Category: Gratuitous Gun Pics

When It Absolutely, Positively

Gratuitous Gun Pics, Hunting, The Gun Thing

…has to work every time it’s used, and not break, not ever.

I speak here of the dangerous game rifle — that final guarantee that the hunter won’t turn into his prey’s prey.

Now before I go any further, I need to back up a little. In the recent past, I’ve been somewhat scornful of “luxury brands” — you know what I mean:  $100,000 watches, $2million Ferraris, and, in our gunny world, $200,000 (secondhand) Purdey shotguns… the list goes on and on.

Then you get a gun manufacturer who creates a piece that is admittedly expensive – horrendously expensive — but that expense is somewhat mitigated by the fact that what their product promises is actual infallibility.  I speak here of J. Rigby’s “Rising Bite” double rifle, which is generally available only in super-manly chamberings like .416 Rigby Magnum, .470 NE (Nitro Express) and still larger diameters.  (Excuse me, I need to go and pop an ibuprofen tab because my shoulder is starting to ache, just by thinking of these massive projectiles.)

Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s the “Rising Bite” itself:

Here’s an explanation of how it works, and why it’s necessary.

Here’s one in .470 NE that recently sold for about $35,000:

Note the Rising Bite:

Excuse me… .470 Nitro?  I need another ibuprofen.

I should also point out that any proper double rifle is expensive (see this Karl Ferlach beauty here).

There is one last thing to be said, however.

While I yield to no man in my admiration for Rigby’s guns, I should point out that while their double rifles may well be worth the cost of ownership, I don’t think that’s necessarily true of their bolt-action rifles.  Why?

Because Rigby’s bolt actions are built on that of the venerable Mauser 98 (link in pic):

It’s lovely, but honestly:  at $25,000 secondhand?  You’re paying for the brand.  Me, I’d rather get a brand-new Mauser 98 for just over half the price (link ditto):

Same action, same durability and reliability… absent the desire to impress your hunting buddies when you uncase it at the hunting camp, it’s not really even a question.  (And yeah, I’m a sucker for just about any Mauser over some fancy English trinket;  go ahead and sue my ancient Boer ass.)

Honestly, no experienced PH is going to curl his lip when you take that bad boy out of the case to sight it in.  (Incidentally,”sighting in” at a hunting camp is not only about sighting in your rifle to check that it hasn’t been damaged in transit, it’s also to reassure the PH that you know what the hell you’re doing.)

And finally:  if anyone is thinking of doing an African safari anytime soon, let me know.  I do have some small knowledge of the topic in question, but by now that knowledge is severely out of date (although I do know a couple of good Seffrican hunting outfitters.).  Rather let me get the latest scoop from Mr. Free Market and Doc Russia, who are very experienced at the thing.  Also, you may want to be on good terms with your bank manager… the cost of a decent rifle is not the greatest expense you’ll incur.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Rossi Model 62 Pump-Action (.22 LR)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

This comes courtesy of our friends at Collectors, and even for them, it’s a little cheeky to ask $250 for a 1970 Rossi pump plinker in only average condition.

But that’s not the point, here.

What I want to know is this:  why does nobody (except Henry) make .22 pump-action rifles and carbines anymore?  You might say that they don’t move off the shelves anymore, which is a perfectly good reason to stop manufacturing them.

Okay, then the real question is even more puzzling:  why doesn’t every home in America have at least one of these little beauties in a closet or gun safe?

The reason I find this inexplicable is that I don’t believe that there is any more fun to be had than plinking with a pump-action .22 rifle.  This has certainly been my own experience — not just for myself, because I am a completely promiscuous shooter of .22 rifles — but for everyone I’ve ever gone shooting with, and handed them a pump rifle to shoot.  Let’s just say that huge and I mean HUGE grins of delight have been universally in evidence, coupled with a look of utter disappointment when there are no more boolets left in the tube.

Everybody loves shooting a little model 62, whether a Winchester, Taurus, Rossi, or the Henry H3 (which costs new about $500, or double that of the Rossi).  (You can’t shoot a Winchester 62 anymore because they are a Collector’s Item, i.e. they cost over a grand, regardless of condition,  if you’re lucky to find one at all.)

Here’s what I think:  if anyone were to get a .22 pump rifle, they’d never get rid of it.  As stated earlier, there is no more fun plinking to be had, with any other rifle.

So why doesn’t everyone own one?

Here’s the one I lost to burglars, a Taurus Mod 62 stainless carbine:

Ooooh that little 16.5″ barrel… [pause to let uncontrollable sobbing die away]

I’ve looked all over for a replacement, but they’re like virgins in a knock shop:  if you can find one, they’re too expensive to consider.

Semi-Automatic Musings

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

For some time now, I’ve been thinking about getting a shotgun as an accompaniment to my bedside revolver.  Now the advice is going to be predictable:  “12ga pump-action, Kim!”  followed by a host of brand recommendations/warnings.

I don’t want to do that.

I don’t want a 12ga, because my aging shoulder is going to hate me for the recoil, and I’d rather have a semi-auto bedside shotgun for the same reason I carry a semi-auto 1911:  one up the spout, cocked and locked — a flick of the finger and away we go.

