self defense

Paired Round Loading

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I’m working my way through the postings at SnubTraining.com. I just came upon a set of postings regarding reloading your snub. This particular drill about “paired round loading” caught my eye. The background is that while at the range we might always reload our guns to full capacity, in a pressure situation we may not be able to. We may be able to unload the gun then only partially reload, either by choice or by time constraint, and then have to get back into the fight. So this drill is discussing that you may only be able to do a partial reload. Assuming your snub holds 5 rounds, maybe you can only get 2 rounds reloaded (thus “paired round”).

What Michael points out is how/where you do the reload. Chances are, we’re going to reload those rounds side-by-side. He presents some statistics worth considering:

If you were loading to protect your family wouldn’t you have better served them if you had loaded those roundsanywhere other than side by side?  When loading side by side you run a statistical risk of closing the cylinder and having to cycle through three or four empty charge holes (depending on if you loaded a five or six round cylinder) before you hit upon your first live round.  If you had split the loading then your chances for a live round earlier would have gone up to 25% with a five shot revolver and 20% with a six shot revolver.

Quite a good point. Yes with only a partial reload you have to keep pulling the trigger over empty chambers before you get to a loaded chamber, but now with the rounds spread out you’ve got a statistically better chance of getting at least one shot off sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, by practicing this way you give yourself an inexpensive “ball and dummy” drill. It can help you work to eliminate flinching. Load a couple rounds, spin the cylinder so you don’t know where they are, close the cylinder, then go. Work to eliminate any flinch or anticipation.

I’m not saying this is the best way to do things, or the worst. I do think it’s worthwhile food for thought.

Tactical Home Decor

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Shoothouse Barbie just moved into some new digs. Consequently, decorating had to happen. She didn’t just throw up random nick-nacks… she made things were both decorative and functional.

Placement of mirrors and other reflective surfaces so you can see vital spots (e.g. front door) from secure and defensible locations is a good thing.

Knife rights update

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

As previously noted here and here, there were issues with the way US Customs and Border Patrol was reclassifying certain knives. It would have risked instantly criminalizing millions of law-abiding US citizens as well as removing many useful tools from everyday use.

I received an email update from the KnifeRights.org folk:

Customs Officially Backs Off

In a letter to Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Customs and Border Protection has officially backed off their proposed revocations and rulemaking in recognition of the Amendment that was passed by the Senate which would add a new exception to the Switchblade Act covering assisted and one-hand opening knives, at least until the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill is acted upon in Conference Committee.

You can read the letter here <http://www.kniferights.org/Customs_response_07212009.pdf> , but the key paragraph reads “The amendment would effectively obviate the need for CBP’s proposed revocations and render the current issue moot. Additionally, due to the numerous comments received in response to the proposed revocation, it is unlikely that CBP will take any further action prior to passage of the Appropriations Act.

This is about as close to a victory as we can come at this time. It may not be over until the fat lady sings, and we actually get the Amendment through Conference Committee, but for all practical purposes, we shouldn’t have to worry about Customs reaching into your pockets for your pocket knives anytime soon. Do take note that Customs has included some ambiguous wording in their letter, leaving their options open, no surprise. But, make no mistake, they have gotten the message; don’t mess with our pocket knives!

This is a welcome bit of progress, and it shows how a vigilant citizenry is the only check against government running amuck across our lives. There’s still work to be done, but so far so good.

A Brief Analysis of Heaven Six

/ hsoi

Gun folk might know Michael Janich from his co-hosting of The Best Defense TV show. He’s also an accomplished martial artist with a background in escrima. Here’s a video with him explaining “Heaven Six”, a foundational drill in Filipino martial arts such as escrima, arnis, and kali.

What I like about this video is it shows how the basic “Heaven Six” movement goes beyond the sticks. Janich demonstrates a lot of empty hand application, from strikes, to blocks, to joint locks. Certainly he’s just touching the surface, but it does point out all that you can do with just that simple movement.

I haven’t regretted my decision to study kali. This sort of power in simplicity is awesome.

Snub ammo trials

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I’ve been blogging a lot on the right ammo for snub nosed revolvers. I thought I’d try to pull things together here.

First, this isn’t about finding practice ammo, because any sort of .38 Special ammo will fill that bill (read: what’s cheapest and, especially these days, available). This is about finding the right ammo for carry. And not any .38 Special ammo will do because out of the short-barrel snub nose revolver, you can’t get much velocity and that can affect the ammo performance (e.g. ability for hollow-points to expand).

First, some back postings:

And now, we come to this.

