“One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms.”
~ Constitutional scholar and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
I was somewhat surprised in the email responses to my article here at the number of inquiries from would be first-time gun purchasers asking for advice on firearm selection, training and concealed carry permits. Obviously there are many in the freedom crowd out there who has yet to arm themselves.
I believe that many first-time gun buyers have a tendency to put the cart before the horse. Many long-time gun owners fit in the same category. Before one purchases a firearm for defense of life and property, it is imperative they realize one must first possess the courage to use this tool of liberty, up to and including deadly force. The firearm should never be the source of that courage. An inanimate object is a poor substitute for character.
True courage is in short supply in this nation’s gun culture. Supposed strong advocates of the Second Amendment routinely vote for politicians with anti-gun voting records because they are members of their chosen political party.
Authors of books on the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms routinely vote for the same anti-gun politicians. One in particular emailed me that he could not support Ron Paul in the 2008 election because he was “unelectable.” This author then spoke of having to “hold his nose” when he voted for John McCain. Great courage, this one!
The majority of gun magazines routinely carry many more articles on firearms for “military and police” than they do for Joe Citizen. An editor for one of these magazines chastised me in an email for having the audacity to suggest his publication support Ron Paul for president because he too saw him as “unelectable.” He opined that those who would vote for Ron Paul were actually helping the greater of two evils get elected. When I asked him whom he would vote for if his choices were Stalin or Hitler, he replied that it would never come to that in America. I promptly cancelled my subscription to his magazine. Cowardice and ignorance in the same package is hard to support.
Then there are those bastions of liberty in the pro-gun crowd who question why anyone would want to own an AK-47 or any other of those dastardly assault weapons. They contend there is no “legitimate” reason to own one. Let me make this as simple as I can: I own a legal AK-47 and several other assault weapons so I can assault the tyrant who seeks to deprive me of my rights granted by my creator, or any other criminal who attempts to take that which is mine, or harm me and those I love. Simple enough?
From past experience I know I am going to catch a lot of flak for my opinion of concealed carry laws, because I believe them to be another form of registration. Gun owners who claim they are totally against “registration” of firearms have no problem in registering themselves as gun owners. Most egregious is their paying the state to bestow on them the rights they already possess as free men.
If the true purpose of the Second Amendment is to provide the means to resist a tyrannical government, where is the logic in begging and paying that same government to allow us to possess the weapons to protect ourselves from their tyrannical pursuits? Groveling at the feet of tyrants is no reflection of courage.
Not only do concealed carry permit holders place themselves in a database available to all bureaucrats whose goal is to disarm everyone, they place themselves in the database of all law enforcement agencies. How convenient it must be for the cop who runs your drivers or vehicle license number to immediately know you are armed, what you drive, where you live, and in some cases, what type firearm you have.
Next on my list of things to anger the average gun guy is my total disdain for the organization that presents itself as the true champion of the right to keep and bear arms: the NRA, better known as the National Republican Association – Oops, sorry, National Rifle Association. Author and American Patriot L. Neil Smith, eloquently states his reasons for not trusting the NRA here.
If you are a potential owner of a new firearm, or possess several, please reexamine your commitment to liberty or give your weapons to a true patriot now rather than the tyrant when he comes for them.
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who comes near that precious jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined.
In a time when what used to be called “the women’s liberation movement” has achieved many of its goals in terms of equality and empowerment, the concept that guns are somehow evil icons of male brutality has managed to survive as the longest-standing relic of the old “Suzie Housewife mentality.”
Political enfranchisement? Of course! Entry into previously male-exclusive job markets? A done deal, for the most part. Economic power and self-determination? You bet.
But defend yourself and your loved ones against a deadly criminal, by resorting to a gun of your own? “OMG!!! You’re just surrendering to the brutal male mentality!”
Aggressively forward stance helps the slender Jacqueline Smith, at right. She follows her training in an LFI qualification and leans farther forward than 160-lb. male author, left. Final score proved VERY close…
If I may say so in a family magazine…What A Crock!
The attitude part
In almost thirty years of teaching female armed citizens, and longer than that teaching female cops, I’ve come to the conclusion that once you get past old-fashioned cultural predispositioning, women may actually be better and more decisive students of the gun.
You don’t jump up on a chair and shriek when you see a mouse in the kitchen? You don’t exclaim, “I declare! I do believe I have a case of the vapors coming on,” and faint when there’s trouble? Good—indications are that you’re on the way to getting past the cultural canard that women are supposed to be helpless and totally reliant on men to protect them.
Most firearms instructors agree that women have a faster learning curve than men in this discipline. They tend to have better fine motor coordination, as a rule, and pulling a trigger without deviating the muzzle off target is most definitely a fine motor skill. Their biggest advantage is that they are not born believing that because of their gender, they automatically know how to do something masculine. I’ve found that the female student more than the male wants to know, not just “how do you do that?” but “why do you do it that way?” With a proper explanation, she follows instructions, finds the results good, and moves on. With some of the males—not all, certainly, but some—the reaction is, “Ungawa! If Mongo do what instructor say, Mongo become ‘beta’ and instructor become ‘alpha.’ I, MONGO, am alpha! Mongo must keep doing it Mongo’s way! Ungawa!” It’s like de-programming cult victims sometimes…
There is a misperception that women won’t have the intestinal fortitude to pull the trigger when it’s necessary. That’s only true with an armed female who has bought into the “jump-on-the-chair-when-you-see-a-mouse” mentality. The female of the species, once she understands the situation, has no illusions that she’s supposed to kick the knife out of the attacker’s hand, or knock him unconscious with a right cross like the Lone Ranger. She’s less likely to hesitate. An outdoorswoman who is hunting to feed her family is not going to break down in weepy-eye flashbacks to Walt Disney’s film Bambi when the venison is in her sights; she’s going to hold her aim steady, and smoothly press the trigger back.
This Sabre Defense AR15 carbine has its collapsible stock closed, for its smallest-stature user…
… and now the stock is extended for a user with long arms. This type of stock adapts the gun to all sizes of family members.
As I’ve watched women train over the years, I’ve seen other differences compared to the men. When the guys shoot a qualification, there’s (usually good-natured) teasing. “Hey, Buddy, ya dropped a point there! I’m ahead of you so far!” When the gals do the same, particularly in an all-female class, the difference is stark. The theme is mutual support: “You’re doing great, Sylvia! You’re only one point down! You go, girl!”
The hardware
Most guns were designed by men, for men. The “pull” measurement (the distance between butt and trigger on a rifle or shotgun) will, in standard models, be designed for an average-size adult male. That means they may fit a tall woman. A lady of average height, or one of more petite proportions, will have to lean back off balance to hold it to her shoulder to aim.
The gunstock can be customized by a gunsmith (or by an individual who is really handy with tools and really knows the gun in question). Or, in many cases, it can simply be ordered with a “youth stock.”
