Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

Keeping Quiet

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

As I was wandering along the Gunny Trail, I happened upon this new thing:

It’s from Henry Rifles, and they’ve apparently created a new department called “Special Products Division” (SPD).  This particular model is known as the HUSH line.

“Why ‘HUSH’, Kim?”

Thought you’d never ask.

Long Time Readers will be all too aware of my antipathy towards plastic stocks, and especially so when used on classic rifles like Murka’s own lever action repeater.

I have to say, though, that this one’s not that horrible when there’s a suppressor attached (although how well a suppressor is going to work on the booming .45-70 Govt cartridge remains to be seen).

Let’s just say that when suppressors are freed from the stupid red tape and registration nonsense (not to mention the average cop’s hostile attitude towards them), I would be tempted — not towards a .45-70 Govt chambering (as pictured), but certainly the .357 Mag model — and certainly still more if I were to shoot the Hornady Critical Defense 110gr light loads — which achieve just over 1,000 fps out of a 4″ revolver… now imagine them emerging from that 24″ barrel, suppressed.

Excuse me, I need to take a quick cold shower.

Sorry.  Anyway, I’m not saying I’m going to become a Plastic Fantastic fanboi anytime soon.  But there’s just something about that HUSH rifle that intrigues me.

Being Henry and Made In The USA, these rifles are gonna be spendy, my guess in the almost-two grand area, but these are the times we live in.

Still On The Block

The Gun Thing

Well, some time has passed in the disposal of The Layabout Sailor’s estate guns, and nothing has changed since this post. In other words, there are a couple-three rifles are still available.

Let’s start with my favorite, the Norwegian Krag chambered in 6.5x55mm.

As I mentioned earlier, the carbine has been sporterized because its original stock was literally falling apart (like, giving the unwary shooter splinters when handled). As such, it has little collector value because those old boys want it original.

But as a hunting rifle? Hoo baby.  If I were younger and still hunting, you wouldn’t be seeing it here because I’d have kept it for myself.  I’ve fired the rifle myself before, back when Jim and I were doing one of our many range visits together, and it’s a honey.  Look, it’s not really a long-range (400+ yards) gun, because few carbines are.  But if I were doing dense-brush hunting for hogs, or deep-woods hunting for whitetails or even black bears, I would take this Krag ahead of any other rifle. And I mean that.

As for its action:

Butter-smooth, of course, and that Krag loading tray ditto. None of that wrestling a stripper-clip or thumbing individual cartridges down into a stiffly-sprung magazine, no siree; throw five cartridges in the tray, snap it closed and the gun will sort it out for you.

This Krag is a proper Norwegian issue (see the arsenal proof stamps) and was made in 1908.

Honestly? I love this little carbine so much that if I had the money, I’d just buy it from the estate myself, despite my having quit hunting. It’s that nice a gun. But I don’t, so I can’t (more’s the pity).

Now here’s the deal.

I want to raffle this off to you, my Loyal Readers. There is a reserve price of $500 that must be reached first, but to make it really easy, I’m asking for a ticket price of only $10 (no limit on purchase quantity). So if I get fifty entries (assuming only one ticket per Reader), it’ll be done and dusted — I’ll do the draw immediately, notify the winner and ship it off to your FFL. Shipping is on me.

Now ask yourself the question: Would I like the chance to own a sweetie like this for only $10? (That’s the current cost of one McDonald Meal Deal, go figure.)

Zelle to [email protected]; Venmo to @Kim-Dutoit-3.  (I don’t do PayPal anymore, sorry.)

And paper checks to the usual Sooper-Seekrit address:

6009 W. Parker Rd
Ste. 149-141
Plano TX 75093

Do it for me, do it for Jim’s Widow Irish, but most of all, do it for yourself.  You will not regret it.

Thoughts On That Poodleshooter Post

SHTF, The Gun Thing

My acquisition of an AR-15 “pistol” (above) generated more than a few comments, but the one that interested me the most was this one:

Your friends are logically planning for group support. They’ve got your back, and you’ve got theirs. 

Armies standardize platforms and calibers for a reason. Sometimes, that’s a compromise.

The scenario in question is a group defensive action, and one of you runs out of ammo. If it’s you, and you’re the one shooting .375 H&H, you’re just outta luck. If it’s your best friend, and all you’ve got is 7.62×39, he’s dead. Because you won’t give up your outdated niche calibers.

Harsh, but true.

