Category: The Gun Thing

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

ULD Decision Time

The Gun Thing

After weighing all the options, I purchased the ULD Boomershoot gear as follows:

  • Caliber:  .300 Win Mag.

This was the easiest choice, given my own experiences at Boomershoot and hunting in Scotland with Mr. Free Market and the gang.  In adverse conditions (rain, sleet, snow, strong winds) the .300 Win Mag beats all other chamberings by a day’s march.  As I’d made the caliber choice early on, I went ahead and ordered some boxes of “test” ammo, which I’ll be comparing to each other over the next couple weeks.  I got Spendy, Medium-Spendy and Budget (the latter, actually, is Sellier & Bellot because despite its lowly price, I’ve found this Czech ammo to be amazingly consistent in other chamberings.  I’m kinda hoping it does well, because I have a line on an amazing deal — less than $1 per round).

Whichever  gets the best grouping, however, will be purchased in Boomershoot-type quantities, and what doesn’t get used up in Idaho will be shipped to the lucky winner of the draw (because I don’t own a .300 Win Mag rifle, so I won’t be tempted to hold some back as “tax”).

So much for the cartridge.  Next, the boomstick:

  • Rifle:  Ruger M77 Hawkeye Long Range Target.

The choice was between this rifle and the Savage 110FCP, and to be honest, I couldn’t make up my mind.  Ultimately, I let availability drive the decision — and while the Savage was on back order / out-of-stock everywhere I looked, the Hawkeye was actually in stock at one of my local gun pushers FFLs nearby.  Hello, Mr. Gun Pusher.  Of course, I always have Buyer’s Dread after dropping over a grand on an untested (by me) rifle… but then I read this review of the Hawkeye, and I didn’t feel too badly about the decision.  I hate the Technik durch Plastik  appearance of the stock (I know, it’s painted laminate, which makes me feel better, but it’s still pig-ugly).  As long as it shoots better than I can shoot it… which brings me to the glass.

  • Scope:   Zeiss 6-24x50mm Conquest V4 30mm with illuminated reticle #65 and ballistic stop turret

(the crosshair is actually finer than pictured — I just enhanced it to make it clearer)

The combination of Zeiss glass plus the illuminated reticle might make all the difference to an average rifle shooter like me at distance, in crappy weather.  It’s a serious long-distance reticle (as opposed to a “pure” hunting one), and I can’t wait to get it up to speed.

Finally, the thing what holds it all together:

  • Rings:  Warne Skyline 30mm

Because the Hawkeye has an attached Picatinny rail, it makes the choice of rings quite easy.  Unfortunately, most scope mounts designed for this configuration are, to my mind, not geared towards handling hard recoil — let’s face it, 90% of the time, they’ll be holding onto a semi-auto gas action AR-15 firing the poodleshooter cartridge.  But a bolt-action rifle sending off a blitzenthumpenboomer  .300 Win Mag bullet?  It’s gotta have beeeg mahsells [/Arnie].  So I’ll be going with the trusted Warne scope mount because of its multiple-screw locking setup — and this does not look like it’s going to be jarred loose anytime soon:

I know, I know:  “But-but-but Kim, what does it look like when it’s all assembled?”

So there it is, complete with a post-boresighting gin:  now it’s time to get this show on the road.  Range report to follow, as soon as Doc Russia can find some spare time.  (He too has a new .300 Win Mag rifle to shake down.)

Right Up To, And Then

Marxists, The Gun Thing

I saw this meme somewhere, and realized that while true, it’s also incomplete.  See if you can figure out why:

Yeah… all of them were Marxists, in one way or another, and from that one would think, “Yeah, they’re on our side.”

And they are… right up until they come to power.  Then:

The numbers (and a couple of dates) are not quite correct in the above, but the outcomes are.  Once the Commies come to power, it’s civilian disarmament (through regulation or legislation, or both) followed shortly thereafter by massive oppression.

But you all knew that already.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Browning Gold Hunter 20ga

Gratuitous Gun Pics

I hardly ever talk about the coronavirus, and I’m heartily sick of the topic.  So here’s a pic of a gun that the idiots at Browning decided not to continue producing, the semi-automatic Browning Gold Hunter:

Connie had one of these until her health problems curtailed her shooting activities, and so I sold the thing (because I’m a bigger idiot than Browning).  I’ve regretted doing that ever since.

I loved this gun.  It had almost no recoil — certainly much less than my own Browning Sweet 16 — and many’s the day we spent shooting at clays, golf balls and hippies actual watermelons with it.  Randy Wakeman feels the same as I do:

The [Gold Hunter] 20 gauge, in particular, is just an amazingly soft shooter. Not a flyweight in standard configuration, with 7/8 oz. dove loads the recoil is exceedingly mild; you can barely feel the gun working.

He has a gripe about the Gold Hunter’s trigger, but ours was light and smooth as silk.

I have to say that if ever I stumble across one at a gun show in good condition and at a reasonable price, it’s going to come home with me faster than Carol Vorderman, seen here in RealTree camo.

(That’s called a “twofer” — Gold Hunter + Carol — by the way.  Anything  to forget about the Wuhan Virus.)

Tole Ya So Redux

SHTF, The Gun Thing

Even I get sick of myself sometimes when it comes to banging on about the need for MOAR AMMO in yer ammo lockers.

“O but Kim”, you exclaim, “I’m pretty sure I have enough ammo!  And anyway, it’s not like the godless Democrats like Obama are in control and threatening to limit ammo sales!”

