Category: The Gun Thing

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

Gratuitous Gun Pic: SKS (7.62x39mm)

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

I see that Othias and Mae have broken the shackles of the Great War and moved on to more “modern” times, specifically in terms of the SKS semi-auto carbine (and yes, I know that “SKS” means “semi-auto carbine system” in Russki #Redundancy).

Let it be known that I lovelovelove this little piece of Commieness, almost as much as I do (ex-) Commieskater Katerina Witt.  In fact, keeping the comparison to guns only, I prefer it to the AK-47.  I’ve owned both — and therefore, surprise surprise, fired both, a lot — and I enjoy shooting the SKS more than I do the AK.

I know, I know:  the SKS holds only ten rounds in its mag, whereas the AK can hold a zillion, whatever.  I find reloading the SKS with a stripper clip more pleasant than reloading a 20- or 30-round magazine (even with a guide and several stripper clips), and I would venture to suggest that firing, say, 100 rounds (ten SKS clips) works out to about the same time as it takes me to fire five AK mags.  (Why only the 20-round mag, Kim?  Because you can’t shoot a 30-round mag from prone without some contortion involved.)

And I don’t subscribe to the “spray ‘n pray” fire doctrine so beloved of AR-15 shooters, both by training and by inclination.  You want suppressing fire, ask a machine-gunner to do it for you.

The SKS, being a more solidly-built firearm than the AK, also dampens the already-low recoil of the 7.62x39mm Commie cartridge, which means I can shoot off more rounds before Ye Olde Shouldyrre starts to ache.

Given my druthers, therefore, I would much rather keep the handy little SKS under the bed for, um, social work than the much-clumsier AK. There:  I’ve said it.

If I were asked to perform some militia activity, e.g. guard duty (I’m too old for patrols and such), it would be the SKS slung on my shoulder and not the AK-47, had I any say in the matter.

I also like the attached bayonet of the SKS because it’s a lot easier to pop it open than to fiddle around with a scabbard on my waist to get the sticker onto any rifle, and not just the AK.

So there it is:  it’s a fine gun, even allowing for the fact that its origins are Communist.  They’re available in the West, so said origins can be ignored.

And here’s another piece of Communist finery whose origins can be ignored:

RFI: Crimson Trace

The Gun Thing

With my eyesight deteriorating almost as fast as FJB’s mental facilities,I need to do something that helps my accuracy.

I thought of getting one of the red-dot sights:

…but that would mean getting a new set of holsters, and I don’t want to do that.  (Maybe on my .22 pistols, because I don’t holster them.)

So that leads me to this option.

I’ve been thinking of putting a Crimson Trace laser sight on my carry guns:  the 1911, S&W 638 and S&W Model 65, if I can ever afford to do so.  (The CT lasers are much cheaper than the red dot systems, of course.)

 

Obviously, I can’t do all of them at the same time (#PovertySucks), but it’s getting to the point where I have to do something or else I might just as well shoot my gun gangsta-style:

…and we all know how well that works.  (Don’t even talk about hip-shooting.)

Can anyone give me a good reason why I shouldn’t do the Crimson Trace thing?  Are they reliable, do they need constant adjusting, etc.?

All comments gratefully received.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Tactical Solutions OWYHEE Take-Down (.22 WMR)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

I haven’t heard of Tactical Solutions (Boise ID) before, but this is kind of an interesting concept (via Collectors):

Everyone’s heard me ranting about the cost of .22 Magnum (WMR) before, so I’m not going to repeat it here.  Fortunately, this is softened somewhat by the fact that this little boltie accepts the Ruger 10/22 magnum 9-round magazine, which is (surprisingly) still available despite Ruger’s idiotic decision to discontinue their 10/22 rifle in this chambering.  (Oh, how I regret selling mine… it was a sweetie.)

I have no idea what this rifle’s trigger is like, but at its price point ($1,200 – $1,300!) it had better be faultless.  (Typical rifle prices in this chambering run about $250 – $550, but as far as I can see, the Tac-Sol is the only takedown available.)

Interesting, and definitely worth a look, especially for hikers and backpackers.  Here’s TacSol’s website.

All that said, however, I’d be more tempted by a regular bolt-action rifle such as this Savage Mark II, dressed with this fine Boyd’s “Minimalist” laminate stock:

…priced at Sportsman’s for $340.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Prairie Assault Rifle

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Longtime Readers know well that I am a huge, unabashed fan of the venerable lever-action rifle, often called the “prairie assault rifle” because of its history in the settlement of the West, its ease of shooting and handling, and because of its capacious (for the time) magazine capacity.  Here’s a Marlin 336 in .30-30:

…which as we all know, is a gun I think should be given to all freshly-naturalized citizens immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, courtesy of the U.S. Government.

However, someone in some Marketing Department somewhere decided that the Marlin needed a facelift, and came up with this concept:

…adding to its capacity, so to speak, and lightening the thing by carving out holes in its (plastic!) stock to make up for all the weight added by the extra cartridges (I guess).

