single shot

The Lifecard – Last Gun You’ll leave behind?

Practicality and cool factor are often strange bedfellows when it comes to the firearms industry. There is cool, and there is practical, but is one often both? The Lifecard is certainly attempting to make you think so. The gun is more like something you’d see in a James Bond movie than an actual gun store. That’s what draws your eye, and that’s fine, but does it work and is it practical? That is what we aim to answer today.

What’s a LifeCard?

The Lifecard gains its name from its interesting design. It folds into the shape of a credit card. Albeit it’s a bit thicker. The Lifecard then folds into a more traditional gun when the user wants to fire it. Folding it is as simple as pulling a single toggle that releases a locking device. This allows you to fold and unfold the ‘pistol’ grip of the gun. You can do it with one hand even.

Loading the gun functions almost the same way. Pull a toggle and pull the barrel upwards. Place the 22 LR round in the barrel, close it, cock it and you are ready to rock and roll. To cock the gun you pull a striker rearward until it locks into position. It’s a simple system that functions well.

Carrying It

I will admit this is the easiest gun I’ve ever carried. I could legitimately forget about it. In its folded configuration the gun’s trigger is completely covered and the gun cannot fold cocked. It’s an insanely safe system for pocket carry or deep carry in general. It’s smaller than my cell phone when folded, and fits just about anywhere I needed to carry it.

Trailblazer sells the gun as an easy to carry gun, and it is. However, I see less as a convenience carry gun and more of a deep concealment gun. When compared to guns like the Ruger LCP it really isn’t that much smaller. The advantage it offers is the fact it doesn’t look like a gun. It doesn’t leave the traditional outline of a gun and is extremely hard to detect.

It’s lightweight too and could be carried in the pocket of a t-shirt and be invisible. That is where I see the practicality of this gun. It’s ability to be incredibly concealed. Even carried in the hand in plain sight most people wouldn’t recognize it as a gun. It’s a limited use weapon, but it does have a use. Let’s call it discretionary carry or hostile environment carry.

Yes…it is only 1 round of 22 LR, but that’s better than a pointy stick, right? Its like a modern Liberator.

On The Range

Regardless of your feelings on the gun it is still a gun and deserves some range time. Let’s talk function as a firearm, and not as a concept. From the outset, the gun’s grip looks uncomfortable, but some thought went into it. It’s rounded just right for comfort and fills the hand well. The gun’s trigger is surprisingly nice. It’s a short single action design that breaks cleanly.

The gun doesn’t have any real sights, just a trench running over the top. This makes it a pure point shooting gun. Even out to 15 yards you can hit a man-sized target with little difficulty. At first, I absolutely sucked with this gun, but at 7 yards I produced a respectable group. The biggest problem regarding accuracy is the striker is pretty big and heavy. You can feel it slam forward and it can toss your shot slightly. A little Kentucky windage is all it takes to correct it.

It’s a fun gun to shoot, and its weirdness makes it draw some interesting attention at the range. It even has a little bit of recoil, something I don’t associate with a rimfire handgun.

Reaction Drills

I tried a few different scenarios where I ‘drew’ the gun, unfolded it and fired a shot as quick as I good. This isn’t something you can do if a bad guy is rushing you. In that situation, I’d probably go hand to hand. However, if something popped off and you could take cover prior to engaging you could draw and get the gun in action in a few seconds.

The gun’s folding/unfolding mechanism are easy to engage and intuitive. The tabs are small, but the texturing helps engage the toggles in a hurry. The cocking mechanism is large and easy to grip and rip.

In terms of reliability its hard to screw this gun up. There is no slide to cycle, no cylinder to time, its just a straight striker fired gun. The only way it could fail is if you got light primer strikes, and with the mighty striker on this thing that’s not happening.

Reliability is going to be more determined by your ammunition choice. With Remington Gold Bullet I had about a 10% failure to fire rate. With Federal Automatch hardly any. I had zero failures with CCI Mini Mags.

Moans and Complaints

In terms of function and purpose, the Lifecard has one. It wouldn’t be my choice for a main defensive firearm, but it feels a small niche that no other gun does. I only have one complaint. There is a small compartment designed to let you carry extra ammo. That’s great, but you sound like you are carrying a pocketful of change. The rounds shift and move and create a jingling sound. Not exactly stealthy.

This compartment is great for storing a few Skittles or breath mints though, or maybe even a small handcuff key. You live your life the way you want.

The Lifecard is an oddly fun gun. It’s functional, fills a role for non-permissive carry, and it’s uniqueness alone made me a customer. Is it for everyone? Probably not. Is it for you is the real question.

