There's a reason you hear that such & such a gun has a trigger like a S&W revolver. It's the gold standard which almost all are aspiring to reach.
Old Slabsides is what every semi auto descends from.... Actually the 1900 Browning tilting barrel .32 ACP, is granddaddy, but the grown up is the 1911, and it's cousin the Browning High Power. John Moses just got it right. Not instantly perfected, but improved and refined, then proven at war and at home.
The S&W revolver in it's legendary 1950's perfection of hand fit smoothness, is still kicking in the modern, high precision machining version. The WW1 .45 ACP version, in it's modern incarnation, is still an outstandingly capable defense arm.
There's over two centuries of functional pinnacle in that picture.
The 1991A1 I first purchased in 1998, and was rebuilt on a new frame in 2014. The 22-4 I've had since 2013 as a leftover model from 2009. One has it's roots as the first semi automatic Army service pistol which served officially until 1985, IIRC. The other has its genesis in 1917 when 45ACP revolvers from S&W and Colt where filling gaps in the procurement of M1911 pistols. To my understanding the were in limited use at least until the Vietnam conflict. They're both amazing and versatile guns that many consider obsolete but still have a lot of utility.
The 1991 has but the slide and a few small parts left over from the original. The 22-4 is all original save for the grips.
I have an N frame 357 of 1954 vintage and the newer iteration gives up nothing in fit and finish and is technically superior in some respects.
The .45 ACP, or the old .45 Colt don't have a good reputation in modern body armor. But they were never meant to. It's like complaining a shotgun slug is a poor sniper round. Duh.
The history of the .45 ACP is the reaction to the Moro rebellion ( or whatever it's called ) in the Philippines, and our new .38 replacement for the very old 1873 Colt SAA in .45 Colt. Short form, the .38 didn't do as good a job stopping a screaming guy in the jungle or alley charging with a sword as the Army liked.
Linen wrapped arms and torso "armor" and religious zeal, ( yeah, Muslims ) may have been more psychological than practical, but against edged weapons, better than you'd expect. Not so much against poking with a bayonet, but not bad against a slash. I've done experiments with armor vs. Swords, and the brush knives/machete class weapons can be defeated with layers of cloth. Also Cosmopolitan magazine and duct tape. So against other Moros, they were well equipped. ( also true with the Americans, not being prepared for machete defense, but as good as any at the time for rifle fire ) The lesson being, you prepare for what you know.
No matter if the choice to return to .45 was perfect, it wasn't mocked much by the enemy, except to make cowboy references. ( a European tradition into the 21st century.
After doing way too much research on gun safes and being disappointed by the cosmetic features to make a safe look impressive, rather than actually being strong, I found a used gun safe at an estate sale.
For point of reference, most of the box store 'safes' are made of sheet metal that's only marginally thicker than the sheet metal in the body of your average car. I can grab the door frame of the average Liberty safe and flex it with my hand.
The safe I got is a company that I couldn't find anything about, but the body is 1/4 inch thick with beefy hinges. The door is reinforced with box steel and the door frame is the same.
We about died getting it out. I'm a fatty at 330 and couldn't tip it on the appliance dolly.
An anchor system would be easy to make it easy to move only when you want it to move. There was a moving company that I worked with. They had explosive driven spikes that would be driven into the tractor trailer tires if someone tried to steal the trucks. That was a less than lethal system. There were lethal systems also in place. Remind me to tell you about it some time. You could screw the vending machine to the ground from inside once it was in place.
Locking don't work. People have looked at me dumb founded when I've opened their locked doors faster than they could with a key. Lockouts were my favorite calls when I drove the wrecker truck.
though I now feel a strong need for a rifle rated plate of AR500 steel. We have a 12" gong made of AR500 steel at the end of our range. Its fun to ring the gong.
I teach the exact opposite. Weapons are not magic wands. They are tools that require training & practice to be effective, and a mind to turn them to good or evil.
I've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in practice to let me wield any weapon I use in ANY martial art effectively.
I have previously mentioned I'm in the "school" of martial arts that is inspired by Bruce Lee, modern Olympic medical/sports/education, and ancient philosophy, to produce a fusion of science, training, and techniques.
There's a reason Olympians today perform at a level unbelievable to athletes of a century ago. That U.S. Military training produces such incredibly deadly warriors.... And, yes, video games are part of that.
You don't get performance at top levels by ignoring Sun Tsu or biomedical research.
