Gun Reviews

Winchester ammo has been around for a while. The company has been in business for more than 150 years since its founding by Oliver Winchester. They became a legendary name when they designed and produced the lever action 1873 rifle. They would become a household name when it came to lever action rifles and shotguns. They are also well known today as an ammunition manufacturer.

The combination of ammunition can almost be endless. Brand, grain, bullet design and more can all make selections difficult depending on what you need in a bullet. You may not want to target practice with a premium high-end bullet. But you also may not want to hunt and take that 500-yard shot with a low-grade target round. Different types of ammunition have different purposes. So, what can you use target ammo for? Let’s look at what it can do and what its limitations are.

What can I use Winchesters M193 target ammo for?

There are a few different purposes for ammunition types. Some of the biggest categories are self-defense, hunting, competition shooting, recreational shooting, and combat shooting. During my first tactical firearms instructor school, they talked a great deal about the difference between precision accuracy and combat accuracy. Combat accuracy is shooting center mass at faster speeds, not hitting the bullseye. Precision accuracy is hitting the intended mark or bullseye and keeping a small group.

Why is there a difference? Both types of ammo and both types of shooting have a purpose. If your intent for a round is self-defense, you won’t need a high-precision bullet made to travel 700 yards and hit within a two-inch group. You will need it to be reliable and combat-accurate. If you are hunting, you need higher precision. Winchester’s 5.56 target ammo is not what I would use for long-range precision shooting, but it works great for range practice, and I like to use it in the AR pistols that I stay within 200 yards with.

Ballistics for beginners

If you are new to ammo, some of the most important things to look at are the bullet grain and muzzle velocity. The M193 is a 55-grain (grain is the weight of the bullet) and has a muzzle velocity of 3180 fps (feet per second). Unfortunately, there is not one good bullet for all guns. The length of the barrel, barrel twist, temperature, humidity, and more will all have a different effect on each different type of bullet. In general, 55 and 64 grain are the most common for 5.56mm bullets. Without getting too in-depth into the ballistics, let’s look at the velocity and how it affects distance.

When the bullet leaves the barrel, the velocity will change somewhat depending on the barrel length. A longer barrel will burn more of the gasses and thus create more energy. Because of this, an AR-15 pistol will not create as much muzzle energy as a 16” barrel. The starting point is where the bullet leaves the barrel, or muzzle velocity. As the bullet travels it will begin to lose velocity and as it does, it will begin to drop. The heavier the bullet, the faster it begins to drop once it leaves the barrel. But the heavier the bullet, the more energy it will have on impact.

Winchester’s M193 ballistics

As stated above, Winchester’s M193 has a muzzle velocity of 3,180 fps. Below is a chart showing the velocity drop as the bullets travel. You can see a significant decline by the 500-yard mark. This translates to a 3” drop at the 200-yard mark and a 12” drop at the 300-yard mark. As you start looking at the ballistics, you can see how selecting your ammo for the distance you want to shoot is important. When using the M193 target ammo, I like to stay within the 300-yard range before moving to a higher-end bullet.

For general-purpose shooting, running drills, and zeroing in that red dot, the M193 is a great bullet for a quality/cost ratio. There are plenty of brands out there that are cheaper, but I would not recommend the real cheap stuff for sighting in optics. This will only leave you frustrated and endlessly adjusting your optic. The cheaper the ammunition, the lower the quality control in most cases. Quality control is something Winchester does very well.

On the Range

As always, the best way to test something is to see it for yourself. I could look at charts all day, but who wants to do that? A trip to the range is much more fun and lets me see what the ammo will do firsthand. I had an optic that needed to be zeroed in, so this was a good time for that as well. With a lot of my red dots, I start at 50 yards and then move out to 100 to finish zeroing it in. I fired some shots at various distances after that to see how the group would hold up. The Winchester ammo did about as I expected and held some good groups of two inches at 100 yards.

With cheaper ammo, I have had some bad primers, but this has never been an issue with this ammo. Winchester’s target ammo uses heat-treated casings, and the full-metal jacket provides positive functioning with no expansion. You can get larger boxes, but I like the 20-round boxes for easy access when I’m running out to the range to zero in an optic or run a few drills. When storing boxed ammo, I like to leave it in the box when placing it in an ammo can for the long term. This makes it much easier to grab just the amount you want when you’re headed out the door.

Summary

Winchesters 5.56 Target Ammo is some of the best ammo you can get for the price. It is accurate enough to use for a couple of hundred yards and works great for zeroing in those red dots. For long-range scopes, I think I would use a higher-grade bullet, but those get expensive. This is the perfect ammo for day-to-day range time and shoots clean, so you don’t end the day with black marks all over your hands and gun. So next time you hit the range, buy a box to shoot and of course, a box or two is great to put away for that rainy day.

Many folks who keep firearms for home defense strive to balance readiness with safe storage. After all, it’s not always possible to quickly access a gun in your safe, but, unless you live alone, having firearms lying around isn’t practical. Quick-access handgun safes can help strike that balance, but what about long guns? Historically, there haven’t been many options and the days of the loaded rifle over the mantlepiece are mostly gone. But the Hornady RAPiD Shotgun Wall Safe partially addresses that problem.

The Hornady RAPiD Safe provides a secure storage option coupled with fast, reliable access. Let’s look at those two aspects individually.

RAPiD Security

The safe is small and can be used as a standalone device, but for maximum security, you’ll have to mount it to the wall. This is not hard to do. Mounting hardware and instructions are included. All you have to do is find the studs in your wall. The mounting bolt heads are inside the safe, securing them from tampering by a potential thief or curious adolescent. You can mount the safe horizontally or vertically, depending on your needs.

