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SHOOTING JOURNAL Volume 11 // Issue 4 // January 2022 PUBLISHER James R. Baker GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Andy Walgamott OFFICE MANAGER / COPY EDITOR Katie Aumann LEAD CONTRIBUTOR Frank Jardim CONTRIBUTORS Scott Haugen, Phil Massaro, Mike Nesbitt, Paul Pawela, Nick Perna SALES MANAGER Paul Yarnold ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Jim Klark, Kelley Miller, Mike Smith DESIGNER Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker WEBMASTER / INBOUND MARKETING Jon Hines, Jon Ekse INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@americanshootingjournal.com
ON THE COVER Buying silencers for rifles and handguns has become easier in recent years, leading to an explosion of purchases, and Brandon Maddox, CEO of Silencer Central, has been no small part of that. (SILENCER CENTRAL)
Pistol Bullets and Ammunition Zero Bullet Company, Inc.
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
P.O. Box 1188 Cullman, AL 35056 Tel: 256-739-1606 Fax: 256-739-4683 Toll Free: 800-545-9376 www.zerobullets.com
Website: AmericanShootingJournal.com Facebook: Facebook.com/AmericanShootingJournal Twitter: @AmShootingJourn
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CONTENTS COVER STORY
VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4
MORE FEATURES 41
ROAD HUNTER: GRIZZLY ENCOUNTERS Hunting, fishing and living around the great bears over the decades has left outdoorsman Scott Haugen in awe, but he also warns “you never know what will happen” in grizzly country. He shares spine-tingling stories and amazing experiences from bruin territory.
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BULLET BULLETIN: TROPHY COPPER A TOP LEAD-FREE LINE “If you enjoy the idea of a lead-free hunting projectile, or if you are required to use one by the regulations of your hunting area, I’d happily recommend the Federal Trophy Copper.” So writes Phil Massaro about this line of some of the best, most accurate and widely available monometal bullet designs for today’s hunters.
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SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING: CAN COMPETITIVE SHOOTING BE HARMFUL IN REAL-LIFE SHOOTING ENCOUNTERS? Yes, shooting in matches will undoubtedly enhance your gun skills, but it may also provide “false confidence and bad habits that could get you in a jam or killed,” says Paul Pawela as he looks at this hot topic through his sharply self-defense-oriented lens.
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LAW ENFORCEMENT SPOTLIGHT: HERO IN THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE Nick Perna has highlighted the actions of brave cops pursuing justice, but often overlooked in the LEO equation is the importance of county prosecutors’ offices. He shares the story of Inspector Jordan Boyd, who helped take down California prison inmates and outside accomplices who were fraudulently filing and receiving bogus COVID unemployment benefits funded by taxpayer dollars.
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GUN REVIEWS: MP5 .22 LRS FROM WALTHER AND HK True, they don’t come in full-auto like Heckler & Koch’s original MP5 subgun, but a cop who’s carried one on duty says new models in .22 LR from Walther and HK are good options if the real deal is outside your price range.
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BLACK POWDER: ROLLING MY OWN ROLLING BLOCK Mike Nesbitt’s .44-77 rolling block is the sum of many parts, made with a barrel octagoned here, a straightgrain walnut stock from there, but it all adds up to a rifle that satisfied him with its craftsmanship and looks – not to mention accuracy on the line.
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KING OF SILENCE
Who figured out how to make buying silencers through the federal process easy and in doing so, cornered 10 percent of an explosive market that saw 700,000 units sold last year? Brandon Maddox, that’s who. Frank Jardim sits down with the CEO and founder of Silencer Central. (SILENCER CENTRAL)
AMERICAN SHOOTING JOURNAL is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2022 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
CONTENTS SHOT Show 2022 33 49 61 63 79 81 87 93 95 101
Gear For Guns Adventure/Industry Ammunition Gear Handguns Reloading Knives Rifles Optics Shotguns
DEPARTMENTS 17 19 21
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
Gun Show Calendar Competition Calendar Precision Rifle Series Calendar, Recent Match Results
americanshootingjournal.com 15
PRIMER
GUNSHOW C A L E N D A R
C&E Gun Shows
January 1-2
Hickory, N.C.
Hickory Metro Convention Center
cegunshows.com
January 1-2
Columbus, Ohio
Westland Mall
January 8-9
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Winston-Salem Fairgrounds
January 15-16
Sharonville, Ohio
Sharonville Convention Center
January 22-23
Columbus, Ohio
Ohio Expo Center
January 22-23
Salem, Va.
Salem Civic Center
January 29-30
Dayton, Ohio
Montgomery County Event Center
January 8-9
Tucson, Ariz.
Pima County Fairgrounds
January 8-9
San Bernardino, Calif.
National Orange Show Grounds
January 14-16
Phoenix, Ariz.
AZ State Fairgrounds
January 8-9
Miami, Fla.
Miami-Dade Fairgrounds
January 22-23
Orlando, Fla.
Central Florida Fair Grounds
January 29-30
Tampa, Fla.
Florida State Fairgrounds
January 8-9
Kansas City, Mo.
KCI Expo Center
January 8-9
Cartersville, Ga.
Clarence Brown Conference Center
January 15-16
Topeka, Kan.
Stormont Vail Events Center
January 15-16
Lexington, Ky.
Kentucky Horse Park
January 21-23
St. Robert, Mo.
St. Robert Community Center
January 22-23
Jackson, Tenn.
Jackson Fairgrounds Park
January 28-30
Hallsville, Mo.
Hallsville Fairgrounds
January 29-30
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Oklahoma State Fair Park
Real Texas Gun Shows
January 8-9
Taylor, Texas
Williamson County Expo Center
therealtexasgunshow.com
January 22-23
Port Arthur, Texas
Robert A. Bower Civic Center
Tanner Gun Shows
January 7-9
Aurora, Colo.
Arapahoe County Fairgrounds
January 28-30
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Colorado Springs Event Center
January 15-16
Centralia, Wash.
Southwest Washington Fairgrounds
Crossroads Of The West Gun Shows crossroadsgunshows.com
Florida Gun Shows floridagunshows.com
RK Shows rkshows.com
tannergunshow.com
Wes Knodel Gun Shows wesknodelgunshows.com
Note: With COVID-19 restrictions uncertain, always confirm events before attending. To have your event highlighted here, send an email to kaumann@media-inc.com.
americanshootingjournal.com 17
PRIMER
COMPETITION C A L E N D A R
January 4-7
January 15-16
January 8-11
January 21-23
Maple Leaf International Championship Redlands, Calif.
January 14-16
February 18-20
March 10-12
January 22-23
February 5-6
February 12-13
January 8
January 22-23
January 26
January 8
January 15
January 15-16
January 9
January 15-16
January 23 IDPA Cedar Ridge
Smallbore Rifle January Selection Match Colorado Springs, Colo. usashooting.org
uspsa.org
gssfonline.com
cmsaevents.com
Sport/Rapid Fire Pistol January Selection Match Colorado Springs, Colo.
2022 Florida State Championship Clearwater, Fla.
Smokin’ Glock Southwest Regional V Littlefield, Ariz.
CMT 2022 New Year Shoot Castle Rock, Colo.
CCSC Monthly IDPA Match Edgemoor, S.C. idpa.com
Richmond IDPA Local Match Richmond, Calif.
Team Shooting Stars Jan 2022 PTO Carrollton, Texas Utah January 2022 Monthly PTO Salt Lake City, Utah
Florida Open 2022 Frostproof, Fla.
Volusia County GSSF Match V New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
Winter Heat Roundup Lumberton, N.C.
2022 Healy Arms South Mountain Showdown Phoenix, Ariz. 2022 Florida State IDPA Championship Meade, Fla.
January 23
Maspenock Air Gun PTO Milford, Mass. January 28-30
SoCal Practical Shooting Grand Opening Match Piru, Calif.
Charleston Glock Challenge XII Charleston, S.C.
Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Classic Shoot Fort Worth, Texas
Arctic Blast IDPA Match Hunlock Creek, Pa.
San Antonio, Texas
Note: With COVID-19 restrictions uncertain, always confirm events before attending. americanshootingjournal.com 19
SCHEDULE Pro Bolt Gun Series January 29
2022 Leupold Steel Classic
Navasota, Texas
February 19
MDT Bomber Run
Madison, Indiana
February 26
Frontline Fury
Warrenton, North Carolina
March 5
Clay’s Cartridge Company Classic
Leedey, Oklahoma
March 12
MPA Spring Shootout
Swainsboro, Georgia
March 19
Central Coast Chaos
San Luis Obispo, California
March 26
W.A.R. Rifles Shootout 2022
Tremont, Pennsylvania
April 2
B&T Ind. LLC Box Canyon Showdown
Medicine Lodge, Kansas
April 9
Koenig-Ruger Precision Rifle Competition
Grand Junction, Colorado
April 23
Vortex Vengeance AG Cup Qualifier
Kennerdell, Pennsylvania
April 23
Alabama Precision Rifle Challenge
Carbon Hill, Alabama
April 30
Leupold Lonestar Shootout
Navasota, Texas
For more information visit www.precisionrifleseries.com
RECENT RESULTS MPA FALL SHOOTOUT Swainsboro, Georgia December 4, 2021
1st Place BEN GOSSETT Open Div. 184.000/100.000 2nd Place MICHAEL KEENAN Open Div. 180.000/97.826 2nd Place KENDAL SIMPSON Open Div. 180.000/97.826 4th Place MORGUN KING Open Div. 179.000/97.826 5th Place JON PYNCH Open Div. 178.000/96.739
(PRECISION RIFLE SERIES)
americanshootingjournal.com 21
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
KING OF SILENCE How Brandon Maddox and Silencer Central changed the way Americans buy silencers. STORY BY FRANK JARDIM • PHOTOS BY SILENCER CENTRAL
S
Who figured out how to make buying silencers easy and in doing so, cornered 10 percent of a market that saw 700,000 units sold last year? Brandon Maddox, CEO and founder of Silencer Central, that’s who.
