Category: The Gun Thing

Mr. Free Market sent me this excellent article (and please read it before carrying on), which extols the virtues of a wooden-stocked hunting rifle:

Beyond performance requirements, I want the rifle to look like the rifles of my childhood. That means a nice wood stock. I can remember back to when I was a little kid, my dad first showed me his deer rifle—a beautiful Browning A-Bolt Medallion that my mom had given him as a wedding gift—and instructed me on how to handle the gun safely and avoid touching the metal on the barrel or the lenses on the scope with my grimy hands. Even as a little kid I could tell that the rifle was imminently important, even if I wasn’t sure why. My dad loves that gun, and he still hunts with it today.

Mr friend Mr. FM knows me well. But it goes further than looks.

I always get a twinge of unease when somebody says that a gun is just a tool, like a hammer or drill.  A gun is much more than that.  A real gun isn’t a tool — it’s an extension of your body and soul.  Picking up a gun is not the same as picking up a  tool like a hammer, just as picking up a fine sheath knife is very different from picking up a steak knife at a restaurant.

And I’m sorry, but picking up a plastic-stocked rifle just doesn’t do it for me.  I know all the pros and cons of plastic stocks vs. wooden stocks, but the biggest con of a plastic stock is that it feels artificial — to put it bluntly, I feel like I’ve picked up a tool.

In my response to Mr. FM, I said that I’m going to replace the (very few) plastic-stocked rifles in my gun case with wooden-stocked ones.

So here we go.  I’m having a secret auction for this gun:

It’s a Marlin 882SSV (stainless steel varmint) HB in .22 Win Mag, and anyone who has ever seen me use it will attest that it’s a one-hole shooter.  It’s topped with an El Cheapo Shooter’s Edge 4x32mm scope, which is surprisingly good for the price.  I’ll throw it in or take it off, if you have something better.  Also included:  a couple spare mags and (for N. Texas / S. OK bidders only) 200 rounds of .22 Mag.

Marlin discontinued the 882SSV back in the early 2000s, because they’re idiots.  Ruger’s not going to reintroduce it anytime soon (if ever), because they too are idiots.  Parts and spares, however, as plentiful and inexpensive.

I’ll take the highest bid over $350, because you can’t get a decent .22 WMR rifle for less than $450, and the Marlin is a proven tackdriver.

What I want to replace it with:  CZ 457 American (below) or the 457 Varmint HB (if it’s still available):

Bidding opens today and closes at midnight Friday night.  All bids must be sent to my email addy.

Ron Spomer makes the case that the .300 Blackout may be to deer hunting in the 21st century what the .30-30 was in the 20th.

Granted, the numbers he shows make a pretty good argument in terms of bullet performance (in terms of drop, drift and so on), but at the end of the day, it fails to convince me — and it’s not just because of my hidebound traditionalism, nor its effect (by extension) of my old-fashioned preference for the venerable lever-action vs. my antipathy towards the semi-auto AR type.

Indeed, as Ron points out, one of the reasons for the AR’s popularity these days is that the latest generation of kids come from Army service with well-honed familiarity with the AR-15 /M4 rifle, so naturally they would gravitate towards that platform and a heavier non-5.56mm cartridge, which the .300 BLK certainly is.  In previous generations of G.I. Joes, they would have felt the same way about the Springfield 1903, the Garand and the M14.

I think, however, that the modern hunters are spoiled for choice when it comes to cartridge choice, in a way that earlier generations were not — for the latter, the .30-30 was pretty much the “fall-back” chambering because just about everyone had a lever rifle in the house already.  Whatever the .300 BLK’s performance and advantages, it isn’t the fall-back choice for hunting — but the .308 Win most certainly is.

Whatever, I’ll stick to my Winchester 94 .30-30, thank you.