Category: The Gun Thing

Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them

Another Veteran Passes From View

The Gun Thing

…well, in the opinion of this bloke at NRAHunting, anyway:

No matter what happens tomorrow, next year or even a decade from now, the .30-06 Springfield will be regarded as one of the best centerfire rifle cartridges of all time. Adopted by the U.S. military in 1906, it was originally loaded with a 150-grain bullet, with a muzzle velocity of 2700 fps. With a 100-yard zero it would drop less than 16 inches at 300 yards and deliver 1,435 ft.-lbs. of energy on target.
These were impressive ballistics for 113 years ago, and in reality, they still are. Jeff Cooper thought it adequate for general-purpose rifle work, and it proved more than capable for Stewart Edward White and Theodore Roosevelt in Africa. Since then, it has admirably served soldiers and hunters all over the world.
Even so, the .30-06 is dying. In fact, it has been dying for almost 100 years.

And Richard Mann then fingers the cartridges which are responsible.

I confess myself to be agnostic on the .30-06 cartridge, having grown up instead with its Euro-equivalent, the 8x57mm Mauser.  And I’ve seen the 8×57 likewise eclipsed, but not by newer cartridges which outperform the Kaiser’s cartridge ballistically.  Instead, as for the .30-06, it was replaced by shooters who preferred other, lighter-recoiling cartridges like the 6.5x55mm Swede as well as the “newcomers” like the .308 Win and so on.

And for the record, it may be a while before I shoot the 6.5 Creedmoor:  not because I dislike new cartridges (although I often do), but because the 6.5 Swede still does it all for me and I see little reason to change.

Which, come to think about it, may well be why many of my Readers (who are often as curmudgeonly and conservative as I) will cling bitterly to their trusted .30-06 Springfield rifles.  And I see nothing at all wrong with that.

Scaring The Neighbors

Drive Time, Funny Stuff, The Gun Thing

At my advanced age and concomitantly-advanced skepticism, it’s not often that something has the power to cause roars of laughter of a volume sufficient for the neighbors to call apartment management to check in case I was injured or violently ill or something.  Reader Gwalchmai sent me this article via email, and I would caution you all to read it in a secluded spot, lest your laughter cause similar mayhem.

A (very) brief sample:

For the wilder Microturbo Thrust unit, advertising claimed for the model T-16-A Formula J Thrust Engine an additional 1,980 hp was at your fingertips. In reality a small rocket-thrust engine, once ignited, hot gases were instantaneously unleashed, spinning small turbine blades in the housing, with an optional turbine wheel available to create “spectacular flaming night runs,” according to Turbonique hype. This option was for those needing more sensorial input than the shockwave of 600-psi ignited rocket fuel slammed into a 100,000-rpm Inconel orb—all taking place right behind your head, as you glide an inch or two off the ground.
The snail-looking device, with what looked like a child’s bicycle horn protruding from one end, came with “easy to follow installation and operating instructions.” We assume the operating instructions were basically, “Don’t do it!” As for the bicycle horns, those were aluminum nozzles used by NASA in space. They were just for publicity, and in actual use would have melted in seconds.

And it gets better, when instances of “actual use” are described.

Now, in similar spirit, allow me to show a prototype cartridge I’m working on:  the .750 Kimbo self-defense cartridge* (shown with a .357 Mag cartridge to provide scale):

Manly men only need apply.  Even Ken Barrett took one look and went pale, as did the guys at Magnum Research.  Someone at Taurus apparently committed suicide when they saw the photo, and Smith & Wesson responded in the negative, via their attorneys.  Ruger called it “interesting”, but that’s all.

Only the folks at Bond Arms thought it looked “cool”, and are thinking of including a Derringer thus chambered in their 2020 catalog. Read more

Cool Prezzie

The Gun Thing

Now that’s what I call statesmanship:

On March 7th, 2019, President Trump and the First Lady met with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš of the Czech Republic and his wife, in the White House. The meeting was cordial, with both men celebrating the bond between the two countries.
After the meeting, PM Babiš told reporters that he had presented President Trump with one of one hundred custom crafted CZ75 pistols created for the centennial of the Czech Republic in 2018. The pistol presented to President Trump had serial number 1946, the year of President Trump’s birth.

And the gun?

That’s a purdy lil’ thang, I don’t care who you are.  (Memo to POTUS:  try the Federal HST 124gr ammo.)

