Life Liberty and the Pursuit
Welcome to the Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit podcast. Come join Eric and Matt who are freedom-loving, meat-eating, gun-shooting American guys as they discuss a broad spectrum of topics ranging from States' rights, culture, and the 2nd Amendment to scotch, bourbon, and cigars. Eric & Matt are both former US Army combat veterans who served together while deployed to Iraq during OIF III. Eric is most notable for his YouTube channel Iraqveteran8888 which has over 2.75 million subscribers currently as well as his outspoken and no-compromise stance regarding the 2nd amendment. Matt, founded Ballistic Ink, a branding and merchandising company that serviced 2A content creators and the firearms industry. He also is a partner of Alliance jiujitsu Roswell located in Roswell GA and trains daily and competes regularly. He is very passionate about the 2nd amendment and freedom. Come along for the ride!
Life Liberty and the Pursuit
LLP #141: Guns For Life And Liberty
Ask us a question. We will answer it on the podcast.
Allegiance Gold
844-790-9191
AllegianceGold.com/LLP
Get Up To $5000 In FREE Silver
Want a clear, no-drama roadmap to choosing guns that actually solve real problems? We walk through the tools we trust for life and liberty—what they do well, where they fall short, and how to set them up for the 0–200 yard world most of us live in. The goal isn’t to flex gear; it’s to match purpose to platform so you can protect home, family, and yourself with confidence.
We start with shotguns because modern loads changed everything. Federal flight-control buckshot keeps patterns tight to 50 yards, making a 12 gauge more than a hallway tool. Semi-autos like the Beretta 1301 deliver blazing follow-up shots without beating you up, while pumps still win for ammo tolerance and cost. We talk realistic suppressor options, ghost loading, and the training you need to keep a tube-fed gun topped off under stress.
Then we bridge to large-format pistols like the Flux Raider and B&T USW-G. Stabilization and red dots turn a duty pistol into a fast, accurate platform out to a football field while sharing mags with your carry gun. It’s a smart two-gun strategy: pistol on the hip, braced pistol or PCC in the bag, and the flexibility to hand off one while keeping the other. We also highlight a 9mm AR setup using Stern Defense components for machine-gun reliability and magazine commonality.
For rifles, we dig into the Mark 18 style short AR and why it’s so effective for home defense and vehicle work. Overgassed on purpose, it runs in the conditions that matter. Add a red dot with a flip-to-side magnifier for positive ID and stretch when you must. Short barrels demand SBR-specific bonded soft points that expand at lower velocity, turning a compact carbine into a legitimate stopper inside 50 yards while remaining capable farther out with practice.
We round it out with carry choices—Glock 19, 19X, P365—and where revolvers fit as pocket backups. Along the way, we reality-check brush deflection, payload, and the ethical boundaries of long-range defensive shots. The through-line is training: pattern your shotgun, confirm zero at real distances, and stress-test your loading and deployment.
If this helped you think clearer about your setup, follow the show, watch the video version on YouTube at IRACVeteran8888 to see the platforms in action, and leave a review so more folks can find us. Got a two-gun combo you swear by? Share it—we want to hear what you trust and why.
Welcome back, everybody. This is Eric and Matt, and this is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit. Your beacon of freedom and the American way of life. Tune in every Monday for a new episode as we dive into the world of liberty and what makes our country great. Alright, everybody. This is Eric and Matt here with LLP, and welcome back to this week's show. And I hope everyone is having a fantastic week. And thanks so much for tuning in. And today's episode, we're going to be talking about life and liberty guns. So that's right. Today's entire show is based on cool guns that we like and that we deem to be good for a variety of different purposes. Home defense, um, you know, defense of life and liberty, defense of property, uh, road guns, concealed carry, you name it. We're gonna talk about a lot of different stuff that we happen to like.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, and there's a lot to talk about because there's a lot of different applications, um, and a lot of different guns that you guys I know that it's gonna resonate with a lot of the viewers because they are kind of all over the place with guns.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, uh look, my my channel originally, you know, with IRAC Veteran 8888, it always has first and foremost been a gun channel, and we've always liked to talk about different firearms and stuff. And um, I've never really made any uh content like this, especially with Matt. So I think it'd be cool just to discuss some of the tools of the trade and things, uh, to discuss some methodology, like reasons that you would choose certain tools over another. And uh look, if you're new to guns, especially, this will be a really great episode for you to tune into to learn a lot about the different types of guns that are out there and what some of the applications might be. And even if you are uh an advanced person, maybe you might you know learn some things from us that maybe you didn't think about before. So it's always good to hear opinions from others when it comes to what type of loadouts and things they might like. Before we get started with today's show, I would like to thank the show sponsor, and that is Allegiance Gold. You ever notice how gold doesn't get much airtime until the system starts to shake? Well, here's what nobody's talking about. Starting July 1st, Basel III Global Banking Rules classify gold as a tier one asset, the same level as cash or U.S. treasuries. This is huge. It means that central banks will now treat gold as the highest quality form of capital. They're not doing this just for fun. They're preparing for something. If gold is good enough for the world's most powerful banks and governments, why wouldn't it be good enough to protect your retirement? This may be the moment we've all been waiting for. Gold could reach levels we've never seen before. Whether you've got 5K or 5 million to safeguard, now is the time to act. I've seen plenty of gold companies advertise and come and go, but I chose to partner with Allegiance Gold because they actually care about pricing, integrity, and doing right by their clients. They make it simple to move part or all of your 401k IRA or savings into real physical gold and silver. As a veteran, you may also qualify for up to$5,000 in free silver. Call 844-790-9191 or call AllegianceGold.com forward slash veterans. That's 844-790-9191 or go to allegiance.com, allegiancegold.com forward slash veterans. And a big thanks to our friends at Allegiance Gold who have been supporting us for a long time here on the show. And uh thank you all for dropping back in to hang out with us today. Long form show, lots to talk about, and uh we'll kind of get into it. And uh, I know Matt, each week when we record shows, we typically will have one that kind of involves like society, maybe some of the more political stuff, like last week's show. And then other times we'll talk more about like prepping and guns and and survival and things like that. So today's show is definitely kind of more uh the stuff I like talking about.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, tools of the trade. Me as well, me as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So it's like when people look at different guns, you know, it can be a daunting thing when you're looking at all the different types of stuff that's out there and you see, I don't know, what we call large format pistols or um handguns, shotguns of various types, rifles of various types. What are they all used for? What's our methodology behind choosing them? And uh, you know, we don't want to sound like we're we're going completely, you know, hold your hand style and treating everyone like a newbie. Um, but we'll kind of break down what these things mean for us and and without really going in any particular order. Let's just talk about some cool stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, one of the shotguns that I grabbed earlier. I like shotguns. Uh, we'll start with shotguns, just for fun. There's no particular order. Yeah. We're gonna go through everything in the show.
