Category: The Gun Thing

Seen at Knuckledragger’s:

If I had one of those, I’d also have about 50 more mags and a jillion more rounds of 7.62x39mm.  I hate reloading AK mags — well, all mags, to be honest.

Earlier in the week, I had a long lunch with the Son&Heir, during which we discussed our usual breadth of topics — we have long lunches together — and among the common topics of career advice, lifestyle updates and so on, we spent considerable time talking about guns.

He admitted that he wants / needs a 1911, and despairing of my good health and (for the moment) unlikely demise, realized that his chances of inheriting mine anytime soon were not good.  So he’s going to get one soon on his own account, and being his father’s son, most likely a no-frills version like the Springfield Mil-Surp:

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about here.  This is.

We discussed the impetus behind yesterday’s post, on the kind of rifle that I would want to own, given my failing eyesight and disenchantment with hunting, and he summed up my situation thus:

“Exactly what shooting are you planning to do from now on?”

It’s a good question.  Obviously, there’s the self-defense issue (quite adequately addressed by the current selection between my Springfield 1911, High Power and S&W 637 Airweight), and the extension thereof, delicately labeled “street occasions” (AK-47 and M1 Carbine).  All that’s a settled situation, with maybe a .357 revolver as the final addition, at some point.

As far as plinking is concerned, my needs are few — the Taurus pump .22 for fun, and the Marlin 880SQ and its .22 WMR counterpart for targets.

Then came the crunch question:

“If you’re not going to go hunting again, why get a new bolt-action rifle at all?”

I have to admit that it stumped me.  For starters, the very thought of my life not including a hunting rifle is like contemplating a life without, say, books.  That kind of gun has been part of my persona for so long that being without one quite literally makes me feel nervous.

But there it is.  I’m unlikely ever to go out into the field again or, more likely, go to the rooftops for one of those “social” occasions, because I’m too old for both activities.  I do have a few older bolt-action rifles that could be pressed into service, in a pinch, for an emergencies of either kind.  And the followup question:

“Other than plinking and handguns, what kind  of shooting would you be likely to do?”

And the answer is:  clay pigeons, e.g. as I have done on a number of occasions Over There:

  
 

Which of course begs the question:

“If you love it so much, why don’t you do that Over Here?”

I have no answer for that.  I regularly visit more than a few indoor ranges scattered around Dallas and the Plano area, but there are far from that many opportunities for shotgunning.

But there is Elm Fork Shooting Sports a few miles southwest of where I live, which caters for just such a pastime:

It’s an expensive place to shoot, but so what.

Which leads me, at long last, to the question of equipment.

While I yield to no man in terms of the quality of my other guns, I will admit that my shotgun (note: singular) is, to put it mildly, not fit for purpose.

It’s a Spanish-made no-name brand side-by-side of dubious quality, and I think I last fired it in the single-digit 2000s.  Maybe 2004.  Worse yet, it’s in 16ga [okay, you can quit that derisive laughter]  but all is not yet lost.  Because when tidying up Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer prior to leaving the flooded apartment, I happened to come across a couple hundred rounds of 20ga (don’t ask, I don’t know either).

So:  instead of replacing the stolen CZ 550 6.5 Swede with a rifle, might I… get a decent shotgun instead?  (I will give you all a few minutes for the smelling salts to take effect.)

Now I know that in no other part of the Gun Thing can one’s bank account be emptied more quickly than in the world of shotguns: That’s an A.H. Fox FE, and I put it up here not to consider buying it ($28,500 second-hand, uh huh), but to show the essentials any prospective purchase would have to have:  20ga chambering, side-by-side barrels at least 28″ long, double triggers, splinter fore-end and a straight (a.k.a. “English”) grip stock.

And I want it new.  The problem with sporting shotguns like the above is that they’ve generally been used hard — not that this is a Bad Thing, of course — but I don’t want to buy the thing and have the action fall apart because after 200,000 rounds, well, that could happen.  (Mr. Free Market, for example, has “shot out” not one but two Berettas in his time.)  And a shotgun rebuild / repair is expensive, bubba.