And as any fule kno, whilst I am often dubious about the 9mm Europellet, I am anything but dubious about the wonderful CZ 75, which is one of the finest pistols ever designed.  I saw a plain-Jane 75B at the gun store the other day, and were I not already in possession of a High Power, I would have bought it then and there.

And some wooden grips for the thing, like Trump’s gun.

Afterthought:  if the CzechPres had tried to give a similar present to has-been president Urkel, the Commie punk would probably have screamed like a little girl and called in the Secret Service.

 

Pistol-Caliber Carbines: The Marlin

The Gun Thing

Following on from Reader Brad’s escapades with his new Ruger PC-9 carbine, a couple of comments from other Readers piqued my interest.

Specifically, I’m thinking of the Marlin Camp carbine, and still more so, the Camp 45, which was chambered in (duh) .45 ACP and took (most) 1911-type mags.  (I say “most” because mine just wouldn’t load Mec-Gar 1911 mags, even after I had a gunsmith look into it.)

The good news first:  I loved my Camp 45 dearly.  It was more fun than should be allowed without the exchange of body fluids, and the 16″ barrel made the lethargic .45 ACP into, relatively speaking, quite a speedster.  (A 230-grain bullet travelling at 1,200 fps instead of the normal 850… that’s some serious owie at the naughty end.)  And that was the problem.

The Camp 45 was fragile.  Seriously fragile.  First off, any thought of shooting +P ammo should be ignored, because even with ordinary .45 ACP loads, the recoil did horrible things to the internals over time.  The plastic buffer pad (which was about as useful as a sponge) at the back of the recoil spring was constantly cracking and then disintegrating, meaning that you had to have a ready supply of replacements on hand if you were going to shoot more than a couple hundred rounds in a session.  Someone also mentioned that the stock behind the action was prone to cracking;  in my case, a quarter-sized chip of wood came flying off and dinged me in the forehead.  (No blood, no foul;  but it did give me quite a surprise.)

At one of our Feinstein-Daley Memorial Schutzenfests, I believe it was the Layabout Sailor who completely destroyed his Camp 45 by a three-magazine burst of rapid fire — I mean, I think he used the gun as ballast after that, so complete was the destruction.  (No doubt, he’ll remind me of the details in Comments.)

So here’s the thing about the Camp 45:  as I said, it was and is a lot of fun to shoot.  But as a serious self-defense weapon?  It ain’t that.  And forget any kind of combat usage;  I’d be thanking Vulcan every time I pulled the trigger and it went bang  without the gun breaking.  Even if it looked like this (which, I gotta tell ya, looks like fun too):

Feel free to contradict me if your experience has been any different, but I know only four people who ever owned a Camp 45, and none of us own them anymore — which should tell you all you need to know.

Marlin discontinued the Camp carbines in the late 1990s, which means that only secondhand models are now available.  Caveat emptor.

Afterthought:  I have no experience with Marlin’s Camp 9, by the way, which used Beretta 92-style mags to shoot (duh again) 9mm Europellets.  Feel free to add your comments if you’ve ever owned one, or shot it seriously.

AAR: Ruger PC-9 Carbine (9mm)

Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

Some feedback from this post, wherein Reader Brad_In_IL solved his “What pistol-caliber carbine to buy?” problem:

Brad writes:  “Indoor.  Off hand.  50 feet.  Need to get a sling.  First shot was the head shot.  The other 24 were insurance.”

Amen.  Adding a well-adjusted sling to the mix would have resulted in a single palm-sized (or smaller) hole for the 24 insurance shots.

So Much For That Idea

Crime, The Gun Thing

Among the gun-controller / -abolitionist crowd, we often hear the tripe trope that “Guns should be kept at gun clubs, which should be the only place you get to shoot them” and “All gun owners should be registered members of gun clubs”, and so on, all to do with how wonderful gun clubs are in terms of controlling gun use and allowing only lawful shooting.  This, supposedly, will help end illegal gun use by criminals / terrorists / Trump supporters etc.

Then we see this little snippet:

Christchurch terror suspect ‘was member of New Zealand gun club where he practised shooting SAME AR-15 rifles used in horrific mosque massacres that left 49 dead’

…and another cherished little belief goes up in flames.

Gun clubs, and the restrictions attached thereto, do as much to stop random acts of violent crime as any of the other nostrums proposed by gun controllers, i.e. practically nothing.

So stop that shit.  You’re not fooling anyone except others of your own ilk.

Afterthought:  I would point out that this asshole, who was captured in the very act of his villainy, is no more a “suspect” than I’m a Democrat, but that’s an argument for another time.