The safe’s housing is constructed from 14-gauge steel and features 2 internal hardened steel locking lugs. The safe exceeds ATSM International safety standards regarding lock strength; drop, pick, and saw tests; hinge attack resistance, and child and pry resistance.

Your shotgun is held in place by a steel lug that fits in the open ejection port. The gun cannot be pulled through either end. The mounting lug blocks the action so you can store the gun with ammo in the tube. There is also a separately mounted muzzle loop to support longer-barreled guns.

RAPiD Access

The safe offers several access methods, including keys, a coded keypad, and RFID technology. The redundancy here is a strength. The safe includes 2 circular barrel keys for manual access. Make sure you don’t lose them because Hornady does not offer replacements, due to security concerns. If you do lose them, you’ll have to rely on the electronic options or call a locksmith.

The safe’s lid features a keypad, into which you can program a 4-to-6-digit access code. Punch in your code and the safe pops open. I was pleased by the door’s positivity when it opened. The keypad is large and easily visible. The keys are also easy to navigate by touch in the dark and light up when you hit the 1st key. That’s a real positive. The code is also easy to input and change if necessary.

The final access option uses RFID technology. This, in my tests, was the weak spot. The safe comes with an RFID wristband, key fob, and 2 adhesive decals for your phone or whatever. The safe can accept up to 5 separate RFID input devices.

The programming is simple and only takes a few minutes, but I found the RFID reliability to be less than ideal. All the devices worked, but it often took several seconds of moving them around over the sensor trying to find the right spot. I did eventually figure out where that spot was, so I got better at it, but in a stressful situation, maybe in the dark, I wouldn’t want to rely on it.

Plus, I don’t see myself wearing the wristband, attaching the key fob to my keys, or applying the decal to my phone, especially since the instructions say the metal in a phone may interfere with the signal. Still, I kept the RFID inputs as a backup in case I misplace the keys. I just keep all the RFID devices locked in my main gun safe. The keys and the keypad are the simplest and, to my mind, most reliable access methods.

Finally, the electronics “beep” when you use them, providing audible confirmation that you’re doing what you think you’re doing. But you can turn that off if you want. I can see not wanting to tip off an intruder that you’re breaking out the artillery.

Power Supply

The safe’s electronics are powered by an included AC power cord and/or 4 AA batteries that are not included. If you plan to use the electronic access options, I recommend installing the batteries. I found that the AC connection inside the safe can occasionally work its way free if you open and close the safe a lot. Maybe that’s just my example, but it happened a couple of times. That’s where the keys come in, but that could be a problem if it’s the middle of the night and you can’t see the keyhole in the dark.

Relying on the safe’s electronics also limits your placement options somewhat, but I doubt that’s a major issue for most people. If you don’t have an available outlet, use the keys.

Not for All Shotguns

The Hornady RAPiD Wall Safe is made for most standard pump and semi-automatic shotguns, including 12-gauge, 20-gauge, and .410s. It will not, however, fit certain magazine-fed guns. I had originally hoped it would house my Rock Island VRPA40, but the mag well is too big. But no real worries since my Mossberg 590 Shockwave does just fine. I cannot speak to all magazine-fed guns but be aware that not all guns will fit.

The Verdict

Overall, I like the Hornady RAPiD Safe. It’s solidly built, compact, and versatile. You can mount it pretty much wherever you want, or not. The mounting holes would even allow you to attach it inside your vehicle with a cable if you wanted to try that.

The locking mechanism is positive and, aside from the finicky RFID tech, was 100% reliable in my tests over the last 6 weeks or so. I mounted it over my bed and quickly got to where I could access it smoothly. I will say that you should have a hand on the pistol grip while opening the safe. The gun can slide off the mounting lug. I had to take some of the photos with the inner foam removed because it was a little shaky otherwise.

I was very pleased with the safe’s robust construction. Its weight surprised me at first. It’s not heavy, but it’s obviously solid. There’s no rattling and I have no concerns about anyone getting to my gun if I don’t want them to.

I’m glad I got this safe. It gives me flexibility in my home defense scheme while not compromising safety. I wouldn’t mount it in my living room, but I certainly could, if I chose. To me, it’s a good bedroom, home office, or even garage setup. But that’s me. Versatility is one of this safe’s strengths. If this sounds good to you, you’re in luck. GunMag Warehouse has them in stock right now. Check it out.

If you think choosing ammunition is as easy as grabbing a random box off the gun store shelf, think again. All ammunition is not created equally. When it comes to selecting defensive ammunition, the differences become extremely important. It takes research and hands-on time to figure out which loads perform well for self-defense loads, and that can be expensive and time-consuming. That’s where Mike Jones of “Garand Thumb” [YouTube channel] comes in. In a recent video, he tests some popular 9mm defensive ammo and shares his results.

What is Defensive Ammunition?

There are a few categories of ammunition you should be familiar with including target, hunting, and defensive loads. As you might expect, target rounds are made for plinking and target practice. These are rounds like FMJ (Full Metal Jacket), and they are made to impact a target without expansion. Because of this, they are prone to significant over-penetration. Hunting rounds are made to perform their greatest on game animals (often specific animals) for a one-shot, ethical kill. Finally, defensive ammunition is made to perform according to long-standing FBI standards for penetration, expansion, and weight retention.

Defensive ammunition is designed to stop a threat as quickly as possible and with the smallest possible risk of over-penetration since through-and-throughs created by target rounds put innocent people at risk of injury.

Which defensive loads are tested?

• Hornady Critical Defense
• Speer Gold Dot
• Federal HST
• Norma MHP (Monolithic Hollow Point) 

Check out the video to find out how the above 9mm defensive ammo rounds performed on a ballistic gel torso.

From the Comments

Viewers made some interesting comments on this particular Garand Thumb video. In particular, viewers who work in medical fields have real-life experiences that influence their choice of defensive ammunition.

