The Fishing Musician

A KEL-TEC AND GLOCK CHALLENGE: BUILD A 5.7 X 28mm PISTOL

2012-01-25T16:15:00.000-08:00

In 1990, FN introduced the FN P90 personal defense weapon and in 1998, the FN Five-seven, trademarked as the Five-seveN. I'm gonna call it the 57, just so I don't have to type so many characters for this post.

So the 57 pistol has been around for roughly 13 years. As far as I am aware, there is no other handgun (save for the proposed but as yet unseen in retail stores or even advance reviews, the humongous Excel MP-5.7) chambered in this caliber. As I've mentioned in a previous post about the 57, unfortunately, all questions regarding it's effectiveness and lethality as a weapon were answered with the heinous acts of terrorism at Fort Hood.

Still, I'd like to have a handgun shooting a rifle cartridge that's not a single shot (such as the Thompson Contenders) or a revolver (such as a Ruger Blackhawk chambered in .30 caliber). Specifically, a normal sized handgun (Not a cut down AK-47, AK-74 or AR-15) that is a mixture of polymer and steel and that is capable of shooting several hundred yards or through barricades at attackers.

And it got me to thinking, two companies that would be totally capable of doing justice to the 5.7 x 28mm round are Glock and Kel-Tec. Witness Kel-Tex's PMC-30, which has at or near the size handgrip needed to hold the 5.7 round. It would require some reworking of the size of the Glock handgrip, and I'm sure all of this R&D is expensive, but in my circle of shooting friends, it would be much more likely any of us would purchase a pistol chambered for this round if it ran between $500 and $600.

Kel-Tec's PMC-30 is often mentioned as sort of a poor man''s or a junior 57 pistol. While the Kel-Tec and the 57 both share the ability to carry 30 rounds in a magazine, the 5.7 x 28mm round so dwarfs the .22 WMR in performance that one need only view the evidence of the tumbling effect of the 5.7 x 28mm bullet upon target impact to see just how powerful this particular round is.

As an aside, my personal experience with the PMC-30 has been nothing short of excellent. One failure to feed on the second round of the first magazine fired has been the only issue, and that was many magazines ago.

Of course, for a round like the 5.7 x 28mm, you want some sights that do the gun justice, as the PMC-30 features, and other updates to the design, but it seems to a novice like me that you're halfway there with your frame design for the elongated 22 WMR cartridge, Kel-Tec.

Kel-Tec is building some mighty interesting guns. A new hot rod bull pup hi-cap shotgun, a dandy 5.56 rifle that not only takes standard AR mags but also folds in half for transport and features an integral foregrip/bipod a'la the Steyr Scout rifle. I'd like to have one of each, please. I've seen and held the rifle at a LGS, but the shotgun has yet to appear on the scene. I'd like to give the rifle a shot, noting that it's chambered for an easy shooting 5.56 round.

Glock, on the other hand, has messed just a wee bit with the basic design from "Generation One" to the current Generation Four guns. The new Glocks haven't grabbed me yet, and I've tried the different grips and such. I'm still liking the Third Generation design and feel. Not to mention function, fit and even now, the form.

Glock has built guns to shoot high pressure cartridges like the 10mm, and I am perfectly confident that the designers at Glock could build an excellent pistol in this caliber, using the same Glock firing mechanism that people either love or hate. Perhaps build a Glock in 5.7 x 28mm on a longslide frame, or even just a standard frame. One thing though...make a rail optional, or better yet, removeable by allen head bolts to the frame.

Other than the high price of $1100 in my neck of the woods for the FN 57, I'm interested in the pistol. I don't care much for the rail, which seems like it would make uncomfortable what has been called here in Texas for many years as the "Mexican Carry" method, which involves simply sticking the gun in your pants waist sans holster.

I know that this method of carry is not recommended, nor do I recommend it to you. But there have been moments and times in my life when it has been necessary to carry a handgun in this manner for a short period of time. And for the same reasons I don't want rails on my 1911's, Browning Hi Power, revolvers or any other pistol.

You can get a 57 with either fixed or adjustable sights, and it would seem like someone interested in distance shooting might want the adjustable sights due to the incredible range the 57 is capable of, which with the proper ammunition is stated by FN to be about 200 yards maximum effective distance, fired by a handheld shooter I asssume.
Which brings me to the point. I wonder why Glock or Kel-Tec or another gun maker with some vision has not entered into the fray by designing their own pistol in this caliber? If anyone from their camps stumbles across this post, I'll say it again: Amongst my friends and fellow shooters who have discussed the 57, it's just the price keeping most of us away from the FN 57.

H&K was competing against FN with a caliber of their own, very similar in size but not performance to the 5.7 x 28mm, and both were vying to be the universal NATO replacement for the 9mm being used today. But I know H&K is capable of uniquely designing guns, and I know they could do this cartridge justice with a great handgun design.

As with other unanswered marketing questions regarding guns, such as why Glock has never made a subcompact single stack 9mm or a hi-cap 22 caliber factory pistol (not a conversion), it's a mystery to me why other gun makers have not decided to compete with the 57.

Even though Glock could sell as many single stack 9mm pistols as they could make for the first couple of years if the grip and slide were just a bit slimmer, they haven't seen fit to market a pistol of this nature.

Wiki says that Excel Firearms has 4 firearms in development in the 5.7 x 28mm caliber, and that Savage has two bolt action rifles in the works. So that's encouraging news that other gun makers have recognized the viability of this round after several decades. A quick look at the Excel new products page shows the MP 5.7, a bohemouth of a handgun that reminds more of a Desert Eagle or an AutoMag than the FN 57. Whereas the 57 comes in at just over 20 oz. unloaded, the Excel handgun weighs in at a whopping 54 oz, more than twice the weight.