SPEAKER_01:Um the king of payload.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, the king of payload, payload is king. And um, I like Sama Autos the most.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, because you have fast follow-up shots, and uh, that's definitely a beneficial thing. We we've seen situations where um soldiers in Ukraine have successfully defended themselves um against drones using shotguns, so they have definitely taken on a much different role in today's world than maybe what they used to. Um, not so much just a sporting type of thing uh anymore, as much as uh, you know, now you have tactical shotguns. Uh, this is a Beretta 1301 Sem Auto. This is a fantastic gun. This thing is so lightning fast, it outruns a Benelli M4. And that's wild because a Benelli M4 is a fantastic gun. And uh, I tell you, this is a ridiculously fast shotgun with a very fast operating system. I can't double it, I cannot outrun it. And that's crazy. I can get almost any shotgun to hammer follow. This one I cannot. It cycles so ridiculously fast, it's just a joy to shoot. And it really doesn't kick that hard. It's a very well-balanced shotgun. And I think that pound for pound and dollar for dollar, the Beretta 1301 to me represents probably one of the best values in like an upper end, high performance semi-auto tactical shotgun that you can get. Um, I do have a full video on this gun if y'all want to check it out over on IRAC Veteran8888. Um, some of you may be listening in audio form. Uh, be advised, we do put out a video uh form of this particular podcast over on the IRAC Veteran8888 YouTube channel if you want to be able to see this stuff in the flesh uh rather than listening to me describe it. But uh, if you're listening, uh this is a very cool shotgun, has a pistol grip, adjustable Mesa tactical stock, um, ghost ring sights. It's a really nice rig. And uh so Matt has a shotgun.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, this is the the old Mossy 990, uh Mossberg 990, um, semi-automatic. You know, I think you hit something um, you know, on the head when you said fast follow-up shots, semi-automatics are definitely more prevalent now than they used to be. The the technology, the gas systems are more refined. What I would say is that um if you're in a first world country and you know, parts are plentiful and you know, armors and whatnot are around, it's a good idea. If you are if you're looking for super rugged reliability, I mean you're you can never go wrong with a pump. And there's plenty of good pump action shotguns out there. Um they they basically aren't prone to ammo quirks uh that you run into with the semi-automatics, mainly like light loads, bird shot, non-high brass shells, um just ammunition that sometimes will cause some failures in semi-automatics. Uh, you don't really have that issue with pump actions. But this particular one, uh 990, is one that Eric SBS'd. Yeah, and it's a it's a beauty, man. Like this thing, it just looks it looks the bee's knees, as they say. It looks really good.
SPEAKER_00:You can put a collapsible stock on that bad boy. Um, that gun will take any furniture that any 500 or 590 will take. So it was smart on Mossberg's part to make it compatible with 590 furniture. So it's it's great. So you can put your favorite collapsible stock on that and have a very short little rig. Um, you know, it does hold less rounds. I think it's like five rounds total. Um, so it holds less shelves, but it's nice and compact. And really, in my opinion, as far as shotgun technology goes now and the stuff that we have available to us, I think the 990 is really hard to beat. I did a video yet again. Uh, if you want to see a video, I did a complete video on that gun before I SPS'd it and after. So if you want to see the performance and the overall flexibility of the gun before and after, you can definitely check that out on my channel. I have those videos, uh shameless self-promotion. But if you want to see videos on these guns so far, it looks like just about all the stuff we have, we have some sort of a video on. So um, you'll be able to see this stuff in action if you want to check it out.
SPEAKER_01:I will say that um yours has the pistol grip. I'm more I'm more into the field stocks myself. I I like the grip angle a little bit better. I like the ability to to reload a little bit faster on my end, as long as you know what you're doing. Um you got the the fatty charging handle here that helps you get the grip if you want to go Russian style, you can. Um, it always looks good in the videos. Um overall, shotguns, great choice. Uh, you can't go wrong, regardless if it's five rounds or seven rounds or ten rounds. I do know that didn't they have a JM 990 model at some point?
SPEAKER_00:They uh so they had the 940 JM model, that's Jerry Mitchlich's model, and those guns are neat. Um I I do have a uh I do have a 940 in there as well, the full size. Yeah, it's great.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, it was like basically like a race ready, like off the rack. As close as you can get, like a race ready, as close as you can get, just pull it. Oh, yeah, upgraded, good furniture on it.
SPEAKER_00:I had an old 930 and I got rid of that gun, and I really regret getting rid of it because it's a nice, slim, functional type of gun, but the 940 is such an upgrade over the 930. So I have so many semauto shotguns, I was like, yeah, I'll part with my 930, let someone else enjoy it for a while, but it is a great gun. And I got rid of my FN um SLP as well, and I really hate uh that I got rid of that gun. I really should have kept my SLP because that's the only other shotgun that I think can cycle as fast as this 1301.
SPEAKER_01:I I do remember that seeing that JM9, I think it was a 940 at the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And uh, we were I was actually I was trying to pick a semi-otic shot, semi-automatic shotgun, and you pointed it out to me, and I was like, no, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get the Beretta. And then you were like, but that 9040's got a good price on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I was like, You bought an M4.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you bought a Benelli, didn't you? Yeah, but it was the it was the LE model. So that's that's what that's what swayed me. It was already the that already had the extended gas tube on it, and I was like, nah, brother, we're going with that one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a great gun. I I actually got rid of my M4.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, the the marine?
SPEAKER_00:I did after I shot the I after I shot the 1301, I was like, you know what? I I like this better than the M4. And if I'm just keeping the M4 really for collectors' purposes, I I got rid of my M3 and my M4. The only Benelli that I have now is my super black eagle, the Goldie. Yeah. Um, she's right here. This this foolishly long one right here behind me. That that's a uh super black eagle, and it holds 13 rounds of two and three quarter.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say you got the right, you got the race uh ammo carrier on there, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, nice. So that gun, it's like that one's kind of special to me because it's an old uh super black eagle.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the the the one you have, the storm gray one, the 1301, that is lighter than your Benelli as well. Yeah, like significantly lighter. A lot lighter. A lot lighter.
SPEAKER_00:And I also have the A300 that um Beretta sent in for me to do a video with. And the A300 is nice. I like the sights on the A300 better than the 1301. The 1301 kicks less than the A300, A300 has a little more recoil, but it is a light and handy little shotgun. I'll I'll I'll grab it and show it to you later when we're done filming, but it's pretty cool guys.
SPEAKER_01:Shotguns, great choice, lots of ammo choices.
SPEAKER_00:If you don't want to run a semi-auto, I want to give an honorable mention here. Pump actions are good too. So if you don't have a lot of money to spend, right? Like this is a police trade-in, Malzburg 500, you know, it has a rack number on it. I've shown this little shotgun off in quite a few videos, but I'm gonna continue to show it off because you can pick these guns up for like 200, maybe 250 Barkin dollars used. There is no reason to not be armed, right? If if you can't afford a lot of gun, like maybe you don't have enough money to buy yourself a rifle or something. Um, maybe you have a handgun already and you're looking at some sort of an extended range, longer gun, something that you know, a long gun you can use. I mean, a shotgun with a slug can can shoot 100 yards, no problem. Um, I would say that shotguns, again, payload is king. And shotguns have a very nice amount of payload and they can deliver a lot of payload on target. So if you're talking about dumping a metric ton of lead on target in a relatively fast manner, maybe not fast follow-up shots, but for each shot being very powerful, a pump action is very effective as well. And who doesn't, you know, run when they when they hear, you know, that? I mean, I don't know. I I personally I keep mine loaded and ready. I'm not about to go racking it. If I if I if I'm running into a threat, I'm not doing this. It's just already gonna be ready. But there is something psychological about that sound.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, that whole thing came about came about because that was like the police carry version. You couldn't, they're not drop safe. So obviously, if you're driving around in a cruiser, you're not gonna ideally, you're not gonna have one sitting in the pipe uh just in case anything happens. Um, so that whole method methodology was like, hey, we need it, and then they're not drop safe, racket, boom, you're good to go.