BunkerMonkey777 wrote, “I work in emergency medicine and I’ve seen a fair amount of gun shot wounds. Most of them are fmj from small calibers (25 acp, 22lr, 380). Those patients tend to live unless it’s to the heart, a major blood vessel, or brain stem. The patients I’ve seen with 9mm hollow points don’t live if the patient is shot in the trunk (chest or stomach). Most of the time (if not all of the time) quality hollow points pass all the way through. I personally carry Hornady critical duty because I’ve seen what it does.”

NOLA_RN explained, “As a nurse in New Orleans, one of the largest centers of gun violence in the world, you would be amazed at what the human body can survive. What ya’ll perceive as more powerful, a through and through, usually does less damage. The hollow points that splinter apart generally knick multiple organ systems making them more fatal.”

suzettespencer replied, “I personally operated on several people shot with both FMJ and HP. Other than making slightly bigger holes, there is no significant difference. When a solid organ is shot like the liver, the petals will cause more bleeding in the HP. FMJ do penetrate more, especially when it hits bone.”

Do you have any experience with defensive ammunition in ballistic gel, while hunting, or otherwise? Tell us in the comments below.

Who doesn’t love a good heist movie? The good ones have us rooting for the supposed bad guys, who are usually portrayed as enriching themselves by sticking it to “the Man.” “The Man” can be the government, a faceless corporation, a hoity toity bank, or just some rich snot who totally deserves it. One of my favorite heist films (Kelly’s Heroes) is also a good war movie. The best heist movies also carry a revenge factor, like The Italian Job. 1967’s The War Wagon is one of those.

The Duke as Borderline Bad Guy

I’m a sucker for a good John Wayne Western, and The War Wagon is no exception. The Duke plays Taw Jackson, a rancher wrongly imprisoned for an unspecified crime. Turns out he was framed by mining magnate Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot), who wanted the gold recently found on Jackson’s ranch. How Pierce gained control of the ranch is unclear, but it doesn’t affect the story. It’s enough to know Pierce is a greedy snake with no morals.

The War Wagon was the first movie in which Wayne was a bad guy, even if it was forced on him by Pierce. The revenge-driven Duke, out on parole, is convincing as he plans to steal back his gold and kill Pierce in the process.

War Wagon Plot

The War Wagon is 55 years old, so spoilers aren’t really a thing, but I won’t ruin it for you either way. Pierce periodically transports gold dust from his New Mexico mine to El Paso in an armored stagecoach he calls his “War Wagon.” A safe inside the coach holds the gold and Pierce rides inside with several rifle-armed guards. Fourteen more mounted riflemen ride ahead of the War Wagon with fourteen more behind. Early in the movie, Jackson says the guards are all armed with Henry rifles, but they actually carry Winchester Model 1892 carbines. Of course, your average Western fan won’t know the difference.

Jackson plans to ambush the War Wagon and take an upcoming shipment worth half a million dollars. If he can kill Pierce too, well, so much the better. His intelligence comes from Wes Fletcher, a wagon driver working for Pierce. Fletcher is played by Keenan Wynn, who also plays Colonel Bat Guano in one of my favorite films, Dr. Strangelove. Fletcher is a crusty old coot and proves himself to be not exactly trustworthy, but Jackson needs him for the heist.

The story is supposedly based on a real armored wagon called the Monitor that ran gold out of Deadwood South Dakota. At least one outlaw tried to rob it. It ended badly for him.

The Duke’s Gang

Jackson recruits three other men for his crew, each with a very particular skill set. This was before Liam Neeson’s time, so he ain’t one of them.

The second recruit is the gunslinger/safecracker Lomax (Kirk Douglas). Lomax is second place only to Jackson as the film’s main character. Jackson and Lomax have a complicated relationship, considering the latter shot the former as part of Pierce’s earlier shenanigans. We never hear the particulars, but it’s not necessary to the story.

Neither man trusts the other, but Jackson needs a shooter and a safecracker and Lomax wants the equal share of gold Jackson promises him. Pierce complicates things by offering Lomax 12 grand to kill Jackson. Seems having the man whose ranch and gold he stole hanging around makes him nervous. Lomax accepts the offer and keeps it hanging over Jackson’s head to make sure he gets his share.

The next gang member is Levi Walking Bear (Howard Keel), a Kiowa who is instrumental in gaining his tribe’s aid in Jackson’s scheme. Seems they don’t like Pierce either.

The gang’s final member is teenaged alcoholic and explosives expert Billy Hyatt (Robert Walker, Jr.). We’re never told why an 1870s teenager knows so much about explosives. Suffice it to say that he is competent with dynamite and nitroglycerin, which helps when you’re trying to spring gold from an armored stagecoach.

I won’t spoil the plan and execution because it’s well-presented and fun to watch.

Guns of The War Wagon

Robbing the War Wagon obviously won’t be easy, and you know guns will be involved. But the menu is concise and there are only three firearms with prominent roles.

Colt 1873 Single Action Army Revolver

The ubiquitous Peacemaker is the iconic Western firearm. It’s what all the fashionable outlaws and lawmen carried, at least as far as Hollywood is concerned. Jackson and Lomax put them to good use early and often, and Frank Pierce carries one as well.

Here are the 1873 SAA Revolver’s deets, if you don’t already know them:

• Single action only
• Non- swing out cylinder. Rounds loaded one at a time via a frame-mounted loading gate.
• Barrel Length: 4.75 inches; 5.5 inches; or 7.5 inches
• Fixed blade front sight
• Cylinder capacity: 6 rounds
• Caliber: Multiple. The original caliber was .45 Colt.

