Wednesday Wisdom: 21 October 2026

Medal of Honor: Thomas Patrick Payne 

On October 22, 2015, during a daring nighttime hostage rescue in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, Sergeant First Class Thomas Patrick Payne led a combined assault team charged with clearing one of two buildings known to house the hostages. With speed, audacity, and courage, he led his team as they quickly cleared the assigned building, liberating 38 hostages. 

Upon hearing a request for additional assaulters to assist with clearing the other building, Sergeant Payne, on his own initiative, left his secured position, exposing himself to enemy fire as he bounded across the compound to the other building from which entrenched enemy forces were engaging his comrades. Sergeant Payne climbed a ladder to the building’s roof, which was partially engulfed in flames, and engaged enemy fighters below with grenades and small arms fire. He then moved back to ground level to engage the enemy forces through a breach hole in the west side of the building. 

Knowing time was running out for the hostages trapped inside the burning building, Sergeant Payne moved to the main entrance, where heavy enemy fire had thwarted previous attempts to enter. He knowingly risked his own life by bravely entering the building under intense enemy fire, enduring smoke, heat, and flames to identify the armored door imprisoning the hostages. Upon exiting, Sergeant Payne exchanged his rifle for bolt cutters, and again entered the building, ignoring the enemy rounds impacting the walls around him as he cut the locks on a complex locking mechanism. His courageous actions motivated the coalition assault team members to enter the breach and assist with cutting the locks.

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'We Should Be Furious' UK Navy Drones Caught Beaming 'Heartbeat' Data to China

Yeah--the U.K. should be furious that their designers were stupid enough to use Chinese components in their drone systems.The Chinese equipment communicates with China.  Imagine that! The U.S. pulled a similar stunt when we used Chinese security cameras for sensitive facilities. See here

In addition to crafting its own powerful drone programs, China also procures components that other countries use for theirs. Aboard some of the U.K.'s K3 Scout uncrewed surface vessels (USV), the Royal Navy recently stripped away wireless connectivity after it became apparent that there was an issue with such components. Cameras were sending "heartbeat communications," or automated signals, to an IP address in China. These signals indicate whether the system is online and functioning correctly, meaning China was essentially made aware of the K3 Scout's usage through these signals.

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A Look at The More Unconventional Leupold Designs

Leupold has produced a number of unique, unconventional optics over the years. Some have been more successful than others.

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Ruger Suspends Production of Several Major Models

 

Ruger announced a major change to several of its longtime product lines this week, stating that it would immediately suspend production of several models while finishing out current production runs of other models through 2026. "This does not necessarily mean these product families are permanently discontinued."

Ruger is ceasing production of its LCR, SP101, GP100 and Bearcat revolvers. The company plans to complete its final production runs of the following models for 2026: SR1911, LC Carbine, PC Charger, PC Carbine, LC Charger, Redhawk, Super Redhawk, Blackhawk, Super Blackhawk, Single-Series revolvers, Vaquero, No. 1, 77-Series rifles, Hawkeye and Ruger Precision Rifle.

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Easy ATF Form 1 Short-barreled Rifle/Shotgun Conversions

Should you still register short-barreled shotguns and rifles with the ATF? Maybe. It depends on your personal circumstances and where you live. Some state laws require such registration to legally posses these items. Additionally, the NFA is still on the books and a future administration could reinstitute the tax.

If you are interested in the topic, the link opens to an in-depth article concerning the current process. You may need to establish a free account on the website.

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The ZeroTech Trace 

ZeroTech has been around since 2018, but the team behind the company brings decades of experience in optics design and engineering. Originally established in Australia, ZeroTech has expanded into shooting optics markets in various parts of the world. 

The company offers a variety of optics, including rifle scopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, and red dot sights. With manufacturing facilities in Japan and China, its lineup covers everything from premium optics to more affordable options.

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Bad Decisions Don’t Automatically Make Self-Defense Unlawful

No, bad decisions do not automatically preclude self-defense; however, they certainly can make staying out of jail more challenging.