Why, you may ask, don’t they ever call it a “women’s stock?” Ah, a topic opens here. We are a nation that tries to put racism behind it, and can’t quite achieve that. We are a nation that would probably like to put misogyny behind it, but can’t achieve that, either. Historically and culturally, the gun has been perceived as a “male only” object. And frankly, in many respects, a male-only totem. How many young boys with even a hint of machismo about them would want a first-time hunting rifle or shotgun with a “women’s stock” for Christmas? On the other hand, many slender women have grown accustomed to buying practical jeans in “boys’ sizes,” and more women have purchased sneakers or boots in “youth sizes,” too.
It’s a marketing thing.
If we can just set that part of it aside, the main point we take from it is: “youth stocks” fit smaller-statured people, among whom are a lot of women. Therefore, youth stocks are extremely useful for adapting shotguns and rifles to female shooters.
Kathy Jackson, author of articles, books, and the great www.corneredcat.com website, runs to slidelock with the last shot from her Glock 19, and her aggressive stance keeps the muzzle on target in “follow-through.” Photo from an LFI class at Firearms Academy of Seattle.
One of the little-recognized reasons why AR15 rifles have become so hugely popular in America—in the practical rural world as well as the defensive urban sector—is that, before the onerous Bill Clinton “Assault Weapons” Ban of 1994-2004, these guns could and now again can be had with telescoping stocks. The most common is the so-called “M4″ variety, which offers four positions, though you can get more options than that. The most petite female can shoulder, aim, and effectively fire an AR15 with the stock closed to its most “collapsed” point. Tall folks can still handle the rifle comfortably and effectively by simply pulling it all the way out to its maximum length.
This makes an AR15 with a telescoping stock a “family gun,” if you will. Momma Bear, Poppa Bear, and Baby Bear can all make it work if they know what to do with it, and in an instant can adjust the gun to fit them. We’re seeing similar telescoping stocks made available for shotguns such as that classic “backwoods home” scattergun, the Remington 870 slide action. We’re also seeing it available now for the popular Ruger Mini-14. It was not for nothing that one of the most popular models of Mini-14 was named by Ruger the “Ranch Rifle.” Adaptability is good. In a rural family setting, whether the gun is needed to put food on the table, keep the fox from the chicken coop, or repel the proverbial wolf from the door, a gun which responsible young people, petite moms, and burly dads can all use interchangeably makes a helluva lot of sense, in this observer’s opinion.
With handguns as well as rifles or shotguns, fit to the user is important. Nationwide, we’re seeing a huge increase in not only sales of pistols and revolvers, but applications for permits to carry them loaded and concealed in public. Quite apart from what it says about social trends and crime predictions, for the self-sufficient rural family the issue is that when you need a gun, you often need it now, and don’t have time to go back to the cabin, the tractor, or the horse to unlimber a long gun. A handgun on your hip or in your pocket is always with you.
5’0″ Gail Pepin is about to put some .223 fire dead center into the target with a Ruger AC556 machine gun, the selective fire version of the Ruger Mini-14. (Note selector switch at rear of receiver.) Aggressive forward stance makes it possible for small women to control hard-kicking guns.
The last time I saw someone threatened by a potentially lethal snake, there were lots of rifles and shotguns “available”… a hundred or more yards away. What was readily available was the 9mm Glock pistol holstered on my hip, which I used to blow the serpent’s brain out and end the fear.
Handguns—like long guns—tend to be designed and built “by fighting men, for fighting men.” If you look at the history of “fighting men” (more in the police service than in the military service, actually) you find that larger males were given preference over the smaller ones for certain duties. At the time little Audie Murphy became the most highly decorated soldier of WWII, there were many police departments back home that wouldn’t have hired him because he didn’t make the height and weight requirements. Read this late, great hero’s autobiography, To Hell and Back, and you’ll see that Murphy’s preferred fighting guns were the little M1 carbine (not to be confused with the much bigger, much more powerful M1 Garand rifle in caliber .30-06, which weighed nearly twice as much), and the Model 1911A1 pistol.
A “backwoods home” kind of kid, Audie Murphy had grown up feeding his family with animals he shot in the woods. He had become a deadly marksman. The little M1 carbine fit his small stature, and he littered the ground of Europe with German soldiers he killed with his. The M/1911A1 pistol had been redesigned from the original M/1911 after WWI to fit smaller hands, because in a time when the average male was smaller than males today, the first model’s trigger had been too long to reach effectively. Today, in a time when the average adult American male stands much taller than his counterpart in the year 1918 (thanks to better nutrition, better prenatal care, and similar factors), most makers of 1911-style pistols have gone back to the earlier, longer triggers. However, short 1911A1 triggers are still available, and they perfectly fit small hands with short fingers.
The dimension called “pull” factor on a rifle or shotgun is best described as “trigger reach” on a handgun. It is measured on the hand from the center of the web of the hand to the contact point of the finger on the trigger, and on the gun from the center of the curve of the trigger to the backstrap of the handgun’s frame. A person with large hands/long fingers can make do with a short-trigger-reach handgun, but a person with small hands/short fingers may not be able to get enough leverage on a gun that has a heavy pull and a long reach to even pull the trigger to make it fire.
Ace instructor Vicki Farnam, far right, prepares some of her female students to go to the firing line and learn to master “male only (bwahaha!) technology.”
Whether we’re talking rifle, shotgun, or handgun, one principle will hold true: the larger person can adapt to the smaller person’s gun better than the smaller person can adapt to the larger’s. I stand a more or less average 5’10″ tall; my significant other barely reaches five feet in height. If she uses MY shotgun, she has to cantilever her shoulders backwards to hold it up, which takes her off balance, and she simply won’t shoot it well. But if I take her youth-stock Remington 1100 semiautomatic shotgun, all I have to do is pull it in tighter to my shoulder, and I can run it just fine.
The bottom line is a simple one: make sure the firearm in question fits the smallest person authorized to use it, and the largest person in the family will be able to make do with it. The opposite is not true.
(Yes, Audie Murphy won his Congressional Medal of Honor firing a humongous .50 caliber Browning M2 machinegun from the top of a burning tank destroyer. However, the built-in stand for the gun compensated for his compact physical size. Yes, Audie Murphy once wiped out a German staff car and all its occupants with a roughly 20-pound Browning Automatic Rifle he grabbed from a larger soldier as the vehicle loomed near…but neither you nor I are the reincarnation of Audie Murphy.)
Shooting techniques
Women tend to have less upper body strength and hand strength than men of the same height. That’s not an advantage, from the standpoint of shooting a gun effectively. The other side of the coin is that women tend to have a lower center of gravity than their brothers the same height, and pound for pound tend to be stronger from the waist down. This is why the twin sister beats the twin brother in something like “Indian leg wrestling,” and it’s why women need to pay more attention to shooting stance than men of the same size.
