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You probably know Shoot-N-C. Most shooters do. Most varieties use a black paint over a yellow background. The adhesion of the black on the yellow is just strong enough to keep it from rubbing off easily. When a bullet strikes the target, the impact knocks a hole in the paper and knocks off a ring of the black paint surrounding that hole, exposing the yellow beneath it. This all may seem fairly obvious, but it is some high-tech material science we too often take completely for granted.

I have been sitting on a story since Media Day at the Range back in January on the day before the 2014 SHOT Show. It is a very simple GPS driven topography map interface for smartphones and tablets. Who doesn’t have one of those these days right? But outside of a very small percentage of hunters that hunt public lands with topo maps, I didn’t think many people would be interested in our gun world. One detail about these cards, though, makes them extremely relevant for long term survival. They don’t require a network connection to use the GPS or the data. Once you download the app, all you need is the micro-SD card with the data. At $69.99 without private land data and $99.99 with that data, these are a really cheap way to keep right at your fingertips a complete set of topo maps for your entire state. Right now the cards are available for all Android devices and the Ipad, and we were able to fondle the first generation of IPhone charger cases at SHOT Show, though they have yet to be released.

One of the best war movies ever made was “Enemy at the Gates.” It is about the WWII Battle of Stalingrad, and a Soviet sniper named Vasily Zaytsev. In the movie Vasily becomes a national war celebrity, and is then pitted against a top German sniper. The victor will, seemingly, carry the hearts and minds of the soldiers in the field, thereby swinging the war in the favor of the victor. Yes there are some stupid relationship and love triangle moments, but the movie doesn’t stray too far from the brutality of a war that was literally about survival.

BudK https://www.budk.com/product/M1-Garand File this one under go figure. I am a big fan of the knife importer BudK and I was really excited when I saw that they are importing a reproduction of the Model 1942 US bayonet that was originally made for the M1 Garand, and that also fits the M1903 Springfield. The original [...]

We all love to dicker about what kind of gun is right for home defense. The truth of the matter is that much of what is “right” is determined by individual circumstances. What kind of home are you trying to defend? What is in this house? What is outside of it? This is where we typically begin. But there’s more. I think one of the most important considerations has to be who will be relying on the firearm in question? And to that end, we’ll be looking at some alternatives to the traditional 12 gauge. Today, we’ve got a Mossberg 500 Special Purpose 20 gauge.

Ruger makes great revolvers. There single actions are affordable, durable, and accurate. Yet even a good revolver may need a bit of a nudge to make it great. So take it apart and slick it up. Take out the creep. Lighten the pull. It isn’t all that complicated.

Looking at doing some competitive shooting that tests your real world skills? Check out IDPA. The fast paced shooting sport offers a safe way to test your skills under stress, and it can be a lot of fun.

Measuring radiation isn’t as complicated as all of the terminology makes it sound. Any radiation measuring device has some sort of Geiger–Müller tube, also called a G-M tube. The tube is a surprisingly simple device that turns any type of ionizing radiation into an electrical pulse. The rest of the machine we call “Geiger Counter” or “radiation meter” is just a signal amplification circuit that can contain computing chips and measurement dials or readouts. In a nuclear emergency there won’t be time for news of it to hit The Drudge Report. You’ll have to take evasive measures immediately (a topic for a future article). We are all waiting for the next big false flag or hoax catastrophe, and if it turns out to be nuclear, you’ll want some sort of Geiger counter, both to tell you when it is time to go inside, and also when it is ok to come out. For the most part, Geiger counters aren’t cheap. But I found a source for a DIY Geiger counter that takes only basic soldering for under $60, including the G-M tube. You can also get a no-solder option for still under $100, and they work great.

How would you like to vastly improve your shooting skills without firing a single shot? I’ve been shooting for decades, and I can never recall a period when I felt that ammo was considered cheap. Today’s market is certainly among the most challenging we’ve had, but even if it broke loose tomorrow, it still costs money to put rounds down range. Laser Ammo offers products that are specifically aimed (pun intended) at those of us who want to increase our trigger time without increasing our ammo expense. Here is a look at three of their tools: The SureStrike laser cartridge; The Personal Electronic Target; and the Glock TJ Sight.