Ballistic June/July 2020

It seems like we’re living in an alternate universe right now thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has cancelled the school year for every kid, shut down businesses across the country and left many people wondering, “What’s next?” We’re still ramping up the testing and figuring out how to safely reopen our country, but we’ve all been affected by the virus—some have lost loved ones, and many have lost their jobs. That said, we also have to pay attention to some of the craziness seeping in during this crisis. Some states have decided that gun shops aren’t “essential businesses,” negating our Second Amendment rights. We’re talking about places like New York, where “shall not be infringed” is always ignored. At the same time, gun sales have spiked in places where…

BE INFECTED WITH COVID-19 OR LOSE YOUR TRIGGER FINGER? In an online poll that shows the eternal optimism and unconquerable spirit of our readers, 91 percent chose to bring on the coronavirus and 9 percent opted to lose their trigger fingers. Some of the best comments from readers include “I already had COVID-19!” “I can shoot with a cough” and “I already lost most of my trigger finger and am functioning fine. I have to shoot pistols left-handed now, but I can still shoot my long guns right-handed. So I guess it can be my finger.” Visit ballisticmag.com to see more. Blowin’ SMOKE I recently had a reunion with a bunch of guys that I met 15 years ago in Afghanistan. I packed along a bottle of Redbreast whiskey, and…

Recently, I had the opportunity to really put an Aero Precision rifle through its paces. It wasn’t just any Aero Precision rifle, though, as I built it from a pile of parts with an M4E1 Builder Set. As fate would have it, I actually traveled to Tacoma, Washington, to visit Aero Precision’s headquarters and see where the magic happens. The company was super secretive about some of its projects and processes, and rightfully so based on what I was allowed to see. Consequently, no photos were allowed on the tour. Then I took my new rifle to the legendary Thunder Ranch and beat the absolute snot out of it during the Urban Precision Rifle course. It was a wild ride, so let’s get to it. BEHIND THE SCENES Getting a…

For this steamy “Custom Challenge,” Primary Weapons Systems (PWS) shipped a pair of MK111 Pro pistols to the coating masters at Blowndeadline and MCM Firearms to let them showcase their creativity in a head-to-head face-off. There was only one direction, and it came down to a simple question: Who wants fire and who wants ice? BREATHING FIRE We all know just how awesome fire is. Sitting by some crackling pine with a glass of bourbon and a good cigar is one of the finest situations known to modern man. Our history with this lovely entropic process is well documented, so it’s easy to understand why it warms my bones just looking at the fine creation by the crew at Blowndeadline. The color choices here were pretty basic: Crimson, yellow and…

THE MAN STOOD LOOKING out over the valley, his synthskin duster waving gently in the afternoon breeze, his hands resting on the butts of two large pistols: the Outlaw and Odin. He scanned the red-brown rubble spanning the horizon. Here and there, small wisps of smoke poked black fingers into the yellow-gray skyline. Long ago, The City sparkled like a mile-high diamond, the pinnacle of human achievement. We had reached out, spread ourselves across the stars, terraforming planets, destroying and rebuilding, carving our name into the bark of the galaxy, only held back by the laws of physics. No one could have predicted what would happen when The City’s top scientists opened the portal. It was supposed to be the next step—dimensional travel, a way around the limitations of light…

The LeMat revolver is one of the most unique firearms to come out of the 19th century. Developed in time for the Civil War, Jean Alexandre LeMat’s creation was a nine-shot blackpowder revolver that packed a powerful secret: The cylinder arbor was actually a 20-gauge smoothbore barrel, adding a secondary close-range blast when needed. While LeMat was born in France, he immigrated to the United States and settled in New Orleans, where he was a practicing physician and an inventor. With the financing of his wife’s cousin, Major Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard—the officer who led the bombardment of Fort Sumter that began the Civil War—LeMat developed his “grapeshot revolver,” which soon evolved into a standard cap-and-ball handgun, but with that extra barrel. With backing from Beauregard, who went on to…