Can small women handle big shotguns? 6′-plus male holds electronic timer (left) as petite female (center) prepares to tear apart a man-size target with 5 blasts of buckshot in roughly 2 seconds with her shotgun. Average-size lady in LFI-II class, at right, is about to follow…
The stance—the body position when you fire the gun—requires upper body weight to be forward so it goes against the recoil force. The good news for the female shooter is that having that lower center of
gravity and approximately 30 degrees more flexibility in the pelvic axis than a typical man of the same height, she can flex forward and get into the gun better, if she has just been taught to do it.
With rifle, shotgun, or handgun, if a 220-pound male body-builder with 7% body fat leans backward as he fires, the recoil force of the gun will cantilever him backward and send the muzzle jumping so high that the next shot might hit a duck in the air, but not a deer on the ground. However, if a 110-pound female shooter has her body weight maybe 60% onto a flexed forward leg, and is digging her rear heel into the ground with the rear leg’s knee just unlocked, and her upper body is forward of center, her body dynamics will almost instantly overcome the recoil force of the weapon and snap her gun back on target for an immediate second shot if that is necessary.
Physically small people with limited body strength who know how to use what they have to work with, will almost invariably outshoot big, strong people shooting with old-fashioned techniques. (Umm…did I mention Audie Murphy already?)
The proof is out there
Do a Google search of winners of National Championship rifle matches in the United States over the last several years. Your research will show you that a disproportionate number of the relatively few women who compete against men have won the overall National Championship titles. Rifle shooting involves firing from awkward positions, such as sitting. Female flexibility has an advantage here. We’ve talked about the fine motor skill factor, but consider also that little thing called “concentration,” which so many professional educators say favors the female over the male. Is concentration a factor in shooting well? Do bears go potty in the woods?
Shotguns? One name for you: Kim Rhode. This young woman has for many years been America’s superstar in Olympic shotgun shooting.
Women and Guns
Women and guns seem to go together naturally in my view—and in the views of some others: there’s an excellent periodical by that title edited by my long-time friend Peggy Tartaro and published by The New Shotgun News and the Second Amendment Foundation. They have some of the top authorities in the field writing for them, and subscriptions to Women and Guns are available for one year/six issues for $18, or two years/twelve issues for $33 from SAF Periodical Group, PO Box 35, Buffalo, NY 14205. www.womenshooters.com
Handguns? Go to a top-level “practical pistol competition” and shoot against Jessica Abbate, Julie Goloski-Golob, Randi Rogers, or Laura Torres-Reyes. If you beat them, get back to me and then talk about “natural male superiority,” Testosterone Boy.
The bottom line
For God’s sake, people, we’ve seen the role models here, in the pages of Backwoods Home Magazine, over many years. Jackie Clay takes her Winchester Model 94 .30-30, the quintessential deer rifle, into the woods and shoots a white-tail, cleans the carcass, and takes it home and butchers it into steaks and chops and stew and burgers with which to feed her family.
Annie Tuttle, our editor at Backwoods Home, not only takes over from The Patriarch and runs the whole damn magazine, but makes sure that she and her babies are safe at home while her husband serves his country overseas in the United States Armed Forces. Her home protection system goes up to and includes a Springfield Armory SOCOM-16, short enough for a petite female to handle with aplomb, and chambered for 7.62mm NATO, deadly enough to do a remarkably convincing imitation of what Audie Murphy did to that WWII Nazi vehicle and every enemy combatant on board, with a Browning Automatic Rifle. If any violent home invaders attempt to intrude on this little mother’s nest of babies, I know the attackers’ autopsy reports will be ugly to read, but my own final assessment would be “Cause of Death of Intruders: Sudden and Acute Failure of the Victim Selection Process.”
The lioness is often more formidable than the lion. No instinct is stronger than that of mother protecting child. There is nothing unfeminine about strength and empowerment. One of the best informational resources I can recommend for either gender is www.corneredcat.com, by the formidable Kathy Jackson. Armed and Female by Paxton Quigley is another great read, and Gila Hayes’ new book, Personal Defense for Women came out last fall.
End of discussion as far as I’m concerned…but you can always debate the issue with me on my blog.
The seven steps of operation of any firearm (rifle, shotgun, or pistol) are the same. The purpose of the action (mechanism) of any gun is to perform these seven steps. All actions accomplish the following steps of operation either mechanically or by hand, although not necessarily in this order:
1. FIRING–pulling the trigger releases the hammer or striker and fires the shell in the chamber.
2. UNLOCKING & PRIMARY EXTRACTION–the breech is securely locked closed during firing; after firing, the first operation is to unlock it. Autoloaders do this by means of gas pressure and an operating rod, other actions do this by manual movement of a bolt handle, slide handle, etc. In addition, the case left behind after the shot charge, wad, and powder are gone must be loosened from the chamber walls–this is called primary extraction, and it is accomplished mechanically as the action is unlocked.
3. EXTRACTION–the case is partially or fully removed from the chamber.
4. EJECTION–after extraction the case is removed from the gun; it is either lifted out by hand or thrown out by the ejector.
5. COCKING–The hammer or striker spring is compressed as the hammer/striker is drawn back, and then held back by the sear; it is now cocked.
6. FEEDING–a fresh cartridge is chambered, either by hand, or by the forward travel of the breech-block (bolt).
7. LOCKING–The breech-block is locked closed, and the gun is ready to fire again.
Specifically how these seven steps of operation are accomplished, and in what order, depends upon the type of action. I am not going to attempt to detail how each action accomplishes these steps; it is sufficient to understand that it does. If you carefully watch a shotgun mechanism operate, you will see how it performs the seven steps.
The shotgun actions I am going to cover in this article are the autoloading action, the pump action, and the break action (single shot and double barrel). These are the action types that the vast majority of modern shotguns employ. I will try to briefly point out the advantages and disadvantages of each type, and mention some of the best known shotguns that employ each type of action.
There are other shotgun types that I will not touch on here, such as the unusual Darne sliding block action or the inexpensive bolt action. But these types represent only a small percentage of shotgun sales. The latter works like a bolt action rifle–see my article The Bolt Action in the “Rifle Information” section of my Guns & Shooting Page for more information.
The autoloader
Remington Model 1100. Illustration courtesy of Remington Arms Co.
Long recoil operated, short recoil operated, and gas operated autoloading actions were all devised by John Browning, and the firm that bears his name has made all three types. The most famous long recoil action is the Browning Auto-5. This same design has been produced by Remington (as the famous Model 11), Savage, and others. All of these guns can be easily recognized by the familiar “square back” receiver.
A long recoil action uses the force of recoil to achieve the seven steps of operation. It requires the barrel and bolt (locked together) to travel rearward for a distance somewhat greater than the full length of the fired cartridge before coming to a stop so that the fired shell may be extracted and ejected. Then the barrel unlocks from the bolt and returns to battery, followed a little later by the bolt, which strips a fresh shell from the magazine and chambers it as it returns to battery. Springs, compressed on the rearward movement, power the return to battery of the barrel and bolt. The jolt caused by the heavy barrel/bolt assembly reaching the end of its rearward travel immediately after the recoil caused by the firing of the cartridge gives the long recoil gun a peculiar “double shuffle” kick, which some shooters find disconcerting.