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Pistol Caliber Lever Guns

The .357 Magnum debuted in 1935, but it took more than four decades for a factory-produced lever gun to chamber the mighty round. In the meantime, gunsmiths were already proving that the cartridge could be an excellent match for a lightweight carbine.

Lever guns and pistol cartridges have been paired since the Henry rifle debuted in 1860. Winchester and Marlin carried that tradition forward, offering lightweight rifles and carbines that became favorites on the frontier.

Farmers and ranchers appreciated models like the Winchester 1892 and Marlin 1894 for predator control, while trappers and outdoorsmen valued a long gun that was easy to store and carry. Plus, a lever-action rifle chambered in the same round as one’s sidearm offered a clear practical advantage.

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COMMUNISM IN AMERICA - PART 2

If one examines any country that has been communist. . . or pseudo-communist, one will eventually see a failed state. The USSR failed, as has every single other communist state. The current economic debacles in Europe are due to socialist (pseudo-communist) economic policies. Communism always fails. It has always failed in every nation that attempted it in any form attempted. And it takes untold lives and societal damage in that ultimate fail. That is why communism must be resisted totally and completely and without any sort of compromise.

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Wi-Fi Signals can Help Detect Concealed Handguns

 

Researchers at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI) have developed an AI system that uses Wi-Fi signals to identify people carrying concealed handguns.

The system, called WiFireNet, could eventually complement surveillance cameras and metal detectors, although the findings establish feasibility under controlled conditions rather than readiness for public security deployments.

The researchers also introduce WiFire, a dataset that pairs wireless measurements with camera footage to train and evaluate concealed weapon detection models. Although not yet fielded for widespread use, its not hard to imagine casinos and other locations adopting this technology.

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Wednesday Wisdom: 14 October 2026

The Terror of the Night Witches

 

 

 

The name alone would strike terror into the heart of even the most battle-hardened German soldier: The Night Witches. Named for the sound of their rudimentary, plywood biplanes as they cruised slowly overhead at low altitude dropping bombs, the Night Witches were the all-volunteer, all-female air raid squad that the Soviets deployed against the Third Reich.

The spooky “whoosh” as they circled overhead reminded the German troops of women sweeping. The association with a broom led to them calling these night-time raiders “Nachthexen” – Night Witches. A term of derision for the Nazis, a badge of honor for the women of the Soviet Union’s all-female bomb squad.

The Nazi Regime in Berlin so hated the Night Witches that anyone who could down one of their crop dusters turned bomber was awarded the prestigious Iron Cross. But who were these brave women who battled against the Nazi Luftwaffe in the freezing cold of the Eastern Front?

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The Stoeger Bandit Target

A bit of defensive shooting history from Karl Rehn of KR Training. From the 1930’s-1950’s, Stoeger’s catalog was the Sears Roebuck wish book for shooters. In the late 1930’s, Stoeger began selling their “bandit” target. The Stoeger target showed an attacker with gun raised to the eye target line, later in the attack process than the Colt Silhouette, which showed someone reaching in their pocket. The five point zone in the head and other scoring areas on the Stoeger target are more anatomically correct, with lower scores for the legs and lower torso.

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NFA Registration is Gone? Not Quite

Lots of noise concerning the ATF guidance concerning some NFA items. An important note—ATF’s registration of NFA firearms and silencers is a policy that any future administration can reverse. The court order in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF only covers the plaintiffs, their members, and their customers. The Attorney General chose to apply the same policy to everyone else also. There are now two layers: ATF’s policy, which covers everyone, and the court order, which covers you if you are a member of a plaintiff organization or group. ATF can change a policy; however, changing a court order is somewhat more challenging. I personally joined Gun Owners of America--one of the other plaintiff organizations.

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US Law Shield Advisory on the NFA Changes

 

While we're on the topic: a very detailed discussion of the ATF policy and the recent changes. Opens to a .pdf document. 

