Recent content by spwenger

A Different Point of View A lot of gear either never really gets tested or only gets tested under Ideal conditions (e.g., in standing positions, at the range, while one is not trying to divert an attack). Yaqui slide holsters make me nervous, particularly with handguns that are equipped with...

Federal Law... ...prohibits dealer sales of handgun to anyone under the age of 21 but generally restricts possession of an otherwise legally acquired handgun to those over 18. State laws may be stricter (e.g., may require a minimum age of 21 to possess a handgun.)

If You're Open to New Ideas... ...take a look at the HexSite Sighting System. It is designed to let you verify the alignment of your sights while Mother Nature is telling you to focus on the threat and is very friendly to aging eyes, which have trouble focusing on the front sight. However, it...

Calibrated Ballistic Gelatin The big argument in favor of testing ammunition by firing it into ballistic gelatin is that it should yield reproducible results. However, it is crucial to remember that in order to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, conditions have to be similar. My...

For Whatever It's Worth... ...I received this, this morning, from a fellow instructor, regarding a 23-student CCW course he had just conducted:

Apples and Oranges Generally, in the hunting field, a bullet that exits on the far side is desirable. Deer generally don't understand what it means to be shot and often run off if crucial bone has not been broken or the spinal cord severed. An extra hole on the far side, among other things...

Proactive versus Reactive I think there's an actual explanation, rather than simple irony - the person who is in predator mode seems to score better hits than the person who is in prey mode. Point shooting, for example, seems to work spontaneously for aggressors but has not always worked...

I'm Not a Salesman... ...for the HexSite System. I was asked to evaluate it by Ralph Mroz, whom I assisted several years ago with some explanation of the autonomic nervous system and my interpretation of some of the point-shooting methods. I too was initially under the impression that the...

I Have Seen Photos... ...of at least two of S&W's scandium-alloy J-frame revolvers that have cracked at the frame, where the barrel screws in. You can see one of them for yourself at The Gun Zone.

Think About This: 1. A defense attorney can't object until the words are uttered. At that point, the jury has already heard them. When the judge says, "Sustained, the jury will disregard..." that will only make the jury take greater note. 2. The gun itself will be available to the jury in...

As I Have Pointed Out... ...elsewhere in this forum, water is not a particularly good simulant of living tissue and tends to produce more expansion than would be seen in such media as calibrated ballistic gelatin or living tissue. The photos I have seen of "FBI load" (+P 158 gr. LSWCHP) bullets...

Another Alternative for Aging Eyes... ...is the HexSite System. Since it was designed to work with the body's natural tendency to focus on the threat, it does not require a sharp focus on the front sight yet it tends to produce good sight alignment.

For Those with a Serious Interest... ...in the Buddhist perspective on self-defense, David Kopel has posted an essay on Self-Defense in Asian Religions.

How About Quoting in Context? What I actually said was: According to The American Heritage Dictionary, a bet is: You're free to bet against me. I'm betting on my sense that, statistically, cheap handguns are more likely to misfire than those of higher quality. Certainly, as I suggested...

There's a Saying in Science... ...Fact is the greatest enemy of theory. I did not create the theory I cited, I merely repeated the argument to which I was exposed when I decided to break in the barrel of my first precision rifle. I lack the instrumentation to have examined the bore...