Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

Boomershoot ULD Rifle – 2023

Boomershoot, The Gun Thing

So after much anguished soul-searching, research and contemplation, here’s what I came up with (and all pics can be right-clicked to embiggen):

Rifle:  Savage 12 Long Range Precision (6.5mm Creedmoor)

Man, this is a bench rifle like few others.  Don’t even think of humping this puppy out in the field because you’ll break bones (collar-, leg-, back etc.), not to mention getting a thrombosis.

I didn’t like the Accu-Trigger.  I used them before and had no problems, but I do believe I’ve become spoiled by last year’s Howa 1500.  When I voiced my dissatisfaction with the Accu-Trigger, Dave The Gunsmith (henceforth known as Evil Dave) said, “You know, I have a Rifle Basix trigger group sitting in the back.  For an extra hundred, I’ll swap them out and set the pull to whatever you want.”

Holy crap.  “12oz?”  And it was done.

Scope:  Meopta Optika6:  5-30×56 Illuminated Mil-Dot 3 34mm FFP

Why did I go with the bigger (56mm bell and 34mm tube) scope than the normal 50mm/30mm specs?

Because the Merchant Of Death had it on sale, that’s why.

And whoa… what a difference.   I also popped for some Talley rings because they’re excellent.

Here’s what the setup looks like:

I dunno if it qualifies as an Evil Black Rifle, but it sure looks like it means business, dunnit?

“Yes, yes Kim, very nice… but how does it shoot?”

So I took it down to the 100-yard indoor range,and set about grappling with the gun.  Savage rifles are renowned for their budget price, reliability, ruggedness and accuracy.  They are not renowned for the silkiness of their operation.  The magazine release action nearly gave me a heart attack, and you have to slam the mag up into the well really hard, or else it doesn’t snap closed, but by the end of the session I’d worked it all out and it didn’t bother me too much.  The bolt, however, was silky smooth and we’ve already discussed the trigger.  Recoil was light because the gun’s weight soaked it up like a sponge.  Add a muzzle brake (which is not really necessary), and it would be akin to firing a .243 Win.

I fired off a few warm-up shots to foul the barrel and get used to the trigger.  Which almost worked, because when I got serious, I still managed to touch the damn trigger once by accident.  So I ended up with a 6-shot group that looked like this:

This will be our “Find The Called Flyer” Competition…

What this tells me is that if the shooter does his part and does not touch the trigger until he’s absolutely ready to fire, this Savage / Meopta combination will perform as advertised.  And that Hornady ammo is outstanding.

Cost for the whole rig came to a hair over $2,100 before sales tax.  If you want to emulate this rig for yourself, you could do a lot worse and not much better (without blowing stupid money).

Guys, I have always enjoyed shooting the Boomershoot ULD rigs — but this is the first time that I have been seriously reluctant to send it off to the winner (who will be announced tomorrow Wednesday March 8).  I would take it to any bench competition with the certain knowledge that I would not make a fool of myself (always allowing for my barely-adequate skill, of course).  I love the rifle, love the trigger and love the scope.

Game, set and flipping match.

Adequate Sufficiency

National Ammo Day, The Gun Thing

Today I’m going to talk about ammo — specifically, looking at ammo purchases realistically, and tailoring your ammo buys to fit your needs.  (Do not fall out of your chair;  yes, this is Kim and I haven’t been kidnapped.)  Let’s look at the thing via ammo type and likely need.

Rimfire:  As all my Readers should know by now, I consider the .22 to be a household commodity.  Everyone should have at least one (pistol and rifle), and ammo supplies should be gauged in terms of how much you’re likely to use over the next couple of years as a baseline.  If you think about .22 ammo as salt, you’ll see what I mean.  Pretty much everyone has at least 2lbs of salt in their pantry — even though your use thereof is measured in sprinkles — and realistically, that’s probably well over a year’s supply.  Ditto .22 ammo.  I’d consider 10 bricks (5,000 rounds) to be the absolute minimum you should have on hand.  You may not go plinking that often, but when you do, you’re going to dump at least a brick in a single session — I know I do — and the most embarrassing situation I can imagine is turning to your fellow-plinker and saying, “I’m sorry but I’ve run out of ammo;  we should probably go home now” when there’s at least a couple hours of daylight left.  (I get chills of shortage fear just thinking about it.)  The terms “running out” and “.22 ammo” should never occur together in a sentence.