Given that the 57 allegedly has 30% less recoil than the standard 9mm cartridge, such a heavyweight pistol might not be necessary as with stronger calibers like the .357 or .44 WMR varieties. Or at least it's been my experience that with the more stout calibers, more weight to the gun equals less felt recoil. Although I have yet to shoot the 5.7 x 28mm caliber, from all reports, it has recoil more like a .22 Hornet than anything else.

The videos I've seen of it being shot remind more of the Kel-Tec PMC-30 in .22 WMR than other centerfire handguns and their recoil.

I've rarely seen used 57's for sale, despite the fact they've been available to USA civilians since 2004. One review said they were selling about 23k of them per year, so you'd think you'd see some on the used side of the gun store every now and then. When I first got to handle one, it felt a bit odd, about like the first time I handled the Model 21 Glock in .45 ACP. It was, of course, different than any other handgun I'd felt, and I've owned and shot some of what are considered unusual firearms in my time.

After having shot the Kel-Tec PMC-30 now for some time, I can honestly say that the grip of the 57 doesn't seem that unusual now. Unfortunately, the price of the 57 has remained out of my practical reach, barring a trade in of some sort, and I'm not sure I have any firearms I'd like to trade.

I've only seen one used 57 that was reasonably priced , and it was last August and was priced at $800 in a pawn shop in a bad part of town. A quick bore light inspection and look inside showed a gun that had been shot quite a bit that appeared to have never been cleaned. The bore was pitted and looked as if someone had done some scraping with a screwdriver or similar object inside the barrel. In short, it wasn't in a condition I wanted to buy at any price.

For new 57's, Cabela's sells them for $1100, except this month they have $50 off that price. I've seen them priced in the high $900's in some of the more reasonable gun stores here in Texas, but basically it's a thousand dollar pistol. I'm not seriously in the market enough for one to look on GB or any of the other gun auction sites, but I might be soon.

I like the idea of having a semi-automatic pistol that can shoot 31 rounds of rifle velocity ammo that is designed to tumble upon impact. I could even tolerate the high cost of ammo for these guns. I'd just like to be able to justify affording the gun.

THE MOSIN NAGANT 91/30 PISTOL, OR THE OBREZ

2012-01-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Picture from http://www.houstongunblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/mosin-pistol.jpeg

To those of you who know something about firearms, the above is a chopped down made into a pistol from a rifle gun.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: NOTE THAT TO MAKE A RIFLE INTO A PISTOL OR SHORT BARRELED RIFLE OR ANY OTHER WEAPON YOU NOT ONLY NEED PRE-APPROVAL FROM THE BATF, YOU MUST OBTAIN A LICENSE OR LICENSES AND PAY FEES OF (AT LEAST BUT COULD BE MORE THAN) $200 TO LEGALLY ACCOMPLISH THIS TRANSFORMATION FROM RIFLE TO PISTOL. THERE IS NO LEGAL ADVICE REGARDING THIS OR ANYTHING GIVEN ON THIS SITE, AND YOU ARE URGED TO CONTACT AN ATTORNEY WHO PRACTICES IN THIS AREA TO BE SURE YOU ARE LEGALLY COMPLIANT WITH ALL LAWS. NOTE THAT I CANNOT ANSWER LEGAL QUESTIONS ON THIS SITE.

I'll post some links later on in this post of some youtube videos of fellows firing some of these guns. Apparently, although the 7.62 x 54r cartridge is very close in power to the venerable 30.06 round, there is not as much recoil from this pistol because some of the powder does not burn up due to the brevity of the barrel.

Now at this point so early on in my musings, you're probably asking yourself "Why does El Fisho have interest in this 100 year old bolt action five shot Russian relic that is long past it's prime"?

First off, I'm not sure the weapon is past it's prime. I prefer the Mosin Nagant rifle variants that are carbine length. It's a heavy weapon and cutting the barrel from the normal-ish 28" to 16.5"/18" makes it a whole new ballgame in handling this weapon. There are TONS of these guns for sale for prices that begin under $100. Ammo is ridiculously cheap. I've recently bought 440 rounds for less than $80.

Secondly, although there is no contest whatsoever between modern semi-automatic assault weapons used by police and the military and the Mosin Nagant, I'll note that revolutionary armies all over the world have resisted and won armed conflicts over the last century using surplus and knock-off Mosin Nagant rifles against forces using vastly superior arms.

Of course, the outcomes of those situations were dictated by differences in motivations of the fighting forces, sheer mass numbers of oppressed peoples and their will to fight for their version of freedom. I don't know, for example, if the Mosin Nagant rifle was used by rebel forces in Afghanistan in the 1980's, but I recall seeing long barreled bolt action rifle in pictures of the Afghan fighters. I know that as the conflict went on they captured AK's and RPG's to use, but apparently the Mosin Nagant or a gun like it was what got them those superior weapons in the end.

One blog post I read while researching about the Mosin Nagant rifle and it's many variants mentioned that a frugal purchaser catching these guns on sale or at wholesale could arm a squad of men (5) and have TONS of ammo for about $125-150 per man. For that price, you could have a very nice refurbished rifle and say, 440-880 rounds of ammo.

So even though there are many of these surplus rifles on the market and they are cheap as well, many question the wisdom, the judgement and indeed the sanity of those wanting to cut down a rifle into a pistol.

I can't tell you why, but I can tell you I think it's as neat as snuff, as the old East Texas saying goes. An old saw, I suppose, but I'm not partial to using that phrase. It's an old saying is what it is. In any event, I think I'm gonna have to pony up $200 and get the necessary BATF licenses/permits and have a gunsmith do the barrel/sight modification for me and I'll do the stock.

What could one possibly use a Mosin Nagant pistol for (not to be confused with the Nagant revolver, and interesting gun in itself as it is one of the few, if any others exist, of revolvers that can actually be suppressed like a semi-auto pistol) ?

The Nagant revolver is interesting in a Webley sort of way, in that it has that throwback design look to it. Me myself, I prefer the look and function of the Model 1917 Smith and Wesson and Colt and those many evolutions of revolvers made by those companies in the intervening years.