SPEAKER_00:Shotguns have their place, and that's the point that I want to make. You know, I prefer semi-autos. Um, again, I'm more of a tactical shotgun guy. So for me, buckshot slugs are gonna be my flavors. Uh, you can shoot less than lethal, beanbag rounds, chalk rounds. Um, there's all sorts of different kitchen sink type rounds, less than lethal. You can get beanbag rounds, rubber buckshot, um, breaching rounds. You can actually get rounds that are made to shoot locks off that are made out of a hardened powdered metal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And they will blow locks right off a door and do it without hurting you. So there's lots of uses that shotguns have, more uses than we can probably even discuss in the entire episode if we wanted to.
SPEAKER_01:Now, I I will say that if I remember correctly, the Benelli M4 had a system in place where even if you had one loaded, it wouldn't fire because it has to uh if you ghost loaded it, you had to rack it specifically because it didn't it it didn't feel the uh the feed ramp go up and down. It's got like a it's got a mechanism mechanism in there where the feed ramp has to move for for the firing pin to actually drop.
SPEAKER_00:Well, when the um so with the M4, with the M4, you can drop a round out on the on the carrier on the on the the lifter, lifting gate, and you can have a round all full in the tube, and you can put one in the chamber. Correct. So when you ghost load the M4 and you have one in the chamber, that starts the party. So when you shoot that first round, then it it activates the the latch to let go the next round that's already in the carrier.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So your first two shots out of an M4 is ghost loaded, you can generally get those two off pretty quick because the round's already there.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So uh I like the M4. Look, the M4 is a fantastic gun. I I totally would trust my life to a Benelli M4. I mean, there's a reason that they're the top of the heap for shotguns. Um, but I generally, to me, the 1301 is maybe just by virtue of it just being lighter. For me, it's just a weight-to-weight comparison. I I like the the weight of the 1301. The only thing about 1301 I would say I would prefer. I'm with you. I almost kind of would like the straight stock. Although they just released a 1301 with a badass collapsible stock, and it looks dope. And I think I'm gonna totally get one for this gun because why not?
SPEAKER_01:You gotta have the ninja factor.
SPEAKER_00:And I think I'm gonna send this gun in and get some work done on it. Um, I was recently up at John and Shermicha's shoot, and I ran into uh the guys at Landon Tactical, and boy, do they do some awesome work! And I think I'm gonna send this particular 1301 out for a little bit of gas, uh, the full treatment. And have Landon Tactical go through this thing. Um, they actually had one of their 1301s there at the chute, and man, it was so nice. I I was hitting 12-inch plates at 100 yards with open sights with slugs. That guy knew when he handed me that gun, he knew I liked slugs. He he watched my channel and he's like, Here, have some slugs. I'm like, Okay, I see what's up. Pop, dang. It's like, oh, there's nothing cooler than hitting stuff like 100 yards away with shotgun slugs.
SPEAKER_01:Will that will the silo suppressor fit on that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you you can you can put all sorts of suppressors on different shotguns. I mean, as long as the shotgun has a removable choke, like the 1301 does, the uh Benelli M4 has removable chokes. But it's too long, man. But as long as you have a removable choke, you can fit like a salvo 12 or any other type of shotgun suppressor on there. Um, shotguns are kind of hard to suppress. You know, maybe with some special loads that are way dumbed down and like low on the on the powder range, you it may not cycle, but if you're really quiet, you can get away with that. Mini shelter suppressors sound pretty good too. You know, they kind of have a little almost like uh car backfire when it shoots. It just sounds yeah, kind of like a little pop. Yeah, exactly. So um shotguns are fun, and I think that they have a wide variety of different uses that can be used for so many different things. And uh so many trainers, especially, they tend to really turn a blind eye to shotguns. And the reason is because the manual of arms and the skill set necessary to handle shotguns. Look, it's not gonna be a free lunch, y'all. It's not easy. You know, loading a shotgun under stress, moving with a shotgun, shooting a shotgun under stress from weird positions or whatever. I mean, yes, you actually have to be a pretty good shot to run a shotgun because you don't have the capacity of an AR or something that holds 30 plus rounds in the magazine. So you are running less rounds in the gun, especially with a shorty. So people say that a shotgun is a spray and pray, point and shoot, just point it in their general direction. That's not true. Um, shotgun ammo has come a long way, like with Federal and their flight control wad with their buckshot rounds, the law enforcement buckshot. It is so freakishly good. It patterns great out to 50 yards. So the thing is, even with a cylinder bore barrel, like um, I believe this is a cylinder bore that's on this gun. Uh yeah. So even with a cylinder bore, uh, straight cylinder bore on any shotgun, it's still gonna pattern ridiculously good with buckshot, which makes a the shotgun not only a close range defensive tool, but even a medium range defensive tool. When you look at um the average, let's just say knife fight. I mean, obviously, if someone's coming at you to cause you bodily harm with a piece of cutlery, or they're gonna use their fists or they're gonna attack you, they're gonna be within seven yards, right? So that's handgun distance is seven to five yards, right? Very close. Now imagine someone's 50, 75, maybe even 100 yards away and they have a weapon. Well, that's standoff distance. You can tell them to stop. You can remove yourself from the situation. I mean, a hundred yards in a self-defense situation is a long way.
SPEAKER_01:That's a football field.
SPEAKER_00:So shotguns really do give you a lot more flexibility than you could possibly ever imagine if you're willing to exercise a little bit of restraint and caution and know when to use them, when not to, and to spend the time to learn how to run them properly, load them properly, and move and shoot under stress. Um, I think in terms of payload and stopping power, shotguns are fantastic. So, again, the stuff we're talking about is not really in any particular order. Uh, I do want to talk about um, let's just say large format pistols or stuff like your BNTs and your fluxes, which we have examples of. Uh, you want to show off a flux? Now, now Matt was Matt was uh manhandling this thing earlier, and he was like, oh man, I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, that and that that's the raider, so it's like not just a regular flux. And if that's because it was designed for the military, so yes, it is a 320 in there, but that's because it was for the military. That was that's what it's for. And dude, this was super even when it first came out, I was really impressed with it. I was uh it's just everything about it. Yeah, boom. I'm sorry, boom. That's a pistol. It's a pistol. This is not an this is not an SBR, guys. That is kind of the the the the saving grace of this is that you know anybody can buy it as long as it's not back ordered. You know, theoretically, yeah. Theoretically, you should be able to buy this, you know. Chassis, put your weapon in there. It's great, it holds an extra magazine, one in the gun, one here, brace. You got your micro red dot up top. I mean, it's still everything still works the same way as it should. Yeah, ambidextrous fire controls, which is great. Um, guys, it's just the overall, it's it really changed the game as far as what you can and can't do with that intermediate distance. Because I'm like, it's hard to shoot handguns, guys. Like, it's it's if you don't practice, you might be able to hit a minute of man, you know, most of the time inaccurately. You can plug you could put a hole in somebody, but these types of systems really made it to where you can do some damage going down like a hallway or even like a hundred yards out, like you can yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So, what are some of the benefits of a gun, such as the flux? Or in this particular case, I do have a BNT USWG chassis. Now, this has a Glock 17L in it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the long boy.
