Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The Sound of Silence


There isn't anything wrong with the Beretta 92F (below and left) or the can silencer. However, having used them, it's important to raise the sights when you decide that you want to do that.  And then you need to practice with it in that configuration.

As configured, it's not suitable for anything but point blank range shooting. 

Unless you're using it as a movie prop. Then it doesn't matter very much, does it? They're able to stretch one magazine into hours of continual fire.

The other thing to remember is that you must use subsonic ammunition. I'd recommend that you 'tune' the ammo to the handgun with some experimentation.

One other problem, with this configuration of the Beretta is that the weight of the silencer requires a slightly different grip on the pistol or the rounds will tend to 'stovepipe' jam because you aren't holding your wrist tight to allow the recoil to work properly.

I have a friend in Bulgaria who wished me to comment on firearms laws in the United States briefly, here on this blog. The American people privately own hundreds of millions of firearms and trillions of rounds of ammunition. It strikes some people as strange that we do that. They wonder what value having so many firearms are to a hunting culture.

We lawfully own firearms as a hedge against tyranny. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is about providing sovereignty to the people. Many governments are disturbed by the fact that the people are in many cases, better armed than the police. Free people are armed, slaves are not. It comes down to that. And if it disturbs people who do not belong to the American culture, that's ok. I'm glad that you trust your government.

However history teaches us that governments are not trustworthy over time, to respect the rights of the individual. The nations founders were fearful that a government powerful to give you anything, would also be powerful to take everything.

And if you are going to practice shooting, you also need to practice reloading. Practice makes perfect. In the photo (right), the person firing and operating the handgun should keep the muzzle pointed at the target as he exchanges magazines. Leave a round in the chamber as you swap them out. It's not a good idea (tactically) to leave an empty chamber. Keep one in battery in case you need to send it as you're exchanging.

Some firearms do not allow you to fire if the magazine is out of the pistol. Check your handgun and see if that is the case. It's a safety feature built in and a gunsmith can disable that for you if you want to do that.

You fight the way you train and if you're untrained, you're dangerous to yourself.