We all know why I’m dealing with a bit of sleep deprivation. (Baby is doing really great, by the way.) In  an emergency situation, there are all sorts of things that could cause some sleepless nights.  Stress could cause insomnia, perhaps guard duty has you out of your sleep sack for a few hours every night. The point is, you have to keep going, here are some tricks to aid you in fighting the sleepy-fog.

Your brain is working less efficiently – Research shows that our brain’s ability to function quickly deteriorates when we are sleep deprived. Make sure you give yourself longer to do tasks that require thought. You’re more likely to make mistakes remembering measurements, complicated orders, solving problems or recalling something previously memorized.

Your reaction time is longer – Go slower if you’re driving or riding a bike, as you’ll be slower reacting to obstacles.  Don’t go hand-to-hand with someone well rested if you can avoid it.

Eat more calories – I have always heard this in jobs where crazy-long shifts can happen, when you can’t give your body restorative hours of sleep, give it as many calories as you can.  Now, this is within reason of course, and works best if the calories are healthy and energy dense.  A large bag of potato chips isn’t going to replace an hour of sleep, but an extra half portion of whole wheat pasta can make a big difference.

Watch for mood swings – Sleep deprived people feel exhausted and fatigued, which affects their moods, causing depression, stress and anger. Take steps to minimize stress and anger, through communication strategies and meditation. Try not to make important decisions during your time of sleep deprivation.

Drink more water – Expelling waste is another function that gets taken care of during sleep. If you can keep hydrated, you can help your body  deal with the excess toxins that might be present because of your sleepy state.

Using Caffeine – Use caffeine in moderation if you can. A little bit will help counteract the drowsiness of sleep deprivation. But, too much used too often will see a decrease in performance as your body becomes used to the level. It can also cause jitters or shakes, which could be detrimental to your shooting accuracy.

Nap if you can – A 20 minute nap will do some good. You’ll feel more refreshed and alert.  Sleep when you can, but don’t use “downers” to get there, you’ll be setting yourself up for trouble.

May all your nights be restful, but if they’re not, at least you should know how to deal with it.

- Calamity Jane

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Remember the firearms instructor that wrote the guest post A Case for the Pipsqueak .22lr AR-15? He’s back with another prime post. Only this time he’s bumping it up to the .22 magnum. Such a fun word – “magnum.” Say it. “Magnum.”

He also seems to have settled on a pen name since last post.

- Ranger Man

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Until sometime during the mid-80s revolvers ruled the handgun roost. Well, times have changed! Plastic pistols are now in vogue, but demand for small wheel-guns still remains steady. They’re concealable, reliable and simple to use. Sure, capacity is reduced, but by how much? The latest genres of little semi-auto pocket rockets don’t hold a whole lot of ammo either. By going with smaller cartridges revolver capacity can increase until parity exists, albeit with possibly less punch. Any gun is better than no gun so when size, noise and recoil are issues some folks turn to little revolvers chambered for rimfire rounds.

My son wanted a pint-sized package for the Maine woods. He’ll carry it mostly while bow-hunting. Others may prefer to pack one with survival gear, or just slip one in a pocket. The new polymer or scandium iterations weigh practically nothing and beg to be carried everywhere. Because light weight and big calibers translate to lots of recoil, these little guns seem especially well-suited for the smallest bores. In this case, the choice was an S&W Model 351 PD chambered for .22 Magnum.

In a rifle-length barrel, the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire is a fairly respectable cartridge, offering significant improvement over a .22 Long Rifle. With similar 40-grain bullets, velocity increases by around 600 fps. That’s a pretty big increase! As a hand-loader I’ve enjoyed using the .22 Magnum in repeating rifles, mainly to avoid the obligatory chore of chasing fired cases. Having played with several models, I eventually settled on a 75-yard zero, which permits a nearly dead-on hold slightly beyond 100 yards. Most folks just sight in at 100 yards and call it good. The .22 WMR dispatches small game with authority, doesn’t shake up the neighborhood, and is fairly affordable for everything except high-volume plinking. It might not be a great pick for big sky country but, in the woods the .22 Magnum is a very useful cartridge. Besides trim rifles you can still find used Savage Model 24 combination guns, which usually sell for several hundred dollars. These afford a shotgun option and have potential for subsistence or survival use. Surprisingly, the .22 Magnum is legal for deer in Maine. No doubt, it’s accounted for a fair share. Personally, I’d skip it – unless times were tough and that’s all I had.