I guess the $99.99 rifle that becomes a $299.99 rifle with Federal BATF fees/taxes/whatever plus the gunsmithing fees for barrel reduction and sight relocation/replacement. I'm thinking my guy would charge me at least $300 to cut and crown the barrel and to relocate the front sight and whatever other cut down work would be required. At least. So now we have a $599.99 Mosin Nagant pistol that can shoot five rounds of a pretty potent round at an insanely cheap price for centerfire shooting.

All of this is not without historical precedent either. Back in the old days, according to my forum and web reading, the 91/30 and it's variants were prevalent as well.

Obviously, the cut down pistol version conceals much better than the full sized or even carbine version of the 91/30. I don't know how much historical accuracy lies in the following statement I read on one forum or webpage, but it basically said that you use the Mosin Nagant 91/30 pistol to get a better pistol. Fair enough.

Various Russian revolutionaries called the pistol the Obrez.

Here's some youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXMYhekpGhI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNFsUvh078I

If you look carefully, you can see the huge fireball coming out of the end of the gun. It's daylight in both videos, but if you've ever seen videos or actually shot even a full sized 28" barrel Mosin Nagant under dark or cloudy conditions, you know how much of an otherworldly superfireball comes out of the end of it. Imagine that huge fireball coming from the cutdown pistol! I suspect it would be a stout deterrent to any attacker.

Witness here an example of one of these homemade Russian pistolas, The Obrez.

Picture from http://operatorchan.org/k/arch/src/k142364_sawn-off-nagant.jpg

Picture from http://therealgunguys.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/obrez.jpg
Here's another more modern day adaptation. Note the grip on this modified gun is more of a straight grip than a pistol grip on the one shown above and a longer barrel.

Picture from http://orshagorodmoy.info/_nw/16/48956130.jpg
The above picture appears in a thread on this forum that features one poster who has a nifty design that says:

"OBREZ When you need to put a fist sized hole in someone at less than 10 feet and set their clothes on fire at the same time, accept no substitute."

For me, I'd like a green daylight laser mounted up front on the bottom of the barrel to aid in good shooting from the hip. Again, it's a potent round, and you can literally blow the hell out of something with it. I recently saw a waterlogged tree floating in a big ole' Texas River (The Mighty Brazos) literally get blown in half as it floated past an elevated shooter with a $100 unmodified 91/30 with the 28" barrel.

I also wonder if the stock could structurally handle being cut down so that a Pachmayr or Hogue pistol grip off of a revolver could be fitted to it. My initial thought was to obtain a S&W N frame actual steel pistol grip from a parts gun, and weld it to the receiver of the 91/30, and then use a Pachmayr or Hogue grip on the transplanted frame and this still may be the best plan.

Another thought would be to replace the grip using an SKS or AK grip attached so that it was perpendicular to the receiver. Like a regular AK. Get the grip frame attachment portion off of an
AK or SKS and weld that sucker to the receiver of the 91/30, then any number of kinds of more vertical (as opposed to straight back or pistol grip) could be used.

The more I think about it, the more I think that no matter how ungainly or unconventional the more straight back horizontal grip of the standard 91/30 looks when cut down, it may work in this case as function over form. Since there is no rear stock using the shooter's shoulder for support, it does put the wrist and arm of the right handed shooter in a different position than either shooting from the hip or shooting from an elevated position using the iron sights.

And speaking of the sights. Well, I'd get some of those high dollar sights that Wild West Guns in Alaska uses on it's Alaska Co-Pilot rifle installed when the barrel work was being done. Get the receiver tapped for a rail and put a great rear sight on the gun. A nice-to-do at that time also would be to have the gunsmith attach an AK scopemount to the left side of the receiver. This would facilitate the quick attachment/detachment of a red dot scope. You'd want, or at least I'd want, the scope mount to be high enough so as not to block the view of the iron sights.

Of course, the other modification you'd want to consider is the replacement of the bolt handle. The straight bolt handle would not work with some optics, and the stock straight handle is replaced with a bent handle that works with a scope positioned in the traditional rearward location.

The original sights are not that bad, particularly the front sight, but the rear sight is not my favorite. There is a certain cool about an adjustable rear sight that goes to 1000 meters, and apparently there is documented examples of these high powered full barreled guns hitting the target at that distance. So even with a pistol version of this gun, you've got the strong possibility of having a handgun that can shoot several hundred yards with a dang good degree of accuracy, not to mention sheer power.

So replacing the sights, and maybe even mounting a rail so that very cool rear sights could be used and interchanged.

There was another web page I read about a fellow who didn't want to pay the Federal tax to cut his 91/30 into a pistol, so he opted to make his into one of the shorter, legal rifles. He left his barrel at 16.5 and cut it so that he was well over the minimum length in his state for a rifle. He put a bipod on it and the gunsmtth who cut the barrel to 16.5" said it was like a high powered Remington XP-100, while it's owner compared it to a Super Thompson Contender. I can't find that link right now but if I do I'll post it.

So it'd be a fun gun to have and to shoot, and to shoot cheaply. With great power. With a laser attached, you could hit a hog or a good sized snake with ease at some distance, and with lots of knockdown power.

And a good bit of flame.

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!

2011-12-30T21:26:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful for much this holiday season. Good friends. A wonderful family. Great times together. A good job with great co-workers and boss and a good place to live with mostly decent folks and fairly low crime, being as I originally hail from Houston and grew up with crime. Crime, they say, is my business.

So it's nice to escape crime, in the enclave of your own home and family. Of course, we went to the folks house for Christmas, and although I've never had a bad Christmas, this one was so relaxing that it stands out.

A firefighter friend of mine, still dealing with the remains of the huge fire that terrorized and pretty much destroyed a quarter of our community this year, can't seem to relax, and I've been there. He was commenting that just sitting around was eating him up, about he was ready for the holidays to be over NOW.

I can't agree. We're having a great holiday, particularly this week, and I wish it would last a couple of more weeks up until MLK day.