Get me going sometime on a seminar I give on rotary and linear techniques across martial arts.
The author idiot above clearly needs to get educated on Dave Grossman's "On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs", the Warrior's Code, and that symbols are not reality. But she's probably too ?far gone? to comprehend all that.
Just painted ours white, now it looks like we're shooting at a toilet seat.
That's funny...which reminds me of the time I blasted a toilet and sink with a .44 Magnum. Now that was fun, though they are one time use targets, unfortunately.
I teach the exact opposite. Weapons are not magic wands. They are tools that require training & practice to be effective, and a mind to turn them to good or evil.
Which is, of course (again), the rational viewpoint. Ascribing human-like attributes to inanimate objects in any serious manner is plain stupid.
Intent and ability are two very different things...but engaging large groups of unarmed people told to hide in or under the nearest area of convenience is unsporting to say the least.
The number of people at the range with a hard time hitting a large target directly in front of them with any consistency is a prime example of that...and the number of people that accidentally shoot themselves engaging in such activities is also disappointing.
At the local range a regular recently shot himself through the hand with a .45ACP.
I would guess it was one of those that listened to a "hold the gun close and put you free hand out to maintain space" people. Or did it happen on the bench?
Naww. He thought it was unloaded and dry fired it into his open palm. They had to take pieces of bone out of other parts of his body to reconstruct his hand. It was a real mess, apparently.
The worst they'd had previously is a woman who dropped a loaded NAA revolver on the ground without the hammer in the safety notch between cylinders. It hit her in the upper thigh.
At my old shop a guy accidentally shot himself in the thigh with his new .380 pocket gun in his car while in the parking lot loading it.
+1,000,000, Zac. Just like guns don't make people evil (and forks don't make people fat)...guns also don't "go off" by themselves. If a gun discharges...it's because someone did something wrong. Didn't safe it. Didn't handle it properly. Didn't visually check that it was empty. Or...just didn't know how to handle it.
I had a misfire the other day while practicing. First instinct was to rack the slide and eject. Then...I remembered the course. "LEAVE IT. Point downrange, and leave the round in the chamber for at least 30 seconds". Just in case it was a fizzle-pop, instead of a total dud. Mine was a total dud...but if it hadn't been, and if I'd ejected it mid-fizzle...shrapnel. It's all about paying attention.
(which begs the question - NOW how do I get rid of a misfired 9mm cartridge?)
The number of people at the range with a hard time hitting a large target directly in front of them with any consistency is a prime example of that
An eye-opener for me (a civilian) was when I attended an ASI course at the local range. Not lanes of fire...but varied firing positions at up to six different targets. Firing from in a box. Behind a barrel. Around a 'wall'. Targets with 'hostages' (other targets) blocking most firing lines.
Wow.
Hitting "a" target, from "a" firing position, and being able to correct after each shot is one thing.
Engaging multiple targets, from multiple positions, one or two rounds at a time...completely different.
I used to think I was a competent shot. Now, I'm painfully aware that I'm still in "novice" status.
And glad I have my laser. I'm not too proud to stack the deck in my favor...every little bit helps.
I'm amused by the coverage of Venezuela's issues right now.
The left keeps talking about "we need to jump in, we need to help the people"...but ZERO mention of the fact that it's a socialist state, and a socialist problem.
5000 Dragunovs. Not sniper rifles, The Times is ignorant or deliberately lying. The American term is designated marksman rifles.
But the purpose, is to use them, like Iran, to kill civilians protesting the government, in an urban terrorist sniper role.
The Russians use them as DMRs. Squad level force multiplier.
Iran & Venezuela use them as urban terrorism guns. In Iran they target women by preference as part of their misogynistic religion. ( the country is ruled by horny old priest perverts )
Never mind that American Army/Marine doctrine is a generation ahead/beside Russian. Both countries use Designated Marksman, but the U.S. equipment is better equipped with optics.
Often sent by relatives back home, as we have enumerated rights, and civilians here have access to such force multiplier gear.
Interesting new caliber and rifle. Basically a straight walled cartridge based on the .556 NATO case. I suspect there are multiple companies designing AR15 uppers to fit this cartridge. Ruger has already announced their rifle but I suspect at this point it will be hard to find. I don't know for sure but I suspect it can use standard AR15 .556 magazines. I just watched a YouTube video that showed four clean hits on a "hostage" target at 250 yards.