Category: The Gun Thing

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

Perennial Complaint

Hunting, The Gun Thing

I’ve often bitched about the high cost of .22 Mag / .22 WMR ammo before — and yes, I know it’s all driven by its (non-)popularity, which drives its price up.

And yes, I’ve also been an ardent supporter of the rimfire cartridge (not that it’s helped at all) because it just adds a little extra reach to the .22 LR:  the Long Rifle bullet just flat-out runs out of steam past 50 yards, whereas its magnum counterpart is still providing some oomph at 75 yards and further.

“Okay Kim, but you’re only getting about 25% more performance, so you should expect to pay more.”

I know, and I accept that.  I would even be prepared to pay double the cost of .22 LR for the added performance of the .22 WMR.  But it’s not that, not even close to it.

Right now, premium .22 LR (but not target, which is a lot more expensive) is going for about (say) 7-8 cents per round.

WMR?  Here’s Eric’s Christmas sale price:


…which, while an excellent deal, still works out to 32 cents per round, or over four times the cost of .22 LR.  And that’s just not worth it, as much as my trigger finger tries to persuade me to throw the old MasterCard at the thing*.

So my much-loved Marlin SSV is going to have to remain idle for a while longer… [sigh]

* The Hornady V-Max, by the way, is absolutely wonderful, and will easily reduce even a fox or coyote to a bag of fur and bones at up to 75 yards.  The stuff I have on hand cost me a ton (more than 32 cents each, more like 50), but it has been an excellent and consistent performer.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: CZ Scorpion EVO 3+ (9mm)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Pistol-caliber carbines are a common topic for discussion on this here back porch of mine, and I thought I’d make mention of this puppy, CZ’s latest incarnation of their excellent little Skorpion subby, the Scorpion EVO 3+ which comes with a 16″ barrel and folding stock.

Look, it’s come a long way from their original little full-auto sweetie, the SA vz.61:

…most notably in that the EVO’s chambering has been (marginally) upgraded from the original .32 ACP to the 9mm Europellet, and the new guy just looks better than the toy-sized original.  (I also like the fake suppressor on the EVO carbine, guaranteed to give the gun nannies fits, but which is removable so one can add a real suppressor onto its threaded barrel for extra-added hysteria.)

The EVO 3+ also comes in a 4″ pistol configuration:


…but I think it’s butt-ugly and if you want CZ reliability in a pistol, then the CZ 75B will do just fine.

Getting back to the carbine:  the nice thing about the new Scorpion is that it retails for well under a grand (compared to the HK MP5 at 3x), and its magazines are, at ~$30, likewise much cheaper than HK.  The only bummer, as far as I can see, is that the Scorpion doesn’t accept the CZ 75’s mags but uses a proprietary one.

As I’ve said before, I’m somewhat dubious about the utility of a 9mm carbine, but I reckon that if you must have one, this new Scorpion seems to fit the bill.  More about it here, and these guys sell it as well as the mags.

Afterthought:  you know what I’d really like to see?  A Scorpion chambered in .45 ACP. matched with their manly CZ 97 B pistol:

I used to own one of these (sold during the Great Poverty Episode), and I miss it terribly.  What a beautiful gun it is, to be sure.

Unicorn Gun

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

I was browsing hither and yon on Teh Intarwebz, and happened upon these lovely creatures (sample below)

…when a random thought occurred to me:  does anyone make a pump shotgun with an exposed hammer anymore?

To be sure, there are some examples of the “coach gun” type with exposed hammer(s), e.g. the Rossi side-by-side:

…but I don’t think they make them anymore.  CZ does, of course:


…and very pretty the “Hammer Classic” is, too:

But at the moment I’m looking for a pump-action shotgun, not a side-by-side.  At the moment, anyway.  (When it comes time to get one of these, that CZ is a goner, even if it’s only available in 12ga.)

Here’s the thing.  I like exposed hammers on a shotgun.  I like to see when the gun is ready to go boom, and there’s no better indicator than a cocked hammer.  And in practiced hands, a manual cocking action isn’t that much slower than a semi-auto one, especially when you take the nannyish auto-safety feature into account.

But while the handgun world is replete with guns with hammers standing proud, shotguns seem to have “evolved” completely into the concealed hammer genre.

And they’re all sleek and stuff, but that’s not what I’m looking for.

And who the hell can afford to pay over three grand for an old 1897 Winchester trench gun anymore? (Norinco used to make knock-off copies of the Win 97, but they’re off the table because ugh Chinese government company.)

Incidentally, the top pic is of an affordable 1897, but it’s chambered for 16ga — not in itself a problem, unless you can’t afford / don’t want yet another caliber in Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer.

What I’m looking for, in other words, is a pump-action hammer-exposed shotgun.  In 20ga. [thud]

Anyone have any ideas?

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Threesome

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Here’s something from Collectors which may seem to carry too high a price (even for them), but really isn’t:  3-Gun Set Belonging to Col. S.B. Sightler ($17,500).

Now I have no idea who the late Colonel Sightler is, or how much his personal collection may be valued by a collector.  What I do know is that the collection is as follows:

Parker DHE side-by-side 20ga shotgun:
(not the actual gun, but a representative sample thereof)

Underwood M1 Carbine:

And Winchester 62A pump-action .22 rifle:

Now here’s my point.  Each of the above guns is, by itself, supremely droolworthy.  And their average sale prices, individually, reflect that.  Depending on condition, a Parker DHE 20ga typically runs about $10,000-$14,000 (I’ve seen higher);  Underwood M1 carbines can fetch $1,500-$1,600;  and a Winchester 62A about $1,200-$1,500.

Adding that up, it comes to around sixteen grand for the three guns, if bought individually.  In that light, the $17,500 that Collectors is asking for the collection doesn’t seem that extreme — even allowing for their normal (inflated) markup.

And one last thing.  Given that these guns were owned by an ex-military man, I’m willing to bet that all three guns — even the little Winchester gallery gun — are in fine condition, which makes them a safe purchase.

If I were a collector and in the market for some decent guns, I’d be sorely tempted.  The provenance is just a bonus.