The Infamous Saturday Night Special Comes of Age

(Note - to read the end of my "perfect small pistol" quest click this LINK.)

For over a year, I struggled with the defacto modern state-of-the-art backup/pocket/concealed carry pistol, the KelTec P11 9mm.  It took a chunk out of my thumb once.  It left my hand sore every time I fired it. But worst of all I could never hit squat with it.  I was all over the paper with no rhyme or reason.  I couldn't even fire enough of a pattern to figure out what to correct.

So, I went to a much larger and more expensive weapon for regular carry, a Glock 19, which, after a reasonable amount of practice, I am able to fire fairly accurately.  The 19 is the defacto weapon of choice for probably the majority of plainclothes law enforcement these days and the military forces around the world are increasingly standardizing on Glocks, particularly the 19's slightly bigger brother the 17.  The British Army has adopted the Glock and is retiring its Brownings.  But, the Glock is a larger weapon, summer is coming and I really wanted something small to just stick in my pocket in the yard, around the farm, etc. My non negotiable selection critiera were (1) it had to be dead on accurate, (2) it had to be well mannered enough that you can fire it regularly without pain, (3) it had to have excellent second and third shot recovery characteristics and (4) it needed to be small enough to hide under a shirt tail.  After a ton of research on the internet, I found something startling. Probably the most accurate pocket pistol around for non expert shooters is a less than hundred and fifty dollar Saturday Night Special, the Phoenix Arms, HP22A. Yes, it is a .22.  I was willing to pay a lot more and would have preferred a larger caliber.  But, I ordered one figuring I could always get most of my money back out of it if it didn't work out.

The target above was shot at ten yards.  Nine out of ten rounds are in the kill zone.  The tenth was a flyer. The headshot was aimed as a headshot.  I have since adjusted the sights to correct the left side error in pattern. After a year of work, I never got anywhere close to that kind of accuracy with KelTec 9mm. Granted, as target shooting goes, the pattern above is nothing to write home about.  I expect to keep my rounds within a four to six inch circle after I have gotten used to the weapon. But, for the first time out after having fired approximately a hundred rounds with the little guy, I have to say that 90% in the kill zone at 10 yards is not a bad start with a 3 inch barrel pocket pistol.  Further, the little gun fired flawlessly right out of the box.  I had one FTF and FTE out of a hundred rounds.  Not bad for a brand new gun.

The downside of the gun is that the "California" safeties on it are ridiculous and it is a royal pain to field strip. It took me an hour to take it apart, wipe off the excess oil from the factory and put it back together again. The same operation with a Glock would take about a minute.

But, all in all, I am very pleased with the little gun and am glad to have a pocket gun again.  The gun comes in either brushed aluminum or blued finish.  It also
comes in a number of different combinations.  The basic gun with a 3 in. barrel costs about $130.00.  The Rangemaster kit comes with a 5 inch barrel, an extended magazine and a cleaning kit all packed in a lockable hard plastic case.  These sell for around $160.00.  The Rangemaster Deluxe kit includes a 3 inch barrel, a 5 inch barrel, two magazines, the cleaning kit and and the lockable case.  It costs around $199.00.  It's a great value.

Granted, the .22 long rifle is nowhere near the most effective round of choice for personal defense.  However, if you can shoot well enough to place your shots properly it can be deadly.  And, .22 ammo has come a long way.  The video below shows a high powered hollowpoint .22 lr round penetrating ballistic gel, a compound which is similar to human flesh for ballistics purposes.  As you can see, the round is moving fast and creating an amazing wound channel for a bullet its size.  Don't forget that the standard rifle round for U.S. military, the .223,  is only slightly larger.



I wouldn't recommend one of these little guys as the primary self defense weapon for the average person. But, the gun you will carry even when wearing shorts and a tee shirt is far better than the larger weapon you won't carry.  And, if you do practice regularly and can hit what you aim at, a .22 can be quite effective.