Winchester Model 1892 Lever Action Carbine

Despite Jackson’s assertion that all Pierce’s men carry Henry rifles, they’re really, as noted, Winchester 1892 carbines. Like the Colt SAA Revolver, the Model 1892 was a Hollywood favorite. The Duke used them in lots of his movies. The 1892’s use is also anachronistic since the movie is set in the 1870s, more than a decade before John Browning designed the Model 1892. But, you know, Hollywood.

The 1892 also featured prominently in the popular 1950s and 60s TV Western The Rifleman. Great program. Right up there with Gunsmoke in my book. Interestingly, it was John Wayne and Chuck Connors, as the Rifleman, who popularized the 1892’s large loop lever. It never existed before then. The large loop made easier handling for the Duke’s big mitts and for Connors’ slick cocking spin.

Winchester, Henry, Rossi, and Chiappa now have available large loop levers.

Winchester Model 1892 Carbine Specifications:

• Lever action
• Designed by John Browning to succeed the Model 1873
• Originally manufactured 1892 through 1941. Several modern 1892s currently offered by Winchester.
• Original Calibers: .25 Winchester Center Fire (WCF); .32 WCF; .38 WCF; and .44 WCF
• Tube magazine fed with side loading gate and top ejection port.

1865 Colt Gatling Gun

Fletcher gives Jackson a nasty surprise with news that he recently delivered 10,000 rounds of ammo to Pierce’s ranch. Jackson correctly deduces that Pierce is installing a Gatling Gun for the War Wagon’s big half-million dollar run.

He isn’t wrong and the armored behemoth rolls out on the big day sporting a new 360-degree turret, complete with the big gun. On a side note, the turret doesn’t appear tall enough to accommodate the Gatling Gun’s top-mounted gravity-powered feeding device. Ah well. The story works either way and makes the ambush more daring.

1865 Colt Gatling Gun Specifications

• Type: Manually operated rapid-fire gun
• Caliber: Multiple including .30.03, .30.06, .30-.40, .45-70 Gov’t, .50-70, .58 Rimfire, and a 1-inch naval version. The Internet Movie Firearms Database says the War Wagon’s Gatling was chambered in .44 Rimfire. I have been unable to confirm this one way or the other.
• Capacity: Various, depending on the feeding device.
• Rate of Fire: The Gatling Gun is crank operated, so the fire rate depends on the operator. Normal fire rate was 200 to 400 rounds per minute. The electrically driven 1893 model tested at 1,500 rounds per minute.

The War Wagon: A Fun Movie

The War Wagon is among my favorite John Wayne films. The plot is good, being based on Clair Huffaker’s 1957 novel Badman. Huffaker himself wrote the movie’s screenplay. I expect the book provides more background on Taw Jackson and the other characters, but that’s the usual with movies and books.

The movie was filmed in Durango, Mexico and at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City, giving the landscape an authentic Southwest feel. Studio back lots are fine for some movies, but The War Wagon’s outdoor plot is much better served by filming on location.

Kirk Douglas is another bright spot. Seeing him and John Wayne together is a real treat. He has some great lines, and his stunt double is very creative when mounting a horse. Even though Douglas was in his 50s at the time, he pulls off the gunslinger role quite well.

The several fistfight scenes are corny by today’s standards, but hey, it was 1967. That’s how they did things. All in all, it’s a fun movie with plenty of action and a neat twist at the end. If you like Westerns, heist films, or both, check out The War Wagon. Bet you’ll like it.

Metal Gear Solid is such a weird combination of different awesome things: an insane story, tough guy characters, stealth, action, nukes, and tons of stereotypes mixed with heavy themes of loss, sadness, betrayal, and confusion. But there is always hope for a brighter future.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is an absolute masterpiece. Konami, publisher of the video game series, did the world a disservice by effectively killing Metal Gear Solid and focusing on pachinko machines rather than good video games. Metal Gear Solid V, or MGSV, is seemingly the last Metal Gear Solid game we will get from video game designer Hideo Kojima. It’s an interesting game that is an absolute must-play.

Stop here if you’ve never played it. Everything after will be spoilers. It’s a great game. The biggest flaw is the last act; It seems rushed, and the missions are repetitive. However, the game is still fantastic.

Breaking MGSV: The Phantom Pain

Admittedly to understand the story and get the full experience, you have to play both Phantom Pain and the Prologue Ground Zeroes. These days the games are often included as the Definitive Experience. However, Phantom Pain is quite short and is a true prologue to a much bigger world.

Phantom Pain takes place eight years after Ground Zeroes. You are Big Boss, aka code name Venom Snake. You wake up in a hospital, and from there, things go off the rails with psychic soldiers, men made of fire, a guy named Skullface, and then your typical soldiers and bad guys.

Metal Gear Solid has always been known for its crazy, off-the-wall storytelling. It’s a mixture of conspiracy theories about who runs the world, giant robots that shoot nukes, oh and casual supernatural events no one ever seems to notice or remark on. It’s just part of this world. The story in MGSV has Snake returning to establish a new mercenary group.

Militia Sans Frontiers was disbanded and destroyed during Ground Zeroes. Your Snake is tasked with establishing a new group from the ground up called Diamond Dogs. (Sidenote Militia Sans Frontiers is a much better name.)

Militia Sans Frontiers was disbanded and destroyed during Ground Zeroes. Your Snake is tasked with establishing a new group from the ground up called Diamond Dogs. (Sidenote Militia Sans Frontiers is a much better name.)

The Gameplay

You have two main maps, one in Angola and one in Afghanistan. Both regions are unturned by war. You are free to explore the maps and do missions and side ops as you see fit. The game does prioritize stealth because you will often be outnumbered and outgunned.

Going in guns blazing is an option, but you better have a plan of attack. You might quickly be overwhelmed by the enemy if you go in half-cocked. Cover is a major element, and the troops will coordinate their attacks and use the tools around them to pursue and kill you, including calling for reinforcements.

