Houtaku

One common criticism of the libertarian ethos is that if we reduce government control over society, big business will have unchecked power over our lives, so that we will merely be trading one type of control for another.

But concern with corporate power is not inconsistent with libertarianism, as Clark illustrated in his post on left-libertarianism. The difference between libertarians and traditional conservatives might be this: conservatives believe that government interference impedes business and by extension individuals, while some libertarians believe that government also empowers and excuses abuse of individuals by favored business partners.

Take First National Bank of Wellston, Ohio and its encounter with Katie Barnett.

If Katie Barnett had broken into somebody's house and stolen all their possessions and changed their locks, she would likely be arrested and charged with a crime. She would be required to pay the homeowner for the possessions she stole, at a minimum, and the courts would have rather little patience for her protests that their stuff wasn't worth as much as they said. (My experience as a criminal defense attorney is that judges look very unfavorably on the "the property I stole/defrauded/destroyed is overvalued and I shouldn't have to pay that much; let them replace it with something cheaper" argument.)

But Katie Barnett didn't burglarize a house; she's an honest person. First National Bank of Wellston burglarized Katie Barnett's house through its own incompetence or the incompetence of its agents. First National Bank was trying to repossess a foreclosed house to sell it, and because its agents (1) decided to find the house by GPS, and (2) didn't know how to use a GPS, they invaded Katie's house, changed the locks, and disposed of her possessions. Katie's house wasn't being foreclosed upon; she's not a customer of that bank.

Katie Barnett has asked First National Bank of Wellston to pay her for the possessions it sole and disposed of. First National Bank of Wellston, through its CEO Anthony S. Thorne, claims that it isn't paying because Katie's reimbursement list doesn't match the records that its employees kept of what they took and disposed of. Those would be the same employees who tried to find a house using GPS, failed, burglarized the wrong house, and disposed of Katie's possessions, in case you were wondering. Mr. Thorne and First National Bank nonetheless regards them as very reliable record-keepers.

Mr. Thorne is also demanding receipts for Katie's things, and has told her the bank "isn't paying retail." Katie, like many people, doesn't keep receipts for everything, not anticipating that a bank will burglarize her house. Moreover, to the extent she does keep receipts, she keeps them in her house, because once again, she fails to anticipate that a bank will break into the house, take her receipts, throw them away, and then demand that she produce them. Katie also failed to anticipate that someone could burglarize your house and, when called upon to pay you so you can replace your things, sneer that replacements from a second-hand store are good enough for you.

The McArthur, Ohio police refuse to get involved. Would they get involved if Katie burglarized a house? Yes they would. Would they get involved if Katie ran off with someone's stuff and refused to repay? Yes they would. Will they get involved when a bank — a reliable crony of government — burglarizes a house and drags its feet on repaying the victim? No they will not. The government exercises its police power to protect banks — say, by prosecuting someone who draws anti-bank slogans in kids' chalk on the sidewalk — but generally is extremely to exercise its police power to impose consequences on banks, which have money. That is a result of the natural relationship between government power and private-crony power.

The bank doesn't act based on what's right. And the police? Don't be ridiculous. But they might respond to public pressure. You can reach the local police here and the bank here. Be civilized, even if they — by any rational definition of that term — are not. You might also consider spreading upon the internet the names of the First National Bank of Wellston and its CEO Anthony S. Thorne, so that people can make an informed decision about whether to treat with them.

We have choices about how to react to this sort of thing. Some people say that the answer is more regulation and more laws permitting recourse to the courts, so that banks might be deterred and that people like Katie Barnett might secure legal redress. Other people view that response as paradoxical: by the nature of power — any increase in government authority will tend to make things like this more likely, not less likely, because government actors will always have rich cronies.

Want To Burglarize A House With Impunity, Then Nickle-And-Dime The Restitution? It Helps To Be A Bank. © 2007-2013 by the authors of Popehat. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. Using this feed on any other site is a copyright violation. No scraping.

When I was a child, after the sun went down on the fourth day of the month of July, the night sky around me was filled with the rattle of firecrackers and the whoooooshCRACK! of bottle rockets, and the horizon around me sparkled and blossomed with the sights and sounds of people turning money into colorful noise to celebrate the day, much like it will tonight.

