Category: Gratuitous Gun Pics

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Winchester Model 64 (.32 Win Special)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Kimmy likes this one:

The Model 64 was produced from 1933 to late 1957, and from memory well over 65,000 were made, making this rifle not especially rare.  (It was re-issued in 1972 for about a year, chambered only in .30-30 WCF.)

What is rare about this rifle is finding one in excellent condition, because like most lever rifles of the era, they were used hard and often.  No safe queen, this one.

And as always, you can’t go wrong with the excellent .32 Winchester Special cartridge, which turns the .30-30 “deer” round into a more powerful “black bear” round.  Its only drawback, of course, is its scarcity (and therefore 4x the cost) compared to the .30-30 WCF.

That said, just as a dangerous game rifle chambered in .375 H&H is not going to be used that often (and its ammo cost is therefore irrelevant), the same can be said nowadays for a Win 64 in .32 Win Spec — it has become a specialist rifle rather than an everyday one.  So if you’re doing a black bear hunt in Pennsylvania or Maine, for instance, you could do a whole lot worse than carrying one of these into the woods.

And I love that breech-mounted peep sight:

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Ruger GP100 (.357 Mag)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

As I was browsing through my daily fare of (gun) porn, I stumbled across this beauty:

I used to own a GP100:

For some reason, the grips (as pictured above) didn’t seem to fit my hand properly, and then there was that Ruger trigger — although in mitigation, I was comparing that pull to my Colt Python’s — and the barrel was too short for .357 Mag shooting comfort, so I ended up selling it to buy something else.

All that said, if I look at the stainless model in the first pic, with its Hogue grips and 6″ barrel… hmmm, how much would a Ruger trigger job cost?

Thousands of people love and shoot the GP100, so who am I to argue with them?

And the final comment:  I eventually ended up shooting the Python to pieces;  I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have done the same with any GP100, using the same number of rounds.

Plinking Silliness

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

When you read a “Top 10 Plinking Rifles” article and it finishes with a .50 BMG Barrett monster, you know you’ve just been insulted.  Even the five suggestions before the Barrett offering are just plain silly.

Let me try to rebut this nonsense by offering my suggestions for plinking fun, and each of the rifles I offer up will yield all-day enjoyment.  And no, only people with too much money or lust for reloading should plink with anything other than .22 LR, because regardless of how “cheaply” you can get .223 or 9mm, not much beats the “seven-cent solution” (nowadays, nine cents sigh ) for both cost and time savings.

I’m going to group the guns by action type, to make it simpler, and to limit the guns to those I’ve actually fired myself.

Pump-Action Rifles

Right now I’m going to issue a gunny jihad  against Winchester, Remington and Taurus for discontinuing production of their pump-action .22 rifles. Why?

BECAUSE PUMP-ACTION PLINKING IS MORE FUN THAN ANY OTHER KIND.

There, I’ve said it.

Only Henry gives us any hope for the future, with their charmingly-named (but excellent) H1003:

…and it’s too spendy.  However, if you think that’s $$$pendy, try buying an original Winchester 61/62/62A “gallery” gun.

I want one so badly I’d sell off a body part… wait, I think most of my extraneous body parts have been promised severally to intimate activities involving Nigella, Salma and Carol.  Oh well.

But to wrench myself unwillingly back onto the topic, Taurus deserves an especial Size 12 Army Boot up their corporate ass for ending production of their Model 62 line:

…and, as Loyal Readers know, my little Taurus 62 stainless carbine with 18″ barrel was taken in the Great Gun Theft of 2021.

Now THAT was plinking ecstasy, let alone fun.  Grrr grrrr grrrrr….

 

Semi-Auto Rifles

Not going to argue with the Ruger 10/22, although I’m also partial to the Marlin 60 and Winchester 63 / Taurus clones and the venerable Remington 552 Speedmaster, myself.  If you’re in love with the AR-15 genus (I’m not, especially), then the S&W MP-15 will do just fine.  These are my choices in this group, in no specific order because I love shooting all of them. Stock- and metal type are irrelevant — it’s the action and fun quotient that are important.