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First 5 Rounds in Your Magazine: Why They Matter Most

Every round in your magazine matters. But the first five matter more than the rest, and most shooters have never thought about why. The top of your magazine is where the most stress, the most wear, and the most potential for failure concentrate. Here's what's happening in those first five positions and why it affects your ammunition's reliability.

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Smith & Wesson Prototype Magnum Club Gun Revolver Made for Douglas and Victor Wesson

A fascinating revolver which was specially made for S&W company officers Col. Douglas B. Wesson and Victor Wesson to demonstrate their new 357 Magnum cartridge, the development of which Douglas Wesson was intimately involved in. Richard Wesson describes their use as demonstration guns along with his father’s big game hunting trips he successfully undertook with this revolver. The revolver shows light use and remains in fine condition retaining about 90% original blue with mild high edge wear and scattered handling marks. The revolver is sighted with factory adjustable target rear sight with u-notch blade and Call gold bead front sight.

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Hackers Stalked Me by Hijacking a Smartwatch for Kids

On a rainy New York morning, a WIRED reporter strapped a plastic child’s smartwatch to his wrist and headed to work. As he approached a subway station to commute to WIRED’s office, he texted Vangelis Stykas, the Greek security researcher who had shipped him the watch via Amazon, to let him know that he was going into the station and might lose cell signal.

“I know,” Stykas wrote back.

In fact, Stykas had been monitoring the reporter’s location via the watch since the moment he left his apartment. The watch’s GPS feature, intended to let a parent track their child, was malfunctioning, but the wearable device was still picking up and transmitting to a faraway server identifiers from every nearby Wi-Fi network, which allowed Stykas to continue to pinpoint the reporter’s exact location as he continued to walk.

When the reporter arrived at WIRED’s Manhattan headquarters, Stykas hijacked a watch feature that allowed him to silently take a photo from its camera, capturing the moment when the reporter stepped into an elevator and later a picture of the reporter at his desk. The hacker then used a different feature to pick up audio from the watch’s microphone, transmitting it to another researcher.

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Critical Incident at Memorial City: Understanding Crisis, Behavior, and the Human Performance Problem

According to public reporting attributed to the Houston Police Department, a 31-year-old man arrived at a Houston hospital on September 5, 2026 seeking medical assistance while experiencing a suicidal crisis. He was placed in a secluded area of the emergency department.

Early accounts indicate that security personnel attempted verbal communication and subsequently used electronic control weapons to separate the man from the knife. The man reportedly went to the ground following the less-lethal intervention but later got back up and reached for the knife again. HPD’s subsequent written release reported that the armed man then “advanced towards the guards.” A hospital security officer fired multiple rounds, striking him. Medical personnel immediately provided treatment, but doctors later pronounced the man dead.

The investigation is ongoing, and important facts are still unknown. That limitation matters. Critical incidents are rarely understood completely in their first hours, and initial reporting should never be confused with a finished investigation. Still, the incident provides an opportunity to examine something larger than this event: the interaction of crisis, emotion, behavior, de-escalation, and human performance in an environment where circumstances may require security professionals (and private citizens) to immediately make life-or-death decisions.

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My apologies for the formatting differences--blogger.com is not cooperating. 

If you enjoy reading these articles, please follow/subscribe. The link is on the upper right side of the page. All that will happen is that you will receive an e-mail when I post an article. Your information will never be distributed.If you enjoy reading these articles, please follow/subscribe. The link is on the upper right side of the page. All that will happen is that you will receive an e-mail when I post an article. Your information will never be distributed.

Wednesday Wisdom: 7 October 2026

The Rise of Women Gun Owners

A generally neutral (from a political perspective) article from the RAND Corporation an organization that is not known as a friend of the Second Amendment. The article addresses how the long-standing relationship between American women and guns is changing. As more women become gun owners, the ripple effects—on safety, public health, and even cultural attitudes—will likely change too. What's certain is that the old assumptions about who owns guns and why, changed markedly in the 2020s. Policymakers, researchers, and communities alike will need to pay attention to how this new era of firearm ownership develops.