Subset:  .22 Mag — I happen to love this (far too) expensive rimfire ammo, but I will confess that I only shoot enough to keep my eye in.  I have a couple-three thousand rounds on hand, just in the event I’m invited to go groundhog shooting in the woods, or something.

Hunting:  This can cover all kinds of hunting, and all sorts of cartridges.  What this means is that you don’t have to have 10,000 rounds of .30-30 or .30-06 on hand (unless you’re a handloader, in which case go nuts, with my blessing).  Let’s be honest for a moment, and suggest that you’re not going to go hunting every other day for a year with your Marlin lever rifle or Remington 700.  So how much ammo is “enough”?  Here I think that five years’ worth of ammo — call it 10 boxes (200 rounds) — is a decent minimum: your baseline, as it were.  I have about four hunting rifles in different chamberings, and I think I have just over 300 rounds for each one.  Frankly, that’s not going to be exhausted anytime soon.

Subset:  “Hobby” rifles (in my case, mil-surps, but for others, it may be bench / competition rifles).  Mil-surps don’t require a massive stockpile because you don’t shoot them that often.  I think I have about 200 rounds each of the various chamberings I own, and I think that’s sufficient given how seldom I shoot them.
Competition rifles are another story.  Not only do you need lots of ammo, but you’ll be tinkering with loads, bullet type and what have you.  Be they bench rifles, cowboy action or 3-gun sets, you’re going to need a ton of ammo — at least enough to cover a couple years’ worth of competition at your current rate of involvement.  Figure 300 rounds of 5.56 for your AR-15, times (say) twenty competitions per year, times two… I think you get my point.  Twenty-five or even fifty thousand rounds in your ammo locker is not an excessive stash — if one can call any ammo stash “excessive” (I don’t).
Shotgunning (clays or birds) is another activity that requires an awful lot of ammo if one competes or hunts extensively.  (Mr. Free Market has been known to buy shotgun ammo by the pallet before the bird season begins Over There, because his trigger pull count is prodigious.  When he goes on safari in Africa, however, he seldom takes — or needs — more than a couple boxes of .375 H&H.)

SHTF:  This is the thorniest question of all:  how much AR, AK or FN ammo (5.56x45mm, 7.62x39mm Commie or 7.62x51mm NATO) is “enough”?  Forget all that Red Dawn and “zombie invasion” bullshit.  What we’re talking about is a time when law and order breaks down or disappears completely, and you’re forced to be completely self-reliant in terms of self- and home defense.  Worst of all, in such a situation, is that you have no idea of its likely duration — a week?  a month? a year?  I’ll be completely honest:  I have about 5,000 rounds of “39” on hand, even though I know that I’m never likely to need anything like that much in the above scenario.  But I’ll also admit that I’d be much more comfortable with 20,000 rounds (or even more), if for no other reason than that I don’t trust our beloved government not to attempt to ban “military” calibers (as various governments have done all over the world since the early 1900s).  Which is why I continue to add to that amount, buying more when I have the funds, and being a little less profligate at my range sessions.  (It sucks, but as I’ve repeatedly said, I’m being realistic.)

I’m really helped by the fact that I bought a ton of ammo during the Good Times (early GWB years) when ammo was both cheap and readily available, which is why I don’t have to worry too much now.  I’ve pretty much settled into a “shoot 100, buy 150” pattern, unless one of the ammo outlets has a really good deal going.

To no small degree, the cost of ammo today has made it really difficult to amass a decent sufficiency — I’d hate to be a young man starting out from zero — which is why I’m building things up.  We should all be doing it For The Children© (in my case the Son&Heir) so that it won’t be too difficult for them.