Then again, I remember back when 7.62x51mm NATO was the mainstream, and the .223 Rem was the varmint-appropriate “niche caliber”.  But that’s not the point.

Frankly, knowing my friends as I do, if there were any suggestion of a “group defensive action”, I know that each of them has at least one “spare” AR-15 poodleshooter to hand me, and let’s just say a sufficiency of ammo to share (actually, they singly and collectively have enough ammo for about a company of troops let alone just me, but let’s not go there).  I think we’re covered, in that regard.  (Oh, and by the way, if they happen to be at my place when the SHTF, let’s just say that I have the means to do the same for them, just with a sufficiency of 7.62x39mm as the “common” ammo, and the necessary guns to shoot them.)

What worries me is if I’m flying solo in a SHTF scenario.  In that dismal eventuality, the ammo-intensive “spray and pray” mindset is never going to be an option for me — my habit of “making every shot count” dates back at least half a century, and is unlikely ever to change. And I practice, endlessly, to ensure that I have the ability to support such an activity.

In that scenario, my go-to gun — if I have the time to make the choice — is always going to be an AK / SKS-type rather than an AR simply because when it comes to self-defense, I always want to be absolutely confident in my weapons.

I ditched carrying 9mm pistols for that precise reason — because I always felt “under-gunned” with the High Power despite its 15-round mag —  and now I carry only 1911s or (if I’m feeling like a change) a .357 Mag revolver.  And I understand that in these modern times, both of these gun types are “quantity-deficient”, ammo-wise.  To compensate for that, I just have to carry sufficient backup magazines / speedloaders (which I do) and practice reloading of same, which I also do;  the latter activity for something like an hour every single day of the work week, using empty mags and / or dummy ammo for obvious reasons.

As for the long gun option:  rest assured that my pack-out ammo load is sufficient to inflict a considerable reduction of numbers in any goblin horde I may encounter.  And I don’t want to wound or incapacitate said goblins, or shoot to make them keep their heads down or chase them away or whatever;  in that final extreme, if I’m really going to be forced to shoot, then I want fucking death to occur at the naughty end of my firearm.

And my caliber choices reflect that mindset.

Now all that said, as I think about this issue, there is a definite reason to keep the AR-15 pistol:  as a practice tool if ever I’m going to be forced into a “group defensive action” with my buddies.  It’s all very well to have a spare gun handed to you, but it’s useless if you don’t know how to work the damn thing.

So I guess it’s probably going to stay in Ye Olde Gunne Sayfe.  But we’ll see… because if we’re looking at a small carbine (which is what the AR-15 pistol really is), then all sorts of options come into play — such as this lovely thing.

And everyone — my friends as much or more so than many — will have some .45 ACP lying around.

By the way, that insistence on ammo compatibility does not extend to our handguns.  Doc carries something chambered in 10mm (because he’s a big, tough guy — no sarcasm or irony, he really is), and CC (who is also big and tough) carries either a 9mm pistol or occasionally a .357 Mag snubbie revolver.  Interestingly enough, on a day to day carry basis I think I actually carry more spare ammo on hand than they do.  And in a SHTF scenario, I almost certainly have more backup .45 ACP mags than either of them have for their carry guns.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

When you hear news like this, you just know it’s going to have a happy ending:

“10-4 units responding to the burglary in progress, 22nd Avenue caller now advising it was a black male wearing a white shirt armed with a firearm. The caller now advises she has shot that male; he is currently laying on the ground.”

Ignoring the grammar — it’s “lying”, not “laying” — the rest of the story appears to be that a choirboy broke into an Alabama woman’s house armed with a gun, only to discover that said Heroine was likewise armed and quite prepared to defend herself.  Which she did, to his detriment.

Of course, the choirboy was just some innocent kid — not.

Morgan County Coroner Jeff Chunn identified the male as 46-year-old Narado Brinkley, and WZDX said his criminal past includes drug and burglary convictions.

State records show Brinkley served time for offenses, including first-degree robbery, third-degree burglary, possession of a pistol by a convicted felon, and distribution of a controlled substance, WZDX noted.

His records also indicate multiple probation violations, and he most recently served five months after a 2023 conviction on drug and burglary counts, WZDX added.

So maybe not some pore lil’ choirboy, but a total asshole not worthy of any sympathy whatsoever.

There should be some reward — I mean actual money — offered to people who end up ridding society of such scum.  Feel free to disagree with me, but you’d be wrong.