ince 1934, when the National Firearms Act required registry of silencers, about 2 million of them have been manufactured and sold. Of that 2 million, around 700,000 were sold last year. That’s a tsunami of sales driven by a seismic shift in consumer demand that seems likely to keep growing for the foreseeable future. Clearly, there’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on in the world of firearm sound suppression. At the risk of carrying this silencer/ geological/rock-n-roll analogy too far, I would argue that the subject of this month’s cover story is the Elvis of the silencer industry’s movers and shakers. Brandon Maddox is the CEO and founder of Silencer Central (silencercentral.com), formerly known as Dakota Silencers. Maddox was a licensed pharmacist with an MBA from Duke University working in marketing for Big Pharma in the West when he bought his first silencer on a whim in 2005, hoping it would make his varmint hunting more
enjoyable. It was a time-consuming chore figuring out how to fill out all the forms correctly, getting fingerprinted, seeking permission from his chief local law enforcement officer, and getting photographed to complete his packet for mailing into apparent oblivion, only to have his ATF approval letter appear in his local dealer’s mailbox without fanfare eight months later. Finally authorized by Uncle Sam, he made the drive back to the gun shop to fill out a few more government forms and pick up his well-aged “new” purchase. On the drive home, he wondered if it would be worth it, or just end up being no more than a very expensive replacement for ear plugs. It was sooo worth it. The improvement in his hunting experience provided by the silencer sold him on their merits on the spot. Instead of the prairie dogs scattering after the report of his first shot, they just stood around like there wasn’t a predator in sight. With the silencer, Maddox found he was doing more shooting and less americanshootingjournal.com 23
I FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE BUYING A SILENCER EASY ... AND THAT’S WHY WE TOOK 10 PERCENT OF THE MARKET. moving and calling and waiting for the varmints to show up. It was obvious to him that if silencers weren’t such a pain in the ass to get, a lot more people would have them. A lot more people have silencers now because Brandon Maddox made the entire process as easy as it could possibly be. It took years and precipitated a long overdue re-examination of how the federal regulatory process governing silencers operated. The final result of all his hard work is that you can now buy a silencer from your kitchen table in 10 minutes, using your cell phone, and have it delivered directly to your front door upon ATF approval of your paperwork. In Silencer Central, Maddox created a one-stop shop for everything silencer-related with a focus on customer satisfaction and absolute integrity. Silencers are all they sell. Always a phone call away, their expertise is deep and freely shared to help the customer make the best silencer selection for their particular needs and ensure it functions properly on their guns. Say your barrel needs threading. Send it to them and they’ll do it perfectly for $100. Say you want to own your suppressor through a National Firearms Act, or NFA, trust so you can share it legally with others you name to the trust. They will prepare your application as a trust at no additional cost. Say you’re short of cash. They’ll hold the silencer for you and get the paperwork submitted to ATF for 25 percent down and let you pay by installments with no interest. They sell their own Banish line of lifetime-warranty titanium silencers, in addition to stocking models from AAC, Yankee Hill Machine, Barrett, Gemtech, Dead Air, SilencerCo, Elite Iron, Coastal and Ruger for calibers 24
American Shooting Journal // January 2022
from .22 LR to .50 BMG and 12-gauge shotgun. They even have a best price guarantee through Norton Purchase Protection. Mr. Maddox visited with me by phone from Silencer Central headquarters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
American Shooting Journal Over the last few years, I’ve watched in mute amazement as silencers went from James-Bond-secret-agent-commando stuff to backyard-plinking-at-sodacans-with-the-kids stuff. How much of that was you? Brandon Maddox I did my part. Silencer Central is the single largest silencer retailer in the country. In round numbers, our sales last year accounted for 70,000 of the 700,000 silencers sold. The single biggest obstacle that prevents people from purchasing a silencer is the confusing ordeal of the multi-faceted NFA paperwork process. That’s no secret. Everybody who makes or sells silencers knows it. It’s been a brake on the growth of the silencer industry for generations. I figured out how to make buying a silencer easy for the customer and that’s why we took 10 percent of the market last year. Basically, we prepare and submit all the paperwork for the customer and then monitor its progress, alert them when it’s approved, and then ship the silencer directly to their home. We take away all of the running around, dread, uncertainty and anxiety that comes with filing a Form 4 application yourself. Perhaps that doesn’t sound like much, but it is to the customer. We provide more services for less cost than anybody else. You could say we handle all the heavy lifting of the application process for between
$6 to $16. We add $6 to the cost of the ATF $200 tax stamp to cover the 3 percent the credit card company charges us to process it; and some customers also want us to mail them our $10 home fingerprinting kit. Other than that, the customer will never see a charge for handling their application paperwork. It’s rolled into the pricing of our silencers and it’s minimal thanks to the efficiency of our electronic information management and economies of scale. That’s how Silencer Central can deliver unprecedented service and still beat the competition on product pricing. In fact, we guarantee it. Setting all this up was immensely more difficult to accomplish than I could have ever imagined. I ended up creating a completely new model for selling silencers. ASJ The thing that jumped out at me from your advertising was “silencer shipped directly to your door” and “fingerprint yourself at home.” BM Those are two of the five key aspects of the Silencer Central’s service model. Upon ATF approval, we do ship to the customer’s front door. I was the first to do that and ATF tells me they get 200 calls a week from people wanting to know how we can legally send an NFA weapon to someone’s front door. Parts of the process required 42 variances, one for each of our FFL locations in the 42 states where silencers are legal to own. Home delivery saves the customer one car trip, but Silencer Central saves them a lot more time and trouble on the front end of the process. We allow customers to take their own fingerprints. The law requires a trained person to take the fingerprints, so we created a free online training video for this purpose. Fingerprinting isn’t
Specifically designed for handguns, Silencer Central’s Banish 45 will fit calibers from .45 ACP down to rimfire.
rocket science, so the video is less than three minutes long. They can buy a kit from us for $10 and we’ll send them the ink, several sets of cards in case they mess up, and written instructions. Our customers can take their application photos digitally and email them to us. We also take on the responsibility of informing the customer’s top local law enforcement official as required by law. That’s four distinct chores they would otherwise have to get in the car to accomplish. If you are really organized, you might get fingerprinted, photographed, and drop off a copy of your application to local
law enforcement to file in one outing, but it’s still going to cost you time and gas. The farther away the police station, passport photo place and gun shop where you bought the silencer are from your house, the costlier it gets to do these chores yourself. Plus you have to pay for the fingerprinting, usually at least $20, and up to $15 for passport photos. I’ve been a licensed pharmacist since 1996 and I can tell you it’s no bargain getting your passport photos at the pharmacy. ASJ That’s four things; is the fifth one the free gun trust thing?
BM Yes. I saved that for last because it’s not something everyone knows about and it’s a big deal to get a trust set up for free. It’s all about ownership and use. A silencer, or any other NFA weapon, can be held by an individual, or a legal entity such as a trust. Everyone understands individual ownership. It’s your silencer. You can use it, but you can’t let someone else use it unless you are standing next to them. You can’t loan it to your son to take on his first solo deer hunt. If you owned your silencer through a trust, you could share it with any of the qualified co-trustees you name in the americanshootingjournal.com 25
The most versatile suppressor in the Banish line, the Banish 30 works with all of your rifle calibers from .17- to .30-caliber magnums.
documentation. You can add or remove trustees at your discretion. We’ll update it for you at no cost. In case you are wondering, your trustees can’t throw you out of your own trust either. Once you create an NFA trust, you can also assign ownership of other NFA weapons to it. You still have to pay the $200 ATF transfer tax for each serial-numbered NFA weapon, of course. In addition to shared use, a trust allows for simplified transfer of your NFA firearms to your beneficiaries after your death. To set up an NFA trust on your own, you really need a lawyer knowledgeable in NFA regulations. It’s usually at least a 20-page document, and commonly costs $250. That’s one reason NFA trusts weren’t so common in the past. They are a great option and these days 99.9 percent of our customers are opting to utilize a trust for acquiring their NFA firearms. We have more experience helping customers transfer their silencer into a NFA Gun Trust than any other silencer dealer in the industry. ASJ In 2005, you started manufacturing and marketing your own Varminter line 26
American Shooting Journal // January 2022
of silencers, in addition to selling just about every other brand. Why did you jump into the manufacturing side of the business? BM There’s several reasons for that. First, every retailer knows you can’t sell from an empty cart. As consumer demand for silencers steadily increased due to the hunting and recreational shooting buyer, we were also scaling up our online retail operation from a local to a nationwide business. I was finding that the manufacturers we bought from often had trouble keeping our shelves stocked. Getting into manufacturing was a big jump, but it was clear we couldn’t plan for growth without more control over the product supply. I am a marketing and business management man who is passionately into silencers, and like a lot of people with a background in medicines, I understand scientific methodology and research. If I haven’t tested and evaluated every silencer made in the last decade, I’ve come pretty close to it. I even cut many apart to see how they were made. Add to that years of listening to what customers were looking for in a silencer and I was
confident I could come up with the ideal specifications for hunting and sporting applications. This is where the second big reason for making our own line figures in. I could see nobody was offering reasonably priced, lifetime-quality hunting and recreational silencers. Sixteen years ago, the silencer manufacturers were primarily focused on the tactical and military markets. Most silencers were long, heavy, welded steel that couldn’t be opened for cleaning, making them problematic with dirty-burning powders or rimfire ammunition. They were made for battlefield durability, not practical hunting. Hunters don’t want bomb-proof construction if it means the silencer is heavy, long and can’t be cleaned. They don’t need a silencer overbuilt to handle prolonged full-auto fire. Aluminum silencers showed more promise for hunters, but they weren’t as durable. Titanium looked like the best material to combine strength and light weight. A titanium silencer that could be disassembled for cleaning would be a lifetime investment. It could be a generational investment, like your
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guns. The customer realizes that the tax stamp doesn’t cost any less for an average silencer than a first-class one and they are inclined toward quality. I knew our silencers needed to be titanium, but it is an expensive metal and very few manufacturers were working with it at the time. ASJ That explains the “why.” Tell me about the “how.” BM Initially I approached Liberty Suppressors in Trenton, Georgia, to make white-label silencers for us. It was their monolithic baffle silencer, but with our Varminter name on it. As our sales volume grew rapidly, we asked for modifications to their designs and the relationship stalled. They made it for me from 2005 to 2012. The Varminter 2.0 was the first silencer I had made to my specifications to appeal to hunters, long-range benchrest target shooters, and tactical target shooters. It combined a titanium tube and stacked stainless steel baffles, with removable endcaps so the user could take them The Banish line grew out of Silencer Central’s collaboration with the West River Rifle Company on the Varminter 2.0 and later suppressors.
