While the term “ballistic computer” sounds like an arcane piece of gear from the Apollo Space Program, but its purpose is simple. It’s designed to help you predict where a bullet will land—before you fire. Knowing How to use a ballistic computer can tell you lots of interesting things like: How much a bullet will […]
About Tom McHale
How to Zero a Scope and Rifle for Long Range Shooting
If you’re going to shoot long range, you need to make sure your zero is perfect. Small errors at 100 yards become big ones at 1,000 yards, so if your zero is off by just ½-inch at the 100-yard mark, you’re talking five full inches down range. We’re going to take a close look at […]
How Lack of Time Can Make You a Better Shooter
With many things in life, I deliver better results with aggressive time limitations. There’s nothing like a tight deadline to make me focus and produce. Unfortunately, shooting isn’t one of those activities. In fact, adding a time crunch to basic shooting tasks has the opposite effect of degrading performance, sometimes to near comical levels. Also […]
Benjamin’s Muscular and Hefty Bulldog
Bulldogs have a storied history even if they do look like they lost a game of chicken with a parked mail truck. According to Wikipedia, they’re “a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.” That’s a much kinder way of describing that unfortunate postal vehicle accident, but I digress. Bulldogs were […]
What You Need to Know About Shot Timers
If you want to improve your defensive shooting capabilities or perhaps move up the action pistol sports ladder, being able to shoot accurately under time pressure becomes important. A simple shot timer is a great addition to your range kit. Here’s what you need to know about how they work. Read the rest: What You […]
M1 Garand vs. AR-15: Which is America’s Rifle?
Since the 9 mm vs. .45 ACP has been solved to everyone’s satisfaction, it’s time to settle another big controversy. America is the country of iconic rifles. The American Long Rifle has the name right in it. Then there was the Spencer Repeating Rifle, the Winchester lever-action, and the M1903 Springfield to name a few. […]
Changing Magazines: Embrace the Reality
Rationalization is a powerful thing. The temptation to convince one’s self that “it’s good enough” or that you’ll “do it later” is right up there with other irresistible forces of nature like gravity and checking your smartphone while waiting in line. It’s so tempting to rationalize training shortcuts, especially when the routine in question is […]
3 Reasons to Choose 9mm: By the Numbers
There are three certainties in life. Death, grandstanding politicians, and the 9mm versus .45 ACP debate. Since much of the emotional debate has been covered ad nauseam by insightful comments like “I carry a .45 because there’s not a .46,” and “Calibers that don’t start with a ‘4’ just make people you shoot irritable,” we’re […]
.50 Beowulf AR-15: A Home Defense Option?
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page when it comes to the .50 Beowulf and its namesake, we all studied Beowulf in high school, right? Take a moment to recall the 3,182 lines of alliterative verse poetry written in unintelligible Old English. Got it fresh in your mind? Good. OK, so to […]
What Your AR Caliber Says About You
Sometimes, this job is a real challenge. When tasked with looking at all the AR calibers out there, I went through all my fingers and toes—six times—to get a final count. Yup, people have cobbled up AR-type rifles in about 125 different calibers. Some of those don’t really count, because they are single-shot only, so […]