So after some fairly extensive research, there are really only two shotguns which satisfy all my criteria.

First, there’s the Iside (by I.F.G. — Italian Firearms Group, more on them here), and for well over $2,000 it looks like the business:

But that’s right at the top of what I want to spend — actually, quite a bit over the top — so is there anything else of similar features and quality?

Ho yuss there is and, surprise surprise, it’s made by CZ — okay, actually made by Huglu in Turkey but distributed by CZ-USA.

It’s the second-generation (G2) Bobwhite, and it retails for about $650 (where you can get it — I might have to wait awhile…).

Now granted, the Bobwhite’s finish is not exactly ornate, but that’s fine by me:  fancy engraving and carving is what really drives up a shotgun’s price, and as those who know me can attest, I’m not the kind of guy who cares for ornamentation.  But I have to tell you, the G2 model with the case-hardened finish has me fondling Ye Olde Credytte Carde:

Even though it’s brand new, it looks old… it could have been made for me.  Hell, I might just consider getting two, because at that price ($1,300 ) it’s about the same as I’d spend getting a decent rifle plus scope.  Because it’s going to get well used, so to speak.  And the ammo cost doesn’t look too bad, either.

Don’t blame me;  blame the Son&Heir.

I’ve spent some time talking about a replacement for the Boomershoot ULD rifle.  Now I’m going to talk about what I might consider as a replacement for my stolen 6.5x55mm CZ 550, and let me share my thoughts.

All my 6.5mm Swede ammo was stolen, along with the rifle.  (I have more — okay, a lot more — Hirtenberger mil-surp stashed away at a sooper-seekrit location, but all my soft- and hollowtip ammo went bye-bye.)  So I’d be starting from scratch, so to speak, and thus I have the option of either exploring a different chambering altogether — either one I don’t have experience with (e.g. 6.5 Creed), or one I know and love (.308 Win) or one of which I have a boatload of ammo stock already (7.62x39mm).  To make sure we all know what I’m talking about, I’ll be looking for a bolt-action scoped rifle which will be effective at 100 yards, and can reach out to 200 yards if necessary.  (Beyond that, I’m not interested unless with a ULD-type rifle.)

Budget would be about $1,500.

Taking the last one first, the only candidate for a 7.62x39mm boltie is the CZ 527 carbine, with a quality medium-range 9x or 10x scope:

The 527 retails for about $700, and a decent illuminated scope (like this one) about the same.

As for the other options, the options are pretty much endless;  but for my “unfamiliar” chambering, I think I would certainly entertain the Tikka T3 Hunter (because wood stock, and because Tikka) in 7mm-08 Rem:

Amazingly, I’ve seen 7mm-08 ammo available in quite a few outlets, and I’ve always had a secret hankering to shoot what is after all an improvement over the venerable 7x57mm (an old favorite).  The Hunter is also available in .308 Win, so that covers both “new” and “old” chamberings.

Another lovely rifle I’m familiar with, and which is likewise available in both .308 Win and 7mm-08 is the Sauer 100 Classic:

The Classic retails for about $950.

At this point, the question might be asked:  “Well Kim, if you’re such a fan of the CZ 550/557 rifles, why not one of those?”  and it’s a fair question, because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the 557 American:

As everyone knows, I have a long and excellent relationship with CZ rifles, from the old Brno 602 back in Africa to its more modern descendants.  However, I’m not considering it here because for some reason CZ has discontinued the CZ 557 hunting rifles in both 7mm-08 and .308 Win — so if I were to want to purchase either of those two chamberings, I’d be SOL unless I found a decent secondhand one, or some retailer / distributor had an old “Sporter” model in .308 Win.

Of course, someone’s going to complain that I’m only considering furrin guns and not Murkin ones.  Au contraire, mes amis aux fusils :   I would indeed consider (at $850) the Savage 110 Classic, in either 7mm-08 or .308 Win:

…the Winchester Model 70 Featherweight (at around $900):

…as well as the Browning X-Bolt Micro-Midas (at just under $800) in the same calibers:

What really gets up my nose is that in Ye Olden Dayes, (or Days Of Yore, if you prefer), a visit to your local Merchant of Death would find at least four or five of these fine rifles already on the shelves, to be handled, fondled and trigger-tested at will.  Nowadays, of course, you have to just order the damn thing and trust to luck that the rifle will not turn out to be a total dog (like the Savage Axis rifle I tested earlier this year, which arrived in no fit condition to shoot).

But these are the times we live in, I suppose, and the only factor in my favor is that I know my rifles reasonably well, and can make a more-or-less informed judgement thereof.  Pity the first-time buyer…

And you’re probably going to ask me which of the above I’d choose if I had to make a decision right now.  Most likely, the CZ 527 in 7.62x39mm because at least I wouldn’t have to sink another $500+ into building up a starter ammo supply.  Otherwise, I’d go for the Tikka T3 Hunter.

Don’t ask me which caliber — and I’ll be looking at the caliber choices later next week, because while you can get decent .308 Win brass-cased ammo for under or close to $1 per trigger-pull, 7mm-08 runs over $2.  Phew.

Over the past weekend I had a long and interesting conversation with Longtime Friend and Rifleman Combat Controller (and for the purposes of brevity, I’ll refer to him henceforth simply as “Z”).  Here’s the setup.

Z has two old Lee-Enfield rifles that have been extensively modified to the point where bringing them back to “original” condition is not a proposition.  As he puts it:

“They are both very well done conversions but I also have several (rare even) Enfields in original condition so I am not interested in restoring them. The cost would be higher than buying unaltered ones. “

So please don’t go down that road, ’cause it ain’t gonna happen.

“Here are the donor rifles.  The Mannlicher-stocked one is a 1916 No.1 MK III* has a 16″ barrel, and  has such an early serial number it might have been made in the first weeks of production, since 1916 was the year it was adopted.”

“The other one is a Santa Fe Arms conversion with Williams sights and a new heavy 19.4″ barrel.  The Model 1941 was the apex of the conversions apparently. No idea what year the receiver was made.  I am thinking right now of a .308 conversion that takes the M14 magazine, or a .45-70 conversion.  But I am interested in other ideas for sure.”

Basically, he’s thinking of staying away from anything that smacks of a wildcat chambering, but would be supported by ammo of which he has at least a case — that would be .308 Win, 7.62x54R, .45-70 Gov and so on.  As he’s an engineer and competent amateur gunsmith, rechambering, or reboring barrels — or, for that matter, putting in a new barrel altogether — are not a problem, so the field is pretty much open.  (Remember that the .303 Enfield uses a bullet of .311 diameter, so any 7.62mm cartridges are possible.)  The Enfield action is wonderfully rugged, so it could take pretty much any cartridge e.g. even .458 Win Mag.  Also, the short barrels would militate against using a cartridge which requires a long barrel to get the bullet working (e.g. the 6.5x55mm Swede).

During our (long) conversation, I had a couple of ideas myself, such as converting the 1916 rifle to .357 Rem Mag or even .454 Casull, for instance (as I happen to know that he has supplies of both in, shall we say, adequate quantities). Certainly, a chamber which headspaces off a rimmed cartridge makes life simpler (.45-70 Gov, anyone?), but a rimless cartridge is definitely not off the table.

So Z is also interested in any and all suggestions from my Readers (because he knows that we are a bunch of unabashed gun nuts).

So there it is:  let’s hear it from you folks, either in Comments or via email (which I’ll forward on to him).  What shape would your conversion of the above carbines take?

Just to add to the fun:  there is a real possibility that one of the above carbines would be raffled off on this here website once the conversion has been accomplished and tested as fit for purpose.  (Just for the record, the 1916 carbine set my trigger finger to itching, something terrible.)