Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2018 i Ballistic

OUTSIDE OF RECEIVING my first firearm when I was 11 years old, and killing my first buck a few years later, buying my first set of wheels brought on the ultimate rush of freedom. My used ’79 Chevy diesel pickup helped me get to and from high school, odd jobs washing dishes for a restaurant and working for a local construction company, and the hunting fields and fishing hot spots of upstate New York. Those days were easy. Crank the engine and Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath or AC/DC on the “upgraded” sound system, and let the wild rides begin! Those were my teenage years. What’s really changed? Not much as far as all the “likes” are concerned. That’s what we were thinking as we put together this special issue. We…

MAC’S FACTS THE WORD “ICONIC” HAS BEEN used to describe a handful of weapons, but the 1911 stands at the top of that list. Though I shoot various handguns and use a Glock 19 as my every-day-carry gun, I have a love affair with custom-built 1911s. The fit, feel, ergonomics and accuracy are unparalleled. Every gun owner should have a 1911 as part of his or her arsenal. Some scoff at the 1911, even calling it an anachronism, choosing their polymer Eurotrash guns over a 1911, but that’s probably because they’ve never fired a custom-built metallic sentinel of battle. They might argue that 1911s break, have too many malfunctions or are too bulky. My opinion couldn’t be more opposite. To be analogous, a custom-built pistol, such as my Blaze Ops…

THERE AREN’T MANY WAYS to make a Wilson Combat rifle better, but hunting with one next to the legend, Bill Wilson, is one of them. I had that chance after Bill invited me to join him and a few close friends at the 853,000-acre King Ranch just west of Kingsville, Texas, to hunt nilgai. What’s a nilgai, blue bull as they are sometimes known? Before I hunted one, I would have told you it’s India’s largest antelope. Now I’ll say it’s the smartest, toughest, sharpest-eyed critter I’ve seen. Both descriptions are still true. Other far-more-qualified hunters share my sentiments. Bill, who has hunted about every animal on the planet, has a lot of respect for nilgai, too. “I don’t think there’s anything in North America as tough as a nilgai,…

Thirty-six-year-old Michael Abram was on the brink, and his mind was spinning. He felt as if he was in danger from the man inside the house in front of him. Abram felt this man not only posed a danger to him, but also to the world. So he found a way inside the house with the intent of stopping this threat. After gaining entry, Abram found a knife and began to search for this man. When Abram found him, he attacked. Lunging at the man, he stabbed him repeatedly. The man tried to fight back, but Abram’s force and rage were too much for the peaceful disposition of the man he attacked. Abram plunged the knife into the man 40 times. The man’s wife tried desperately to stop Abram and…

If you’re brave enough to experience Gillette, Wyoming, in the middle of winter, how prepared you are will heavily dictate how much you enjoy the experience. While the High Bar Homestead provides most of what you might need and want, some things are on you, because a store doesn’t exist for several miles. So here’s a list of essential items for visiting in winter. ESSENTIALS: ■ Water-resistant jacket, pants, gloves and boots■ Beanies■ Neck gator■ Several pairs of expensive/thick socks■ Eye protection/sunglasses■ Hearing protection made for all calibers■ Hand/foot warmers■ Portable water source■ Water-resistant hiking/range bag■ Cleaning kit■ Your favorite pistol holster■ Lip balm■ Batteries■ Headlamp■ Cell phone charger…

DESPITE THE COLD THAT COVERS MOST OF THE COUNTRY IN JANUARY, the outdoors beckon from Las Vegas at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show every year. This year, the industry’s offerings for getting off-road and into the adventures of the wild are vast and specialized. Whether the traditional ATV four-wheeler or UTV side-by-side is your thing, technology and features continue to evolve to provide more of what you need where you need it. ATVs are narrower and can fit down tighter forest service roads and usually in the bed of a pickup, but they ride more like a motorcycle than a truck and have fewer creature comforts and less payload capabilities. UTVs are getting bigger and better every year, and if weaving between trees isn’t your first concern, side-by-sides…