Those tools included emplaced machine guns and mortars that will absolutely chew through you. However, you can also turn the tide. The action is satisfying, the guns are punchy, and when you hit the enemy, you know. Enemies get wounded and fall behind cover. Some are down on the ground but may attack you with their handgun.

Going in sneaky is the safe play. MGSV wants to take down your enemies quietly or not at all. You can avoid combat if you choose. You can also play entirely nonlethal with tranquilizer guns and similar tools. Interrogating enemies is a big part of surviving and finding resources because they can reveal the location of resources, specialist soldiers, and the placement of their allies.

Building Diamond Dogs

The game also tasks you with recruiting new friends from your old enemies. The enemies on the battlefield can be tranquilized or stunned and then recruited to Mother Base. You want to recruit high-value soldiers, and they have various stats and skills that you might want to aim for.

Base building isn’t tedious and is more staff management than anything. Even then, the computer handles it well. There are several different specialties like R&D, Intel, and Support you can recruit soldiers to. These affect what items and weapons you can build, what support you can receive, and early warnings about the battlefield.

You use a Fulton device to kidnap the troops, as well as extract vehicles, resources, and even animals. Hunting down soldiers with the right skills and stats is part of the fun, and it’s so satisfying to snatch at A, A++, or S-tier soldiers with the skill you need to develop your next weapon or item.

The World of MGSV

MGSV gives you a very open and wide world to explore that feels somewhat real. There aren’t any civilians in Afghanistan or Africa for some reason, but it still feels alive. The soldiers have posts. They sleep, they talk, and BS between being killed or kidnapped by Snake.

You can intercept their comms and hear their panic as you beat them back or as they search and call for reinforcements. You can kill the guy with the radio and shut down their comms if you want to.

The voice acting in MGSV is fantastic. It’s very well done with a mix of real voice actors like Troy Barker and celebrities like Kiefer Sutherland. The characters are cool and interesting, from the six-gun-slinging Ocelot to Kaz, it’s all interesting. Quiet, who barely speaks, still develops as a character. However, the excuse that she breathes through her skin is a silly way to get undressed for the majority of the game.

The Guns of MGSV

Obviously, we have to talk about the guns! The game has an absolute metric ton of types and variations of the guns you already have. Sadly, they are largely fictional but also believable, if that makes sense. The AK is called the SV-76, and it’s used by the Russians and looks like an AK. There are stand-ins for the M60, the FAL, the Chiappa Rhino, the USP, and many more. They aren’t all 1-for-1 replicas, but it’s easy to see the inspiration. The guns can also be upgraded to different variations, including adding optics. I like a good red dot and magnifier, personally. If you extract the gunsmith, you can do even more customization.

Suppressors are in the game, but they degrade quickly. Like a few bursts from an assault rifle, and they are gone. It’s not realistic, but it balances the game. You can and should use iron sights. While the game is third person, you can go to the first person to aim. If you try to shoot in the third person, you’ll miss more than you’ll hit.

It’s BatS&^%

Metal Gear Solid is crazy, with a very complicated story spanning decades of video games. If you’ve never played the MGS games, don’t fret. You’ll still figure out MGSV without issue. You can ignore the story altogether and just enjoy the gameplay. The gunplay is a lot of fun, and so are the stealth elements and the base building. Heck, I spent two hours hunting and tranquilizing sheep and donkeys and found that fun.

It’s sad that we won’t get a proper Metal Gear Solid Six.

Not all magazines are created equal. Likewise, neither is any gun expected to take all magazines. But Glock pistols and Glock magazines are about as universal in design as they come. Even so, straying too far away from the original design intent can cause issues. Design and material deviations can make aftermarket magazines more problematic than what comes from the factory in the box.

For Glock pistols, there are plenty of aftermarket magazines out there—some are good, some are not. And that expands even more when you consider the litany of other handguns and long guns now available that accept Glock magazines. Jeremy puts a new twist on aftermarket and factory magazine comparisons by pairing them with a standard semi-automatic Glock 17 that has been converted to full-auto.

The Test

Going full auto can present a number of problems for some magazines. The slide cycles so rapidly that the spring tension in some magazines might not be strong enough to ensure the next round feeds and chambers. Basically, in full-auto, the gun can outrun the magazine, and aftermarket magazine problems can be amplified. To test out these magazine, Jeremy mag dumps factory and aftermarket magazines, looking for failures.

First, he ran a stock Glock 17 magazine. He ran out of ammo in a hurry but had no issues. Next, he fielded a Sentry Tactical Hexmag and a Magpul PMag. Both are reputable aftermarket seventeen-round options. Both functioned perfectly.

Extended magazines might look goofy, but they are fun to use—and in full auto, you are not out of ammunition quite as fast. Generally, Glock extended magazines hold 30-33 rounds of ammunition instead of seventeen. Some drum magazines hold upwards of fifty rounds.

Jeremy first ran a KCI 33-round magazine. This readily-available Korean-made option induced one malfunction in the Glock 17—a single failure to go into battery.  It soon became a recurring trend that upping the capacity also upped the potential for problems.

ProMag magazines, particularly the extended styles, tend to make me swear when using them. In this test, Jeremy ran their 32-round Glock magazine with one failure to go into battery. Afterward, an SGM 33-round and ETS 31-round magazine were tested as the test pistol became hot to the touch.

The SGM magazine failed to feed twice—one failure to go into battery and one stovepipe. The ETS magazine did the worst of the bunch, with two failures to go into battery and one failure to feed.

Going further up the food chain to drum magazine presents a few pros and cons. On the plus side, you can get even more rounds on board and the added additional weight makes the Glock 17 easier to control under recoil. On the other hand, you have more weight to carry around and more rounds that won’t feed if you get a bad magazine.