Based on all that I’ve read, here’s the list of the snub nose carry ammo that I wish to try:

Are there more out there? Sure. But from what I’ve been reading, these tend to be the most popular.

Hey, just came across this very nice write-up from thehighroad.

A summary of what I’ve been coming up with. Note: the following is just based upon a lot of Google searching and reading:

  • Old school Nyclads were pretty good, but apparently the new Nyclads aren’t all that great. They’re not bad, just nothing to write home about. Their big advantage is they give reasonable performance from a standard pressure load, so if you need standard pressure, they’re not a bad choice.
  • The specific aforementioned Buffalo Bore are another standard pressure load and supposedly a lot more potent. They are also a semi-wadcutter bullet. Their big downside is they can be hard to find, and expensive.
  • Corbon is going to be hot hot hot. Potent, but hot.
  • The Speer Gold Dot short-barrel model seems to be extremely popular and apparently have good performance.
  • I already wrote up all I could about Hornady Critical Defense. I’m intrigued but skeptical. There’s enough anecdotal evidence that the load has problems. Hopefully Hornady can work things out as it’s a nifty approach. But am I willing to trust my life to nifty and unproven? Nope. Consequently, I’m not going to bother spending any money on this ammo to even bother testing it.
  • The semi-wadcutter seems to be a proven stand-by. It’s old technology, but it’s proven technology and many people stand by it. The Remington R38S12 seems to be the standard by which all others are judged.

In terms of my own testing, unfortunately I cannot do things like ballistics gel testing, or even just shooting through water jugs or wetpack newspaper. About all I can do is shoot them, report on accuracy, report on how they feel out of my S&W 442. And I can’t even do a lot of testing because I’m not made of money. But I can report what I do and can find.

Will I admit some initial bias? Yes. Nyclads I’m interested in because having a load that’s effective but not difficult to shoot has great appeal given the gun is already one that will be hard to shoot and control just due to its nature. Buffalo Bore and the Corbon I’m not looking forward to shooting because I expect they’re going to kick like hell. I regard Gold Dots favorably, they’re my choice of carry ammo in my 9mm Springfield XD. The semi-wadcutters are proven and old school, and I’ve a warm spot for that especially since it does have the long proven track record.

Furthermore, I’ll admit some initial favorable bias towards the LSWCHP because it does have the long track record, it’s apparently not too horrible to shoot, and supposedly is your best bet for contact shots. Whereas hollow points are designed to impact and expand, the intent of the contact shot is not to expand but to cut a hole… the wadcutter cuts the hole, but it’s the rapid expansion of gases into that hole that perform the tissue damage. Ugly, I know. But if the snub is to be used for contact shot purposes, the right ammo matters. Unfortunately I cannot find much data on this.

As well, 158 grain is considered the “standard” bullet weight for .38 Special. In theory, the fixed/integral sights on the snub would be set based on assumptions of shooting that sort of bullet. That puts a little bias against things like the Corbon DPX, but then the DPX is also loaded differently. YMMV.

We shall see.

Updated: Got to the range and was able to do some testing.

Updated 2: Since I got to shoot the above-mentioned Buffalo Bore, I was looking for some more data on the Buffalo Bore semi-wadcutter load. I found this at brassfetcher.com, that shows that very load fired from a S&W 642 and how it behaved in ballistics gel. Fairly consistent behavior. It’s got penetration and some expansion. It even had fragmentation, which can mean all sorts of things for defensive loads.

Same site also has some results of various .38 rounds into gel. Here’s one on the Gold Dot 135 grain. Here’s the Remington LSWCHP. The Cor®Bon DPX.

Check this: he did a contact shot test. I’d love to see more of this, comparing say hollow point loads like the Gold Dot 135 grain, DPX, even the Buffalo Bore SWCHP vs. the FBI load.

Looking at all of the brassfetcher .38 tests — and ballistics gel only tells us so much (it’s main advantage is controlability and consistency), it does seem many of the above-listed rounds are good. In fact, it makes me feel a little bit better about my current choice to use the Buffalo Bore (load 20C/20).

Just do what they tell you

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I cannot stand modern “self-defense” tactics that teach things like just being passive, just give them what they want, if you just do what they ask you they won’t hurt you, blah blah blah.

Tell that to Teresa Butz.

Before she died, Butz talked to a neighbor, Albert Barrientes, saying of the attacker: “He told us if we did what he asked us to do, he wouldn’t hurt us. He lied, he lied.”

If someone has put you in honest fear of your life, if they have broken into your house, attacked you, threatened you with grevious harm, or anything of this ilk, that person has demonstrated they are irrational, dangerous, and untrustworthy. What makes you think they won’t harm you further? Why should you trust anything they have to say after the actions they’ve already presented?

