The Firearm Blog

[ I am pleased to present this guest post written by David. David blogs at True Blue Sam the Travelin' man. ]

There is nothing unusual going on at Bea's loading bench, except this 78 year old grandmother has been a handgunner for just over a year, and now she is loading her own .45 ammo! Her journey as a shooter has been rather remarkable, but she has always had lots of pioneer moxie, and she is still an active person who wants to be able to defend herself and her home.

Dwain, Bea's husband, passed away in 2005, and owned several guns. One was his 'house gun,' a Smith and Wesson Model 36 snubbie. She realized that the little .38 would be difficult for her to master, so she had one of her sons help her pick out a new pistol for her to build her shooting skills. Her first purchase was a Walther P-22, and on her 77th birthday she went to the local range for the first time. The little Walther was easy for her to handle and to shoot; the only problem she had was stripping and reassembling after her range trips. As long as it was fed plated .22's, this gun never failed to function. Bea was now a handgunner, and a pretty good shot, too. Check out the target with thirty offhand shots at thirty feet with her little auto.

P-22 target with thirty shots at thirty feet.

Bea next learned to handle revolvers by starting with her son's Ruger Single-Six, and she found that she could shoot it more accurately than she could with the little Walther. She got lucky and found a used Single-Six in excellent condition at her local Scheel's store, and soon she was shooting the revolver more than the auto. Her son then introduced her to centerfire with a Ruger Blackhawk, and she found that shooting .38's was easy for her. She looked at the options with Ruger Blackhawks, and when the Scheel's store got a .45 convertible, she bought it. The big slow bullets are easy for her to handle, even though she weighs less than 110. At the range she will shoot several cylinders through the Single-Six, and then one or two through the Blackhawk, then switch back to the .22. Careful practice has kept her from developing flinch problems.

Bea buying her Blackhawk

Shooting the Blackhawk for the first time.

Her son has been reloading for many years, and he set her up to reload for her .45. A surprise benefit of the convertible Blackhawk is the free once fired brass other shooters leave behind at the range. Every range trip begins with policing for new brass before setting up to shoot.

Bea at loading bench

In September Engineering Johnson, her grandson, took her along to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and she was thrilled to meet Mr. Completely, KeeWee, and the other bloggers she has been reading. She says it was the most fun she has ever had. Mr. C even let her shoot his long barrelled High Standard, and Bea had some respectable times hitting the steel plates on the second range day. She is planning to go again next year.

Bea with her .45 at the GBR Show and Tell

From left: Engineering Johnson, Bea and Mr. Completely

She has several range friends in her hometown, and she is spreading the joy of shooting by teaching the basics of gun safety and pistols with new shooters. One of her new found friends is a nine year old boy who is regularly beating his dad at hitting the bullseye with her Single-Six.

Bea would like for more women to realize that they do not have to be defenseless, and that even a small framed womam can shoot a gun that is powerful enough to stop an attacker. Thank you for setting such a great example for all of us, Bea.

Gun bloggers KeeWee and Molly with Bea.

[ GBR photos were taken by The Packing Rat ]

This video is a must watch. It is hands down the best slow motion video I have ever seem!

It demonstrates ...

• Frangible bullets on different angled surfaces
• What happens when bullets collide with flying objects
• Air gun pellets
• Shotgun pellets
• Bullets that hit the corner of a hard object
• ... and more.

Frangible bullets do live up to their claim of not ricocheting. I was impressed that the bullets did not ricochet from the low angled surfaces.

The video was shot by Kurzzeit, a company that sells a high speed video camera that can capture one million frames per second!

A big thanks to Jay for emailing me the video!

It just goes to show you don't need to be a big guy to fire a big gun, although I am sure Janne felt every ft/lb of energy!

One day, we were testing .458 Winchester Magnum reloads and of course, we were just obligated to let Janne (158 cm / 58 kg) to test the gun. Challenge for him was that he had to shoot three full-load rounds within a minute. I think he did a good job.

Thanks to Rekyyli for the video.

You often hear stories about ancient AK-47 rifles being dug up and fired. In this video the Special Task Force, an elite paramilitary South African police unit, assist Mozambique authorities in locating and destroying an 18 year old weapons cache left over from the Mozambican Civil War.

