Reader LowKey asks in Comments:
“Speaking of your “frankenpoodleshooter”, how are you finding the platform now that you’ve had some time with it?”
I need to give a little background before I answer the question.
I love shooting. I love shooting just about more than any man I know. Ever since I first pulled the trigger (RWS/Diana air rifle) back in the (very) early 1960s, I’ve loved shooting with a passion that sometimes worries me. No other activity gives me the same pleasure that I get from pulling the trigger, feeling the recoil, watching the result on the target and doing it again and again until I get tired or run out of ammo. This applies most especially to rifles, probably because of a youth spent shooting through a box of five hundred (500) .177 pellets in maybe a couple-three sessions each week in our backyard. (I grew up on a fairly large piece of land, with plenty of open space and a conveniently-placed backstop — a tall rockery built along the bottom fence line to give us privacy from the neighbor, whose house had been built a little too close to our property boundary to my father’s liking.)
Instead of a weekly cash allowance like other kids got, my parents bought me a 500-round box of pellets each week for two reasons: a cash allowance would have just resulted in me buying candy from the corner store, and because I pleaded and begged for that substitution. I loved candy (still do), but between shooting and eating candy? No contest.
That love of shooting, that connection between me and that long device of wood and steel held in my hands has never left me, and at this point I don’t think it ever will. It pretty much doesn’t matter what rifle I shoot, really, but I prefer single-shot rifles (going back to the air rifle, maybe?), especially my treasured Browning 1885 High Wall in .45-70 Govt:
…followed by bolt-action rifles like the Mauser K98k and M96 Swede — which formed by far the larger part of my shooting experience from age 18:
…and only eventually semi-automatic rifles, even though I graduated from the Diana to a Winchester 63 (now Taurus 63) semi-auto .22 rifle:
…which remains to this day my all-time favorite .22 plinker.
Much, much later came the serious semi-auto rifles like the M1 Carbine, AK-47 and SKS:
…the last, incidentally, being my favorite semi-auto rifle to shoot.
Which brings us, finally, to the frankenpoodleshooter (see pic above).
Here’s how I feel about it. It is a very pleasant gun to shoot, because the little .223 cartridge is far lighter than its 7.62x39mm Commie counterpart, it runs like a top (so far, after about 700 rounds), and it’s probably a great tool for its intended purpose (crowd control in, shall we say, riotous circumstances).
And that’s also its biggest drawback for me: it’s a tool, nothing more, and I get no more pleasure shooting it than I get from operating a power drill. Unlike the other rifles I shoot, it’s a basic shooting “platform” (I hate that term) rather than an extension of my body.
Whenever I’m shooting another of the rifles I love, I end the range session with a profound sense of regret — “damn, I wish I’d brought more ammo”, or “damn, I’d better get back home before I’m late for dinner”. In other words, something really important has to drag me away from the thing.
I get no such feeling after a range session with the poodleshooter. I own it because it was essentially a gift from two great friends, and because I wanted to shoot the same gun with them as they were shooting at the range. It’s part of a fellowship, in other words. But outside that? It’s a tool, and I’ve never regarded any of my rifles as a tool, even the hunting ones. Basically, one or two mags downrange, and I’m done with it.
I love my rifles; I don’t love the AR-15, and it’s the very first time I’ve ever felt that way about a rifle. That said: if anyone were to try to take it away from me (and you know who you are), expect a little resistance.
If that’s your rifle at the top, it is being nice, hideously ugly. I suspect my taste in rifles is similar to yours. Polished walnut, blued steel, beautiful craftsmanship, history.
I don’t think any AR is ever going to win a beauty prize, but do you think you’d feel better about a prettier version?
There’s no such thing as a “pretty AR-15”. From the beginning, Eugene Stoner’s rifle was a tool and nothing more, as have been most military rifles since 1945, from the AK-47 to the FN-FAL and so on. They’re all hideously ugly.
Very true, but the one pictured is almost wilfully ugly.
I share most of your feelings. I don’t have the shooting obsession you have and more’s the pity. But its a reminder I need to drag my old girls out of the safe and let them know I still love them all.
“It’s a tool, and I’ve never regarded any of my rifles as a tool”
Anitstonertisim rears it’s ugly head…..**sigh**
Great minds think alike. During high school, lived with my uncle’s family on their ranch in far northern California. Had access to unlimited open space out the back door to hunt furry varmints in lava rock, sage, and juniper. My one request every Christmas was for a 500 round carton of Winchester Super–x copper jacket 22LR. I hunted with my Remington M581 with a 5-shot clip. The 500 rounds lasted me until the start of summer.
AR’s. I suppose I am a bit closer to mine because I served with M16’s in uniform and built the ones I own now. I feel the same as you about my plastic fantastic tactical Tupperware Canik 9mm. It is a dependable tool. If I’m ever involved in a “social engagement”, it may well wind up spending who knows how long in an evidence locker. That fact would piss me off, but other than that, oh well.
Air rifles. Just for grins, Google “dieseling”.
Given your history, try a Vietnam era AR-15 instead. A full rifle length barrel, solid stock, triangular handguard, iron sights, etc. That’s more akin to the battle rifles you enjoy versus the modern carbine sporting rifle. What you have looks like an abortion aftermath.
It is ugly. That pistol brace was a nice way to avoid the need to do the SBR paperwork, and quite well worth it from a transport/handling aspect…especially if it’s intended as a “trunk gun”.
But now that the cost of an SBR tax stamp is $0 it might be worthwhile to paper it as an SBR and then if he so chose he could replace all of that with wood furniture. There are some quite nice walnut and mahogany sets out there.
LOL putting wood on the thing would cost me more than the gun cost me. (Yeah, I checked.)
Regarding handguns I have the same feeling about the Glock17 I carry. Is Gun. Is Shoot. Nothing like the feel of one of my Browning Hi Powers in my hand.
I carry the Glock so that in case of an unfortunate situation, my Belgian BHP does not waste away in an evidence locker somewhere. And original Hi Powers are rare and expensive. A replacement Glock can be picked up anywhere with only a financial loss involved.
However, with the new lines of BHP clones from Springfield Armory and Girsan , especially their “detective” models at prices very competitive to Glocks, that might change if I can scrape some extra funds together.
Toss the Glock(s). Any BHP — clone, Turkish, whatever — is a better gun because heritage. Not necessarily technical, of course, but let me just say that IF I wanted a 9mm pistol, the only guns I’d consider would be a CZ 75 or BHP.
I hear you Boss. Just awaiting the collection of sufficient funds not needed for something more pressing.
I don’t find shooting to be a great pleasure, myself. Though with that high-wall, it might be. Pretty sure if I ever shot that I would want one of my own.
I like an exposed-hammer coach gun, in a similar way. You get to deliberately chamber every round by hand, which is the right mindset for Bunker Hill. The action is short and lightweight, it doesn’t need a safety, it can’t malfunction, and it not only fucks the target, it provides immediate assurance, a receipt if you will, for the execution done.
“And that’s also its biggest drawback for me: it’s a tool, nothing more, and I get no more pleasure shooting it than I get from operating a power drill.”
So I should look for you at the range next weekend with your power drill?
I pretty much only shoot during the week before midday, to get the Ole Pharttes discount. On the 4th, however…