Boise, ID - Police say Damon G. Smith, 37, of Boise was inside his Ford F-150 pickup truck, pulled over to the side of the street on Table Rock Road at about 11:40 p.m. Another car drove past headed toward Table Rock when police say Smith started following the car.

When both vehicles reached Table Rock, Smith got out and started threatening the passengers of the other car. Police say Smith appeared intoxicated, and went back to his car to get what they later determined was a BB gun or air pistol.

Officers say one of the victims pulled out his handgun and helped subdue and disarm Smith.

Full Story Here

POINT MARION, Pa. - An 85-year-old woman boldly went for her gun and busted a would-be burglar inside her home, then forced him to call police while she kept him in her sights, police said. “I just walked right on past him to the bedroom and got my gun,” Leda Smith said.

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080820/ap_on_fe_st/911_at_gunpoint

This is a review for the Galco Concealable Holster for the Springfield XD. I purchased this holster a little over a year ago and have carried it for over 400 hours.

Overview:

The Galco Concealable Belt Holster is Galco’s pancake holster and is designed to be worn behind the strong hip. It is constructed of leather and is custom molded for the firearm it is designed to hold.

The interesting thing about this holster is only the front is molded to the firearm, the back of the holster is designed for the contour of the holster wearer. This contouring is said to increase comfort and also create a flatter, more concealable look.

Construction Quality:

The Galco Concealable Holster is very well constructed and as shipped is tight and needs some break in, Graco thoughtfully includes break-in instructions with the holster. I have not experienced any fading or loose stitching.

Concealment:

True to it’s name the Galco Concealable Belt holster is very easy to conceal, especially for an OWB holster.

The holster rides close to the body but not so much that it interferes with drawing. Even with the fairly large Springfield XD 45 ACP I am able to conceal this holster very well with an untucked polo shirt so it is acceptable for both winter and summer carry.

Comfort:

I’m not sure I buy the hip molded back side has anything to do with it but the Galco Concealable Holster is very comfortable, I have carried it in excess of 16 hours in a day without any discomfort.

It is important to use the holster as designed and carry it behind instead of on the hip as carrying directly on the hip isn’t comfortable with any holster and makes concealment more difficult.

It is far more comfortable than IWB holsters as the firearm is not resting between the pants and the body.

Drawing and Holstering:

The holster is easy to draw from and is stiff enough that it does not collapse, making re-holstering easy.

Retention:

This holster is an open top holster with no thumb break and is not designed to thwart gun grubs but like all good holsters offers some retention. Retention is important so that the gun does not work lose from the holster when walking, bending over, or other activity.

The holster comes from the factory VERY snug and requires a good amount of break in, even once broke in the holster remains tight enough to provide good friction and prevent the firearm from moving.

I believe the fact that the holster is only molded to the firearm on the front contributes to snugness.

Overall:

This holster is an extremely good value, it is well constructed, comfortable, and conceals easily. It is not quite up to par with some of the better custom holsters but it is also immediately available at a very fair price.

If you are looking for a good OWB concealment holster give the Galco Concealable Belt Holster a close look, it gets a solid A.

This is a review for the Blackhawk Serpa Retention Holster for the Sig P226 / P229. I purchased this holster for open carry use. I have used it for a year and a half for concealed carry, open carry, and running.

Overview:

The Serpa Retention Holster is made by Blackhawk and is available both online and in many local stores. I have seen it in Sportsman’s Warehouse, Cabelas and various local shops.

The Serpa Holster is carbon fiber injection molded holster fit to a specific firearm. It is a level II retention holster it uses friction and a locking action to keep the firearm in the holster.

The holster can be used as a paddle holster or the paddle can be removed and standard belt loops attached.

Holster Construction

The holster itself is visually appealing and feels as though it is constructed very well. Over the past year and a half I have impacted walls, doors, and other various objects with the holster and have not caused any damage to it.

There are two potential weak points on this holster.

The holster locks onto the trigger guard, and there have been some reports of gravel and sand getting into the holster and disabling the lock release. While somewhat concerning I have no intent of rolling around in the dirt with this holster and don’t anticipate running into this problem.

The holster can be used as either a standard belt loop holster or a paddle holster, both modules are provided in the box. Unfortunately the attachment uses somewhat small screws, I am concerned that in a retention the holster may separate from the belt loop or paddle module.

Retention

The primary use for this holster is for openly carrying a firearm. Because the firearm is in plain view when open carrying firearm retention can be more of an issue when carrying concealed.