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
all out for cleaning. It also used direct thread attachment because that allows more consistent accuracy than quickdetachable mounting systems. It was a multi-caliber silencer that was ear-safe in all calibers, making it very versatile and practical. It became extremely popular. This was the first silencer I codeveloped with the Mack Brothers, Dale and Allen, from West River Rifle Company in Sturgis, South Dakota. As luck would have it, Mack Brothers approached me at a gun show and asked if I had any silencer projects planned that they could work on for me. These guys are legends in the gun industry. All they do is firearms, and they were already a major player behind the scenes for a well-known precision rifle maker. They were also really good at working with titanium. They brought their engineering and manufacturing expertise to the table and we codeveloped the Varminter 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 and the present Banish line. All of these silencers can be completely disassembled for cleaning,
were designed to suppress multicalibers below the ear-safe threshold, and all but the Banish 30 Gold use direct-thread attachment for consistent accuracy. The Varminter 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 line silencers were great products, the quietest of their size at the time, and very popular. They were replaced by the lighter, all-titanium Varminter 4.0 line, which was renamed the Banish line in 2018. The 5.56- and .30-caliber Varminter 4.0 became the Banish .223 and Banish 30. The new Banish products are the Banish 22 for rimfire rifles and pistols, which is actually full-auto rated; the Banish 45 for handguns .45 caliber and under; and the Banish 30 Gold, which is our first silencer to feature a quickdetachable mount. Like the Banish 30, it suppresses all calibers .308 and below – actually everything .300 Remington Ultra Magnum and below – to ear-safe levels. In fact, the Banish line silencers are the quietest of their size on the market. When I imagined my dream sporting silencer years ago,
I STROVE TO BE FORTHRIGHT AND TRANSPARENT IN OUR DEALINGS WITH CUSTOMERS, AND THE ATF, AND IT PAID OFF. it looked like the Banish series. ASJ Do the Mack Brothers make all your Banish silencers? BM They used to, but even working three shifts they couldn’t handle the demand, so I had to expand our manufacturing base. I knew this was outside my skill set, so I hired a manufacturing engineering team to set up a supply chain we could plan around as we scaled up. As it stands, we have 15 shops making our parts and several others assembling them into finished silencers. There’s redundancy and room to grow in the organization. Covid has wrought havoc on businesses in so many ways, I couldn’t sleep at night if we didn’t have contingency plans. Someone in manufacturing told me our setup for making the Banish line reminded them of how the U.S. Government got M1 carbines in full production so quickly, and then kept them coming when they were needed most during World War II. ASJ I can see that. A few prime contracts with several subcontractors making parts and all of it being watched over by government-quality inspectors. BM Exactly. Our engineering team meets with them all on a regular schedule to stay coordinated. Those guys are on top of it. ASJ You say that your Varminter and Banish silencers are the “original multi-caliber silencers.” To clarify, a multi-caliber silencer works with all the calibers that fit through the hole in the baffles? BM Ours do because they are made strong enough to handle the high gas pressures generated by the biggest 30
American Shooting Journal // January 2022
cartridges in that caliber. In theory, a silencer will quiet everything that can pass through it without hitting the baffles. However, how much it quiets the report with smaller-diameter bullets and how well it holds up to the gas pressure are a matter of design and material strength. People have blown up lesser silencers by exceeding their design capabilities. We build in a margin for safety on the Banish line. The titanium tubes are machined from solid bars so they can have thicker walls than standard tubing. The thicker wall increases strength, and improves both sound reduction and heat dissipation, as do stacked baffles. Since most sporting rifles are .30 caliber or less, and most handguns are .45 caliber or less, we have most of the market covered with the Banish line. ASJ A lot of readers are probably wondering what silencers cost nowadays. BM The good news is they cost a lot less than they used to and the products are much improved. Our website is our up-to-date catalog. The most expensive unit on the shelf right now is the Barrett 50 BMG silencer for the military M107A1 anti-materiel rifle. It’s $2,978 plus a $206 tax stamp. The least expensive unit is the Solo 22. It’s a nice, direct thread, userserviceable .22 LR silencer made of aluminum that will cost you $345 plus the $206 tax stamp. Most silencers fall in between $500 and $1,000. Our Banish line is an exceptional value in terms of quality and performance for the price. We sell more of our own brand than any other. For example, our Banish 22 is $549. It’s $200 more than the Solo 22 but built to last a lifetime because it is all titanium. With
proper care and cleaning, your greatgreat-grandchildren will be using it. ASJ Beyond accidentally crossthreading or otherwise damaging the threads for attaching it to the barrel and keeping the endcaps on, what gets screwed up or worn out on a silencer? BM If you put enough rounds through one and got it hot enough, often enough, the hot gases could erode the baffles just like they do a rifle bore. Generally, that takes many tens of thousands of rounds to do and normally affects the first blast baffle only. Outside of the military, most people would never shoot that much, that hard, for that long a period of time. The good news is user-serviceable silencers with multiple baffles allow you to rotate them, like you would rotate your car tires, to balance the wear. Titanium is more wear-resistant than steel, but if you ever did wear a baffle out, it could be easily replaced. The truth is that 99 percent of our warranty claims are baffle strikes. That means the bullet has actually hit one or more baffles and damaged them as it was passing through the silencer. The reason for this, 99 percent of the time, is that the barrel was improperly threaded or the customer failed to remove a crush washer or split lock washer that was behind their flash hider or muzzle brake. We tell our customers to remove those washers before installing the silencer. Sometimes the muzzle threads were not properly cut at the factory and the customer isn’t aware of it. This can be checked with a long piece of drill rod a couple thousandths of an inch under your bore diameter. The rod needs to be perfectly straight with a sliding fit in the bore, with no wiggle room. If the
rod touches the baffles, the bore of your silencer is not concentric with your rifle bore. We see this most with entry-level AR rifles and amateur gunsmiths. To improve customer satisfaction, we offer in-house muzzle threading for $100. If we do it for you, you know it will be right. Another thing that can cause baffle strikes is cross-threading or physically bending the end of the barrel or silencer itself. Bending is really hard to do with a titanium silencer like the Banish line, but not uncommon with aluminum silencers. A hard fall in the field could do it. ASJ As of December 23, 2021, the ATF reinstated online filing of Form 4 applications for silencers. How is this going to affect the market? BM If you think it’s big now, you haven’t seen anything yet. We were directly involved with the development and beta testing of the electronic filing system at the start. We had high hopes for it when it was first launched in 2014. Unfortunately,
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there were so many attempts to file Form 4 applications that the system crashed! With the new system finally online, the ATF will no longer need to hand-enter the information from applications into their computers. Initially, the only difference our customers will notice is that they will need to log into the ATF website to create a user account and get a unique pin number to identify themselves to the ATF throughout the application process. Naturally, we’ll walk customers through the ATF website on the phone if they need our help. On the back end, customers should see greatly reduced wait times for approvals. If the past is any indication of the future, the online applications will get processed faster right away. Then we’ll see a reduction in the time needed to process old-fashioned paper applications. As more and more applications are submitted digitally, it will surely reduce the volume of paper applications. It takes less time for the ATF staff to work through a small pile of paper applications than a big pile.
Reducing the ATF processing time was the one thing our customers wanted most, but it was something I had no direct control over. I could only influence the solution to this problem indirectly, mostly through lobbying Congress and advocating for increased funding for ATF to hire staff and reimplement the Form 4 e-filing system. After years of struggle, it seems like we’ve finally got over the last hurdle. Reducing the wait time is going to energize a lot of people to get their first silencer. Lots of people aren’t inclined to defray the enjoyment of their purchases for six months to a year and there are definitely some trust issues to address when someone else has your money and your silencer and all you’re left with is hopes for a good outcome. With my company South Dakota Silencer, then Dakota Silencer, and now Silencer Central, I strove to be forthright and transparent in our dealings with customers, and the ATF too, and it paid off. I earned their trust with years of work and it remains our most valuable company asset.
Gear for guns LUTH-AR luth-ar.com Great by themselves, awesome together. Get both the MBA-5 Carbine Buttstock and the Chubby Grip in one kit. The Luth-AR MBA-5 Buttstock is designed as an affordable, lightweight, adjustable carbine buttstock with a paddle-style adjustment lever allowing rapid positioning. Designed with a wide flared cheek rest, integrated Picatinny rail and an anti-rattle set screw. The Chubby Grip is designed with shooter ergonomics in mind. The full palm swell fills the hand, providing a consistent and rapid grip, properly positioned to promote accurate and repeatable shots on target. Priced affordably, the MSRP is $69.95. Dealer, quantity and OEM pricing is available upon request. See us at booth #42804
ALUMAGRIPS alumagrips.com The Tactical grip is designed with the no-snag checkering used on all checkered AlumaGrips. The big difference on these grips is the smooth section on the back half of the grip. This combination of a smooth and checkered section allows for a very good purchase.
ADCO ARMS CO., INC. adcosales.com Both store owners and show exhibitors will love Trigger Traps for many reasons. In-store, many racks have guns inviting people to handle and dry fire for recreation rather than considering a purchase. Trigger Trap is a perfect low-cost way to prevent such mishandling. For new guns behind the counter, having a Trigger Trap on them keeps them “new.” Not only are they lowcost, but reusable too. A simple zip-tie can be used to reinstitute the Trigger Trap purpose. The basic design works well with most common firearms but can be easily modified so as to be adapted to many unique designs for handguns, rifles or shotguns. Secure your inventory with ADCO’s Trigger Traps for safety’s sake and to ensure only authorized handling. Sold postage paid in a 10-pack for $19.95 and 100-pack for $99.90; available with long 15-inch or short 8-inch zip-ties. Great for consumers’ storage too. Call 800-775-3687 or 781-935-1799 for fast service. See us at booth #72239 americanshootingjournal.com 33
gear for guns HANDLEITGRIPS handleitgrips.com Handleitgrips’ Hybrid Grips are like nothing you’ve seen before! Their hybrid grips are designed with the best of both worlds: the comfort of textured rubber and the grit of sandpaper with interchangeable grip panels and backstraps. The interchangeable side grip panels/backstrap can easily be changed without removing the main grip. More options for different colors and materials will be available soon. The grip panels can be configured in many different ways. If you conceal carry, they include the original textured rubber panels/ backstrap that are less abrasive against your skin. The perfect gun grip is here!
KICK-EEZ WHITE OAK ARMAMENT whiteoakarmament.com/1tr-handguard.html Introducing the new TR M-Lok Handguard from White Oak Armament. The handguard is available in 12.6-inch and 14.6-inch lengths, octagonal with full-length top Picatinny rail, M-Lok sides and bottom. Two key goals in designing the rail were: 1) to ensure a stable, free-float handguard with minimal flex when pressure is applied, and 2) to make a rail that will work with virtually any gas block. White Oak Armament accomplished the first goal by making a longer barrel nut and increasing the space between the clamping screws. The key to eliminating the gas block issue was simply the length of the tube. White Oak Armament’s lengths of 12.6 inches and 14.6 inches are designed to stop just at the rear of the gas block. This will allow you to use an adjustable gas block and have clear access to the adjustment mechanism, or use a larger gas block that may not fit under the handguard and still have a sleek look.
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kick-eez.com Kick-Eez has introduced new colors to its recoil pad family. The company has introduced blue, red, brown and orange colors to the sporting clay, all-purpose, and trap pad. These pads are made of the same Sorbothane material as their black pads and feature the same abilities. As always, all KickEez products are proudly made in America. Kick-Eez continues to expand its product line to help offer you the best shooting experience. See us at booth #42118
americanshootingjournal.com 35
gear for guns LITTLE CROW GUNWORKS littlecrowgunworks.com What do you get the rifle shooter who has everything? Little Crow Gunworks would suggest the Original World’s Finest Trimmer. With nationwide ammo shortages, the WFT speeds up the most tedious part of reloading: trimming cases. The WFT attached to your hand-drill can trim up to 600 cases per hour with match-worthy precision. There are 200-plus calibers available, from .17 Hornet to .50 BMG. Check out the website for a complete selection of precision reloading and gunsmith tools.
DIVERSIFIED INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS diproductsinc.com The folks at DIP Inc. are not content with the cheap plastic parts that many firearms companies produce to cut production costs for rimfire firearms. At DIP, they make dropin metal replacement parts and accessories that are both high quality and affordable. All products are made in the USA. DIP manufactures parts for the following brands: CZ, Marlin, Savage, Ruger, Remington, Tikka, Steyr, S&W, Howa, Marlin, Sako, Anschutz, Henry and others. See us at booth #42138
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americanshootingjournal.com 37
gear for guns
GENTRY CUSTOM LLC gentrycustom.com
BROOKS TACTICAL SYSTEMS brookstactical.com AGrip is the revolutionary new custom-fit, wrap-around, nonslip tactical grip that works even better with wet and especially sweaty hands, and is made exclusively by Brooks Tactical Systems. AGrip is super easy on the hands, is nonabrasive, and incredibly durable. This “multipurpose hybrid material” was created to be nonslip even with hot, sweaty, dirty hands, or with cold, wet hands underwater. AGrip even works with oil on your hands!
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A family-owned business, Gentry Custom’s motto is “Where guns are not a hobby, but a way of life.” They believe in gun ownership and gun safety. Gentry Custom is known for the Quiet Muzzle Brake, which will make for a user-friendly rifle. The Quiet Muzzle Brake reduces recoil and muzzle jump so you can get that second shot off if needed, without the large increase of noise to the shooter. Many of the factory rifles have been threaded for a muzzle brake. Gentry Custom offers 5/8 x 24 threads and many others. Call them today and they can provide the proper Quiet Muzzle Brake for your rifle. Gentry Custom also offers a threeposition safety for the Remington family of rifles and the Mauser 98. See us at booth #40510
ROAD HUNTER
Grizzlies are big, powerful predators, capable of killing and eating whatever they want, whenever they want.