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Trending Data Among Women First-Time Gun Owners – 2025 Update 

While we are on the topic an article from A Girl and A Gun—the best source for women and firearms: The growth of women in the firearms community has become one of the defining shifts in the shooting industry over the past several years. Headlines often focus on record firearm sales, but the more meaningful story begins after a woman purchases her first firearm. Why she decided to buy, what motivates her to seek training, and what keeps her engaged offer a much clearer picture of where our industry is headed.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), approximately 11 million Americans purchased their first firearm during 2020 and 2021, the last years for which data is available. It is estimated that roughly half of those first-time buyers were women.

To better understand this historic influx, A Girl & A Gun surveyed thousands of new female gun owners during those years. Our 2025 survey revisits that original research, allowing us to compare motivations, behaviors, and purchasing patterns over time. Rather than capturing a moment in history, these three data sets now reveal an emerging trend: women are entering the firearms community with different expectations, different experiences, and an increasingly intentional commitment to developing lifelong skills.

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Smith & Wesson No. 1 Third Issue Revolver Made for Presentation to Swedish Opera Singer Christina Nilsson

 

Continuing with the theme of women and firearms ownership: The Smith and Wesson factory delivered this beautiful revolver to D.B. Wesson’s office on February 19, 1870 and it is believed that Wesson presented the revolver to Swedish Opera Singer Christina Nilsson during her 1871 American tour. Christina Nilsson was born in 1843 and essentially became the equivalent to a pop star of her day, enjoying a 20-year career as one of the world’s leading operatic dramatic coloratura sopranos. Nilsson passed away in 1921 at the age of 78 and the revolver remained in the Nilsson family until 1994. Gustave Young embellished the revolver is to the highest standards of the day in the same style he used for Ulysses S. Grant’s revolver and other important arms. The revolver features the finest quality detailed foliate scrollwork and filigree with gold inlaid bands at muzzle and rear of cylinder, grape vines along sides of barrel, bird heads spewing scroll along sides of frame and wolfs head with scroll at top rear. The unique mother-of-pearl grips are also quite spectacular inlaid in gold with Nilsson’s initials on the left panel and “S&W” on the right. Nilsson performed at Steinway Center in New York City in September of 1870 and Roy notes that D.B. Wesson frequented New York City, possibly delivering it to her around that time.

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Sloppy Gun Carrying is a Real Problem 

From TSA: The record number of firearms discovered at TSA checkpoints was set in 2023. This means more people are carrying guns, at least off body, and the 93% loaded means that most of them are properly ready for defensive use. It is possible that TSA’s designation of “loaded” does not differentiate between a chamber that is loaded or empty, so it’s possible that some or many of the “loaded” guns did not have a round chambered.

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Random Thoughts on Being ABLE to Intervene 

Unless you live completely disconnected from current events, you probably know about the In-N-Out Burger mass murder incident. Three people attempted to intervene with varying degrees of success with no one actually stopping the violent criminal actor (VCA).

One individual who attempted to intervene was a former Twin Falls Police Officer and a former Idaho State Police Officer; however, he was not employed in law enforcement when the incident occurred, so he was an “armed citizen.” He presumably had firearms training in both law enforcement organizations for which he worked; however, he was not able to intervene.

What happens to skill sets (assuming that you have them) when you encounter a situation that elicits “immediate onset threat to life stress” i.e. something that causes your body to dump massive amounts of chemicals into your body to prepare you to fight to the death or flee? Why would your combative skills, empty hand or weapon, not transfer from the gym/range to the street when you need them the most? In other words, why do would we choke and perform sub-optimally when under immediate onset threat to life stress?

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Russia’s Hybrid War Hits NATO

 

 

In the additional noteworthy information category from a very informative source: Russia is no longer only fighting in Ukraine. Drones, sabotage, and electronic warfare are testing NATO’s defenses and political resolve. The next disruption may arrive as a grounded airport, a darkened grid, or a bank unable to process payments.

That is hybrid warfare: inflicting damage while complicating attribution and discouraging a collective military response. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warns that Moscow may stage supposedly “accidental” drone or missile strikes to test whether NATO’s Article 5 commitment is practical or theoretical. Danish intelligence says Russia is accepting greater risks, including sabotage that could cause casualties.

