I haven’t routinely carried a concealed firearm outside of my home in years. Violent crime is down and keeps dropping and let’s face it, I do not profile as a victim. I am quite large and present as physically capable. I am well-versed in unarmed combat and pretty confident. The odds of me being selected for a criminal attack, or even witnessing one, are pretty small.

I’ve spoken before about the fact that while the need for self-defense is in some ways less likely than ever that the scope of the problem had increased. I’ve talked about responding to a mass-shooting incident and a number of other topics around concealed carry. I do routinely carry a handgun while working in my shop, but I almost never carry in public. It hasn’t seemed all that necessary, but it seems that is changing.

Last week on a commuter train in Portland a man was abusing some Moslem women. He was shouting racist epithets and insults. When other riders confronted him about this he pulled a knife and apparently went berserk. Other people on the bus tried to stop him. Two of the good samaritans are now dead, one is critically injured and several more sustained less serious wounds. A knife is a terrifyingly destructive weapon in close quarters.

I do not know that having a gun would have helped in that situation; I wasn’t there and do not know the exact circumstances. I do not know that a handgun could have been used safely and effectively in the situation; things happened shockingly fast in an enclosed space full of people; deploying a gun might have actually caused a greater risk to more people. But it would have possibly provided more options, and might have helped.

I don’t usually ride public transit so I am not likely to encounter that exact situation, but it’s easy to see myself in a similar situation in any of a variety of public venues, and in such a situation I would almost certainly intervene.  Had I done so in Portland I would most likely be dead, seriously injured or even crippled. Having a handgun in such a situation would at very least introduce more options to reduce or eliminate the threat.

We cannot predict whether we might encounter such a situation- but to some degree we can predict our own actions. If I see someone abusing others I know that I am likely to intervene in some fashion, and will likely use physical force if it appears necessary to prevent injury to innocents.  But actions ranging from trying to disengage the victims from their abuser without confrontation to calling the authorities should be attempted before violence of any kind if circumstances allow. I am intimately aware that a gun is neither a magic wand nor a screw-for every nut. A gun is a tool that expands your options, not a solution, and it is strictly a tool of last resort.

In a confrontation you have to be aware of a lot of things- not the least of which is who the aggressor is, and it’s not always as clear-cut as the situation in Portland. You need to be aware of your surroundings and the people around you. You also have to be aware that police responding to the scene don’t know who you are or what your place is in the situation- but if you’ve got a gun in your hand they aren’t likely to give you the benefit of the doubt in the first moments after their arrival.

In the firearms and self-defense communities we make a lot of the need to be mentally prepared to use lethal force, but it is equally important to be mentally prepared not to. If you are not sensible you will become part of the problem. Real-life is not a ‘hostage target.’ Out in the real-world there are things and people all around, and if you miss the bullets will hit something. Don’t get so tunneled in on the immediate situation the you are blind to innocent bystanders that many be harmed by your actions. Yes, there are SHTF scenarios where even hitting an innocent bystander is better than letting the subject continue his destructive actions, but such scenarios are vanishingly rare and improbable.

Give some thought to conditions where it will not be a good idea to deploy a weapon, and think about what constructive actions you can take when lethal force might not be a viable solution. A gun is just one of many options, not the only one.

In the meantime I think it’s time to expand my own options.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 28 May 2017.

I finished work early today and was discussing what to do this afternoon when Linda said, “I know you have those new loads- why don’t you go shooting?”

I left skid marks.

Previously all I had put through the Remington Bulldog were HSM 200gr RNFP Cowboy loads, so I was interested to see how the 185gr. reloads would compare. I had a suspicion they would be noticeably snappier, and they were a bit but nothing even approaching unpleasant. They also shot less low than the HSM loads by about 1/2. I was having a bit of trouble shooting a tight group, but that wasn’t the bullet’s fault; I couldn’t see the front sight. I fixed that by sticking a piece of masking tape over the front sight and things tightened up immediately. I think I need to do something to brighten that sight up.

7 yards rapid fire, 185gr. LSWC, 8.5gr. Unique, CCI primer

I like this load well enough, but next I want to try some heavier bullets. I love shooting the this gun, and the more I shoot it the better it gets.

I still had a bunch of the Montana Gold 125gr. Hollowpoints loaded with 5.6gr. of Unique and a CCI primer. I decided to give the Shopkeeper’s Special a good workout. Firing at 7, 10 and fifteen yards with a six-o’clock hold produced some good results for a gun with a 2-1/4″ barrel and rudimentary sights. I had a couple guys next to me doing rapid-fire for some sort of tactical course, so I pushed the speed a bit and hoped the ROs wouldn’t notice. Well, they didn’t say anything, so I guess I got away with it. The two targets were at five and ten yards respectively.

Pulling to the left a bit, but I was in a bit of a hurry. Need to work on that…

It’s very nice that the reloads are working out well. No issues with ejection in either gun, though I took to using a cleaning rod on the .45; I could get the expended shells out, usually with a firm tap on the cylinder, but it was just easier.

Great afternoon at the range, and I have to admit it was nice to be there without having to test a gun, just put some rounds downrange and see how they work out. Very relaxing.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 19 May 2017

The Remington Bulldog Cartridge-conversion is complete, so the next logical step is to set up to reload .45 Colt. To that end I became the proud owner of a set of Hornady Custom dies. I paid a little more than I would have online, but once you factor in shipping I was actually ahead, plus I got to support my favorite local gun store. Also picked up a shell-holder, a box of CCI Large Pistol Primers and 100 185gr. cast SWCs. I’d actually planned to go with a heavier bullet, but they were right there and the price was right so what the heck.

Consulting the internet for reloading data I figured that 8.5 grains of Unique was a reasonably conservative load and ought to be about right to start. After a nice dinner with the Light of My Life I headed into the shop to have a go. I read the instructions, set the powder-drop and got going.

The de-priming die worked exactly like the .38/.357 dies I have been using so that was easy enough. The I looked at the expanding die. This did not look like the .38 die, so I read and followed the directions. There were a couple of small bobbles but I got on track quickly enough. Switching the Hornady hand-primer to Large Pistol primers was dead-easy, and before long I was ready for the final step- seating the bullets. I checked the directions again, which were alarmingly vague, and set it up the way they seemed to indicated…

“Woah! That’s not right!”

I adjusted the die in a way that seemed sensible, then tried again…

“That’s… uh… better?”

OK, it was at least symmetrical, but it still wasn’t going to be easy to chamber… Back to the instructions. After carefully re-reading the directions the light-bulb came on and the problem was obvious…

“Yep- got it! These directions are useless.”

That being the case I filed them appropriately and took the die apart and examined it. Once it was in pieces it was pretty obvious how it was supposed to work. I reassembled the die, mounted it in the press and fiddled a little. Voila! Success. The bullets are seated quite deep, but being relatively light-for-caliber the nose of the SWC is quite long. The specified maximum overall length for .45 Colt is 1.6″, so I loaded these to 1.58″ with a fairly stout roll-crimp.

I now have 41 loaded cartridges, two candidates for the bullet-puller and a good working understanding of Hornady’s seating die, which is actually pretty neat. The Custom die has a sleeve that goes over the cartridge and bullet and aligns the bullet so that they seat straight every time, then a plunger seats the bullet to depth- useful, that.

I also learned an important lesson- if the instructions suck don’t try to use them.

Good to know, that last one. I’ll let you know how these shoot next week; too busy for a range trip the next few days. Y’all have a good weekend!

Michael Tinker Pearce, 18 May 2017