GRIZZLY ENCOUNTERS
Hunting, fishing and living around the great bears has left one outdoorsman in awe, but he also warns ‘you never know what will happen’ in grizzly country. STORY AND PHOTOS BY SCOTT HAUGEN
R
ight over there’s where one person was killed by a grizzly,” Joe pointed out. “It happened fast; I barely had enough time to cover the body with some old plywood before the next tourist drove by. Then there was a string of tourists passing by for a halfhour before I could clean things up. Crazy part is, none of those folks had a clue they were
“
driving a few feet from a man who’d just been killed by a bear, smack in the middle of town.” That was one of the first conversations I had with an old-timer in a little town where I worked in southeast Alaska two years ago. The community is home to fewer than 40 residents, and there are no police, mayor, restrictive town laws, taxes, stores or medical care. Residents are self-sufficient and cherish their secluded Alaskan lifestyle. A big attraction to this place is
bear viewing, both black bears and grizzlies, or coastal brown bears, as many people know them. Some summers will see more than 50,000 tourists passing through the town in hopes of seeing bears. Most come to see bears wandering through town and feeding on salmon that spawn in the nearby streams. Having bears in your yard, even on your porch, is common. One night, my wife and I were awakened to a bear pawing on our bedroom window. They frequented the yard, grazing on grass americanshootingjournal.com 41
ROAD HUNTER
Hungry bears stop at nothing to get what they want. Imagine coming home to this, or worse yet, surprising a grizzly bear rummaging through the inside of your home; it happens often in remote Alaska.
temperatures of 42 below zero. There were several other problem polar bears shot in Point Lay during our time there, and grizzlies frequented both villages we lived in. In Point Lay there was a big grizzly that kept robbing caribou meat racks BEARS IN THE ARCTIC outside homes, including ours. Despite For my wife Tiffany and me, this wasn’t the moonscape-like tundra, and only a our first stint in Alaska. For most of the 1990s we lived in the high Arctic, where handful of dark hours in September, the we were school teachers in two extremely grizzly still managed to routinely sneak in. It was briefly seen by people several remote Inupiat villages, Point Lay and nights in a row. Anaktuvuk Pass. Here, two months of Finally, after nearly two weeks of total darkness consumed every winter, and you could bet on months straight of encounters, a gunshot rang out in the night. Our neighbor shot the massive below-zero temperatures. Sixty below grizzly right through his kitchen window zero was typical on many winter days, as it ate caribou hanging on his meat while 100 below zero with the windchill pole, mere feet away. He didn’t want to was common. open the window for fear of spooking Bear encounters in the Arctic were the grizzly. Finally the children of the also a sure bet. During our first year, village were once again allowed to play there was a man-eating polar bear until dark, knowing the marauding that I tracked down and killed one grizzly was gone. December day amid total darkness and and plucking berries and skunk cabbage from the creek that ran through it. I ran into multiple bears every time I hunted the river bottom for grouse; they were a major inconvenience for my gun dogs.
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MAN-EATERS OF SOUTHEAST The polar bear and tundra grizzly encounters in the Arctic were much different than what we experienced while living in southeast Alaska. “The grizzly that killed that guy was walking right down the center of the road, right in the middle of the day,” continued Joe, reliving the terrifying encounter that he witnessed some 30 years prior, telling it like it was yesterday. “The man it attacked, a tourist, was alone, trying to get close so he could take pictures with his little camera. You could tell by the bear’s demeanor it had had enough. It happened so fast; the bear tensed up, lowered its ears and was on the guy. When I saw what was happening, I hollered to warn the man, but he didn’t respond. That was the first person I recall being killed by a grizzly here, and I’ve lived here over 50 years.” A few months later, I was running my dogs in the tide flats when I bumped into Joe, as I often did in the small town. “You
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ROAD HUNTER
Taxonomically speaking, grizzly bears and brown bears are genetically the same. The only difference is brown bears live near salmon streams, so they reach their full genetic growth potential due to the availability of a high-protein fish diet their whole life.
Big bears are killing machines, and they have the hardware to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
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know, that grizzly just killed the guy because he was pissed off that his space was invaded; it wasn’t the bear’s fault,” he clarified, in his attempt to draw closure to the story. “That was unlike the last man who was killed here by a grizzly.” The last man? Joe had my attention and it didn’t take much prodding for him to dive into the details of the more recent attack. “Billy was in bad shape,” Joe continued. “He’d been battling cancer and it was getting the best of him. Billy was done with treatments and got delirious in his final days.” “For some odd reason, Billy took his sleeping bag and a tarp and headed out in the direction of the dump, where he spent a few nights,” Joe shared. “We all warned him about the grizzly that had been hanging around the dump, but Billy wasn’t listening. One night I tried and tried to get him to come stay at my house, but Billy refused.” That was the last time Joe saw Billy alive. “The next day, I went to check on Billy and I could see from a distance what had happened,” relived Joe, his aging, 80-year-old gray eyes sternly staring into mine. “To tell ya the truth, Billy didn’t have all his wits; he was a lot worse than he led folks to believe. I’m not saying Billy had a death wish, just that he wasn’t thinking clearly.” Approaching the body, Joe was shocked at how much of Billy the bear had devoured. “That bear did a number on him, for sure.” After covering Billy’s body with what remained of the sleeping bag, Joe sped home, grabbed his rifle and took off in search of the man-eater. Spruce trees intermixed with cottonwoods and willows, along with thick underbrush, made navigation only possible on hands and knees in some places. It didn’t take Joe long to find the killer bear, or more appropriately, for the bear to find Joe. The bear hadn’t gone far, and when they made eye contact at close range on a bear trail, the bruin’s ears laid back, its nostrils flared and Joe knew what was coming. Joe didn’t hesitate shooting. A look inside the bear’s
ROAD HUNTER The worn, infected teeth of a brown bear taken by author Scott Haugen on the Alaska Peninsula. The bear squared 10-foot-9 and was 23 years old, a true apex predator of the North.
stomach confirmed it was the man-eater, as it held many parts of the victim. IN AWE OF THE GREAT BEARS Having spent more than 30 years in griz country, two things continue to amaze me about them. First is how quiet they can be. Second is how quickly they can reach top speeds. To see a 1,200-pound bear go from zero to 30 mph in under five seconds is awesome. Last fall, I was fishing a small salmon stream in Alaska when a grizzly came wading toward me. It was in stealth mode, slowly searching for spawning coho along the shoreline where I stood. Inside 20 yards, it got my heart pounding — even though I’d moved up onto a small rise on the bank — just knowing the bear could have been on me in two lunges. Fish aren’t the only prey I’ve watched numerous grizzlies stalk. When hunting 46
American Shooting Journal // January 2022
caribou one fall in the rugged Brooks Range, a grizzly scaled a near-vertical shale cliff in an effort to reach a band of Dall sheep. The sheer power and consistent speed with which the bear moved uphill was an awesome feat I’ll never forget. The bear made the 3,000-foot climb look simple, not once breaking stride. Another time in moose camp along a remote river in southwest Alaska, we had a grizzly come in and drink a half-dozen cans of pop one night. Each can had been bitten into, and the bear sat and drank them empty through the holes. All this took place less than 10 feet from our tent; we didn’t hear a thing in the windy night. There have been many other grizzly encounters over the years, from having to shoot one aggressive brute in the nose with a blunt while elk hunting high in Wyoming’s Absaroka Range, to one that
got into our boat and chewed up the tiller handle and seats when we were fishing in Alaska. Another time a bear popped the wheels on my buddy’s bushplane, forcing him to make an emergency satellite phone call for help. When in the land of grizzly bears, you never know what will happen. Over the years I’ve learned to respect a bear’s space, read their body language, stay calm, and realize they are the apex predator. I love hunting, photographing and sharing fishing holes with grizzly bears, as no experiences I’ve lived have tied me so closely to nature, and that’s what keeps calling me back to the land of big bears. Editor’s note: For signed copies of Scott Haugen’s bestselling books, visit scotthaugen.com. Follow Scott’s adventures on Instagram and Facebook.
Sure, we’d be happy to pinch you, but trust us, you’re not dreaming!
FOR SALE
IDAHO OUTFITTING OPERATION Near the Canadian Border
• HUNTING • FISHING • RAFTING • TRAIL RIDING • BOATING • MORE! IN FOUR PRIME AREAS OF THE IDAHO PANHANDLE GARY STUEVE*, owner and operator of 3-Heart Outfitters, is retiring and seeking a qualified buyer who appreciates this rare opportunity. Because all but the early eight years of his lifetime have been spent living, working, and learning this exceptional part of the world north of Bonners Ferry within 15 miles of the Canadian border, the buyer should expect to be vetted on many levels that include philosophies pro-Second Amendment, pro-hunting, and pro-freedom. In addition, the buyer will have a conservative’s view of wildlife appreciation and management. Here are details unique to the 3-Heart Outfitters’ operation:
• Permit. The hunting areas are exclusive to this permit. • Species include trophy-quality moose, elk, whitetail, mule deer, mountain goat, cougar, black bear, wolf, predator hunting and forest grouse; • Activities are innumerable: Hunting (both rifle and archery), Moyie River rafting, boating the Kootenai, fly fishing rivers/lakes/streams, trail riding, sightseeing, and more—limited only by the season and your imagination; • Purchase the turnkey operation or select from certain activities in specified areas. Will work with a menu to meet the Buyer’s needs; • Get a grip. Known world-wide for his Experience, Talent and Reputation, Gary himself will give The Buyer a working understanding of the area and its wildlife; • Serious inquiries only, please. We’ve neither time nor energy for lookie-loos. Chances are good we’re out enjoying God’s Country with our clients.
Parties with serious interest, please contact: Gary Stueve, 3-Heart Outfitters, 2765 Turner Hill Road, Bonners Ferry, Idaho 83805 Lodge: 208-267-5858 • Direct: 208-597-5182 • 3HeartOutfitters@gmail.com • www.3heartoutfitters.net Check us out on Facebook to see what we’re up to today. Licensed under the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Board with permits through the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. Insured and under bond in the State of Idaho. License #13330. (The Kaniksu National Forests: Purcells, Selkirks, and Cabinets.)
americanshootingjournal.com 47
A Custom Guns
GRIM REAPER When you are looking for something special in a revolver, semi-auto or single shot handgun, look no further than GARY REEDER CUSTOM GUNS. Reeder Custom Guns has been building full-custom guns for 40 years with 70 different series of full-custom guns, like this special full custom Grim Reaper shown here. Full-custom and built the way you want and in the cartridge of your choosing. Let us build something special for you. Gary Reeder Custom Guns. Check our website or call 928-527-4100. 10- to 12-month delivery in most cases.
Adventure/industry ALASKA MARINE HIGHWAY SYSTEM ferryalaska.com
JOSEPH CHIARELLO & CO., INC.
The Alaska Marine Highway is a state-owned ferry system that operates a fleet of vessels along a scenic 3,500-mile route from Washington state to the Aleutian Islands. It provides economical, year-round transportation to 35 port communities and is a unique option for travelers. Originally designed to provide transportation to roadless areas of Alaska, the Marine Highway offers locals and visitors alike the ability to travel together through some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world. In fact, the Marine Highway encompasses a route so spectacular it has been designated an All-American Road and one of America’s National Scenic Byways.
guninsurance.com Joseph Chiarello & Co., Inc. is a family-owned and -operated business founded in 1934 that has specialized in insuring the firearms industry since 1979. Throughout those years many competitors have come and gone. For over 40 years, Joseph Chiarello & Co. has stood by the firearms industry. The insurance coverage they provide is an important tool for managing one’s exposure to risk. They strive to provide the best products and services available to their clients, at reasonable prices. Their primary focus is on commercial general liability and property coverages. This program is underwritten by the Granite State Insurance Company. Policies are written on admitted paper in all 50 states. See us at booth #73018
GARY REEDER CUSTOM GUNS reedercustomguns.com
BATTLEFIELD VEGAS battlefieldvegas.com From weaponry used in the trenches during World War I to the most modern firearms employed during current operations in the Middle East, the folks at Battlefield Vegas have it all. And then some! Have you ever dreamed of firing a German MG42? Too mundane? How about a Browning M2 “Ma Deuce” .50-caliber? Or maybe your tastes run more toward crushing a car – with a fully operational M1A1 Abrams tank? If you can think it and it involves firearms, Battlefield Vegas has the hardware necessary to make all your gunfire dreams come true. Stop by today. Your trigger finger will thank you!