What made it all so much more Independence Day back then was that all of those people had had to drive to neighboring states to buy those fireworks, and each skyrocket was a glorious, glimmering, 'splodey middle finger to the nannies and busybodies who live to tell other people what to do.

For at least one night a year, Mr. & Mrs. Buttoned-Down suburbanite were willing to get their wookie on and stand out in front of their house and break the law right in front of God and everybody; to write "Come And Get Me, Copper!" in flaming letters across the sky. It was the most glorious thing I've ever seen.

Happy You're Not The Boss Of Me Day, everybody!
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Feel better and maintain your sanity by seeding bad data and overwhelming their algorithms.

Work to add branches to your contact/communication tree. If you only communicate with 20 people in your everyday life, the web of your influence is pretty easy to map.

More connections and pattern breaking makes it harder to use automated heuristics and algorithms to classify you by your connections and activities. Each connection you make connects you with that connection's connections. This compounds exponentially until you are Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the entire nation.

Pretend to be a secret agent, whether you are one or not.
Do it for fun and piece of mind, even if you're not hiding anything.

The Rendezvous
Level: Secret Squirrel
Once a week, for no reason, drive with purpose to some random shop you've never been to before, put on a specific colored hat or wear a specific flower in your breast pocket, purchase a single cheap item, tip a strangely specific amount, say random things to random patrons "John has a long mustache 163893" and go home like nothing happened.
BONUS POINTS: "Lose" a personal item that has a "Please call X if lost" message on it. Make a stronger connection with a random person.
DANGER POINTS: Ask someone if they have the time, when they answer, ask them the same question, louder and slower. No matter how they respond, look freaked out, fast walk/run outside, pull out a notebook you brought with you, set it on fire, and let it burn into a trashcan, then leave immediately.

The Drop Box
Level: Edgy
Draft messages about things you've never done and people you've never met, than email them through "anonymous" re-mailers to random recipients, post them to random forums, or dump them in random IRC channels with lots of idlers.
BONUS POINTS: Drive across town, get on public wifi, respond to yourself with similar nonsense.
DANGER POINTS: When people ask what you're doing tell them "Allah will reveal all soon enough" or similar.

The Man on the Street
Level: Marginal
Drive to a popular intersection or onramp, and write a long string of numbers on the curb or a visible wall in chalk (CHALK!). Hundreds of people could see it per day.
BONUS POINTS: Put your message on one of those signs with handles on it, and sign-twirl it to get more attention
DANGER POINTS: Become a nuisance and get the cops called on you so your name and activities appears on the police blotter.

The #Terrorist
Level: Irking
Create a twitter account, and just start tweeting coded messages.
BONUS POINTS: Drive across town, get on an anonymous wifi, create a new twitter account and follow your first account.
DANGER POINTS: "Follow" prominent Muslim figures and make a provocative name or include provocative hashtags. Death2America:"The time has come! 88135-38611-02395-43813-34835 #Jihad #AllahuAckbar #thingsiwishicouldtellmyeightteenyearoldselfeventhoughimlikethirtynowlolkomgbbq"

The Public Handoff
Level: Red flag
Buy tickets to a cheap sporting event, attend, walk around before it starts, buy a soda with your credit card, then leave early and buy something with your credit card across town as proof. Let Big Brother figure out who or if you talked to anyone there.
BONUS POINTS: Go home, wait for game to end, google search the game score, post on facebook how you couldn't believe X happened at the game.
DANGER POINTS: Make eye contact with security, get scared, run.

The Meeting
Level: On a List
Out of the blue, rent a dirt cheap motel room across town, read a book in it, then check out early. A warm body either had to watch your door while you did, or you've just added hundreds of possible connections when this data is reviewed later.
BONUS POINTS: Order four medium pizzas (different toppings) on your credit card, delivered to the room.
DANGER POINTS: Demand the pizzas be halal, make a big deal about this. Make them put it on the receipt.

The Home Grown
Level: Flagged for additional screening
Suddenly develop an intense interest in esoterica, stay up 3am doing google searches for the best industrial solvent to remove high temperature glues, or just wikiwander on wikipedia for hours, pausing for 15-30 minutes between clicks (or just open a ton of new tabs, http is connectionless, and usually there's no way to tell you're actually reading a page now or later).
BONUS POINTS: Google search "how to erase internet history" afterwards.
DANGER POINTS: Look up various explosive chemicals and how to make them using household products. Try not to have any of these products in your house, if you can. Less to explain to the raiding party.

