Springfield Armory Ronin 1911 10mm, by Pat Cascio

I requested a sample of the new Springfield Armory Ronin 1911 in 10mm as soon as I heard about it. Still, I had to sit and wait for my sample – this gun, in this caliber, is in great demand! Back in 1988, I owned the only 1911-pattern pistol chambered in 10mm at that time. I ended up selling it, because we just moved back to Oregon, and my wife wasn’t yet working as a teacher and I was on disability from an auto accident – collecting a whopping $125 per week. I thought I’d never own another 10mm in …


Pistol Magazine Loaders — A Must For Some Shooters, by Pat Cascio

Getting old is no fun! Back in the day, I was able to load any type of magazines, with thumb power only. Sadly, along with old age, comes certain disabilities. To wit: I have terrible osteoarthritis in various parts of my body – not the least is lower back pain, that at times is debilitating to say the least. Next are my hands, and especially my right hand and fingers – they are misshapen. My trigger finger is the worst. But thankfuily, I can still pull a trigger! Over the years, there have been efforts to produce manual magazine loaders, …


Valley Forge Damascus Steel Knife, by Pat Cascio

Today, I’m going to cover something a little bit different in the cutlery world. it is a nice fixed-blade fighting knife, made in Pakistan out of Damascus steel, and marketed by Valley Forge Cutlery. Damascus steel-bladed knives used to be all the rage and it was pretty much restricted to the custom knife-makers’ realm. First, a little bit of history is called for: Damascus steel-bladed knives go back to Damascus, Syria some centuries ago. The development of this steel began perhaps as early as 700 AD, but most point to closer to 900 AD. But “authoritative” sources vary widely. Most …


You’ll Need Air, by Pat Cascio

How many times have you found that a tire on your vehicle was flat or halfway flat, sitting in your driveway or garage? Yeah, me too – too many times over my lifetime. I hate to change a tire, especially on our SUV or pickup truck. On these rigs, the spare tire is stowed underneath the body, and a royal pain-in-the-rump to get out to put it on your vehicle. I have the tire store check the air pressure in my spare tires, every time I go in for a rotation If you neglect to have that done, then you’ll …


CRKT HZ6, by Pat Cascio

It’s always fun when I get to test a knife design by a real martial artist. Having spent 35 years in the martial arts myself, I’ve run across more than a few wannabe Black Belts who aren’t really a Black Belt at all. It’s easy enough to purchase a piece of paper that states you are an expert in some form of martial arts. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “martial art” know that it means a person specializes in a “military art” of some sort. You can always find some martial arts school that teaches …


CRKT Attaboy, by Pat Cascio

I don’t usually start out an article by reporting on the designer of a knife. However, this time around, I will. This handy-dandy little folder, known as the “Attaboy” from Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT) was designed by Flavio Ikoma, who resides in Brazil. I previously reported on one of his other designs that really impressed me, and I heard back from Flavio about my article. Like many young children, we had dreams of what we were going to do or become when we grew up. I honestly don’t remember much of what I planned to do, other than …


The Prepper’s Storage Dilemma, by Pat Cascio

Storage of your voluminous preps can be a real problem. We don’t live in a large house, it is only about 1,600 Square Feet. It has two bedrooms, one is extremely small, and is used as my office. The home we used to live in, on the dry side of Oregon, was quite a bit bigger, it was originally an earth-sheltered house, with most of it underground. And, at some point, in the 1970s, there was another level added and it became a more traditional house. However, the below-ground portion of the house was totally useable. Half of the “basement” …


Springfield Armory XDm Elite & Black Hills 10mm HoneyBadger, by Pat Cascio

A little over three years back, I reviewed the then-new XDm in 10mm, and found it to be an excellent handgun. However, this review isn’t a rehash of that pistol. This review is an updated version of the XDm Elite, as well as the brand-new Black Hills Ammunition 10mm round that isn’t even yet on the market. My original 10mm handgun was a full-sized Colt Delta Elite, in stainless steel, and I liked it a lot. However, in short order, the gun shot loose. We had also just moved back to Oregon in 1988, and I was in a recent …


CZ-75D Compact, by Pat Cascio

Back in 1976, a new handgun was introduced to the marketplace – all over the world, with the exception of the United States. It wasn’t allowed to be imported directly for some reason – I’m sure it was all about politics. The CZ-75 was really something to brag about, and I really wanted one, for many years. Some folks found that they could secondarily import the CZ-75 from Canada. Unfortunately, they were paying upwards of $1,000 for those guns, and back then that was a huge sum of money. The original 9mm CZ-75 was a full-sized combat/duty gun. The original …


CRKT Butte Folder, by Pat Cascio

Some of my favorite knives are the ones that are simple in design, but still made out of good materials. The new “Butte” folder, from CRKT Knives, Columbia River Knife and Tool (CRKT) is fast becoming one of my favorites that have come into my hands for testing. I’ve always been of the opinion that “simpler” is better, when it comes to a lot of things, simply because there are fewer parts to break or lose. The Butte is made in Taiwan (Free China), so keep that in mind – and you get as good as you want in a …


Smith & Wesson M&P-15 .22 LR Sporter, by Pat Cascio

I’m hooked on AR-15 style of rifles, and I own more than a few, not counting what my lovely wife owns, or my two daughters. Some years ago, I purchased the then-new Colt AR-15 chambered in .22 LR. Sadly, that particular rifle wouldn’t reliably function with any type of .22 LR, and I made adjustments and tinkered with it, but finally got rid of it. So, quite a few years passed before I even thought about another AR-15 rifle chambered in .22 Long Rifle (LR). Not long ago, I was shopping for another AR. However, none were to be found …


CRKT Ramadi Knife, by Pat Cascio

As a knife designer myself, I know what goes into designing the “perfect” knife, be it a folder or a fixed blade. When you take a close look at many of the CRKT knives, you probably say “Gee, nothing special about this one…” Well, nothing could be further from the truth. A knife has to have a certain style, and it must perform as designed, and that is easier said than done. I designed a specialized fixed blade fighting knife – a double-edge fighter…and my friend, Brian Wagner made the prototypes. Again, easier said than done. However, I had a …


Springfield Armory Hellion, by Pat Cascio

I hate to admit it, but I came to the bullpup dance a little bit late. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the AR-style of rifles, as well as the M14 (M1A) rifles. Some folks like to say I’m older than dirt – well, not quite. When I joined the Illinois National Guard in June of 1969, I was originally issued a 19-pound BAR. That didn’t cut it – I weighed only 135 pounds at the time. I quickly traded that BAR in for an M1 Garand…and as they say, the rest is history. Basic Training was my introduction to the …


Ruger Security 9 Endurance Test, by Pat Cascio

Back in February 2018, I tested the then fairly-new polymer-frame Ruger Security 9  handgun. It was a stellar pistol, and very affordable, as well. I liked that gun so much that I added a second one to my modest collection. The first one resides in our bedroom, it is my “nightstand” gun – even though it isn’t stored in a nightstand. My second Security 9 has a trigger guard mounted laser on it, and that is the only difference between the two guns. Look, we all know that, anything can be broken, under the right circumstance, and I stopped doing …


Extra Capacity Pistol Magazines, by Pat Cascio

As we all know, not only the FedGov, but many state governments are attempting to limit magazine capacities to no more than 10 rounds. And even my state of Oregon will probably get it done this year, since we have a Democrat-controlled house, senate, and governor’s seat. That has already happened in neighboring Washington. So, I keep telling everyone who will listen, to get more magazines – NOW! Some folks say: “Oh, I have five spare magazines for my gun…” Sorry, that’s not going to be enough! At the Federal level, H.R. 1808 — which includes a ban on any …