Author: Pat Cascio

The very first Ruger firearm I ever owned was a rifle in .300 Winchester Magnum. It was in November or December of 1979. My wife and I were working for the Salvation Army back then in The Dalles, Oregon. I was the youth pastor, and my newly pregnant wife was the church secretary. Both jobs were temporary; however we were promised they would be full-time after Christmas. Alas, it didn’t work out that way, and we moved back to our cold, lonely apartment in Portland, Oregon on Christmas Eve with an artificial one-foot tall Christmas tree that we bought at …

Most readers probably believe that gun writers get specially picked firearms to test for their articles. I used to believe it myself, until I started writing about firearms. If I ever received a hand picked firearm from a gun maker, I sure didn’t know it. To the best of my knowledge, all my guns came off the shelves at the gun companies without being checked over or hand picked. As a matter of fact, I’ve had more than my share of lemons in the 25 years of writing about guns, and that is probably because I’ve tested so many different …

In our ongoing quest to test and review more “metal” semiauto handguns, as requested by many SurvivalBlog readers, I thought it important to review the Ruger P-89, in 9mm. The P-89 is an updated/upgraded version of Ruger’s first centerfire semiauto handgun. The original was the P-85, and Ruger was hoping to get it out in time for the U.S. military trials for a new handgun. Alas, the Beretta 92/M9 won out. There were some early teething problems with the first batch or two of P-85 handguns. There were a few reports of the firing pin slamming forward when the pistol …

The 1911 handgun has been around since, well, 1911, so the design is more than a hundred years old. For an old work horse, the design shows no signs of slowing down. As a matter of fact, there are probably at least 50 companies producing the 1911 in one form or another. We can have a 1911 in the basic mil-spec version or a fully decked out custom gun with more bells and whistles than we could ever use. We can find 1911s imported from The Philippines for well under $500 or acquire custom guns that easily cost tens of …

I saw my first SIG handgun back in 1980, when I was running a gun shop and new to the gun biz but not new to guns. A customer wanted me to order him a Browning BDA .45 ACP pistol. I hadn’t heard of it, to be honest. So, I did some research and found that the Browning BDA (Browning Double Action) was actually made by SIG and was being imported by Browning. When the gun came in for my customer, I was more than a little impressed with it. It had excellent workmanship all the way around. That was …

When I think back to my childhood in Chicago, IL, I can’t help but smile about how good we had it back then. We had a tiny black and white TV, which had maybe half a dozen channels to choose from. My grandparents, who raised me, even had a coal stove for heat for many years. Remember, this was Chicago! My grandparents never even had a key for the front door to their apartment. Kids growing up in the 1950s really had it good with no computers, no video games, no MTV, nor any of that stuff that kids today …

When I first started writing about firearms, back in 1992, one of the first rifles I received for testing was the Ruger Model 77. It was a heavy barrel rifle in .308 that was meant for serious long-range shooting. To be sure, the rifle itself was heavy, with the wooden stock and the heavy barrel. It was not my first choice in a hunting rifle. However, it was a tack-driver! The late Bill Ruger, who owned Sturm, Ruger & Co., sent me a letter telling me to keep the rifle with his compliments because he didn’t have any use for …

I’m one of these people who doesn’t sleep much at night. On a good night, I might get three or four hours of sleep. So, I spend a lot of time thinking. I sometimes come up with my best ideas in the middle of the night. I’ve often “written” my articles while in bed and put them down on paper later on. I’ve “designed” many knives while lying in bed wide awake, and then put the idea down on paper, and more often than not I can bring my idea to fruition. My long-time friend Lynn Thompson, who owns Cold …

Once again, we are taking a look at a revolver, for survival purposes. We have received numerous requests from our readers over the past several months for more articles on revolvers. We sometimes tend to get so caught up with the newest and coolest semiauto handguns that we forget the good ole’ fashioned revolver. While the revolver is a very old design, it is not antiquated, as many think it is. We also have to take into consideration what is meant by “survival” in any discussion on this topic. For too many, myself included, survival means financial survival, and no …

Right off the bat, I’ll admit my bias against Smith & Wesson– the company, not the guns. I used to be a huge fan of their firearms for a lot of years, but their warranty service is lacking. It’s something to keep in mind when purchasing one of their firearms. However, S&W continues to produce some outstanding firearms these days. For several years, as a private investigator back in Chicago, IL, I packed a S&W Model 586 with a 4” Bbl on a daily basis. It was a comforting (not comfortable) handgun to carry all day long. When I was …