Because it has more oomph, the .22 WMR is designed with a fatter case that won’t fit a .22 LR chamber. You can chamber the latter in the former, but you can’t safely fire it. The smaller case will rupture, venting high pressure rearward. On the other hand, you can purchase dual-cylinder revolvers that permit the use of either caliber. One thing to consider; velocity will be diminished in a handgun-length barrel. But, my son just had to have a “magnum” with its promise of raw power. I was interested to see what would happen from a barrel less than 2 inches long. As it turned out, not a whole lot did. Setting up the chronograph, Speer’s new 40-grain Gold Dot Short Barrel load averaged 1050 fps – considerably less than a .22 LR fired from a rifle.

CCI .22 Magnum 40-grain Maxi-Mag HPs clocked 975 fps.

Just for the heck of it, I grabbed the shortest .22 LR barrel available for comparison. Unfortunately, it was still 5” long. My old S&W M-41 Sport Barrel drove CCI 40-grain Velocitors to1175 fps. CCI Stingers averaged 1300 fps. So anyone with a .22 LR Browning Buckmark or Ruger MK II would be ill-advised to trade based solely on velocity expectations. However, the little Scandium Smith certainly is handy! With its short 1 7/8” barrel and weight of 11 ounces it’s a breeze to carry. Despite the short sight radius and light weight, we found this snub-nose S&W fairly shoot-able. Two contributable factors were the highly visible fiber-optic front sight and good trigger. The D/A pull was typical J-frame with stacking prior to let-off. The S/A pull was great. Recoil was nil and muzzle-blast was less than expected. Accuracy was decent, but groups clustered about an inch high and to the right at 10 yards. Fixed sights meant using a corrected hold. We drew a squirrel target and it was quickly perforated.

I’d personally opt for a .22 LR version with adjustable sights and a slightly longer 3” barrel. With this I could fire everything from CB caps to Stingers. Velocity with the latter round would probably approach the fastest .22 WMR launched from a 1 7/8” model. The little M-351 does carry well in a Bianchi holster though. Its front sight is good in bush, too. The grips look so attractive that I might buy a similar set for my M-66. For someone seeking the smallest package, it may have merit. Just don’t expect the ballistics listed for a .22 Magnum rifle. Instead, plan on the rifle punch of a .22 LR, delivered from a very discrete and portable 7-shot handgun package.

- The Graduate Shootist

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Drones. Killer Drones, Spy Drones, Predator Drones, there are all kinds of drones, but they’re just used to track and kill enemies overseas right? WRONG.

Congress passed a bill in February that would have 30,000 surveillance drones in US airspace by 2020.  In addition to those, there are Predator Drones being used on our borders right now, and the Justice Department is working with the drone industry to get lightweight drones into the arsenals of metropolitan police and county sheriffs.

Well, ok, so the government is using drones, that’s OK Calamity, there’s oversight and I’m sure they are only used against “bad” people.  WRONG. There’s a House committee, the House Unmanned Systems Caucus, looking at the drone rollout in America.  Sounds good, but in reality, the members are all receiving campaign contributions from drone manufacturers and Representatives are drooling at the thought of drone bases and drone manufacturing coming to their districts.  The caucus hasn’t uttered a peep about domestic liberties or reining in the big brother surveillance. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the price tag for this domestic drone attack is estimated to be $34 Billion.

Drones are proliferating with virtually no governmental oversight.

Yet the mission of the bipartisan drone caucus, which includes liberal and conservative representatives, is not to regulate drone operations but to promote them.

Over the past three years, the concerns of the drone caucus have mirrored the concerns of the drone industry about access to domestic airspace, export controls and the modestly declining military budget.

The lack of oversight over drone operations and the booming international drone industry has alarming implications for war and peace. Drone proliferation is also rapidly advancing on the home front.

Congress recently mandated that the Federal Aviation Administration open up domestic airspace to private and commercial drones by 2015 and that it immediately speed up the licensing process to permit the deployment of government (military, homeland security and law enforcement) drones in commercial U.S. airways.

source

Drones can be as small as model aircraft or have the wingspan of a full-size jet and are operated remotely by pilots. The USAF intelligence brief says that if any of those drones should “accidentally” capture footage of Americans, the data can be stored for three months to be scrutinized by the Pentagon. No warrant, no consent, just pure 1984-style surveillance on US soil. As drones become a weapon to use against American citizens, it’s time to educate yourself and think about ways to protect your family and your information from them. If history has taught us anything, it’s that governments abuse their powers. 30,000 drones is a lot of potential abuse. Will they watch farmers to tally up potential food stores? Will they watch “terrorists” and track their weapons and food preparations? Will they be watching YOU?

- Calamity Jane

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