One of the policemen takes a rusty AK-47, pours motor oil all over it, then proceeds to empty a magazine.

Skip to 1:50 to see the AK being fired.

UPDATE: It is an AK-47, with bakelite magazines, not a AK-74 as I originally reported. Thanks to those who corrected me. It also makes more sense, as the 74 was not introduced only a few years earlier than the start of the civil war.

Hat Tip: SaysUncle

You have got to watch this video.

The MP5SD is the integrally suppressed version of the famous MP5 submachine gun. This video, taken by the THOR Group, shows just how silent the gun is.

Unlike most videos on YouTube the sound on this video is very clear and you can distinctively hear that a lot of the noise is caused by the bolt itself, rather than the escaping gas.

One of the reasons I love my suppressed .22 bolt gun is that there is no noise from the action other than the firing pin smashing the case rim.

Thanks to Max for the link.

This animated GIF gave me a really good laugh. Sven says it is from a 1990’s 1980’s South African comedy.

Watch the below video then vote.

It is all fun and games until someone gets hurt!

Thanks to Jeff for finding the video.

This video demonstrates a fast AK-47 magazine change technique. The video author calls it the “Shayetet 13 style”. Shayetet 13 are an elite IDF marine special forces unit, similar to the SEALs. I would be surprised if they were the sole inventors of this technique, it was more likely simultaneously discovered by AK-47 wielding soldiers around the world.

Remember, this technique is for emergencys only, doing it repeatedly could wreck your magazines.

UPDATE: I posted the wrong video. The video above is now the correct video.

Hat Tip: FromanMD @ MP.net

This is the first video I have seen of the new Beretta ARX 160 carbine.

Looks like a very easy to handle rifle. I think this would sell well if it made it stateside.

James Yeager, the owner of Tactical Response, has posted a video on youtube in response the controversy over the controversial training video which shows a photographer standing next to a target downrange of students shooting live ammunition.

Personally I respect everyone’s right to train how they see fit, as long as they do it far away from me. Although saying that, I think Mr Yeager could have made some better arguments in his video.

Yeager states many people don’t like anybody standing even slightly forward of their muzzle when shooting. That is true, and I can be included in this group of people, but the video showed somebody next to the targets, not just standing slightly forward of the muzzle.

He uses a car analogy in his response. I know driving in a car is dangerous, but I do my best to mitigate the risks of driving as much as I can. I drive a car that doesn’t have any known safety problems, has seat belts, ABS brakes and air bags. If I could afford a new car, I would buy one with those fancy electronic stability control systems. Increasing risk when shooting just because driving is dangerous does not make sense to me.

Lastly, he says you can never be 100% safe. I belong to a rifle target shooting club that has their own private range. The club is over 100 years old and as far as anybody can tell, there has not been an injury on the range in 100 years. There have of course been negligent discharges, but nobody was downrange at the time. Sure it is not 100% safe, but pretty damn close.

Thanks to D. Tanner and Thomas for the link.

I think I visibly shuddered when I watched this video (It is safe for work).

The video was taken at one of James Yeager’s Tactical Response Fighting Pistol classes. The photographer seen forward of the firing line is Jay Gibson, one of the Tactical Response instructors.

Apparently bullets whizzing by you as you train and is quite common at Tactical Response classes. My personal opinion is that I would never do what the photographer did, nor would I shoot with someone standing next to the target. I know I will *never* be skilled enough to guarantee I would not make a mistake. As far as I am concerned even the best shooters can make mistakes or have equipment failures, such as a pistol going full auto.

The counter argument is that the elite military units train with live cross fire, none of the four rules of firearm safety have technically been broken and that if you trust the shooters it is not any less safe than driving a car (I don’t know about this last point, that is just the argument).

The video is being hotly debated at Photobucket (where the video was posted), AR15.com and GetOffTheX (the official Tactical Response forum).
Thanks to Jay (not the same Jay) for the link.

UPDATE: James Yeager’s official response can be viewed here.

I rarely watch The Daily Show but I got a good laugh from this video. The biggest joke of course is that its all true.

Much better than The Onion’s take on guns.

Thanks to Sven for the link.

I must admit I have wanted to see what would happen (I know what would happen but I wanted to see it ). The internet does not disappoint: