Kim du Toit – Page 265 – Splendid Isolation

A Lot Less Beauty Remains

January 17, 2023 Kim du Toit Bad News

Damn it all… I see that La Lollo has passed away, age 95.

The title of this post says it all.

R.I.P. Gina, cara mia.

Random Thought

January 16, 2023 Kim du Toit Righteous Shootings, The Gun Thing

…about that guy in Houston who turned Replica Robber into Swiss cheese: from the sound of the gunshots and the zero recoil, I’m thinking a small-caliber chambering — 9mm Luger at best, more likely a.380 ACP or even .32 ACP.

Which means he had to empty his mag to get the thing done (for the moment, we’ll ignore the coup-de-grâce shot right at the end).

And here’s something we all need to acknowledge: when shooting a handgun in such a situation, bullet size matters. Even velocity is not as important, because as all the smart kids know, the difference in velocity between (say) a .38 Special and .357 Mag bullet — when fired from a short-barreled carry revolver — is negligible. You’re still left with a .36″ projectile to do your dirty work.

As hunters of dangerous game animals also know, you don’t use a .270 Win cartridge to hunt buffalo, even though its velocity is perfectly capable of penetrating a buffalo’s thick hide. You want impact, and shock — and that comes from a heavier bullet delivered at .270-like velocity.

I’ll explore the personal implications of the above in a later post.

Winter Of My Discontent

January 16, 2023 Kim du Toit The Gun Thing

I have moaned before about a) relinquishing my beloved 1911 and b) finding the Browning High Power to be a rather inadequate substitute (apart from its Europellet chambering).

Let’s be clear: this BHP is a lovely gun.

I have yet to experience a single failure to feed, regardless of what magazine I use, and it shoots every single type of Europellet I put through it — hollowpoints, solids, lightweight or heavyweight, it handles them all and says, “Please Sir, may I have another?” It’s also a lot easier to clean than the 1911, which is A Good Thing.

All is well, in other words, except for the trigger which does not come close to my 1911’s bang switch, perhaps excusably given how much work and shooting has gone into the latter by comparison.

And then there’s the Europellet, which I still think is inadequate as a stopper.

For the first time in my life, I feel undergunned when I walk out the door carrying the High Power, and that feeling is unaccustomed, unsettling and unwelcome — which makes me grateful for the extra seven rounds in the BHP’s mag.

I discussed all the above with the Son&Heir over dinner last week and he, bless his heart, suggested that we swap guns: my 1911 back to me, and the BHP over to him. Which all sounded good, until he tried the BHP’s trigger.

Understand that as a one-time TeamUSA competition shooter, he has a far greater degree of skill and control in his trigger finger than I do — and he hated the BHP’s trigger.

So all talk of a swap ended at that point.

Ad then I got these suggestions from the ~~Peanut Gallery~~ my Loyal Readers, who made suggestions such as “I think it’s the gun, not the ammo”, “The other thing to consider is a new 1911 chambered in 9mm”, “I couldn’t carry a gun I didn’t enjoy shooting”, “Sig 1911 Ultra .45”, “CZ RAMI 75BD”, “CZ 75B… CZ P07… CZ P10C”, “Para Ordnance P-14”, “Turkish-made 1911 in 9mm”… and lots more.

I think you can all see where this is heading: get a gun which suits you, Kim.

I don’t think that anyone needs to be reminded that I’m quite possibly the world’s most susceptible gun buyer on the planet. Okay, “gun whore” if you want to be blunt.

Unfortunately, I’m no longer a self-employed consultant paying the I.R.S. over $20,000 dollars per quarter; I’m a retiree on a (low) fixed income and savings that are nearly 80% lower than a couple years back (FJB). But what the hell, I can always sell one of the guns that I managed to recover from The Tragic Canoe Accident of 2014 (-15? -12? whatever).

So if I wanted to stay with the 9mm Europellet — a GREAT BIG HUGE “IF” — then all sorts of lovely guns become available — (hammer-fired / full-sized*, of course), e.g.

Now let’s just turn that “IF” (above) into “Ah fuck no“, and decide that it’s time that my damn body started to man up and just deal with the pain of shooting the .45 ACP…

I think we’re all familiar with where I’m going here:

Option C, therefore, is to trade or sell the High Power and buy the Springfield Garrison in .45 ACP for around $780 (sigh). Then I could just swap the “new” 1911 for the “old” 1911, so to speak:

I mean, why should the Son&Heir have to deal with an old, worn gun?

Your thoughts in Comments.

*my hands are large-ish, so I have no problem shooting a full-size 1911, but I do occasionally have a problem with a gun which holds a 15-round mag. And if I’m going to stick with light (175-185gr) .45 ACP ammo, I’d prefer the Government size over the Commander (which I’ve owned in the past, so I’m familiar with it).

News Roundup

January 16, 2023 Kim du Toit Bad News

Sponsored by:

Ooooookay, then:

...where they’ll all simply sink into the abyss, just like all the other things poured into Africa over the decades.

...help this old atheist out: exactly where in the Bible does it say that God loves variety — especially of the kind you’re describing?

...and on a parallel note: exactly where in the Constitution is this power granted to the Federal government? Oh, wait:

...a stove too far, was it? Wait till you try to ban the internal combustion engine.

...the Frog cops are being coy about the race / nationality / ethnicity of M. Le Stabber, so let’s just assume that he’s not a conservative French White man — because that would have been in the headline. UPDATE: