What to feed a modern sporting rifle?

In the comments section of a recent post I was asked if I had any opinions about the "best" ammo to feed a modern sporting rifle.

In the body of the comment he wrote

I recently bought a modern sporting rifle...I asked a relative with more knowledge if I got it what I should put through it. Without hesitation the answer was the 62gr steel core over the 55gr.

Time has passed and I have viewed lots of videos including ones from Paul Harell on youtube. I watched the effects on the "meat target" and now am confused. I realize that I failed to ask important questions. Target, overpenatration, effectiveness, range...

While I do have a few opinions, I do not qualify as any kind of expert.

My advice: The "best" ammo for a modern sporting rifle is any ammo that is available in quantity and is inexpensive enough that you can-and-will practice on a regular basis with that ammo.

Range
Unless your target is shooting at you, you cannot justify shooting "targets" at 100 yards. In a court-of-law you would have a difficult time justifying shooting targets at 20 yards. The only reason range would be a factor is that projectiles lose velocity as they fly and the terminal ballistics change. So, let's call "range" a tie-breaker.

Overpenetration
I think this is far more of a consideration for police than for civilians for the following reasons.

A policeman does not know the layout of your house or where other, nearby houses might be lurking. You do. You know where your kids' rooms are, where their beds are relative to your own. You know where your neighbors' houses are.

You cannot dictate where your target is but you can certainly change your own position. And don't overlook changing vertical position. If you are in a house and are compelled to shoot through a door, then plunking your ass on the floor and firing upward will send misses and pass-throughs into the ceiling. That is still an issue if you are in a multi-story dwelling but it gives you one more set of options to consider.

Am I advocating shooting through a door? NO! But maybe you have special circumstances. Maybe you have wireless video cameras and you are 99.999% certain that the "target" on the other side of the door means to kill you or render grievous bodily harm to you or your loved ones.

The other consideration on over-penetration is that with handguns, anywhere between 75% and 95% of the bullets fired at a "target" miss that target and fly downrange with their full velocity. The best way to address issues of over-penetration is to ensure center-of-mass hits of the intended target. The energy transferred to the target is not available to cause collateral damage.

Terminal ballistics
Terminal ballistics will be argued about for as long as there are people who like to argue.

It would be silly to argue that all projectiles perform the same. One consideration that is often overlooked is that targets vary a great deal. Picture a four-hundred pound target throwing a chunk of concrete in your direction. He is right handed. Where is his left arm as he is winding up to throw? His arm is in front of him and there is a 10% chance that your shot will hit it.

Now consider a 110 pound target with a switchblade. The projectile that is optimal for the 400 pound target is sub-optimal for the 110 pound target.

The traditional advice is still the best advice. In a crowd of targets, identify the biggest threat and service it with as many shots as necessary until it is no longer a threat. Then service the next threat.

The military figured this out a long time ago. Servicing threats requires focus. Identifying which threat is the most imminent requires a general over-view. Snipers have spotters. A team of two is eight times better than a single, armed person. One person is the target caller and the other is the trigger-puller.

Unrealistic? The only time my demographic goes to the shopping mall (likely Scenario #1) is when dragged there by the most important person in my life. She doesn't want to pull triggers but she certainly doesn't want to watch my noggin get crushed by a chunk of concrete. She will gladly call targets.

Specific projectiles
The steel tip on the M-855 projectile functions like the cork or paper-packing in the tip of the old .303 British bullets. It moves the center-of-mass further aft and increases the odds and severity of tumbling. Tumbling is triggered by the tip hitting the target at angles that are not perpendicular which exerts a side-force on the tip. Sometimes the bullet hits the target square-on and it does not tumble.

The FMJ 55 grain projectile fractures at the cannelure as it tumbles. It will not fracture if it does not tumble and fracture is contingent on having enough velocity when it hits. It might not have enough velocity when fired from an AR based pistol.

55 grain softpoints have a maximum penetration of 10" to 12" which is just shy of the FBI minimum. Still plenty if you are prick-punching the target between the nipples and are not shooting them in the beer-gut or engaging in "raking shots".

Any .224" projectile marketed as a "varmint" bullet should be avoided for this application...unless that is the only ammo you can find.

Practice, practice and practice some more
Maybe you can afford to practice with "the best" ammo as much as you should if you work for an agency who happily pay for it.