I'm thankful for visitors like Helene and Zach who actually read my blather and comment. Helene probably doesn't live too far away and apparently engages in many of the same activities I do, like a little hog hunting. She posted recently that her granddaughter supplied their Thanksgiving and Christmas ham, and let me tell you, if you get the right size (smaller) hog, it is tastier than any ham or bacon you've ever had.

Hunting for food is a way of life for folks I know. We may not do it out of necessity and as regularly as my grandparents did in East Texas, but it's a good skill to have and frankly, I think it's embedded in our DNA. For me, same with fishing also, and I mean all kinds of fishing: rod and reel sport fishing, cane pole fishing, seining, trot line fishing, jug fishing and so on. I've never done any "hand grabbing" of catfish or any of that nonsense.

One resolution I have is to do more fishing camps this year. I have several friends with nice places on the Colorado, one of the few rivers (other than the Brazos) in Texas that have much water in them. I like getting some friends together, taking a few campers and some cooking gear and setting up a fishing camp for an extended weekend. Usually there's at least a jonboat along for the trotlining. Once the grills start grilling and the food starts cooking, it's a several day feast. This year, my friend Neal suggested we go hog hunting the weekend before the fishing camp and get a couple of hogs. The idea is to have one processed for grilling and then to have the other one frozen for later use in a Hawaiian Luau style cooking pit, just for the helluva it.

As Helene notes in her comment on the previous thread, it is being predicted by some pretty knowledgeable folks, particularly at Texas A&M, that our drought will likely continue despite our current rainy conditions and could continue not only for months but for as long as ten years. That's very scary to us in Texas. Some smaller communities are still on the brink of running out of water, and many have not recovered and are teetering on the brink of outage as I write this. Where I live is in good shape water wise but not to fer west of us they've still got water shortage issues.

Our current rain is not enough to recharge aquifers, lakes, streams and such. We basically need it to rain for the next year or so on a daily basis.

We're infested with hogs in Texas. There are many different species I refer to here collectively as hogs, but in the Central Texas/Hill Country areas where I live and roam, I know more than one landowner who has sustained major financial loss to crops and livestock from marauding hordes of wild hogs.

Coyotes are also quite a problem as well, and are much harder to eradicate. Several of my friends who raise goats or sheep or cattle have invested in night vision scopes, expensive ones, because that's about the only way you can get a coyote.

But as always, I digress. There's a lot to be thankful for in my world, and I thank you for reading my musings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

2011-12-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

A Merry Christmas to all who land here, and Happy Holidays for all!

I heard from fellow blogger and my friend Zach today, and it inspired me to at least throw a few words out there. It's been an interesting year, with the last 3 months being especially stressful and busy. Strangely, the past 90 days have just flown by, as has the past year.

We've been getting rain in our part of Texas lately, and finally. After the months long drought and heat wave Texas underwent this summer, it's a weird weather warp around here right now. The San Augustine and Bermuda grasses in my yard think it is spring, as do the weeds. Roses in the front garden have been blooming, and many of the trees that would normally be leafless are now where they should have been at the end of the summer. The beech tree in the front is just now, four days from Christmas, throwing out pollen balls or whatever they are, that usually fall from the tree in mid-summer.

I've been through many droughts in Texas over my life, but none as severe and as long lasting as the one this year. I read today in the paper where Texas lost an estimated 500 million trees. Yes, you read that right. 500 Million, or roughly 10% of the trees in the state. My old friend Billy Ray has been making many family visiting trips out to West Texas this year, and has been foretelling of the large number of dead and dying trees he's seen making that journey from the Hill Country. Billy Ray is an old Texas road dog, and has racked up a lot of miles over the years, and he knows the topography of the state well.

On my rear porch, today I saw a new family of birds moving into a gourd birdhouse El Fisho Jr made some years ago. Thing is, usually birds only move in that house in the spring. Well, the new bird family is moving in nesting material and by all appearances is setting up a springtime nest. I'll keep you posted if chicks appear.

The Guest Rooster still lives across the street, and now has a passle of young 'uns that he leads around the area. It's hilarious, like Foghorn Leghorn he's got three small baby roosters following him like robots, roaming the area. He comes by the front fenceline every few days just to annoy my dogs and let them know he's still around, teaching his offspring how to annoy my dogs.

Texas Rainbow Trout stocking season is upon us, and I am going to do some emailing to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and see which lakes and creeks are actually being stocked. Despite the budgetary crisis thrust upon our TPWD by our inept legislators, they've managed to hobble together the trout stocking program yet another year.

For many Texans, it's the only opportunity they'll have to fish for Rainbows. Ever. And of course, they are a culinary delight, and having been raised by the TPWD, are probably as safe to eat as any fish caught in the wild, even though the trout are hachery bred and raised.

I've been fishing for Rainbows all over the state, since I was a kid. My dad was also excited by the stocking program, and it was he who would schedule family vacations during spring break so we could go catch trout in the Guadalupe and in those colder western and northern stocking places in the state where trout were still lingering in early March.

So I've been doing the Rainbow fishing thing every year since then. Somewhere. Somehow, I manage to get to a lake for the trout fishing. I've been remiss the past few year in taking Rainbow Trout roadtrips, and need to make the time for them. El Fisho Jr. mentioned the other day how we had not talked about Rainbow fishing yet when we were dining with his Godfather Billy Ray.

Billy Ray was raised in Houston and like me, had a dad who enjoyed fishing for Rainbows and who took his family in quest of them. Time after time, when I go fishing for the Rainbows at various locations, I meet other folks who've been doing it as long as I have. Like a family tradition in Texas, not unlike the white bass runs of springtime or the crappie and largemouth bass breeding seasons.

But again, back to reality and the fact that many of the locations that are on the current stocking list are probably devoid of enough water to support any healthy fish population. The temperatures couldn't be better, for the stocked trout get that (what I suspect is) genetic friskiness when it gets cold, and that of course leads to more eating and better fishing. It's in the mid-40's at my house right now and would be perfect, except my local stocking location which is due to be stocked soon has about 1/4 of the usual capacity.