If you are a handgun hunter or would like to be one, this is the book for you. Gary Reeder’s second book on handgun hunting, Hunting Handguns and Their Cartridges, is now available for $40. John Taffin, one of the country’s premier gun writers, had this to say about Gary Reeder: “There became a defining moment for Gary when he decided to become a handgun hunter. However, he did not stop there. He began experimenting with cartridges, building custom handguns with his own line of GNR cartridges. Gary is a custom gunmaker and those who know him know how much he gives of himself to help others. Personally, I know him to be a man of great talent, simple honesty, a big heart, and a humble spirit. I am proud to call him a friend.”
americanshootingjournal.com 49
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BULLET BULLETIN
Federal’s Trophy Copper line is a perfect choice for all-around big game hunting.
TROPHY COPPER A TOP LEAD-FREE LINE Federal projectiles among best, most accurate, widely available monometal bullet designs for hunters. STORY BY PHIL MASSARO • PHOTOS BY MASSARO MEDIA GROUP
t was the first evening sit on my Texas deer hunt, and by 4:30 p.m. we already had several does and a couple of smaller bucks milling in front of the blind. My guide, Ben “Brother” Lawrence, and I were quietly chatting about the deer’s ages and whether or not the rut was in full swing,
I
when a tall-racked, mature, sevenpoint buck came into view from the far right. His rack was a half-foot taller than any of the other deer, and it was easy to see that he was exceptional for that area. Brother asked if I was interested in shooting that deer, and I responded by raising the Savage .243 Winchester to my shoulder and settling the crosshairs on the buck’s vitals. When the trigger broke, the deer fell out of the scope as if pole-
axed; a Federal 85-grain Trophy Copper bullet entered just behind the shoulder, hit a rib, and went straight upward into the spine. He never twitched. Fast forward seven years to a Sunday in December 2021 in southwestern Kentucky – just a day after one of the most terrible tornadoes in history turned the world upside down – and you’d find me in an idyllic patch of hardwoods, sitting in a climbing stand and enjoying the americanshootingjournal.com 51
BULLET BULLETIN Federal has teamed up with the guys from MeatEater, and the product line includes some rarities, like the .280 Ackley Improved.
The .338 Federal cartridge is well-served by a 200-grain Trophy Copper monometal, as it will give good velocities and still penetrate deep into the vital organs.
The Trophy Copper line includes a polymer-tipped roundnose offering for the .30-30 Winchester.
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
sunrise on the frosted leaves. Three does had come through just after first light and the fox squirrels were making merry, when the undeniable sound of deer walking came from over my left shoulder. Turning my head, I saw a beautiful buck – obviously mature, and with an antler conformation that screamed “shooter” – cruising his scrape line. He paused for a second, not quite sure what I was, with his head behind a white oak tree. Carefully, gingerly and slowly, I brought the Traditions NitroFire into position, settling the Leupold’s crosshair just behind the shoulder, and dropped the hammer. He wheeled and ran at the shot, but 80 yards later I saw him spin, and his head jerked violently. Another seven-point buck – this one was a 5½-year-old – was in the salt, and we were even able to recover a perfectly expanded B.O.R. Lock MZ Trophy Copper muzzleloader bullet, resting just against the offside skin.
BULLET BULLETIN FEDERAL’S TROPHY COPPER bullet is their proprietary lead-free bullet, and it is an all-too-often overlooked choice. It comes in a wide range of calibers and weights, ranging from the 55-grain .223 Remington load to the 270-grain B.O.R. Lock MZ .50-caliber bullet, and has been available as a shotgun slug as well. The Trophy Copper line is designed for high weight retention, good expansion and deep penetration. It is not uncommon to find that recovered bullets – if you can recover them – will retain 95 percent or more of their original weight. More often than not, expansion is at 100 percent, and I have found this design to be among the more accurate of the monometal lead-free bunch. I have a Winchester Model 70 from the mid-1980s, a push-feed model that is too-often maligned, chambered in the classic .300 Holland & Holland Magnum. While this rifle wears an exceptional piece of walnut, it is a finicky gun; it likes long bullets, generally those of 200 grains. I have always had excellent results with 180-grain bullets in the .300
Author Phil Massaro’s first use of the Trophy Copper ammunition was the 85-grain .243 Winchester load; it worked just perfect on a Texas whitetail.
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American Shooting Journal // January 2022
Federal has embraced the modern cartridges in the Trophy Copper line, including the 6.5 PRC.
magnums, but this rifle didn’t show an ounce of affection for any of the usual suspects. However, the Federal Premium 180-grain Trophy Copper load printed sub-MOA groups. I firmly believe the additional length of the bullet – due to the fact that the copper bullets are longer than their lead-core counterparts, as copper is lighter than lead – gives the harmonics that this particular barrel likes. Introduced in 2012, Federal’s Trophy Copper bullet has cut grooves into the shank of the bullet, first to reduce bearing surface and therefore reduce pressure, but secondly to
minimize copper fouling in the bore. Where lead can be a pain to remove from a rifle’s bore, copper can be a downright misery; if I can reduce the amount of copper in the barrel, I’m a happy camper. The polymer tip is seated on top of a hollow cavity, and that tip serves a couple of purposes: It will maintain a consistent ballistic coefficient throughout the bullet’s flight, and it will act like a wedge upon expansion, driving rearward into the hollow cavity and initiating the expansion process. Additionally, the majority of the bullets in this line – those used in the centerfire rifle
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BULLET BULLETIN The author’s best muzzleloader buck, a fully mature seven-point whitetail taken in Kentucky’s late muzzleloader season with the Federal FireStick system.
cartridges – feature a boattail at the bullet’s base to help minimize wind deflection, flatten trajectories and help retain energy at longer ranges. THAT DEER I killed in Texas had his spine broken by the light-for-caliber 85-grain 6mm Trophy Copper, but most bullets don’t take right-angle bends during the terminal phase. One of the properties of copper alloy bullets is a change in their center of gravity; it tends to shift to the rear of the bullet in comparison to lead-core bullets. So, much like a rear-wheel-drive vehicle in snow, the rear end of the bullet tends to kick out once resistance is met. My bullet hit a rib, and its path took a hard right, and skittered up into the spine, breaking up under the violent
Massaro used the Traditions NitroFire rifle and Firestick system with the 270-grain B.O.R. Lock MZ .50-caliber bullet on his Kentucky deer hunt; the recovered bullet retained 99 percent of its original weight and expanded to over twice caliber dimension.
This Texas seven-pointer fell – immediately – to a single 85-grain Trophy Copper from a Savage .243 Winchester.
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Federal’s .30-06 Springfield 180-grain Trophy Copper load may be one of the best all-around hunting loads available; there really isn’t much it can’t do.
The 270-grain B.O.R. Lock MZ .50-caliber bullet is one of the most consistent muzzleloader bullets available today.
bullet bulletin impact with the vertebrae. We found it, in fragments, smashed into the spine; death was imminent. Not all copper-alloy projectiles are created equal, and I’ve used some that have issues with expansion in certain situations. Having a softpoint bullet behave like a solid – with little or no expansion – can be a real source of frustration, and has been a
contributing factor in a lost animal in some situations. This is not the case with the Trophy Copper line; I’ve had nothing but consistent results in the expansion department. That 270-grain muzzleloader bullet ended up weighing 266.2 grains after recovery, having expanded to slightly over double its original diameter. Though that deer ran 80 yards, it was an instance of “dead-and-doesn’t-know-it.”
The 270-grain B.O.R. Lock MZ .50-caliber bullet is wonderfully accurate, and expands reliably. The polymer tip maintains a higher-than-normal ballistic coefficient value, making longer shots a reality.
Federal Premium has collaborated with the folks at outdoor lifestyle company MeatEater, who’ve endorsed the Trophy Copper rifle ammunition line. The lineup includes many of the most popular cartridges, like the .223 Remington, .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield and .300 Winchester Magnum. It also has some of the less popular but equally effective cartridges like the .338 Lapua, .338 Federal, .280 Ackley Improved, 6.5 PRC, and the .300 WSM, 7mm WSM and .270 WSM. Federal has even gone so far as to offer a 150-grain roundnosed, yet polymer-tipped, .30-30 Winchester load for those who are required to – or simply choose to – use a lead-free bullet for hunting. Bullet weights tend to run in the middle of range, so as to compensate for the longer copper projectiles, but with the way the Trophy Copper penetrates and retains its weight, it really doesn’t pose a problem. If you enjoy the idea of a lead-free hunting projectile, or if you are required to use one by the regulations of your hunting area, I’d happily recommend the Federal Trophy Copper. There are a number of good lead-free designs on the market, and I’d rank Trophy Copper up there at the top. It has proven to be an accurate bullet in a wide range of cartridges, and has certainly earned its reputation in the hunting fields. Try a box in your rifle; you might find a friend for life.
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AMMUNITION BLACK HILLS AMMUNITION black-hills.com
ZERO BULLET COMPANY
Black Hills is introducing the 10mm HoneyBadger for 2022. This bullet has deep flutes designed for optimum terminal performance without reliance on hollowpoints. The bullet penetrates deeply, cutting through bone and muscle to get to vitals. This is important on all hunting rounds, but particularly when you’re relying on your handgun for protection, including the possibility of a bear attack. If you’re relying on a 10mm pistol while trekking, the HoneyBadger is a solid choice for your defense! See us at booth #15227
zerobullets.com Fifty-two years. That’s how long the folks at the Zero Bullet Company have been manufacturing jacketed handgun bullets. And their expertise and craftsmanship show in their impressive competitive championship wins. Team Zero member Kevin Angstadt won the prestigious Bianchi Cup in 2014 using the company’s No. 136 9mm 125-grain jacketed hollowpoint competition bullet. Kim Beckwith has racked up multiple High Senior awards at the Cup with Zero’s .38 Super ammunitions. The National Pistol Championship? Zero’s been there and done that. Same with the Pistol 4-Man Team Championships at Ohio’s Camp Perry. An impressive record, for a company with equally as impressive credentials and products.
SHELL SHOCK TECHNOLOGIES UNDERWOOD AMMUNITION underwoodammo.com From Illinois-based Underwood Ammunition, the Xtreme Defender (EXD) is based on the wildly popular Xtreme Penetrator product line. The Xtreme Defender ammunition features an optimized nose flute, along with the weight and velocity necessary to achieve the FBI-standard 18 inches of penetration. With a permanent wound cavity described as “enormous,” the Xtreme Defender’s solid copper body ensures no adverse effects occurring to the projectile itself, despite encountering common law enforcement and personal defense obstacles such as wallboard, sheetrock, sheet metal and automotive glass. See us at booth #43029
shellshocktech.com If you loved Shell Shock’s lightweight 9mm cases, wait until you try their new calibers coming soon, including 5.56x45mm, .300 BLK, .380 ACP, .40 S&W and others. Lighter than brass, more powder capacity, greater consistency between rounds, and can be picked up with a magnet. Satisfies global military mandates to reduce ammunition weight and increase performance. All Shell Shock’s cases are proudly made in the USA. Shell Shock…Shoot it, Love it! americanshootingjournal.com 61
Gear
CAMO FACE PAINT camofacepaint.com
Camo Face Paint was started 23 years ago by an FX makeup artist for the film and TV industry. Today Bobbie Weiner is the number one supplier of camo face paint for the U.S. DOD for all branches of the government. Makeup is available in three-, four- and five-color durable compacts with mirrors for all terrains, including tubes of camo face paint in nine different colors, eye black and lip balm. All are of the highest quality ingredients. Features include: 20-plus applications, four-year shelf life, washes off with soap and water, nontoxic, hypoallergenic, and odorless. Private label available! All face paint is manufactured and packaged in the USA. See us at booth #20401
BULLARD LEATHER bullardleather.com Located in Cooper, Texas, Bullard Leather offers holsters, belts, magazine holders, wallets and knife sheaths. All of their holsters and belts are made from Hermann Oak leather, and all holsters are custom fitted to the specific gun. For more information, email bullardleather@gmail.com or visit their online store.
