Two Newer Lever Action Carbines Worth looking at

Big Horn Armory Model 89 lever-action rifle in .500 S&W Magnum

The 500 S&W Magnum cartridge has been around for over seven years now, but no repeating rifles have been built to fire the .500 S&W Magnum cartridge, until now.

Big Horn Armory designed their rifle around the 500 S&W Magnum cartridge, instead of trying to adapt an existing rifle to fire the cartridge. Made primarily of 17-4 stainless steel and American black walnut, the Model 89 is a very good-looking and robust rifle, but still light enough and trim enough for quick handling.

The Big Horn Model 89 is a classy-looking carbine, very well fitted and finished. The walnut wears a durable synthetic finish and a thick, effective Pachmayr Decelerator butt pad. The forend has a slight belly to it for a secure grip, but is not overly done, and goes well with the pistol grip buttstock. The metal has a matte finish and an optional black finish is offered as well. The aperture rear sight is adjustable for both windage and elevation, and the steep ramp offers a lot of adjustment range in elevation to allow the carbine to be sighted in at a wide variance of distances with a variety of bullet weights. The front post sight is also adjustable for windage correction, and is black with a vertical white bar in its rear face. The rear aperture is also black, but has a brass insert, and the aperture can be removed.

Read the whole by Jeff Quinn article at:
http://www.gunblast.com/Bighorn89.htm

The .500 Smith & Wesson is expensive in a lever action, because of the pressures this cartridge operates at. The .500 S&W runs chamber pressures up to and sometimes over 60,000 PSI. Lever actions were meant for much lower pressure cartridges like the .45-70, .30-30, .35 Remington, along with all of the handgun cartridges they chamber.

This lever action had to be custom designed and built to much higher standards to cope with the high chamber pressures of the .500. It was not as simple as converting an existing action from Marlin or Winchester.


Watch this YouTube Video:
Big Horn Armory Model 89 500 S&W Magnum Levergun - Gunblast.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmjb-52L2bY

Mossberg Tactical 464 SPX Lever Action

Mossberg has introduced a range of Mossberg 464 lever action rifles pimped out with picatinny rails, six position adjustable stock (including adjustable comb height), 3-dot fiber optic sights and flash suppressor.

While they look weird, and are more than a little “tacti-cool”, they are practical. For both hunting and self-defense being able to mount accessories, such as lasers or flashlights, makes perfect sense. The adjustable stock works as well on a lever action as a semi-automatic.

The rifles will be avalible in .22 LR (18″ barrel, 13+1 capacity) and .30-30 (16″ barrel, 5+1 capacity). There is also a “ZMB” model

The 464 is, most basically, a lever action rifle without the wooden furniture.  Rather than go to great lengths to make the polymer look exactly like the wood it is replacing, Mossberg adopted the tools of the tactical trade.  The forend is covered up in rail.  And the stock, which is made by ATI (who makes all kinds of stocks) is actually adjustable.

The 464 holds five in the tube.  Beneath the flash suppressor, the barrel is threaded.  The rail covers the fore-end, but doesn’t extend to the top.  A rail section could be added up top, or there are options for a traditional scope mount.

The SPX weighs in at 7 pounds, and has a 16-inch barrel.  With the flash suppressor, the rifle is 34-inches long.

Read the full review at Guns.com

In defence of American hunter, Melissa Bachman

The outrage about an American hunter, Melissa Bachman, who bragged on Twitter about bagging a splendid male lion, was terrifying to watch. Terrifying, but also deeply troubling on many levels. Emotive outrage and smug judgmentalism are no substitute for rational thought and pragmatic policy.

Excerpts from an article by Ivo Vegter (South Africa):

Every year, game hunters travel to South Africa, pockets stuffed with dollars. Most of them are men, who quietly come and go, leaving behind them R6.2 billion in industry revenue, according to Environmental Affairs minister Edna Molewa.

If her hunt was legal, what did she do wrong? Should it be made illegal?