The incidents are accumulating. Germany blamed Russia for the failed August drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport. On Sept 13, a Russian drone struck a Ukrainian passenger train two kilometers from Poland. NATO fighters downed a drone over Lithuania two days later. Warsaw this week called a fire at a Starlink ground station sabotage, although responsibility remains unconfirmed. These developments follow the unprecedented mass Russian drone incursion into Poland on Sept 10, 2025.

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Belly Bands: Not a Universal Solution

A useful article via the Rangemaster October 2026 Newsletter. In my younger days I lived on the economy in a city where high levels of crime and terrorist threats were a daily fact of life. When I would go running, I carried my Glock 19 in a Neoprene sports support belt tightly wrapped on my upper chest. The pistol stayed in place when I was running and the one time, I had to draw my pistol it worked well. Tom Givens suggests taking a Kydex IWB holster, remove the belt attachment, and super glue the holster into the pistol pocket of the belly band. This gives you a rigid holster and makes one handed re-holstering possible--a much better idea.

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Defenses Against Unarmed Aggressors

Comments from Massad Ayoob: The use of deadly physical force is only allowed in a situation of immediate, otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to oneself or other innocent people. That situation is determined by three criteria, which have to be simultaneously present. Ability: the opponents possess the power to kill or cripple; Opportunity: they’re capable of immediately employing it and third, Jeopardy: their actions and/or words indicate to a reasonable and prudent person that their manifest intent is to kill or to cripple.

Disparity of force is one of the elements that can create the “Ability” prong of the three-pronged test of Ability, Opportunity, and Jeopardy. Disparity of force means the opponent or opponents are not armed with a weapon per se but something about their capability in the assault makes it so likely that the defender will be killed or crippled that it is the equivalent of them having a deadly weapon and it warrants the defender’s recourse to a weapon such as a firearm.

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Chiappa Firearms M1-9 Carbine M1 Carbine-Style 9mm Blued Rifle

 

The Chiappa M1-22 creates the look and feel of the venerable USGI M1 Carbine, but chambered in the inexpensive and easy to shoot .22 LR. A great .22 rimfire rifle in its own right, the M1-22 has the exact overall dimensions as the original M1 Carbine. Available with either a wood or polymer stock, they are interchangeable with genuine M1 Carbines. Each M1-22 comes with two 10-round magazines. The 9mm Luger-chambered carbine has the same overall dimensions, trigger groups design and sights as the original. The receiver has a 3/8" dovetail machined into the receiver, and dovetail-to-Picatinny adapters are also included for mounting optics. The straight blowback design makes the M1-9 ultra-reliable and easy to clean and maintain. Cartridges are fed from standard Beretta M9/92 magazines. 

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PXT--A New Era of Rifle Barrel Technology

 

 

As the U.S. military pushed to extract greater performance from existing weapons platforms, PROOF Research moved into medium-caliber cannon barrel development and conducted a complete reassessment of rifling profiles, twist rates, pressure, projectile behavior, and barrel manufacturing.

By the early 2020s, that same focus had expanded into small arms — from 5.56 up through .338. Researchers realized that certain applications would require significantly more energy on target. Achieving that meant pushing chamber pressures to roughly 80,000 psi, well beyond the more common 62,000 psi.

Initially, this presented major challenges on the ammunition side. Containing that level of pressure without cartridge case failure required extensive experimentation with materials and propellants. Once the ammunition began to produce the needed performance, the barrel’s performance became the next hurdle.

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Wednesday Wisdom: 30 September 2026

Medal of Honor: Marvin Glen Shields

Construction Mechanic Third Class Marvin Shields was awarded the Medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Although wounded when the compound of Detachment A-342, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, came under intense fire from an estimated reinforced Viet Cong regiment employing machine guns, heavy weapons, and small arms, Shields continued to resupply his fellow Americans who needed ammunition and to return the enemy fire for a period of approximately three hours, at which time the Viet Cong launched a massive attack at close-range with flamethrowers, hand grenades and small-arms fire. Wounded a second time during this attack, Shields nevertheless assisted in carrying a more critically wounded man to safety, and then resumed firing at the enemy for four more hours. 