FIREBIRD USA firebirdtargets.com Firebird USA, manufacturer of 50BIO Detonating Targets, has announced the next generation of the wildly popular Firebird Detonating Target, the Firebird 65BIO. The newly designed biodegradable casing is 30 percent larger, providing a greater explosion for firearms, air rifles and arrows. Forget about messy chemical mixing kits. Firebird requires no mixing and is legal to transport. The new Firebird 65BIO is a vast improvement on the original Firebird 65mm Target that was discontinued in 2018. Remove a Firebird 65BIO from the pack. No mixing needed, just peel and stick for an extreme blast response without the need for clean up after a day of shooting. Unused targets must be stored like ammunition. The new Firebird 65BIO is expected to ship starting in January of 2022 and will be sold in packages of 10 for $19.95 or a case of 100 targets for $199.50. Good news for 50BIO fans, as the price of a pack of 10 has been reduced to $16.95 or a case of 100 targets for $169.95. See us at booth #43028
PUREKUSTOM.COM purekustom.com The finest custom leather holster maker in the industry. It’s not bragging if you can back it up! The first and only leather holster maker to cover optics and lights. The only custom leather holster maker to carry an inventory for some of the top-of-the-line firearms manufacturers. Purekustom’s holsters are also the most adjustable holsters in the industry. They can be carried IWB, OWB and are adjustable. They also make a Black Ops Pro Shoulder harness that works with all of their Black Ops Pro and Special Ops Pro holsters. All holsters go through Purekustom’s Cowdex leather hardening process. They will last a lifetime! americanshootingjournal.com 63
gear
MERNICKLE CUSTOM HOLSTERS mernickleholsters.com
DARA HOLSTERS & GEAR, INC. daraholsters.com Dara Holsters’ Custom IWB Holster features a patented curved clip, designed to mimic the curve of the waistband. This keeps the gun tight to the body and secured to the belt. Proudly made in the USA, and backed by a lifetime warranty.
RICK YOUNG OUTDOORS rickyoungoutdoors.com There are several suspension systems on the market today for binoculars and rangefinders but nothing compares to the simple function of the RYO Ultra-Light Harness. Fast single-point adjustment allows you to quickly fit the harness to your change of clothing. Never again will your binos be down at your belt line. Rangefinder attachment hardware is the bomb! The shock cord hugs your body, transferring the weight of your binoculars equally around your shoulder and chest without digging into your body. You will ask yourself, where did the weight go? Advantages of the Ultra-Light Bino Harness: • Compact and lightweight – 1 ounce; • Wear harness in five different positions; • Cool to wear – does not trap body heat; • Virtually no wind vibration as experienced with flat strap type; • Firmly holds binoculars to your chest, yet easy to elevate to your eye level; • Field-tested for many years now and stretch cord does not lose its shape or effectiveness. See us at booth #42038
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The PS6-SA is one of Mernickle Custom Holsters’ most popular holsters because it allows single-action shooters to have the ability to conceal or open carry. This holster is specifically designed to be worn as either a strong side or a cross-draw, which makes it perfect for carrying on the ranch or as an everyday carry. This holster sits at a medium-high height, allowing for an easy draw and reholster. The PS6-SA is hand-molded to each individual gun for a guaranteed fit. Mernickle Custom Holsters are made out of two-ply Hermann Oak leather because they believe in only using the finest leather to ensure the finest holster for their customers.
PROLIX prolixlubricant.com PrOlix is a penetrating solvent/dry lube product that was lab-developed and tested by law enforcement, military and commercial shooters over many years. The citrus-based biodegradable cleaner, pioneered in 1995, is the first successful “all in one” gun care product, now deemed “Bio-Technology.” Their recyclable (strain and reuse) products are made of 89 percent or greater renewable resources, a true commitment to sustainable practices and caring for the environment. As such, the USDA has listed PrOlix as a BioPreferred Product since 2012. The solvent “goes on wet, cleans, bonds, and the lube turns dry to the touch.” It removes carbon, copper, lead, shotgun plastic residues and black powder. PrOlix will not damage wood, freeze or flash off, and it can be used for commercial and industrial applications as well. To complement the PrOlix Cleaner/Lubricant (Dry Tech) line, shooters can use the equally superior “gun-oil and grease replacer” PrOlix Xtra-T Lube for a total care product. PrOlix will be shipping out their products with a new look soon. Along with the new look, due to many requests, their PrOlix TGCP in the 16-ounce-PRO with an adjustable nozzle and trigger-sprayer cap will also change to an easier-to-handle bottle.
gear SKINNER SIGHTS skinnersights.com The Skinner Sights HTF bag allows your firepower to be “concealed in plain sight,” yet ready in case of an emergency. Holds up to a 40-inch long gun and two handguns. Room for three rifle and eight pistol magazines. Knife, flashlight and accessory pouches. Cordura construction with heavy-duty stitching. (Firearms and accessories in photo are not included. For illustrative purposes only.)
TRIPLE K MANUFACTURING triplek.com New for 2022 is the Western Cartridge Cuff (No. 1603) from Triple K Manufacturing. Featuring premium vegetable-tanned saddle leather with brass eyelets and latigo leather tie. Individually sewn cartridge loops in calibers .45-70 or .30-30. A favorite for lever-action and Sharps-style long guns. The .45-70 holds five cartridges and .30-30 holds six cartridges. Walnut oil color with plain finish. MSRP: $60. See us at booth #72852
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The question is... Do you want to hunt ducks or be a duck hunter?
Natural Wonderduck Water Motion Decoys
The paddle in the back give the illusion of decoy feet paddling! Comes with rear mounted motors that run on two D-cell batteries, for up to 25 hours or more. Optional timer available. Orange weedless paddling feet and foot attachments, easy access for battery holder, waterproof switch and floatation insert.
To order or for more information – wonderduck.com 1-800-876-1697
gear ZERUST zerustproducts.com The Zerust VCI Rifle Bag is specifically designed to shield your rifle from the harmful effects of rust and corrosion. Time and the elements can be rough on all metals, and your firearm is no exception. It takes surprisingly little time and elemental exposure to do serious damage. The Zerust VCI rifle bag is heavy-duty, affordable, fleece-lined with a zipper closure and constructed to release a nontoxic, antirust vapor that coats all exposed metal surfaces, providing up to five years of protection against rust and corrosion. These vapors leave no residue on either metal or wood surfaces and dissipate harmlessly into the air once the weapon is removed from the bag. See us at booth #43951
V-LINE INDUSTRIES vlineind.com The Top Draw XD is an upgraded version of V-Line’s original Top Draw 2912-S BLK. The upgrade includes a heavy-duty internal steel lock cover bolted to the lid with ¼-inch bolts secured to 3/8-inch steel-welded blocks. This upgrade makes it extremely difficult to punch out the lock from the outside. The interior is lined with thick foam on the top and bottom to secure your firearm while traveling. The top opening case features an easily programmable five-push-button Simplex mechanical lock that does not require batteries. The Top Draw XD can accommodate up to two pistols depending on their sizes. It is nicely textured in a semigloss black powder coating and accented with a silver V-Line logo and stainless steel faceplate. The Top Draw XD has predrilled holes in the bottom and can be secured on top of most surfaces with bolts or by using the optional quick-release mounting bracket (part no. 2912/3912-MB BLK).
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Self-Defense TRAINING
CAN COMPETITIVE SHOOTING BE HARMFUL IN REAL-LIFE SHOOTING ENCOUNTERS? Yes, matches will enhance your gun skills, but may provide ‘false confidence and bad habits that could get you in a jam or killed.’ STORY AND PHOTOS BY PAUL PAWELA
T
hroughout the years, there have been many heated debates amongst gun aficionados that seem to never come to any semblance of a rational conclusion. The standouts include: revolver vs. semiautomatic, .45 ACP vs. 9mm, cross-draw carry vs. kidney carry vs. appendix carry, sights vs. point index, and Weaver stance vs. isosceles stance. The latest debate revolves around competitive shooting vs. tactical shooting. I became involved in this issue after answering a question on a popular forum for firearms instructors. Someone asked whether competitive shooting had any advantages to the tactical side of defensive shooting training, to which my response was “very little.” It would seem my response was not well received from the competitive shooting gods, nor from the YouTube teachers or professional keyboard commandos. “How dare you!” they said. “I dare very well,” was my reply. Many self-anointed professionals tried to disparage me: “Well, you’re
Competitive shooting rarely emphasizes the one-handed shooting position.
not a Master or Grandmaster shooter, so you have no experience on the subject.” Taking a deep breath, I was reminded of this piece of wisdom from former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson: “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.” So, to have an intellectual discussion, I must share with you my bona fides (though I won’t bore you with my resume; it’s online). My International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) ranking is A335, but that means nothing to me; what does bear fruit is that I have nine
documented times when I have had to use a firearm to defend myself and my family. And when I ask my detractors how many times as a civilian they have had to defend themselves with a gun, generally the response is silence. JOHN HOLSCHEN, A long-time national tactical trainer and friend, had a similar discussion, and our arguments are pretty much the same. Below are some of his thoughts. For the record, neither of us are anti-competitive shooting. I have written several articles on the positives for LEOs to shoot in competitions. And we both agree that competitive americanshootingjournal.com 69
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING shooting enhances marksmanship and gunhandling skills, which are both valuable in a gunfight. But while John is polite and says he does not believe it will get you killed on the streets, I respectfully disagree with him on this because I know it can, it has, and it’s documented. Now for a few of the stingers or hurtful truths as to the gaps that competition shooting leaves: • No consideration for the ability of the target to shoot the competitor. The common aspect of gunfights is that they are usually at close distances (typically 3 to 5 yards). Studies show that in police firearms training, they are 80 percent accurate against cardboard targets, 70 percent accurate in simulated training where simulated targets are shooting back with man-marking cartridges, and 30 percent accurate when they are in real gunfights when bad guys are shooting back. In these cases, there are multiple
threats and usually low visibility. (Other than an indoor shooting match, when was the last time you saw a match run outdoors under lights?) • “We win gunfights by minimizing our chances of getting shot while getting hits on the bad guy,” Holschen points out. Movement and/or cover are the primary methods of accomplishing this. To what degree and for how long the competitor is exposed to threat(s) is not a factor in a competition like USPSA. • The competition shooter knows the course of fire beforehand. The competitor knows where all the shoot/ no-shoots are before running the stage, so there is no test or exercise of the process of discrimination. Even if the competition shooter forgets the target placement, they need only to discriminate the color of the target to determine to shoot/no-shoot. • The defensive/combative shooter needs to look for the presence of a
Competitive shooting does not often take into account shooting from the seated position ...
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lethal weapon, combined with other visual cues, to indicate whether the weapon is a threat. This requires movement to allow visualization of the subject’s hands and other threat indicators. The physical actions and mental processes are different when this level of discrimination is required. • Potential negative training consequences. Anything we do repeatedly is being programmed into our neuromuscular pathways. We are habituating our postures, movements and visual orientation to the situation with each reference repetition. In competitive shooting, for example, after the shooting is done, the range command given is “show clear”; with numerous repetitions, this could become problematic on the street. • The lack of movement exposes a shooter to multiple threats. Standing still in a gunfight, you have an 85 percent chance of being shot, and a 51 percent chance of being shot in the torso. Also
... Or a much bigger opponent, which may require five-plus rounds.