Most of us cannot afford to shoot hundreds of rounds a month of the "best" monometal or bonded ammo.

Practice will verify that your ammo-of-choice functions flawlessly through YOUR firearm.

Practice will greatly increase the odds of YOUR firearm becoming an extension of your body that does not require conscious thought to operate (muscle memory).

Practice will greatly increase the odds of your eye, the sights and the target's upper center-of-mass coming into alignment as the weapon settles into your shoulder pocket.

Practice, practice and practice some more. The ammo failure won't be inadequate terminal ballistics. The ammo failure to fear is having all of your ammo in the magazine as the crowd of targets rips your weapon from your hands and beats you to death with it because you could not bring it into play quickly enough.

The ammo failure to fear is jamming.

The ammo failure to fear is missing the target.

The best ammo for a modern sporting rifle is the ammo that you can find in sufficient quantities at a price that allows you to practice as much as you need to.

It will probably be either 55 grains or 62 grains. It may be military surplus or production over-runs. It may be the "economy" brand from a major ammo manufacturer.

Quest: Alienating the Old Guard

The commandos who had formerly been led by Lieutenant Karl Mankey were very unhappy with his demotion. Perhaps nobody was more unhappy than Gary Thibodeaux.

Behind his back, Gary called Lieutenant Mankey "SpongeBob SquarePants". Karl took his job, and his men’s lives very, very seriously. It was also clear that Mankey was fully invested in his job.

The replacement hand-selected by Wokes-Cold did not impress Thibodeaux. Wokes-Cold selected Lieutenant Josie Burns for her videotography skills, not her skills in keeping men alive in combat

Wokes-Cold was a member of the "Selfie" generation and took a thousand selfies a month. Selfie segued into self-promotion. The only self-promotional tool more vivid than a picture is a moving picture. Wokes-Cold had the stripes to get any Lt she wanted and she wanted Burns.

There were many things about Wokes-Cold that the old-guard found baffling.

These men and women were commandos. Their job was to penetrate enemy territory and to blow-up strategically important targets before the main attack. Lt Menkey put them into electric, battery powered vehicles for the invasion of Livingston County. Battery powered vehicles are quiet and quiet is good

Wokes-Cold refused to be seen in a quiet vehicle like a Prius. A Prius projected “Wuss” not Alpha predator. Image was everything.

Wokes-Cold wanted trucks. BIG, bright trucks. Big, bright, loud Alpha trucks. And what could be more “Alpha” than a Ladder Truck? That also played into the decision to off-load the bridge off the front of the ladder truck. “Alpha” never backs up.

The all-Gurl  leadership team drove a wedge between the troops and leadership. Before Karl Mankey left, one-commando-in-five was female which was the lowest ratio allowed by Washetenaw County’s board of governance. Every one of those women earned their place on the team. They could shoot. They could scoot. They knew when there was time to push-back and they knew when it was time to break shit and get things done.

The newer women members of the team all sided with Wokes-Cold and Burns. They did not respond well when the male members scoffed and dismissed Wokes-Cold’s arbitrary and capricious demands. The women objected “How can you know that won’t work?”

The handwriting was on the wall. Conflicts that floated to the level of Burns invariably resulted in the male being transferred out to a shit-details.

Some commandos decided it was a great ticket out of a mission that was looking more-and-more like a suicide mission. Cleaning a latrine with a toothbrush is not that bad as long as you are not required to brush your teeth with it afterward.

The other commandos bit their tongue. When they saw something that could have been helpful, they kept their mouths shut. Wrong oil being put into the tank for the hydraulic pumps? There was no up-side to pointing out the problem. The wrong kind of shielding gas being used to weld aluminum? Let it roll. They will figure it out.

The step from nonfeasance to malfeasance is a big step. Nonfeasance can be rationalized. Maybe somebody else will see the problem and report it. Maybe somebody is already fixing the problem and more attention will slow things down.

Malfeasance is deliberate sabotage. For most people, the step from nonfeasance to malfeasance is a big step. Commandos, at least the old guard, are not most people.

Thibodeaux did not leave. While a great believer in Karma, Thibodeaux wanted to be there when Karma landed. He even believed in helping it along, every now and again. For instance, tugging just a tiny bit on one of the wires to the sensor that measures the fuel level disables the fuel gauge. Techs invariably look for broken or cut wires. They almost never find the wire that looks like it is still in connector block but the conductor is no longer guillotined by the contacts.