The Pick Up
Level: Don't taze me bro!
Inexplicably go to a bar near your local airport, buy a soda with your credit card, wait one hour, then leave. Wonder what flights you might now be connected to.
BONUS POINTS: Drive to airport pickup, pull over, and yell a name at people waiting for pickups.
DANGER POINTS: Pick up a stranger, give them a ride.

The Long Drive
Level: Plead the fifth
Fill your car up with gas (the more the better), one or two days later, siphon out much of the gas out as you can (into safe containers, or burn/dispose of it if you don't care). Then drive your car to the same station on fumes, and fill it up again. Where the hell did you go to burn up all that gas? Why is there no record of you deviating from your normal pattern?
BONUS POINTS: Return to gas station a day after a fill up, and fill up someone else's car on your credit card.
DANGER POINTS: Actually drive, in the middle of the night, as far as you can toward another state until you get to half a tank, then buy something with your credit card, and drive home.

The House Guest
Level: Rendition SCHMENDITION
A spike in water or electricity usage can indicate one or more people are staying at your house, while a reduction can indicate you are not staying at your house. Let your rain barrels fill up, and use that water to fill the tanks of your toilets manually. Daily monitoring of water usage is pretty unlikely, unless you have a Smart Meter, so doing this off and on, over a month is easy and will drop your water usage noticeably for that period. If you DO have a Smart Meter then do it, 100% for one or two full days, with minimal electricity usage, and let 'em wonder. Or just do the opposite, and run every electronic device in your house for a few hours, flush your toilet twice and take extra long showers. Electricity and water is generally pretty cheap. They'll think you're part of the underground railroad.
BONUS POINTS: Do one of those one hour trips to the airport bar, then follow it up with excessive use of utilities.
DANGER POINTS: Post Craigslist ad opening your home to travelers, have them call a pay-as-you-go cell phone bought with cash. Let random strangers stay at your house for a day or two.

One of the more common refrains from people who don’t share my political and socioeconomic views is that because I don’t believe in stealing money from the haves and simply giving it to the have-nots, that somehow I don’t care about them.

In one way, that’s accurate. I don’t care about anyone outside of my monkeysphere and neither do you. Most people use “I care about [nebulous concept]” more as a “I am so holier-than-thou it f***ing hurts” than a statement of actual caring, so I try to avoid it. Honestly, unless I know the person directly or their story hits close to home, I don’t generally care about individuals’ plights because they don’t directly affect me, and that is totally and completely natural. See “monkeysphere” above.

On the other hand, my concern for the downtrodden is a form of self-protection. I’ve been there. I’ve had to split a single pack of Ramen noodles so I had both lunch AND dinner. I was too proud to ask for help because I realized my situation was of my own doing (poor financial management) and that there were others who were truly needy. However, even I, Mr. I don’t need a handout, easily found support from charities, family, church, etc. I didn’t even have to look and it was there.

Just because I don’t think the government can appropriately mete charity doesn’t mean I don’t believe charity should be done. One would think this is a self evident thing, but it’s not. But I’ve seen the corruption, the waste, and fraud in government programs  and I’ve worked with private charities and see that they are much better stewards of the funding they receive to realize that you do not help the poor and downtrodden with government. In fact, you tend to do the exact opposite as you create entire generations of dependent people who then in turn spawn children who know no other way of life.

Demanding the tax man put his gun against my head to force me to pay into what you think is moral and correct is not charity. Doesn’t matter if you think orphans living on the street deserve food and that anyone who would disagree must be a monster, your sense of right and wrong may seem self evident but to others it might not be or, in many cases, may not be the same level of priority. Feeding the poor may be lower on the scale of charity for someone than providing medical care to children, or education, or many other things.

I’ve also found out that most of the people I know of as being ‘left of center’ tend to be the least charitable. When asked, it’s because they believe the gov’t is where charity lies. This is laziness, not compassion. These people walk into a voting booth every few years, tick off a few check boxes and think to themselves “I am a good person. I voted for the person who promised to do all the work I refuse to do.”