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Apex Optics Vapor 1-4X Variable Prism Sight

Prism sights are nothing new, but they have certainly taken off over the past decade. When Trijicon introduced the ACOG and it began appearing on military weapons, other manufacturers quickly took notice. Their compact size, etched reticles, clarity, and easy-to-use sight picture have made prism optics increasingly popular.

One of the reasons prism sights are so durable is their simple fixed-magnification design, although that same characteristic can also be considered a limitation. The Apex Optics Vapor takes a different approach by combining the advantages of a prism optic with variable magnification.

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Attorneys Try to Build on ‘Negligent Marketing’ Claim to Include Independent Reviews of Guns

They author was subpoenaed in an anti-gun lawsuit. . .for being a guntuber. The case is Roberts v. Smith & Wesson, and it’s the same playbook, almost copy+paste, of the Soto v. Bushmaster “Sandy Hook” lawsuit against Remington, which put them out of business.

This one arises from the Highland Park July 4, 2022 shooting, where the killer used an M&P15. The plaintiffs are of course attempting to blame S&W for the incident and the theory, you guessed it, “negligent marketing.” They say S&W appealed to young men interested in militaristic imagery and that this influenced the shooter to select the M&P15, and that this more or less was a cause of this incident. Insanity.

Now they are reaching beyond S&W and into firearms media. The author received a subpoena demanding years of info and analytics concerning S&W and reviews. The part that should concern my fellow gun reviewers: Their subpoena defines an “Advertisement” to include even unpaid organic social-media content. In other words, by the plaintiffs’ definition, even an independent review of a lawful product is “advertising,” and they think they are entitled to any info that touches on essentially any YouTube video about the M&P15 during the relevant period.

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Influencer Baloney: Beware of “Influencers” Passing False Propaganda

On social media, an influencer-type put up an out-of-context video of John Farnam. John was depicted on a range giving information and shooting a demonstration. The response was to use John’s demo to discount someone who was a “typical anti-competition fudd” (sic), who’d allegedly trained at DTI. It was alleged that John “told him to stop competing because it ingrained bad habits …” something that is unlikely to have happened.

This is why many classes prohibit video and/or audio recording.  It is too easy for someone with an agenda to publish the video out of context. This is going to get worse as AI proliferates. I was out with Massad Ayoob at dinner one evening when Mas showed me a video with him speaking fluent, flawless Spanish.  Since Mas does not speak Spanish I found this curious. He said that a student using AI had modified the video.

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The Bren Ten

A Bren Ten Prototype Pistol

Largely the brainchild of Thomas F. Dornaus and his business partner Michael W. Dixon, personal friends who shared a passion for firearms, the design that would become the Bren Ten began conceptualization in 1979. The two sought to create a semi-automatic pistol with greater capacity and cartridge power than the .45 ACP out of the Model 1911 and .357 Magnum out of double action revolvers, which were some of the most prevalent and powerful sidearm options available for law enforcement at the time. 

 

Jeff Cooper (of Gunsite fame) was impressed and suggested two alterations which would come to define the line, changing the name to "BREN TEN" in recognition of CZ and re-chambering the pistol for a new 10 mm automatic cartridge. As a result, Dornaus & Dixon contracted Norma to design Cooper's conceptual cartridge, resulting in the creation of the 10 mm Automatic cartridge, with the Bren Ten being the first firearm chambered for it.

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The 10mm Auto: History & Performance

Many shooters believe that the 10 mm Auto round LtCol. Jeff Cooper conceived was invented in 1983. However, the story goes back at least another decade. In the early ’70s, an editor at Guns & Ammo magazine, Whit Collins, became greatly interested in writer George C. Nonte’s experiments with a wildcat .40-cal. cartridge based upon a shortened .41 Magnum case with its rim turned down to a rebated style to fit a 9 mm Luger breech-face.

