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That Ammo Thing – Part 1

The Gun Thing

In a Dead Tree magazine (ergo  no link, sorry), I remember reading that Tami Keel talked about ammo shortages and one’s preparation for them, and I’ll talk about that in another post after I find the mag.

She also addressed the issue in an earlier piece in Shooting Times (talking about the Great Covid Ammo Panic) and noted:

Retail stocks of common handgun calibers, such as .380 ACP, 9 mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP, were quickly depleted.

Which they were.  However, she went on to discuss other, less popular calibers, and noted that stocks of stuff like 9x18mm Makorov were less affected — and swapping out the .380 barrel in a Glock 42 for a different one in said chambering meant that one might be less affected by ammo shortages.

I myself saw that when I went to the local Scheels store during the Great Covidiocy, among the otherwise-bare shelves were plentiful supplies of esoteric calibers like .460 S&W, which makes me ponder the question (as Tami did):

Is it worth getting a gun chambered in an offbeat caliber as a backup for one’s regular (for example) 9mmP or .45 ACP?

It’s an interesting thought.  Ordinarily, I myself would not be in the market for a gun chambered in, say, .44-40;  but faced with a shortage of my regular ammo, that venerable cowboy boolet would sure as hell make a decent backup — especially if one had a rifle chambered for the same cartridge.

So let me look at a couple of “companion” options.

I’ve written before about budget-gunmaker Rossi’s R92 lever rifle, but specifically about its desirability when chambered in .357 Mag — one of those calibers that were severely affected by the Covidiocy shortages.

However, the R92 can also be had in .454 Casull (which can also handle the .45 Colt easily), and when paired with a Magnum Research BFR:

…that’s a hell of a combination.  Manly, even.  (And .45 Colt is another cartridge that may not be too vulnerable in a supply shortage, but maybe more so than the .454 Casull.)

How about the .350 Legend?  (Also known as the .45-70 Govt’s little brother.)  I also note that Hornady makes a subsonic variant…

Here we have two outstanding choices —  the S&W Model 350:


…which can be coupled with (say) a semi-auto Ruger AR556 MPR rifle:

…or the bolt-action Howa Mini-Action:

All three look quite toothsome, don’t they?

Remember, in both the above two calibers, we’re not talking about an “everyday” shooting gun:  we’re talking about having a gun, or pair of guns, that will do duty in a pinch and which will probably not fall foul of ammo supply shortages during a period of panic.  (That the .350 Legend is not a bad choice for close-range hunting is a feature and not a flaw.)

Feel free to add other such cartridge choices in Comments.  I’ve talked about a rifle / handgun pairing, but that’s not a prerequisite for this exercise.  You can go with handgun-only or long gun-only.

Afterthought:  I know, I know;  one should always have enough ammo to withstand a temporary shortage — exactly how much, I’ll cover in that follow-up post — but hey, it’s a nice exercise anyway.

Not Already?

Gratuitous Chick Pics, Weather

Yesterday saw our first of 90+ degree daytime highs.  Ugh.

But for the benefit of the Global Cooling Climate Warming Change© crowd, when I looked this phenomenon up, I noted that May 12 was the latest day in the past 43 years that the 90+ temperature arrived.  Not that it matters too much.  If the forecast for this week is to be believed, daytime highs will seldom reach the mid-80s, and drop into the high 70s by the coming weekend.  Sunday, in other words, was something of an anomaly.

Welcome to a typical Texas spring, in other words.

Still, there is one benefit to our searing summer highs:

Oh yeah, baby… Daisy Dukes and skimpy lil’ tops, gawd love ’em.

Monday Funnies

Funny Stuff

So here we go with our weekly diary entry:

Let’s get down to the silly business, then.

And on the topic of surveys:

And on a sorta-related note, some other people’s sisters:

That’s enough of that.  Now say good-bye and walk away…

FYLP

Music

…which stands for “For Your Listening Pleasure” — hey, if people are going to acronymize (lol) every damn expression under the sun — then I can get on the bandwagon, so to speak.

And speaking of bands and music, allow me to recommend this one, Piano Sonata #1 in B-flat by Richard Wagner.

“Wait… Wagner?  The opera guy?  The guy whose long-form operas were the basis for all sleep aids to come?”

Yeah, that Wagner.  Unlike his turgid operas, this sonata is light, airy and extremely pleasant on the ears, and it’s one of my favorite classical piano pieces of all time.

Enjoy.

Talking Semi-Automatic

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

…shotguns, that is.

I must confess that in this here Gun Thing, it’s the firearms type of which I claim little expertise.  I’ve owned a couple, of course — as with most firearms types of the brass cartridge persuasion — both Brownings, the first being the fabled A5 Sweet Sixteen:

…which I have to say, in all honesty, I didn’t enjoy shooting.  Mine was an older version which didn’t have the recoil pad like the one above;  no, it was thinner and harder, and the Sixteen’s sharp recoil always beat the hell out of my shoulder.  It didn’t help that the 16ga ammo was kinda spendy, too — as Mr. Free Market, who knows more about shotguns than I could gather in three lifetimes, has often stated:  “All the unpleasantness of a twelve, with none of the advantages of the twenty.”

I far preferred shooting my other Browning semi-auto, the 20-gauge Gold Hunter:

I never regretted getting rid of the Sweet Sixteen, but I really regret losing the Gold Hunter in that Tragic Boating Accident On The Brazos — and since Browning has stopped making the Hunter line, those 20ga. Gold Hunters (predictably) are now scarce and if in decent shape, somewhat expensive, for a shotgun that is.

All this came to mind when some time ago I received a communication from some gun store about their reduced prices on Beretta semi-auto shotguns — no, I can’t remember which store and what the prices were, sorry — but I do recall which shotguns they were talking about:  the A300 line, and specifically which sub-variants.  They are two shotguns with diametrically-opposed functions.  First, the A300 Ultima “Sporting” 20ga:

I have to say, I like the looks of this one (despite the camo finish — yeah, I know, ducks and turkeys and what have you), but I have an abiding respect for Beretta and its various products so I bet this lovely thing is a dream to shoot.  Just get rid of the camo finish — oh, wait, here’s one I’d grab onto in a heartbeat:

I don’t care what you say, that is just plain yummy.  Unfortunately, like most Beretta products, these 30″-barreled beauties cost more than I want to spend — over a grand for a semi-auto shotgun?  Pass.

Not so yummy was the other Beretta piece in that email, the Ultima “Patrol”:

Okay, okay I know:  with that shorty lil’ 19″ barrel, it’s not a sporter.  It’s designed for the Swatties and Tactical Home Defense crowd, so that 7+1 ammo capacity is a sine qua non  requirement.  Whenever someone describes a gun as a “tool” — a topic for another time — then this is the kind of gun that jumps to mind.  Look, it’s going to work, and well, and that’s its purpose.  Fine.  (Frankly, I’d rather go with a pump action, but that too is a topic for another time.)  But as a gun I’d want in my gun safe?  Pass.

Going back the the semi-auto part, I recall reading about John Moses Browning’s design for the A5, and how it’s been improved over time so the recoil isn’t as intimidating.  As I said, I don’t know much about semi-auto shotgun designs (compared to handgun- and rifle designs, anyway), so I’m not going to talk about them and reveal my ignorance thereof.  I have no idea about whether the Remington 11-87 is a better design or whether it’s just copied from Browning’s… whatever.

I just know that if I were to have a desire for a semi-auto shotgun, it would invariably tend towards the blued steel-and-walnut variety.  But that’s pretty much true of my preferences for any gun, and you all know that about me anyway.