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Triggernometry – Choose Your Weapon! Part I

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That is a question I get a lot. Sometimes it is from folks who have little or no shooting experience and sometimes it is from folks who just want me to tell them that the latest weapon they have chosen wasn’t a really stupid choice.

Friends, I don’t have an ambiguous bone in my body but I cannot give you an answer without more input. Even then I don’t usually make specific make and model recommendations for I cannot know the totality of your circumstances or, without spending at least a day on the range with you, your skill level. It is truly a case of the Biblical admonition to “work out your own salvation”. All I can do is report on what you might expect to find, but you will have to go shoot the guns and do more study on your own in order to make an informed decision.

Accuracy by the Thousandths

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Choosing the optimal bullet seating depth for your firearm when handloading is very important. It can significantly affect both accuracy and functioning. Even within the same caliber and even within the same brand there have always been large differences in chamber design. Different chambers may all “fit” a factory cartridge, but there will be a difference in the distance between the back of the cartridge to exactly where the bullet engages the rifling after leaving the mouth of the case upon firing. This measurement can vary greatly within the official SAAMI caliber specification. Factory ammunition will be loaded to the shortest of the specification, so that it will chamber in all guns for that caliber without jamming into the rifling as the action is closed.

The “Center Mass” Myth and Ending a Gunfight -Triggernometry

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Surviving a gunfight isn’t what you think it is. Don’t let conventional wisdom get you killed. A well place round to “center mass” in your attacker may not take him out of the fight. Lots of people stay in the fight after “center mass” hits, and some even win it. If you expect to win your gunfight, you have to make sure that you have effectively ended the threat of your attacker. One, two or even several well placed “center mass” shots may not do what you think it will, and learning to recognize this before you gunfight may save your life.

There is a self styled self defense “expert” under every rock, and perhaps two behind every bush, these days. If you have a pet theory on what might work on the street then you can probably find a champion for that idea who actually charges people to teach them that skill. But few of the experts out there have ever been in gunfights, and even fewer have studied real gunfights to see how things really work out when the bullets really fly for blood.