Jeremy grabbed a second, cold Glock 17 and shot through 150 rounds from a ProMag, KCI, and MagPul PMag 50-round drum. The ProMag had noticeable excessive play in the magazine well when seated, but it cycled perfectly until it failed to pick up the last round in the magazine. The magazine spring in that particular drum must have compressed enough to prevent that round from being picked up by the slide. The KCI had a single failure to go into battery. The PMag had no issues.

The Bottom Line on Glock Mags

Troubleshooting factory and aftermarket magazines for the normal semi-automatics we use is tough. Doing the same for a select-fire or fully automatic firearm can elevate that task. In the case of Glock magazines in a Glock 17 converted to full-auto fire, a few observations are apparent. The closer you stick to factory designs or capacities, the higher reliability you’ll have.

Jeremy had no issues with conventional seventeen-round magazines as well as factory Glock extended 33-round magazines. The other extended and drum magazines simply did not have the spring tension optimized to readily feed rounds at such a rate of fire. In the case of the ProMag drum, the magazine spring did not have enough tension left to allow the slide to feed the last round. Magpul’s drum ran flawlessly—small wonder that Magpul’s products are fast becoming an OEM for some factory-new firearms out there. Jeremy’s test is a one-off but it provides for a fun and useful demonstration of the pitfalls of factory and aftermarket magazines and how the line between the two can blur at times.

If you need to bring down a sizeable animal, chances are that a 12-gauge 1-ounce rifled slug is adequate medicine. If penetration is needed and you have a shotgun, the slug is the obvious answer. On the face of it, that appears to be true when you go down the food chain to the little 410 bore. Growing up I did not know many who used 410 shotguns for much of anything outside of squirrel hunting, but I have since learned of some folks finding success using 410 slugs on small deer. That use brings up the utility of the 410 slug for personal defense.

Nominally, a 1/4 or 1/5 ounce 410 rifled slug can be cranked out at about 1700 feet per second and the 410’s lack of recoil should mean you can put that slug downrange without a flinch. The kicker is that even a 1/4 ounce slug is light, only about 110 grains in weight. These loads also usually incorporate a hollow point slug that is thrown so fast, it overexpands too much and penetrates very little.

The use of 410 slugs in 45/410 handguns seems pointless, given you are giving up using shotshells with multiple projectiles and shooting single larger projectiles like you would a conventional revolver and conventional ammo. Hornady has attempted to balance the potential for good penetration and slug accuracy with the benefits of spreading buckshot pellets in their 410 Triple Defense load.

Available in 2 1/2 inch shells, the Triple Defense load uses a 41 caliber FTX projectile—a round-nosed slug with a polymer plug in the hollow-point cavity. Two .35 caliber 000 buckshot pellets sit behind the slug. The slug itself appears to be a total rethinking of the old-school soft-lead hollow point and the addition of a few pellets gives some justification for spread. So how does it perform?

Testing the Hornady 410 Triple Defense

I conducted a quick chronograph session and gel test using 10% Clear Ballistics gelatin blocks. I placed my Caldwell chronograph at 4 yards and fired 4 rounds using my 18.5-inch barrel Mossberg 590 410. This load achieved an average velocity of 1240 feet per second. Interestingly, the difference between 1 round to the next was less than 10 feet per second. This load is quite consistent! The total weight of all projectiles weigh a nominal 240 grains—a single 110-grain slug and 2 65-grain round balls. At 1240 feet per second, the Hornady Triple Defense’s payload is imparting 819-foot pounds of energy. These energy levels are in 44 Magnum territory, albeit dispersed between three projectiles.

To gauge the effect, I set up my gelatin blocks and fronted them with 2 layers of white t-shirt material to simulate light clothing. I backed off to ten yards and fired 3 rounds. Given how the slugs favored low in actual patterning, I caught 2 slugs but only 1 buckshot pellet. Each impact was enough to knock my blocks back, requiring a reset between shots.

The 2 slugs that were captured did not expand but were flattened out at their bases as they tumbled. The hollow base of these rounds likely slowed them down as they made it to the 10.5-inch and 12-inch mark respectively. Most of the buckshot pellets escaped out of first 9-inch block, but 1 went straight and true with enough energy to both flatten out and reach the 24-inch mark.

The Bottom Line

It can be a tough sell to justify a shotgun round with only a few projectiles, especially when the shotgun is seen as a long gun that can be used to effect even if your aim is not perfect. Indeed, some 410 loads pattern into one hole inside ten yards. You are working with a limited payload in any event.

The Hornady Triple Defense load is designed for handguns but there is plenty of utility out of the 410 shotgun. 410 slugs by themselves are not particularly effective but Hornady’s version is a welcomed improvement in terms of performance. Based on the marginal performance of smaller shot in the 410, like No. 4 buckshot loads, going with the Hornady Triple Defense with its larger, but fewer pellets, seems a more than acceptable trade-off.

I haven’t picked up a Call of Duty game in a long time….I tried the new WW2 model, but after the D-Day level, the arcade feel wasn’t for me. That damn Xbox end-of-summer sale got me, though, so for about 15 bucks, I picked up Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. I really enjoyed the first two Black Ops games, so why not? As usual, this is a review of the single-player campaign because I’m not partial to 12 years old screaming at me.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes place in the early 1980s, which opens us open to a delightful era of weaponry and warfare. Time to qualify with iron sights and perpetually talk about it as if we didn’t qualify with irons up until 2012. The Cold War plotline sticks with characters we know, like Alex Mason, Frank Woods, and good ole untrustable Hudson.

You play as a bit of a player-generated character named Bell. You can pick their gender, nationality, background, and a couple of traits that give you bonuses. You and your black ops team are hunting an elite Russian agent named Perseus across the world.

