Category: Gratuitous Gun Pics

Gratuitous Gun Pic: S&W 627-5 Performance Center (.357 Mag)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

This one caught my eye at Collectors:

I know, I know:  the constant gripe about Smith’s Performance Center (or “Profit Center”, as it’s sometimes called) is that they take a gun and turn it into what the gun should have been at the outset, for about a grand’s difference.

I don’t think that’s fair, because while a standard Smith 627 is not exactly a slouch in the Gun Beauty Division:

…there is no doubt that like any standard-issue gun, it can always be improved by a little judicious tinkering.  Which is what the Performance Center does.  And yes, like any bespoke changes, you gotta pay for the improvements.

In Colt terms, this is like the difference between the excellent Colt Trooper:

..and the magnificent Python.

I would be perfectly happy with a Trooper or S&W 627 (although 8 rounds in the 627, hubba hubba).  Both are excellent revolvers, no question about it.

And the Python and 627 PC?  Wonderful.  And you pay extra for the doubleplus part.  There’s no problem with that.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Springfield Echelon (9mm P)

Gratuitous Gun Pics, Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

This is the latest offering from Croatia’s HS guns — marketed Over Here, of course, by Springfield — the “Echelon”.  (Are gun manufacturers getting their naming criteria from Japanese car companies, I ask myself?)  Here’s the bare-bones version:

…and in its tricked-out regalia:

To be clear, the last “new” gun I shot was a SIG P365 when it was first released, which should tell you how out of touch I am in these matters, so of course I am not well-versed on this Echelon thing’s operation.

But the Honest Outlaw is, having fired it lots (and lots) and subjected it to abuse that I would barely consider inflicting on a Clinton, let alone to a gun.  He ends up loving it (not the mag, though), so from that perspective it looks like an excellent deal, as so many of Springfield’s guns are.

At the end of the day, though, you’re still going to end up with a gun that shoots a Europellet.

By the way:  I’d like to get in touch with Chris on a non-related gun matter, so if anyone knows the Outlaw’s email addy, please send it to me.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Browning Buck Mark (.22 LR)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

As I get older, I have to face the fact that my eyesight — never good, now terrible — is at this stage of my life, totally shit.  What that means is if I want to continue to enjoy shooting, I shall have to change how I shoot, to whit:  no more iron sights (sob) and instead, resort to one of these so-called “red dot” things, such as seen on this little cutie at Collectors:

Here’s the thing.  I have always thought that Browning prices their products just a leetle too high, asking a premium that is not really justified… except for their Buckmark .22 pistols, which are not only astoundingly accurate, but have, easily, the best trigger of any .22 pistol — and perhaps the best trigger of any handgun, period.  Is that worth a premium price?  You’d better believe it.

So at well over $800 for the above — that’s the gun, the Vortex red dot and Collector’s premium, this would take a big gulp and a re-ordering of a few of life’s other offerings (e.g. food) to get this one into Ye Olde Musket Cabinette.

Other than the red dot thing — which looks like a carbuncle on a pretty girl’s face, but which I have most reluctantly accepted as a necessity — everything about this gun is beautiful:  the rosewood grips, the heavy brushed-stainless steel barrel, just the look of the thing, all cry out:  “Kim, I need a new home!”

And if I had the cash, it would be mine.  I’ve owned several Buck Marks in my time — all either given away or sold because poverty — and I miss them badly.  As it is, I’m going to have to sell one of the other guns in my safe to get this one.

I mean it.

Shotguns, Dead Bodies And Such

Gratuitous Gun Pics, Gun/Ammo Tests

This is going to be a long, rambling post (unlike my usually concise, single-topic pieces) but hey, it’s the weekend:  why not ramble all over the place, even if it does take you well over an hour to get through, if you follow all the links?  So mote it be.

Several Readers have sent me links to all sorts of fascinating stuff recently, and most especially on the topic of shotguns — all of which have been most gratefully accepted.

We already looked at the most-recent entry (re-entry?) of Weatherby into the side-by-side shotgun market in a Gratuitous Gun Pic post.  A comment by Reader Ray is quite appropriate:

“Now they just need to eradicate the ‘Weatherby’ billboard and the exposed colored chokes.”

Colored chokes (which I also abhor because fugly) are nevertheless useful to those who are constantly changing their chokes according to the conditions in which they are shooting (high birds, skeet or whatever).  I understand this, but frankly I am not one of those shooters, in that I prefer a consistent choke type so I can make adjustments on the fly, so to speak.  Your mileage may vary, and that’s fine because when I do any shotgunning at all, it’s sporting clays and I make no claims of expertise in the other types.

As for the Weatherby “billboard”, that’s another point I agree with.  Compare and contrast the following:

…with:

…or:

…where one can almost hear the murmurs of Messrs. Purdey and Holland:  “There’s no need to SHOUT, dear boy, if you’re making a quality gun.”  Point made.