The Serpa system locks onto the trigger guard when the firearm is holstered. There is a nice audible click that notifies the user the locking system has engaged. To release the lock the user obtains a firing grip on the firearm and indexes the pointer finger along the holster, the finger will naturally rest on the lock release button.

The Serpa system is viewed as unsafe by some firearm instructors because it requires the user to use the trigger finger to disable the lock. When drawing the user presses towards their body with the trigger finger and it is in theory possible for the finger to slip from the holster onto the trigger as the firearm clears the holster.

There has been a lot of heated debate between people on this issue with advocates on either side. I myself have not experienced the finger slip but it is something I’m aware of and watch out for with this holster.

It took very little time to master the system and drawing is no slower than drawing from a holster without retention. Disabling the lock is so natural I am somewhat concerned that an attacker may also naturally rest their finger along the release button.

The paddle attachment system locks to the belt but it can still be removed fairly easily with tugging.

Concealment

I have occasionally concealed this holster in locations where open carry is not possible and while not ideal it is acceptable. I would not purchase it for a concealment holster however as there are better choices.

This holster is a polymer holster and is very rigid, this means it tends prints more than a leather holster that can smooth out the edges of the firearm.

When configured as a paddle holster I found this holster rode too far from the body to be concealed.

Running

I am an avid runner and have experimented with various methods of carry while running. This holster works very well as an open carry running holster, the retention feature keeps the firearm securely in the holster and I have not experienced any accelerated firearm wear.

It can be made to work as a concealment running holster but I found I had to continually pull my shirt down, this is common to all OWB holsters though and nothing specific to this holster.

Overall

Overall the Blackhawk Serpa Holster is a good but not great holster with decent retention capability for general use. It is far surperior to the Uncle Mike’s line of polymer holsters.

That said I do not think it is constructed heavily enough or has enough retention features for duty use.

If you are considering a Serpa holster I also recommend you take a look at the Safariland 6367 holster as it is more heavily constructed in the belt loop area and also features more retention, it is a more expensive holster though.

ccasionally a person mentions they shoot to kill, or ask why can’t the police just shoot to wound. In this post I explore shooting to kill, to wound, or to stop the threat.

Shooting to wound

When a person mentions shooting to wound they often mean to shoot someone in the shoulder, arm, leg or other non fatal location. After all they don’t want to kill the person, they just want to defend themselves or cause the person to stop their aggressive action and it seems to make sense on the surface, let’s consider some additional information though.

#1 Shooting someone in the arm is still using lethal force. The rules for using lethal force are clear, you must be in immediate danger of grave bodily injury or death. If you are not, then you are not authorized to shoot them all.

#2 During a violent confrontation the body enters fight or flight mode. The brain dumps hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol into the body to prepare our itself to survive. These hormones decrease our reaction time, increase our alertness and strength and endurance. Blood is diverted from our extremities and from the surface of the skin to decrease bleeding if we were to be injured, functions not necessary for survival including digestion are slowed or completely shutdown.

Unfortunately this mode is not without drawbacks, our fine motor skills are greatly diminished, tunnel vision (focusing directly ahead or on a specific object) may occur, many people begin shaking, not out of fear but as a response to the hormones being released into the body.

In this state some people have lost the ability to unlock doors, operate phones, or other actions that require fine motor skills. Being accurate with a handgun is exceedingly difficult, that ability is greatly reduced.

#3 The bad guy probably is probably mobile.

Shooting at a moving target is far different than a stationery one. The head, arms and legs all naturally move considerably when our body moves, making these targets much harder to hit.

On average law enforcement officers are able to hit a stationery paper target more than 90% of the time, however when movement is added to the equation that percentage drops to only 12 to 18 percent. Now consider that those 12 to 18% of hits are almost always to center mass (the chest) and it becomes clear hitting a moving target is extremely difficult.

#4 The bad guy is trying to hurt or kill you

Shooting at a paper target is far different than shooting at someone trying to kill you. There is far less time, the bad guy is not standing still waiting to be shot as a paper target does but instead is armed, moving, and trying to hurt you.

#5 The human body is extremely sturdy

The fact is when someone is shot they do not get flung across the room, crumple to the floor or drop dead. There are exceptions of course, if a head (electrical) shot is used the person will immediately drop, but the vast majority of shootings are center mass (chest) shots.

In 1989 the FBI released a study titled “Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness” in it they state that even after the heart is destroyed an average person has 10-15 seconds of alert and willful control, that means they have 10-15 seconds to kill or wound you.