Black Ops Cold War — The 1980s In Action

The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War campaign takes you across numerous locales and a mix of fun environments and oddly changing gameplay. Sure, most of it’s just shooting through waves of bad guys, but random stealth missions and a mission as a KGB double agent in KGB headquarters break things up a bit.

Hell, in one level, you pilot a helicopter and blast down other helicopters and take down Vietcong forces attacking an American FOB. It’s a fun mix that breaks up the murder-everything plot. You also get taken around the world to environments like the nightclubs of Europe, a flashback to Vietnam, and even back to Black Ops legacy levels like Dragovich’s base, where you find guys you left behind with crossbow bolts in them years ago.

I’ve often heard Call of Duty campaigns described as summer movies that are loud, fun, and entertaining without a ton of depth. I tend to agree. It’s like a Fast and Furious movie. Black Ops Cold War allows you to travel from Vietnam to Cuba and fight communists every step of the way.

It’s got these thrilling scenes and moments where it’s nothing but fun. Launching missiles in an attacking force of Vietcong or chasing a bad guy across rooftops is a blast. Seeing the Gipper portrayed is a good time, and I hope we get an Iran Contra Black Ops game one day.

The Gun Play

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is all about the shooting, and like most Call of Duty games, the gunplay is tight. It’s fun, easy to start with, and predictable. The submachine guns are weak but controllable, shotguns are for bad breath range only, and rifles are the most balanced option.

I do like to see the evolution of machine guns, though. In this game, they aren’t just inaccurate assault rifles with a 100-round capacity. They tend to be accurate, but you get more accuracy issues when moving. The guns are also slower to get from hip to shoulder.

Reloading can be done while looking down the sights, which is a nice touch and a good bit of realism. Also, being able to look down the sights is always nice. I’m not sure how we ever played games without being able to look down the sights.

Is it all totally believable? No, but it’s tight and well done. It’s still a video game, and the differences between an AK and an M16 are tough to translate. So just make one fire burst and make the other one a little less accurate and call it a day.

The Guns of Cold War

The guns in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War are a weird mix of great and lazy. The laziness comes from the fact that Call of Duty is really hooked on just copying assets from older games. That’s why the SPAS-12 will never go away. That’s one problem. The other is an odd mix of weapons being used by the various forces that often don’t make sense.

The Soviets are wielding AKs and RPDs alongside Swedish AK5s and Beretta 93Rs. Both sides wield an Ithaca 37 wannabe and SPAS-12 shotguns. When Call of Duty: Vanguard came out, people groaned at the use of red dots on WW2 guns, but they’ve always done that.

That happens here too. Did red dots exist in 1983? Sure, but they were much larger and nowhere near as common as the game makes them out to be. Honestly, a game with old-school red dots and maybe Colt 4X scopes mixed with a healthy helping of iron sights would be a bit more fun and realistic. I don’t see a reason why a stock standard Soviet soldier would have an MP5 with a red dot on it.

The Crazy Accurate Representation

Where Black Ops Cold War gets things right is in some little details. The SPAS-12, for example, has some crappy ergonomics, and reloading requires you to hold down a latch and flip the gun upside down. When wielding the 93R, your character uses the proper grip with the gun. Their thumb slips through the trigger guard and the hand over the 93R vertical grip.

The AK series rifles are mostly used when fighting the Russians and are what you expect from an AK. However, in the Vietnam levels, you can retrieve an AK, and when you aim down the sights, it has a hooded front sight. Hooded front sights are a characteristic of the Chinese Type 56 AK, and that’s a brilliant touch.

It’s interesting that someone cared enough to take the little details this far but then slapped us in the face with a lack of Cold War classics like the FN FAL and the G3.

Cold War Classic

Cold War might be a rather short campaign, but it’s plenty of fun. I wouldn’t purchase this game for 60 bucks, or even 40, or maybe even 30. If you dive into the multiplayer, then maybe it’s worth that price. If you can snag it on sale, then it’s worth the cost of admission.

Guns and Cigars. If you are a cigar smoker you will know that there are a multitude of great drinks, alcoholic and otherwise, that pair well with your favorite smoke. Of course, this is a Gun blog and booze and firearms do not mix. But there are few things finer than setting back with a hand-rolled cigar after a successful hunt or a long day at the range. For this Gun-and-Cigar pairing, we are going old-school American West with a nod to Clint Eastwood—The Colt Conversion and a Cheroot.

Cimarron Firearms makes a very cool take on the Colt Conversion called Man With No Name. This is in reference to Clint Eastwood’s character in the classic Spaghetti Westerns. The original Colt Conversions were made to use up existing stocks of cap and ball revolvers and to circumvent patents that were held by competing companies. Colt also offered factory conversions of customers’ revolvers that was cheaper than buying a new revolver. And speaking of cheap, the Conversions continued to be very popular in the Old West, even after the Peacemaker was introduced in 1873, for that very reason.

The most common style of Colt Conversion is what is called the Richards-Mason. This comes from two patents that were used to make them: one filed by Charles B. Richards and the other by William Mason. The Cimarron Man With No Name is kind of a cross between a Richards-Mason, an unconverted Colt Navy, and the 1872 Open Top Colt. This was done to not be historical in the sense of an original Colt, but to be like the one Clint Eastwood used in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and other Spaghetti Westerns. And what does the Man With No Name also do in the movies? He smokes small cigars!

The style of cigar Eastwood is seen smoking in these movies is called a Cheroot. The exact brand he smoked on screen is up for debate. The two cigars that are most commonly said to be the ones from the movie are Marsh Wheeling and Parodi. Marsh Wheeling was a very old history American cigar company that started in the 1840s. Unfortunately, they were discontinued a few years ago. However, there are rumors that they will be coming back. But have no fear Parodis are still going strong!