Ruger 10/22

Marlin 60

Winchester 63 / Taurus 63 Remington Speedmaster

There are others, like the Mossberg Plinkster, Savage Mark II, Rem Nylon 66 and so on, and all would do just fine.  However, if like me you have crap eyesight, then the 10/22 or Mossberg 702 get the nod because mounting a scope thereon is a no-gunsmith operation:

 

Lever-Action Rifles

Marlin and Winchester (again) are both targets for a gunny jihad, as neither makes lever actions in .22 anymore.  A pox on them.  And once again, Henry comes to our rescue with their “Classic” model.

And considering that Henry claims to have sold over a million of them in the past couple decades, WinMar have no defense under the “But nobody buys them anymore!” excuse.

 

Bolt-Action Rifles

There are so many brands and variants thereof in this category that I couldn’t be bothered listing that many of them. Also, bolt-action .22 rifles are more at home with the “single hole” kind of shooting, as opposed to the “minute of Coke can” activity.  So I’m going to leave off the precision guns like the CZ 457 or Anschutz models, and concentrate on those which can be tossed in the trunk and not cause suicide of the owner when scratched etc.

These are the ones I’ve personally had the most fun / best results with:

Marlin 81TS

…which is essentially a bolt-action version of the semi-auto Model 60.  The Son&Heir has one of these, and using this inexpensive little gun he can compete with many scoped-rifle shooters with expensive rifles.

Savage MkII F

There are hundreds of old, no-longer-made bolt-action .22 rifles (e.g. Marlin 25).  Most people in my age group have a couple of these knocking around, and swear by them — and I’m not going to argue because at the end of the day, plinking is all about FUN.

By the way, if Savage were to bring out their straight-pull Impulse line in .22 LR, I’d be at the head of the buyers’ line — but alas, these seemed to be aimed at the Serious Shooter and not dilettante plinkers like me.

I’m starting to bore myself, so let me wrap this up.

Kim’s Top 5 Plinking Rifles (in order):

  1. Henry pump action (but preferably a Taurus 62, of course)
  2. Ruger 10/22
  3. Winchester 63 / Taurus 63
  4. Marlin 81TS
  5. Mossberg 702

I would humbly suggest that in the “junkyard rat”, “backyard cans” or even “range spinner” scenarios, all the above are supreme.

Your opinions may vary, and I have no doubt that I’ll see those opinions in Comments.

A Question Of Equipment

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Okay, so you’re faced with this situation:

Furious drivers have blasted police after two eco zealots ascended two 275ft masts and are dangling over the M25, causing Dartford Bridge to close for more than 17 hours today but no officers have been sent to fetch them down due to ‘safety’ concerns.

Police said the operation was ‘complex’ due to the height at which the protestors are currently situated, adding it would take time to get them down.

Like most of my Readers, I’m positive that getting these little shits down shouldn’t take any time at all, with the proper equipment.

I’m thinking a decent shotgun with 28-30″ barrels, such as something sidelock-y from Abbiatico & Salvinelli, would do the trick:

…or, if you’re of the Over And Under persuasion, their Excalibur model:

…but I confess that I’m a little stumped as to the best gauge (12 or 20?) and ammo choice:  bird shot or buck shot?  (e.g. would 12ga 1oz #7.5 be good, or better to go with 20ga ¾oz #7.5 for its higher velocity?)

The reason I’m unsure is that 275 feet up is quite a distance — much higher than your typical driven bird flies, and at the same time, the humans are much bigger targets requiring a beefier cartridge.

So:  what are your suggestions for the ammo, O My Readers?

OR:

Do we just say “the hell with it” and go with a good old sniper rifle, e.g. this Dragunov PSL in 7.62x54R:

…or if we want to stay British, this Lee-Enfield Mk4 No.1 (T) in .303:

While I like the shotgun option (for the challenge), that Mk4 makes one of my digits itch, oh yes it does.