The short recoil shotgun also uses recoil energy for power, but the barrel and bolt are only locked together for a short distance, usually less than 1/2 inch. Then the two are separated and the barrel returned to battery by a spring while the bolt continues rearward to eject the fired case. At the end of its travel the bolt is forced forward (by another spring) and it strips a fresh round from the magazine and chambers it as it returns to battery.
The Browning Double Automatic was an interesting example of a short recoil operated shotgun. Most autoloading pistols also operate on the short recoil principle, and this is where the system has found its most common application.
The gas operated autoloading shotgun uses the power of the expanding gas from the power charge to operate the action. It works in a similar manner to the gas operated autoloading rifle, so for a more detailed description of this action I will simply refer you to my article The Autoloading Action in the “Rifle Information” section of my Guns & Shooting Page.
Probably the best-known gas operated shotgun ever made, and typical of the type, is the Remington Model 1100. This benchmark design has influenced the great majority of subsequent autoloaders. It has proven to be a reliable gun that significantly reduces perceived recoil. As I write this in 2007 the 1100 is still in production. Gas operated autoloaders are offered by most manufacturers of repeating shotguns.
Autoloaders are very popular for the various clay target sports and also for hunting. They offer reduced perceived recoil (about 30%, due to the energy absorbed in operating their action) and a quick, almost effortless, second or third shot. This reduced recoil is particularly advantageous for trap and skeet shooters, who may shoot hundreds of rounds a day. It is also pretty important to the waterfowl hunter shooting magnum loads.
Autoloaders are a little more expensive than an equivalent pump gun, but much cheaper to manufacture and sell than a decent double gun. The shooter wishing to increase the versatility of his or her autoloader can purchase a second barrel of different configuration at a reasonable price. Barrels can usually be interchanged in minutes without tools. Today, at least in North America, autoloaders are probably the best selling type of shotgun.
Autoloaders generally require more maintenance than other types. Without it they are apt to become less reliable than a manually operated action, particularly in very cold weather. They must be kept clean and should be inspected for proper adjustment and worn parts on a regular basis. Other shotgun types will run practically forever if you merely swab out the chamber and bore and wipe down the outside of the gun with a silicone cloth. This is not true of autoloaders, and particularly gas operated autoloaders.
The primary disadvantage of the autoloading shotgun, besides increased maintenance, relates to the length of the receiver necessary to contain its action. This long receiver between the barrel and butt stock makes an autoloader about 4″ longer than a break action gun with the same length barrel. Autos tend to be muzzle heavy and slow to swing with a barrel longer than 26″ in length. This is a disadvantage shared with the pump gun (see below).
Some shooters find the automatic operation of the action between shots distracting, especially when shooting clay target doubles. Some autos tend to be fussy about ammunition; they will often fail to eject light loads, and sometimes fail to feed heavy loads.
Reloaders dislike the fact that autos throw the fired shell on the ground. Some autoloaders also tend to be sensitive to reloads, and will only operate with reloaded shells previously fired in their chamber. This can be a pain in the neck for the reloader that owns more than one shotgun.
Most experienced shooters consider autoloaders the most dangerous type of shotgun in the hands of a careless or ignorant shooter. Because, after the first shot, it is ready to shoot again with no action required by the shooter beyond pulling the trigger. This is, of course, also true for a double gun with a single trigger. Safety is really an operator problem, as the autoloader is as safe as any other repeater when used correctly. Careless individuals are dangerous to themselves and others with any sort of gun, and also around motor vehicles, boats, aircraft, power tools, matches, propane stoves and lanterns, machinery of all kinds, and electricity. They should be studiously avoided.
The pump
Remington Model 870. Illustration courtesy of Remington Arms Co.
The pump action is cycled by “pumping” the forearm after a shot is fired. The forearm is connected to the breech-bolt by rods called “action bars.” These cause the bolt to move with the forearm, performing the seven steps of operation. There are two motions to pumping a shotgun. First the forearm is pulled straight to the rear. This initially unlocks the bolt, then extracts and ejects the fired shell as the bolt moves rearward. When the forearm reaches the end of its rearward stroke, it is pushed in the opposite direction, straight forward. It pulls the bolt with it, until the bolt once again locks in the fully forward position. During its forward motion the bolt picks up a fresh shell from the magazine, pushes it into the chamber, and locks into place. The gun is then ready for another shot.
The best selling pump gun in history is the Remington Model 870, and the most famous is probably the Winchester Model 12. Winchester introduced the Model 1300 pump gun in 1964 as a replacement for the Model 12, and has produced it ever since. The 1300 was designed to be less expensive to manufacture than the classic Model 12. In recent years Browning has built a very nice pump gun named the BPS. These guns, along with the Mossberg 500 and its descendants, typify the American pump gun. In North America the pump was the most popular type of shotgun for a good part of the 20th century. Today, the autoloader has relegated the pump to second place, but the pump gun is still a strong seller.
Pump guns handle virtually identically to gas operated autoloaders. Because of their long receiver they tend to be muzzle heavy if equipped with a barrel the same length as typically found on a break action gun. A pump gun with a 24″ barrel is about the same overall length as a double with 28″ barrels, and handles well, but the short barrel increases muzzle blast. A 26″ barrel gives a pump about the same overall length as a double with a 30″ barrel. Repeaters like pumps and autoloaders usually handle best with 26″ barrels, and a 28″ barrel is a practical maximum for field use. A pump with a 30″ barrel is about the same length as a double with a 34″ barrel, which is pretty clumsy for most purposes.
Because of its relatively low price, reliability and multi-shot capacity the pump action shotgun has for many years been a favorite of both the military and the police when a short range, hard hitting weapon is called for. Short barreled “riot gun” type pumps have also become popular with urban residents, who may indeed be faced with a riot just beyond their front door, started on the flimsiest of pretexts.
The principal advantages of the pump gun are its relatively economical price, 3+ shot capacity, reliability and fast manually operated action. Although it is not as popular in competition as the over/under or autoloader, many trap and skeet shooters do use pump guns and a quick second shot for doubles can be achieved with practice. Reloaders who favor repeaters like pump guns because a fired shell can be ejected into the hand rather than onto the ground.
Pumps are particularly useful as field guns. They are not sensitive to ammunition and can be used with light or heavy loads, including reloads. A second barrel (longer or shorter) or multiple choke tubes can be purchased to increase the versatility of the gun at modest cost. A pump gun is usually the cheapest, and often the best, way for the occasional shotgun shooter to get into a repeater that is suitable for fast follow-up shots in the field.
