Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them
During our semi-regular phone call yesterday, the fiend Mr. Free Market breezily informed me that this coming weekend he will be blasting birds out of the sky at this address:
Even worse, the weather forecast is for “sunny with mild temperatures”, so I can’t even wish that he’ll freeze his nuts off.
ENVIOUS.
Some time back I looked at the new replacements for the John Moses Browning/Dieudonné Saive P35 High Power from Springfield and EAA Girsan.
At the time, I was unaware that FN Herstal had made plans for their own replacement for the older P35, which, as Ian McCollum pointed out in his latest video on the topic, makes all sorts of sense for FN, in that it makes manufacturing less costly and more modern, and gives FN a platform for future generations of their 9mm handgun. (It would help if you watched Ian’s as-always immensely knowledgeable analysis of the new High Power compared to the older P35.)
Here’s my take after watching Ian’s video: I hate the new gun with a passion. Here’s why. (To avoid confusion, I’m going to refer to the new FN gun as the High Power, and the older version as the P35.)
The new High Power is big and blocky, with an oversized grip and all sorts of changes to the P35’s disassembly process. Myself, I have never had a problem in taking the P35 apart, mostly because the process is a lot less fiddly than the (also-Browning-designed) Colt 1911. The P35’s appeal to me has always been its sexiness — that slim profile is gorgeous, it prints less in a carry holster, and mine works very well — admittedly, after a fair amount of improvement by a master gunsmith (and a reworked hammer to avoid the infamous P35 hammer bite).
I don’t care that the High Power now has a larger ammo capacity (18 vs. 13/15 rounds), because 13 rounds has always served me just fine; I’m not some SpecOps or SWAT guy, just a civilian who has always loved the P35 for all the reasons stated above.
And by the way: the High Power now has a longer (plastic ???!!!) guide rod, which means that the once-closed front end of the slide now has an ugly great hole to accommodate the longer guide rod (and did I mention it’s made of plastic?).
My knock on the old P35 has always been that it should been built to handle the .45 ACP cartridge. My suspicion is that the bigger High Power will easily do so — and mark my words, I bet that FN will soon release a .45 ACP version of the High Power.
Anyway, Ian takes the new gun for a spin, and it feeds all sorts of ammo flawlessly — although I note that he didn’t shoot any +P loads. My guess is that the High Power should handle them with ease — not always the case with the P35, or at least my P35.
Now I want you all to know that my dislike for the new FN is not rooted in my well-documented dislike of modern stuff. I just don’t think the new High Power is a proper Browning High Power, but rather a “re-imagining” (their word) of JMB/DS’s 1935 design. Which is fine, but they should have called it something else. And did I already say that the new gun is fugly?
Pass.
If I were to replace my P35 with a new-model 9mm pistol, I’d rather get a SIG 210-9:
…or else a new-manufacture CZ 75 B:
…or I’d just get a new Springfield SA-35 clone, and be satisfied:
I don’t just buy guns because they can shoot well. If I did, I’d just buy a frigging fugly Glock. No, a gun has to be beautiful, and sexy, and fit my hand, and… and… well, you should know the rest by now.
Your opinions, of course, may vary. (I should point out that Ian, even though he likes the new HP, is quite sympathetic towards people of my ilk, as you can see in the first video.)
(go here for Part I and Part II)
…in which I look at some things that the Frogs have done well.
One would think that French gun manufacturing would be as quirky and silly as the Frogs are themselves, but that is not the case. Othias and Mae have expounded on early French guns at length, and while the French have had their missteps, they’re no worse and often better than the Brits, Germans and Americans, to name but some.
The question, as is so often the case, is “But what have they done for us recently?”
Let’s look at longtime gun manufacturer Chapuis Armes as an example. I won’t go into much historical detail about them (see here instead), but let me draw your attention to this little thing:
It’s the Chapuis Chasseur Classique side-by-side shotgun, in either 12-, 20- or 28 gauge. (They also make O/U shotguns, if you’re that way inclined.)
“But Kim,” you wail, “such beautiful guns cost way too much and anyway, we can’t get them Over Here.”
Au contraire, mes petis choux, you can find them at Bass Pro and Cabelas. And yes, they cost over six grand apiece, but then again, these are fine sporting guns (not your Mossberg/Winchester pump guns), and I think they compare very favorably to others of their ilk, such as the Beretta Iubileo.
But it doesn’t stop with shotguns. Chapuis also makes rifles, especially of the “dangerous game” type. Here’s the Elan double rifle:
…and the Rols straight-pull bolt-action:
Both rifle types come in extremely manly and commonsense chamberings: none of that “8mm Lebel” or “7.5x54mm” nonsense.
