Category: The Gun Thing

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

As If We Needed Reminding

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

When I first saw the headline to this article, my immediate reaction was:  “Seriously?”

7 Great Lever-Action Rifles
Lever-action rifles have been with us since the 19th century, and despite this age of AR-15s and precision-bolt rifles, the lever-action rifle still has its place.

…and in other news, the Marines have stormed Belleau Wood.

But let’s not get all judgey here, thinks I;  maybe there’s something new to see.

That’s the Uberti 1886 Hunter Lite, in .45-70 Govt.  And I swear, the sight of it makes my dangly rather less dangly, if you get my drift.  What’s next?

Great Davy Crockett’s bleeding hemorroids, that’s uglier than Hillary Clinton after a 3-night tequila bender.  Ugh.  Let’s get away from the Mossberg Anorexia  464  SPX in .30-30, and look at something else.

Okay, this Marlin 1894 CSBL in .357 Mag is much easier on the eye, even with the Picatinny rail slapped on top of it like an elongated carbuncle.  (I know, I know;  all the cool kids love a rail mount these days because then they can put red-dot geegaws and such on the rifle — and the length of the rail means you can also go all Jeff Cooper and turn it into a “Scout”-type rifle if you’re of that persuasion.)  What’s #4?

This is, as the article suggests, Winchester’s reward to you for having bought “standard” lever rifles your whole life.  It’s the Model 94 Deluxe in .30-30, and it’s so pretty I want to take it out on a date.  In the deep woods.  With a deer somewhere in the neighborhood.

I’ve always liked the .22 LR Browning BL-22, and this “Midas Micro” model is just lovely to look at.  Give me a moment to write this one down on my Santa list, and then we can move on.

This Rossi R92 shoots the very manly .454 Casull monster cartridge, and this means that if you’re a devotee of the cartridge — and many are — you’ve got a decent companion piece for your Freedom Arms revolver.  And finally:

What is it with this trend towards the fake-brass look of Cerakote, as practiced by the Pedersoli 86/71 Boarbuster Mark II in either .444 Marlin (a hotter .44 Rem Mag) or .45-70 Govt?  The blurb states that it’s based on the old Winchester Mod 71.  Okay.  And of course, this rifle sports an adjustable plastic stock and the Picaninnytinny rail, making it very trendy.  All fine and good;  I’m just not in the target market.

I guess that some of these rifles are an attempt to chase after the “youth” (i.e. well under my vintage) market, which is fine, I suppose, because the next generation has different tastes from me and mine.  But what that also means is that older models, long beloved by shooters, are going to be “phased out” because they can’t afford to make both kinds of guns.  We’ve already seen this with the demise of the excellent Winchester 9422 rimfire lever rifle, and you heard it here first:  the “standard” Model 94 and its ilk will likewise disappear in the near future — only the above-mentioned “Deluxe” (i.e. more expensive) models will remain on the production line.

All the above rifles, good, bad and fugly, are too damn expensive, as you will see when you follow the link.  I don’t mean too expensive for a rifle;  I mean too expensive for a lever-action rifle.  The old warhorses are not thoroughbreds, they’re pit ponies and cart horses;  and if these seven rifles are anything to go by, I for one don’t like what I’m seeing here.  Only the Rossi still looks like and costs about the same as a traditional lever rifle should — and it’s made in Brazil.

Take from that what you will.

Mail Offer

Funny Stuff, The Gun Thing

This arrived in my Inbox over the weekend:

Because nothing says “Responsible Gun Ownership” like guns and booze.  And nothing says “Real America” like trying to bribe me with cheap Made-In-China tat.

That said, if the NRA idiots had a Gin Club…

…I still wouldn’t renew my membership.

Reminds Me Of An Old Song

The Gun Thing

♫ ♪ ♫ ♪♫ ♪ ♫ ♪♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ “Oh my bags are packed, I’m ready to go” ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Although if you do want to leave on a jet plane carrying the above, I suspect the TSA might have other ideas, the bastards.