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Postcript:  The reason the Phoenix is more accurate than the more expensive KelTec goes back to basics. The KelTec has no safeties and relies upon the striker fire mechanism and a long, hard trigger pull to avoid misfires.  Compromises in accuracy are a natural result of this combination.  The long trigger pull makes real accuracy impossible and the light weight combined with a powerful round make it a weapon nobody is going to fire enough to get accustomed to it.  

The Phoenix is an old fashioned, single action, hammer fired weapon.  It relies on too many safeties to prevent misfires but the trigger pull is short and relatively crisp for an inexpensive weapon.  The annoying safeties can be modified leaving a small, old fashioned, little pocket pistol that shoots quite well and is still safe enough to carry if you know what you are doing.  BTW it will half cock.  Anyone who has ever carried a 1911 or a Browning would be at home with it.  Half an hour with a Dremel tool, a tiny shim or two and some luminous sight paint to make the tiny sights light up and you have a fairly nice little weapon with a lifetime warranty.

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A later note.  Yesterday, I decided to practice drawing this little guy from Condition 3 (no round in the chamber).  This is commonly known as the "Israeli Carrry" method.  It requires you to quickly rack the slide to load a round into the chamber after the draw.  If done right it adds only half a second to the time it takes to get your first shot off and is a much safer way to carry the weapon.  This is important in Israel where it is common for citizen soldiers to carry handguns.  It also has the advantage of working on any semi auto without requiring intensive drills on the safeties of that particular weapon.  The first time I tried a "combat draw" with the HP22 I ripped a chunk out of left forefinger.  I naturally went looking for the problem and saw it immediately.  The top of the hammer drop safety had not been finished completely and was razor sharp. So, if you are following this saga while considering buying an HP22 be advised you will probably need to spend an hour or so with a Dremel tool or a piece of emery paper to take the sharp edges off some of the roughly finished parts on the weapon.

The New Dark Ages

In coffee shops, diners, churches and living rooms, many men and women of deep religious and political conviction are having the most serious conversations of their lives.  The conversations all seem to reach the same conclusions even though different words may be used.  These common conclusions are:

1.  The United States of America has been the subject of a coup de etat affected through abuse of the electoral system.

2.  The current President of the United States has no legal basis to govern because of both his failure to meet the constitutional citizenship requirements for the office and his illegal actions while in office.

3. The institutions of government are being illegally used to further the socialist goals of the coup de etat and both political parties are complicit.

4.  The President of the United States is now serving as a dictator by ignoring both the constitution and the other branches of government designed to offset his power.

5. Due to the complicity of both political parties, the normal legal and political remedies such as impeachment and de-funding by congress are unlikely to succeed.

These five common conclusions leave the American Christian and devout Jew in a very difficult place. Armed rebellion is inappropriate.  But, further cooperation with the system is unconscionable. The hard question then is "What are we supposed to do now?"

The first question that comes to my mind is should we do anything political at all?  The Book of Jeremiah teaches that there are times when God's judgment has been pronounced and it is sin to oppose it.  Jeremiah was imprisoned and nearly killed for refusing to go along with Israel's continued war against its enemies when God's judgment had already been pronounced.  America's current sins are at least as bad as ancient Israels. One preacher friend of mine regularly quips, "If God doesn't judge America now, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology."  Increasingly, I wonder if America hasn't crossed the line of God's judgment and we are simply waiting for the cup of his wrath to be poured out.

In his prophetic little book "Against the Night, Living In The New Dark Ages" Charles Colson wrote:  "God has ordained three institutions for the ordering of society: the family for the propagation of life, the state for the preservation of life, and the church for the proclamation of the gospel. These are not just voluntary associations that people can join or not as they see fit; they are organic sources of authority for restraining evil and humanizing society. And the family, state, and church, as well as the closely related institution of education, have all been assaulted and penetrated by the new barbarians." (p. 69 - emphasis added)

