions that was not a reflection of any kind of bad attitude on my part. The truth is I have a pretty severe hearing loss and I may have not understood correctly, if I heard at all. It is also an entry to one of my pet rants—the need for effective hearing protection for anyone involved in the shooting sports.
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