SPEAKER_00:The long boy. So, what are the benefits of a large format type of pistol? Okay, what are what are the benefits of this over a handgun? Well, one is the stabilizing factor of the stock and or brace in this situation.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Gives you faster follow-up shots. You can shoot way faster, keep it on target, you can stabilize the gun and shoot at longer distances. So if you are worried about, all right, I want to be able to carry my nine out to 100 yards and actually be able to hit the target very reliably, not only reliably, but fast. All right, are there people out there that can draw their pistol and shoot it 100 yards and hit a 12-inch plate and do it consistently and maybe even pretty quick? Yeah, there are people out there that can do that with a standard handgun. But for most people, this is going to be a huge addition to your ability to reach out longer distances. So I can fold this USWG up, put it in my backpack. Now I have a gun that can sort of it can dabble in the car beam world, but at pistol ranges, oh my gosh, this will do everything a handgun will do and way better and more accurately and much quicker with faster follow-up shots. I would say even more. If I carry a Glock 19 or a Glock 17 already, now I have a gun that I can have maybe this 19 on my hip and have the USWG in my backpack as a backup. Or if I just want to reach out a little further, I know that I have an extra gun that can do so preemptively. Let's say that I know I'm going into a situation. I don't know, maybe there's some sort of a shooter or a shooter event, and it's like, hey, I can intervene, I can, I can help. Maybe in an extremely measured situation where I know exactly what's up, that and that I know I can turn the tide. Well, yeah, I can maybe leave my handgun on my hip and deploy this out of my backpack, and I have double the firepower of this gun on tap in the gun already, and I have a red dot that will allow me to accurately shoot out to 100, maybe even 125 yards. I would feel comfortable hitting a 12-inch plate at about a buck 25, maybe a buck 50 with this gun, especially with the longer.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say, even but could just due to the fact that it's the long model, like that that's even like icing on the case. It's the long boy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I like it. And the flux is great. Now that that has the standard full size 320. Now, I know SIG has been you know getting a lot of crap um about you know some of their you know drop safety and all that sort of stuff, but I've never had a problem out of that particular flux. I think it's fantastic, and the fact that it is just a pistol and you don't have to register as an SBR, that's a nice uh touch as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, and then SIG OEMs those now. Oh, so you can buy that as a SIG package now. That's right, they do. You can find it on their website. Yeah, you sure can. Um that's actually that that as an industry, like my hat's off to the guy, the flux guy, man. I know we met him at Shot Show one time. Yeah, then uh yeah, dude. I mean, he managed to do something with that company that is very rarely accomplished, yeah. And that is to like take a private company, third party company for accessories, yeah, and get it OEM'd by the actual manufacturer. That never happens.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it does happen, but it's it's I'm not gonna say it's rare. I mean, it does happen. I I just think that it's one of those things that is awesome to see. Like, you know, Ben, you know, started that company, it was very small, and he has some initial prototypes, and he, you know, he's come a long way with that that type of design. And he also uh designed the P365 version, so you can have even smaller if that's what you want. And I have videos on all of these guns that we've talked about so far, if you want to check them out, including this uh custom Glock 19 that I did some stuff too. I have that new uh the Lewis uh low red dot site on there. Um another example is Skinner Sites. So I remember at one point, Henry, you know, like they got some feedback from people about some of the sites that they were putting on their lover actions and things like that. And Skinner was making these just beautiful aftermarket sites. And I think eventually Anthony was like, Wow, these sites are great. Like we should do, you know, use you to OEM to do, you know, some runs in OEM. And I think they ended up doing some OEM work with Skinner. So it's like if a company makes a great aftermarket product that, you know, uh uh that people tend to buy a lot, yeah. Once the gun company notices, like, wow, it seems like everyone updates this part. And it's like, well, maybe we should just offer that from the factory and just go straight to you and do business with you, and then they get it straight from us, you know.
SPEAKER_01:But think about how many companies out there make accessories for firearms, and think about how many companies are chosen to OEM. So, like, it's like it's so minuscule. And also, like the liability aspect of it. Think about how much liability they're willing to absorb, especially for something like a chassis.
SPEAKER_00:Or imagine how much they've tested it to beg to know that they can put their name on it and they know it's a chance.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, when when when you say like the the people that do that have accomplished something, that that's saying something that the company's willing to step up and say, well, you know, we're willing to we're willing to to fall on that sword if it happens. That's true. But uh, you know, to the uh back to what you said about carrying the uh Glock and the BNT. When you have two, you have to put yourself in different situations. Maybe you're carrying the the chassis and you still have your gun on your side. Maybe you're in a situation where you have to hand that off to somebody. And like now you don't, you're not giving up your primary weapon. You're like, oh hey, what if you're carrying somebody that's wounded and you need they need to have a weapon? So it really gets to be.
SPEAKER_00:What if you need to leave your wife and kids somewhere safe and you can leave her with your handgun to protect yourself and while you go investigate so it really gives you a lot of flexibility on what you can do with with it?
SPEAKER_01:Two is one and one is none. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So I always like the idea of having a spare gun uh on hand, you know, whether it's a gun that's on my person. Now, generally when I travel, I have my little Bucky's backpack that I take places with me, and I usually keep like some road flares in there and a breaching pin and medical and tourniquets and maybe a little food, like a little snack, maybe just one water that I keep just in case you get stranded somewhere, but also extra magazines, you know, basic boo-boo kits, things like that. And I keep my uh USWG in there, and then my Glock is on my hip. And then usually when I travel, I like to take a rifle of some sort as well. So I usually take uh either a 10.3 Daniel Defense Mark 18 or something like an 11.5 inch HM defense or even a PSA on a machine gun lower. I mean, for me, like I like ARs that are in that 10.3 to 11.5 inch uh barrel length. Um uh you have a Mark 18 over there. So I guess since we kind of we dived into uh rifles potentially, so uh show them the Mark 18.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man, that that is a beauty unless you get all the way across. Yeah, but I was I was telling Eric like Daniel Defense. I mean, I'm I understand the Mark 18 is an older design, like it came out quite a while ago, even like the beginning of the GWA, middle of the GWA. The gun looks sexy, it is a it is a sexy looking gun. There's no doubt about it. I mean, that's the allure of it, it's extremely popular. It's uh due to its reliability. Why is it reliable? Because they overgass the crap out of it. It will like it will it will and then you put it on. Sorry, Marty. Hey, but they do, but that's by that's by design, but it works. I mean, and then you throw the can on the There and you're getting some gas back in your face, deal with it, guys. All right. Like you're you're shooting a Mark 19 or Mark 18. Sorry. I mean, it's it's par for the course, it chews up ammo, it's reliable, same parts as all of your other ARs. Looks barrel. Yep, looks good. Um, this particular one, you have the adjustable optic or the adjustable magnifier EOTech. It works, guys.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I still need to do a video on that particular gun. Admittedly, um, I received that gun as a Christmas present a couple of years ago, and I still have not even done a video on it. And you got nice friends, man. I know. And look, the folks at Daniel Defense were nice enough to send me that uh DD wave suppressor. So that's actually their factory suppressor for that gun. And then Eotech was nice enough to send me that optic and magnifier so that we could put on this rig. And I wanted to kind of put together what I viewed was like the perfect home defense car being, the perfect road defense carbine. And like for me, a 10.3, you don't need to shoot it any further than a couple hundred yards. Can a Mark 18 shoot three or 400 yards? Yes, it can. You can totally connect with a Mark 18 at distance. Uh, they're very accurate guns. So it's not about being able to connect or not. For me, I think everything is about having a tool for a specific purpose and doing it within the confines of what you expect. Um, so if you expect the trouble to be 200 yards and in, well then why you don't need to bring a 500-yard gun to what you view as kind of in the 90 percentile a 200-yard fight tops. Maybe you want to give yourself some standoff distance. And for me, that's what I think the Mark uh Mark 18 does for me. It's a great room-to-room gun, it's a great compact gun that can be used in tight quarters, it can be maneuvered in tight quarters. Um, it's very reliable uh and everything like that. But also, hey, if the chance that I do need to engage a target two or three hundred yards away, I know that I can do it if I need to. So the the magnifier gives the flexibility of being able to let you see something further away if you need to. But most of the time you're probably gonna run it with it, you know, the magnifier out of the way and just use it as an up close and personal 50 yards and in rifle, which for a 10.3 inside of 50 yards, it's absolutely devastating. Um, especially with um there's an FBI load that is a 62 or it might even be a 65 grain uh bonded bear claw bullet. Uh, it's a bonded soft point that um is the FBI load that federal load loaded at one point for the feds to use in their short-barreled rifles because of its effectiveness as a bullet to expand to over double the diameter as a bonded core bullet out of a 10.3 inch or slightly longer barrel. So the fact that a 10.3 can make a soft point expand to double its diameter and retain almost all of its weight on a soft unarmored target inside of you know 50 yards. To me, I consider that to be quite impressive, especially when you consider the hydrostatic effect of a 556, even with a ball round, is pretty damn devastating, okay? Especially with the higher velocity. A ball round coming out of a 20-inch barrel like M855A1 is certainly nothing to uh bat an eye at. It's a it's it's a nasty, nasty round with some good velocity. When you lower the velocity, when you have a shorter length barrel, you do have to have a round that is sort of engineered and tailored to work well out of a short barrel rifle. So the thing is, a 10.3 may not be useful for long-range shooting, but that's not why I want a Mark 18. I want a Mark 18 because it's very useful for up close and personal. It's the perfect home defense gun, it's the perfect road gun. It really is the perfect all-purpose, all business, no bull crap, life and liberty type of rigging. And I like the 10.3. People can argue with me about barrel length. I have my 20-inch ARs as well. Like you may be able to see one behind me. This is an 18-inch. Um this one back here is an 18-inch uh Robinson. Okay. And then I have another 18-inch right there. So 20-inch has its use, but a 10.3 has its use. And everything in between has its use. But barrel length does matter on AR. You get substantial increases in velocity and let's just say hydrostatic killing power, if you will, the longer the barrel lives.