The commandos who transferred out were replaced with gung-ho soldiers from the general ranks. The replacements were an even mix of men and women. Word circulating through the ranks was that the “new” commandos were chosen for their unreserved devotion to leadership. The increased status and better food were a big draw. There was no shortage of applicants.

The loss of the seasoned commandos came with a cost. The new commandos had to be trained in explosives and demolitions. Wokes-Cold was all about modern management techniques. If it could be measured with a stop-watch, Wokes-Cold was taking data.

The instructors were very unimpressed with Wokes-Cold. When they suggested she not attend the training, she went over their heads and came anyway.

Explosives are very unforgiving. Doing anything wrong will result in the user not get the desired effect. Det-cord not seated in the charge? No boom. Runs of wires with the conductors not twisted together at the ends can pop the cap you are pushing into the charge.

Explosives are a discipline where individual self-expression is not condoned. There is only one right way to do things.

Wokes-Cold made it clear to her team that she, not the classroom instructor, was in charge after the commandos left the classroom. When they left the classroom it was going to be all chop-chop while the video was rolling.

Next 

Dis, Dat and Da udder ting

Quote of the Day:
"I have a very simple religion. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."  -Mike Jarous

Running
4.8 miles today. I started running this morning and then saw it was trash day. Back to the house.

I started running with music. I made it twenty-five yards before realizing I cannot hear traffic coming up behind me. I turned off the music.

I saw some "heirloom" roses blooming. They were tucked beneath a sugar maple on the west side of the road. They only get two hours of sun every morning, and yet they bloomed.

I got to my turn-around point. I paid my respects to what I had come to see and then I ran back.

Canning jars
The local stores still have some, but the supplies are getting sparse. The internet has canning jars for $2 a jar which is twice the pre-Covid price. I think scalpers are in play.

Maybe supply will catch up with demand. Maybe it won't. Be an adult. Make a plan.

I called a local Scoutmaster who I know. I suggested that setting up a Facebook page to find unused canning jars in folk's basements and garages might be a spiffy Service Project for the right Scout. The church this troop is affiliated with has a food pantry and that would be a good way to distribute the jars. I was thinking $8 a dozen for jars in good condition for the folks donating and $10 a dozen for the folks who want to purchase.

This might be a very good year to clean out some basements and garages.

Rain

Eaton Rapids is in the upper-right quadrant.

Rain formation appears to be heading our way. I have an order in for 2".

Garden

I planted the honeydew melons. I had three flats of 36 each.

I had a few left over. Belladonna was delighted to use social media to find friends who wanted my extra tomato plants. I suspect she won't have any problem finding homes for these honeydew melon plants.

Fireflies and red raspberries
Today marks the first, ripe, red raspberry. I gave it to my bride. I considered it an investments.

I saw my first firefly (aka, Lightening bug) of the season when I went to get the dogs tonight.

Summer is here!!!

Fake News Friday: Defunding Pro-Sports to reduce violence

Led by Minneapolis and New York City, the trend to defund Pro-Sports is picking up steam as cities across the nation re-evaluate the billions of dollars of subsidies they give to professional sports franchises.

"Every time a pro athlete is convicted of assaulting a romantic partner, we defund the franchise by 20% and donate that money to programs supporting battered women" Bernice Gravely said. "It is unconscionable that the City of New York is subsidizing the hero-culture that leads grossly overpaid athletes to believe that they are above the law."

Not to be outdone, Alex Occupy-Waleed submit Federal legislation that all Universities be defunded by 20% every time an athlete robs a convenience store and the monies be used to fund grants to small business start-ups.  "These athletes are official representatives of their respective universities and colleges. To do nothing is to condone violence against the small-business owners who have invested their lives in serving communities; bringing wholesome foods and refreshing beverages to the hard-working masses."

"Universities are partners in this lawlessness and MUST be held accountable for the damage their official representatives do to the community. Not only are the small-business owners and employees damaged, consider the values those official representatives communicate to the young people who look up to them as role models." AOW continued.

"We need to re-level the table. That middle-Eastern or Asian family is trying to feed themselves by running a gas-station/convenience store/pawn shop. They are the true heroes. It is past time to un-tilt the table that favors spoiled children." AOW concluded

Fake News Friday: News before it happens! In this case, you are getting FNF on Monday. Talk about early!!!