H&R Tracker 2 Survival Shotgun Setup

If I had to choose my ultimate survival shotgun, the H&R Tracker 2 Slug Gun would be it. Why? It has a 24″ rifled barrel and adjustable iron sights. Most smoothbore shotguns only come with a beaded front sight. Both the adjustable sights and the rifled barrel give a shooter the ability to accurately engage targets beyond 100 yards, as long as they do their part. With a 12-gauge sabot or rifled slug, you can drop anything in North America that walks.

The single-shot shotgun is one of the easiest weapons to maintain in the field, and it’s remarkably durable given that it has very few moving parts. Yes, follow-up shots will be slower, but with practice, they can still be done pretty fast. This is a very good modern-day equivalent to what Roger’s Rangers would have carried. If they were that successful at unconventional warfare with a single-shot muzzleloader, then there is no reason we cannot be as effective with a single-shot shotgun.

The versatility of this gun is what makes it so amazing. Once I settled on the shotgun I wanted to use, I made the following modifications to it:

I sanded down the wood stock and prepped it to be painted. I kept the original wood stock instead of getting a composite stock because this bad boy tends to have a decent amount of recoil. The wood stock was heavier, which helps dampen recoil, and it provided a nicer recoil pad.
I replaced the wood forend with a Choate Store-Arm Forend. This is a reinforced polymer forend that also gives me the ability to break down the gun quickly.
I painted the entire gun using Rust-Oleum camouflage colors to break up the gun’s profile and help it blend into the woodland environment better.
I wrapped the end of the barrel with jute twine. By doing this, the jute twine will, over time, start to fray—adding additional concealment to the gun. This also gives me something to use as a fire starter if I needed it in a survival situation, cordage to use if I needed to tie something up or replace a broken boot lace, or to tie a splint with when applying first aid. Its uses are only limited by your imagination.
Finally, I added a BLACKHAWK Mountain Rifle Sling.

Now here is where things start getting really cool if you’re using a single-shot 12 gauge. There is a company—Short Lane Arms—that manufactures sub-caliber inserts for single-shot shotguns. I own three of them: 9mm, .45 Long Colt, and a 209 shotgun primer adapter. These 8” adapters are rifled to increase accuracy. Now, I can pair my sidearm with the shotgun. Since I carry a Glock 17, I can now use the same 9mm ammunition I carry with my Glock for use in my shotgun!

For all intents and purposes, I can now shoot four different types of ammunition out of my survival shotgun. If you walk into most stores, the shelves of ammunition are typically pretty empty. Most of what’s left is 12 gauge ammunition, which is a bonus if you’re using a shotgun as your survival weapon.

Let’s take it a step further from the standard shotgun ammunition, rimfire ammunition, and centerfire ammunition. Short Lane Arms also makes a 209 shotgun primer adapter for the single-shot 12 gauge. With that, you can turn your shotgun into a muzzleloader! By using the 209 adapter, all I need is a box of 209 primers, some muzzleloading propellant, and a container of BB’s. If you don’t have any cotton material for patching, you could cut up an old cotton t-shirt or use wax paper. I stick to 100 grain measurements: 100 grains of propellant and 100 grains of steel BB’s. I use the same measuring device for both powder and shot.

With this shotgun, the sub-caliber inserts, and my Glock 17, I feel pretty confident that if it ever came down to a survival situation, whether in a wilderness setting, collapse of society, or some type of power-grid failure, I can hold my own. Remember, you’re going to want a platform that is simple and adaptable when it comes to any of these scenarios. This package offers not only simplicity, but also reliability and adaptability.

Remember: The world is a dangerous place; be prepared, and stack the odds in your favor!

-Scott

Barrel Break 12 Gauge Black Powder Setup

We have an article written a few months back where we covered the survival shotgun. In that article we highlighted the items needed to use a single shot 12 gauge shotgun as a black powder rifle. That setup was based off of what Dave Canterbury of Self Reliance Outfitters uses. This concept makes your shotgun that much more versatile in a long term survival scenario. Being able to convert your shotgun into a black powder rifle will come in handy when you run out of 12 gauge shells, granted you need to have the black powder. The Pyrodex RS powder is easy to get from either your local outdoor store or online. Having a few of these containers on hand could pay off some day, plus it’s a fun skill to practice if you own a barrel break shotgun.

Check out the following videos as Dave Canterbury discusses both the black powder shotgun and the mindset of a 21st century Longhunter.

(featured image courtesy of wildernessoutfitters YouTube channel)