SPEAKER_01:You're over here bragging about your ultimate, you know, your ultimate room-to-room gun and your the perfect gun to do this and that. I'll show you the perfect gun, Eric.
SPEAKER_00:Show me the perfect gun, man.
SPEAKER_01:The perfect weapon, I should say. Really? We'll see what you're talking about. This son is my personal AT-4. Where did you get that? It fires a 21,000 grain rocket. Total weight, 14.6 pounds. Effective range, depending on your eyesight. 200 meters. 200 meters.
SPEAKER_00:200 meters. I remember when we used to train on the AT4s with those um those nine millimeter tracers. Yep. Those are fun. And then you just see the little tracer go down range.
SPEAKER_01:This will take care of any house, any room within a two-block range.
SPEAKER_00:So why enter the room when you can just destroy the room?
SPEAKER_01:That's what we say. Why go in? Just bring it down on top of them. But guys, if you want, if you want 21,000 grains of hate and high explosive, yeah. Go with a US AT4.
SPEAKER_00:Can't be beat. So, quick note on the AT4. They have made some improvements to the AT4 design since our decrepit assets have been involved with them. Uh, those, like he has there, that's a throwaway. That's a one shot and you toss a tube. Doesn't that seem wasteful?
SPEAKER_01:It does seem wasteful.
SPEAKER_00:The new AT4s can be reloaded.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, yes. How cool. Yep. I thought it was really cool when they came out with the the, I think Saab makes those. Uh, they made the ones that have the seawater in it, so you can actually shoot them in this, you can not worry about the backblast or the shooting them inside of a room. Because you can't shoot those inside of a room, guys. You shoot those inside of a room, you're gonna die. You're gonna go deaf. Yeah, you have internal bleeding, you will die.
SPEAKER_00:You're gonna rupture your kidneys. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the warning on there, trust me, they they they they make it to where you realize that you don't stand behind that sucker.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and if you're shooting it in an enclosed space, don't. So the new model or the the second generation um had like a water ballast in it. So as soon as you fired, it would spit water out of the back to kind of absorb any of that backblast.
SPEAKER_00:You might get a little messy, but it won't hurt you.
SPEAKER_01:And then the third iteration, the current model, is the reloadable, like different rounds.
SPEAKER_00:So what's crazy about the AT4 as well? Um, I did fire a live AT4, and I'll tell you, it doesn't kick.
SPEAKER_01:No, it has got zero recoil.
SPEAKER_00:You would think that it has like a tremendous amount of recoil, but it really doesn't. It has no recoil, it's it's recoiless. So the reason those training rounds are so great is because it teaches you hey, don't flinch, just squeeze it gently. And you know, the the AT4 actually has a pretty good trigger. Like if you take the trainer and work it a few times, you know, you it's actually not bad.
SPEAKER_01:You can just it's very video game like it is, like it totally is.
SPEAKER_00:And to think that we were 18, 19, 20-year-old kids being turned loose in the sandbox with those things is like crazy.
SPEAKER_01:I'll tell you the two coolest things that I've got to do was shoot an AT4. Yeah. Because when you shoot it, like when you shoot it, you don't you don't believe it's reality. Like you hit the button, you see it fly, you see an explosion, and you're like kind of looking around, and then you hear it. So it's like it's like the crazy your first really experience of like boom, you see it happen in front of your eyes, and then you feel it and hear it afterwards.
SPEAKER_00:Everybody sees a movie and they think that you know an explosion's fiery and epic and things like that, but explosions aren't necessarily like that. Like that's only like that in the movies when you see all the fire and brimstone and stuff. Explosions are actually kind of boring looking. Like you see an AT4 round go downrange and you see it impact, it's like that's it. It doesn't really look that impressive, but what happens downrange is damn impressive, and um, especially the same goes to say for grenades. Like in movies, you always see grenades get thrown, and you know, you see a big fiery explosion, but they have to do that to make it look cool because when a grenade blows up, it's kind of lackluster, anticlimatic that powerful. And when you look at the um, in fact, I don't know, do you still have the German stick grenade back there? The potato masher. Well, anyway, I I've got a potato masher laying around somewhere. Those German grenades that the that the uh Germans, you know, the Nazis would throw in World War II, those grenades are really more of a stun type of thing. It was just meant to stun you. It didn't really have like the destructive power that everybody thinks they did. Now, if one landed close enough, yeah, you're you're probably gonna have a bad day. But grenades, you know, are definitely it's a crazy weapon to think of you're you're adding, you're taking the most primitive weapon in the world and you're adding the most advanced weapon in the world. You're making explosive rock. How long have people been throwing rocks at each other in warfare, right? Imagine it's the same primitive idea of throwing a rock at somebody, except that rock is gonna explode. And that, you know, and our drill instructors in Basic, they're like, just pretend it's a rock. Well, damn, you know, when you think about it like that, it is just throwing rocks. And like they had this uh little fake mortar tube set up at the grenade range. And uh they're like, if anybody can hit that, if anybody can hit that mortar tube with the practice grenade and get it to go down the tube, you get a call home. We'll give you a phone call home today. And you better believe that uh Private Blanford threw that grenade right in that damn mortar tube. I sure did and was like, challenge accepted, and I got it on the first try. And that guy was like, Oh my god, damn. Oh, yeah. You're like, man, now I have to go out of my way to remember to let this kid have a dang phone call. But the most primitive weapon and the most advanced weapon mixed together is a hand grenade.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. In that wild, I'll tell you the second craziest experience was um letting off a claymore. Yeah, so like very similar experience. Like you have the clacker, and you're like, I see the light, and then it blows up and it's the same thing as an AT4.
