My favorite toy
Passed to me by Reader Hugh S., thankee, comes this lovely tale:
A 21-year-old man by the name of Elivelton Neves Moreira is seen in footage (attached below) approaching a group of women and children outside of a school in São Paulo, Brazil.
Moreira was wielding a firearm with the intent to rob them, swiftly approaching the group with his gun pointed directly at them.
Whereupon his day went from “fine” to “terrible”. And there’s
VIDEO!!!!!
Brava, Signora.
From Collectors comes this little peach:
Okay, here’s my take on this classic.
The Walther PP / PPK models are quite possibly the sexiest-looking pistols ever made*. Those sleek lines and usually-faultless operation make for a tempting package — on the surface — and as James Bond’s gun, it works.
Unfortunately, Reality intrudes. The .32 / .380 ACP (7.65mm / 9x17mm in Eurospeak) Browning cartridges are not serious self-defense options, and unfortunately I find that shooting the “more powerful” 9mm Parabellum (9x19mm) to be rather unpleasant in the small PP frame. (My opinion; yours may vary.)
One would think that it would be fun shooting the smaller .32 ACP cartridge in the PP (as it is with the Colt 1905, for example), but it isn’t — at least, not for someone with large or beefy hands such as mine.
The last time I fired a PP pistol, I became aware of some wetness in my grip, discovered that the sharp edges of the PP’s slide had made two razor-like cuts in the web of my hand, and I was bleeding like a stuck pig. Painful, and a pain in the ass to clean up (which one has to do immediately, because blood does ugly things to a gun’s bluing).
My shooting companion — the owner of the PP — was a slender woman who had small ladylike hands, and who had therefore never been cut by the recoiling slide. She loved shooting her little “purse gun”, as she called it, and was horrified that it had wounded me.
So as pretty and sexy as the Walther PP and PPK pistols are, there is a public health warning attached to them.
All that said: I’d get the above pistol in a heartbeat, because it’s beautiful and sexy. But I wouldn’t shoot it that much, unless wearing a shooting glove.
*with the possible exception of the Beretta 70-series .22 pistols.
I am a HUGE fan of the guys at 9-Hole Reviews, but the FR-F1 / GIGN Loyoda show is the best by far.
Yes, Henry Chan is a brilliant distance shooter — I mean, clearing the entire course of fire out to 800 yards using only a single box of cheap inconsistent PPU ammo* and a horrible French 4x (#4 German post) scope is nothing short of miraculous. And his analysis of the Loyoda engagement is also excellent. All shooter-analysts should be that good.
Well done, guys — and keep them coming.
Wait, that didn’t work. What didn’t I do? Oh yes, add some whiteness:
That’s better. The ammo is from AmmoMan, the handguns and long guns are at Palmetto State Armory.
And just in case you need a few more options, there are these from Outdoor Supplies:
…just in case anyone didn’t get their Ammo Day purchases done.
Reminder: I get no kickbacks from anyone.
HOWEVER: if some kind (and generous, and wealthy) soul from one of the above outlets does want to send me one of these for Christmas …
…the link is in the pic. (I’ve wanted to own a CZ 75B — just like the one in the pic — forever.)
From Frequent Reader / Commenter preussenotto comes this thoughtful email:
I grew up in a very rural isolated area, we had TV but reception was spotty at best, and my parents (including the rest of my family) were very big on self-education so we had a lot of books around.
One of the great enjoyments of my yoot, however was the excitement of waiting for some periodical to come in the mail. It gave me something I genuinely looked forward to every month.
Fast forward to me as a University Student, I went to a ELGS and got persuaded to become a life member of the Wayne LaPierre family enrichment organization (to be fair this was pre WLP). [Note to Furrin Readers: he’s referring to the National Rifle Association.] As such I was entitled to receive the American Hunter or -Rifleman magazine monthly.
I chose AR because I’m more of a shooter than hunter, and the old lifetime joy of receiving a periodical once a month became a regular pleasure once again.
One of my favorite elements of AR though was their articles on historical firearms and their use/development/etc. Often they would also include some interesting artwork or old catalog entries, and needless to say I was far more interested in that, than judging bullet drop or whatever.
Last week I got my latest edition of AR, paged through it, and realized that since the advent of the Excellent work done by Forgotten Weapons, C&RSenal, and InRange, the historical stuff in AR, is just average at best.
I know American Rifleman has slipped in other areas too, but their historical stuff was still pretty good. Now it just seems like they’re providing someone else’s well-chewed gum.
And another excitement from days of yore has been replaced, to the point where the joy of discovery from a periodical, is just not there anymore.
Do you notice the same thing as you’ve gotten older? Has anyone else experienced it as well? In my mind its been replaced by something better, but seeing a childhood memory, not so much die, but rust out, is a sad realization.
The problem that you’ve outlined (very well) is that the NRA monthly mags are essentially vehicles for NRA editorials and (mostly) ad revenue — that’s how they can afford to print and ship them — and thus there’s never really been any incentive to make their mags competitive with other gun mags such as Guns&Ammo or Shooting Times. So they’ve always been kinda sub-par, content-wise.
And this was okay, until Teh Intarwebz came along, and the characters you mentioned above (and a host of others) started to provide a serious service to gun owners. Frankly, nowadays one could get by with just Othias & Mae and Ian McCollum (for older guns), Honest Outlaw (for pistol reviews), Ron Spomer (for rifles) and hickok45 (for shooting fun) — and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Compared to just those shows, very few magazines could measure up; their only advantage is in publishing things like ballistic tables and charts, which TV shows can’t get close to (although Chris at Lucky Gunner comes close).
I have to say, though, that I am of similar mind to preussenotto: almost my entire life was spent keenly anticipating my weekly / monthly magazine delivery — hell, I think I last purchased an actual paper mag subscription back in the late 1990s, and that was Britishland’s Country Life (actually, it was Connie’s subscription, a birthday present from me).
I think my last magazine sub expired in about 2008, and I don’t get any anymore, which now that I think of it, kinda sucks.
Here’s a little thought experiment for y’all: if you could choose three free paper magazine subscriptions — say, as birthday presents from friends & family — which would you like to get? (They don’t have to be gun magazines, of course.)
Responses in Comments or via email. Mine are below the fold.
Collectors Firearms is publicizing their Black Friday Sale, and I thought I’d shuffle over to the Curio & Relic (C&R) department to see which caught my fancy. (Not that I can afford any of them, of course, but the 20% discounts being offered make these rifles at least reachable for anyone with a few hundred buck or so to spare.) Links in description.
Schmidt-Rubin K31 (with bayonet)
And a bonus: Schmidt-Rubin K11
…because its forged action just sounds better than the K31’s cast action.
Honorable mention: Chilean Banner Mauser, which looks lovely but is still priced too high, even with the discount.
Anyway, they’re all worth a look.
All the pistols, with the possible exception of the Colt 1903, are too damn spendy. Collectors only.