Range Report: One Of Those Mattel Guns (5.56x45mm)

Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

You may want to sit down for this one.

Not long ago, I spent some time with Doc Russia and Combat Controller — both, as Longtime Readers know full well, among my dearest and most longtime friends.  While our initial friendship was sparked by our love of guns, over time we’ve become drinking buddies as well, and many’s the night of company well spent in riotous merrymaking of the liquor-abusing kind, wherein we swap tall tales, tell old lies and slag each other off endlessly.

Anyway, on this particular occasion they ganged up on me and derided my love of Old Things Wot Go Bang, and in fact suggested in no uncertain terms that if ever there was a need for gunplay of the social (okay, anti-social) kind, I would not be a welcome companion because… my choice of SHTF firearm (guess) could not share ammo with their anti-personnel platforms.

I should point out that Doc is a former U.S. Marine, and Combat Controller — as his nickname indicates —  was one of those snake-eater AF types called upon to bring in death from the skies from a friendly air force.  So you know what gun they prefer, right?

Ugh.  Anyway, after a while they told me that they could whip together a gun for me just from parts they each had lying around the place, with maybe just a few additions.  In other words, a new gun at almost no cost to me.

I can only plead semi-drunkenness and (the promiscuous, as it turns out) gun love for agreeing to this stupid idea — with the result that I am now the owner of this thing:

…it being classified as an AR-15-style “pistol”, with a 10.5″ barrel and a “brace” — right.  (Who do we think we’re kidding?)  The red dot sight is the same as the one I have mounted on the Buckmark.

Anyway, I took FrankenGun to the range yesterday to see what all the fuss was about.  (I’ve fired several ARs in my life, but never one built like this.)

First impressions:

  • Holy shit, this thing is LOUD.
  • There’s some recoil but nothing to write home about — about the level of a lever-action shooting .38 Special, if my memory serves me.
  • The trigger is outstanding (for those who want details, it’s supposedly a good one:  Geissele).
  • I spent more time getting the red-dot scope right than playing with the gun.  Also, I only had 40 rounds (two 20-round Pmags).

“Yeah, yeah, but how does it shoot, Kim?”


(for some reason I loaded only four rounds for the second string instead of my customary five)

And in looking at the pics, I mis-typed:  the distance was 20 yards and not 25.

Then I got a little more businesslike:

Hold was center (where the quarter’s been placed).  I was too busy working the scope’s elevation to worry too much about left-right.  And ammo was running short, so I took a deep breath and got really serious:

Okay, I couldn’t get those kind of groups at that distance with any of my other handguns.  So I can’t fault the accuracy.

Also, the FrankenGun ran like clockwork:  no failures of any kind, no bits fell off, nada.  No problems there.

So I’m left with a BIG question, because I’m still undecided whether I like the thing.  It checks a lot of boxes, to be sure.  But I’m still not convinced of the effectiveness of the 5.56x45mm poodleshooter ammo (a long-held reservation, as Longtime Readers will know about me all too well).

Would it be fit for purpose in some kind of self-defense situation?  Not inside the house — not my house, anyway, because I would have serious issues (i.e. permanent deafness) if I touched off the thing there.

Outside the house — and we all know what I mean here — and assuming I was aiming for a target (or targets) at distances longer than 50 yards (way beyond where I would consider using a 1911, for example), would it work for me under those circumstances?

Here’s the crunch question:  would it work better than a pump shotgun loaded with buckshot?  (I know, you only get a few rounds with a pump, whereas with an AR, you get lots more.)

Or, to change the question around a bit, would it work better for me or would I feel better about it if I swapped out the barrel for something more substantial, like the .300 Blackout (.300 BLK) with its more severe recoil?

Like I said earlier, I’m undecided.  Sure, it’s fun to shoot and ammo is cheap (unlike the Blackout, which costs nearly double).  But I don’t know whether my hesitancy is because at the end of the day, I just don’t feel right about the cartridge.  For fun shooting, I have all my .22 guns, and we all know that the .223 is a lot more of a cartridge than that.  But is it serious enough for me as a SHTF round?

I’m going to have a dozen or so more range sessions to get comfortable with FrankenGun, and I’ll let y’all know then whether I’m going to keep it or not.

Even if Doc and CC would hate me for getting rid of it.

As always, all comments and suggestions are welcome… once you’ve recovered from the shock of Kim With AR-15.