SPEAKER_00:It's like boom, yeah, and then and then you see it, and then you hear it, and you're like, oh wow, but I mean I will say that the downrange look of a claymore is impressive, though. Like, if you especially if you shoot a claymore and it's and it's a backdrop at a range that has maybe a lot of dirt on the back berm, and it's not a lot of grass, and you can really see where the projectiles go, the individual pellets, yeah, it actually covers a pretty dang wide area. Like a claymore is a devastatingly effective weapon if used properly. It's like if that's one thing that I wish that we could have as civilians, is claymores.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, I'll tell you the feeling they're awesome. When I was when we were in Iraq, we were at the Lion's Den. You didn't like we were there so long, like you kind of forget that you're in a war zone. Because like you're there, right? And you're just doing you forget the entire perimeter, it's covered in claymores. Yes, dude. And like I remember like because we were running patrols for like six months, so we were never like static, we were never like holed up in one area, like we were just constantly moving, and then we got the lion's den assignment. So we had we were there and we were like patrolling out of the lion's den. Yeah, and I remember when we did the handoff, that's when it that's when I had to remember I was in a war zone because he was like, all right, guys, here's the here's the clicker for the claymores. The claymores are here, here, here, and here. He was like, you know, the drill, they start coming across, you hit the claymore, and I was like, Holy crap, I forgot, like, we're in a war session. Yeah, I know it's that really weird feeling of like, okay, like back to reality. Yeah, it is handless key to you, like, hey, if you push this button, things explode. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like, you know, you're 19 years old and you've got somebody telling you, hey, this clacker can can make it rain hell out there. And you got your own guys walking out there, you got your own vehicles coming in and out. So it's like, what if someone fell asleep at the wheel and accidentally hit the clacker, which you can't really do because it takes a lot of force. Yeah, and they do that on purpose to make it where you have to be deliberate. And it's like, you know, clacker, clacker, you know, you you gotta really hit it hard, and you're supposed to hit it multiple times.
SPEAKER_01:And you got that little metal safety that's like underneath it.
SPEAKER_00:No, and the the likelihood of it accidentally going off are slim, but never known.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I could talk about that kind of stuff all day. And when it comes to life and liberty, I mean, heck yeah. I mean, would it be cool to have a drone that can drop hand grenades? And you know, it's interesting. And in previous videos, I've talked a lot about how drone warfare does really change the modern uh landscape of personal defense and probably out of the scope of what today's video is really about. You know, um, I want to talk a little bit more about guns. We we do have one more gun that you have over there that I don't think we've shown off yet. So we're getting back to the large format pistols, but this is slightly different. What Matt has here is a um a full auto AR that has a stern defense nine millimeter upper. Um, so you have a machine gun, it's a full auto, okay, and it takes the SIG M17 mag. So just like I mentioned, having let's say the Glock19 and the um USWG, he has the stern defense upper and lower set up with the P320 magazines, as well as the flux radar. So you could easily have that stowed away in a backpack along with the flux radar, and now you have a tremendous amount of firepower on tap. And uh it it is stupid fast, it cycles so fast. It it it'll empty a mag in like like that is out of here.
SPEAKER_01:I I would I would probably imagine how fast that's gonna it rips them out of there. Yeah, it's like almost like my 380.
SPEAKER_00:It is so freaking reliable. I mean, we've done meltdown tests and we we've done all sorts of tests with the Stern Defense setup. And a big shout out to Stern Defense. Uh, they do a lot of stuff on the military contract and OEM level as well. So they're really busy these days with lots of stuff going on. But if you didn't know about Stern Defense, if you ever want to, and this is not necessarily meant to be a plug, but I love the company and I I know them very well. They're really good people.
SPEAKER_01:Um sisters, right?
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah. Yeah, and they're wonderful. And uh the dad is a genius, you know, he's just kind of one of those guys that's just like always got you know random things going on. They make all sorts of adapters, folding stock adapters.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, they make these rail system adapters that are great, like quick release rail systems that are really that's kind of where they got their start, was with that that uh the swinging adapter for the for the stock.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:I remember when they I first met them, that was at one of your range days. And the two sisters had just came into the company. Like they weren't always there, but like the dad kind of asked them. But yeah, I remember meeting them.
SPEAKER_00:But the but but those uh those lowers, uh, the the the magazine adapters and their uppers, they're fantastic. They really do a great job. And I tell you, they they are fully mill spec, ready to go. Like they make really good stuff. Yep, super easy to install, super easy to keep running. I I strongly recommend anything from Stern Defense if you're looking to convert your AR over to nine millimeter. Definitely worth looking into.
SPEAKER_01:Didn't they have the first um adapter for the buffer spring on the on the stock? Like you were able to retain your buffer spring while still switching.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. If you think about it, like a takedown. Yeah, what's cool about that concept is that you know, this was back when there was still all the shenanigans going on with the braces. Now, not that they ever would, you know, advertise it in such a way, but if you had a brace on your gun, you could easily just take it off and put whatever on you want. I'm not suggesting do that, but the implication was that if you needed to just put the gun back into a pistol configuration quickly, you could. Uh, you know, so that has its benefits, but a great company nonetheless. And I'm glad that uh I thought to show that particular gun off. And um, so you have shotguns, you have rifles, you have large format pistols such as the Flux Raider and the USWG. Um, we'll talk a little more about handguns. I know I I I touched briefly on the Glock uh 19. Um, there are a variety of different guns that I like for concealed carry purposes. I would say if I want something more in the full-size realm, uh 19's hard to beat. Yep. Right? And you've got your uh what is that gun again? Zev. The Zev.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, right. The OC9. OC9, yeah. C. OZ9C.
SPEAKER_00:That gun has a left-hand twist.
SPEAKER_01:It does. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's so odd to me, but it's accurate.
SPEAKER_01:I love it, man. Like I carry it every day. Um, I mean, when you when it comes down to it, uh Glock model, Gucci Glock. I mean, it's hard to find a gun. Yeah, no, I mean, it's hard to find a gun these days that doesn't have inspiration from a Glock model or direct, you know, third gen copy because they the patent ran out at some point. Um, but overall, it's a great gun. There's always been guys that have been doing some really, really unique stuff with with that type of gun, whether it's slide lightning slides, stippling, uh lightning cuts.
SPEAKER_00:Zev has done a fantastic job with that gun. It really is nice. It is a joy to shoot.
SPEAKER_01:They managed to stay out of the headlines, which is always hard to do when you're in the firearms industry. You know, somebody's making the headlines for something.
SPEAKER_00:That's a freaking truth.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I like the Glock 19 and variants of which, whether it's uh, you know, hey, the Zev, or you're looking at things such as a new Ruger that just came out that's essentially a Glock copy in a way. Agency that came out, PSA dagger. Yep. I mean, there's so many things out there that are great. I mean, anything in that vein is is hard to beat. I do like the Glock a lot just for its rugged, um, you know, it's just a rugged gun that it's it's a tool that dispenses bullets. It's not that it's not made to look pretty, it's not made to be cool, it's not made to be showy. Now you can make them showy, of course. Like your Zev is pretty showy.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:But even this Glock is kind of showy. I mean, we added a laser and some of our uh nice grip uh modules from uh oh my gosh, who makes these things?
SPEAKER_01:Grip it. Huh? Grip it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, handle it, handle it, handle it grips, handle it grips, huh? Yeah, so our friends at handle it grips, they do these little wraps that are very nice, give you a nice little purchase on there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I remember you I held it and I and you told me about it.