I suspect it's the same story for many other places in Texas where the trout are usually stocked. Since Christmas is smack dab in the middle of the normal trout stocking season, I often equate the time off on the holidays with a little trout fishing.

So I'll get in touch with the powers that be and see how the stocking program has been going, and hopefully will muster the effort to post all of that here. I've driven hundreds of miles to fish for these rascals in years gone by, and I'm not above driving hours to a good location.

THE ORVIS COMPANY: EXCELLENCE CONTINUED

2011-12-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

When I graduated from law school so many years ago, I trucked myself over to the Orvis store and bought myself the graduation gift of a long-awaited Orvis fishing outfit. Because I was planning to do some traveling looking for a job after taking the bar exam, I opted for a lower end offering of the Orvis company: a four piece rod with reel and line in 6 weight.

I had been getting Orvis catalogs since I was about 11 years old. Of course, I could never afford their higher end rods and reels back then, and although my parents certainly kept me equipped with some excellent fishing tackle in more moderate price ranges, an Orvis rod back then was out of the question. I would by flies and various accessories from Orvis though. Back then, in the early 70's, Orvis ran promotions in the fishing magazines, where if you sent in a few dollars, you would get an item like a leader wallet with some leaders or a streamer wallet with some streamers, and so on. I still have and use the promo items like these that I bought in my pre-and-early teens via these promotions in Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Field and Stream.

So when I bought my own graduation present, which I think went for about $300 when all was said and done, I remember declining to purchase an extra spool for the outfit. I've always been a WF floating line fly fisherman. But lately, I've been using an outfit I picked up used that had a sinking tip line on it, and found it to be productive in the heat of the day. So I set about to find an extra spool for the Orvis Madison III Disc Drag reel from the graduation rod purchase.

I knew that Orvis had not made this reel for many years. I think the Madison might have been one of the last "low end" Orvis reels made in England. You can still get that English quality nowadays, but you're gonna pay big for it. I looked on ebay, and didn't find any spools there. On a whim, I emailed Orvis, and over the next couple of days had some back and forth with a very nice gentleman about the specifics of my reel.

Orvis then emailed me that they had an extra spool in their parts warehouse and I could buy it. I figured a spool was going to cost me some dollars, as much or more than an entire lower end fly reel from an asian manufacturer, and was amazed when quoted the price of $11.

$11. That might be cheaper than it was back when it was in production and a regular selling item. In any event, it's on it's way here now, and I've got some backing and a dandy Orvis sinking tip line ready to load on it.

I'm also on the lookout for a reasonably priced spin/fly bamboo Rocky Mountain rod from about 40 years ago. There are several on ebay right now, and failing that exact model, over the next few weeks I'll be looking for a good used 30-40 year old Orvis bamboo rod, in anywhere from a 2wt to 4wt and hopefully of a shorter length, anywhere from 5' to 6.5'. I've seen some auctions end under $200 for decent rods lately, and that's encouraging to a working man with a family who can't come close to affording one of Orvis's few current bamboo rod offerings.

Orvis has been making excellent fishing and hunting gear for many years now. One reason I keep coming back is because there is so much service after the sale. In this case, many years after the sale. And that service I got from two gentlemen and one young lady who took my order over the phone? It couldn't have been more polite, efficient or respectful.

Or productive.

SMITH AND WESSON MOUNTAIN GUNS

2011-11-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

It seems like the Smith and Wesson Mountain Gun series was something I should have paid more attention to, because I find several of the models that they made to be interesting guns. Not that I spend a lot of time in the mountains, mind you, but as a revolver fan, I like a good shooting sideiron and particularly something that perhaps is function over form and isn't the "same-same".

Just about any gun could be a mountain gun, I suppose. A Glock in 10mm or .45 ACP is considered a mountain gun by some I know, although I think I'd go with the 10mm loaded hot if those were the only two guns for choosin'.

I know my late 70's four inch Model 29 is remarkably similar to some of the "Mountain Guns" Smith has marketed, in fact, several are the same gun.

Likewise, it would seem, but for the caliber, that my Model 1917 with it's 5 1/2" barrel would fit the bill as well. I say, but for the caliber, because whilst .45 ACP is a great manstopper, it leaves something to be desired velocity wise in the field with larger creatures. Again, it's perfectly adequate for what we've got here in Texas that might surprise me in the woods, but I'd rather have something sort of magnum-ey if big hogs or big cats or wolves are involved. But I even think there has been at least one Mountain Gun in .45 ACP.

So the Mountain Guns I'm wanting to learn about are the ones that differed from the standard models. Tapered barrels and various non-standard barrel lengths. Different grip sizes. I can't recall if any had unfluted cylinders or not. Interesting sights and grips.

I couldn't find a lot of organized information out there on the Mountain Gun line, since it's kinda been a special niche offering by Smith and Wesson going back "pre-web" I guess to the early 90's.

I'd like to try out some of the offerings with the 4" and 5" barrels that I saw in past gun magazines that came in .41 Magnum and .45 Long Colt. Some where 5 shot and some were 6 shot. There were several ultra lightweight guns made of alloy and aluminum and not scandium, some were at or near the regular weight for the non-Mountain Gun versions and some were sort of a medium weight, if memory serves.

Of course, there were and are scandium versions of Mountain Guns. The 386 SC Mountain Lite in .357, the 396 SC Mountain Lite in .44 Special and the 329PD in .44 Magnum. Great guns as well.

I need to do some digging through some old gun annuals and some more online searching at the gun forums. Smith and Wesson as a company, I have found, is famous for tacking on designations to old model numbers for new pistols, with the pistols being somewhat different, all of which leads to confusion.

