Table of contents for April - May 2023 in Ballistic

Number seven has a lucky vibe. Smarter folks than me have studied the phenomenon that “7” is the world’s favorite number—Duck Duck Go it if you don’t believe me. Why the hell is that? Well, it ain’t because seven ate nine. Mathematician and writer Alex Boros conducted an online “what’s your favorite number” poll with 44,000 respondents, and yup, numero seven took top honors by a long shot. Digging deeper, Boros concluded that lucky seven is a rebel of sorts because, “Seven is the only number among those we can count on our hands (one to 10) that cannot be divided or multiplied within the group…One, two, three, four and five can each be doubled to reach two, four, six, eight and 10. Nine is divisible by three. Seven, then,…

While we enjoy carrying our micro blasters, they do have some special considerations. To help you make the most out of your small EDC, let’s look at five points that will make your carry life better. GET THE RIGHT HOLSTER: The rig you choose to carry your small gun in is critical. It has to have three distinct characteristics. First, it needs to attach firmly to your body. Second, it needs to be comfortable to carry for long periods. Holsters with harsh sharp edges will ruin your carry experience. Third is that they need to retain the weapon with friction and fit. This means the holster has to be well-made to fit your specific gun. CARRY WHERE IT’S EASY TO GET THE GUN: I will expand on this and add that it…

From January 17-20, the great fire-arms pilgrimage to Las Vegas once again took place. As usual, SHOT Show was the destination for tens of thousands of people. While less crowded than shows in the past, it was still packed full of new and interesting products. While I did my best to take in the miles of booths, one of my favorite items to search for was new shotguns. After four days and 40-plus miles of walking, we proudly bring you some of the most interesting shotguns BENELLI Montefeltro To begin, I stopped at the Benelli booth. Their new offering this year is a new Montefeltro. This is a fresh makeover of the exciting gun and offers more modern styling as well as several ergonomic changes. One of those changes is a…

1 CLEAR A FIREARMS MALFUNCTION Range time is the best of times, and there’s nothing more satisfying than plinking some lead at some targets. However, guns are complex mechanical devices that contain powerful explosions and are prone to malfunction. If you’re not in a firefight for your life, having a failure to eject, feed or fire is nothing to be alarmed about. Just stop what you are doing, keep the gun pointed safely downrange and work the problem. A misfire isn’t a too likely scenario these days unless you have some old ammo or your firing pin is damaged. The best course of action is to keep the gun pointed downrange for a couple of minutes to make sure the round doesn’t have a delayed discharge. Remove the round from the…

Many weird, whacky and morbid things came out of England’s Victorian era, but perhaps none fit that bill better than the anthropomorphic taxidermy craze. In London, during the great exhibition of 1851, German taxidermist Hermann Ploucquet showcased a collection of animal carcasses arranged and clothed like human beings. The display included things like a group of six dead kittens arranged around a table playing poker. Believe it or not, Plocquet’s pieces were a massive hit, garnering comment from Queen Victoria herself, who called them “really marvelous.” Other artists were then inspired to follow in his footsteps, and a real cultural phenomenon was born. Most notably, Englishman Walter Potter was so inspired that he taught himself how to taxidermy and went on to create an unholy collection of animals stuffed and…

KEVIN ESTELA Kevin knows his stuff as the director of training for the premier survival outfit Fieldcraft Survival! You don’t get to work with the History Channel and be a featured guest on numerous platforms by getting your name picked out of a hat. No! As a sought-after speaker, Kevin is wellversed in all aspects of survival and bushcraft skills. He has written more than 160 articles for publications, including the pages of Ballistic. He remains a lifelong outdoorsman with more than two decades of outdoors teaching. What are your favorite wilderness/survival movies? First Blood will always be the survival movie for me that will never get old and was the first one I watched as a kid. The Edge is a great survival movie as well. Castaway is another excellent…

