Author: Kim du Toit

Errrr Maybe Not

The Gun Thing

Last week I got a missive from Mr. Free Market which was headed:

My Last .22 

“Just bought this Anshutz: it’s sorta the last 22 that I will probably buy or at least own.”

And a pretty thing it is too (yes, he’s a left-hooker):

Mr. FM being the deadly shot that he is, all I can hear is the sound of disintegrating rabbits in the fields of his estate.

However, that’s not the purpose of this post.  About three days later, I got this plaintive wail from him:

I know that none of my regular Readers have ever had such a thing happen to them, of course.  <eyecross>

However, as I pointed out to him in commiserating with his plight, I once went to pick up a Swedish Mauser at one gun store, then stopped at another store to get some 6.5x55mm ammo (back in the days when gun stores actually carried ammo)…

…and walked out of Store #2 with not only 200 rounds of 6.5mm Swede, but a minty Inland M1 Carbine as well.

Like me, Mr. FM is pruning back (“consolidating, dear heart”) his gun collection (the above impulse buy notwithstanding), and I think about half a dozen or so shotguns will be going onto the block in the next couple of months.

Which brings me, sorta, to the point of this post.

Regular Readers will know that I’m trying to settle on a couple-three “last rifles” myself, and a 20ga side-by-side to “round off” the total number of boomsticks.  As I despair of ever finding that clean 1970s Colt Python for $600, I think I’m pretty well set for handguns.

Doc and Combat Controller talked me out of getting replacements for my two Marlin varmint .22 rifles (880SQ and 882 HB) with the simple comment that if they’re already “one-hole” rifles with the adequate-but-actually-kinda-lousy triggers, dropping a new trigger group into each is all that’s needed.  And cheaper.

Makes sense, which means I’m not going to be in the market for those CZ 457 rifles anytime soon, or ever.  Although…

[sigh…]

As Doc and CC pointed out, that money saved would be better spent on paying off a credit card (don’t be stupid, these are my friends we’re talking about) buying that CZ Bobwhite:

…which makes all sorts of sense to me.

Last question:  are any of my north Texas Readers familiar with putting an aftermarket trigger group into a Marlin?

News Roundup

Bad News

All the news that makes you want to kill something, or somebody.


…except for the guy below:


…stroking after stroking, in other words.


…I don’t want to sound unsympathetic, but it serves him right.  A pensioner’s job is to putter around the workshop or garden, grumble with his buddies at the diner or shooting range, and play with his grandchildren — not that cycling over mountains bullshit.


…Giggsy is a well-known Grade A deluxe asshole, but I still wanna hear his side of the story — because there have been times in my life, I swear…


…like Socialists, who keep doing the same dumb shit for generations even though it always fails.


…as long as “very high walls” are included in the architects’ plans.  (To guard against all those White supremacist groups in D.C., of course.)


…okay, quit that derisive laughter, willya?


…cool.  Enjoy the coming apocalypse, y’all.


…fake news, never happened — because private ownership of handguns is illegal in Britishland.


…some guy pulls a Mungo and it’s all about the protest violence.


…LOL.  The irony?  This supposedly happened in snooty University Park and Highland Park (a.k.a. “Park Cities”), which have voted reliably Democrat since, well, forever.

Time for another dump of pics that are just taking up space on my hard drive [sic].  This time it’s someone named Nicola McLean:

So much for the news.

The Other Ferrari

Drive Time

An email from Reader Larry F asks:  “I know you love the Dino 246, but you also admit that they’re not that great to drive.  If you could have any recent Ferrari (produced since the Dino), which one would you choose?”

That’s actually an easy one.  The only Ferrari I’d care to drive today (other than the Dino 246) is the last model Ferrari offered with a stick shift, the 599 GTB of the early 2000s.

Here’s a comparison of the two:

I need to make a couple of points, though.  One of the things I love about the earlier Ferraris like the Dino is that they’re small and nimble.  After that they started growing and growing, until we finally arrived at elefanti  like the 599.  Here’s the comparison between the Dino and the 599 (l-r):

 

By comparison, the Dino is the nimble teenager while the 599 is its fat-ass Italian mama.

Of course, the power is not comparable, the 246 GT’s V6 192hp being dwarfed by the 599’s V12 612hp (which it needs to get that extra 1,600lbs moving).  I wouldn’t care about acceleration (0-60:  7.0secs vs. 3.7secs) or top speed (148mph vs. 208mph) unless I were at Spa-Francorchamps, which is never gonna happen.

I’ve never driven the 599, but it’s probably a lot easier to handle than the Dino, so there’s that.

But in looks, the Dino still wins by a country mile.  The 599 looks like a fatter Mazda Miata RF:

YMMV.