For example, you have the Model 360PD, which is a scandium framed, titanium cylinder .357 J frame that weighs in at 11.8 oz. Then you have the Talo edition Model 360, a .357 with the Scandium frame and steel cylinder, weighing in at 13.3 oz. Then, if not to confuse matters more, you have the Model 360 M&P, another .357 with scandium frame, steel cylinder and 3" barrel weighing slightly more than the other two, but still a featherweight for a .357.

But I digress. One Mountain Gun I do remember liking that I saw in some article years ago was five shot version in .45 Long Colt, and it might have been built on a K or L frame, a square butt but a k frame sized square butt, a 4" or 5" tapered barrel with some nice sights with inserts.

So any links or information you might have about compendium(s) of information sources on Mountain Guns and their history would be very cool to hear about. I'm not looking to start a collection, but like with a Colt Peacemaker from the seventies that I never could afford back then and really can't now, I'd like to have one example of that gun one day in the safe or on my belt.

THE NEXT LONG GUN

2011-11-20T17:28:00.000-08:00

I want another long gun. and, as they say, Santa Claus is coming to town. Not a black rifle, or an assault weapon, but a combination hunting and home defense and/or home varmint/predator rifle, depending on the caliber.

I'm very flexible about what would be a cool gun to have, and thought I'd list some of the choices and see what comments I can get from those who know more about rifles and calibers and such. Now, don't start getting excited about me wanting to use a hunting rifle as a backup home defense weapon but there are times it would come in handy.

Or as one of my favorite bloggers who is on vacation right now, TEXAS GHOSTRIDER, used to say is..."All a handgun is good for is for providing diversionary fire until I can get to my long gun(s).".

THE VINTAGE BROWNING BAR IN .243/AS NEW

For instance, one recent spotting: a .243 BAR, 1968 Grade II Browning. Just gorgeous and in like new condition. With rings. $850. It'd be sold already if it was a .30-06 or .270 or even a 300 magnum or .338 magnum. Of course, the wood and metal are just to die for gorgeous, and the weapon looks to be in excellent condition with little wear visible inside or out.

I'm interested in this caliber as I'm old enough to now be weary of shooting hard kicking guns more than a few times. I don't have a .223 bolt action or hunting type rifle, but the .243 has a bit more ommph I think. It still doesn't have enough ommph though, for the only thing I'm interested in hunting right now, which is hogs.

Yes, it'd be fine for smaller hogs, or for that rare head shot hog that's standing still when I shoot him. Most of the hogs I run across have ADHD...they just can't sit still. I read on hunting forums about guys who are claiming that they do a lot of ear shots on hogs, dropping them instantly.

Their hogs must have a water supply laced or poisoned with some kind of antianxiety drug like valium, cause I usually don't see too many hogs in my stomping grounds that pose for head shots. The hogs I see are always moving, twitching, shaking, moving around, and in general, just not sitting still for a ear shot.

As an aside, Massad Ayoob is on record in an article stating the perfect bear defense gun for the outdoorsman would be a BAR in .338 Magnum, for the virtue of fast followup shots. Down here in Texas, there's not much chance of a bear attack, and for hunting smaller hogs, the .243 would be just dandy. It's a popular caliber in Texas, and you see rows and rows of ammo for it in many stores.

1970'S MARLIN 336 IN .35 REMINGTON/AS NEW

A Marlin 336 from the 70's in .35 Remington. I didn't catch the price. You don't see guns new or used for sale in that caliber down in my neck of the woods very often, yet the ammo is readily available. After reading up on the cartridge, it's worth a look if it's priced right.

RUGER GUNSITE SCOUT RIFLE/NEW

I still like the Ruger Gunsite Scout rifle, and have had a chance to play with one recently. Ruger announced the releaase of some shorter mags recently, and I can recall they come in 5 and 10 rounders plus something else, maybe a 15. In the internet stuff I saw, they appeared to be made of plastic, while the stock 15 round magazines and the 4 extra magazines I saw recently were all made of metal.

I don't care much for the Scout Scope, although I've used one for the past couple of years on a Mini-14. I prefer my scopes mounted on the receiver, and if I got the Gunsite rifle, it would have it's scope mounted rearward. .308 is a good combination caliber, combining most of the assets and few of the faults of it's neighbors on either side of it. Surplus sealed ammo is available for stockpiling, Serious target ammo is readily available.

I don't much care for the stock laminate material either, but I'm sure some aftermarket stocks will become available. Some of the stocks I've seen on the Gunsite Ruger have been darker than others, and those to me are far less offensive. A nice Walnut or even black synthetic stock like Ruger puts on everything else would be a big improvement over what they are doing now with this laminate thing. My luck is that they'll introduce a hip and happening stock for the new improved next year's model Gunsite that is synthetic (in line with it's state purpose(s) but will have some gidget that won't allow it to fit an old model rifle.

Of course, having a heavy duty, integral, fold-up and hide-away bipod would be in line with the history of other Gunsite models made by other makers like Steyr. C'mon Ruger, even a maker like Kel-Tec is putting a folding bi-pod forend on one of their .223 folding rifles, the name of which escapes right now. But if they can do it, surely you could do it.

Ruger has been busting down the door this past year, releasing some really great guns. They've got too many new guns to mention here, but right offhand I'd like one of the .357 bolt actions, one of the new 1911 tributes (which I've yet to see in person their take on the 1911), The Wiley Clapp GP100 3" and one of the SP101's in .22 caliber.

I've seen lots of good deals on used Rugers lately. I've seen two very nice Security Sixes and two excellent Safety Sixes, all blued, all with 4" barrels and and all priced from $300-$400 and they didn't last but a couple of days at the LGS. People in these here parts know those two guns in .357 are keepers. I know. I have a Security Six in stainless, and it'll be around a long, long time. I'll be having me a six inch one the next time I see a bargain on one.

I don't know that the Ruger Gunsite is any better of a gun than one of their fine bolt actions in the same caliber. My LGS is selling the Gunsite for $745, and he sells the more or less identical Ruger bolt action M77 without the detachable magazine, with a longer barrel and no flash hider/suppressor (and with a believe it or not uglier than the Gunsite laminated stock) camo synthetic stock for like $100 less.

