Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

Horrible Question

The Gun Thing

…in the mail from Reader Glen D:

“If for any reason you were unable to carry your beloved 1911 — or any 1911 and derivatives — what pistol (not revolver) would you choose to carry, and why?”

Just the thought makes me shiver with dread, with ghastly options of striker-fired Mattel-looking things chambered in 9mm Europellet (most of the market nowadays it seems [sigh] ), or Glocks [shudder]  or things equally foul like Heckler & Koch, who hate me (and everybody else).

And seeing as Foul Glen has removed my immediate alternative — a revolver — I am forced to consider another semi-auto pistol in something like a decent caliber.  But which one?

I’m not going to bore you with the details of my search, because I ended up in several rabbit warrens’ worth of searches.  Believe it or not, I’d never even considered a carry gun alternative outside the 1911 universe before.  I mean, Kimber, Ed Brown, none of that?

But good grief, modern guns are ugly, in all sorts of ways, even if they (mostly) function as specified.  And while there are quite a few choices, most have short barrels (less than the 1911’s 5″), like the Kahr P45:


…which I actually really like, by the way, because I think the Kahr mechanics are actually better than Glock’s.

Anyway, I ended up with the SIG 220 in (of course) .45 ACP.  Yeah, I know, double action rubbish and square, blocky-looking monstrosity, but these would be the times I’d have to live in [whimper].

Anyway, at least the P220 comes in several flavors.  This one’s the “Elite”:


“Elite”, my aching African-American ass, it’s fugly.

Let’s look at some more. This is the [consults notes]  “X-Six II PCC”:


…and it’s quite fetching — redeemed by the grips, actually — but of course, SIG doesn’t make it anymore, so I’d have to find a second-hand one.

Okay, then there’s the “Alloy Stainless”:


…which is also quite nice-looking [yikes];  but guess what?  it too isn’t available anymore, at least not at the several retail websites I consulted.

Once more, with feeling.  This is the “220R-45-XTM” (try saying that after a couple of gins), and it’s sorta-okay:

But still… ugh.

On we go.  Here’s the “Super Match”:


…okay, this one is a lot more like it, and it’s at least single-action-only (SAO) like the 1911.

This would be my non-1911 choice.

Ummmmm…

FFS

Even at that price, I might be tempted — but I very much doubt that the SIG’s single-action trigger is on a par with any 1911, let alone mine.

To Reader Glen:  I hope you’re satisfied.  You bastard.

Something Old, Some Things New

Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

Sometimes an article appears that just resonates with me, but before I talk about this one I need to clear the space a little.

One of the problems that beset gun manufacturers is that they are, in effect, doomed by the quality of their product.  My Swedish Mauser, for example, was designed in 1896 and made in 1906, and after probably several hundred rounds through the barrel — maybe over a thousand, who knows? — it can and does still shoot minute-of-angle (MOA) groups at 100- and 500-yard distances.

So from a manufacturer’s perspective, they produced a rifle that has lasted close to four generations, and counting;  there’s no way they could stay in business with that kind of production cycle, even assuming that the number of shooters would moderately increase every year.  That’s no basis for a business to operate.

Fortunately, gunmakers are blessed with a restless clientele who are always on the search for the “perfect” cartridge — flatter trajectory, higher velocity, harder-hitting, lessened recoil:  you name the goal (or combinations thereof) and there’ll be a market for it.

So it’s no surprise that the manufacturers will come out with some new wunderkind-cartridge that will require a new rifle with a different chamber size, different barrel bore / rifling twist, and so on.

I used to have a problem with this, especially when — as it must — such “improvements” come at the expense of a cartridge doomed to reloader-only status simply by virtue of being old.  There’s only so much room on the shelf, after all, and only so much profit to be made at whatever production runs.

The 6.5x55mm cartridge used by the aforementioned Swedish Mauser is a good example of the above phenomenon.  That 6.5mm (.256″) bullet diameter has been proven to be perhaps the perfect dimension to create the compromise between performance and recoil for most small-to-medium-sized game (and amply adequate for ahem anti-personnel requirements).

One can play around, of course, with the cartridge casing size and/or length to change the propellant quantity that will slow or increase the bullet’s velocity.  So the 6.5mm bullet can appear inside the 55mm casing of the Swede, the 47mm of the 6.5mm (BR) Lapua, the 51mm of the .308 Win (a.k.a. 6.5 Creedmoor), or the 63mm of the .30-06 (a.k.a .25-06 Remington):  the list goes on and on.

And that’s just for the quarter-inch bullet diameter.  Now take it up to 6.7mm (e.g. the .264″) and OMG 7mm, and all hell breaks loose.

So now you can go and read 6 Dying Rifle Cartridges that Deserve a Second Chance, and see if you agree.  Your own choices for redemption can be posted in Comments.

For Readers Of More Recent Vintage, I first talked about this topic a couple decades ago, in Nothing Good Since 1955.

And yes, I know that all the cool kids swear by the 6.5 Creed;  we Olde Pharttes know full well that the 6.5 CM is popular only with shooters who’d never shot the 6.5 Swede, which is a superior performer anyway.

In cartridges, as with all things, history is important.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be wanting a cigarette after reading this lovely little story — even if like me you don’t smoke.

An intruder who used brass knuckles to beat against a front door and break a window just before midnight Friday in Missouri was shot multiple times by the homeowner and killed.

KFVS 12 reported that the homeowner, Austin Glastetter, was in the house with his wife at the time of the incident.

Glastetter told the suspect, 31-year-old John Fisher, that he was armed, but Fisher allegedly responded by saying, “You’ll have to kill me.”

Wait, wait, hold it in for just a minute…

Glastetter then shot Fisher multiple times.

And:

The Scott County Sheriff’s Office issued a release noting that deputies arrived on the scene to find Fisher deceased.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em…

About That Stuff

Optics, The Gun Thing

So in PSA’s hourly emailed sales brochure (side note:  seriously?  keep this up and you’re going to end up in the spam folder, guys), I see this:

Now I have no idea whether this is a good buy, or the product quality thereof either, but I have to ask myself:  outside the .dotmil and law enforcement, who the hell would want to buy this kind of thing? 

Don’t get me wrong:  I’m not saying that this shouldn’t be available, and “just because” isn’t sufficient reason to want to own anything gunly.  No no siree, not me never.

But you’re going to drop a grand on something that I can almost guarantee you’re never going to need or use, outside your fevered Red Dawn fanboi fantasies.

Please let me reiterate:  if you’re going to spend a grand on something intrinsically useless, be my guest.

But a thermal optic?

Feel free to correct my thinking, in Comments.

Update:  Clearly, according to my ahem propertied Readers, I’m showing my Suburban Bias.

My apologies to one and all.