Category: Gratuitous Gun Pics

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.

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.