If the institution of the State is lost as some believe it is in America, then perhaps the biblical model from Jeremiah is timely again.   If that is the case, perhaps we should be training our people and marshaling our resources for a time of captivity. Perhaps it is time to concentrate on those institutions that are left where we can have more influence, faith and family.  History has taught us that these institutions are remarkably durable and are capable of functioning effectively almost indefinitely even in a hostile state.  But, it would be a mistake to assume that a simple retreat from the political arena would be all that is involved.  The practice of the faith and the preservation of the family in a hostile state almost always involves bitter and costly conflict with that state.  In America circa 2014, such a retreat would not be a simple laying down of arms but rather a strategic retreat designed to let the completely corrupted political system run its inevitable course without the assistance and complicity of the faithful.

In his "Letters and Papers from Prison" Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself." This is a profound strategy in one sentence. First, we are called to rescue the victims of the state, to do everything in our power to help and sustain them. But second, we are called to refuse to allow the crushing wheel of state to continue rolling over them with our assistance.

What does this mean in practical terms? Here a few examples. Christian doctors and nurses should refuse to participate in abortions and refuse to serve with doctors who perform abortions or euthanasia. Christian pastors should refuse en masse to either perform homosexual marriages or allow them to be performed in their churches. Christian business people should refuse to do business under circumstances that violate their faith and conscience. Christian school teachers should refuse to teach the theory of evolution unless discussion and presentation of other theories of creation are allowed as well. They should also refuse outright to participate in "sex education" programs that advocate pre-marital sex and homosexuality. Christian delivery drives should refuse to deliver to abortion clinics and other businesses that violate their faith and conscience. Christian leaders should be quietly organizing underground institutions to continue training pastors, elders and deacons in the true faith. They should also be organizing escape networks and safe houses for the persecuted.

In the past, American Christians have substituted what they believed to be political opposition to these inherent evils for personal and practical opposition. This seemed to work well because there was never any personal cost involved. Voting for a so-called "pro-life" politician (the sum of whom have managed to do absolutely nothing to stop abortion in over forty years of political wrangling) is a lot less costly than actually defying the system and refusing to be complicit by silence in its evils. This so called "retreat" from politics would grind the wheels of the already overburdened "justice system" to a halt by the sheer number of cases involved and send a strong message to politicians as well.

Political participation by the church on social issues has been a miserable failure. We have lost on every issue. It was a powerful pain killer fed to the patient to mask the true symptoms that were being left untreated. It is time to realize that and do what we should have done to start with, quietly and peacefully refuse to play their game anymore.

Buying A Gun, Etc.

This week, my wife and I were sitting in a friends living room when he announced that he intended to get his concealed carry license soon.  I asked him what weapon he intended to use.  He replied that he would probably use his .380 Makarov.  I suggested that that might not be the best idea.  Here's why:

The Makarov is a wonderful weapon.  I owned one of the Soviet Military issue 9 mm x 18 versions for years and I loved it. The Makarov is a rough Soviet copy of the German Walther PP.  It is a fine pistol in its own right and was state of the art for decades.  The 9 mm x18 Mak is a robust, hard shooting, highly accurate, completely reliable weapon.  The .380 is a lower powered version designed for old Soviet bloc police departments and retail sale in countries where sale of firearms capable of firing military issue ammunition is prohibited.  It is easily concealable.  But, it is obsolete and there are problems associated with it that have nothing to do with the many fine qualities of the weapon. 

First, neither .380 or 9 mm x 18 Makarov ammo are cheap.  In .380, Winchester White Box, the standard range ammo, runs about $20.00 for a fifty round box.  9x18 Markarov is more expensive.  However, 9mm Parabellum Winchester White Box is only around $15.00 a box for 50 rounds or a little over $25.00 a box for 100 round range packs.  And, you can go cheaper in 9 mm ammo depending on your weapon.  My Glock will eat just about anything you feed it without a hiccup so I usually use $10.00 a box Soviet Tula steel case on the range.