In 1960, there were only three game farms in South Africa. There were only half a million head of game. Changes in the law to permit private ownership of game and commercialise big game hunting coincided with the sea change that we see today: 10,000 game farms, supporting 20 million head of game on as many hectares. By contrast, the government formally protects only 7.5 million hectares as national parks.

The game farm industry employs 100,000 people, which is reportedly three times more than employment in ordinary livestock farms. Income from game breeding stock sold at auction rose almost 15-fold in just six years, from R60 million in 2006 to R864 million in 2012.

The notion that hunting harms the survival of species, or the environment more generally, happens to be false, and demonstrably so.

Commenting on Botswana’s recent decision to ban professional hunting in the hope that it would stop poaching, professor Melville Saayman of the North-West University observed: “...the problem is that it is going to have a reversed effect.”

Says Saayman: “Kenya followed the same path. They also banned hunting and currently have a huge game poaching problem, so much so that some of their species face total extinction. The strategy proposed by Botswana is short-sighted and is not going to work. Game numbers will decline and this will have a serious impact on the hunting and game farm industry in the country.”

In Kenya, hunting was banned in the late 1970s, but it has since lost 85% of its wildlife. Go figure.

“Case studies from South Africa,” says Saayman, “have shown that as soon as the hunting of a species is allowed, it leads to the breeding as well as conservation of the particular species. Botswana's policy is definitely going to lead to job losses.”

Some time ago, I wrote about a story out of Texas, where hunting ranches host large herds of endangered antelope like addax and dama gazelle, which are extinct in the wild in their native Africa. The reason they’re there? They pay their keep, by supplying the hunting industry. What will happen if hunting these animals is banned? They will cease to exist. Entirely.

What has hunting done for the rhino population? Extending full private property rights to the animals and legalising trophy hunting has arguably saved both the black and white rhino from going extinct decades ago, according to a detailed study conducted by environmental economist Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes.

As a child, on game viewing holidays, I remember learning how rare the roan antelope, bontebok, sable antelope and black wildebeest were. Today, they are relatively common, and the Professional Hunters’ Assocation of South Africa (PHASA) names them among the species that once were on the brink of being wiped out, but are today thriving on private game farms supported by hunting revenue.

“I am of the firm belief that the hunting industry and the game farming industry are important partners, who play a key role in terms of conservation, tourism, and economic development," Molewa told a hunting indaba in 2010.

South Africa officially considers Bachman a welcome and valued visitor, and rightly so. Even if you disagree, and you arrogantly think you have the moral authority to judge her arrogance, the real story is this. Your smug superiority risks depriving South Africa of tourism revenue and employment. It risks depriving the country of much-needed funding for conservation. It risks reducing the value of our wildlife, which reduces the incentive for private farm owners to breed and protect game. Hypocritical anger is a greater threat to conservation than Bachman’s rifle will ever be.

Please do read the whole article by clicking on the linked title below:
In defence of a lion killer
by Ivo Vegter

The Four Rules of Gun Safety

This article is reblogged from : Home Defense Gun

When I was in the Special Forces, every time we went to the shooting range we always would start out our safety brief with the Four Rules of 4 rules of gun safetyGun Safety:

• All guns are always loaded.
• Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
• Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
• Be sure of your target, what is in line with it, and what is beyond it.

It didn’t matter if it was for an hour or for all day, we would always do a safety brief with the four rules.

The Four Rules of Gun Safety are credited to Jeff Cooper.  Cooper is known for his discussion of mindset.  Both mindset for safety and the proper mindset needed for deadly force. Check out Cooper’s book “Principles Of Personal Defense.”
[and our article "Combat Mindset - The Cooper Color Code"]

Even now when I go to the range with my son or with friends I insist on reading the four rules.  I even review them when I shoot by myself.  The idea is to in grain them into your thinking so that they become second nature and you follow them even when under tremendous stress.

Let’s look at each of the rules and what they mean:

All guns are always loaded
Most gun accidents are caused by thinking a weapon was empty when it wasn’t. The idea is to create safe handling practices so that even if someone mistakes a weapon for being safe (unloaded) when it isn’t; nothing bad can happen.

