Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

The Idiot Twist

The Gun Thing

How many times have you seen someone closing a revolver’s cylinder by giving a quick twist of the wrist, making the cylinder snap closed into the frame?  It’s mostly done in movies, of course, as so many shooty bad habits occur, but I’ve actually seen it done at various ranges, shaking my head at the idiocy.

Here’s a quick video which explains why this action is stupid, and how it can damage the gun (often terminally, when repeated often).

A couple weeks ago I went shooting with a Reader at my local killing-practice facility, and one of the guns I brought along was my bedside gun, the S&W Model 65:

Now the thing about a bedside gun, as any fule kno, is that it absolutely, positively, has to work all the time with 100% reliability.  You pull the trigger, it has to go BANG and when you pop the cylinder release to reload (assuming such an action is necessary), it has to open so you can dump the empties… right?

Well, on this particular occasion the first part went as advertised, all six rounds going BANG.  The second part?  Nu-uh:  the cylinder was stuck shut, and required a firm smack to get it to move.  Not good.  But I went ahead and reloaded it anyway, fired off the rounds, and popped the cylinder open — this time, without any problem.

I would have shrugged the earlier malfunction off, except for that irritating “100%” reliability thing.  So I dumped the empties, closed the gun up unloaded — and the cylinder stuck closed again when I tried to open it.

Oh-oh.

Back at home, I checked the 65 out.  Pawl bent?  No.  Ejector hangup on the frame?  No.  Powder buildup at the forcing cone?  Dirty, to be sure, but after I polished it clean, the cylinder still wouldn’t open every time.

If there’s one thing I hate more than a malfunction, it’s an occasional malfunction.

So I took it over to Larry at SPS Guns, and after a few minutes, his on-premises gunsmith — who looks about twelve years old, but they all do nowadays — diagnosed the problem:  the front of the ejector rod was sticking:

…most likely because it was no longer straight — the tip had been peened in one spot and the ejector rod ever-so-slightly bent out of true, no doubt by someone performing The Idiot Twist to close it up.  This was why the malf only repeated occasionally:  the peening and bend would only cause a malfunction depending on the position of the rod.

Anyway, the problem was fixed by the gunsmith ($$$) because I sure as hell wasn’t going to try, and after about a hundred or so repetitions the problem did not reappear.  He also cleaned up the gun, getting rid of all the crud I hadn’t been able to reach, yeah unto the innards of the gun itself.  (I don’t open up revolvers if I can help it;  I don’t do it often enough to trust myself to do the job properly.)

Anyway, all is now well:  a lengthy range session followed (just to dirty the piece up again, whatever), and the Model 65 could resume its rightful place on the bedside table.

By the way:  I bought the Model 65 secondhand, of course, and not knowing how well it was treated by its previous owner(s), I don’t load it up with .357 Magnums, but with .38 Spec+P:

I do know, now, that at least someone had been using The Idiot Twist in the gun’s previous life.

Do thou not the same with thine.

Good Example

The Gun Thing

It’s not often I’m jealous of Scandis — I mean, frigid weather most of the time, socialist governments, high taxes:  let’s be honest, this is not a place to be sought out by expatriate Americans.  (Okay, the women are pretty hot, but you can only have so much sex before… uhhhh where was I again?)

No, that’s not the Swedish Bikini Team — in fact, they aren’t even Swedes, but Finns (Miss Finland finalists 2011).

But there is one reason to be jealous of the Finns, apart from the above:

Finland has announced it will open 300 shooting ranges in a bid to encourage citizens to take a greater interest in national defence.

Under the Finnish constitution, every male aged between 18 and 60 must complete national army service but the government hopes that civilians will keep their weapons skills after the period of conscription with the new range proposals.

Jukka Kopra, the Finnish politician, said: “The present government aims to increase the number of shooting ranges in Finland from roughly 600-700 up to 1,000.

“This is because of our defence model, which benefits from people having and developing their shooting skills on their own.”

Note:  not State-controlled/supervised shooting, but individual practice.

And a thousand ranges, in a country that has about 50 square miles of habitable area?  [hyperbole alert]  That works out to about one range every 100 yards, or a Sako behind every flake of snow.

Plus, they’re practicing to shoot Russians, which makes me really jealous.

Or, as the meme goes:

Tiukat ryhmät, toverit!

Range time, Kim?  I think so, in solidarity with our Finnish friends.

And About Time, Too

Good Stuff, The Gun Thing

Well now, lookee here:

Colt has reintroduced its legendary Python .357 Magnum revolver in a blued finish.  The reintroduced blued Python comes with either a 4.25″ or 6″ barrel length and holds six rounds of ammunition.

That’s indeed good news.

Sadly, from what I can see in the pic it’s not Colt’s Royal Blue finish, which for me made the original Python the best-looking revolver ever made:

Compare the Python (Royal Blue) with the Officer’s Match below (Standard Blue) and I think you’ll see what I mean.  The difference is what made the Python so beautiful.