Still on the topic of “Turkish” shotguns, Longtime Friend and Reader John C. sends me this article, talking about CZ’s Hammer Coach shotgun:

Okay, I am seriously considering this little 20″-barreled beauty as a future home defense option.

“But Kim,” I hear you say, “I thought you said that your AK suits all your home defense needs?”

And indeed I have said that before.  However, I am starting to revise my opinion on the matter (“and not a moment too soon, ya old fart”) because in the very same email, John C. added a link to this wonderfully-funny but yet very informative medical take on the effects of a shotgun blast to the human anatomy.  (It also features those raucous Zoomer kids at Garand Thumb, for double the hilarity.)

As to why a double-barreled hammer shotgun (two rounds) over a pump action (five rounds), I have two reasons for my choice.

The first is that one of the benefits of exposed hammers in a shotgun is that you know immediately whether the gun is ready to fire — no safety catch necessary — and while the cocking action is slow, it’s as quick as a well-practiced pump-action throw, especially if you cock both hammers simultaneously.  That second shot happens as quickly as you can move your finger from one trigger to the other, which is not only quicker, but less disruptive to your aiming hold than shoveling the pump back and forth.

The second reason is that after watching the effect of buckshot on the human torso and Doctor Raynor’s excellent analysis thereof, I fail to see why I would need more than two shots to solve the problem (assuming that there aren’t more than two targets, so to speak — but if so, I’d be reaching for the AK anyway because then there’s a crowd dynamic to the whole situation).

Of course, I’d like to have a Purdey hammer gun, just for aesthetic reasons:

…but the barrels are too long and the old gun too expensive.  And for a more modern take, let’s not even talk about the exquisite Famars Abbiatico offering, for the same two reasons:

I seem to have wandered way off the original topic of this post — if there ever was one to begin with — but I did warn you earlier.

All similarly-meandering comments are welcome, of course, because it’s the weekend.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Weatherby Orion Side-By-Side (20ga)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Sent to me by the eagle-eyed Gun Professor is this welcome news:

Of course, they’re not just offered in 20ga.:

Weatherby has had a sort-of on-again-off-again history with their side-by-sides, having had them made variously in Spain, then in Italy, and now, according to the Professor (who contacted them) they’ll be made by Tiblis in Turkey.

Street price for these guns is likely to be slightly under a grand, which will make them competitive with CZ’s offerings — which are also made in Turkey.

As one who has seen the ancient and venerable side-by-side shotguns fall from favor over the past couple decades, all this is good news.  To quote some non-professorial gun guy:

“Shotgun barrels need to be side by side like a man and his dog, and not over and under like a man and his mistress.”

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Beretta Mod 74/101 (.22 LR)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Seen at Steve Barnett’s:

No, that’s not an accidental double-post;  the first is a Model 74 (retail:  $850), while the second is a Model 101 ($1,250 because, I suspect, of its scarcity).  I suspect that the only real difference is mechanical, because other than a different stock design, I can see no apparent difference between the two.

Here’s the thing:  according to what I can see, the Models 71 through 75 are essentially the same pistol, differing only in barrel length (2″ or 6″), and all seem to have been confusing named and sold under the name “Jaguar”, regardless of model.  The Model 101?  Who knows.

At least all take the same hard-to find-and-therefore-expensive magazine — and those prices are for aftermarket mags;  original Beretta mags for these guns are made of ultra-unobtanium, and if you can find one, will typically run to three figures.

Ask me how I know this.

You see, I’ve owned not one but two of these beautiful pistols (both with the 6″ barrel):  one back in Seffrica which I inherited from my mother and had to leave behind when I emigrated, and the second here in Murka when I found one at a gun show and paid way too much for it.  Because did I already mention that it’s beautiful?

And here’s the other problem:  my mom’s gun was a peach.  I could drop bullets in the same hole all day (and I often did), and the action felt like ball-bearings on silk.  The Murkin one was awful:  it rattled around when firing, the mag was also loose, and I couldn’t hit a paint can at 10 yards with it.  Also, when I found an aftermarket mag, it was worse than the “original” mag.

So in the end, I sold it or traded it, I forget which, because I was totally disenchanted with the gun’s performance, especially when compared to my first one’s.

But I have to say that if I had the $$$, I’d buy one of the above in a heartbeat, not because of its quality — who knows, maybe my Murkin gun was just an anomaly — but because, as I may have said before, the 71/72/73/74/75/101 is achingly, breathtakingly beautiful.  Those flowing lines, that perfect rake on the grip… oh stop me while I can still speak.

And yes, that swooping Art Deco trigger-guard is hopelessly unfashionable nowadays.  People need and want a squared-off monstrosity like this:

…so that they can find adequate purchase for a two-handed grip.

I prefer to think that the Jaguar is not a two-handed pistol — I mean, it’s a .22, FFS — and when I see it, I think more of the shooter assuming a classical duelist’s pose with it:

And yes, it’s a romantic, out-of-date attitude.

Guilty as charged.