My belief is that you better serve the poor by granting them opportunities rather than handouts. Yes, this means those who do not seek to put in the effort to better their lives may in fact suffer, but that is their choice. Those who cannot better themselves due to actual physical or emotional problems can easily find charity that will help them, and those charities would have to turn down donations if the gov’t would stop stealing from people in the form of taxes.

History has shown time and time again that handouts hurt more than they help. The cliché of giving a man a fish vs. teaching him to fish is perfectly valid. Society benefits more by holding Fishing Clinics versus handing out all you can eat tilapia. Expecting people to work for their sustenance is not cruel or heartless, teaching them a life of dependency is.

Another thing that seems to be missed here is that in the US, most of our ‘poor’ are fat, have cable TV and are forced to drive a 10 year old BMW with the shitty rims that don’t spin very well. Our concept of ‘poverty’ is pretty perverted compared to the rest of the world, and the primary reason is because most people have never seen real poverty, which happens in places where there is no opportunity.

Now, think about this – Have you ever seen a clean common area? Think about where you work, or public places. Common areas tend to get filthy because few people concern themselves with what they perceive to be someone else’s issue. Using the government to help the needy is the same as treating them like a common area, and the results are similar.

I care about creating a society where everyone has the opportunity to better themselves. This means that yes, some people are going to suffer and get swept aside, but that happens anyway and worse with the system we’ve put in place. I do not believe that any society can last that does not take care of those at the bottom, but I also believe that using the force of government isn’t a substitute for caring about your fellow man and in fact, lessens people’s desire to help.

Sometimes this may seem cruel and heatless, but in reality, I simply believe it to be a more effective way of dealing with the problem. So, if you’re going to argue with me about ‘helping the poor’, do so by pointing out the benefits of your system versus starting from the belief that I simple don’t care.

And now you know a little more about me.

...As seen from the Left.  Or part of it, anyway.  Interesting -- and maybe it's not an issue that will see division along the stereotypical lines.

I’m well past my limit with other people pointing guns at me. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve looked down the muzzle of a gun when I’m on the range trying to take a class or do some practice. I’m sick and bloody well tired of having my life and personal safety put in jeopardy because someone is carelessly handling a deadly weapon.

Invariably when I mention to someone that hey, maybe not point the gun at me or anyone else that you don’t intend to kill, a good 80+% of the time I get some sort of pushback. Lip from the person who just pointed a gun at me. Like somehow I’m the one with the ***CENSORED*** problem because I take offense to someone carelessly pointing a lethal weapon at me. On more than one occasion I’ve encountered a real supercalifragilisticexpialidouche-bag who has the unmitigated temerity to ask “What’s the big deal?” when I try a little good-natured reminder to, you know, not do dangerous stuff that might kill someone.

What’s the big deal? WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

Let me break this down: Guns are lethal weapons. Their raison d’être is to kill people. When you get stupid or careless with a lethal weapon in your hands, you have a high likelihood of killing or severely injuring someone. When someone points out that you’re doing something incredibly dangerous and irresponsible, you don’t have the right to get offended. I don’t care how they phrase their complaint, or how little consideration they have for your feelings in voicing it…if you’re pointing your weapon at someone then you deserve whatever comes your way as a result. Most of the time people who mention the safety issue are perfectly reasonable in how they do it, but even if they aren’t….even if they cuss you up one side of the tree and down the other, they aren’t the ones who endangered someone else’s life. You did. Thus you don’t get to be offended.

People frequently are offended, though. They seem to think that because they didn’t mean to point a gun at me or someone else that it’s somehow not a “big deal”. Bullets are stupid, folks. They leave the barrel at the same velocity and do the same damage on the other end whether you fire them by accident or on purpose. You don’t have to take my word for that. So yeah…it’s a big damn deal.

I don’t know why, but everybody likes to think they’re a special snowflake when it comes to firearms safety. That somehow “unsafe” works like the old Indian caste system or leprosy. As if there are “safe” people and “unsafe” people from birth and then they reject any suggestion that perhaps they’re doing stupid things because they’re a “safe” person. I was at a handgun class sometime ago where we did some low-light shooting. There were two relays in the class and the other relay was up on the line shooting while my relay was loading magazines for our turn. Out of the corner of my eye I saw three faintly glowing dots and it took a brief moment for my mind to process the significance of seeing three dots: Someone had their weapon out of the holster directly behind the first relay.

