Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them
O Sage One, please call your office so that we may send you your “new” item of gunny goodness.
Congratulations to you, and many, many thanks to all who participated. Thanks to your generosity, the Widow Irish will be getting $1,000 in her account tomorrow.
Ron Spomer tells you how to sight in your scoped rifle when you don’t have access to a long range. (You may sometimes need a buddy to help you, I think — Ron does.) And I have to tell you
Here’s my take on this.
A vast preponderance of shots are made at what I’d call short range: less than 150 yards. And if you do most of your hunting in any kind of woodland, it’s likely to be less than that — think 50 yards. So if you’re doing this kind of shooting, then a 30- or 50-yard zero makes a lot more sense. (Frankly, if you’re shooting at about 50 yards or less, I seriously question whether you need a scope at all.)
I think the longest shot I ever took back in South Africa was a measured (by pacing off) 325 yards, and I have to tell you, had I been more experienced a hunter back then, I probably would have backed off and not taken it.
Now? If I were to go hunting at all (which is highly unlikely), I’d set my limit at 100 yards, and probably less than that. I’d use a low-power scope (maximum 5x) if indeed I used a scope at all — and I’m pretty sure a red-dot scope would do the trick, instead of a crosshair or mil-dot reticle.
Remember that most of the time, you’re shooting at a side plate-sized target, and as such, a 3-MOA sighting group would be more than adequate.
Leave the sub-1″ stuff to the target professionals, and let’s not even begin to talk about the ultra-long distance 1,000 yard shooting. That’s sniper-grade accuracy, and 99% of all riflemen aren’t snipers or even close to being snipers. Hell, at my very best I wasn’t a sniper, mostly because of my crappy eyes. But I was quite a competent hunter.
Know your limitations.
…then what is three?
I was thinking “ridiculous”, at first. Then the more I looked at it, the more I started thinking, “Why not three?”
It was on sale at PSA for just over 12 hundred bucks until they ran out of stock after seven hours.
Your comments?
Yes, it’s time for me to end the suspense and announce the winner of the Parker-Hale / Widow Irish thing.
I’m going to be pulling the winning ticket from the hat* over the weekend, witnessed for its veracity by New Wife and anyone else who happens to be in the house at the time.
So if you haven’t got yourself a ticket but still want the chance, get it done by Saturday midnight (03/07/2026) so that you can be included in Sunday’s drawing.
One quick favor: a number of you did not include your email addy with your entry, and I may have missed a couple as well; so please could all participants send those to kim – at – kimdutoit.com, along with your full name so I can link the names/emails with the tickets. It’ll just make notification all the easier for me. (Yeah I know, I’m an idiot; but it’s been a long time since I last did something like this #OldFartMemoryIssues.)
Good luck, everyone.
*that’s not quite true, there’s no hat involved: each ticket entry is given a number, and then I run an @RAND(x,y) function on the spreadsheet to pick the winner.
I was inspired to write this post by watching Brandon Herrera’s love song to the Sturmgewehr (StG)44, and when I’d finished wiping the drool from my chin, I thought: “Man, I would love love love to own one of those”, which was quickly followed by “Who are you kidding? You wouldn’t be able to find the gun, couldn’t afford it even if you did, and FFS think of the cost of the Unobtanium ammo, dude!”
…which led to the thought: “How many other guns fall into that category, more or less?”
And here we are.
First off, I think the aforesaid StG-44 would head up the list.
Looks cool, reduced recoil (reduced-power 8x43mm vs. 8x57mm ammo), semi-auto/full auto, designed by Hugo Schmeisser… the list goes on and on. WANT. But even the newly-made semi-auto-only PTR-44 sells for close to $8,000 (instead of $30,000+ for the real thing). STILL WANT.
Next, the FG-42 as used by German paratroopers:
Okay, this one uses the full-strength 8x57mm ammo, but it was and remains one of the best gun designs not done by John Moses Browning. And it’s super-rare so forget all ideas about affordability, plus it’s full-auto all the time. So no, I can’t have one. Don’t care. WANT.
Next comes the Ljungman AG m/42B:
Lessee: light recoil, wonderfully reliable, semi-auto (so no gummint paperwork/NFA nonsense) fires my favorite rifle cartridge (6.5x55mm Swede)… what really scrapes my scabs is that I actually used to own one very much like it: the Egyptian Hakim chambered in 8x57mm; but I think I’d prefer the original Ljungman because of the chambering. WANT, very much, all the more because it’s far more available than the two Kraut rifles above. But $2,000-odd? Not gonna happen.
Finally, the M3 Grease Gun:
‘Nuff said. I’ve shot it before, loved it, was cheap to make, works well, shoots a manly cartridge (instead of some wussy Europellet)… and costs too much (now), plus all that gummint paperwork. So I’m never going to own one, but still WANT.
That’s all. Maybe I’ll think of more later, but these three came to mind immediately, which just proves how much I want them.
I still need a few more gun lovers to buy tickets for the Parker-Hale Mauser Giveaway (details here). I think only about twenty tickets (@ $10 each) should cover the S&H and the scope.
Remember, it’s all for a good cause, and I get nothing out of it except a warm feeling that we all helped the Widow Irish.