Well you know, I don’t have too much of a problem with the above modifications, other than the fact that they make for a truly fugly weapon, and are completely unnecessary in every sense of the word.  (I do make an exception for the red-dot sight device, because I can’t see the front sight anymore and I’m sure there are a bunch of Olde Pharttes in precisely my predicament — said Olde Pharttes being, I guess, the principal target market for such “improvements”.)

The problem is that as much as they want to make the lever-action rifle more resemble a modern semi-automatic rifle of the AR-15 genre, there’s no point because the AR-15 is a semi-automatic with a detachable magazine while the lever action is, well, not.

So then, assuming that you do want a handy semi-automatic rifle but you want to keep the spirit of the lever gun (light, handy, large-capacity magazine etc.), then allow me to suggest an alternative to the Frankenlever thing above:

Yes, it’s the equally-venerable M1 Carbine, made in the several millions, killed probably far more Nazis/Commies than the lever rifle killed Indians, and is the spiritual descendant of the lever rifle.  And if you want, you can add a red-dot sight to the M1 as well, using an Ultimak mount:

See?  I’ll bet that given the choice, the early settlers would have been quite happy with them — and you won’t have to mess around with loading round after round into a lever rifle either (and both Oliver Winchester and John Moses Browning can stop that dreadful grave-spinning, as a bonus).

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Holland & Holland – Royal Grade Double Rifle (.375 H&H Mag)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Okay, I’m going to say it out loud:  seventy grand is too much to pay for a rifle, even one made by H&H.

But have mercy:

Of course you can get cheaper double rifles* — not much cheaper, as a rule, but still — and yes, the mighty .375 H&H cartridge will put down any large animal on Planet Earth (even Michelle Obama), especially when the double triggers will allow you to pop two 300-grain bullets into the target inside two seconds, far quicker than can be achieved working a bolt action, and which will arrive at over 2,500 feet per second.  Energy?  Sufficient.

And beauty?  Indescribable.

Luxury:  we may laugh and deplore it, but its attraction is undeniable.

*

Disposable Guns

The Gun Thing

From Longtime Friend & Reader Dave L. comes this excellent thought about carry guns:

I have a couple of nice carry pieces, including an Officer’s Model Kimber .45 and a Smith 640 which dates back to my wheel gun days.
Of late I’ve been thinking about what would happen if I did a bad guy during a church service. I’m very confident that I wouldn’t be charged with anything because Oklahoma and Baptists, but I remember from my sheriff days that firearms used in a shooting, even a totally righteous one by a retired deputy, have a way of disappearing into the system and never showing up again. I guess the DA can brag that he took another gun off the street.
With that idea in mind I started thinking about a lower priced pistol that wouldn’t bother me when it went into the evidence room.
After a lot of research I bought a Taurus G3C as my church gun.

In the past most gun people had nothing good to say about Taurus, but that reputation goes back 30 or 40 years when their quality was somewhat questionable. My son bought a PT92 Beretta clone about 20 years ago which has given him excellent service. I don’t care for the feel of the gun – I think that I’m shooting a brick – but it feeds everything and goes bang every time.
The G3 definitely isn’t pretty and we old timers don’t have much to say in favor of polymer pistols. Even so, the gun runs all of the time, every time and is more than accurate enough for my 71 year old eyes. I carry it in a Kydex inside the belt holster and have two spare magazines in my left front pants pocket (that’s my old school sheriff training showing). I’ve got it loaded with 115 grain Israeli Military Industries hollow points because the Israelis should know something about putting down terrorists and bad guys.
Should I need to use the pistol for the betterment of society, I don’t feel that I’ll be out a lot of money when it disappears into the system. I pity the poor fool who decides to rob the collection plates or make a political statement in our church.  (We have a church member who is a town PD officer and he provides paid security during our Sunday morning services. We also have at least 8 or 10 retired law enforcement officers (myself included) and serious “constitutional” carriers who will act as backup for our PD guy should things ever go to shite.

Dave sure knows how to give me the Warm & Fuzzies, oh yes he does.

You know, it pains me to think that if some time I am forced to ventilate some choirboy, my treasured 1911 may disappear as described above.

It sucks, and there’s just no justification for such an event even when, as Dave says, the shooting is completely Righteous.

And frankly, I’m not that interested in getting a cheap gun as a “throwaway” so to speak, because if I need to shoot someone, I want to be sure that my gun will work every single fucking time, with no asterisks.  I know very well that my life may depend on the gun, which is why I never stint on quality — but to see it just vanish… you get my point, I think.

Maybe we gun owners should have a friendly chat about this topic with our local lawmakers and get some legislation in place to allow for the speedy return of our guns — e.g. the court case happens, everything turns out well (for the law-abiding citizen, of course), and he’s given a pat on the back and told he’s a free man.

In that case:  what’s wrong with his gun being returned to him within 24 hours of the verdict — with stiff penalties for the relevant PD if this doesn’t happen?  I’d like to think that the local PD would be happy to follow such a law, but at the same time, I’m a realist and the chance of a grandstanding DA behaving as Dave describes is more the way to bet than the other.

I know I have a couple lawyers (nay even prosecutors and defense attorneys) among my Readers, so if any of youse guys care to comment on my suggestion, have at it.