One would assume with a name like Parodi that they were made in Italy like the Spaghetti Westerns and the Cimarron Man With No Name. But that is not the case, they are made in Pennsylvania from 100% American-grown Kentucky Tobacco. These are dry-cured cigars that do not have be kept in a humidor. They look rustic, and taste a little rustic too.

Shooting Notes: There is just something about the grip shape on these old Colts and their clones that are magic. This one is in .38 Special, recoil is very mild, shoots fast but loads a mite slow.

Tasting Notes: Medium body with some strength, these have a rustic earthy taste.

Shotguns are often called a thinking man’s weapon, and I tend to agree with that saying. The thing is, the thinking part doesn’t come in the middle of a gunfight. It comes in the preparation of your home defense shotgun and for a gunfight that might or might not ever come. Part of that planning ahead and thinking is choosing the proper ammunition type. One of the most reputable and widely used rounds in defensive shotguns is Federal Flitecontrol.

Federal Flitecontrol and the Flitecontrol shot cup have changed the game for defensive shotgun loads. The Flitecontrol shot cup encapsulates a load of buckshot as it leaves the shell and travels down the barrel. The shot cup leaves the barrel with the pellets enclosed, which is part of the magic of the Flitecontrol wad. The shot cup then deploys a set of wings that act as brakes positioned at the back of the shot cup.

These brakes deploy, and this is what separates the pellets from a load of buckshot. Because the pellets stay together longer, they produce a tighter, more effective pattern at typical shotgun ranges. Now that we know how the Flitecontrol loads work let’s discuss why shotguns are such efficient fight stoppers.

FliteControl – Dropping Lots of Lead

The Flitecontrol loads are 2.75-inch shells loaded with either nine or eight pellets of 00 buckshot. These shells used to come in Number 1 buck, but those are sadly long gone. The Flitecontrol loads deliver a handful of .33 caliber projectiles all at once, which can absolutely stop a threat with a single pull of the trigger. Each of these pellets weighs approximately 53 grains which means each shell delivers over 400 grains of lead per trigger pull. 

The Flitecontrol shot cup delivers that load in a very tight pattern. The reason a tight pattern is so desirable is something called pellet accountability. Each one of those 53-grain pellets has the potential to kill a person, so when shooting a shotgun, you want to ensure every pellet hits the threat. A single stray pellet could harm or kill a loved one. Loads like Flitecontrol make it very difficult to have stray pellets.

That’s where the value of Flitecontrol lies—in total pellet accountability. At least, that is where the value lies for those using shotguns for home defense. From a duty perspective, the Flitecontrol loads offer a greater effective range. They can reach out and hit threats beyond your typical shotgun range. For home defense, we are likely dealing with shots at a mere 10 yards, so the range isn’t a major concern.

Performance At the Range

The Federal Flitecontrol loads are tactical loads designed to reduce recoil. The velocity is 1,145 feet per second, and that’s fairly soft and slow from a shotgun. The brass is lowish, so I wanted to see how it would function in some semi-auto shotguns. I grabbed my Mossberg 930 SPX and Benelli M4 and hit the range.

The rounds ran perfectly fine in both semi-auto shotguns. They fired flawlessly and had zero issues cycling in either gun—not bad for low recoil loads in shotguns. Speaking of, the load and the recoil it delivers are surprisingly very controllable, even in a pump action shotgun. 

Now, while the load handles exceptionally well and works without complaint in semi-auto shotguns, Flitecontrol really shines in how tight it remains when it strikes a target. Let’s step it off to 10, 15, and 25 yards and see exactly where the load of buckshot falls.

At 10 Yards

At ten yards, Flitecontrol acts like a slug. When it strikes the target, it’s indistinguishable from a single large projectile. This kind of reduced spread ensures total and complete pellet accountability.

At 15 Yards

At fifteen yards, things haven’t changed much. It’s still a big slug that acts like one massive projectile when it hits the target. Seeing as how most home defensive shots will be well under 15 yards, the tight pattern Flitecontrol offers is perfect for home defense work.

At 25 Yards

Let’s get a little crazy with it. Just for fun, we’ll move all the way back to 25 yards and square up with our target. In a duty situation, a 25-yard shot is a real possibility, so what happens if we take the Flitecontrol load out to the 25-yard line?

We still see superior performance. It might not resemble a solid projectile at 25 yards, but the pattern is still smaller than my hand.

Just for fun, here is the spread your average load of buckshot delivers at 10 yards.

Not Enough Spread!

Bill Burr has a great joke about buying a shotgun, and the clerk constantly says the phrase, “It’s got good spread!” Admittedly there are situations where a wider spread can be handy, but they aren’t likely to be CONUS. The spread of a common load of buckshot offers allows you to hit a running target or to hit a target in low-light situations.

Those are great advantages if you are in Fallujah and the ROEs are fairly loose. Here in the United States, playing fast and loose with your pellet accountability is a great way to hurt someone innocent. In some situations, it’s beneficial, but for the home defender, a wide spread isn’t that handy.

When a load of Flitecontrol hits an attacker, it will still spread inside their body and create a very undesirable situation for a home invader. The pellets will travel through the body and likely hit something vital enough to stop the fight.

A Word on Chokes

You should always pattern your ammo and load with your desired shotgun at your desired range. However, if your gun has anything other than a cylinder choke, the Flitecontrol load might not perform very well. In fact, it will likely mess with the Flitecontrol shot cup and cause the load to spread unpredictably. This shot cup and load are designed for a cylinder-bore shotgun.

Since most tactical shotguns are cylinder-bore guns, this isn’t a big deal. I think the performance advantage of the Flitecontrol load is clear. It’s capable, clings tight, and delivers unbeatable performance. I’m confident in saying this is the best buckshot load on the market for defensive use.