Quest: Rutabagas

The vaccine program was moving forward with fits and starts.

The Petri dishes Dr. Sam Wilder had placed a drop of “starter” solution on and then rotated to have the single drop of fluid cover the surface told a story.

After a few days, Dr Sam looked at the surface of the agar and nutrient substrate and the top was carpeted with bacteria colonies.

Under ultraviolet light, the surface of one glowed a uniform aquamarine. The other a vivid, lime-green. The nubbly surface of that agar looked like a carpet.

The two samples Dr Soo Kwan-Bae had sent to her old friend, Dr Sam Wilder were “the really good stuff”, that is, from her master solution.

Dr Sam saw no reason to drag her feet. She set about procuring more cabbage to double the production of the vaccine.

And there was no good cabbage to be found. The imperfect storage characteristics of the thrown-together root cellars had been too imperfect to guarantee the storage of cabbage. Dr. Sam had been lucky to get cabbage for the first batch.

Undeterred, Dr Sam had her Eureka! moment while eating lunch with her husband, John. They were at Gabby’s Pub and pasties were the daily special.

Pasties are a regional specialty. Most common in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where they evolved to be a one-dish meal for hard-rock miners. The miner’s wives made a simple meat pie with the ingredients that were most available in the U.P. oft-times inhospitable gardening climate: Tough, cheap cuts of meats simmered long in the pot. Potatoes. Rutabagas. about 3/4 pound of filling and then the round lard-and-flour crust was folded over and the pasty was backed in the oven until all of the ingredients were tender.

Gabby’s pasties were relatively authentic. One of John Wilder’s old ewes had died and Gabby had purchased the carcass. She added gravy to the filling and a few more onions and carrots than was most authentic.

One thing you can say about mutton from an sinewy, old ewe is that the flavor throws a long shadow and a little bit seems like a lot.

While eating the pasty, Dr. Sam encountered her first rutabaga. It was a cube about a half-inch on a side.

After eating the first, she fished out a second cube and queried her husband “What is this?”

John did not know what they were, so he flagged down the waitress and asked if Gabby was available.

Dr. Sam noted the slight, mustard undertones to the vegetable and the background sweetness.

Gabby informed Dr. Sam that ALL authentic pasties contained rutabagas. They grow exceptionally well in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and therefore were one of the Go-To vegetables for filling them.

Dr Sam asked “I have never seen a rutabaga. Do you have any more in the kitchen so I can see one?”

“Well, of course you can” Gabby said. Gabby was used to eccentric request. After all, Rick Salazar was her father.

The vegetable Gabby showed Dr. Sam weighed almost a pound. Nibbling on a thin slice, Dr. Sam would have sworn she was nibbling on a slice of cabbage.

“Where did these come from?” Dr Sam asked.

“Ken Johnson grew them. He was feeding them to his pigs to fatten them up. He sold the pig and had a few left over” Gabby told her.

“Does he have any more?” Dr Sam asked.

“You would have to ask him. I think he might” Gabby said. Gabby then gave Dr. Sam Ken Johnson’s address. It was not too far from where Sam and John lived.

The next day, Dr. Sam visited the Johnson farm.

“I heard from Gabby Gonzales that you grew some rutabagas to feed your hogs.” Sam started out.

Ken Johnson agreed that he had. “Nothing else will produce as much winter feed as turnips or rutabagas when you spin it into a wheat field.”

“Gabby said you might have some you can sell me” Dr Sam said.

“Well, I could, but I really don’t have that many left” Johnson said, shaking his head regretfully.

Dr. Sam was crestfallen. The lead had seemed so promising.

“Can you sell me what you have left?” Sam asked. Even a few pounds would be useful.

“Sure, I can do that” Johnson said. “Its not like I have any hogs left on the farm.”

It turned out that Johnson was down to his last 800 pounds. That is not a lot of feed if you are trying to fatten a half-dozen hogs but it is a fortune if you need something cabbage-like to grow vaccine and cabbage cannot be had for love nor money.

Dr Sam quadrupled her batch sizes and launched a new “culture” weekly.

She also gave Johnson a contract to produce rutabagas and Korean cabbage for the next season.

*

Tory’s solo was simple. Twenty miles west, take a photo. Twenty miles south, take another photo. Twenty miles east, photo. Then land back at home base.