Now I was not the instructor or an assistant instructor for the course. So was it any of my business if someone was handling their pistol improperly?

You’re damn right it was my business. Go to just about any range and I guarantee among the range rules will include something to the effect of “Range safety is everyone’s responsibility” and “Anyone may call cease-fire at any time if they see an unsafe condition” written in them. These were prominently posted rules on the range we were using for the class.

I approached the individual and found that not only did he have his weapon out of the holster, but the muzzle was pointed directly at the spine of the person on the first relay a mere six or seven feet in front of him. I spoke up and told him that guns were to stay in the holster when we were not on the line actually shooting drills. He brushed me off with “It’s ok.” I persisted by informing him that no, it’s not ok because “Dude, you are pointing your Glock directly at my friend’s spine.” This seemed to ruffle his feathers sufficiently that he felt compelled to remind this obnoxious young whipper-snapper (namely me) that he was a Marine umpteen years ago. “Did they teach you to point deadly weapons at innocent people in the Corps?”

I’m sure he thought I was a jerk but, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, I wasn’t the one screwing around with my gun pointed directly at another human being. I consider putting somebody in a body bag or a wheelchair because one can’t follow basic firearms safety rules to be a heck of a lot farther into “jerk” territory than the guy trying to correct the problem before someone gets hurt.

In Pulp Fiction a character named “The Wolf” shows up briefly to help out Vince and Jules after Vince accidentally shoots a guy in the face in the back seat of the car. Mr. Wolf arrives on the scene and begins laying out what needs to be done to clean up the mess. Vince, the guy who made the mess by shooting poor Marvin in the face, objects to Mr. Wolf’s brusque tone. Mr. Wolf responds “If I’m curt with you, it’s because time is a factor.” Accidents with lethal weapons happen fast, folks. If there’s a gun in your hand we don’t have time to sit and chat at a leisurely pace about what you’re doing wrong. The danger is real and immediate. Corrective action needs to happen now. This instant. If I’m curt with you, it’s because time is a factor. Feelings aren’t the big problem in the moment where your gun is pointing at someone who doesn’t deserve to be maimed or killed.

I hear people talking often about “big boy” range rules, but I don’t often see them discussing the other half of that walnut: Big boy range rules go along with big boy accountability. That means if you screw up, you own it and you correct it. If you’re on a range with the big boys in Dam Neck and you muzzle somebody, do you know what’s likely to happen? You’re likely to get a high-decibel safety briefing at uncomfortably close distance. Get all defensive about it and you’ll likely be permanently banned from the range. Do they react that way because they’re a big bunch of meanies? Or, here’s a thought, maybe it’s because they’ve actually had teammates injured or killed because of range accidents and as a result have a very low tolerance for anyone who is doing things that might cause another one.

Yeah, I’m ranting. Fact remains that there’s a real issue here that deserves to have some attention. As ranges get busier and more people crowd on to them the chances of serious accidents go up. Just a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine was narrowly missed by a round of .45 hardball because some dude who insisted he’d been shooting for “years!” (as if that has any bearing on anything) couldn’t figure out how to work his 1911 well enough to avoid unintentionally launching a round right past said friend’s leg. On the plus side, he now knows why I keep a first aid kit handy when we’re on the range.

We need everybody (that means you) actively watching for safety problems and proactively trying to fix them before blood gets spilled. We also need to remain open to someone approaching us with a safety issue. Yes, I said “we”, as in you and me. I’m as human as the next guy and therefore just as capable of doing something stupid with a gun as any other human being on the planet. I have worked really hard to ingrain safe handling practices and I make a deliberate effort to keep my brain screwed to the end of the muzzle when there’s a gun in my hand or hanging around my neck…but I can still screw up. We all need to own the fact that we’re human enough to screw up with a gun in our hands and have sufficient humility to accept correction when it’s offered. At the same time we need to be assertive enough to actively get involved when there’s unsafe handling going on. Bad gun handling doesn’t get better on its own. Quite the opposite, I’m afraid.

Gun people often make the personal responsibility argument in public policy debates…well how about we as a community actually embrace a little bit of it when it comes to handling these deadly weapons on a range? This means thinking really hard about where our muzzle is pointed, where our trigger finger is, what our target is, what the backstop is, and what we are going to do should disaster take place. This means being perfectly willing to accept warnings from others that we’re violating safety rules.