I have fond memories of a semi-auto shotgun I once owned (and sold because Poverty, with lasting regret).  It was one of these:

Browning Gold Hunter (20ga)

…and it was an absolute joy to shoot, reliable as hell and featuring minuscule  recoil, so one might think that I should just get a new one.

Silly rabbit:  Browning no longer makes them (#Idiots) which means that because they are such good guns, the second-hand market thereof is priced at Ferrari levels, i.e. unattainable to one of Humble Means such as myself.

Oh well.  So off I hie to the various Merchants Of Death to see what’s on offer in the same chambering.

Franchi Fenice ~$2,500

Lovely, but way too spendy.  I’d have to sell at least two guns out of Ye Old Gunne Sayffe to be able to afford one of these, and I don’t want to do that.  Next?

CZ 1020 ~$750

Not bad, and I do like CZ guns as a rule, but these are Turkish-made pieces, and I’d rather buy Murkin.

The problem with both the above is those 28″ barrels.  That’s kinda long and ungainly for use inside a home, and one thing I liked about pump-action guns is that they have shorter (18″) barrels, which to my way of thinking is much better for close-quarters work of the anti-social persuasion.  So what else can I look at?

Remington 1100 Lt-20 ~$900
Okay, that’s much better, with its 21″ barrel.  But it’s listed as “New Production”, which means… “new” Remington quality?  I’m not so sure, and given the price of nearly a grand, I don’t really want to take the risk.

And would I really want to get, say, a CZ 1020, only to have to pay for my Friendly Local Gunsmith to give it a 9″-10″ circumcision?  (If the proposition gives you a bad taste in the mouth, it does that to me, too.)

All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Afterthought:  another reason why I’m set on something in 20ga is that during a recent inventory of Ye Olde Ammoe Locquere, I discovered two cases of sundry 20ga ammo:  buckshot, birdshot and slugs, all a legacy of the late-lamented Gold Hunter which I (fortunately) did not include in the sale of said gun.  So there’s no ammo cost involved, just the gun itself.

Gun Lust

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

At my age, and given the number of guns I’ve a.) shot and b.) owned, you’d think that I’d be immune to gun lust by now.  And to a large degree, I am.  Certainly, I’m no longer seduced by a pretty gun like this vintage Purdey Hammer gun (because Purdey co$$$$t):

…and for purely cost:quality criteria, I would be more likely to go for something like this Chapuis Chapeur Classic (Classique?):

…which runs for under $5,000 and gives me a balance between looks and utility, rather than a super-budget CZ Bobwhite:

…which sells for under $800, still has all the features I want (splinter/English stock, double triggers, etc.) but would probably not provide the same stirring of the loins when I opened up Ye Olde Gunne Sayffe.

Leaving aside all mention of Purdeys and their ilk, one asks the question:  is the Chapuis a better gun than the CZ?  Answer:  probably, and certainly in terms of workmanship (hand-built vs. Turkish assembly line), yes.

Next question:  is the Chapuis six times better than the CZ?  Answer:  probably not.

The only time this becomes a more interesting question is if one wonders whether such a decision (upgrading to a more expensive gun) would improve one’s score / performance.

And here I turn again to Jonny Carter, who talks shotguns with ace shotgunner Anthony Matarese Jr., multiple-times world- and U.S. champion shooter.

Most of the things I once thought critical to shotgun shooting performance (e.g. locktime and trigger) turn out to be, well, not that critical, according to the (again:) multiple-times world- and U.S. champion shooter.

Go ahead and watch it (20-odd minutes), and prepare to be surprised.

Close Enough For Government Work

Gratuitous Gun Pics

We gun owners often  waste our time  talk earnestly about the concept known as the “BBQ gun” (or “Governor’s BBQ gun”).  In essence, this would be a nice-looking, quality handgun that would “show well” in a fancy holster — in other words, a description that no gun named “Glock” could ever satisfy.

Of course, people will suggest something like a shiny nickel Colt Single Action Army (Peacemaker) as the sine qua non:

…and I would be the last to disagree with that, to be sure, because it’s as pretty as a picture and would make a fine addition to one’s formal attire.

However, there are a few drawbacks to this, from a practical perspective.  Firstly, there’s the price… yikes, and that’s for a new manufacture.  Step back to a First Generation piece and well, you don’t wanna know.  Next, we all know that while the SAA shoots the manly .45 Long Colt, as a self-defense gun it’s not what we’d call an optimal choice in terms of both capacity (6) and reloading speed (measured in geological time by comparison to the usual self-defense choices).

But that doesn’t matter because this is a “dress” gun — one could even be unkind and say it’s “ornamental”.  There’s nothing wrong with that, of course;  thinking from a girlie perspective, a pair of sexy Christian Louboutin shoes might be a perfect choice for the Governor’s BBQ Party, much less so for hiking in the mountains.

So getting back to the gun thing:  all this was brought to mind when I got the latest sales promotion from the kids at Palmetto State Armory, which featured this:

Granted, this might be a little too show-offy for some (it certainly is for me), but you can’t deny that it’s not the worst-looking handgun you could carry on your hip at said event.  Certainly, it’s more affordable than the nickel SAA above — like 10% of the SAA’s price — and yes I know, cheap guns don’t always make the very best choice for self-defense.  But remember, the main thing about a BBQ gun is that it looks good on a formal occasion, not necessarily that it works that well as a self-defense piece.

See where I’m going, here?  Discuss.

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.