Category: The Gun Thing

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

Fugly

The Gun Thing

If ever I come onto this here website and start boasting about my latest shotgun purchase, and it’s this one:

…you’ll know it’s time to come and take me away in a coat with belted sleeves.

Great Vulcan’s bursting bladder, that is the ugliest gun I’ve ever seen.  At first I thought it was one of those kit things where you have to add a barrel — but nooo it’s apparently a complete gun.  S&W has made some interesting guns in their storied history, but this looks more like something Kel-Tec would make.

Ugh.

I need to look at a decent shotgun quickly, just to suppress the dreaded Vomit Reflex, so here we go with a Purdey Bar Action Hammer in 12ga:

…and a close-up:

Okay, I feel better now.

To forestall anyone who may start mumbling about “close-quarter combat  situations” and such:  if I’m in one of those, I’d rather have an AK with 30 rounds.

Preferences

Gratuitous Chick Pics, The Gun Thing

One of my favorite online reads is Powerline’s Week In Pictures, because it’s topical and funny as all hell.

However, their last pic typically features a beautiful woman holding a gun (which is a good thing), but she’s almost always dressed in tacticool gear, e.g. this week’s offering (scroll down to the end):

…which all well and good, if that’s what gets you going.

Myself, I prefer the more realistic country look:

Yeah, I’m old-fashioned.

Kein Zweiter Änderungsantrag

Mocking Furriners, The Gun Thing

…which means that the Krauts don’t have a Second Amendment, as witnessed by this sad tale:

Granted, there’s a law in Germanland called the “War Weapons Control Act” which says you can’t own, for example, a Pzkw Mark V (Panther) — I assume it means a working tank;   otherwise, it’s nothing more than a museum piece…

…which old Klaus-Dieter’s clearly is.

And in any event, the old buzzard is eighty-four years old;  he’s hardly likely to launch a blitzkrieg on the local municipal offices, is he?

On the other hand:  70 assault rifles?  That’s impressive, even by Texas standards, although the alleged ammo stash (2,000 rounds) is woefully inadequate — assuming they’re the Stg-44’s 7.62x33mm Kurz cartridges, that’s less than one 30-round magazine per gun.

Also not enough to launch a decent assault on the local Ampt.

Now, the anti-tank “cannon” (seriously?) — even if it’s the teeny Pak 36 with its 37mm gun — would be kinda fun to take up to Boomershoot or to use in times of, shall we say, civic fun and games.  Had it been the fearsome 88mm KwK 36…well, now we’d be talking turkey.  But unlike the Pak 36, you can’t tow it behind your Ram — it’s way too heavy, even for the 5.7-liter engine.

But whatever the actual gun, there’s no mention of any ammo for the thing, which makes it all the more ridiculous that Klaus-Dieter’s been fined a quarter-million euros for owning it and the other decommissioned items.

Final note:  he kept it all in his basement.  Some basement.

And I’d love to get my hands on one of those Stg-44s, assuming they haven’t been wrecked.

Finally, American

Patriotism, The Gun Thing

I’ve owned a couple of lever-action rifles before, but they weren’t in the proper caliber.  Allow me, then, to present you with something I think should be given to every immigrant on becoming a citizen, the Winchester Model 1894 in .30 WCF (.30-30):

I took possession of it a couple days back, was intending to shoot it at TDSA, but never got to it because

I will be taking care of it next week, you betcha.

As for the .30-30 cartridge:

And yes, I now have rifles which shoot each of the above venerable cartridges:

Makes me wanna wave the Flag, or something.

Proud to be American, properly armed at last.

Fun In The Sun

The Gun Thing

Yesterday I hosted a private birthday party for Doc Russia at the Texas Defensive Shooting Academy, which was supposed to consist of half a dozen of his close friends, but because of pathetic excuses (“I’m in Iowa on a business trip”, etc.) ended up with only three:  Doc, Combat Controller, and myself.

Not that we cared.  Unfortunately, we got off to a late start because Birthday Boy also had a pathetic excuse, something about having to treat patients until midday, which meant that we ended up shooting on a typical July afternoon in Texas wherein lizards fry on the sidewalks and cars melt in the streets.