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
Competitive shooting does not include “stressors” that go from hand-to-hand combat to shooting situations.
the stance/posture that is optimal for competitive shooting is detrimental to the use of cover or movement. • Exposing the muzzle of the gun and the body to areas not yet seen allows bad guys to see you first and begin to react before you know he’s there. • Competitive shooting has no scenario involving a grappling situation. Around 37 percent of real gunfight scenarios involve physical contact during the gunfight. • Resource allocation: Do any of us have all the time we’d like to have to train? What percentage of our learning practice resources are we spending on developing the skills necessary to win in competition vs. what percentage are 72
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we spending on the additional skills we need to win in a self-defense gunfight? The motto of my Assault Counter Tactics program is “Train for what is probable, not possible.” MANY HAVE ARGUED that Jeff Cooper – the father of modern pistol craft and who opened the first commercial firearms training school, Gunsite – was responsible for saving many lives with his knowledge of firearms skills. But one must also ask, how many lives did he cost through his insistence of advocating the classic Weaver stance? During the early years of freestyle “competitive target shooting” in the late 1950s, Los Angeles County Deputy
Sheriff Jack Weaver would bend both elbows when shooting for better support on targets. This impressed Jeff Cooper so much that he adopted this stance and was influential in making it a primary method of training for thousands of law enforcement and civilians alike. The problem with this was that in documented real-life gunfights under duress, there was never one single documented case of it ever being used successfully. With the invention of dashcam cameras mounted in police cars, as well as surveillance cameras posted in areas where they could record criminal activity, solid proof was obtained that the Weaver stance was a complete failure. National trainer Tony Blauer even put up a $10,000 reward for 10 years for one person to come forward with video proof that the Weaver stance was used successfully in a gunfight. No one collected on that reward. What no one talks about is how many people who were trained in the Weaver stance were shot and killed while trying to aim their sights and bend their elbows when criminals were point-shooting and hitting their targets (good guys/real human beings) with 68 percent accuracy! Don’t ever tell me competition shooting has not resulted in deaths because it certainly has! And while Cooper cited the Latin phrase “Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas” (translated as “accuracy, power and speed”), as far as power goes in a handgun caliber, data shows that there is a 5 percent chance of a oneshot stop. Not only that, but there is documented proof that people who are shot with a handgun caliber have an 85 percent survivability rate. And again, videos of gunfight encounters show that speed was not a factor. In 73 percent of the cases, victims used an obscured draw (hiding their draw from their holster) or they used a delayed draw, meaning they did not draw until they recognized the threat. So Bat Masterson was right back in the 1800s, when he said that the three qualities of a gunfighter were courage, skill with a gun and, most
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING importantly, deliberation, defined as careful consideration, slow and careful movement, steadiness, caution, lack of haste.
Competitive shooting does not take into consideration shooting more than three rounds at a single target.
Competitive shooting does not take into consideration edged backup weapons when primary firearms fail.
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WHILE COMPETITION SHOOTERS have failure-to-stop drills, what they never do is shoot more than three rounds in any one target. Many documented real-life gunfights have shown that bad guys can become bullet sponges. Consider Emmett Dalton, who was shot 23 times in the failed Coffeyville bank robbery and lived. His cousin Cole Younger was shot over 20 times in his life, including 11 times in one incident where he was part of a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota; he, too, lived. In modern times, in the 1986 Miami Shootout, murderer and bank robber Michael Platt was shot 12 times before dying. His partner William Matix was shot six times. In the North Hollywood Shootout in 1997, robber Emil Matasareanu was wearing body armor (which we are finding many bad guys are wearing these days) and was shot 29 times before bleeding out. His partner Larry Phillips was also wearing body armor; he was shot 11 times before shooting himself in the head and dying. Shooting competitions never take a failure to stop into question, like the above-given examples, which could be very detrimental in a real-life gunfight. Other valid points of contention could be made about competition shooting, but my biggest argument has always been that in shooting competitions there are never ever verbal commands given by the good guy shooter to the bad guy target. Scoffers may stick up their nose at that, but in our litigious society, it could make all the difference in the world. Going back to John Holschen’s point about potential negative training consequences, recently a seasoned LAPD officer, who is a very competitive shooter and posts her competitions on YouTube, was in a real-life shooting, and what do you think jammed her up? You guessed it.
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
And competitive shooting does not take into account no-shoot situations or hand-to-hand defense either.
She never gave any commands in her competition shooting videos; all she did was shoot. Had she been a civilian in her justified shooting case, I think things would have certainly been a lot different for her. Is competitive shooting a good way Author Paul Pawela got a lot of grief over his take that competitive shooting provides “very little” advantage when it comes to the tactical side of defensive shooting training. To those who would disagree, he says, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”
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to enhance your skillset with a gun? Yes! Can it also give you false confidence and give you bad habits that could get you in a jam or killed? Yes. Always remember: “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” And that’s my two cents!
Editor’s note: For realistic self-defense training, see assaultcountertactics .com. Author Paul Pawela is a nationally recognized firearms and self-defense expert. To contact John Holschen, email tbsh@ westcoastarmorynorth.com.
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HANDGUNS UNIQUE-ARS unique-ars.com Looking for an AR pistol that offers more? The TG20 AR Pistol is Unique-ARs’ take on this popular platform, complete with an unmistakable style and quality components. The TG20 is chambered in 5.56 NATO and is comprised of a 7.5-inch nitride barrel, UniqueARs 7-inch exclusive TG20 Hex handguard, 7-inch Armor Black Cerakote heat shield, Unique-ARs billet receivers, comfortable Ergo pistol grip, and custom-milled buffer tube. This pistol has an overall length of 23 inches and weighs 5 pounds, 4 ounces. See us at booth #41764
OCTOBER COUNTRY octobercountry.com October Country bought Dr. James Davis’s collection of black powder revolvers from Claremore, Oklahoma. All revolvers are unfired and most come with the original box. Doc Davis had an extensive collection of reproduction revolvers (Pietta, Uberti, A. Sam Marco, Witloe, etc.). Visit the above website to see this collection. Many of the revolvers come with accessory kits and display cases. A lot of the revolvers have low serial numbers, consecutive matching serial numbers and some are one-of-a-kindrare collectibles. October Country is one of the leading manufacturers of muzzleloading supplies in the United States. They have a little something for everyone at discount prices.
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RELOADING REDDING RELOADING EQUIPMENT redding-reloading.com Redding Reloading Equipment has been a leader in carbide sizing die technology ever since it became the first company to use titanium carbide. It continued that legacy by later introducing the unique Dual Ring Carbide Sizing Dies. And now Redding has introduced NXGen Carbide Technology. Previous carbide sizing dies were generally limited by the single dimension of their narrow carbide ring, which was dimensioned to hold a bullet in the thinnest possible SAAMI neck-wall thickness. While this did well for bullet retention, it was not always appropriate for the remainder of the case. This caused excessive sizing that limited case life, as well as in many cases reduced dimensions to a level that did not fit the chamber well. NXGen Carbide sizing dies leverage the latest advances in materials science, specifically as related to carbide, creating new and innovative designs to increase ease of use and improved dimensional accuracy in straight-wall cases. These NXGen designs create cases with profiles that do not exhibit the wasp waist often found with use of a traditional single-ring carbide. NXGen uses a greater carbide contact surface, giving these dies the ability to better compensate for a variety of wall thicknesses without oversizing the case body. See us at booth #14424
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“Manufacturers of quality case cleaners, deburring and tumbling equipment since 1959” 82
American Shooting Journal // January 2022
L.E. SPOTLIGHT
L.E. HERO IN DISTRICT ATTY’S OFFICE Inspector helps take down suspects filing, receiving bogus COVID unemployment benefits. STORY BY NICK PERNA • PHOTOS BY JORDAN BOYD
ost folks like a good story with lots of action and excitement. In law enforcement, people like to see videos of car chases, foot pursuits and so on. Recently, the Paramount Network brought the long-running series Cops back to life, a testament to the popularity of the more exciting aspects of being an officer. The reality, though, is that, for the most part, law enforcement is a lot less exciting. This is especially true when it comes to long-term investigations. Oftentimes they don’t take place on the street, and they don’t involve high-speed chases and uses of force. On the contrary, a good investigation involves long hours of tedious work to get a successful result. But when investigators are willing to put in the work, the results can be amazing. Jordan Boyd is an inspector with the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. He is assigned to the General Felony Unit, which investigates a wide variety of crimes. If you didn’t San Mateo County, California, know what District Attorney’s Office Jordan did Inspector Jordan Boyd. for a living, you might assume that he works in the tech industry, working as a
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Inspector Boyd (right) with San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Sean Riordan, who prosecuted a case against multiple prison inmates and outside suspects who scammed taxpayers out of unemployment funds meant to help those impacted by COVID.
programmer or code loader. If he chose to, Jordan could do just that. He is a subject matter expert on electronic forensics, the process of gathering data from various sources (cell phones, computers, etc.) to build criminal cases. And, like a lot of folks in the District Attorney’s Office, he could probably make a lot more money in the private sector. But instead he chooses to dedicate his time and energy to putting bad guys behind bars. Inspector Boyd is responsible for uncovering one of the largest, most comprehensive cases of unemployment benefit fraud ever prosecuted in the state of California. And he found out about it by accident. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Inspector Boyd to discuss this case.
IN 2020, JORDAN was involved in a gang case. As part of the investigation, he was listening to jail calls. All phone conversations that inmates have while locked up in jails and prisons are recorded. The crooks know that, but often they still make incriminating statements. Jordan learned that the inmate was involved in a scam where he was receiving unemployment benefits while behind bars. During COVID, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) was handing money to just about anyone who put in for those benefits. Crooks realized this and took advantage of the lack of oversight. Jordan started looking into the matter a little deeper. He realized that if one inmate had figured out how to do it, then others were probably involved in it as well. The scam was actually pretty americanshootingjournal.com 83
L.E. SPOTLIGHT simple. Inmates would give their name, date of birth and social security number to someone outside. That person would then apply for EDD benefits. In numerous cases, inmates actually used cell phones smuggled into the jail to apply for those benefits themselves. All told, 22 suspects were identified as being involved, which included co-conspirators on the outside. The amount of money was significant. Three inmates each received over $20,000 in lump sum payments, while the entire group, in total, netted over $172,000. In some cases, this money was used to bail out the inmates. For those who couldn’t bail, money was “put on their books,” meaning money was deposited into inmates’ jail accounts so they could purchase luxury items like candy while locked up. Those inmates who weren’t eligible for bail were in for serious crimes, including murder. The folks who helped them outside the jail also
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profited from this scam. Jordan’s initial discovery led to similar cases being identified in other jails and prisons throughout California. To their credit, EDD assigned investigators to look into this, and those inspectors also worked hard to locate and prosecute other suspects and to prevent any further fraud. It is suspected that losses from this crime series cost Golden State taxpayers billions (that’s right, I said billions) of dollars. I asked Inspector Boyd how many suspects were involved in this scheme. “I’ve yet to hear/see a total count of how many suspects were identified statewide,” he said. “However, as a result of the US Department of Labor (the entity responsible for pandemic relief funds) and CDC cross-referencing claims against inmate population, I am aware that over 26,000 prison inmates had unlawfully filed for unemployment insurance benefits.”
I asked Inspector Boyd if any of the cases had gone to court. He said some of the involved inmates have taken plea deals, with one violator receiving 40 months tacked onto his sentence. You probably won’t see Jordan on an episode of Cops, chasing a suspect through a dark alley. He doesn’t have to, though. He can get better results with a set of headphones, a computer and a seemingly endless amount of patience, perseverance and dedication to keeping bad guys behind bars. Editor’s note: Author Nick Perna is a sergeant with the Redwood City Police Department in northern California. He previously served as a paratrooper in the US Army and is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also has a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco. He is a frequent contributor to multiple print and online forums on topics related to law enforcement, firearms, tactics and veterans issues.
