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Bump Stock Ban?!? | Episode 225

Bump Stock Ban?!? | Episode 225

From a new American-made 9mm and an established brand's first foray into the handgun market to an update on Garland v. Cargill — the Supreme Court case regarding bump stocks — the Gun Cranks share their views on the latest industry news. Plus, viewer letters and the ever-popular "Hey, hold my beer!" segment. 00:00 - Welcome 02:20 - News & Views 29:50 - Mailbag 44:50 - "Hold My Beer" Awards -- RELATED LINKS • Rost Martin, https://www.rostmartin.com • Daniel Defense, https://danieldefense.com • Garland v. Cargill (case no. 20-51016), https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/22-976.html • Jack Link's Cup, https://quailcreeksportingranch.com/jacklinkscup/ • Lipsey’s Exclusive Smith & Wesson Ultimate Carry J-Frame, https://americanhandgunner.com/discover/lipseys-smith-wesson-ultimate-carry-j-frame/ • S&W Ultimate Carry J-Frame Ballistic Testing, https://americanhandgunner.com/our-experts/sw-ultimate-carry-ballistic-testing/
Return of the Gun Cranks | Episode 224

Return of the Gun Cranks | Episode 224

The Gun Cranks are back! After a brief hiatus and a little reformatting, the Three Stooges of the gun world return to dish on the latest news, weigh in on controversial issues, and share what’s in their mailbags. And make sure you stick around until the end to find out what rendered all three Cranks nearly speechless.
Be Prepared! Water for the Next Emergency | Episode 223

Be Prepared! Water for the Next Emergency | Episode 223

There's one thing more essential to survival than food, and that's water. It makes up about 50% to 70% of your body weight afterall. This week, the Gun Cranks continue their series on emergency preparedness. How much water should you store per person in your household? Where else can you find potable water if you're really in need? What filtration/purification gear do the Cranks keep in their kits? We dive into these questions and more.

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GUNS & GEAR

Carry Options: Day-by-Day Concealed Carry Choices

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. I’m talking about the carry guns that actually get daily “out-and-about” concealed carry use. Around here, we spend a lot of time talking about (and testing) a wide variety of guns and gear, so excepting the days spent doing formal evaluations of new carry guns and holster rigs, I thought it might be helpful to share the guns that have more recently occupied the lion’s share of my more discretionary carry time.

READ MORE: Carry Options: Day-by-Day Concealed Carry Choices – American Handgunner

Apparatus Insignis: Remington’s Double Derringer, An Idea Too Good To Die

From a new regular column in American Handgunner, the Apparatus Insignis feature dives into the history, engineering, functions and obscura of interesting guns from the past and sometimes present.

You know a firearm is iconic when it represents an entire class of weapons. Such is the case with a little two-shot, over-and-under .41 Short Rimfire, variously called a Remington Model 95, Remington-Elliot Derringer, Remington Double Derringer, or most commonly, simply … a derringer. Most of us know it from Western genre cinema and television, but it was famous before motion pictures. Its design was patented in 1865 by William H. Elliot, a New York dentist. He was granted over 130 patents for his firearms inventions, and his accomplishments are worthy of book-length studies, but the double derringer was his most enduring.

READ MORE: Remington’s Double Derringer: An Idea Too Good To Die – American Handgunner

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SHOOTING TIPS & HOW-TO’S

Carry Options: Day-by-Day Concealed Carry Choices

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. I’m talking about the carry guns that actually get daily “out-and-about” concealed carry use. Around here, we spend a lot of time talking about (and testing) a wide variety of guns and gear, so excepting the days spent doing formal evaluations of new carry guns and holster rigs, I thought it might be helpful to share the guns that have more recently occupied the lion’s share of my more discretionary carry time.

READ MORE: Carry Options: Day-by-Day Concealed Carry Choices – American Handgunner

Your Best Defense During Civil Unrest

I met Steve some years ago. He’s one of those gray man guys you’d never give a asecond look, but he also has one of those backgrounds that make you stop and listen to what is has to say. You know, the guys in the background of event photos with Presidents and foreign dignitaries.

In that environment, you’ve already lost if you have to draw a gun, so I’ve always found is take on personal defense not only interesting, but supremely valuable. Here’s a useful bit of advice on your best defense strategy during civil unrest.

Read More: Your Best Defense During Civil Unrest – American Handgunner

AMMO NEWS & AMMUNITION REVIEWS

Insights From Accuracy Testing

I’ve got plenty of OCD tendencies … with certain things. One might have me committed seeing how carefully I organize the many thousands of files on my computer. Everything has its place, and I’ve taken the concept of foldering to a frightening new level. Same with my dozen or so email accounts.

On the other hand, I’m not one of those guys who dutifully logs every shot fired from every gun. Some folks can tell you, “I had a failure to feed function in this gun with Pea Blaster +P+ ammo from Lot 465C. It was the 478th round I fired from this gun.” Given the organized state of my computer, I can’t I suppose I can’t pass judgment.

I do confess to having a compulsion to log more formal shooting, however. When testing new pistols for review, while I don’t count every round fired, I do log the important stuff, including velocity, accuracy, and, when appropriate, gelatin test data.

READ MORE: Insights From Accuracy Testing – American Handgunner:

The Invention of Gunpowder

In a twist of explosive irony, gunpowder was invented, at least in part, in a search for the secret to eternal life. You read that right. Ancient alchemists concocted the explosive compound while pondering things they could ingest or perhaps smoke and inhale (who knows what they were thinking?).

Sometimes, practical inventions come from ambitious yet unrelated undertakings. The space program brought us artificial limbs, the Dustbuster, LASIK surgery, memory foam, baby formula ingredients, solar power cells, water filtration, invisible braces, and, regrettably, freeze-dried foods.

Details are sketchy, but some accounts refer to a Chinese alchemist mixing three powders, leading to violent combustion as early as 147 AD. Over the next few hundred years, saltpeter experimentation and production continued with efforts to purify other substances and create gold. You know, that old make infinite wealth from junk lying around chestnut.

Arguably, potassium nitrate is the part of gunpowder that yields the bang, and surprisingly, that ingredient has been in the experimental pot forever. The Nuniya & Labana caste in ancient India (early hundreds AD) used it to create noxious smoke and, according to legend, weaponized the fumes in battle to poison, or at least discourage, the enemy. One thing many saltpeter producers had in common was their attention to poop. Whether by bat guano, animal, or even human doo-doo, saltpeter production often relied on, well, you get the idea.

By the 9th century (give or take, remember, the history is a bit fuzzy), alchemists of the Tang Dynasty were engaged in an ambitious project to concoct an elixir of life. The experiments involved continued tinkering with potassium nitrate, also known as saltpeter. As the substance proved volatile, it may have had the effect of shortening one’s expected lifespan rather than leading to the immortality sought.

Read the rest: A Brief History of Gunpowder: The Elixir of Life?

Fizzics ‘R Us

I’m not a physicist, but I did read Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. He attempts to explain such things as how, at the moment before the Big Bang, all of the matter and energy in the known universe was contained in a space a trillionth the size of the period that ends this sentence. Now that I think about it, trying to wrap my head around stuff like that is likely why I’m not a physicist. I can’t even comprehend a miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup being packed into a wrapper that small, much less the sum total of all stuff that ever existed anywhere in the cosmos.

While the deGrasse Tysons and Hawkings of the world can ponder the great expanse in their studies, we mere mortals can make more practical use of the physical sciences for our shooting activities.

READ MORE: American Handgunner Vantage Point Fizzics ‘R Us – American Handgunner:

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