Doug Larson

Flashlights that are powered by a battery go back to the early 1900s and the first weapon-mounted light did not appear until 1912 when George A. Seely of San Francisco invented his Night Sight For Firearms. We have come a long way since then.

There are credible stories around of a laser aiming device being pointed at a felonious aggressor and stopping an attack. For some reason, some bad guys see a dot dancing on their body and decide that they might get shot. Since they want to avoid that, they stop any criminal attack.

There are many holsters to select from these days, and more are being introduced all the time. Regardless of the gun model or the holster manufacturer, there are certain features of holsters that are important and some that are strictly a personal preference.

Selection of a load for self-defense use is a choice that is important because that load may be called upon to save your life. Fortunately, most major ammunition manufacturers make cartridges specifically designed for that use.

If someone says “code red”, most people think that there is some type of emergency and immediate action is required. Even though it is part of the language and everyone seems to recognize the terminology, there is more to it than most people know.

Sometimes, to get a gun to function well or to shoot precise groups, a factory load can be found that yields better results than a different factory load. Fortunately, these days there are many factory choices for most cartridges.

A long time ago, people thought only of carrying the gun when considering slinging a rifle. But somewhere along the line of how these things evolve, someone figured out that the sling could also be an aid to precision shooting.

There are many factors in any gun that have an effect on precision, and two guns leaving the assembly line, one right after the other, made with the same batch of components and assembled by the same people, can have drastically different precision characteristics.

While accuracy and precision in a handgun or rifle are important, just how important are they? For most shooting, they aren’t as important as some people seem to think. It all depends on what the shooter plans to do with the gun.