Ballistic October/November 2020

The China Flu and much of the chaos surrounding it are starting to wind down. Lockdowns are more or less being unlocked—mostly in red states. But the world’s a different place today. Wildfires are ravaging the West Coast, violent protestors have destroyed property and caused injury and death in several major U.S. cities and the mainstream media is on an all-out disinformation campaign leading up to the November elections. Calls from an admitted Marxist-trained group to defund the police can be heard on many urban street corners. Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris ticket is vowing to ban ARs and so much more. (See personaldefenseworld.com/2020/08/biden-guns-plan-targeting-in-dustry) As this was written, Biden was tweeting for bans on modern sporting rifles and standard-capacity magazines on the heels of yet another police ambush in Los Angeles. Per…

WOULD YOU RATHER… YOU ONLY HAVE TWO CHOICES FOR HOME DEFENSE: .22 LR AUTO PISTOL (10-SHOT MAGAZINE) OR 12-GAUGE SINGLE-SHOT BREAK OPEN SHOTGUN? What do you do, hotshot? The results from our recent ballisticmag.com poll are as follows: 35 percent picked the .22, while 65 percent chose the single shot. I agree with the majority: I only need one shot if the projectile weighs 1 ounce and I make it count. Here’s a good quotable from Josh Harrison: “That click clack scarier than the .22.” WORTH THE PRICE My suburban home is too far for rioters to reach, or so I tell myself. Some days, I dream of crawling up on the roof and pew-pewing hordes of snot-nosed ANTIFA punks, freshly emerged from playing video games in their parents’ basements.…

HOWARD LEIGHT HONOR COLLECTION A new hearing protection line from Howard Leight has a patriotic theme, paying tribute to the heroes who risk everything to protect America. Available in Real Blue, One Nation or Smoke, Impact Sport electronic earmuffs look as good as they perform. Internal circuitry allows ambient sounds to be safely amplified, making it easy for wearers to hear range commands and conduct conversation. Amplification automatically shuts off at 82dB, attenuating hazardous impulse noises like gunfire. (howardleightshootingsports.com) HSS HEATED MUFF PAK If cold hands plague you, Hunter Safety Systems has you covered. The new Heated Muff Pak combines a conventional muff with a USB-powered heating system to keep your hands warm in even the coldest conditions. The Muff Pak was designed with four pockets to keep important items…

“IF IT BLEEDS, WE CAN KILL IT.” If there’s a single line from the movie Predator that sums up the theme, the plot and the overall flavor of the 1987 sci-fi slaughter fest set in the steamy jungle of Guatemala, that one phrase has to be it. Looking back, Predator was one of the first action films I ever saw as a kid and it inspired an early passion and appreciation for not only action cinema, but for firearms. The moment Jesse Ventura unleashed his minigun, aka “Old Painless,” and started mowing down trees (and hostage-takers) alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Shane Black and the rest of the all-star merc squad, I was hooked. Then, my inner geek was absolutely set ablaze when an 8-foot-tall, mirage-cloaked alien hunter with a…

IN HIS THIRD NOVEL, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JACK CARR OPENS THE BOOK WITH THIS QUOTE FROM ERNEST HEMINGWAY, “THERE IS NO HUNTING LIKE THE HUNTING OF MAN AND THOSE WHO HAVE HUNTED ARMED MEN LONG ENOUGH AND LIKED IT NEVER CARE FOR ANYTHING ELSE.” WHAT FOLLOWS IS A RIPPING ADVENTURE WHERE HIS PROTAGONIST, JAMES REECE, EXPLORES WHAT CARR DESCRIBES AS “AN EXPLORATION OF THE DARKEST IMPULSES OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE.” Carr’s novels splashed onto the thriller novel genre scene in 2018 with his first book, The Terminal List. Slated for production by Amazon in 2021, the multi-episode screen version features the power pair of Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, Zero Dark Thirty) as the protagonist James Reece and seasoned action director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Tears of the Sun). JACK…

How does best-selling thriller writer and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr go analog? On Ernest Hemingway’s manual typewriter, of course. Both as a former U.S. Navy SEAL and fiction writer, Jack Carr is mindful of those who came before him. Sometimes those connections are deeply personal, such as his grandfather, a U.S. Marine Corps Corsair pilot killed in World War II. Other times, those connections are more distant and various, such as the writers that influenced his thinking and post-military career choice. However, a reader’s gift of the 1950’s era Royal manual typewriter used by Ernest Hemingway to write A Moveable Feast created a tactile link to one of Carr’s most significant literary inspirations. Carr recently unboxed Hemingway’s Royal typewriter in Park City, Utah. Still fully functional and loaded with…