Invariably someone will be offended. Tough. If they’re carelessly pointing deadly weapons at other human beings then they deserve to be offended. If they’re defensive about unsafe handling that endangers the lives of innocent people, then they deserve ridicule and derision. This ain’t about feelings, it’s about stopping unnecessary tragedy. Someone who refuses to go along with that program ought to be shunned because sooner or later they are going to kill someone.

Let’s stop reciting the major firearms safety rules and start actually applying them to how we handle firearms. There’s absolutely no room on the range for hurt feelings over safety issues. If you can’t hack it when someone points out that you’re doing something unsafe, stay home. You don’t need to be handling lethal weapons.

Shooting someone is a big deal. Pointing your gun at an innocent person isn’t OK. If I’ve seen you do something unsafe and mention it, no…you don’t know what you’re doing. Knock off the petulant whining and watch your muzzle. The objective here is having people leave the range with the same number of holes they had in them when they got there. Screwing this up means loss of life and limb. This is important, and we as a community should not suffer foolishness that endangers lives.

[/rant]

 

 

 

One cop who carries 145 rounds of ammo

As firearm and ammunition costs have skyrocketed recently and once-common items have become... uncommon, accomplishing anything related to shooting is now extremely difficult. This is especially true for something that was already not particularly cheap. Case in point: precision rifle shooting, or long-range rifle shooting.

Of course, "long range" is a relative term. If you rarely shoot your AR-15 past 25 yards, then hitting something at 300 might seem like a daunting obstacle. At the other end of the spectrum, guys shooting .375 CheyTac practically need satellite imagery to hit targets at the extreme end of their maximum effective range.

For the purposes of this article, I'll cover shooting out to 600 yards, which is enough of a challenge to keep seasoned shooters on their toes without being too difficult for a new shooter to consider. As I occasionally shoot at informal 600 yard shooting matches near my home, this is a topic with which I am somewhat familiar. You might not want to enter matches any time soon, but you might still be interested in "going the distance." What follows are a few things I've learned along the way which might be helpful to those looking to start shooting farther than they're used to.

1) You Might Have What You Need Already

While most matches are won with accurate rifles, they are more importantly won by skilled shooters.

Almost any rifle capable of propelling a bullet past supersonic speeds at your desired range is suitable for entry level practice or matches. At 600 yards, that means your dad's old hunting rifle or even that M4 Carbine clone you paid too much for will do the job.

If you were looking to use long range shooting as an excuse to buy a cool new rifle, hey, don't let me stop you. But if you take that money and invest it in range time, ammunition, and so on, it's my personal opinion that you'll be far better off - and you'll have more experience with which to make purchasing decisions for the future.

2) Be Flexible

You might not have anything really suitable for long-range shooting right now. That's okay. You have a lot of options! Of course, each one of these options has its proponents and detractors. Everyone loves to argue in favor of their pet rifle or cartridge.

As I said above, if the projectile fired by the rifle you're looking at remains supersonic well past the distance at which you want to shoot, it's at least capable of getting you started. Some are better than others, obviously, and it's best to choose something that's intended for maintaining accuracy and velocity at extreme ranges. For long range shooting, strongly consider getting a rifle with a fast rate of twist for a given caliber. That will enable you to use the largest range of projectiles. If you're not sure what that means, see point 4.

However, some very suitable candidates may not be immediately obvious. Conversely, the most obvious choices may not be suitable for you - for example, due to ammunition availability issues.

 I like my .260 Rem and 6.5 Creedmoor rifles because they're eminently suited to the task, but it's sure a lot easier to find ammo for my .30-06. When I'm really serious about a match, I'll take the time and spend the money to prepare accordingly. But if I'm just looking to maintain proficiency and/or have fun, I won't hesitate to use surplus or bulk-grade ammunition in less-than-ideal rifles.

Others might be overkill. You could use a .338 Lapua to snipe midgets on other continents, but many matches prohibit such beasts for reasons of muzzle blast and additional damage to targets - not to mention that you won't be shooting nearly as much at $4 a round.

