Gerry Barone's Self Defense Notes

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Tactical Flashlights

Flashlight Standards

Flashlight manufactures that adhere to FL-1 Standards provide specific information about the products. This includes:

Light Output - The Lumens rating that shows the total amount of light that comes out of the front of the flashlight.

Peak Beam Intensity - Measured in Candela this is the brightest point in the beam. Where Lumens tell how much light is coming out of the light in total Candela measures how bright the brightest point of the beam is.

Beam Distance - This is the measurement in meters of the distance at which the intensity of the beam reaches 0.25 lux which is the approximated amount of light of a full moon on a clear night.

Impact Resistance - Measured in meters this indicates the height from which you could drop a flashlight onto concrete and it still work properly. Dropped samples must not exhibit any cracks or breaks, and must remain fully functional in order to pass the Impact Resistance test..

Runtime - Runtime is defined as the amount of time, rounded to the nearest quarter hour, until output drops below 10%.

Water Resistance - Water resistance is stated using the IP rating system. Three ratings are used.
IPX4 – water-resistant, or water splashed from all directions
IPX7 – water-proof, or temporary submersion at 1 meter for 30 minutes
IPX8 – submersible, or continuous submersion at some specified depth for 4 hours

https://www.streamlight.com/docs/default-source/ansi-documents/ansi-pres.pdf

https://www.ammoman.com/blog/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-tactical-flashlight/

https://www.tacticalogy.com/blinding-flashlight-self-defense/

http://www.besttacticalflashlights.net/

http://www.led-resource.com/ansi-fl1-standard/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_light

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Handgun Grip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vY5B2Hjwkk

https://www.handgunsmag.com/editorial/tactics_training_combatg_100306/138866

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVbvwWtWIA

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Ammunition

Here is a basic overview of ammunition with an emphasis on handgun ammunition.

Basic Anatomy of a Cartridge

A cartridge or a round is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition consisting of four primary parts:

bullet (projectile), powder (propellent), primer, case

1. Bullet/Projectile

The bullet is the projectile component of a cartridge which is expelled forward from the gun barrel when shooting. Bullets are made from different materials and come in various shapes and sizes. Most handgun bullets have a copper exterior (called the jacket) that surrounds a lead core. However, some bullets are made entirely from lead, while others might be made entirely from copper.

Common bullet types include:

Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) - Bullets with a lead core encased with a metal coating (often copper) that covers all of, or all but the base of, a bullet.

Full Metal Jacket Image credit concealed nation

Lead Round Nose (LRN) - Lead round nose bullets are composed entirely of lead with a rounded nose.

Wadcutter (WC) - A wadcutter bullet is essentially just a lead cylinder with a flat top. Generally used in target shooting competitions. Ammo to go article here.

Wadcutter Image credit Wikiwand

Semi-Wadcutter (SWC) - Semi-wadcutters are a cross between traditional lead round nose and the full wadcutter.

Semi-Wedcutter Image credit concealed nation

Hollow Point (HP) - Hollow point bullets have a concave shaped tip that facilitates rapid expansion of the round upon impact. Some HPs are made with a tough copper jacket over a soft lead core (jacketed hollow points or JHPs). Others are made of a solid material like copper.

Jacketed Hollow Point Image credit concealed nation

Soft Point (SP or JSP) - Soft point (aka jacketed soft point) bullets have a soft metal core (usually lead) encased by a stronger metal jacket (usually copper) but with the lead tip exposed at the tip.

Soft Point Image credit usacarry

2. Powder/Propellant

The propellant is a chemical or mixture of chemicals which, when ignited, produces a very large quantity of gas. This gas, when confined within a barrel and behind a missile, provides the propulsion to drive the missile down the bore and out of the barrel.

3. Primer

The primer is a chemical compound that explodes when struck sending a flame into the propellant (powder) thus igniting it. Ammunition can be categorized by the arrangement of the primer as either rimfire or centerfire.

Rimfire - Refers to cartridges that have a priming compound located in the rim of the base. The gun's firing pin strikes the rim, crushing a portion of the case, causing the primer to explode. Rimfire cartridges include the .22 Short, .17 HMR, .22 Long Rifle, .22 Winchester Automatic.

Centerfire - Refers to cartridges that have a priming compound located at the center of the base. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the centerfire primer is typically a separate component seated into a recessed cavity (known as the primer pocket) in the base of the case. There are two types of centerfire primers.

1) Boxer Primer - Has a single flash hole.

2) Berdan Primer - Has two flash holes.

Image credit: Gun University

4. Case

The main defining component of the cartridge is the case, which gives the cartridge its shape and serves as the integrating housing for other functional components. The case can either be a "bottleneck" one, whose frontal portion near the end opening (known as the "case neck") has a noticeably smaller diameter than the main part of the case ("case body"), with a noticeably angled slope ("case shoulder") in between; or a "straight-walled" one, where there is no narrowed neck and the whole case looks cylindrical.

The case shape is meant to match exactly to the chamber of the gun that fires it.

The most popular material used to make cartridge cases is brass due to its good corrosion resistance.

Bullet Size & Caliber

Caliber refers to the diameter of the gun barrel bore as well as the size of the bullet Firearm calibers are usually measured in millimeters, hundredths of an inch or thousandths of an inch.

Though there are hundreds of different handgun cartridges that have been used in the past and continue to be used presently, the most common are:

.22 Long Rifle (.22 LR)
.380 ACP (.380 Auto)
9mm (9x19mm Parabellum, 9mm NATO, 9mm Luger)
.40 Smith & Wesson (.45 S&W)
.45 ACP (.45 Auto)
.38 Special
.357 Magnum
.44 Magnum