Next consider that the human body is capable of operating normally until about 20% of the blood supply is lost and far longer in an impaired but still possibly lethal state.

In the US we have a very good chance of surviving gunshot wounds, even ones to the chest or stomach. Recently in Boise a criminal was shot over 20 times by the police and survived.

Shots to the arms, and legs while not lethal also do not let a sufficient amount of blood out of the body to force the person to stop. In fact it is not uncommon for people to not realize they’ve been shot until after a violent encounter is over. It is going to hurt considerably later but in the case of self defense we have an immediate need for them to stop NOW not in a few hours or days.

Shooting to kill

The next option is to shoot to kill, I’ve often heard people mention that they will “shoot to kill” in a defensive situation and recommend other people do the same. How does one shoot to kill though, is it a valid approach?

Shooting to kill is exactly that, shooting someone with the intent to kill them, to achieve that one must inflict enough damage to the other person that they can no longer live. That typically means shooting them in vital organs such as the heart, lungs, in areas that will cause rapid and uncontrollable bleeding or the head.

It also means that the person does not stop shooting until the person is dead, even if the reason for originally shooting no longer exists. For example if the bad guy enters someones house and they shoot the BG, then pursue him as he flees and continue to shoot until he is dead.

As cold hearted as it may sound shooting to kill is a valid in military combat during war where the intent is to kill the enemy.

Killing is not the goal of self defense, the goal is to stop the bad guy from killing or injuring us, the person may well die but that is not the intent. It is widely held in court that in self defense situations use of force must stop once the threat is over. For example if a home owner shoots an invader and he runs away, or collapses and no longer poses a deadly threat then the home owner must not continue to use lethal force.

Finally words matter, when the police arrive if you make the statement that you shot to kill it will be assumed you meant to kill the person. In court a prosecutor can use those words against you and portray the event not as a self defense situation but as a cold blooded attack where unnecessary force was used.

Shooting to stop the threat

I’ve discussed shooting to wound, and shooting to kill and presented information as to why neither of them are workable strategies in self defense situations, that leaves shooting to stop the threat.

The words “Shooting to stop the threat” are sometimes seen as a politically correct way of saying shoot to kill there are similarities but there are also important differences.

When a person shoots to stop the threat they are responding to an immediate and grave threat against them. The general strategy is to shoot center of mass and attempt to hit or destroy the heart and lungs. This is why some people say it is “shooting to kill” however it is not correct. We shoot for center mass because is the most reliable way to force the bad guy to stop.

Unlike the head, arms and legs the chest does not move a great amount when we move our body, making it an easier and very large target, having a large target is important because in the fight or flight mode even accomplished marksmen can have trouble being accurate. Hitting the heart and lungs is important because it will let blood out and (hopefully) force the bad guy to stop what they are doing. In the case that the bad guy continues the defender may be forced to shoot for the head.

The important thing to realize here is the intent is not to kill the bad guy, only to stop him. Also realize that the bad guy is in complete control over how much force is used, if he surrenders or quits when the gun is drawn he wont be shot at all, if he gives up after he is shot the first time he will not be shot again.

So although the end result of shooting to stop the threat and shooting to kill may happen to be the same the reason and the intent are entirely different. In shooting to stop the threat he will not be needlessly pursued or finished off while someone who is shooting to kill must do exactly that to be successful.

Conclusion

In self defense situations in the United States the proper response to deadly attacks is to shoot to stop. The bad guy is in control over (a.) if he will be shot and (b.) how many times.

In most states law enforcement is held to the same rules for use of force and they are also trained to shoot to stop the threat, not to shoot to kill. They can not afford to shoot to wound because if they fail the bad guy will likely kill them, or many other innocent people. They must stop the threat in the most immediate and effective way possible.

I hope you found this article informative, there is a lot of information on the Internet and various books and publications and I can not cover it all here. I encourage you to seek out other sources of information and to never stop learning.

We have had 260 people vote on their favorite handgun caliber and here are the results.

Interestingly despite being a younger, often discussed and somewhat disliked caliber by many the 40 S&W got more votes than the 9mm and came in a fairly close second behind the 45 ACP.

The shotgun is an extremely versatile tool and with the correct ammunition the shotgun is far more effective than handguns for home defense but there is a wide variety of ammunition available for it. In this article I discuss how to choose between bird shot, buck shot and slugs for self and home defense.

Terminal Ballistics

To get the most out of this article you should have some basic knowledge about terminal ballistics (the effect of the bullet on the target). In a previous post titled “A primer on handgun terminal ballistics” I presented an overview of terminal ballistics.