Tory couldn’t help waggling her wings when she would out of sight of Dot.

Dot had Tory shooting skeet, which seem like a horrendous waste of ammo when so many families were going without meat. Each shot (many which missed) could have been a rabbit-in-the-pot.

Dot also hire Tory’s cousin to give her rides on the motor bike. The game was to drive at varying speeds and Tory had to hit a target with a baseball. When Tory got good at that, Dot, Tory and the cousin went to a parking lot and Tory got to practice while her cousin was driving in a looping arc.

Then Tory was scandalized when Dot insisted on throwing the baseball from the back of the speeding motorbike as well. Teenaged girls heal quickly. Women in their late sixties, not so much.

Tory quickly figured out that hitting the target with the baseball was doable when the range was very short but quickly became impossible with increasing range.

Next

Phone Apps that mimic "Police" scanners

First, let me announce that I am NOT an expert on police scanners or phone apps.

Second, a cross-current and a back-eddy both brought me to where this is the subject du jour.

The cross-current is Southern Belle who lives in the Miami-Dade area. Like many large, urban, multi-cultural areas Miami-Dade experienced tension.

Southern Belle is not always attentive to the news. Sometimes she is behind the curve and needs to catch up. When events are accelerating, there is not time to wait for CNN to report on it at the top of the hour.

The back-eddy was an on-going discussion I have been happening with one of my email friends.

Suppose you are going off-property. If you do not expect trouble you carry your Glock 19 and a spare magazine (34 rounds of 9mm ammo) and your Leatherman Wave.

Being a realistic fellow, you figure that under stress you might achieve a 33% hit rate at 10 paces. That is 11/34 probable hits at 350 ft-lbs per hit or about 4000 ft-lbs total. Oh, and you might be very, very optimistic on your hit rate.

If you KNEW trouble was heading your way, you would not leave the property.

You would be sitting on the front porch, much like the two old men in Second-Hand Lion. You would be sitting there with your AR and six magazines. Not only would you be armed, but so would every person person on the property over the age of 12.

At ten paces you would be +67% at 10 paces with 1250 ft-lbs* per hit. 180 rounds * 0.67 * 1250 ft-lbs = 150,000 ft-lbs. Advantage to the AR over the Glock by a factor of about 35. Oh, and that was just you. That does not include the Mrs, your two kids and the not-quite worthless boyfriend.

The difference is KNOWING trouble is coming your way.

The Vikings were devastatingly effective because they showed up in your harbor without warning. The gates to the local castle were unlocked, the "soldiers" were slopping the hogs. The Vikings moved down the coastline more quickly than information could travel by land.

Which brings us back to police scanners.

I called a local fire-fighter to ask what he recommended. He said the local guys all use "Scanner Radio".

Another app that looks useful is "Scanner 911". What I found appealing about Scanner 911 was this review that said that Scanner 911 plots calls on a map. Southern Belle could look at the map and plot a course home that swung around the problem areas.

The best way to avoid problems is to not be there. Social unrest in the Miami area could be 15 miles away from Southern Belle or three blocks away. If it is three blocks away then it is very useful to know if one should travel north, south or west to avoid it.** Maps are analog and humans process analog far more quickly in stressful situations than digital data.

I will appreciate any readers who want to chime in regarding any "Emergency Scanner" phone apps they have used. Let me know if you hated it or loved it, and why.

Thanks!

*Kinetic Energy is an imperfect measure of how effective a round will be at stopping a threat. The most critical factor is shot placement. The ability to shoot both accurately and quickly cannot be over-rated. The second most critical factor is probably the matching of the projectile, the probable impact velocity and the "hardness" of the target. In the absence of accuracy and appropriateness of the projectile choice, kinetic energy is a reasonable starting point for estimating "stopping power".
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**In general, Miami becomes more congested as one travels east. It would be unusual for east to be the direction of choice (in Miami) in the event of social unrest.

CHAZ Leadership hands out participation trophies for agricultural production

Lemme see:

CHAZ agricultural production is based on laying down cardboard (which they do not produce within CHAZ) on top of sod to kill the grass. Then covering the cardboard with compost (which is trucked in from outside CHAZ) to use as topsoil. Then watering (with water that comes from a water treatment plant outside CHAZ) to produce radishes and microgreens.

Get back to me at the end of the growing season and tell me how many people-days of calories the effort fed.