I SAW THE ROCKY Horror Show (the play, not the film) a few weeks after its opening during the summer of 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. I liked science-fiction, horror films and rock, so I was immediately hooked by the musical. I saw it again in London a couple of months later. You can say I was a fan of the show. I liked the music, costumes and staging. However, I never really became a member of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the movie) cult. No wearing drag, throwing rice or sailing toast for me. Fast-forward more than a decade to 1985. I was back home in St. Louis when The Rocky Horror Show, starring Wendy O. Williams as Magenta, began a six-month run at the Westport…

The firearms industry is known for its innovation and boundless energy. Dozens of manufacturers in this realm are constantly churning out new products—so many that it’s sometimes hard to keep up with the “latest and greatest” guns and gear. Thankfully, we at Ballistic spend considerable time keeping our fingers on the pulse to make sure you’re always up to date. We’ve cut through the clutter to bring you the best. So without further ado, here’s some of the hottest new stuff heading your way. 1> CORDOVA 125 XL The 125 XL is the largest cold-storage solution in Cordova’s hard-sided cooler lineup. This 32-gallon-capacity cooler can hold up to 120 pounds of ice or 120 cans with a 2-to-1 ice-to-content ratio. Measuring 46 by 19.63 by 19.75 inches and weighing 45…

DURING THE TRIP, I HUNTED with one of the King Ranch’s wildlife biologists, Weston Koehler, who grew up in Seguin, not far from the ranch. Weston graduated from Texas A&M Kingsville—the Javelinas, not the Aggies, mind you—and interned at the King Ranch. He’s a tall, fit, steely-eyed lad who knows more about nil-gai than I do about most animals, so when we hunted, he helped answer all of my questions. “The nilgai were brought to Texas around the 1930s, and they flourished here,” he said. “All of their senses are good, and they’re all better than a deer’s. I’ve had them spook and wind me at 600 yards and farther. They’re not curious animals. If they sense danger, they simply turn around and go. They’re big-structured animals, with big horns,…

I ACQUIRED MY FIRST TAX STAMP IN 2005. It was for a 9mm Colt Sporter that was later converted into an SBR. Back then, wait times were maybe 30 days, but it still seemed like an absolute eternity. If you have gone through the NFA process, then you know exactly what it’s like. But, although the wait was grueling, I knew it was well worth it in the end. Words couldn’t describe the excitement and joy I felt when I finally topped that Colt lower with a short-barreled upper. Pistol-caliber carbines have a draw like few other firearms. Maybe it’s because of the HK MP5 and Uzi from many years ago. Maybe it’s the shoulder-firing capability without the excessive recoil and concussion that you get with rifle-caliber carbines—and that’s before…

WHEN I WAS TOLD this column would be dedicated to creating a blade for executives—EDC for CEOs—I was extremely excited. I myself am an entrepreneur and CEO. But my life wasn’t always like this. I grew up in bad neighborhoods and had to learn to protect myself. Some days I made it home from school in time to evade a beating. Other times I didn’t. This upbringing is what drove me to start my own company and strive for the executive lifestyle in the first place. But I mention this to explain that I have a little bit of real-world experience when it comes to being on both sides of the tracks and how to defend yourself in both worlds. And defending yourself as a successful executive is much more…

OK, THE CHECKLIST IS JUST ABOUT COMPLETE ON YOUR NEW RIFLE build. Upper? Check. Lower? Check. Box of springs, trigger, screws, buffer and assorted pieces? Check. The last item seems to be one that makes many new gun owners pause—the bolt carrier group, or BCG. If you take a quick spin around the internet, your brain will cramp from seeing all the opinions and designs out there. BCGs come in an array of flavors, from mil-spec to unicorn bone. OK, maybe not the latter, but it’s not far off the mark. Fear not. I’ll decode much of the blur associated with the BCG world and highlight a few I think are worth a close look. First off, different styles abound. There’s the standard mil-spec carrier and many others. For the…

WHEN IT CAME TO MOTORCYCLES, HUNTER S. THOMPSON ONCE WROTE, “Faster, faster until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.” That quote embodies the quintessential desire for power and speed. Nowhere is this more evident than in people’s fascination with classic and modern muscle cars. There is something almost primal about sitting in a vehicle that harnesses enormous horsepower to launch you down the road at blinding speed. The car world tends to attract mechanically minded people who understand the ins and outs of their four-wheeled rocket sleds. The firearms industry has its own collection of dedicated gearheads who keep everything from restored Mustangs to modern powerhouses. I recently visited with several prominent industry folks and learned what they drove and why. So sit back, put it in…