.270 and .308 are the other calibers that have come up in my research, shooting experience and looking around. I've already got a very able rifle chambered in .30-06, so that too moves me a bit closer to the .308. Likewise, I've run into a very nice and reasonably priced Browning BLR lever action in .30-06, as well as a gently used and not so reasonably priced Ruger M77 in .270. If I didn't already have a dandy and accurate .30-06 and if .270 wasn't so dang close to the .30-06 in so many ways, those two guns would be in the running here as well.

And therein lies problem number one. I've always shot rifles, but in very limited caliber ranges: The .22 family, my .30-30 Marlin, a .308 Winchester bolt action, a .30-06 Remington pump, a Mini-14 and various Ak's and CAR's and AR-15's. Oh I've shot many other different calibers once or twice, just not enough to get a feel for different guns and different ammo in the same and different calibers.

Although I'm very experienced with a wide range and calibers of handguns and of course, shotguns, I'm woefully stupid about many things *rifle* that I'm learning about at this late age. I've been shooting some different guns during the past couple of years to try to narrow the field down and here's where I am:

a .243 Browning BAR, a vintage Marlin 336 in .35 Remington, or the "sorta new and just out on dealer's shelves" Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle in .308. The BAR would have it hands down if it were in a different caliber, and the Gunsite Scout does handle VERY WELL, and I mean, very well for me.

What's your vote?

THE REGIFTING

2011-11-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was not only a very special day personally in our household turned into a gift giving exchange between Billy Ray and I for completely different reasons.

For several months, although Billy Ray lives near the San Marcos river that actually has flowing, albeit slowly, water in it's upper reaches, he hasn't been doing much fishing. And we were discussing what might be good tactics during the heat wave + drought and he commented how he didn't really have a good ultra-light or medium-light spinning rig to fish with.

Something small and preferably a 4 or 5 piece travel rod that didn't cost too much and wouldn't cause a lot of tears if it were stolen from a car, the idea being to have a small fishing kit in your car at all times for those spur of the moment opportunities.

Of course, I have several rigs of that description for myself and El Fisho Jr., and some that Billy Ray uses when we all go out fishing. I had one rig I was thinking about giving him, it's a nice Mitchell outfit, ultralight travel rig but this particular spinning reel has a bad habit of the center drag adjustment knob becoming loose on it's own and just disappearing during fishing. I got several replacement knobs from the maker years ago, and you just have to watch it every minute. So I use the rod and haven't used that reel in years, but it wouldn't last 5 minutes with Billy Ray.

So recently on ebay I found a nice and cheap and NIB Daiwa Executive Travel fly/spin travel rod pack with a new unused ultralight spinning reel. The fly reel was missing from the pack but I also found a NIB Kmart fly reel circa 1972 on ebay for well under the sticker price on the box of $9.97 that is the perfect size for this kit.

I didn't know it, but Billy Ray's dad has one of these rigs, except his is just the spinning travel rod. Billy Ray has been wanting one of these Daiwa Executive kits apparently for some time, so I made a good random pick when I ran across it on ebay. After he left to head back home, I ran across some new Stren 6lb line and some older but virtually unused 6 weight forward Scientific Anglers fly line and some backing he can throw on those reels and be ready to go.

So in return, I got a very cool new Magellen Hydration fishing vest, sort of a far out looking affair with a tiny back/hydration pack on the back and a fishing vest with these modular looking pockets on the front. I've seen these out for sale the past couple of years, and he got it and didn't like it and the sanitary seal hasn't even been broken on the hydration valve yet.

It has some mesh pockets on each of the inside and I think will make a dandy fishing vest. It has enough straps on the outside where some fishing rod cases could be lashed to it for an ultralight fishing kit bag. There are two very strong straps, one on the top of each shoulder, and the Springfield Armory Scout M6 bag could easily be strapped on top of the hydration part via a short 2" wide "Y" strap and some kind of strap on the bottom to keep it from swinging.

So I'll be looking at my new fishing vest tonight figuring out how it will be outfitted.

TWO GREAT AMERICAN COMPANIES: BLACKHAWK AND PRO-MAG

2011-11-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

I'd not had any experience with either of the above-companies until this year. I'm very impressed, and the products I've used were made here in the USA.

THE BLACKHAWK SPORTSTER HOLSTER

The Blackhawk Sportster line of nylon belt holsters, their cheapest holster product, is made here in the USA. It comes in 6 or 7 different sizes, and as you might imagine, there is quite a bit of cross-fitting that can go on between holsters designed for one gun that work great with another. It isn't always the case, and as any holster maker will tell you, it's not recommended, but sometimes you've got a gun that no holster is made for and you're gonna use something.

I like the Sportster line for two related reasons. The plastic belt loop is solid and works against floppiness, even with an ordinary belt. With a real gunbelt, even one on the lower end, it keeps the gun and holster solid. Perhaps it's the material it's made of or the way it's attached to the holster, but it works better than any belt loop configuration on any nylon holster I've used, whether fabric or plastic belt loop.

The second thing Blackhawk got right is the ride height of the gun vs. holster vs. belt loop. The belt loop and the center mass of the gun are positioned at or near the beltline, where I like it. Less concealable than a high-rise holster I'll admit, but far more stable and comfortable, particularly with large revolvers. The older I get, the more I care about comfort.

So the best part is these holsters are priced under $12.00 at my local wallyland, and sometimes they are in a clearance rack there or at Academy. I got two of my Sportsters priced at less than $7.00.

So I've gotten one of each of most of the Sportster line and am now looking for come cheap used leather or nylon "police duty" belts to throw the holsters on so I can have inexpensive but ready to go rigs for different guns for hunting and fishing adventures.