Feel free to visit their USA website (which is in English, even) to get the details. Warning: there may be extreme drooling.
Unwittingly following on from yesterday’s post about handguns, there’s this article which compares the 9mmP Europellet with the .45 ACP Murkin [sigh] which basically tells us nothing new about the merits or otherwise of shooting one cartridge or the other.
What it did reiterate, however, was not the desired purpose of the piece. What all those stats and indeed the opinions of the shooter showed us is that if you’re going to be shooting a “hot” (e.g. 9mm+P or .45 ACP+P), you shouldn’t be using a lightweight pistol as its platform, either way. That shows up in both the slower “transition” time (to switch between targets) and “reacquisition” time (to get the next shot off into the same target), which was almost as crappy when comparing the regular 9mm to the 9mm+P to the .45 ACP to the beefier .45 ACP+P, never mind the comparison between 9mm anything to the .45 anything.
Well, color me unsurprised. We’ve all known about this for ages — see any of the myriad comments or posts I’ve ever written about the inadvisability of shooting .357 Mag loads in a lightweight revolver — and in my opinion, the author’s selection for his test of a lightweight carry piece, even a 1911 clone, proves the same.
I understand why he did it, if the trend is towards ever-smaller and -lighter carry pieces; but as I said earlier, that trend is not something that should be followed.
Newton will not be denied, folks. Greater energy requires greater mass to provide acceptable recoil.
Remember, I have nothing against lightweight carry pieces — I carry a .38 S&W 637 Lady Smith myself — provided that it is, as it is for me, a backup gun and not a primary carry weapon. And my load is a standard .38 Special and not a +P, because I find the recoil of the hotter load unpleasant in that lightweight piece.
If you are going to carry a Europellet gun [sigh, again] as your primary, that gun should be sufficient to support the projectile you’re going to be using, and shooting it should not be a painful experience. When I do occasionally carry a 9mm piece (because I haven’t yet cleaned the 1911, or just for kicks), it’s a full-size Browning P35 High Power and not some little 2oz 1″-barreled thing, because not only can the P35 handle any 9mm load I put into it, it is also (in my age-befuddled hands) as accurate if not more so than the 1911.
If I had the funds, I’d undoubtedly retire the S&W 637 and get a 1911 Combat Commander as both a backup- or even primary carry gun, then give the P35 to Daughter to replace her gawd-awful little Taurus .380 ACP. (It is her late mother’s gun, after all.)
So there you have it: carry a gun sufficient for the load / chambering if you want good results and wrists that don’t ache for days, and Baby Vulcan will be much pleased.
Here endeth the lesson.
To all the people who have sent me pics of their treasured and beautiful No.4 Mk I rifles by email:
I hate you all and your mothers dress you funny.
Thatisall.
Via Insty, I see this trend, and I’m not happy about it:
While data from 2019 to date shows the compact category has consistently had the greatest sales performance, hovering around 40%, the biggest changes have occurred in the micro-compact category. From 2019 to date, the micro-compact market has grown from an 18% to 25% share, making them a quarter of the 9mm semi-automatic handguns sold. Also notable is the fact that micro-compacts have taken a majority share in the combined sub-compact/micro segment.
Almost all, of course, in the 9mm Europellet chambering.
I’ve tried quite a few of these belly guns in the past, and never found one that suits me — unless in a smaller caliber like .32 ACP. And frankly, if you’re going to use a belly gun (thus named because its use is to stick it into your target’s belly before pulling the trigger), I think the actual difference between calibers is irrelevant because a 1.5″ barrel develops no muzzle velocity past that created by the powder charge itself.
I understand that some people may find a large frame carry pistol to be too heavy and cumbersome and all that. While I don’t have a problem carrying a 1911 myself, I can see that someone else might want something smaller but still retaining more oomph than a 1.5″ barrel throwing out [sic] a 9mm bullet.
Allow me, then, to suggest something like Colt’s excellent Combat Commander, which differs from the full sized 1911 only insofar as it has a 4.5″ barrel, an inch or so shorter.
Longtime Readers will know that I dislike the “extended” grip safety which seems to be what all the cool kids are asking for these days:
…but which is easily swapped out for a normal one, the only irritant being to add about $50 to the cost of ownership.
The Commander-sized 1911 is pretty much the only compromise I’d be willing to make in the “ease of carry” argument, so forget those teeny lil’ pocket guns. Especially in 9mmP.
If I wanted a real belly gun, I’d get a Bond Arms Derringer in .45 Colt / .410ga:
Now that’s going to leave a mark in some goblin’s belly, you betcha. And it fits nicely into a pocket, too.