The break action
Break action shotguns commonly come in single barrel and double barrel styles. Single barrel guns are usually either inexpensive beginner guns or special purpose trap (competition) guns. Double barrel guns have the barrels placed side-by-side or one superposed over the other (over/under). There are also a few three-barrel break action guns called “drillings.” They usually have two side-by-side shotgun barrels over a single rifle barrel. Never very numerous, drillings have generally been made in Europe (especially Germany and Austria), but back around the turn of the 20th Century there was a Three Barrel Gun Company in the U.S. that made drillings.
Any break action gun is the safest of all shotgun types, since simply opening the action reveals whether it is loaded and renders it inoperable. It also makes it very easy to check for barrel obstructions. A break-action gun should not be closed until it is time to shoot.
Single barrel
Browning BT-99 trap gun. Illustration courtesy of Browning Arms.
The single barrel, break action shotgun is compact, light, handy, well balanced and effective. It is most commonly seen as a beginner’s field gun. These are usually rather plain, inexpensive, mass produced guns stocked in hardwood or plastic, but seldom walnut. They often have an external, rebounding hammer that must be cocked before they can be fired. If equipped with an ejector a single barrel can be reloaded fairly rapidly.
The H&R Topper line of single barrel shotguns is typical of the breed, and perhaps the best known of the type today. Toppers are made in standard and youth sizes, and in 12, 16, 20, 28, and .410 gauges. A Deluxe model, in 12 gauge only, is available with screw-in chokes. There are also survival and deer hunter (slug gun) styles. New England Arms and Rossi also offer similar guns. In years past Sears, Western Auto, Montgomery Ward’s and similar mass retailers sold about a zillion single barrel shotguns under various trade names. At one time Beretta, Winchester, Ithaca, Stevens and other well known manufacturers also built inexpensive single barrel shotguns. These were the shotguns with which generations of young Americans learned to shoot.
Another commonly encountered form of single barrel shotgun is the single barrel trap gun. These are top-flight competition guns, built by many of the famous double gun manufacturers. They are usually impeccably fitted and finished guns, typically featuring long 32 or 34 inch barrels with elevated ventilated ribs, beavertail fore-ends, and straight, Monte Carlo, or adjustable combs. The Browning BT-99 is perhaps the most famous of the breed, along with the legendary Ithaca Single Barrel Trap Gun.
Side-by-Side double barrel
Model 21 shotgun. Illustration courtesy of Connecticut Shotgun Mfg. Co.
The queen of shotguns is the elegant break action, side-by-side double barrel. No other design is as graceful or as aesthetically pleasing. Double guns are generally built on actions called “boxlock” (where the action parts–the locks–are carried inside of the action body), or “sidelock” (where the lockwork is attached to sideplates inletted into the wood behind the body of the action). Both types were invented in Britain.
World famous gun makers like Westley Richards, W. & C. Scott, Holland & Holland, Boss, Greener, and Purdy largely brought the modern hammerless side-by-side double gun to perfection in Britain in the latter part of the 19th century. These British gun makers worked out the design of and set the standards for double guns. Many of them are still building guns today. Very fine double guns (often called “best guns”) are also made in the U.S., Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, France and perhaps other places. See my article Best Shotguns for more information about these exquisite doubles.
Virtually all double-barreled shotguns today are of the familiar break-open design, fundamentally similar to the break-action single shot guns with which most kids learn how to shoot. To open the action, a top lever (operating what is called a Scott spindle) is pressed to the side and the barrels pivot down around a hinge pin at the front of the action bar, opening the action and exposing the breech end of the barrels for loading or unloading.
Most of the better double guns have automatic ejectors, which eject fired shell cases when the action is opened, but merely extract unfired cases from the chamber for easy hand removal. Automatic ejectors were developed to reduce the time it takes to reload a double gun, for while reloading must be accomplished by hand, unloading can be made automatic.
Competition guns usually forgo this feature, since two shots are the limit in competition and fast reloading is unnecessary. Also, most competitive shooters are handloaders and they do not like to have their empty cases thrown on the ground.
To speed reloading even further some doubles feature assisted opening. This uses some form of spring action to help kick the barrels open when the top lever is operated. Of course, this spring must be compressed when the gun is closed, requiring more effort to close the gun.
Another feature incorporated into most British best guns is the “clean” breech face. This is also intended to speed reloading, by eliminating any projections from the face of the breech that could interfere with the removal or insertion of shells. Unlike most American doubles, which hold the action closed by means of some sort of bolt through an extension of the top rib, British (and also Spanish and Italian) guns typically use underbolts. These operate in a large central slot in the center of the action’s watertable and lock into “bites” (deep notches) cut into “lumps” (lugs) placed centrally between the “flats” (underside) of the twin barrels, which fit into the slot in the action’s watertable when it is closed. The Winchester Model 21, Ruger Gold Label, and Savage/Fox Model B American doubles use the British system and have a clean breech face.
Hand detachable locks are often seen on certain British and Spanish best grade sidelocks. This feature permits the shooter to remove the sideplates with their attendant mechanisms for easy cleaning without resorting to tools. The interior of such locks are usually highly polished or engine turned, and sometimes the parts are gold plated. This seems like a very classy feature to me.
Some double guns also have a single selective trigger (SST), which the user can set to fire either barrel first and which then automatically resets to fire the second barrel. This is a complicated type of trigger. Not all makers of best guns offer a SST and some of those that do probably shouldn’t. Many are prone to “doubling” (firing both barrels at once) or “balking” (not firing the second barrel when the trigger is pulled). Most British and Spanish SST’s have a bad reputation and the famous American Parker shotgun’s SST was among the worst. I have found the Browning, SKB and Winchester SST’s to be very reliable. The single trigger used in the old (and new) A. H. Fox guns also had a good reputation.
There are also single non-selective triggers, which always fire the same barrel first. Since they are much simpler than SST’s these usually work fine. Lots of fine European live pigeon (competition) guns come with non-selective single triggers because the open choked barrel is always fired first and a single trigger is perhaps a hair faster than double triggers. The deluxe version of the Savage/Fox Model B double came with a non-selective single trigger.
Most double guns intended for hunting still have two separate triggers, one for each barrel. Two triggers are perhaps the easiest way for the hunter to select which barrel to fire first. This design is the simplest, most reliable and gives the shooter, in effect, two entirely separate actions so that a malfunction in one does not render the other inoperable. Most of the powerful double rifles chambered for big bore cartridges, guns designed for the largest and most dangerous game, are built with two triggers for exactly this reason.
As you can perhaps tell, much thought and mechanical ingenuity has gone into the evolution of the double gun. In fact, a best grade double is the most highly evolved of all firearms. It is also the only common action type that has no military application. The modern double gun is strictly a civilian innovation.
A side-by-side double gun offers an instant choice of two chokes, short overall length (compared to a repeater) for any given barrel length, a trim receiver for easy carrying, a very quick second shot, superior “between the hands” balance and generally the best handling available in a shotgun. It is also the most graceful of all guns. As noted above, any break action gun is the safest of all shotgun types, since simply opening the action reveals whether it is loaded and renders it inoperable. The typical double’s sliding tang-mounted safety is quicker and easier to operate than the safety mounted in the trigger guard of most repeaters. A double is also extremely easy to check for barrel obstructions.