The key thing to take away is that firearms stop threats including humans by penetrating them and destroying tissue and organs. If a bullet doesn’t have enough momentum to penetrate the bad guy it wont be effective in stopping him.

The FBI has determined that to effectively stop a human a projectile must penetrate a minimum of 12 inches with up to 18 inches preferred.

12 gauge or 20 gauge?

A common question is whether a person should purchase a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun for home defense. I recommend that for home defense a 12 gauge be used because it delivers more projectiles to the target, there is a wider selection of ammunition, and the fact that there are reduced recoil or tactical 12 gauge loads that greatly reduce the recoil of the 12 gauge.

2 3/4 inch or 3 inch shotgun ammunition?

For the 12 gauge both 2 3/4 inch and 3 inch ammunition is readily available, the 3 inch ammunition is sometimes referred to as “Magnum.” For home defense 2 3/4 inch ammunition is better. The 3 inch ammunition has greatly increased recoil which makes follow up shots harder, decreases the capacity of the shotgun, and may prevent women or children from using it due to the recoil.

Available Ammunition Types

Birdshot

Birdshot consists of many small projectiles ranging in size from .080″ to .23″ in diamater. Birdshot is the most common ammunition because it can be used for hunting birds, target practice and skeet shooting. Birdshot is numbered and the smaller the number the larger the projectiles.

(table from Wikipedia)

Buckshot

Buckshot is essentially a scaled up version of bird shot and also contains multiple projectiles but they are both larger and heavier, making it suitable for use on Deer. Buck shot is numbered similarly to Birdshot, with shot size increasing as the number decreases. The most common sizes of buckshot are #00 (double ought) and #000 (triple ought).

Buckshot tends to have considerable recoil, recently several companies including Remington and Federal have introduced reduced recoil or tactical buckshot.

(table from Wikipedia)

Slugs

Unlike Birdshot and Buckshot which have multiple projectiles, the slug is a single projectile. Slugs have a higher effective range and can be used where a spreading pattern is not desired. Because of their massive momentum and energy they are also effective against bears. There are several different types of slugs, expanding, non expanding, rifled, and non rifled.

Ammunition Performance

For reference a 9mm handgun with 115 grain bullet produces:

Energy: 367 ft/lb
Momentum: 19.71
Velocity: 1200 FPS

12 Gauge Birdshot Ballistics

Birdshot is often recommended as a limited penetration ammunition for nervous home owners or apartment dwellers that want to avoid over penetration. In this section I evaluate the potential of birdshot for home defense.

Birdshot Terminal Ballistics Calculations

Let’s do some terminal ballistics calculations on the potential birdshot, I’ll use #4 shot as it is the heaviest commonly available birdshot load. In this case I’m using numbers from Federal’s Game-Shok Heavy Field Load.

Federal indicates the load fires 1 1/4 OZ (546 grains) of #4 shot at 1220 FPS

Overall Energy: 1804 ft/lb
Overall Momentum: 95

These numbers appear very impressive and far eclipse the 9mm handgun but there is a problem, bird shot does not behave as a single projectile even at point blank range, in fact there are 167 individual projectiles with a 1 1/4 oz #4 shot load. As a whole birdshot has massive momentum, but each individual pellet weighs only 3.2 grains, meaning they have VERY little momentum and don’t penetrate very well as they give up their energy very quickly.

Let us now calculate the momentum and energy of a single birdshot pellet:

Pellet Energy: 23.12
Pellet Momentum: 0.82

This paints a drastically different picture, having minimal energy, and very little penetration which is what we would expect of ammunition designed for birds. That said these numbers also don’t paint an entirely realistic picture because there are 167 pellets striking a fairly small area the performance will be better than a single pellet.

So to get a look at how birdshot performs as a ballistic gelatin test is necessary. Ballistic gelatin is used to approximate tissue and bones of animals to test ammunition. Tacticalworks (a respected information site on ballistic tests) did a test with #4 birdshot (full results here). Here are the results:

Range: 3 yards
Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
Round: 12 gauge Remington Heavy Dove 1-1/8 oz #4 Birdshot
Gelatin: 9′x9′x19′ 10% ordinance gelatin block
Measured Average Permenant Cavity: 6.5 inches (16.5 cm)
Temporary Stretch Cavity: 0.0 to 6.0 inches (0.0 to 15.2 cm)

Conclusion:

Bird shot is for birds, not people people!

Even the #4 heavy bird shot load at 3 yards did not penetrate sufficiently to reliably stop an attacker, remember the FBI defines minimum acceptable penetration as 12 inches with 18 inches preferred.

