Category: Review

I know what the stats say that were put out by the FBI that the 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP loaded with a good JHP round are all about the same when it comes to stopping power. However, in their testing, they have no way of determining just how fast a bad guy goes down. Yes, there are results from the street from actual shootings; however, no one is there with a stop watch to time these events. I’ve been a fan of the .45ACP round for just about all my life, and I’m convinced in my own mind …

The Federal government is on the wrong track most of the time. If there is a hard, wrong, or difficult way to do something, they do it, nearly every time. I know this from first-hand experience when I worked for a large detective agency and we often bid on uniform guard services for the Federal government. It’s not quite as simple as being the lowest bidder, as many believe. There are a good number of loopholes involved in bidding on FedGov services, including whether your company has the capability to meet the requirements. They want to know if your business …

Many folks ask me what types of things they should put in their Bug Out Bag (BOB), and this is a hard one for me to answer. We all have different needs and different ideas about this. When I tell some of these folks what I put in my BOB, they question some of my choices. If they are smarter than I am, then why are they coming to me for advice in the first place? I don’t claim to be an expert in anything; I’m just a serious student in a lot of fields. However, over the course of …

My, how times change! It wasn’t all that long ago that a red dot sight was rather huge when mounted on a rifle, and no one even gave any thought to a red dot sight on a handgun. I still remember the first (sorta) red dot sight I ever owned. It was on a shotgun back in the 1970s. It wasn’t quite a red dot sight, but it appeared to project a red/orange dot in the air. It was quite the thing back in the day. Over the years, I’ve tried all manner of red dot sights on rifles, shotguns, …

The first shotgun I ever owned was a Harrington & Richardson single shot shotgun in 16 gauge, and I’m here to tell you that thing really kicked because it was such a lightweight gun. I was a pretty skinny 16-year-old kid, too. I took it pheasant hunting a number of times, and it never let me down. I don’t recall whatever happened to that shotgun, whether I traded it, sold it, or what. There is a lot of controversy over what type of firearm a person should buy first for survival purposes. Of course, we have to define in our …

My number one choice, if I could only own one handgun, is still the grand old 1911 in some configuration. Yeah, lots of new gun designs come along, and I’ve tested many different handguns over the past 25 years working as a gun writer, and most are outstanding in their own regard. However, when pressed, I’m going to still pick a 1911 in .45 ACP, of course. Here are some of my thoughts on my choice in a 1911. First of all, there is the proven fight-stopping .45 ACP round. Yes, I’ve read the report put out by the FBI …

A famous gun writer once said “only accurate guns are interesting…”, and I certain concur with that statement. If a gun isn’t accurate and reliable, I lose interest and get rid of it. It can similarly be said that “only sharp knives are interesting…”. I have no use for junk knives. If a knife isn’t up to my high standards, I won’t waste my time testing or writing about it. For quite a few years, I collected (and designed) custom-made knives, and I really enjoyed it. Even though it was an expensive hobby, it was still fun. When we moved …

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 …