Some may argue that the numbers I’ve listed (using the “likely need” and “historical use” criteria to set those levels) are completely inadequate, and that’s fine.  What I don’t want to do is shame anyone for having less, or make them feel overwhelmed by the amount of ammo needed for that adequate sufficiency.  But you know, nothing makes you feel more secure than a full ammo locker…

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Ithaca Flues (20ga)

Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

Here’s a lovely old beauty at Collectors:

A little background:  Ithaca’s “Flues” shotguns were based on that eponymous patented action, and were so popular that they ended up driving Remington our of the double-barrel shotgun business.  Some believe that the single-barrel variant shotguns were the best-selling ones of all time.

For me, the only speed-bump on this particular gun is the semi-pistol grip (rather than the straight “English” stock that I prefer).  That said, I’d get this one in a heartbeat.  Know why?  Here’s its description, from Collectors:

The barrels have 98% blue with just a bit of surface pitting, on the underside, probably from holding them there. Bores are excellent. The receiver has about 60% faded case colors with some light staining and speckling. Stock is very good with most of the varnish and some light marks. A good looking example you wouldn’t be afraid to shoot.

And the kicker:  its serial number places its manufacture (I think) in the mid-50s — when I was born — and the above description could be an answer to the question:  “If Kim was a gun, what would he be like?”

Old-fashioned, well-used, a little battered, but still trustworthy, and deadly.

Quod erat demonstratum.

“Second-Tier” Revolvers

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

They’re not the “flagship” models that jump immediately to mind when one talks of proud handgun manufacturers like Colt or Smith & Wesson.

Say “Colt revolver”, for instance, and the word that jumps immediately to mind is “Python”:

…and a lovely thing it is, too. [pause to wipe drool from chin]

But what if you can’t afford the $5 grand price tag for an original (79-80s era) Colt revolver?  Step forward its predecessor, the Trooper:

Now I have to tell y’all, I love love love this gun.  Sure, it doesn’t have the heavy barrel underlug of the Python, and maybe its trigger isn’t quite as good — maybe — but I have to say that it’s a sexy beast all by itself.  Point is, though, that as pictured, the Trooper is an astounding $1,500 cheaper than the Python, and while still expensive — it’s a minty Colt, FFS, what did you expect? — it’s not exactly a huge stepdown in quality either.

It must be said that Smiths are miles cheaper than most Colt revolvers, so there’s not much difference between the models, cost-wise.  But sticking with .357 Mag models with ~6″ barrels, the S&W Model 686 is a peach of a revolver:


…and I know that many of you have one (!) and swear by it.  I would, too, and did (before the Tragic Canoe Accident On The Brazos River).

But spare a moment for the venerable Model 60:


Honestly, I prefer the latter even if its J-frame is not as stout as that of the L-frame 686 (heck, my bedside gun is a K-frame Model 65, and I don’t feel bad about it).  And yes I know, the 60 is a five-shooter and not a six/seven-shooter like the 686.  A cursory perusal of gun articles over the years is replete with titles like “Model 60 — the only revolver you’ll ever need?”, so there’s that.

Frankly, I think the Model 60 is a more stylish gun — its slender barrel with a semi-underlug / ejector shroud is (that word again) sexy, and the one in the above pic has me drooling again.  WANT.

Branch line:  Some of you Smith fanatics adherents are going to compare the Python to the blued Mod 586:



…but no;  the Python’s trigger is not only better, but in a different class, sorry.  Not that I hate the 586, oh perish the thought, but… no.

Okay, all this talk of guns (and the pictures that accompany them) means that I have to go to the range, now.  Talk amongst yourselves…

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Winchester 1886 (.45-70 Govt)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

I really need someone to explain to me just what it is about this old warhorse that makes my trigger finger twitch and my overburdened credit card start whimpering:

I mean yes, I know that this particular one is beautiful beyond words, and in a post-Lotto-win era would already be mine, all mine.  But still… I’m not nor ever will be a cowboy, and the chances of my doing any deep-woods black bear hunting are slim to non-existent.  And I already have a .30-30 Winchester lever rifle.

But I still want this one, oh how I want it.

Somebody help me.