Bird shot should never be used for a home defense load, all bird shot loads lack both the momentum and penetration required to reliably stop a human attacker. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone because bird shot is designed for lightweight game, if the pellets were capable of stopping a human it would devastate the small animal and not leave much to eat.

While the intentions of people who recommend bird shot are usually good they usually lack a fundamental understanding of terminal ballistics and unintentionally give horrible advice. They often site examples of bad guys being shot with bird shot breaking off an attack, the important thing to realize is that in almost all cases the attacker chose to stop the attack, he was not forced to stop.

At the end of the day you must realize that anything that will penetrate a human enough to force them to stop an attack is going to also penetrate walls. The best way to avoid this is to prevent the situation where you must shoot, and practice enough to reliably hit the bad guy in a defensive situation.

Fortunately there is a version of bird shot scaled up to a size that is effective on people, it is called buckshot!

12 Gauge Buckshot Ballistics

Many deer are the same size or slightly larger than human sized so it makes sense that ammunition developed for them would be effective on humans. Buckshot is often use very effectively in home defense, the two most common sizes are #00 and #000.

#00 buckshot terminal ballistic information

#00 buckshot has a pellet diameter of .33 and a weight of 54 grains (16.8 times more mass than a #4 birdshot projectile) and each cartridge typically contains 9 to 12 projectiles. For these calculations I’ll use Federal Power-Shok Low Recoil Ammunition 12 Gauge 2-3/4″ Buffered 00 Buckshot 9 Pellets at a velocity of 1140 FPS

Overall Energy: 1402 ft/lb
Overall Momentum: 79.14

If you considered only the overall energy and momentum it would appear bird shot would perform better, but remember, neither bird shot or buck shot is a single projectile so lets now look at an individual projectile:

# Projectiles: 9
Projectile Weight: 54 grains (16.8 times more than #4 birdshot)
Projectile Energy: 155 ft/lb (6.7 times more than #4 birdshot)
Projectile Momentum: 8.79 (10.71 times more than #4 birdshot)

As you can the individual projectile performance of buckshot is much greater than birdshot, but like birdshot because there are multiple projectiles we need to look at an overall picture, luckily tacticalworks also did ballistic performance testing of #00 buckshot (full results here).

Range: 3 yards
Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
Round: 12 gauge 2? Federal Classic 00 Buckshot (9 pellets)
Gelatin: 9′x9′x19′ 10% ordinance gelatin block
Measured Average Permanent Cavity Penetration: 22.3 inches (56.6cm) (3.4X further than #4 birdshot)

Conclusion:#00 buckshot penetrated to 22.3 inches (3.4X further than #4 birdshot) making it an excellent choice for home defense.

12 Gauge Slug Ballistics

Unlike birdshot and buckshot a slug is a single massive projectile, it can be used for deer hunting and has been used very successfully against black and even bigger bears.

12 Gauge Slug Terminal Ballistics Information

I’ll be using the Brenneke USA K.O. Ammunition 12 Gauge 2-3/4″ 1 oz Foster-type for these calculations

Projectile Weight: 437.7 grains
Velocity: 1600 FPS
Energy: 2184 ft/lb
Momentum: 100

tacticalworks also did a ballistic gelatin test with a 1 OZ foster slug here are the results (full results here).

Range: 3 yards
Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
Round: 12 gauge 2 Winchester Foster Style Slug
Measured Average Permenant Cavity Penetration: 17.0 inches (43.2cm)
Measured Temporary Stretch Cavity: 0.5 to 15.5 inches (1.3 to 39.4 cm)

Conclusion

The slug has massive momentum and energy, because this is an expanding slug the penetration was somewhat restricted to 17.0 inches making it an excellent option for home defense.

Overall Conclusion

Birdshot is woefully inadequate for home defense and should not be used except for target practice and bird hunting.

Buckshot is an excellent performer and has a proven track record. Buckshot is a better choice than a slug for general self defense because it does not depend on expansion to limit its penetration.

Expanding foster type slugs are also an excellent performer with massive momentum but non expanding or slugs that fail to expand have the capability to over penetrate due to their mass and momentum. Slugs are best used when a single projectile is required because multiple projectiles spreading would not be appropriate and for longer range shots.

I believe it is responsible to have both buckshot and slugs available with a defensive shotgun, the TacStar SideSaddle mounts to the side of the receiver and allows you to carry extra ammunition, in my case I load buckshot in the shotgun and carry slugs on the side saddle so that I can selectively use them.