And then, of course, one sees news items like this snippet (courtesy of Longtime Friend Sarah Hoyt):

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) hits the US, it’s not just hand sanitizer and flu medications that are flying off the shelves. While Walmart and Target are running out of emergency essentials and “currently unavailable” is popping up on various Amazon searches, the rush to be prepared has also reached the ammunition industry.
Recent analysis shows that online ammunition retailer, Ammo.com, has seen a significant increase in conversions and sales since February 23, 2020. The company reports that this surge corresponds with the public concern regarding the COVID-19 virus.

Yeah… just because it isn’t hurricane season and the Socialists don’t control all three branches of government, that does not mean you should slacken in your efforts to keep yourself in fresh ammo at all times.  The sudden need for ammo can come from any direction, as the above shows.

And as any fule kno, the absolute minimum ammo level is 20,000 rounds of .22 rimfire, and 500 rounds per gun of centerfire ammo, double that if it’s a semi-auto rifle like an AR, AK, Garand, FN-FAL, G3, M1 Carbine etc.  (Note the “per-gun” level:  if you own two AR-15s, for example, that’s not one thousand rounds but two  thousand rounds of poodleshooter needed on the shelf.)  As for your carry piece:  that’s an absolute minimum of 200 rounds of self-defense ammo (usually ten boxes) and more than 1,000 rounds of practice ammo.

Lemme emphasize this, one more time:  if the whole thing goes pear-shaped, your ammo is going to save your and your family’s lives a lot more handily than a box of anti-bacterial hand-wipes or a roll of toilet paper.

Waffen Durch Plastik

Modernism, The Gun Thing, Traditions

Yeah, I’ve noticed this alarming development too:

Taking a look at some of the most popular firearms companies, I was honestly a bit shocked to see how the synthetic/polymer/laminate wood stocks have come to dominate the market. The vast majority of Ruger, Remington and Savage rifles and shotguns are stocked in something other than walnut. The Winchester Model 70 maintains a walnut stock advantage, as does the lineup of Winchester lever-action rifles, but synthetic-stocked lever-actions are popping up regularly these days; Marlin and Henry being two examples which come quickly to mind.

This bullshit is something I’ve bemoaned ever since I was first able to hold a gun.  Here’s why:

A well-sealed walnut stock will actually stand up well to most hunting situations, though they aren’t as rigid or easy to produce as a synthetic stock. While the mass-produced stocks are created by machinery, the higher-end walnut stocks are finished by hand. Custom stocks are a work of art, and to watch a classically trained stockmaker hand-carve a stock is like watching Michelangelo work. Names like Ralf Martini, Todd Ramirez, D’Arcy Echols, Mark Renmant and JJ Perodeau, just to name a few, can make the stock of your dreams. And I firmly believe that, like a fine watch, everyone should own at least one gun with a stock they are truly proud of.

That’s part of it, but not all of it.  I love the feel of a wooden stock in my hands, a feeling that is entirely absent when I hold a piece of fucking plastic.  Wood is warm, it feels natural and somehow seems to form a bond between gun and man in a way that some synthetic material just… doesn’t.

And I don’t buy this “wood warps and pushes the barrel out of register” bullshit.  I’ve shot rifles in some pretty damn extreme conditions (African heat and Wisconsin cold, not to mention Scotland windy and wet) and I have never experienced that, in any rifle.  I suppose it could  happen, if the stock is too tight against the metal (which it shouldn’t be to begin with);  I’ve just never noticed it.

Frankly, I think the clue to this nonsense lies in here:

Those [wood] stocks—even the blanks from which they are made—are not cheap. The custom walnut stock is extremely labor-intensive, and the highly figured walnut, which was much more common a century ago, has become a rarity. Many of the hardwood stocks in use today are rather plain looking, and the figured stocks come at a premium, for certain.

Much easier, cheaper and more “efficient” (fuck, I’m starting to hate that word) just to pour some polymer crap into a mold and screw the rifle action in, ten seconds’ work and all done.

Bah.

I have only two rifles with Tupperware stocks — my Marlin 880SQ and 882SSV rimfire rifles — simply because Marlin doesn’t offer those two models with wood stocks, and it’s a long-term project of mine to replace the soulless black plastic with wood, one day, even though the stocks will probably end up costing me more than the original rifles themselves.

Compare the above with the rifle below, and tell me I’m wrong.

Let’s not even GO here:

(I note, by the way, that fine shotguns seldom come with PoliGrip stocks, so that’s all I need to say about that.)

I know:  yelling about this is like moaning about the wind-tunnel shape of modern cars — it’s pointless, and as a trend, plastic stocks are no doubt here forever.

But I’ll tell you this (and it’s a promise):  the day that new rifles are ONLY offered with plastic stocks is the day I stop buying new rifles altogether.

Gratuitous Gun Pic – CZ Upland 20ga

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Oh man… just saw this beauty at Collectors:

Last time I looked, CZ doesn’t make their shotguns, still outsourcing their manufacture to Huglu in Turkey.  That’s not a knock, by the way:  I’ve fired many actual Huglu-branded shotguns, and they’re excellent.

Just so everyone’s on the same page as I am, note Kim’s Must-Haves list:

  • side-by-side barrels no less than 28″ in length
  • double trigger
  • straight “English” stock (no revolver grip)
  • splinter forend
  • pretty wood

And all the above for quite a bit less than a grand… ooooh mommy, I hate being poor.

Afterthought:  compare the above to the Italian-made Weatherby for sale at the same shop.  The Weatherby may be a better shotgun than the CZ… but in no way is it nearly three times  better.