I must say, though, I like the guitar case idea.

Speaking Of Ranges

The Gun Thing

Went shooting with the Son&Heir last Sunday morning, both to have some quality father-son time and to remind myself that I need to shoot more (because I really don’t like being humiliated at the range).

As always, his one-handed groups were about 50% tighter than my two-handed groupings grrr grrrr grrrrr  so clearly MOAR PRACTICE is needed.  Then he switched from the High Power to his little Marlin .22 rifle, clucking that he was only able to produce 1″-2″ groups at 25 yards… shooting offhand, with iron sights.  (He thinks scopes are “cheating” — we’ll see how he feels when his eyes start to age.)

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell my North Texas Readers about an excellent little range in Lewisville, on the southbound frontage road of I-35 just south of Corporate Drive.  It’s called Shoot Point Blank, and it’s much better than the large, impersonal corporate ranges that seem to be springing up all over the place nowadays.  The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and the 20-bay range itself is great:  no-frills lanes (a single rocker switch to move the target clip to and from the bench instead of those pointless computerized gadgets which break down all the time), and a shelf underneath the bench itself to stow bags and such.

Oh, and there was a stainless Springfield 1911 which had us both drooling.  (S&H tried the trigger of that Springfield, a Colt Government and a CZ 97, and pronounced the Springfield to be the best.)

There seem to be a bunch of these ranges springing up all over the country (scroll down), so if one’s anywhere near you, give it a try.

I will be back to this one.  Often.

Close At Hand

The Gun Thing

I read this story over the weekend with a great deal of sadness, coupled with rage:

An angler has died after yobs allegedly pelted him with rocks using a catapult as he fished with his two brothers in a boat on a lake at a 15th century castle.
Charles Hilder, 66, from Romford, Essex, died in the grounds of Lullingstone Castle in Eynsford, Kent, following the attack at 5pm yesterday by the yobs who were stood on a bank.
…
It comes as locals and MPs claimed the area had been under siege from yobs in recent weeks with some threatening people and even trying to steal a woman’s dog.

Clearly, the Brits need to pass legislation outlawing catapults (Seffrican: catties ;  Murkin:  slingshots) like these:

And we won’t even talk about those eeevil “assault” slingshots made with triple rubber pulls, wrist-braces and carbon-fiber Y-frames.

I mean, nobody needs a triple-pulled slingshot with a wrist-brace, amirite?  [/sarc]

I think I’ve told the story about a man I know who in addition to carrying a handgun when out in public, has over the years also acquired about ten or more Ruger SP101 hammerless short-barreled revolvers, all chambered in .357 Mag, and he scatters them all over his place:  bedside, living room, garage, bathroom, car, wherever.  He also has one stashed in his toolbox and another in his fishing tackle box.

When I asked him why the tackle- and toolboxes, he replied simply:  “Because bad things can happen anywhere, and working in my garage and fishing out in the boonies is where I’m most vulnerable.”

Of course, that makes all sorts of sense.  It doesn’t help our British cousins (and the unlucky old guy above), because they’ve voted away their right to own handguns and their right to self-defense.  But for us Murkins, it’s a cautionary word to the wise.

Never be too far away from the means to protect yourself.

By the way:  that Kainokai triple-pull sling looks awful.  To the surprise of absolutely nobody, I prefer the more traditionally-styled Lodonc:

Wood and steel, baby;  if it works for a 1911, it’ll work for a damn slingshot.

A Tale Of Woe

The Gun Thing

As Longtime Readers will recall, when I was on sabbatical in Britishland back in 2017 I was seduced into buying a Mauser M12.  As Mr. Free Market was there, it took but a moment to pop it onto his UK firearm license, and off I went, new Mauser in hand, and shot 0.5″ groups with it.

The problem was that although I wanted to bring it back home with me, I couldn’t — H.M. Government required that I pay nearly a grand to “export” my own rifle to the U.S.  Not having a spare grand lying around, I just left it in Mr. FM’s already-overfilled safe while I decided what to do with it.

