Airport Notes

26 Aug 09

Airport notes, from a student who just completed our Pistol Course in MI:

"When I went through TSA Security at DTW (Detroit), TSA was swabbing each traveler's hands. Swabs were then run through an analyzer that is supposed to detect explosives residue. I passed! No residue was detected. I asked the TSA screener if their machine detected residue from recent firing of guns. He answered in the affirmative.

Happily, I had taken a shower prior to departing for the airport, and my shower seems to have rid me of all detectable residue."

Comment: Participants at firearms-training events, who have to catch planes quickly after they leave the range, may run into this dilemma.

Only rarely do I encounter this screening method at most airports, but it is still good advice to shower and change cloths before reporting to TSA screening!

/John

Ammunition Update

26 Aug 09

Ammunition availability:

Physically checking Cabela's store in Omaha, NE on Monday revealed plenty of 223 (both hardball and high-performance), as well as modist quantities of high-performance 9mm and 40S&W, including Cor-Bon DPX.

The only brand of 380Auto on display was high-performance (jacketed/lead HP) ammunition from a Montana-based start-up company called Buffalo Bore. They are relatively new, and I don't know much about them.

On Tuesday, I stopped in Cabela's store in Sidney, NE. There, I found several hundred rounds of 380Auto DPX on display, at $28.00/box (of 20), or $1.40/round. This is the round I currently carry, and recommend, in my Kahr P380.

Again, plenty of 223, 9mm, and 40S&W.

I conclude the only calibers that are currently still in short supply are 380Auto and 410 Buckshot. The later I found at neither store!

Several progressive police departments in IL have now adopted Cor-Bon DPX exclusively, for both pistols and 223 and 308 rifles. Nothing matches it, but it is expensive, owing to the phenomenal Barnes bullets. Most all competent instructors I know (including me) routinely carry it in their personal pistols and rifles.

/John