WOULD YOU RATHER…? We decided to go with a serious question for once. “Would you rather abolish the ATF or have 20 years of a 2A-friendly Supreme Court majority?” The latest BS from the ATF about pistol braces (“yes, we do write our own laws even though we aren’t in the legislative branch of government”) has me fuming mad. The only thing that lets me sleep nights—besides two or three Ambien with a whiskey chaser—is the fact the Supreme Court is deeply conservative and finally pushing back after years of silence. We sent this question out to you guys, and the vote was overwhelming to keep a friendly Supreme Court for 20 years. FAVORITE COMMENTS: T Boyd@puddle_pirate95 A 2A SCOTUS. The ATF would just be replaced by some other alphabet agency.…

Paramount+ has slowly become one of the most popular video streaming platforms in the United States, driven in no small P part by it being the home to the Yellowstone spinoff, 1923, which instantly became a hit with viewers when it debuted in December ’22. In fact, the 1923 sneak peek on the Paramount network (not the streaming service) brought in 7.4 million viewers, surpassing the 4.9 million watchers that turned in for the 1883 preview a year earlier, also becoming the biggest debut on a cable service since 2015. Clearly, Yellowstone series creator Taylor Sheridan has struck gold in the hills and woods of Montana, and viewers simply can’t get enough. The appeal of the franchise is due to its ability to tell a compelling story of family, loyalty, sacrifice…

SMITH & WESSON made a splash at the 2023 SHOT Show in Las Vegas with the introduction of the M&P 5.7 pistol. Chambered for the increasingly popular 5.7x28mm cartridge, the newest addition to the M&P line-up possesses several innovative features that will appeal to those looking for more power, range and capacity than the 9mm can provide. The gas-operated, hammer-fired, semi-automatic pistol boasts a capacity of 22+1, but what will grab most shooters’ attention is the gun’s price—just $699! The 5.7x28mm cartridge was developed by FN as a possible replacement for the 9mm for NATO use in Personal Defense Weapons (PDWs) and sidearms. The goal was to get better range and penetration while reducing recoil and cartridge weight. FN built the P90 Personal Defense Weapon and the Five-seveN pistol around…

The Century Arms AP5-M was one of the coolest firearms at the recent Athlon Rendezvous. Built to truly world-class standards in a licensed HK plant in Turkey, the AP5-M is a simply breathtaking semi-auto rendition of the uber-sexy and concealable Heckler and Koch MP5K submachine gun. Reliable, compact, versatile and cool, the AP5-M is the spy gun within reach of the common man. American gun nerds have been clamoring for stuff like this forever. On the rare occasion that we could coax HK into selling us some of their fancy baubles, they were typically castrated with lame civilianized features. In addition, those original German guns were also insanely expensive and, more often than not, unavailable. Now, Century Arms is shipping the closest thing to a real-deal, government-issue HK MP5K ever…

IN TODAY’S WORLD OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, few cops are as well-known as Sheriff Mark Lamb, who is best known by his social media moniker “American Sheriff.” Mark Lamb first earned his title of sheriff by being elected to the office in November of 2016 to become the 25th sheriff of Pinal County in Arizona. It has been his business savvy, outside-the-box thinking and big personality that turned Sheriff Lamb into the American Sheriff. Mark is known nationwide for his big cowboy hat, big smile and even bigger personality. Mark has broken the mold of what a law enforcement leader looks like, and this lawman has a background and upbringing that is as interesting as they come and only adds to his great story. GETTING GOING The American Sheriff started his…

Skillse was against all odds from the beginning. Starting a print magazine in the boom of the digital era may not have been the easiest or wisest thing to do. However, we are always one to meet a challenge head-on. The truth of the matter is no print media is immune from the hungry jaws of digital media. You see, the invention of the internet isn’t just a fad but a substantial force to be reckoned with. A wise old fart once said, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. So, we did just that. Skillsetmag.com was initially born as a place to keep the interest alive between issues and post pics, merch and a few silly stories too bold for print. But as the world shifted in 2020, it…