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Stop Practicing Shooting – A Response

Karl Rehn's thoughts concerning a older Ralph Mroz article lists 25 things an armed person needs to be good at to be well prepared for armed self-defense. The Massad Ayoob Group MAG 40 program covers fourteen of the twenty five.

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Springfield XD Mod.4 Review: New, But Not

The new XD Mod.4 is what appears to be an entirely new pistol, but it isn’t. The internals are the same as they have always been, with improvements to details such as manufacturing efficiency and fit and function. The frame is the same polymer shell with the internals fitted and pinned into place, with a bladed safety-trigger on the flat-faced trigger, and striker-fired mechanism. There is the grip safety at the rear, adding to the suite of safety designs internally, so the XD Mod.4 OSP is drop-safe and still ergonomic to handle and use.

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Garmin Chronograph VS Athlon Chronograph

Two of the most interesting modern Chronograph options are the Garmin Xero C1 Pro and the Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro. Both are small, rechargeable radar chronographs, capable of measuring a wide variety of projectiles at various velocities. Both can be operated independently of the firearm, meaning they don’t need to be attached to the gun or barrel to make them work. They also don’t use optical sensors, so you don’t need to shoot projectiles through a set of screens or antennas to get a ballistic reading.

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The Stenzel Industries SAK-21: A Uniquely American AK

The AR-15/M16 vs. AK-47 debate is often framed in a Cold War West vs. East. The reality is that AR-15-type firearms are now made around the world, while plenty of AKs are made in the U.S. An example of the latter is the Stenzel American Kalashnikov – 2021 or SAK-21.

While maintaining some basic design features and aesthetics of the Kalashnikov, the SAK-21 makes significant departures. Its receiver is machined out of billet aluminum with a steel trunnion insert, and it has a user-changeable barrel.

I personally never felt the need to own an AK, although I have fired many original former Communist-Bloc versions. This one looks to have addressed many of the shortcomings of the traditional AK—it is an expensive example though.

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Police Responding to an Unknown Situation

Police practices have strong regional overtones. Four retired officers from various regions of the country contributed to this study. In addition to addressing west coast practices Roy Huntington publishes American Cop magazine. Rich Grassi writes for the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated and the Tactical Wire; his comments in this study are representative of the mid-western states. After a 35-year career in policing and corrections, Herb Furhman now teaches firearms classes, and here he speaks to his experiences working in Connecticut. Police procedures expert Edward Mamet served a distinguished almost-forty-year career in New York City, including 20 years in NYPD’s detective bureau, and he speaks about policing in large, metropolitan areas.

Armed citizens bristle when told that they may be treated like a violent criminal after defending themselves. They forget that law enforcement enters the scene with only limited knowledge. Queried about how law enforcement approaches a call about an armed citizen, the respondents in this article (experienced police officers) explained that safety of the responding officers must be foremost (at least in the officer’s minds).

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Don't Get Shot: Dealing With Police During a Traffic Stop

While we are on the topic: This article analyzes Opelika Police Officer Phillip Hancock’s furtive movement shooting of Air Force Airman 1st Class Michael Davidson.

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Scout Rifle Requiem: Q&A With Gunsite Legend Giles Stock

I have quite a few rifles among which is a Steyr Scout I purchased in the late 1990’s. I purchased the rifle standard and then had the stock cerakoated a medium brown. I have the original Leupold fixed two-power Scout scope on the rifle.

I love my scout rifle. It vies with an M1A match rifle as my favorite. This article is a Q&A with Mr. Giles Stock who worked closely with Jeff Cooper as he developed the Scout Rifle concept.

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If you enjoy reading these articles, please follow/subscribe. The link is on the upper right side of the page. All that will happen is that you will receive an e-mail when I post an article. Your information will never be distributed.If you enjoy reading these articles, please follow/subscribe. The link is on the upper right side of the page. All that will happen is that you will receive an e-mail when I post an article. Your information will never be distributed.