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Product SPOTLIGHT
The MP5 has been the go-to subgun for over five decades and serves as the inspiration for several new offerings for the civilian market from Walther and Heckler & Koch.
GUN REVIEWS: MP5 .22 LRS FROM WALTHER AND HK No, they don’t come in full-auto like the original subgun, but a cop who’s carried one on duty says new models from a pair of manufacturers are a good option if the real deal is outside your price range. STORY AND PHOTOS BY NICK PERNA
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ome guns just scream “cool.” High on that list is the Heckler & Koch MP5. It is a Hollywood favorite, as seen in classics like Die Hard and Rambo II. It has a long, storied history with SWAT teams, special ops teams
and counterterrorist units. The MP5’s finest hour may have been in 1980, when it was wielded by British Special Air Service Commandos during the highly successful Iranian Embassy hostage rescue mission. It has been the go-to subgun for over five decades.
The MP5 is an oldie but a goodie. The basic design dates back to the mid-1960s. It uses the highly reliable roller-delayed blowback mechanism that ensures rounds are fired and cases ejected with typical German efficiency. It comes in many variants, such as americanshootingjournal.com 89
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
The real deal next to the Walther MP5 A5 in .22 LR. They’re almost identical, except the original MP5 has the full-auto “pew, pew, pew” indicator on the selector switch.
the diminutive MP5K, which has been modified to fire from a briefcase. There is also the MP5SD with an integral suppressor, used by United States Naval Special Warfare Operators. Generally found in 9mm, there have also been limited runs in 10mm and .40 S&W. Magpul has recently come out with updated furniture, including M-Lok-capable foregrips, ambidextrous selector levers and polymer trigger housings. This ensures that this classic will continue to see use with operators and sport shooters. LINE-OF-DUTY OBSERVATIONS I have had the distinct pleasure of 90
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carrying an MP5 as a SWAT officer and as a member of a specialized enforcement unit, and it is one of my favorite work weapons. The iron sights are, hands down, the best I’ve ever used. A simple hooded front post coupled with a large-aperture rear peep-type sight allows for quick engagements. There are different size apertures for engaging threats at different distances. This is the only long gun I would suggest keeping and using the iron sights over installing a red dot sight. The model I carried had a collapsible stock. This works well when operating it from a motor vehicle. Most long guns are difficult
to operate and deploy from vehicles, especially by the person driving the vehicle. I’ve tried this operationally with M4s and the weapon is usually too long. Not so with the MP5. With the stock collapsed, it basically sits in the driver’s lap. All one has to do is extend the stock when exiting the vehicle and you are good to go. So, now that I got you all excited about shooting one, here’s the bad news: They are very expensive and difficult to come by. The civilian version of the MP5, the SP5, is hard to find and goes for around $3,500. There are aftermarket models from other manufacturers that are about as expensive.
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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Here’s the good news: There are excellent versions of the MP5 in .22 Long Rifle made by HK, as well as Walther, licensed through HK. WALTHER MODELS Walther currently makes two .22 LR rifles modeled after the popular MP5 series. Walther went to great lengths to ensure that the weapon looks, feels and handles like the bigger-bulleted counterpart. The controls are like the original: an ambidextrous selector switch (sorry folks, no full-auto). Like the original, the Walther has two magazine releases, a button behind the mag well and a paddle in front of it. It has the classic iron sights, too. Internally, they don’t resemble the real deal. Since they are .22 LR, they only require a simple blowback-style action to operate. The Walther HK MP5 A5 22LR resembles an early-model gun. It has a mock suppressor on it; this is there
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to cover the barrel, which has to be long enough to legally qualify as a rifle. I own one of these and have put it through its paces. It runs just like the real deal, right down to the charging handle you slap to load. I tricked mine out with an aftermarket foregrip with an integral light and magazine couplers. The website hkparts.net carries a wide variety of add-ons to mount on your gun. As for the Walther HK MP5 SD 22LR, it is a faithful copy of the Navy SEAL gun, also with a faux suppressor. You’ll have to supply your own wetsuit, goggles and fins, though. Each gun comes with a 10-round magazine, and 25-rounders are available for folks who live in places where they are allowed. There’s also a 50-round drum magazine. HK MODELS Coming out this month, HK will be introducing their own line of .22
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Author Nick Perna uses an MP5 during a highrisk warrant service.
subguns. One is a pistol version, an MP5 minus a stock. This negates the need for a mock suppressor. They are also coming out with a SD-style plinker. It will retail for under $500, which is a good deal. The Walther guns go for about the same price. So, if the real thing is outside your price range, consider these options from Walther and HK.
Rifles TRAILBLAZER FIREARMS trailblazerfirearms.com Trailblazer Firearms, a United States manufacturer of innovative firearms, including the ground-breaking LifeCard .22 LR folding pistol (introduced in 2017), is proud to announce the newest product to their portfolio: the Pivot Ultracompact Folding Rifle. The Pivot is a blowback rifle chambered in 9mm that utilizes Glock-compatible magazines. Designed to maximize portability, the Pivot rifle is less than 21 inches long when folded. A collapsible stock gives the rifle a full length of pull when the rifle is unfolded with the stock fully extended. Weighing approximately 5 pounds, the Pivot rifle is 5.9 inches and 1.15 inches thin. The aluminum upper features a Picatinny rail. A second magazine stores securely in the glass-filled nylon stock. The 16-inch button-rifled, threaded steel barrel with a 1-in-10-inch twist comes standard. The new Trailblazer Firearms Pivot rifle is projected to be shipped starting in the second quarter of 2022. See us at booth #41654
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BLACK POWDER
ROLLING MY OWN ROLLING BLOCK Author Mike Nesbitt’s .44-77 rolling block has a 32-inch tapered barrel, which along with Soule tang and Globe front sights, give it “all the ingredients needed for long-range shooting.”
With components from many sources, rifle satisfies shooter with its craftsmanship, looks – and accuracy. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT
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or a long time I had wanted a Remington rolling block sporting rifle chambered in an appropriate black powder caliber. Finding one that was affordable and yet in the condition I wanted was not in my immediate future, so I decided to build one. That really wasn’t as hard as it sounds and I had a lot of help. First, I bought an old Remington military No. 1 action. That was just the first step because the action’s ring, where the barrel screws into the receiver, needed to be “octagoned” like most of the Remington No. 1 sporting rifles were. The work needed to give the receiver ring an octagon top was done by John Taylor at Taylor Machine, now located in Lewiston, Idaho. To get a special barrel – a nice tapered octagon tube, 32 inches long and in .44 (.446-inch groove-diameter) caliber – contact was made with Oregon Barrel Company in Springfield, Oregon. That barrel company is part of The Gun Works in Springfield and they are very
nice people to work with, especially for otherwise hard-to-find items. What I ordered was a barrel for the .44-77 caliber with a 1-in-18-inch rate of twist. As on most of the old Remington sporting rifles, that barrel has a slight taper to it. The folks at Oregon Barrel Company asked me for each and every specification I desired, and outside dimensions were given for the breech and the muzzle. Also specified were the bore diameter at .438 inch and the groove diameter at .446 inch, which allowed for .004-inch-deep rifling grooves. The barrel was to be sent to me not threaded, not crowned and not chambered. That barrel was delivered just the way it was ordered in record time. With today’s availability of things in general and the work load I know Oregon Barrel Company has, I doubt that short delivery time could be done today, but ask them about it and not me. Soon after getting the barrel, the action and barrel were sent to C. Sharps Arms, where they specialize in rebuilding old rolling blocks, in addition to making new Sharps rifles.
AT C. SHARPS Arms, the final fitting of
the metal pieces was done, including chambering the barrel to .44-77. They also blued and color casehardened those metal pieces and, let me say, they did a beautiful job of it. Most of this work, if not all of it, was done by Pat Dulin, one of the top craftsmen at C. Sharps. The list of “to dos” that went with those metal parts included chambering the barrel, installing sights, and knurling the hammer and block spurs to give them the look of a sporting rifle rather than a military rolling block. All was done in a very nice manner. While C. Sharps Arms did the metal work for me, precarved stocks were ordered from Treebone Carving. I fitted and finished those stocks myself, while working in Dave Dolliver’s shop. George Petersen, owner of Treebone, was very patient with me as I hemmed and hawed about which buttplate style to get and so forth. Then I finally ordered the stock as you see it, with the shotgun butt. George quickly came back to me with, “Did you change your mind again? You said you were going for the crescent butt.” Yes, a picture in Roy Marcot’s americanshootingjournal.com 97
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This photo was taken in the sunlight to show the color casehardening.
book Remington Rolling Block Rifles, Carbines & Shotguns shows a sporting rifle with a shotgun butt and that made it “legal” for me to try to copy. Soon after my order was placed, the wood arrived and George did his best at sending me the grade of wood I wanted. I had asked for straight-grain walnut and that’s what I got, but it was prettier than a standard grade. In fact, Treebone no longer offers a “standard grade.” George said he didn’t have good luck in finding good-quality standard-grade wood, so his bottom grade is “select standard grade” and that’s what I asked for. But George remembered that he had just enough straight-grain walnut left from the few pieces he bought when the Axtell shop was selling out. That was what my stocks were cut from and, as you might be able to tell, I was really delighted. When the receiver for my rifle was modified to look like a sporting rifle with the octagon top, the front of the action was also milled to remove 98
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the small flange that fits over the sides of the wood at the back end of the forearm on the military rolling blocks. That made fitting the forearm much easier, but the similar flanges and angled fittings for the buttstock were not milled away. Fitting the buttstock to the military receiver was an excellent exercise for an apprentice such as I. And, let me brag, I’m rather proud of the job I did on that. Fitting the forearm cap was actually easier and the buttplate and forearm cap were both supplied by Treebone Carving. One more thing that makes me rather proud is that you can now see a picture of my rifle on the Treebone website. Of course, Treebone has many more stock patterns than just for rolling blocks. To see all they offer, go to treebonecarving.com.
AFTER GETTING THE rifle completed, I spent quite a bit of time shooting it while looking for the load this .44-77 and its barrel would really like. That’s when I decided to “slug” the barrel
and, after doing it twice, the slugs were measured at .442 inch. My findings alarmed me enough that I asked Kurt Altenburg, another .44-77 shooter, if he had any experiences with “tight” barrels. It was Kurt who kindly pointed out that with a five-groove barrel, .442 inch was right on the money for a .438/.446-inch bore and groove combination. Yes, I felt like a real fool! But I felt better too; the barrel was just right. That’s when I tried some 470-grain bullets and immediately the groups were good. The 470-grain bullet I used was an old Lyman/Ideal mold, No. 446187, and I wish that mold was still made today. The powder charge behind those bullets was 75 grains of Olde Eynsford 1 1/2 F and that became my rolling block’s standard load. For sights I added a long-range tang Soule sight from C. Sharps Arms to the rifle, along with a Globe front sight with apertures to the front. Those sights, combined with the 32-inch barrel, gave the rolling block all the ingredients needed for long-range shooting. Even
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BLACK POWDER
The steel nose cap is casehardened too.
A five-shot group fired while sighting in the rifle.
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so, I have not yet used it for targets beyond 200 yards. And I’ve used this rifle in competition only once. That was when I invited Mike Moran to shoot in a match with us and he needed to borrow a rifle. He wanted to shoot my Sharps in .44-77, which was the gun I had planned on using. That was fine; he used the Sharps and I simply grabbed the rolling block and did my shooting with it. Good shooting too, and when the final scores were announced, I had beaten Mike by only one point. To say that I’m not disappointed with this rebuilt rolling block is putting it mildly. I’m delighted! The jobs that the others did on this rolling block were superb in every detail. I’ll admit that the only place where things could be improved is on the stockwork, which I did. If these small pictures do the rifle justice at all, I hope you’ll agree that the gun looks pretty good.
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