Some have a lot of data or good factory loads, but aren't ideal from a ballistic sense. One of the most popular cartridges for 600 yard shooting is .308, and there are plenty of known good .308 handload "recipes," as well as a number of super-accurate factory ammunition SKUs. But .308 drops a lot more than some of the 6.5s or the more powerful .30 cartridges like .300 Win Mag, and it's one of the first cartridges to sell out when there's a whiff of panic in the air.

What I'm getting at is that each and every one of these cartridges is capable of "getting it done." Try to avoid making a hard decision to include or exclude certain rifles/cartridges until you look at what's available and affordable for you.

On that note, keep your mind open when it comes to rifles, too. I've had excellent results with rifles from a variety of manufacturers, including Remington, Savage, Tikka, and Weatherby. And some of my most accurate out-of-the-box rifles have been very inexpensive, such as the Tikka T3s, Weatherby Vanguards, and Savage Trophy Hunters.

Another thing to consider is that some people might be looking to unload good bolt action rifles as they switch to semi autos for long range shooting or as they try to buy ARs before they think they'll be banned. So keep an eye out for good used rifles.

3) If You Spend Too Much Money On Anything, Make It Ammunition

There are a number of ways to approach the purchase of ammunition for long range shooting. The competition-oriented stuff will shoot flatter, farther, and with less wind drift than Walmart-grade soft point hunting ammo or 5.56mm M855, but a rifle and ammo combination mechanically capable of maintaining 3 MOA is more than enough to stay entirely on the black, or center of the target, if you do your part.

Of course, if you can get your hands on match ammunition for your particular firearm, you would be well-advised to do so. A quality rifle will shoot much more consistently with good ammunition than it will with mass-produced bulk ammunition. Examples of what I use when I shoot factory ammo include Federal Gold Medal Match and Hornady Match, as well as HSM ammunition loaded with Berger bullets.

However, if you pay too much for match ammo, you won't shoot as much - so you won't be able to maintain proficiency. Chances are that a thrown shot on your part will drop your score more than a slightly higher variation in muzzle velocity.

To that end, buy a lot of ammo when it's available at a price you can afford. I've made a lot of purchases I regret - none of them involve ammunition, with the exception of poor-quality surplus ammo from third-world countries that ended up being unsafe to shoot.

Of course, this article would not be complete without a mention of reloading/handloading. I wholeheartedly recommend getting in to handloading, but right now, components are in extremely short supply. That's not to say that you shouldn't piece together what you can to get started, but unlike years past, it's unlikely that you'll be able to start handloading in a short period of time. In the meantime, make sure you save all of your factory brass.

 4) Study Ballistics

Knowledge of a topic will help you make the right purchasing decisions. And since a lot of long range shooting involves a bullet flying through the air, you should learn about how bullets fly through the air.

There have been more recent books on the topic, but one of my favorites is The Bullet's Flight From Powder To Target, which covers a lot of information about internal and external ballistics. The author conducted a lot of studies and experiments and then wrote a book about them. Although it was published over a century ago, physics hasn't changed much since then.

Another great (and free!) resource is Fr. Frog's page on external ballistics. Once you've learned a bit about the topic, you can use the JBM ballistic calculator to estimate the trajectory and wind drift of your chosen cartridge, provided you know things such as ballistic coefficient and muzzle velocity.

5) Shoot .22LR, But Do So Wisely

The most effective way to shoot smaller groups is to become more proficient at rifle shooting. If you have no formal or quality informal marksmanship training to use as a basis for skills development, see if there's an Appleseed shoot in your area. Outside of the US or in areas where those shoots may not be frequent, try to find a range where precision rifle shoots are held and see if the range officers or competitors know someone willing to observe your shooting and offer tips for improvement.

A common method for new or old shooters to improve skills involves the use of .22LR. Although it's hard to find at the moment, and I wouldn't recommend paying exorbitant prices for it, this is the method I use when I can't or don't want to shoot centerfire. That said, I don't blast through as much .22 as I can whenever I feel like it. My most effective shooting trips generally involve firing 50 to 100 rounds in a deliberate manner. Once round counts start to reach into the hundreds, I feel that I reach a point of diminishing returns.

If you've been thinking about getting in to long range shooting, don't let current prices scare you. Give some thought to exactly what you want to accomplish, research the topic, and then go have fun.