This week we take a deeper look at the Executive Grade Taurus 856 and compare to some of Michael’s favorite wheelguns, plus some slick leather to carry them in. In our Your Best Defense segment, what if you’re caught in an active shooter incident?
Triggered, previously SGO and Down Range TV, covers in depth topics and products related to shooting sports and personal defense. Host Michael Bane covers new products from the firearms industry like no other.
Featured in this episode:
Taurus USA Executive Grade 856 Defender
Michael,
Excellent show this week. The first handgun I fired was during a week at the Michigan State Police Academy, during the summer of 1977, before the start of my senior year of high school. Kind of an internship for teens with an interest in law enforcement careers.
We shot the standard for that time revolvers, I think a S&W Model 10, but I am not certain. But they were quite plain, but very solid guns.
The training was fantastic, covering not only firearms safety and shooting, but first aid, finger printing, traffic stops, disarming techniques, etc. They also did a lot, I mean a lot, of water rescue training. It seems that in Michigan, you are never more than 6 miles away from a body of water, be it a lake, pond, river, creek or stream. And they place a huge emphasis on water safety and water rescue for the State Troopers.
One thing that they taught us that I will never forget, is just how buoyant the spare tire in your trunk is. They brought a tire from a cruiser into the Olympic sized swimming pool, and tossed it in. Then had a bunch of us jump in and try and sink it. We had over a dozen kids aged 16-17, with one or both hands on that spare tire, trying to sink it. We could not even keep it halfway submerged. It is a good thing to keep in your bag of tricks, if ever in need of help for a drowning victim, that a spare tire just might save their life. I think of this, because this summer has been particularly deadly here on the East coast of Lake Michigan. And it is not just the small child, wandering away from a parent for a moment. It is also the 40 year old man trying to save an 18 year old, caught in a riptide, when the waves are only 4-5 feet. Or yesterday when the 22 year old, who died in that same current, while a number of people tried to save him, but could not. That young man was due to enter us last year of college, from the state of Ohio. Just so many tragic drownings, when the warning flags are out. They have been closing the beaches lately, when the water is too rough. They never had to do that before, I think people stopped using common sense.
I didn’t mean to be a downer, but it is important that people pay attention to all the possible dangers around them, and use some common sense.