Over/Under double barrel
Browning Citori. Illustration courtesy of Browning Arms.
Like side-by-side double guns, O/U actions can be of either the boxlock or sidelock type. The redoubtable John Browning popularized the O/U in the 20th century with his innovative Superposed boxlock design. The company that bears his name is still one of the largest suppliers of the type. Other very well known gun companies offering Over/Under shotguns include Ruger, Savage, Remginton, and Beretta. Pietro Beretta of Italy, the oldest gunmaker in the world, builds both boxlock and sidelock O/U guns. Perazzi, also of Italy, is especially well known for their O/U competition models, as are Kreighoff of Germany and Kemen of Spain. Boss, Holland & Holland, and Purdy of London, England offer exquisite sidelock O/U game guns in addition to their famous side-by-side models. David McKay Brown of Glasgow, Scotland makes a superlative over/under as well as a “round action” side-by-side.
In the last 50 years, more titles and trophies in trap and skeet, including Olympic medals, have been won with O/U guns than with any other type. Despite its somewhat ungainly appearance (compared to a side-by-side), the O/U is the best selling double barreled gun in the world today. The stack barrel can be made to balance and swing just as well as a side-by-side, but its receiver is thicker so it doesn’t look or feel quite as trim.
The O/U’s advantages include a single sighting plane, short overall length, excellent balance, tang-mounted safety and the same safety advantages as other break action guns. Most O/U’s today come with single triggers and offer a very fast second shot, faster than an autoloader since no time is wasted while the action cycles. The first of these advantages is why most shooters today prefer it to the side-by-side. The other advantages are why so many top-level competition shooters prefer the O/U to repeating shotguns, despite its much higher price.
About the only disadvantage to any quality double, whether side-by-side or over/under, is price. These superior guns are expensive to manufacture.
I’m not fishing for sympathy, I only tell you about this because you’re the person I consider most likely to convince people that having the means to protect themselves is a good idea.
The dead man is my brother-in-law, we had our differences, but we also had a deep respect for each other. He was not only my family, he was my friend. My brother-in-law was stabbed to death on his front porch early this morning by a man who he’s known and been friends with since childhood. My brother-in-law’s house is right across the road from mine.
Michael, I have to admit that I’ve often thought you perhaps a bit paranoid for carrying a gun while out in your yard, especially in Casper, Wyoming. You now have my solemn promise that I will never think of you in that light again.
Most people think they would never need a gun that close to home, especially when walking outside to talk to a “friend”. My brother-in-law didn’t own a gun, and even if he had, it might not have saved his life in this case, but it might have. Empty handed, and caught totally off guard, he didn’t have a chance. My home is now filled with weeping family members, many of them children, 3 of the children now fatherless. All of this is due to senseless violence, and a defenseless victim.
Repost this anywhere you would like, use part of it, use all of it, I don’t care. If it convinces just one person to take the steps necessary to protect themselves, then my brother-in-law did not die for nothing. I refuse to believe that the world is a terrible and ugly place, but there are definitely terrible and ugly people in it.
After some years now of reading internet bulletin boards, I think I’ve got the pros and cons of possible SHTF rifle choices figured out. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the following is my analysis based upon the wisdom of numerous gun board gurus (you know them, they’re always the first ones to tell you a particular model gun is “junk” and enlighten you as to why they have made the only logical purchases)…
The AR 15:
Great, awesome, unbelievable rifle(when it works). Can hit a fly in the butt at 300 yards (when it works). If one is ever attacked by a pack of feral poodles post-SHTF, this is the perfect defensive rifle (unless it jams, in which case you’re poodle food). The upside is that one can hang more plastic aftermarket doo-dads on it than a Christmas tree, which may effectively frighten away bad guys when the gun jams. Also, by simply changing the upper, one can convert it into a Ruger 10/22.
The MINI-14:
Could be a good rifle, but it’s not black.
The SKS:
Best obsolete rifle ever made (even if it isn’t black, but you can buy a black aftermarket stock that looks kinda like an AR). If you need to lay in a big mud puddle and shoot at bad guys, this is the rifle to have. It will shoot as well as ever (maybe even better) when full of mud and the ten round mag makes puddle shooting a breeze since unlike hi-cap mags, you can hold the rifle upright in prone (mud puddle) position. Major drawback is that everyone knows that in a post-SHTF situation one must immediately fire thousands of rounds, a task for which a fixed ten round magazine is ill equipped, which is why they invented the AK. You can buy aftermarket hi-cap mags, but they often jam, creating the illusion that one is shooting an AR when combined with a nifty aftermarket stock. Other major drawback is that the 7.62 x 39 round is not .223 or .308.
The AK-47:
The AK-47 solved the difficult problem of firing thousands of rounds at approaching bad guys by allowing you to deftly change 30 round mags taped back to back, or for the truly ambitious, drum type magazines may be found. Unfortunately, buying an AK-47 is difficult, as they only come in full auto configurations. The good news is that a number of semi-automatic variants are available, allowing you to simulate an actual AK-47 by pulling the trigger really, really fast. Like the SKS, AK variants function best when filled with mud, but actually filling them is difficult as the hi-cap magazine makes lying in a mud puddle while shooting much more difficult. Fortunately, tactical experts from a mysterious facility known only to us as “the hood” have developed the “homeboy” method of handling an AK variant which promises to alleviate the hi-cap magazine vs mud puddle problem. One drawback of the AK variant is that (like the SKS) it’s not black, however, aftermarket vendors have corrected this tactical faux pas on the part of Soviet designers by offering black furniture for those “in the know”. Like the SKS, the AK variant also suffers from the troubling problem that the 7.62 x 39 round is not .223 or .308. However, recognizing this problem, Russian designers have created a similar cartridge to the .223 known as the 5.45 x 39.5. The problem of the 7.62 x 39 not being a .308 has not been addressed, as Russian poodles are apparently no larger than American poodles. Nevertheless, the quest to make smaller and smaller projectiles for combat weapons continues and rumors of a newer and better innovation known as the “pellet gun” have recently surfaced. We await an AR upper to accommodate this promising new caliber.
The Mosin-Nagant:
This unpronounceable rifle has a long history of military service. Napoleon reportedly had one. The unusually long 91/30 barrel combined with bayonet insures that it should be especially useful should a SHTF scenario involve the “redcoats” coming. The major drawback of this rifle is that it is a bolt action, which could make firing the prerequisite thousands of rounds at approaching bad guys difficult. However, if the Mosin owner and the bad guys are patient, one should be able to sling enough lead downrange by the time they are older than their rifle currently is. Like other eastern block rifles, the Mosin also is not black. This may be a possible reason why the Soviets lost the cold war. However, like the SKS and AK, western vendors have corrected this problem by offering an aftermarket stock in black. Unfortunately, none are available with a pistol grip. If Napoleon’s Mosin had a pistol grip, he may have very well conquered the world, but that’s another discussion. Other “carbine” type Mosins are also available, which would be the perfect compliment if one’s SHTF plan includes charging at bad guys on horseback while wearing a fur hat, swinging a curved saber and swilling a bottle of vodka.