In the end, with great reluctance, I decided to sell it.  After a lengthy wait (almost a year), Mr. FM informed me that he’d managed to offload the thing, and the money came back to me.

So now I have to decide what to replace it with.

First things first:  I’m not going to replace it with another new Mauser.  They’re too expensive Over Here, and in any case, I didn’t get back exactly what I’d spent for the original M12, so I have to trim my expectations somewhat.  (And Mauser doesn’t offer the “starter” — read:  cheaper — M18 in 6.5x55mm, because they’re idiots.)

Secondly, whatever rifle I get will be topped with the scope I originally bought Over There for the M12, the Minox ZX5i 5-25x56mm, which at the price delivers outstanding clarity and reliability.  This scope will allow me to reach out to 500 yards quite easily, which is as far as I can shoot accurately and with any degree of consistency.

Thirdly, whatever rifle I get will be in 6.5x55mm Swede because

  • it’s my favorite centerfire cartridge of all time, and
  • I have two lifetimes’ worth of 6.5 Swede ammo lying around, and
  • I’m not interested in getting a gun which would require starting up a new category in Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer.

As to the M12’s replacement:  my default choice for any new rifle is the CZ 557 American, because it costs less than a grand:

I’ve always loved CZ rifles, dating back to when they were still called “Brno”, and this latest model with its single set trigger and rugged reliability is just the bee’s knees.  (I’m agnostic on the “controlled-feed / push-feed” argument, unless we’re talking large-caliber dangerous-game guns.)

That said, there are a couple of decent options outside the CZ Matrix, most notably the Ruger M77 Hawkeye African:

Here’s what I like about this particular M77 variant:  it has iron sights — and even though my old, deteriorating eyes say “scope-scope-scope”, I like having the irons as backup should the scope fail.  Also, the barrel dimensions were originally set for large calibers such as the .416 Rigby, so it’s as near as damn it a “bull barrel” for the smaller 6.5 Swede.  And as I fully intend to take the replacement rifle up to Boomershoot next year (along with whatever bench-rest rifle I next get through the now-annual raffle), that thicker barrel is less likely to start “whipping” as it heats up over a lengthy firing session.  I have to tell you, I like its looks.  The only “downside” is that Ruger triggers… let’s just say that they don’t measure up to the CZ, and they’re not “set” triggers either (which I prefer).  But the beauty of Ruger rifles is that there’s a plethora of aftermarket drop-in trigger groups available, so that shortcoming could be addressed easily, if it’s an issue.  (And that said, I’ve had no problems with the .300 Win Mag Hawkeye LRT‘s factory trigger, so maybe I’ll be okay.)  Pricewise, the Hawkeye is about a hundred bucks more than the CZ, which is manageable.

Finally, from out in left field comes the latest “entry-level” model from Sauer, the 100 Classic.  I’ve never fired this model, of course, but I have fired several other Sauer rifles over the years (mostly when I was back in South Africa), and they’re peaches:  smooth, reliable and very good-looking, in that “Germanic” way.

My only quibble with the Sauer — actually, all Sauer rifles I’ve fired, come to think of it — is the way the stock slopes down towards the action, rather than falling away as do both the 557 and M77 models above.

Also by comparison, the Sauer 100 has a 22″ barrel vs. the 24″ barrels of the 557 and M77, but that’s not critical, really.  Pricewise, it’s about the same as the Hawkeye (just over $1,000) — but as with all German engineering (e.g. Porsche), there is an additional price to be paid for the extras:  Sauer Hexa-Lock scope rings typically cost well over $200.  Granted, they might conceivably be the best rings you can get, period;  but sheesh…

Anyway, there it is.  I don’t have to get a replacement medium-cartridge rifle, of course, but that’s not an argument that carries much weight around this zip code, nor on this website.

I’ll let you know what I decide.