SPEAKER_00:And then we've got our Lewold Optic on there, and I've got a set of night sights that were on there, and they've got a Viridian laser, a C5 laser. So yeah, this gun is not a Gucci gun in its current configuration, but it does have a factory Nubix slide. So cool, you know, it's a Gen 3. I tend to prefer the Gen 3. Although, if I am gonna go with something that's outside of the vein of a Gen 3 in a Glock, I do like the 19X a lot. This is uh well, I'll just break it, y'all. I like the 19X a lot. If I'm gonna run, you know, more of a full-size frame with the uh the shorter slide. So this is basically a 17 on the mullet gun. This is the 17 on the bottom and a 19 on the top. So you get the full magazine length and the full grip length. And I like this gun a lot. Like the 19X is seriously a great gun. And I know that Glock has been catching some grief. Um, if you've seen any of my videos that I've made recently, I've already probably discussed some of the issues with uh Glock's model changes, uh, where they've uh gone to a non-seer ready model that they're now gonna start shipping uh later this month. I don't necessarily agree with that uh position, but it means that all the Gen 3 Glocks are probably gonna go up in price just by virtue of, I mean, that's just how things are.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Anytime they change a design, uh, you know, the older design tends to kind of you know hold some value. But anyway, um, for this type of gun, you know, I do like the size of a 19 for general purpose carry, and I like the SIG P365 as well. You know, it's a nice compact, small gun, uh, still holds a decent amount of shots. I've been looking at that new Smith Wesson uh shield uh that they have the little tiny uh double stack shield. It's not the shield plus, it's the newest Smith Wesson that just came out. I forget the name of it, but man, that gun looks promising too. It's it's I think it's a double stack 380.
SPEAKER_01:So it's super tiny. It's ridiculously small.
SPEAKER_00:It's so small you'd almost forget you have it on your body. So again, where the large format pistols like the USWG and the Flux Raider are useful. This is not exactly something you're just gonna put on your hip. No, versus a P365 or a micro double stack nine, something in the micro nine category, is something that's pretty awesome. That you know, it can disappear on the body and really be the ultimate in concealed carry.
SPEAKER_01:Although, if I remember correctly, they did make a leg holster for the raider.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, they did.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, that I distinctly remember, and it was like a fast, it was like a fast retention holster where you can just pull it and then let I remember the whole thing was like the little the the stock. I think at that they were using a stock, so it was like pop.
SPEAKER_00:And that may not be necessarily practical for your everyday you know user. I think they're really intended that more for operational. That was like military military, but it's still cool. I mean, you show up to the range with that on, people are gonna be like, what the heck? What what in the RoboCop is going on here?
SPEAKER_01:You might get the wrong type of attention. Uh you walk into the range like that. You're gonna be the meme of like the guy walking in what not to do at the gun store.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I'll elaborate quickly on revolvers. I mean, look, revolvers have their place too. Is that to say that you know, would I go out of my way to carry a revolver as a primary? Probably not. Um, I would treat a J-frame revolver as a backup. For me, I kind of treat that more of a pocket gun. I normally, now, I don't want to give away too much tea here, but I guess I'll tell y'all. We're all friends here. I usually carry my wallet in my right pocket. So I may occasionally carry my wallet in my left pocket and carry my revolver in my right pocket. Someone says, give me your wallet, I'm gonna give them my wallet. I'm gonna reach in my pocket and and Jack Ruby, pow, pow, pow. I'm gonna give them all five rounds out of a J-frame as fast as I can pull the trigger. And that that's kind of what you call a New York dupe. Uh, you know, and and hey, that's old trick. I'll let you have that one for free. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:You can I'm just reaching for my wallet. Yeah, it's just a wallet.
SPEAKER_00:Here, have the wallet. Yeah, you know, or give, or give them your give them your wallet, and I know, look, that's that that's my strategy. You know, but anyway, I like the revolver because it can tuck away you know inside a pocket quite easily. Uh double uh double action triggers, nice and reliable, you know, reasonably good velocity and power, even out of a snub nose 38. A little more, a little more ass than a nine millimeter, not much, but some. And uh relatively compact gun that's pretty bomb-proof. I like the J-frame revolvers quite a bit. Oh, I do have my J-frame right here. Look at this. I'm I'm on it today, ain't I? Ooh, it has some bullets in it. That would have been bad. It has some bullets in it. You got the critical D in there, too. You got some critical, yeah, critical defense. All right, but there's my J-frame. Now, that this is the last J-frame that I've kept. I've had a couple over the years, but this is a Wiley Clapp uh model that's been customized, it's been ported.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00:And it's got a set of Rogers Combat grips that are uh custom walnut grips, and it's had the ejector latch uh lower profile that's been cut down, and it's had a night sight installed, which I actually need to upgrade. The night sight is dead now because this is an older gun. I need to get a fresh sight for it. But this is a great carry gun.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, that port job looks beautiful, dude.
SPEAKER_00:It is a fantastic port job. Yeah, and I can shoot this gun fast as crap at close range. So, yeah, like a custom J-frame as a carry gun, I could probably get away with that and and and be okay. Would it be my first choice? Um would it be my first choice? Probably not. Maybe a backup, but not a primary.
SPEAKER_01:I'll tell you, man, if I had to choose a revolver to carry, it would be an N-frame and it would be the 327 pug nose. Completely impractical. But man, that thing has like just this cool factor.
SPEAKER_00:It is a cool factor.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, bro, you pull out a uh two-inch snub nose on somebody and you start blasting.
SPEAKER_00:Because I think that gun's an eight shot. It is, yeah, it has eight shots.
SPEAKER_01:Eight shots moon clip ready.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, full size grip, end frame, scandium. I'm like, golly, dude, you would be spitting fire. That dude would have third degree burns on him. All right, full of holes.
SPEAKER_00:Full factor aside. Yeah, all right. Here's my only issue with that gun. I like that gun, but the barrel with full length, full velocity, 357 Magnum ammo, the barrel's really too short to realize what power that cartridge has to offer.
SPEAKER_01:So spear makes short barrel ammunition. Do that in three. Is it lightweight, like a 110 or 100 grain or something? Yeah, it's designed to be shot out of snub nose. And that's the only saving grace for that gun.
SPEAKER_00:But if we're talking a 158-grain plus piece, something hot, yeah, and a full-length 357. I mean, yeah, six-inch barrel, 357 Magnum. Now you're talking anything under a four-inch, it starts to kind of be like, all right, do we just really want nine millimeter at this point? And it's funny.
SPEAKER_01:But it shoots 38 special as well.
SPEAKER_00:Tim and I, we actually we kind of joked around about this, but Tim and I had this conversation, Tim at Military Arms Channel. And Tim and I had the conversation about uh, I think I showed him a model 66 that I had. I was like, hey, check out this 357, it's got like a three-inch barrel. And he's like, Well, anything under four inch, you're losing so much velocity, you might as well shoot nine millimeter. I was like, really? And I went to run the numbers and I'm like looking up data, I'm like, oh my God, he's freaking right. Like, how did I not notice that? So it's like sometimes to really see the benefit of a revolver, you kind of have to have the longer barrel. And then the longer the barrel gets, the more impractical the gun gets as a carry gun. And I think six inches is kind of a long barrel to try to hide.
SPEAKER_01:But even with the two-inch barrel, Eric, do you think the guy you're shooting at is gonna contest the results? Well, maybe not.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, if he's 50 yards away and he's wearing a heavy wool coat, no, will the round penetrate? Who knows?