LIKE BOURBON AND barbecue, or bacon and more bacon, custom guns and classic cars just go good together. The first time you turn over a freshly rebuilt engine—the straight headers pounding your chest, pissing off neighbors and rattling garage doors—feels similar to pulling the trigger for the first time on a custom rifle built piece by piece under the buzzing fluorescent lights of your friend’s shop. Both situations are driven by the need to set yourself apart, to be different, to be unique. Some people get it; some people don’t. So when we decided to have Pat McNamara spread his metallic awesomeness all over this issue, we knew that we had to bring a little noise ourselves. Keeping in line with the heavy metal/muscle car theme, we reached out to…

Most baseball fans get to meet their favorite players at a game or maybe a charity event. I met my favorite baseball player at my hunting lodge in Middleburg, Virginia, a few minutes after I shot a doe during the 2017 archery season. Little did I know, however, that when I met Brandon Snyder, it ultimately wouldn’t be his bat speed, pitch recognition or slick leather I’d remember, but his attitude. I didn’t ask for Brandon’s autograph when he drove to the lodge because the World-Series-ring-owning utility infielder was preoccupied with carrying, gutting and butchering my deer. You see, a neck injury that would be surgically corrected just a few days later had rendered my right side almost useless. So that day, the Baltimore Orioles’ first-round pick of 2005’s MLB…

IN TODAY’S ECONOMY, FEW PEOPLE GET TO DO WHAT THEY love, but Jason Silas “Jase” Roberston has a love of life, work and family. The American TV star became famous for the A&E reality series Duck Dynasty, which highlighted the trials and tribulations of his close-knit family and their business, Duck Commander. The show was a hit on A&E, breaking ratings records for the network and launching the Robertson men—brothers Phil and Si, and Phil’s sons Jase, Willie and Jep—into the mainstream. Although Duck Dynasty concluded its run in 2017 after 11 seasons, Duck Commander recently finalized a shotgun wedding of sorts with Benelli. The shotgun maker had previously been a title sponsor of Benelli Presents Duck Commander, the Robertsons’ previous show on the Outdoor Channel, and was instrumental in…

The man sat behind his cards, his steel-gray eyes as unreadable as a piece of 19th century Russian literature. His body was the most highly refined killing machine mankind could produce. Across the table this night reclined a monster. His opponent was purportedly a wealthy Estonian textile magnate. Forbes claimed that his fortune stemmed from uncanny business acumen and blind luck. The reality was that Aristotle Kristatos had acquired his opulence on the backs of slave laborers in places like Uzbekistan and Sierra Leone. Sweatshop T-shirts birthed in a former Soviet Bloc nation did not buy a seat at this table. That kind of rarefied horsepower spawned from affordable heroin and blood diamonds. There were others playing as well, but they were little more than set dressing. The real game…

THE PERFECT, DEADLIEST PROFILE for a defensive knife is that of a curved paring knife. Of all the profiles of blades I’ve ever tested in organic material cutting tests, the simple paring knife profile has always come out on top. Paring knives are highly suited for slicing, peeling, and controlled/detailed cutting. Combine that profile with the right angles and geometry and add the concept of being a tactical-use blade, and you end up with a serious blade for defense that will do extreme damage up close. During our meat-slashing and cardboard-cutting tests, our CEO knife’s 2.5-inch blade profile proved perfect and super-durable for slicing and stabbing right to the critical fight-ending areas of a would-be attacker.…

THE WORLD CAN BE a dark place. Lonely roads that stretch into the fading sunset and dusty trails reaching into the inky blankness of night can hide foreboding desolation, anxious isolation and unknown fears that lurk in the shad - ows on the horizon. The stock headlights of Ford’s 2017 F-Series trucks, the Super Duty specif - ically, utilize a quad dual-beam halogen configuration that produces, according to Ford, approximately 1,100 lumens of light in low-beam mode and around 1,700 lumens in high. Two pairs of H13 halogen bulbs—two on each side—eat up about 20 amps of power whenever the high-beam lever is flicked. Though the alternator is large enough to handle the output (280 watts on high for each side), it is a lot of energy to achieve such…