“The fastest way to get American shooters to buy something is to tell them they shouldn’t be allowed to do so.”
And yet, the fools in government persist in trying to ban our guns…
Category: The Gun Thing
Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them
Changing History, Just A Little
This little flight of fantasy was inspired by Chris Muir’s cartoon from yesterday and the day before.
In the spirit of our Crossing America series, imagine that you and a dozen of so of your best buddies were able to go back to any time during the Civil War and enlist in the army of your choice, at an appropriate age and level of fitness. In your travel back through time you could take the battle rifle and sidearm of your choice and 500/50 rounds of ammo for each piece respectively, subject to the following conditions:
- no full-auto rifles or machine guns of any type;
- no explosive ordnance e.g. hand- or rifle grenades
- no fanciful crap like lasers or photon pulse guns — you know what I’m aiming for, here. You’d be a foot-soldier but by the standards of the time, a Starship Trooper.
To make life even easier, let’s assume that you could pick the campaign or battle you’d fight in, under your choice of battlefield commander, but you and your platoon would have a certain degree of autonomy.
Your choices and supporting arguments in Comments.
My weapons of choice:
Swedish Mauser M96 (6.5x55mm) as equipped below:
…with a bagful of loaded stripper clips, to save on weight.
Next (to nobody’s surprise):
Springfield 1911 in .45 ACP:
…ammo pre-loaded in five 10-round Chip McCormick magazines.
As to the battles and such, I’ll have to think about that for a while longer, but I’m leaning towards Stones River, on the Confederate side.
Gratuitous Gun Pic: Beretta 486 (20ga)
I am a huge fan of Pietro Beretta guns, of almost any age, function, caliber, whatever. One of my all-time favorite .22 pistols is the Modelo 75, for example:
…which I think is easily one of the most beautiful handguns ever — almost Art Deco, with that slim frame and those flowing lines — and (coincidentally) the Beretta gun which I’ve fired the most, it being the pistol with which I learned to shoot handguns.
However: like its major competitor Browning, Beretta guns have always been just on the slightly-unacceptable side of affordable. I know, quality, value, workmanship etc. etc. aren’t free; but still, they’re always a priced a leeetle more than I want to spend on a gun.
And here’s the subject of today’s GGP: the lovely Berette 486 side-by-side in 20ga, as listed by Collector’s:
…and only the lack of a second trigger makes this an “Oooooh Kimmy wants!” object of desire.
That, and the price thereof: $6,850 (!!!!!)
Okay, maybe I’m getting jaded. But let’s be honest: with the improvements made in manufacturing by CNC and so on — i.e. churned out of some (admittedly high quality) production line — would it be too much to ask that this gun be priced at the $5,500 point? That would make it still expensive, but still maintain its premium well above Winchester, CZ, Mossberg and Browning, for example, and competitive with, say, an upper-end Fausti.
Because right now, if I were looking at buying a decent shotgun as specified above, the Fausti would get my order despite my reverence for Beretta. Fausti offers a drop-in double trigger for a few dollars extra, which Beretta doesn’t — not for a “few dollars extra”, that is — and having handled several Fausti guns in the past, I believe their quality is on a par with Beretta.
All thoughts are welcome in Comments, as always.
And About Time
From Reader Brad Of Illinois comes this very welcome news:
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. is proud to announce the (re-)release of the Marlin Model 336 Classic.
“The legendary Model 336 helped to build Marlin Firearms into the iconic American brand that it is today,” said Ruger President and CEO, Chris Killoy. “We have worked for many months on every detail to ensure that Ruger‘s reintroduction of this iconic rifle lives up to its stellar reputation.”
Chambered in .30-30 Win., the Model 336 Classic sports a beautifully finished American black walnut stock and forend. Crisp, clean checkering on both the stock and forend improve the appearance and grip of the rifle. The stock’s black pistol grip cap is inset with a Marlin Horse and Rider medallion, and the forend is attached using a barrel band.
The alloy steel rifle is richly blued, features a standard-sized finger lever, and has a six-round magazine capacity. The 20.25” barrel is cold hammer-forged, which improves longevity and yields ultra-precise rifling for exceptional accuracy. Like the classic 336, this rifle features the gold-colored trigger.
Even better:
Additional models in different calibers and configurations will be released throughout the coming year.
The only reason I’m not going to get one is that I already have a Winchester 94 in .30-30 — but I have long been eyeing a companion rifle to my .357 revolvers, and when Ruger gets round to re-issuing those…
Gratuitous Gun Pic: H&H SxS 12ga Pair
Longtime Readers will know that when it comes to shotgun calibers, I am of the 20-gauge persuasion simply because I’m leery of getting my shoulder separated etc. (I know, I know: your 5’1″ 110lb wife can handle a 12ga all day blah blah blah whatever.)
THAT SAID: I could be tempted into this matched pair of Hollands because reasons. (All pics can be enlarged via the usual methods.)
You may say they’re not worth the money, but all I can think of is that choir of angels singing hallelujah every time I open the safe door.
Now where did I leave that winning lottery ticket…?
In Memoriam
I see that John Linebaugh — founder of the “Never Mind The Recoil, See The Dead Elephant Over There” school of large-bore handgun cartridges — has fired off his last round and gone to join JM Browning and Paul Mauser at Vulcan’s knee.
And what better way to commemorate the man than by showing what he was all about, with this Magnum Research monster in .500 Linebaugh?
Just looking at that bad boy BFR makes my wrist ache… but I gotta tell you, unless you’re hunting blue whales or Tiger tanks, you are not going to be undergunned.
R.I.P. John, gone too soon.