SPEAKER_01:You know what? Maybe that's a test we should run.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny, I was having this conversation with somebody the other day. I have a ballistics dummy that uh Clear Ballistics sent out, and I have an old prop wool coat that I bought because I was gonna perform a test. Um, and and this is getting out of the out of today's show in terms of you know, kind of getting off subject a little bit, but I'll just mention real quick there's like a rumor that in the Korean War that the North Korean soldiers that were wearing heavy wool coats that the M2 carbines would not penetrate the wool coats at a certain distance. And they don't know if it was maybe a few hundred yards, possibly 300 yards. Yes, the soldiers could get point hits on North Korean soldiers, but their coats were so thick that the bullets would simply bounce off or get stuck in the wool. I want to test it. I have an M1 right here, no reason not to test it. So things like that. It's like sometimes a combination of clothing or possibly the combination of a given um type of cover or concealment or barrier might uh pose a very significant risk to the effectiveness of your gun, even just being some mild brush, someone just being kind of like slightly off in the woods, you'd be surprised. You'd think, oh, I got a Mark 18, I can just shoot through that brush. No, you can't. Those it's crazy that, like in the Vietnam War, you know, soldiers quickly found that like SKS and AK-47s were much better suited for jungle warfare because of just by virtue of the bullet being heavier and lower velocity than the fast-moving 556, which would hit the slightest uh imperfection and boom, fly off in any direction. It would completely deflect the bullet in some random direction. And it's funny, we actually tested this empirically and found out that yes, even a 308 out of a, I think I had a Beretta BM59, and we were shooting a piece of steel that was no more than 50 yards in the woods.
SPEAKER_01:I saw those videos. You made like three of them.
SPEAKER_00:And it's like the gun completely deflected and did not hit the target, and it was only 50 yards away. You think a 308 surely can shoot 50 yards in the woods, not if there's some rush in the way. And it was wild how different the results were. Versus if you shot a 4570, oh yeah, that thing's gonna pile on three like a dump truck. So guns have their purpose. And again, shotgun, like we talked about early in the show. A shotgun slug, oh yeah. It doesn't care if there's a tree in the way, if there's crap in the way, payload is king, and a heavy object moving slow is gonna be less affected by its environment.
SPEAKER_01:Unless it's a 30 yacht six black tip. It's gonna go right through. Gonna go right through.
SPEAKER_00:I'm a big believer in that. But uh, I feel like today's show was was well rounded. Um, we didn't really talk about like sniper rifles or or you know long range rifles, but let's just say I know we don't have much long, this the show's about to end, so I don't want to go too far on the subject map, but rifles can just fall into a category of being general purpose for different things. Like whether you use a rifle for hunting or target shooting, your ability to shoot a rifle at any range is dependent on your level of training and the amount of time that you take to learn your platform. And I'm just gonna say that at longer ranges, you know, your ability to determine if someone is a threat is much more hard to overcome the barrier of scrutiny. Say you shoot someone 300 yards away, well, law enforcement could argue that, well, did you really know that they were a threat? Or could you get away being 300 yards away? You could get away. So it becomes a kind of tricky territory that perhaps if you're being engaged and shot at from longer range and you want a good bolt gun to be able to, you know, take out a potential threat, that's one thing. But in the confines of today's video for life and liberty and for just general purpose defense, that's why I didn't really discuss the topic too much.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, it's not typically something you'd be using as a life and liberty gun, uh, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe not so much. But I do enjoy shooting Remington 700s. Uh they're great. I mean, let's not.
SPEAKER_01:Well, just a quick, quick story time. Sure. You are correct on you know, your ability to use that firearm that relies on how comfortable you comfortable you are shooting that firearm. Um and that that M77, I I and I really enjoy shooting it. Um, pretty competent in shooting it. Yeah, and that last deer that we took out there at the very end of the W, I think that was we paced it off, it was like 150, like 147, between 147 and 150 yards was that shot. I hit that deer while it was in the air because it had to jump. It doesn't like walking on the road, so it was trying to jump from one side to the other. Yeah, and I remember I looked up, and that was like a quick shot, too. Because I was I was like this. I looked up, I saw the little deer head poking him up, and I was like, Oh, he's gonna jump. And he went to jump, and that I promise you, dude, it was like enemy at the gates, man.
SPEAKER_00:It was freaking mad over here, the Hoochie Men trail over here, just freaking tracking everything in sight.
SPEAKER_01:But that's like because I understood, like I'm very comfortable with that rifle and understanding like the trajectory of that 220, like understood everything.
SPEAKER_00:What a great gun! Oh my god. At one point, I had a lot of M77s in my collection. I decided to kind of like scale back on the amount of calibers I want to keep in bolt guns. I had a nice CZ American as well as an M77 and 762 by 39. Kind of wish I would have kept that one, but if I would have kept it, I would have threaded it and I didn't want to ruin it because it's such a collectible gun. So I sold it.
SPEAKER_01:You took a good deal with that one on the last one. I did.
SPEAKER_00:I shot a deer with that one, but the only M77 I have left is my 9.3 by 62 over there behind you. Yep. And uh I love that rifle. It's great, and it's a dump truck of a round. Like you're talking a 260-grain bullet. I mean, it's heavier than the alt six that we like to use, those heavy alt sixes, and it hits like an absolute freight train. And that gun, I can also shoot deer with it, but then I can also take down a large game. Yeah, it'll it'll it'll it'll kill a large game, which is absolutely crazy to me. Anything that walks on the North American continent, that gun can can can harvest.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and that's like that goes back to like our conversation about the 30 out six round in particular. Eric and I are very uh intimate. We have intimate knowledge on that round because for the longest time, that's what we used to hunt. That's all we used to hunt with for the most part, unless he was doing content and he had to shoot a specific round or a specific weapon, but for the longest time, it was 220 grain, 30 yacht six. It didn't matter if they were 50 yards, 100 yards, 150 yards. That 220 got it done.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. Well, uh, I hope that everybody enjoyed today's show. That's probably gonna end things for today. I know we we've danced around a lot of different topics today, and I hope you enjoyed today's show. Really being more gun-centric and just talking about our love of different gun designs. And I hope you all learned something. Um, you know, perhaps you did. Maybe to some of you this is old information. To some of you, maybe it's new information. So I appreciate you taking the time to join us today on today's show. We post every Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So make sure you follow Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit. You can follow us on YouTube at IRACVeteran8888. Uh, if you want to see the show in video form, you can see all the guns we're talking about as we show them off, which is always fun. Uh, but also in um audio form, everywhere that all your favorite podcasts are found, Stitcher, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, we're there. Leave us a good rating so we show up further in the search results. We would really appreciate you helping us out there so we can grow the podcast, get more people in, and spread more knowledge and uh and and you know, hear feedback from you guys. So thanks so much. Uh, many more videos on the way and podcasts on the way. Uh Matt, anything else before we head on? No. Other than the Ho Chi Man Trail. Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_01:That was uh we got to get back out there. That was a good one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for real, we will. We need to go out and do some hunting soon. So I think we did we we covered things pretty well. And um, I appreciate everybody. Thank you all so much for the support. Many more podcasts and videos on the way, and we'll see you all soon.
SPEAKER_01:Going hunting, everybody. Bye.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening alike Liberty and Pursuit. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else podcasts are found. Be sure to leave us a five star review. We'd really appreciate that. Support us over on Ballistic Inc. by picking yourself up some merch. And remember, guys, dangerous freedom. Have a good one.