Second, the .380 round is not really a good self defense choice.  The 9 mm Parabellum is the oldest semi-

auto pistol round in use today and a lot of time and work has been put into refining it.  The .380 is also a 9 mm but with the cartridge case and propellant load shortened.  So, you can think of a .380 as a 9mm "short" in the same way that you would compare .22 long rifle ammo to .22 short. The standard 9 mm is about 40% more powerful than a .380 when a purpose loaded self defense round like the Remington Golden Saber is used. In a self defense situation that means that each round you hit with is going to do 40% more damage and be 40% more likely to take your assailant down.  In a real gunfight, you are not going to place every shot where you want it and you need the ones that do hit to do the maximum amount of damage possible.  The video below shows what happens when a 147 grain 9 mm Parabellum Remington Golden Sabre hits ballistic gel.  Ballistic gel is a substance designed to have the same physical characteristics as human body mass.



Third, there is the problem of capacity.  The standard Makarov holds eight rounds.  Some later versions may hold ten or twelve in double stack magazine which increases the weapons thickness and reduces concealability.  Modern medium frame 9 mm's have a fifteen or sixteen round magazine capacity.  In a real self defense situation, you are not going to hit every shot.  The more chances you have to hit your assailant, the more likely you are to survive.  A modern 9 mm handgun can give you up to twice as many shots without having to do a combat reload.

My advice is to acquire a quality, state of the art weapon and then learn how to use it.  Every weapon is different and you need to become completely comfortable, confident and competent with it.  The 9 mm is the smallest pistol cartridge recommended for self defense these days.  .380 is usually reserved for "backup" weapons and with the advent of .380 sized 9 mm pocket pistols, the round is becoming less and less relevant.

I carry a Glock 19 9 mm.  It cost a little under $500.00.  I decided to go with the Glock because I had already become accustomed to Glocks when I trained with a Glock 22.  I bought the 19 because it is

more concealable, cheaper to shoot, fits my smallish hands better and has less recoil.  It has a fifteen round magazine capacity and no bad habits.  It shoots accurately and predictably.  There are also .22 caliber conversion kits for the Glocks and I will probably purchase one in the future to further reduce my training costs.  I shoot at least a hundred rounds per month live fire and would like to shoot more.

If I were not in the security business and was going to purchase a weapon for home and personal defense, I would probably choose the Smith & Wesson SD9VE.  Smith & Wesson has had a lot of teething problems with their semi-autos but they seem to have them licked now.  The SD9 is identical in many respects to the Glock 19.  It even field strips identically to a Glock.  It is combination of previous models including the less than stellar performing Sigma and the better performing Shield series.  The SD9 is now considered to be an accurate, reliable weapon.  I trained with a guy carrying one and it didn't hiccup once in over four hundred rounds fired despite the fact that the guy was "limp wristing" the weapon at times.

The decision to carry a firearm is a serious one that should not be taken lightly.  If you are going to carry a weapon you need to be competent with it.  That means choosing a good quality weapon, firing it until you become competent and then firing it some more on a regular basis to stay competent.  Given that, it just makes sense to invest in a good quality, state of the art weapon that will not cost an arm and a leg to fire on a regular basis.

The Quiet Veterans ....

When we think of Veterans and Veteran's day we think of combat.  And that is good.  Combat is what the armed services are all about.  The front line forces are the tip of the spear that protects us all. But, I would ask you to a moment to give silent thanks to the rest of the veterans .....

• To the young people who will step on board an obsolete ship or airplane desperately needing
  
  maintenance and refits that the current administration will not fund and still do their best to do their job anyway with the full knowledge they are taking their lives in their hands on what should be routine missions.
• The the brave men of the amphibs who routinely do things with ships, small craft and vehicles that would scare any sane person to death and drive a civilian safety expert insane.
• To the men and women sitting in dark, heavily guarded rooms watching flickering screens and streaming data, knowing full well they are literally holding the fate of
  
  the world in their hands and aging their hearts and arteries decades for every month they continue to serve.
• To the sailors who walk out on to the deck in bad weather and risk their lives to keep the ship safe and on its way its next assignment.
• To the airmen who dance the deadly ballet of the flight line among whirling propellers that will instantly turn a person into a bloody pulp all over the surrounding surfaces and jet intakes that will literally suck a man in and turn him into something no longer recognizable as human.
  