The CETME:
While the Mosin-Nagant takes a step in the right direction by chambering a larger caliber, the CETME promises to actually be able to send the desired thousands of rounds downrange much like the AK, only with the “bang” being in Spanish rather than Russian. While promising, the CETME is said to fall short since it’s commonly known that the Century built models can only be fired once before exploding. The best-known solution is to use the CETME like a hand grenade, throwing it at the bad guys and hoping they try to fire it so it explodes on them rather than you.
The G3:
The G3 would probably make a good post-SHTF weapon, but they’re full auto and Uncle Sam says you can’t have one. Because he said so and because “he’s the uncle”. Well, you could get one if you sold your house and lived in your car to pay for it, but that’s pretty much the same thing. The good news is that you could get a semi-automatic version like the HK91 or PTR-91 (and they’re black, a major improvement on the original CETME design). The major complaint about this design is that it has stuff like a fluted chamber and a roller-delayed blowback action, making it too exotic for a viable SHTF weapon. The other major drawback reported about this German improvement on the CETME design is that it’s not an M1A or a FAL.
The FAL:
The FAL is the freemason of rifles. Though you don’t run into them often, they’re reported to be everywhere and secretly control the world of guns. This explains why FAL owners tend to worship their rifles, often converting their gun cabinets into FAL shrines and performing bizarre candlelit rituals before their rifle, which only the initiated understand. For the uninitiated, the upside is that the FAL can be found in black furniture and has hi-cap magazines. FAL owners tend to taunt AR owners about their “poodle shooter” calibers, touting the ability of the .308 to penetrate such obstacles as trees. While this puzzles some, I suspect that the members of the FAL cult may have some mysterious knowledge that common gun owners do not. Perhaps when the SHTF and hordes of trees rise up to destroy the human race we will all wish we had a FAL.
The M1A:
The M1A is the ultimate SHTF rifle. We know this because M1A owners remind us of this constantly. Like the FAL, the M1A is capable of stopping a tree in its tracks. When the hordes of killer trees take the rest of us, FAL and M1A owners will likely be the only ones left to hash out who has the better rifle. Of course, we know the answer (because M1A owners remind us of it constantly). The M1A not only has superior penetration, it is extremely accurate at distance. Therefore, when the hordes of killer trees have all been mowed down, FAL owners will fall quickly to the hordes of paper silhouette targets come to avenge their woodland brethren. The M1A owners will stop the avenging targets with neat, 1 MOA groups center mass at 600 yards. At that point, the standard M1A owners will have to hash out which is the better gun with the SOCOM 16 owners to determine who will inherit the earth. A glaring design error in the M1A is that it’s not black, which is why they invented the SOCOM.
Other military style rifles:
There are, in fact, other military style rifles, which I have not mentioned. It is, however, widely understood that all of these other rifles will fail as soon as the stuff hits the fan and being less common than the others, parts will not be available, rendering them all useless.
Pistol caliber carbines and sporting rifles:
Aside from the biggies, there are carbines in pistol calibers, but as Jeff Cooper says about the .32, if your shoot someone with one, and they notice, they’ll probably get mad. Therefore, pistol caliber carbines are fun toys, but not a serious SHTF choice.
Sporting rifles are right out. They are not designed to fire the required volume of ammunition in a short period. Under such stress, their barrels will melt and droop like wet noodles, leaving the user defenseless.
Well, that’s about it. Thanks to the Internet and the plethora of gurus on it, I now have a comprehensive understanding of every possible SHTF rifle, even one’s I’ve never owned or even shot. Naturally, I had to pass this know-how on.
But Wait……
You bought the wrong gun!!!
M14/M1A:
Clunky, heavy, and overpowered. Essentially a Garand tarted up with a removable magazine, in a half-baked attempt to adapt a 19th century rifle design philosophy to the mid-20th century. Most often named as favorite infantry rifle by people who never had to hump a 10-pound wood-stocked rifle with lots of sharp protrusions and no collapsible anything on a three day exercise, or try to make it through a firefight with the standard battle load of five 20-round magazines.
AK-47:
Crude and inaccurate bullet thrower designed by and for illiterate peasants. Chambered in a caliber that manages to cut the ballistics of a proper .30-caliber battle rifle in half without passing on any weight savings to the grunt. Ergonomics only suitable for Russian midgets. Archaic cable trigger spring, crummy sights, no sight radius to speak of, no bolt hold-open device, and a clumsy safety. Favorite infantry rifle of Middle Eastern goat herders, guys named Abdullah, and backwoods militia types who like the fact that it shoots cheap ammo and has ballistics like their familiar .30-30.
H&K G-3/HK-91:
Ergonomics of a railroad tie. No bolt release, and a locking system that requires three men and a mule to work the cocking handle. Fluted chamber that mauls brass, and violent bolt motion that dings the brass that didn’t get mauled too badly by the chamber. Stamped sheet metal construction, yet just as heavy as a milled steel M14. Safety lever that requires unnaturally long thumbs, and a trigger pull that feels like dragging a piano across a gravel road with your index finger. Favorite infantry rifle of Cold War nostalgics and third world commandos.
M-16/AR-15:
Underpowered varmint rifle burdened by a crummy magazine design. Nasty direct-impingement gas system that poops where it eats. High sight line, flimsy alloy-and-plastic construction. Generally favored by range commandos, tactical disciples, military vets who have never fired anything else for comparison, and Brownells addicts who a.) enjoy spending three times the cost on the rifle on bolt-on accoutrements, and b.) never have to use their rifle away from a dry, sunny range.
G-36:
Flimsy plastic rifle with non-user adjustable fair-weather optics that fog up when a gnat breaks wind in front of them. Magazines that take up twice as much pouch space than others in the same caliber because of the “clever” coupling nubs on the magazine housing. Skeleton folding stock that is about as suitable for butt-stroking as a plastic mess spork. Twice as expensive as other rifles in its class because of the “HK” logo on the receiver. Preferred infantry rifle of SWAT cops, and soldiers whose militaries haven’t been in shooting conflicts since the 1940s.
Glock:
Butt-ugly plastic shooting appliance with the ergonomics of a caulking gun. Five-pound trigger with no external safety makes it ill suited for its target market (cops who shoot a hundred rounds a year for qualification). Favored by gangbangers because the product name is short and rhymes with other short, rap-friendly words.
Beretta 92F/M9:
Clunky and overweight rip-off of a clunky and overweight German design from the 1930s. Shear-happy locking block, ergonomics that are only suited for linebackers, barely adequate sights that are partially non-replaceable, and low capacity for its size. Favored by Eighties action movie fanatics and John Woo freaks.
