Table of contents for Everyday Carry 2022 SIP #4 in Gun Digest

The majority of my inner circle, both personally and professionally, is comprised largely of gun guys: law enforcement, former operators, veterans, firearms instructors and the like. Birds of a feather, I suppose. All these men and women have an advanced level of firearms and survival training that most civilians don’t, which is a direct result of their chosen lives of servitude in those various roles. But… of all these people, there’s only one I know of who carries a true bug-out bag with them at all times (in addition to a CCW gun, of course): passport, cash, small first-aid kit. Always. Everywhere. When he steps out of the vehicle to pump gas, it’s on. If the sh*t were to really hit the fan, he and his wife are more immediately…

01 CMMG Dissent A rifle-caliber pistol for EDC? CMMG gets you one step closer. Hot off the Missouri manufacturer’s line comes the Dissent, an AR-style pistol that does away with one of the main components lengthening the design: the buffer tube. CMMG accomplishes this by making the pistol more AR-180 than AR-15, with what the company has dubbed its Compact Action, using internal dual guide rods and springs situated above the receiver to cycle. What shooters end up with is a backpack-sized option more than capable of doling out hurt. As a bonus, CMMG made the upper assembly compatible with mil-spec lower receivers—not to mention throwing in a non-reciprocating side charging handle. MSRP: $2,000 02 FB Radom VIS-100 M1 Pistol Those who favor duty-sized and military-tested might be excited about…

There’s a line of thought in the everyday carry field that you should not be carrying an expensive, custom pistol. Some object because it might give the DA another stick with which to beat you in the legal proceedings. Others claim that your custom 1911 (it always seems to be a 1911, in this argument) will spend years in evidence lockup, and you might not ever see it again. Well, color me unimpressed. To throw cold water on those, consider instead the incident itself. If it was in the parlance “a good shoot,” then the DA will do what he or she can or will do, but that’s all. And if it was a good shoot, you’ll be getting your property back. (Well, maybe not, in some jurisdictions, but that’s…

“I gotta go to the bathroom.” “You gotta go, you gotta go.” So began one of the most iconic scenes in mobster movie history, as Michael Corleone heads to the men’s room, to retrieve a hidden handgun to murder his father’s would-be assassin. The gun? A Smith & Wesson snub-nose revolver, chambered in .38 Special. When you think of the great detective movies, mafia movies and all of the books and documentaries of that era, the snub-nose .38 Special makes a constant appearance. What is it about that particular handgun and cartridge combination that’s so iconic? One would think that in a world of lightweight, striker-fired autoloading handguns—with their double-stacked magazines and tritium night sights—the short-barreled revolvers would have long ago gone the way of the dodo. But that’s not the…

HISTORICAL NOTES The .30 U.S. Army, or .30-40 Krag—the first United States small-bore military cartridge—was adopted in 1892. The Winchester high-wall single-shot was the first commercial rifle in the United States produced for a small-bore smokeless-powder cartridge. This happened when the .30-40 Krag was added to the available chamberings in 1893. The Remington-Lee bolt action, Remington rolling block, and Winchester Model 95 lever action and high-wall single-shot were the first commercial sporting rifles to offer this chambering. No commercial rifles used the cartridge from 1936 to 1973. From 1973 until 1977, the Ruger No. 3 single-shot was chambered for the .30-40 Krag, thus stimulating a renewed interest in the cartridge. GENERAL COMMENTS The .30-40 Krag—.30-caliber/40 grains of the original smokeless-powder load—has retained its popularity, primarily because large numbers of fine…

Sig Sauer’s P365 is one of the most popular carry guns in the country. Since it was introduced, it has quickly outpaced the sales for other guns in the same category and has inadvertently created something of an arms race all its own. Why? Well, it’s extremely tiny, but it has an onboard capacity of 10+1 rounds standard. Not only did this completely upset the balance of power in the micro-compact world, but it also set the stage for a reinvention of what we know when it comes to accuracy and reliability in the size class. It could be said that the P365 completely redefined the carry gun. MODULAR MADNESS However, we as a people rarely leave well enough alone. In many cases, this hubris results in “upgrades” that are…

DUE TO THE CANCELLING AND REBOOKING OF SHOWS THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE BECAUSE OF COVID -19 PLEASE CALL OR CHECK THE WEBSITE OF THE SHOW PRIOR TO TRAVELING TO THE SHOW. SEPTEMBER Sep 30-Oct 1 WI, Richland Center. Pine River Sports Gun Show. Richland Center Community Center, 1050 N. Orange St. SH: Fri. 3pm-8pm, Sat. 8am-3pm. A: $5 admission, 12& Under Free With Adult. T: 70. F: 20. Pine River Sports Association. 29798 County Hwy TB, Lone Rock, WI 53556. PH: 608-604-9595. www.myprsa.org. OCTOBER Oct 1-2 IN, Valparaiso. Gun & Knife Show. Porter County Exp-Center, 215 East Division Road. SH: Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. 9am-3pm. A: $6.00 children 12 & under free with Adult. T: 350. F: $60.00 8ft.@run of show. Dunes Rifle & Pistol Club L.L.C.. P.O. Box 345, 812…