UNDERWOOD AMMUNITION I hold a particular fondness for companies that keep their feet planted behind enemy lines. Holding onto industry jobs in places like Illinois is going to go a long way toward preserving the culture, swinging votes and taking back the homestead. It is no secret that I’ll do everything that I can to support folks like this, especially when they make ammo that shoots as well as this stuff does. Underwood maintains hand-loaded-like attention to detail with all of their products, and I have found them to be a reliable source for some of the hardest-to-find cartridges on the market, even during the pandemic and ammo shortage that came soon after. Aside from hard-to-find cartridges, Underwood also loads a catalog of projectiles that you just don’t find with…

NEW CARTRIDGES COME AND GO. Good cartridges stick around for a while, but great cartridges shape the shooting landscape and cause people to find a reason to use them across many different applications. As I think about the PRC (precision rifle cartridge) lineup from Hornady, I can’t help but think about the entire theme of the line. There is an ethos wrapped around the PRC family that, in retrospect, many people tried to overlook. But as more products tout the PRC moniker, it’s becoming more evident that Hornady is doing its best to modernize ballistic performance across several key calibers. Keep in mind, caliber is different from chambering. “The PRC line is built for precision, accuracy, consistency and balance…we are upfront in saying we are not trying to build the…

MASTER LOCK masterlock.com BRAIDED STEEL INTEGRATED CABLE LOCK 8255DAT: Bicycles, small motorcycles, scooters and golf cart-style vehicles can all be stolen, and this braided steel cable lock can prevent that. Utilizing a multiple-point sliding body, this lock can firmly secure your vehicle or multiple items at one time. It’s designed with a push-to-lock body locking mechanism that tightly secures your vehicle while preventing false locking. Its integrated cable wrap and magnetic side allow for easy, coiled-up storage when not in use. SPECIFICATIONS: • Stainless steel body• Multi-point sliding body• Integrated key storage• Installs in minutes• Simple push-action locking mechanism• MSRP: $53 CHAIN LOCK 8114D: Bicycles have become an expensive investment with many sporting titanium frames and high-quality accessories. Because of this, a secure lock is an absolute necessity. This cable…

BENELLI Lupo Walnut Building upon the successful introduction of the Lupo rifle in 2020, the company now offers a model with a walnut stock in two calibers—.308 Win. and .30-06. The AA-grade satin walnut harkens back to the days of traditional wooden stocks but with today’s innovation and advanced technology. Built on a chassis system, the Lupo’s free-floating barrel attaches to a hardened steel barrel extension bedded to a steel block in the chassis-style alloy receiver. Both rifles are available with 22-inch, Crio-treated barrels and are rust protected with the Benelli Surface Treatment with a 25-year warranty. (benelliusa.com) BERGARA B-14 Squared Crest Bergara’s B-14 Series Crest rifle with a steel barrel tips the scales at 6.9 pounds and offers a sub-MOA guarantee. To help shave ounces, the Crest wears a fluted…

Interceptors: The Untold Fight Against The Mexican Cartels is an exhilarating ride and front-row seat into the dangerous and harrowing work of LE on America’s southern border. Author Matthew Thomas, Sheriff Lamb’s right-hand man, pulls back the curtain and takes the reader on a rarelyseen eyewitness journey. It is the true accounting of the battle against the infamous Sinaloa cartel on American soil as told by a deputy sheriff from Pinal County, Arizona. Thomas is an Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix. As a youth, he lived in an area dominated by gangs and drugs and grew up immersed in Mexican culture. As an adult, Matthew began working for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in 1993. Spanning more than 29 years, Matthew’s LE career and immersive life in the…

Back by popular demand, or perhaps by angry tirade, The Roundtable is here to delve into some of the most heated debates of the gun realm. In this episode, we investigate the world of the influencer. Ever since Michael Jordon donned his trademark kicks, manufacturers and advertisers alike have realized that a well-placed personality can do wonders for marketing. Tim Kennedy is a spokesman for FN, R. Lee Ermey became synonymous with Glock and Rob Leatham (AKA The Great One) waves the Springfield Armory flag like nobody’s business. But steely-eyed shooters who have been deep in the shit are only one side of the firearms influencers. We also have, well I’m not sure of their technical name, but we will call them the “Gun Bunny.” You all know of whom…