1911:
Overweight and overly complex piece of late 19th century technology. Low capacity, useless sights in stock form, and a field-stripping procedure that requires three hands. Favored by people who are at the cutting edge of handgun technology and combat shooting…of the 1960s.
H&K P7:
Wildly overpriced, heavy for its size, low capacity in most iterations, and blessed with a finish that rusts if you give the gun a moist glance. Gas tube has a tendency to roast the trigger finger after a box or two of ammo at the range. Favored by gun snobs who think that paying twice as much for half the rounds means four times the fighting skill.
SIG Sauer:
Top-heavy bricks with the rust resistance of an untreated iron nail at the bottom of a bucket of saltwater. Ergonomically sound, if you have size XXL mitts. Some minor parts made in Germany, so the manufacturer can charge 75% Teutonic Gnome Magic premium. Favored by Jack Bauer fans and wannabe Sky Marshals/Secret Service agents.
S&W Revolvers:
Archaic hand weapons from a bygone era, the missing link between flintlocks and autoloaders. Low capacity, and reloading requires a lunch break. Heavy for their capacity, unless you’re talking about airweight snubbies, which hurt as much on the giving end as they do on the receiving end. Rare stoppages, but few malfunctions that don’t require gunsmith services, which are hard to come by in a gunfight. Favored by crusty old farts who just now got around to trusting newfangled smokeless powder, and Dirty Harry fans with unrealistic ideas about the power of Magnum rounds vs. engine blocks.
SMLE/Enfield:
Refinement of a 19th century blackpowder design. Weapon of choice for militaries who either couldn’t afford Mausers, or had ideological hang-ups about Kraut rifles. Rimlock-prone cartridge that only barely classifies as a battle rifle round because of blackpowder derivation and insufficient lock strength of the platform. Favored by Canadians with WWII nostalgia, and people who think that semi-auto rifles are a passing fad.
Browning HP:
Fragile frame designed around a popgun round. Near-useless safety in stock form that’s only suitable for the thumbs of elementary schoolers. Strangest and most circuitous way to trip a sear ever put into a handgun. Favored by wannabe SAS commandos, wannabe mercenaries, and Anglophiles who think that hammer-down, chamber-empty carry is the most appropriate way to carry a defensive sidearm.
Benelli shotguns:
Plastic boutique scatterguns made by people with the martial acumen of dairy cows. Hideously expensive, and therefore popular with police agencies that get their equipment financed by tax dollars.
FN FAL:
Long and lightweight receiver that’s impossible to scope properly. Overpowered round, twenty-round magazines that run dry in a blink, and an overall weapon length that’s only suitable for Napoleonic line infantry, but utterly useless for airborne and armored infantry. Made by Belgians, a nation with a military history that is limited to waving German divisions through at the border. Favored by Falklands veterans, Commonwealth fanboys, and people who think that dial-a-recoil gas systems are the epitome of infantry technology.
And now, YOUR CALIBER SUCKS TOO!!!
9mm Luger:
European popgun round that’s only popular because the ammo is cheap for a centerfire cartridge. Cheap ammo is a good thing for 9mm aficionados, because anything bigger and more dangerous than a cranky raccoon will likely require multiple well-placed hits. Wildly popular all over the world, mostly in countries where people don’t carry guns, and cops don’t have to actually shoot people with theirs.
.45ACP:
Chunky low-pressure cartridge that hogs magazine space and requires a low-capacity design (if the gun needs to fit human hands) or a grip with the circumference of a two-liter soda bottle (if the gun needs to hold more than seven rounds). Disturbingly prone to bullet setback, expensive to reload, fits only into big and clunky guns, and a recoil that has an inversely proportionate relationship with muzzle energy.
.40S&W:
Neutered compromise version of a compromise cartridge. Even more setback-happy than the .45ACP, and setbacks are much more dangerous because of higher pressure and smaller case volume. Manages to sacrifice both the capacity of the 9mm and the bullet diameter of the .45. Twice the recoil of the 9mm for 10% more muzzle energy.
.357SIG:
Highly overpriced boutique round that does the .40S&W one worse: it manages to share the capacity penalty of the .40 while retaining the small bullet diameter of the 9mm. Noisy, sharp recoil, and 100% cost penalty for ballistics that can be matched by a good 9mm +P+ load. Penetrates like the dickens, which means that the Air Marshals just had to adopt it…only to load their guns with frangible bullets to make sure they don’t penetrate like the dickens.
.38 Special:
Legacy design with a case length that’s 75% longer than necessary for the mediocre ballistics of the round due to its blackpowder heritage. On the plus side, the case length makes it easy to handle when reloading the gun. This is a good thing because anyone using their .38 in self-defense against a 250-pound attacker hopped up on crack will need to empty the gun multiple times.
.32ACP:
Inadequate for anything more thick-skinned than Northeastern squirrels or inbred Austrian archdukes. Semi-rimmed cartridge that is rimlock-happy in modern lightweight autoloaders. Doesn’t go fast enough to expand a hollowpoint bullet, and it wouldn’t matter even if it did, because the bullet would only expand from tiny to small-ish.
.44 Magnum:
Overpowered round that generates manageable recoil and muzzle blast…if you’re a 300-pound linebacker with wrists like steel girders. Often loaded to “Lite” levels that turn it into a noisy .44 Special while retaining the ego-preserving Magnum headstamp. Considered the “most powerful handgun cartridge in the world” by people whose gun knowledge is either stuck in 1960, or who get their expertise in ballistics from Dirty Harry movies.
.50 Desert Eagle:
The Magnum of the new century. Realizing Hollywood couldn’t escape their Magnum fetishes, they had a handgun that fits the same stopping power quota of .44 Magnum and all of its filthy drawbacks. Popular amongst steroid filled movie actors who needs big guns to compensate for the steroid struck testicles. Comes in a baby variant for junior.
10mm Auto:
Super-high pressure cartridge that beats up gun and shooter alike. Very brisk recoil in anything other than all-steel S&W boat anchors, with a shot recovery that’s measured in geological epochs for most handgun platforms. Often underloaded to wimpy levels (see “.40 S&W”), which then gives it 9mm ballistics while requiring .45ACP magazine real estate.
.380ACP/9mm Kurz:
Designed by people who thought the 9mm Luger was a bit too brisk and snappy, which is pretty much all that needs to be said here. Great round if you expect to only ever be attacked by people less than seven inches thick from front to back.
.357 Magnum:
Lots of recoil, muzzle blast, and noise to drive a 9mm bullet to reckless speeds in an attempt to make up for its low mass and diameter. Explosive fragmentation and insufficient penetration with light bullets; excessive penetration and insufficient expansion with heavy ones. Still makes only 9mm holes in the target.
I was somewhat surprised in the email responses to my article here at the number of inquiries from would be first-time gun purchasers asking for advice on firearm selection, training and concealed carry permits. Obviously there are many in the freedom crowd out there who has yet to arm themselves.
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