Still, I’m not going to complain too much, and at least the new Python is going to sell at the Colt premium price (~$1,400) compared to the old Python’s nosebleed one.

And yes, the new gun’s action isn’t the same either — but I’m told by a gunsmith buddy that while the new action isn’t as smooth, it’s also less complicated and therefore less likely to break (like my old Python’s did).

Time for the obligatory lottery ticket check… damn.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

I don’t know why I bother to scan Teh Intarwebz for this kind of thing, because there are always a few Loyal Readers out there who send me glad tidings, such as this one from the Houston area:

Harris County deputies said the man was sleeping in his car because he had just gotten into a fight with his girlfriend.

Authorities said another man who may have had a pistol got into the vehicle and may not have realized the sleeping man was in the truck.

The would-be victim had what the sheriff said was an AR-15 and reportedly shot the man several times. The suspected thief was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputies said the suspect had already stolen from several nearby cars before the shooting.

The shooter reportedly stayed at the scene and was cooperating with law enforcement.

Let us all have a couple minutes’ silence for the dead goblin Our Hero’s eardrums… because nothing says owie like an AR-15 going off in a confined space with no hearing protection — well okay, the boolets (!) are going to make an owie as well at the naughty end, but that’s of no concern to us, and certainly not to the cops, who seem to have the correct attitude towards the whole episode.

“They shouldn’t be out doing it in the first place. I don’t believe that he realized that the reportee was sleeping in this truck before it was too late,” said Sgt. Ben Beall with the sheriff’s office.

One hopes that Our Hero makes a full recovery;  the dead goblin won’t, but once again that’s not a problem for anyone except him.

Going Medieval

Mocking Furriners, Rights, The Gun Thing

Britishland:

Brits:  “If guns are banned, can we use swords?”
Britcops:  “No.”
Brits:  “How about crossbows, then?”
Britcops:  “We’ll get back to you on that*.”

*The Home Office has launched an eight-week consultation to see if there should be a licensing system to control the use, ownership and supply of crossbows.

Frogland:

The Principality of Monaco plans to follow in the footsteps of its surrounding French neighbours by organising a national day dedicated to the collection of weapons and ammunition that have been found or inherited by individuals.

At the end of 2022, France managed to collect more than 150,000 weapons without inflicting legal or administrative proceedings on the weapons’ former owners.

The head of the Administrative Police Division, Rémy Le Juste, addressed the topic at the Monaco Police’s well wishes for the New Year, saying “this is a major subject which deserves everyone’s attention, given the somewhat troubled international context that we are going through.”

Le Juste admitted that “It still happens that our services intervene with individuals who find themselves owners through inheritance of undeclared weapons dating from the Second World War,” and added: “We encourage, from now on, all people who find themselves, despite themselves, possessing weapons to call on our services: either to have them destroyed or to make them unfit for their use, and this, without these people being subject to criminal charges, subject of course to the agreement of the judicial authorities.”

Only knights, the King’s men and the king’s favorites may own weapons of war.  Peasants:  non.

U.S.:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Combo Guns

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

Among members of the gun fraternity, “combo” / “drilling” guns (multiple-barreled rifle/shotguns) have never been as popular Over Here as they are in Yurp.  Here’s an example of one, the Merkel 961L as seen at Steve Barnett’s Luxury Death Dealers’ Emporium:

This one’s a little different from the norm in that it features two side-by-side 8x57mm JRS (rimmed) rifle barrels over a single 20ga shotgun barrel as opposed to vice-versa, but the concept is the same.  And let it be known that I have absolutely no problem with a pairing of 8mm Mauser with 20ga, no sir not me.

For those who would prefer something a little more manly, here’s a Merkel 96K, with two 12ga barrels over the wonderful 9.3×74R chambering.

Here’s the thing.  Combo guns have always had a devoted following amongst big game hunters of previous generations (much less so nowadays), but I have to tell you that in no way shape or form would today’s hunter be undergunned out there in the bush with either of the above.

Yes, they are heavy, but at around 8lbs unloaded they compare well with, say a modern single-barreled Steyr rifle in .300 WinMag which weighs about the same or even more.

But as examples of the gunmaker’s art, little can compare to the majestic drillings, and certainly not the pedestrian rifles such as the Steyr.

If I were offered one of the above two, it would take me hours to decide between two rifles/one shotgun or two shotguns/one rifle.  (I already have one or two single-barreled rifles, as any ful kno.)

Assuming I were able to go into the African bushveldt again, I’d probably pick the 12ga/9.3x47mm pairing if hunting anything dangerous, but the 8x57mm/20ga for smaller game.

By the way, the price differential ($19,000 for the 961L vs. $9,000 for the 96R) reflects the greater precision work required to register two rifle barrels vs. two shotgun barrels.

I love both, for obvious reasons:  hogsback wooden stocks, exquisite workmanship, manly chamberings… I need to stop now.