• To the MP's, SP's, CID, NCIS, and other "special" agency people who quietly serve as the cops in a society constantly trained to professionally apply violence. 

And all of the others who never see combat but risk their lives and health daily to serve you.  God bless kids.

Putin Defends the Faith

We are surely living in a world turned upside down. Yes, that is Russian Premier and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin sounding like Ronald Reagan:

 

It is entirely possible that this is all masterfully done propaganda but I doubt it. We Americans have always tended to equate Christianity with our own culture and failed to recognize that there are ancient Christian traditions in other cultures as well. There have always been rumors of a powerful Christian underground in Russia that for generations has reached into the highest levels of power and that these areas of influence are quietly passed on from generation to generation through powerful families in the national institutions. Is it possible that Putin is one of these people? Who knows? But, at this moment, given a choice between voting for Putin and our current president, I would have no hesitation in voting for Putin. Putin is NOT a Muslim, he IS a warrior and he DOES NOT advocate the destruction of western culture. May God have mercy on us for letting this situation develop in a country founded on Christian values.

A Quick Lesson In Leadership

Every man who is a man has moments that he will never forget, moments when he was tested.  One of my worst moments was small by the standards of combat veterans but it still marked a milestone for me. I conquered my fear and did something that I knew could kill me.

While in the Navy, through an unusual set of circumstances, I was ordered to join the ship's landing party and make an amphibious landing with our embarked Marine unit during a training exercise in Latin America.  While that does not sound like a big deal, it was to me at the time.  First, Marines were trained to do that stuff. They trained on nice safe barricades ashore until they had they had the skills down.  Then and only then did they do it for real.  My first time was with no training in a very much "for real" situation.  Second, sea conditions for a landing were "marginal" on that day.  It was very much a judgment call whether or not the seas were too rough to conduct landing exercises at all. Given that, I was acutely aware that our squadron usually lost a marine or sailor or two during every landing exercise even though it was just training.

The act itself was straightforward.  You climb over the side of the ship and then climb down a cargo net to a spot a couple of feet above the deck of a landing craft and then jump down to the deck.  You start about thirty to forty feet above the landing craft.  (Did I mention I don't like heights? Never have.)  The problem is that on this particular day, a three to five foot swell was running.  That meant the ship was rolling about five degrees or more.  That meant that the cargo net would be tight and then slack as you climbed down.  It also meant that the landing craft below was swinging out from the side of the ship leaving nothing but blue water beneath you.  And finally it meant that the landing craft was rising and falling six feet or more with with the swells, so you had to time your jump on the up swing or you would not be jumping two feet but eight feet or more.  And, I forgot to mention, if you fell off or got tangled in the net, you could be crushed between the landing craft and the ship.  And also, since I was carrying a radio, spare batteries for it, a carbine and a combat load of ammo, two day worth a C-Rats and other field equipment, if I did fall and hit clear water, I would have to strip all of that before I would have a prayer of floating.  (Did I mention that I can't swim? The Navy figured an electronics technician didn't need to and never contemplated that I would wind up doing amphibious operations.)

As I as standing there on the deck, waiting for the order to "embark," I was scared to death.  I was on the edge of just walking away and refusing my orders.  Sensing my fear, an old Gunny walked up to me and said, "Come on son, let's go."  I will never forget that face.  Korea and Vietnam were permanently etched in his eyes.  His nose and cheeks bore the marks of  regular alcohol consumption.  But, whatever else he was, he was a leader.  He was calm and confident.  He didn't order me to go from behind.  He told me to just come on with him. 