Fixed blades are common in the woods though far less so on the streets—politics has largely seen to that. Folders are in the pockets of many these days and are somehow considered “less dangerous” than fixed blades. I cannot for the life of me understand this as there is little if any practical difference in terms of capability, with the exception of fixed blades in theory allowing for a longer blade. There is this idea that a fixed blade is more lethal. Sure, a longer blade allows for greater reach and penetration, but it’s also harder to use in close confines—and substantially more difficult to deploy. The argument against the carry of larger fixed blades is certainly political, not practical. It could be considered in the same vein as the…

Sig Sauer has been dominating the carry gun market these past few years, with the P365, P365 XL and other variants providing concealed carriers with small, light guns with large ammunition capacities for their respective sizes. For those who prefer carrying larger handguns with even higher capacities, Sig now has the P365-Xmacro. Like the P365s that came before it, the P365-Xmacro is a striker-fired 9mm with a polymer frame. It shares the same slim, 1-inch thickness as the older models, but it now has a taller frame to accommodate the new 17-round magazines. Other features include an integrally compensated slide, Xray3 day/night sights, a flat trigger and three interchangeable backstraps for the Macro-Compact grip module. Each P365-Xmacro also features a standard accessory rail and an optics-ready slide with a RomeoZero/Shield…

I was once asked if I could only hunt with one bullet, what bullet would it be? Of all the gun-related questions I often get, this is the easiest to answer. It would unquestionably be the Nosler AccuBond. The reason it would be the AccuBond is because I’ve seen it work so well, so many times, that I trust it explicitly. In fact, Nosler makes the three hunting bullets I most often recommend: the AccuBond, the Partition and the Ballistic Tip. However, when asked about a good bullet for a defensive handgun, I’ve never recommended one from Nosler. This isn’t because I think Nosler makes bad handgun bullets; it’s because that up until now I’ve always felt there were better options. For 2022, Nosler has added a new line of…

We’ve all heard the rule from on high: Th o u shalt not carry handloads in thine everyday carry weapon, lest thou be deemed guilty immediately for saving thine bacon. The concept and reason, loosely stated, is that a prosecuting attorney could possibly convince a jury that you intentionally made “hot loads” (I break out in hives just typing that), or that the threat—which you interpreted to put your life in danger—was farther away than you stated, based upon the penetration of the bullet and/or expansion. Those handloads could indicate—to the uneducated—that you were looking for a gunfight. Just as I handload almost all of my dangerous game ammunition, on the basis of the idea that I can pay attention to each and every component and aspect of the loading…

In 2019, Jack Wilson used his concealed handgun to stop a bad guy in a church. Reportedly, the head shot that saved the congregation was taken at about 50 feet. More recently, Elisjsha Dicken saved more citizens when he took out a shooter in a mall at a reported 40 yards. As a result of instances like these, many have taken a page out of Jeff Cooper’s book and created training drills to replicate these real-world scenarios. There’s nothing wrong with this, especially since the shots taken in both instances were a bit farther than what’s commonly associated with civilian shootings. However, conducting these drills aren’t the best way to train with your defensive handgun. IT’S ABOUT THE BASICS Yeah, I guess it’s cool to say you “did the drill”…

For everyday carry, most of us don’t think of toting around a rifle, or even a rifle-caliber braced pistol, all day. It cannot be denied that a rifle is superior to a handgun for defensive use. Whether it’s our attire, where we go or where we live, walking around with a slung rifle or braced pistol might not be the best alternative. The reason most of us EDC a handgun is because rifles and braced pistols can be bulky, and they often attract unwanted attention. Companies like FoldAR, however, are out there changing this paradigm. When it comes to America’s numberone rifle of choice, there’s one thing that remains constant: change. Every year, the platform evolves as manufacturers get better at their craft and learn new facets about the platform…

James Madison once sagely conveyed, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” Had Madison ever driven a car on a gridlocked freeway he’d likely have concluded the same about the necessity of this article. Neither men nor women are angels. When behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound rolling ego-inflator, they sometimes become quite the opposite. According to a 2019 survey of Americans by The Zebra, an insurance comparison website, 82 percent of respondents admitted to having road rage or driving aggressively at least once in the last year. Further, 42 percent claimed they yelled or cursed at fellow drivers. Thirty-eight percent indicated they used obscene gestures toward others on the road. That’s a lot of anger, but unless these signs of frustration escalate, they’re relatively harmless. Our primary…