Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

I Had A Dream

3 Inexplicable Things, Gratuitous Gun Pics

…but it wasn’t anything like Martin Luther King’s, or ABBA’s dream, nor about Joe Hill (no link because Commies), and sadly, it wasn’t about Cass Elliott.

No, I dreamed that a wealthy Reader (who looked a lot like Ginger Baker, FFS) offered to buy me three guns, with the caveat that they couldn’t be guns I’d owned before, nor any old guns at all — they could only be new guns.

At least it wasn’t cars, because then I’d have been in real trouble.

Anyway, I woke up without having made any choices, but the dream has kinda stuck with me all day.  And being prevented from getting a gun that I’ve owned before makes the list really short, because… well, you know.

So after some considerable thought, here they are, the top 3 guns I’d like to receive as a gift:

1 – Dan Wesson Valor (.45 ACP)

Some may consider this a cheat (because the 1911 is old, and I’ve owned several in the past);  in my defense, however, I’ve never owned a pocket 1911, nor anything made by Dan Wesson.  But I’d love to, and this one makes my bang-switch-actuator itch.  Badly.

2 – Ruger No. 1-S Medium (9.3x62mm)

Never owned a No. 1, nor any rifle in the venerable 9.3x62mm.  I would even consider going on an(other) African hunt (but with Doc Russia and Mr. Free Market) if I could take one of these.

3 –  A.H. Fox FE 20ga (as made new by Connecticut Shotgun Mfg. Company)

This beauty ticks all the Kim Boxes (side-by-side, double trigger, straight stock, 30″ barrels) and if the Dan Wesson was disqualified because rules, I’d just get a matched pair.  And then I’d head off to join Mr. FM in Dorset later in the year, you betcha…

Anyone else had a dream like this one?

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Winchester Super X AR 308 (.308 Win)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

When is a Winchester semi-automatic rifle not a Winchester semi-automatic rifle?

When it’s actually a Browning BAR made by FN Herstal — like this one:

Let’s see:  a tried-and-tested semi-auto rifle action, in hunting guise, with a ten-round magazine (two, as advertised), and in a manly chambering* — all for just over a grand?

Oh yes, Kimmy WANTS.

*I took inventory of Ye Olde Ammoe Locquere over the weekend just past, and discovered that I have a little under 500 rounds of .308 Win, but no rifle thus chambered.  Hence my interest in the above.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Brno Mauser (6.5x55mm)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Longtime Reader Preussenotto sends me pics of gunny gorgeousity:

Saw this on fecesbook.  Captured the pictures for you because I know you love Mausers and the full underbarrel stock.  Plus the double-set trigger.  The caption said it was Swedish Mauser caliber.  Enjoy. 

How could I not?

 

I don’t want to shoot it.  I just want to hold it, stroke it and work the action…

…and then shoot it.  A lot.

I am SO weak.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Sporterized Mauser 98 (8x57mm)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

I have to admit that my experience with “sporterized” military rifles has not been good.  Too often, the work has compromised the function (and still more often the aesthetic beauty) of the original.  (This is not the case when the sporterizer has had a name like “Goudy”, “Stegall” or “Goens”, but then again, the lofty skills of said gunmakers has always been accompanied by loftier-still prices, so I’ve only ever handled such rifles, but never fired one.)

Here’s one that caught my eye, however, at Collectors:

Other than the plastic stock, I can’t find too much to dislike about this rifle — even that ugly muzzle brake should tame the 8×57’s recoil.  Also, it’s selling for less than a grand (compared to the $5,000-plus of the custom rifles from the above makers).

Want, with wood.

Changing History, Just A Little

History, The Gun Thing

This little flight of fantasy was inspired by Chris Muir’s cartoon from yesterday and the day before.

In the spirit of our Crossing America series, imagine that you and a dozen of so of your best buddies were able to go back to any time during the Civil War and enlist in the army of your choice, at an appropriate age and level of fitness.  In your travel back through time you could take the battle rifle and sidearm of your choice and 500/50 rounds of ammo for each piece respectively, subject to the following conditions:

  • no full-auto rifles or machine guns of any type;
  • no explosive ordnance e.g. hand- or rifle grenades
  • no fanciful crap like lasers or photon pulse guns — you know what I’m aiming for, here.  You’d be a foot-soldier but by the standards of the time, a Starship Trooper.

To make life even easier, let’s assume that you could pick the campaign or battle you’d fight in, under your choice of battlefield commander, but you and your platoon would have a certain degree of autonomy.

Your choices and supporting arguments in Comments.

My weapons of choice:

Swedish Mauser M96 (6.5x55mm) as equipped below:

…with a bagful of loaded stripper clips, to save on weight.

Next (to nobody’s surprise):

Springfield 1911 in .45 ACP:

…ammo pre-loaded in five 10-round Chip McCormick magazines.

As to the battles and such, I’ll have to think about that for a while longer, but I’m leaning towards Stones River, on the Confederate side.