Not that we cared about that, either.  Doc and CC went off to do some tactical house-clearing training followed by a “drive-by” shoot, while I — not wanting to risk sunstroke, dehydration and heat exhaustion, went off to a nice covered shooting bay to test out various sidearms against metal plates and spinners.

Just so we’re clear on the concept, here’s a partial layout of the TDSA range, with the exercise areas, from top to bottom:  drive-by, houseclearing, metal plates:

There are rifle ranges, pistol ranges and .22-only ranges, as well as the aforementioned combat areas.  There are no chairs (other than benches at the rifle ranges), so if you bring guests, bring field chairs as well.

We took sufficient weaponry with us:  as usual, Doc and CC could have armed a small Third World army, while I contented myself with a few, okay eight handguns.  (Range report to follow.)

I’d wanted to do a little rifle action as well, but quite frankly we were all whacked after three hours in the afternoon heat, so we quit.  (I know, I know, big fat wussies etc.)

My advice for anyone wanting to go to TDSA (and you damn well should) is this:  get there at 8am (when the range opens) and quit by midday.  That’s in summer.  In spring or fall, the weather is generally pleasant, BUT:  if it rains, or has recently rained, bring wellies or similar wet-weather footwear, because what appears to be gravel in the picture turns very quickly into deep, cloying mud — especially inside the shooting bays themselves.  Fee for unsupervised shooting is $30 per person per hour, unless the place is deserted, in which case you can shoot till you run out of ammo.  (I recommend taking at least twice what you would normally take to the range, especially .22 ammo.)

And of course, no description of TDSA would be complete without mentioning its owner, Len Baxley (watch both videos), who is one of the Good Guys in every sense of the word:  a seasoned combat trainer and no-nonsense man.  (Quote of the day:  “If you’re going to shoot anyone, shoot someone who came with you.”   We howled.)

His phone # and email addy, to make reservations (recommended):

(972) 979-2432 and  [email protected]

Happy birthday, Doc.

Errrr Maybe Not

The Gun Thing

Last week I got a missive from Mr. Free Market which was headed:

My Last .22 

“Just bought this Anshutz: it’s sorta the last 22 that I will probably buy or at least own.”

And a pretty thing it is too (yes, he’s a left-hooker):

Mr. FM being the deadly shot that he is, all I can hear is the sound of disintegrating rabbits in the fields of his estate.

However, that’s not the purpose of this post.  About three days later, I got this plaintive wail from him:

I know that none of my regular Readers have ever had such a thing happen to them, of course.  <eyecross>

However, as I pointed out to him in commiserating with his plight, I once went to pick up a Swedish Mauser at one gun store, then stopped at another store to get some 6.5x55mm ammo (back in the days when gun stores actually carried ammo)…

…and walked out of Store #2 with not only 200 rounds of 6.5mm Swede, but a minty Inland M1 Carbine as well.

Like me, Mr. FM is pruning back (“consolidating, dear heart”) his gun collection (the above impulse buy notwithstanding), and I think about half a dozen or so shotguns will be going onto the block in the next couple of months.

Which brings me, sorta, to the point of this post.

Regular Readers will know that I’m trying to settle on a couple-three “last rifles” myself, and a 20ga side-by-side to “round off” the total number of boomsticks.  As I despair of ever finding that clean 1970s Colt Python for $600, I think I’m pretty well set for handguns.

Doc and Combat Controller talked me out of getting replacements for my two Marlin varmint .22 rifles (880SQ and 882 HB) with the simple comment that if they’re already “one-hole” rifles with the adequate-but-actually-kinda-lousy triggers, dropping a new trigger group into each is all that’s needed.  And cheaper.

Makes sense, which means I’m not going to be in the market for those CZ 457 rifles anytime soon, or ever.  Although…

[sigh…]

As Doc and CC pointed out, that money saved would be better spent on paying off a credit card (don’t be stupid, these are my friends we’re talking about) buying that CZ Bobwhite:

…which makes all sorts of sense to me.

Last question:  are any of my north Texas Readers familiar with putting an aftermarket trigger group into a Marlin?