Columns

by Mark Miller I have been to some bad places around the world and have seen bad things happen. When I lived on the Gulf Coast, I went through the aftermath of several major hurricanes. I now live in a rural area near a volcano and maintain a wide selection of weapons. When I hear [...]

When the 1873 came out it was a paradigm shift. A repeating rifle that was as reliable and capable as it was practical. However, it was still a pistol caliber carbine. For real rifle work, you had to go to something like an 1869 Sharps, a Ballard Perfection rifle, or a Remington Rolling Block. That’s what buffalo hunters used. What these long range, big game guns had in common was that they were all single shot firearms. The Winchester Model 1876 changed that forever.

It’s time we publicly torture mass killers. Let’s pluck out their eyes with hot pincers, splash frothing sulfuric acid on their genitals and, just about the time they’re starting to convalesce, bury them alive in a hill of agitated African army ants.

It doesn’t matter if you’re out hunting, on the range practicing, or driving down the highway, when chaos strikes, it strikes fast. One missed step along that ridge, a ricocheting bullet off a steel target, a distracted driver, a slip of a blade, and you can find yourself in a life and death situation. Beyond gun safety, first aid training is more useful than any other training you could attend, though most of us put it a ways down the list of our planned training.

We are not too far from the time when most handguns will have lasers as integrated aiming systems. Until then, we will continue to enjoy several types of add-on laser aiming systems, each with various pros and cons.

The .40S&W arose as the indirect result of the FBI’s 1986 Miami shootout. If you aren’t familiar with the details surf on over when you’re done here. Any student of small arms is well served to read up on it. Google is your buddy. During the Miami shootout, two FBI special agents were killed and five wounded by a pair of bank robbers wielding a variety of weapons.

I have had some people ask me about my preferred setup for terminating whistle pigs, so today I am going to discuss just that.

So, what’s the right height for an autoloading pocket pistol? Based on my top five picks, anywhere from 3.7 to 4.25 inches.

As an instructor who has taught thousands of people, I believe that the only real way to prevent accidents in any age group is through training. I often hear firearm companies market on the fact that you don’t have to pull the trigger to take our XYZ fancy model gun apart. The reason for that is because many people have shot themselves while taking their gun apart. How about we just follow one of the basic safety rules and not point it at ourselves when we pull the trigger?