6 is enough

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Shoothouse Barbie goes off about the saying “If I can’t get the job done in 6 rounds then I’m in over my head”.

Commenter RevolverRob quotes Clint Smith from Thunder Ranch:

“Nobody has ever complained of having too much ammunition during a gunfight.”

Amen.

I make no bones about the fact that I like capacity. It’s one reason I like 9mm handguns over other calibers like .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Since all pistol rounds suck about the same, I think it’s useful to consider other aspects such as capacity. If .45 ACP and 9mm will both get the job done, and I can carry twice as many 9mm rounds well… hopefully I won’t need them, but gosh it’s nice to have them if you do. We’re back to one of those old adages for why you carry: better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. So, nice to have more ammo if you can, eh?

Put it this way. I opted to carry only a 5-shot snub-nose revolver a little while ago, and just when I opted to do that I had an incident that had potential to be ugly. Thankfully nothing came of it and that we did have rifles, but boy those 5 rounds just didn’t feel like enough. Maybe if it was just one guy it’d be OK, but again we like to say that “2 is 1, 1 is none”, to be aware of that which you can’t see, and all that stuff. So if it did wind up being 2 or more attackers, would those 5-6 rounds be enough?

Shotgun chokes for home defense

/ hsoi

While a shotgun is not my #1 choice for home defense, it certainly can be used in that capacity. One thing that came out of the KR Training Defensive Long Gun class was the realities of using a shotgun in a home-defense situation.

Home defensive shooting is likely to go from 3 to 25 yards, or rather, very close range to the longest distance across your house. Measure it if you’re not sure, but most houses won’t be more than 25 yards. By nature, a shotgun shooting pellets will have those pellets spread. Just how much those pellets spread depends upon the shotgun’s choke and the load, even being different across manufacturers and brands.

Old_Painless over at the Box O’ Truth has BOT #44 discussing this very topic. He takes a look at how chokes affect patterns and how different brands of buckshot affect patterns. Conclusion? In general full choke does tighten groups up, but the actual load seems to matter a lot more. The take-home is that you shouldn’t just buy any old buckshot and expect it to behave like you want it to. You need to try different loads in your particular gun until you find the load and gun (and perhaps choke) “pairing” that works to give you your desired results. This is consistent with what came out of the KR Training class. Bottom line is you have to know how your tools will perform.

One nice thing that came out of BOT #44 was seeing that the Remington low-recoil buckshot worked so well. I believe Old_Painless used this product, but I can’t tell (his website doesn’t say exactly, and his box picture doesn’t match the Remington website, but this is likely the same load). Not only is that a tight pattern regardless of choke, but managed recoil is arguably a better choice for home-defense situations. The reduced range of managed/reduced recoil products isn’t an issue in the limited ranges of home-defense situation, it doesn’t beat you up as much, you can manage the recoil and get to follow-up shots faster. Win-win.

Buckshot please

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Here’s a story about a black bear that broke into a home in Boulder, Colorado. Apparently it took 10 rounds to take him down. Why so many? Let’s look at the rounds fired:

  1. First 2 rounds were 12 gauge bird shot.
  2. 3rd round was 12 gauge rubber bullet.
  3. Then 5 .45 ACP rounds
  4. And finally 2 rounds of .223 from the policeman’s rifle.

He shot the .45 rounds into the bear’s head. Seems to disorient the bear a bit, but didn’t have enough oomph to stop the bear. The .223 finally ended it.

Some other things to note:

  • Birdshot is for birds and nothing more. It is not effective at stopping anything more than Tweety. This was a juvenile bear and the birdshot merely disoriented him. It’s evident the homeowner kept the shotgun for self defense, putting birdshot and rubber bullets in there. Folks, less lethal isn’t the way to go. If you’re going to use a shotgun you want buckshot, and probably some slugs in the side-saddle.
  • I’ll continue to keep my AR for home defense, over a shotgun, over a handgun. More power, more versatility, more effective.
  • Sounds like the homeowner did the right thing tho. Got their gun, collected the wife and kids, man of the house put himself between his family and the bear, called the police for backup. Didn’t go looking for trouble, tried to let the bear get out; it’s always good to give a predator an escape route, else they will fight worse because they feel cornered. But when trouble came to him he dealt with it.
  • Cops did eventually show up, but like all things with the cops they are never around when you need them and it takes time for them to show up. It’s good things worked out as well as they did here, but it does show you cannot necessarily count on the police if time is critical.