While we may disagree as to the best equipment for this particular job, I think we can all agree that potting eco-zealots (suspended, running, stationary or all three) should be an Olympic sport.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Volquartsen Scorpion (.22 Win Mag)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Just when I thought I was getting too old for gun lust, this damn thing comes along at, of course, Collectors:

It’s a little too “operator” for my taste, but every millimeter of this Volquartsen Scorpion just exudes quality and accuracy.  I didn’t even know they made semi-auto pistols anymore.

And yes, .22 Win Mag is too expensive to shoot, blah blah blah.  Don’t care, because I have well over 1,000 rounds lurking in Ye Olde Ammoe Locquere, and I’ll never shoot it all with just a bolt-action rifle.

Want.

Another Take On The New High Power

Gratuitous Gun Pics, Gun/Ammo Tests

Some time back I looked at the new replacements for the John Moses Browning/Dieudonné Saive P35 High Power from Springfield and EAA Girsan.

At the time, I was unaware that FN Herstal had made plans for their own replacement for the older P35, which, as Ian McCollum pointed out in his latest video on the topic, makes all sorts of sense for FN, in that it makes manufacturing less costly and more modern, and gives FN a platform for future generations of their 9mm handgun.  (It would help if you watched Ian’s as-always immensely knowledgeable analysis of the new High Power compared to the older P35.)

Here’s my take after watching Ian’s video:  I hate the new gun with a passion.  Here’s why.  (To avoid confusion, I’m going to refer to the new FN gun as the High Power, and the older version as the P35.)

The new High Power is big and blocky, with an oversized grip and all sorts of changes to the P35’s disassembly process.  Myself, I have never had a problem in taking the P35 apart, mostly because the process is a lot less fiddly than the (also-Browning-designed) Colt 1911.  The P35’s appeal to me has always been its sexiness — that slim profile is gorgeous, it prints less in a carry holster, and mine works very well — admittedly, after a fair amount of improvement by a master gunsmith (and a reworked hammer to avoid the infamous P35 hammer bite).

I don’t care that the High Power now has a larger ammo capacity (18 vs. 13/15 rounds), because 13 rounds has always served me just fine;  I’m not some SpecOps or SWAT guy, just a civilian who has always loved the P35 for all the reasons stated above.

And by the way:  the High Power now has a longer (plastic ???!!!) guide rod, which means that the once-closed front end of the slide now has an ugly great hole to accommodate the longer guide rod (and did I mention it’s made of plastic?).

My knock on the old P35 has always been that it should been built to handle the .45 ACP cartridge.  My suspicion is that the bigger High Power will easily do so — and mark my words, I bet that FN will soon release a .45 ACP version of the High Power.

Anyway, Ian takes the new gun for a spin, and it feeds all sorts of ammo flawlessly — although I note that he didn’t shoot any +P loads.  My guess is that the High Power should handle them with ease — not always the case with the P35, or at least my P35.

Now I want you all to know that my dislike for the new FN is not rooted in my well-documented dislike of modern stuff.  I just don’t think the new High Power is a proper Browning High Power, but rather a “re-imagining” (their word)  of JMB/DS’s 1935 design.  Which is fine, but they should have called it something else.  And did I already say that the new gun is fugly?

Pass.

If I were to replace my P35 with a new-model 9mm pistol, I’d rather get a SIG 210-9:

 

…or else a new-manufacture CZ 75 B:

…or I’d just get a new Springfield SA-35 clone, and be satisfied:

I don’t just buy guns because they can shoot well.  If I did, I’d just buy a frigging fugly Glock.  No, a gun has to be beautiful, and sexy, and fit my hand, and… and… well, you should know the rest by now.

Your opinions, of course, may vary.  (I should point out that Ian, even though he likes the new HP, is quite sympathetic towards people of my ilk, as you can see in the first video.)