Even if a gun is on safe, an equipment malfunction can cause it to fire.  If you treat it as being able to go off at any time, you will not injure anyone if it goes off unexpectedly.  I have seen several times on a range when someone thought a weapon was empty and squeezed the trigger as the last step of clearing it and having an accidental discharge.  Luckily, each person had the weapon pointed in a safe direction and did not injure anyone.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy
If you don’t point your gun at something, you can’t shoot it, plain and simple.

In the military, we used the term of flagging someone with a weapon. By this we meant pointing, even incidentally the muzzle at someone.  You have to be always conscious of where your gun is pointing.

If you follow Rule #1, you have to be prepared for the weapon to go off at any time.  I have had rounds cook off in the barrel after firing a tremendous amount of rounds on the range.  If the weapon had not been pointed in a safe direction, it could have injured or killed someone.

Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
Unless a weapon malfunctions, it will not fire.  If you keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to engage, most likely the gun will not go off. Many a person has shot themselves in the foot by not following this rule on drawing their pistol from a holster.

Also by keeping your trigger finger on the side of the weapon, you are creating a natural point of aim for yourself.

Be sure of your target, what is in line with it, and what is beyond it
This is even more important in home defense scenarios.  You never, ever, ever want to injure or kill someone innocently in the line of fire.  You must identify the target positively as a threat. Too many family members have been shot in their own house when they came home unexpectedly.  You must identify the target as an intruder before engaging it.

Also you have to know if someone might dodge in the line of fire or what might happen if the rounds go through the target.  Remember the words “”always be sure of your target; not just the target itself, but above, below, to the left, to the right, in front of, and behind the target.”

Training will give you the ability to know your strengths and limitations as far as accuracy.  A proper selection of ammunition will lessen the chance of overpentration.

Conclusion
We always added an additional line to the first rule – “Weapons are always loaded. Be deadly serious.” Owning a weapon is a right, but it comes with a need for responsibility.  If you establish the right mindset and drill it into yourself you will greatly lessen the chance that an innocent person and even yourself might be injured.

To download an excellent gun safety guide in .pdf – Click here.

Let us know in the comments if you have any other gun safety rules to share.

This article was originally published by and is reblogged here from :
Home Defense Gun

Valuable Tips from Jerry Miculek - world record shooter,

How to shoot a Revolver with world record shooter, Jerry Miculek! (handgun grip & stance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEHNZFTfSD8

Jerry Miculek- What is your favorite caliber and why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=382BkpHcvNo

Jerry Miculek- What is the white powder you use on your grip? How should I grip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cVujoRccnk

Jerry Miculek- What do you mean when you say focus on the visual aspect of shooting?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Wh9wYgeUo

Jerry Miculek - Revolver Showdown - Clip from Hot Shots TV Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no-XRaSxnzg

Jerry Miculek Practical Rifle, Opening Segment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvkbZNcWQ3w

How to shoot IDPA concealed revolver with Jerry Miculek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOrvVcv7EiI

Lessons from a Legend: Jerry Miculek - Hot Shots TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a_GrZGcf_I

Brownells - Jerry Miculek Practical Rifle DVD Segment, Gear for the Field & Match, D1S2-5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcLSoE_PwIQ

Jerry Miculek- What advice helped you get where you are?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxbEag__0I

Jerry Miculek Practical Rifle, Sighting In Metallic Sights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoM8woZXX8

Miculek Competition Revolver Grips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNKz5BFS3Tk

Jerry Miculek- Why did you choose Smith & Wesson firearms?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlX60aQjNzo

Jerry Miculek - exclusive interview - GUNMAGAZIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d2yM0NH0fk

S&W 327 & 627 review & speed shooting with fastest shooter ever, Jerry Miculek (Shoot Fast!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiblYI_Xq5U&list=PLdTcHB0tfA3QlVLDSNv63SeM4TU_0Lytm

YouTube Search for Jerry Miculek
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jerry+Miculek&page=&utm_source=opensearch

A Few other videos of value

Quickstrips vs Speedloaders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D14UHmf0yN0

Improving your handgun shooting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxNd2qCr2l8
(The grip and stance should perhaps be ignored, but some good tips otherwise)