Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

Ron Asks The Question

The Gun Thing, Wildlife and Hunting

“If you could only have three rifles to address all your hunting needs, what would they be?” — Ron Spomer

Of course, it depends where you live OR what terrain you would be hunting in, and what animals you’d be after.  Those three factors (before we even begin to talk about your hunting abilities) are probably the biggest drivers.  I mean, your needs in eastern Wyoming are going to be vastly different from eastern Kentucky, right?

And just in those two areas, what you hunt is going to be… diverse:

But enough equivocating.  Let’s make it really difficult, and say that you have friends all over the place so at any time you’re likely to get an invitation to join them on a hunt where they live.  (But if that makes it too difficult, go ahead and pick three rifles for hunting where you live.)

So you need three truly all-round rifles in your safe, (say) because that’s all you can afford.

Now pick ’em.  (My choices are below the fold, but pick yours first.)

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Gratuitous Gun Pic: Mauser HSc (.32 ACP/7.65mm Browning)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

The HSc was Mauser’s answer to Walther’s PP model in the same chambering, and it’s a pretty little thing, made very much in the Art Deco style of the time:

Like many of the .32 ACP guns, I’ve actually owned one of these, and while it’s a joy to shoot — far nicer than the PP, by the way, which can cut your hand up — it’s not really a “pocket” pistol like its many competitors, in that it’s surprisingly heavy despite its diminutive size.  (Carried in a pants pocket, it’ll make your trousers sag alarmingly — ask me how I know this — which is not true of the others.)

I’ve spoken before of my fondness for the .32 ACP cartridge, and it should be known that I’ve owned a large number of guns thus chambered, and fired almost all of them.

I once owned a Mauser HSc, and I very much regret selling it (but not the Walther), because it was a peach to shoot:  accurate, smooth and in my hands, absolutely reliable without a single stoppage (despite that semi-rimmed design, which can cause feeding problems, I never experienced any with the HSc).  Other people think so too, as whenever one appears at Collectors Firearms, for example, it seldom lasts long before being gobbled up.

The biggest problem with owning the HSc (like many of its cousins) is that the magazines are made of unobtanium, and if you can find one, it’s going to put a big hole in your wallet.  Upon reflection, however, I don’t happen to think that it’s a problem because a .32 ACP pistol isn’t going to be your primary carry piece anyway.

But every time you take it to the range, you’ll remember why you enjoy shooting it so much.  And that is not something you can say about many guns.

Amen To That

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

SOTI, Chris Cypert talks approvingly about revolvers as self-defense weapons:

I set out to learn all I could about revolvers, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to use them effectively for self-defense. Did I learn that revolvers are obsolete relics of the previous century? That’s what I expected, but instead I learned that revolvers are still more than sufficient for self-defense and can even be the optimal tool in certain contexts. Let’s examine the strengths of revolvers for armed citizens and self-defense.

And then he goes on to list all of them.

As most Readers know, I keep a S&W Mod 65 next to the bed — my “bedside” gun — because in any kind of bad situation, a revolver is like a fork:  you pick it up, and it works.

No scrabbling for a safety, no racking of a slide, none of that.  You get it in your hand and pull the trigger… bang!  and it’s all over.  (Okay, bang! bang! bang!  etc. as the need arises.)

It’s that instinctive action that makes me do the above.  Gawd knows that I have practiced for countless hours with my 1911, and its operation is by now about as automatic and instinctive as I could possibly get it.  And it’s the reason I keep it under the revolver… as a backup, because I do believe that by the time I’ve emptied the Model 65’s cylinder, I’ll be awake enough to grab and operate my 1911 (which is always kept cocked and locked anyway), should I need more than six shots.

This is my way, and if yours is different, that’s fine — whatever works for you, works for you.

But just as Cypert learned about the excellence of the revolver as a self-defense piece, maybe my argument will help you, and perhaps at a time of the direst emergency.

Think about it.

Wood & Blued Steel

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Reader Mike L. stumbled on an excellent post at Reddit which featured this vision of gunny loveliness:

If that doesn’t make your morning, let me tell you:  it sure did mine.

The guy’s thoughts are pretty much mine as well:

While there’s nothing wrong with ARs (I own a few myself) I’ve always been intrigued by the sheer variety of firearms and am way more attracted to fine walnut and blued steel then most “tactical” arms.

The guns pictured are a newly-acquired Ruger No 1 338 Win Mag I found for stupid cheap and an old Smith and Wesson 19-3.

I dunno about the .338 Win Mag — it’s not my favorite large caliber, and that might have stopped me from getting this particular No. 1 — but as it’s not going to be a gun that I would shoot often, that’s probably not important.  (Now had it been chambered in .300 Win Mag, .300 H&H Mag or .375 H&H Mag…)

Right-click to embiggen.  It makes a nice wallpaper pic.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

According to Reader Andrew T., it seems as though this asshole went around a whole bunch of houses in a neighborhood outside San Diego, trying to break in for purposes as yet unknown, but let’s just assume it wasn’t to sing hymns.

Eventually, of course, he managed to actually break into a house and attacked both the homeowner and his wife — and then discovered, alas too late, that you shouldn’t bring just a stick and a rock to a gunfight.

Yup… Our Hero Homeowner popped him in the chest, and the Mass Burglar quickly assumed room temperature.

It doesn’t say in the news report, but it seems pretty clear that the cops just took the dead body away, shook hands with the homeowner and carried on about their other business.

Which is as it should be.