Category: Gratuitous Gun Pics

Self-Indulgence

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

Does anyone else have a gun or two that you could just call “pure self-indulgence”?  My definition thereof is a gun that doesn’t necessarily serve a purpose — self-defense, hunting, etc. — but that is just plain fun to have and to shoot, when you’re sick and tired of doing your drills and you just want to bang away for the fun of it.  (And I’m specifically excluding .22 guns because plinking is just plinking.)

The other day I was rooting around in Ye Olde Gunne Clossette when I came across an aluminum handgun case, and for the life of me I couldn’t remember what I’d put in it.  So here it is:

Okay, that’s a little cluttered with the ammo.  Here it is sans the clutter:

The top gun is my much-loved Ruger Super Blackhawk 7″ barrel, in .30 Carbine, and the lower is the late Layabout Sailor’s S&W Model 15 6″ barrel in .38 Special.

I don’t know why I’ve held onto the Blackhawk for as long as I have.  It’s single action, chambered for an expensive and occasionally hard-to-find cartridge, and that lo-o-o-ong barrel makes it unwieldy.  But:  OMG when you touch off that trigger and are rewarded with a massive thunderclap and a 16″ jet of flame out the muzzle… like I said, there’s no reason to keep it, it’s pure self-indulgence.

And apart from sentimental reasons, there’s no reason to keep that battered old S&W revolver either.  It’s .38 Spec-only, I have gawd knows how many .357/.38 revolvers already, and I surely don’t need another one that’s just taking up space in the locker.  But:  the trigger is silky-smooth, made such by an uncountable number of rounds fired through it;  the gun is, to say the least, about 5x more accurate than I can ever shoot it;  and loaded with those 158gr. wadcutters as pictured, I can just shoot that thing all day — and I have, both with its previous owner (who was so generous in sharing), and by myself, when I just want to shoot something good and hard and for a long time.  In fact, it’s my “I don’t feel like plinking away with a .22, I want to shoot something bigger”  gun.  I think that every range session I’ve had with this gun has involved at least fifty rounds, and a few others a lot more.

So the two quite different guns each fill a very specific need, but both are undoubtedly an indulgence on my part.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I am so going off to the range.  Just talking about them has got me more excited than Christmas.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Walther-Hammerli 1911 (.22 LR)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Okay, so you’d like to shoot your 1911 Government, but the cost of the manly .45 ACP ammo is eating into your Booze Fund.  What to do, what to do…

Well, in the past you could always just buy one of those ACE conversion kits, but they were spendy and anyway, you were too lazy to do all the mechanical work involved in stripping and reassembling.  So you just never bothered.  Far easier, therefore, just to buy a .22 pistol like a Ruger or Browning. (This paragraph, by the way, describes me perfectly.)

But in fact there are now a couple of alternatives that enable you to shoot cheaply and keep your eye in with your Colt 1911.  Here’s one:  the Walther-Hammerli 1911:

…or, if you want to take away that long 5″ barrel for a lighter gun, you could go for the Combat Commander-style shortie:

Finally, of course, if that modern “cheese grater” look grates on you [sic], you could always just go for the Walther-Hammerli “Made under Colt license” 1911 model:

And the best part?  The above two retail (ATOW) for about $350, and the licensed model costs only forty-odd bucks more.

No need to wait for those winning lottery tickets, in other words.

That matchless Colt 1911 trigger in an affordable .22 LR package:  irresistible.

Note:  just as a point of interest, Hammerli’s own .22 pistol (called by the romantic name of “X-Esse”) costs well over a grand.  Yes, it has a 6″ barrel:

But in the dictionary under “Tack Driver” you’ll find this pic.

Here it is, in its competitive “Sport” iteration:

Getting Wood

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

…and no, we’re not talking about looking at bikini pics of Salma Hayek.  We’re talking about this nonsense, as sent to me by my so-called friend Combat Controller:

And once fitted:

Seriously?

As I pointed out to CC, the only thing stopping me from reaching for Ye Olde Credytte Carde is that said “furniture upgrade” costs nearly double what I spent on the rifle itself.

Gotta admit, though, it’s not bad-looking.

Some Reservations

Gratuitous Gun Pics, Marketing / Advertising

This from PSA:

I have to say that having a Buckmark trigger — still  better, I think, than that of any other .22 pistol outside the competition guns — for only $300 sounds like a good deal.

But I also have to say that I’ve never been able to get anything more than minute-of-Coke-can accuracy with that 4″ bull barrel, and I’ve owned more than one of that type.  Not that this is altogether a Bad Thing, of course, because if you’re going to head out into the woods or to a short range with nothing but Death To Cans in mind, this little Micro would be the bee’s knees.

I do prefer the full-steel (and longer than 4″) barrel over the lighter bull barrel:

…and in fact I have just such a 5″ barrel, waiting to be swapped in its current holder:

…when I have the time / inclination to do so.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Rossi Circuit Judge Rifle (.45 Colt/.410ga)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Okay, at first glance this is a weird one:

Now before everyone starts falling about with laughter, let’s just look at what this piece brings to the party.

One of the problems with the similarly-chambered Taurus “Judge” revolver is its size:

I mean, that lo-o-o-o-ng cylinder makes it a monster, which makes it problematic in terms of its utility.  You can’t carry it comfortably and frankly, the shorty barrel makes it unpleasant to shoot.  (Ask me how I know this.)

While the little .410 shotgun shell is a weeny compared to its larger cousins in 12-, 16-, 20- or even 28ga, it still announces its ignition with a very meaty slam into your wrist if chambered in a handgun.  (I once owned a Bond Arms Derringer in .45 LC/.410ga, and shooting it was an ummm interesting experience.)

Frankly, therefore, a handgun chambered in .410ga is not really a viable or even pleasant proposition.

Now let’s look at that Rossi Circuit Judge again.

In a stroke, it does away with all the disadvantages of the .45/.410 revolver by adding a longer barrel (helps with recoil and ballistics) and the shoulder stock turns it into a handy little carbine.

Ignoring the .45 Colt part for a moment — because we all know and love the old cartridge for its deadliness — what this Circuit Judge brings you is a tiny and manageable .410 shotgun, with six rounds capacity.  Find me another .410 shotgun that compares.

Would I want a Circuit Judge for myself?  No, because I have no real need for it.  But if I lived in an area where potting crows and rabbits and such is part of an early evening’s entertainment with friends while sitting around a fire pit with a glass or two of single malt at the elbow, such as at Free Market Towers in Hardy Country…

…I’d buy one in a heartbeat.