You Can be an Expert Marksman for $40

If you’re serious about protecting your house from Obama Depression Zombies, as I am, get yourself a laser immediately.

No, not the big kind that vaporizes zombies with a satisfying “pop.” The kind you use to aim your gun.

Today George Moneo of Babalublog went with me, and I took the Vz 58 and its re-fastened bright green laser with us, along with other pleasing implements of destruction. It was amazing. I had low expectations because a lot of “experts” criticize lasers as gimmicks, but the shooting speaks for itself. You simply cannot miss unless you are a complete idiot. And if you are a complete idiot, you can’t hit anything without a laser, either, so it won’t hurt.

I’m not kidding. We shot at 50 feet because the laser is hard to see on the paper at 75 (bright sunshine, scattered clouds). George is not what you would call an experienced rifle shooter. For all I know this was his first time. He popped round after round into the same small area, over and over. Most of the shots went into a region the size of a golf ball. I realize big-time rifle shooters will not be impressed, and you might feel like pointing out that it’s not news when someone shoots that well at this distance. But before you make a fool of yourself, let me point something out. At fifty feet, in bright sunshine, it’s hard to see the dot well enough to keep it in an area smaller than a golf ball. It wasn’t possible to do much better. If we had been shooting at dusk, he would have put a lot of these shots literally in the same hole. In a dark house a burglar would be dead meat. No chance of survival.

I should have photographed the target. It was wonderful.

You can claim iron sights are more reliable in a gunfight, but you would be crazy. I watched George shoot, and at fifty feet, the bullet goes exactly where the dot was when the trigger was pulled. It’s a hell of a lot easier and faster to put a dot on someone’s chest than it is to squint through a peep sight. You can actually raise your head and come up completely off the sights, which gives you the ability to look around without interference. And you don’t have to sweat about trigger pull and sight picture or any of that other challenging BS. Jerk the trigger all you want. You’re still going to hit the burglar. My guess is that your biggest problems will be muzzle flash and target reacquisition, and the Vz 58 doesn’t jump much.

Man, it was a thing of beauty. I can’t recommend it highly enough. The lasered Vz 58 appears to be a phenomenal home defense gun. It has so little recoil you can fire it folded, which makes it fast and convenient. It’s small and light. It’s super reliable. It holds 30 rounds of ammunition, and you can get deadly, accurate Wolf hollowpoints for five bucks a box. All it needs is a strobe flashlight, and I have one on the way.

I guess there’s a reason why the Czechs chose this gun for combat.

I don’t know why people knock Wolf ammunition. I have always found it accurate and completely reliable. I can’t say that about PMC or some other American brands I’ve used.

One thing I love about using a rifle is that I don’t have to make the study of ammunition my life’s work in order to get the desired result. Pistols–even the much-worshiped .45 ACP–are inherently flawed; the bullets are slow, and some are also small. You have to put in a lot of effort finding a brand of ammunition that gives you half a chance of putting a criminal down with a center-mass shot. Rifles and shotguns are another story. Every brand of 12 gauge buckshot is a killer, and so is any 7.62x39mm hollowpoint. On top of that, the ease of aiming a long gun makes you much more likely to place shots correctly.

The shotgun has the advantage of better stopping power, and I’m pretty sure it’s less likely to pass through exterior walls. But the recoil and flash are a lot worse, and you can’t get a 30-round magazine. If such a thing exists, it’s a toy you can’t trust with your life. The Saiga nuts all recommend 8-round jobs. A Vz magazine gives you 30 projectiles, and a Saiga magazine gives you 72, but shotgun pellets stay very close together at self-defense distances, so the larger number of pellets doesn’t buy you a better chance of placing a shot well.

I’d still like to try an M1 carbine with the same laser on it. I think it would be very good for home defense. But the M1 round isn’t as nasty as the 7.62×39, which goes 25% faster. The M1 is about like a .357 Magnum. Very effective, but not AK-effective. The M1 might be a little easier to shoot, and that would be a slight advantage.

On the whole, I think the Vz would probably come out way ahead, since one hit to the torso can turn a criminal into a bag of warm meat sauce.

Unfortunately, the laser came loose AGAIN. The screws that attach the mount to the gun are okay, but the screws that tighten the mount around the laser refuse to hold, even with blue Loc-tite. I guess red Loc-tite is in order.

I give the laser a big thumbs-up. If I hear something go bump in the night, and the Vz or the laserized Saiga is ready to go, I won’t even think about picking up a pistol.

Try a lasered rifle before you knock lasers. I was surprised, and you may be, too.