We went down that net side by side and I did it. That is leadership in a nutshell.  You don't ask people to do things you won't do yourself and as far as possible you share the danger/burden of the exercise.  I was still scared to death but I went.  I learned a permanent lesson in leadership from that old Gunny.  Any *sshole can stand around and give orders.  But, true leadership must be earned and it is best exercised as a participant not as an observer.  That is why I hold the opinion that no person should ever serves as POTUS who has not served in the military.  If you have never sworn to lay down your life your country if asked to, you have not earned the right to order others to do so.

The time is coming very quickly when we are going to need real leadership.   I pray to God that our new gay friendly, politically correct, God denying military establishment has not purged all of the real leaders from its ranks.

I recently read An American Saga, Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire.  It was a fascinating read but more importantly it is almost a primer in how successful American businessmen work.  Here are some of the key lessons:

Connections always matter:  Juan Trippe was born into the upper social classes of America.  This gave him two advantages.  The first was obvious.  When you have Yale classmates and personal friends with names like Vanderbilt, raising a little capital is not going to present a problem.  The second lesson is more subtle but perhaps more important. Having been born into that class, Trippe instinctively knew the rules of dealing with powerful people, everything from how to dress to what not to order at a business lunch.  He had immediate social acceptance in business situations, not only because of his birth but also because of his personal presentation.  Trippe made new connections easily because he was viewed as someone important even if the person didn't know who he was.  The subtle choices of clothes, manners and personal presentation came naturally to him. When I worked for computer companies, they took great pains to teach us those things because powerful people won't consider what you have to say if the don't consider you, if not their social equal, at least a person who will not embarrass or betray them.  Back then, companies like IBM and Xerox had strict dress codes and paid tens of thousands of dollars to teach their representatives the secrets of personal and business presentation that people like Trippe knew naturally.

You must be ahead of the curve:  Trippe understood that you have to stay ahead of the curve to be successful.  Trippe did not let his customers define his business or the services he provided them because they rarely knew what they needed or what was possible.  Instead, Trippe chose to define his own market and services in such a way that he was always considered a trend setter.  He literally made his own markets and customers flocked to them.  For example, when other airlines were worrying about delivering a few bags of mail between American Cities, he was working with aviation experts to design long range flying boats that would link the major cities of the Caribbean and South America with luxury passenger service.  If he had listened to his customers, he would have been one of many competitors that might or might not have had moderate success in a turbulent US market.  Instead, he set the curve in a new market and emerged as literally a world changing leader who was a defacto third diplomatic force in foreign politics involving the US. The Boeing 707, Americas first jet liner, was built to Pam Am specifications on the promise of their order if the specs were met.  It was built to serve markets he had created, the long haul Atlantic and Pacific runs. The Boeing 747, the first jumbo jet, was also built to Pan Am specs and Pan Am engineers had significant input into the final design.  Pan Am engineers in cooperation with RCA literally developed the long range radio navigation systems that are still in use and were the only means of radio navigation until GPS.  Trippe realized that long term success requires more than just showing up and doing what is asked.  You have to define what needs to be done and then do it better than anyone else.

You must demand excellence:  Everything about Pan Am was the best.  When other pilots and air crew were allowed to fly in leather jackets and civilian suits, he demanded that his crews wear spotless naval style uniforms.  They were not allowed to smoke or drink in public nor even appear in public without their jackets and ties.  Pan Am flight-line services set the standard for the rest of industry.  Trippe never forgot that he was in a life and death business and that lives depended upon everything being done right the first time.

So long as Trippe was alive, Pan Am was the leading overseas airline in the world.  As he passed so did Pan Am.  The reasons are complex but they boil down to the fact that his successors lacked his vision and ability to demand excellence.

So what are the lessons for a small businessman?  You may not be born into social and business connections but you can make yourself into a person that any businessman will be happy to do business with regardless of which side of the tracks you were born on.  You can choose that your business will be ahead of the curve in everything it does, that you will define your market and services based upon the superior knowledge of your industry that you have worked hard to develop.  And, you can decide that "good enough" is never good enough, that excellence is the only acceptable standard.