I set up one old actual clarino leather police duty belt from my past with one of these Sportster holsters for a 6" .357, and it was rock solid on a thick Sam Browne belt. I threw on the old speedloader case, also clarino, that I used to use back in the day, as well as a 12 space cartridge slide that I outfitted with shotshells and some semi-wadcutters. I had a black nylon pouch I attached that holds extra/different glasses, cell phone, sunglasses, personal items and anything else you might want to access quickly in the field.

So the idea is to have a couple of different rigs set up where I don't have to tear them down and put them back together to switch mag/shell holders and holsters on the belt. I don't want to put a lot of money in this and I've got a lot of cartridge slides and mag pouches just waiting to be used, lots of it old surplus stuff that's still in real good shape, so all I need is some good belts.

So it's a universal holster but it's the best I've ever used. They make another line, the name of which escapes me, but that has the extra magazine holder for semi-auto's that are nice as well, and I plan to get a few of those at some point.

PRO-MAG

For years I've read bad comments on various firearms forums from so called experts talking bad about Pro-Mags, particularly their replacement for the Mini-14. Note that I'm not saying Pro-Mag products are bad but that I never tried them.

Recently, while in Academy, I was overlooking the Pro-mag design on their 20 round AK-47 magazine. It's different than the traditional 20 round magazine in appearance, and if I'm not wrong, is a bit straighter and a bit smaller than the original.

I'm no magazine expert, but I've owned a lot of different mag fed rifles and pistolas and have seen a few quality mags in my time. I was impressed by the design and quality of materials in the AK 20 rounder by Pro-Mag. It was priced at $20, which is what I can get a very high quality brand new traditional steel 20 rounder for.

In any event, I bought one, along with a box of twenty Tula shells, and loaded it up. Flawlessly it worked out of an AKSM underfolder. Again and again. With Tula, Monarch and other ammo. No issues. No problems. We ran at least 300 rounds through that sucker, with no complaints. Easy on the fingers to load (some mags are not!) without stripper clips, it was just one flawless episode after another.

All of my companions that day are AK shooters at times, and were impressed with it. In fact, my friend Mikey spied it from across a large picnic table when I first pulled it out, noticing the smaller size and all of sudden got real interested in it. In fact, he snagged onto the package I broke it out of real quick and made sure to note the details and ask questions. Really, I've never seen him get so interested in an ancillary detail on a firearm in the twenty years we've been close friends and certainly talked arcane details of guns to death with each other.

I'll be buying a bunch of these Pro-Mag AK mags soon, and will be trying Pro-Mag magazines for other guns I have as well. Including the Ruger Mini-14. Also made in America, Pro-Mag products impressed me greatly, and I'll be buying some more of them soon.

So Blackhawk and Pro-mag are two American companies I'm happy to do business with, and encourage you to do the same.

By the way, I buy this stuff, none of it comes in the mail for free and there are no ads on this site. There are no paid reviews. I am writing about products I use in an unpaid review, and frankly, it takes a lot to impress me these days. Like my Orvis fly rods, these Blackhawk holsters and Pro-Mag magazines and their other products are in my stable to stay.

GUNS THAT NEED TO BE MADE: WALTHER, SPRINGFIELD ARMORY, MARLIN, COLT

2011-11-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I post about guns that need to be made, and sometimes, made again because they have previously been in production. Most of these have appeared before, but hey, they still need to be made. New to this list are some suggestions for Marlin to make.

MARLIN

There are a bunch of very cool and indeed, very function rifles and...wait for it...pistols you could be making.

A little Marlin personal history first, echoed by millions across this nation.

I love my Marlin rifles. My 50+ year old bolt action .22 is still going strong, and my Dad bought it shortly before my birth. Thousands and thousands of rounds have been through that rifle, with no issues whatsoever. As recently as a few weeks ago, still shooting straight.

A few years later came the first deer rifle, a 336 in .30-30. Of course, I still have it as well. It was sighted in shortly after it was purchased, and has been dead on ever since, which has been nearly 40 years.

So I started shooting with Marlin, and still have arguably the best Texas deer rifle ever, even if I don't do much deer hunting as of late. The 336 has been used, however, on multiple occasions to hunt hogs, and it does remarkably well at that task.

I know Marlin is aware of an Alaskan gunsmith who works as Wild West Guns and who makes a nifty take apart carbine based on the Marlin lever action called The Alaskan Co-Pilot. They bore out a .45-70 to some wildcat magnum caliber that still chambers the .45-70. It's transformed into a takedown rifle and there is lots of other gunsmithing done to it and just every gun writer I've read stories on this gun just thought it was a great gun. It's been used by a big game hunter in Africa but I guess the intended purpose is not only big game hunting but bear defense in the great white north.

The Alaskan Copilot from Wild West Guns

From the Wild West Guns site, this work of art could

take down a grizzly as well as the most dangerous

in Africa and breaks in half. With a 16" barrel,

it's a compact hunting/bear defense machine.

When I get mine, and I will find a deal on one

of these or just break down and order one from

Mr. West, my scope will be on the receiver, despite

the contrary opinion.

Interestingly, a few years ago this same gunsmith, the owner of Wild West Guns, which is located in Alaska, created a very cool version of the Steve McQueen Mare's Leg (Laig) out of one of these big lever actions. It's a very cool gun, but the threads and posts I read on various forums, a few purporting to be from the Wild West Guns owner himself, said because he's modifying existing rifles to a pistol the NFA rules kick in for short barreled weapons and such and forms and licenses and fees all get thrown into the mix.

THE BUSHWACKER FROM WILD WEST GUNS

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE BUSHWACKER NEXT TO A S&W MODEL 329PD FROM http://www.armas.es/galerias/image.raw?type=img&id=7326

Of course, Marlin knows that they can take a receiver that's never been attached to a rifle barrel and make a pistol out of it, just as Henry and Rossi are doing with their versions of the Mare's Legs.

But what's missing is the Mare's Leg in a rifle caliber, as was originally portrayed on the McQueen show. A .45-70 or .444 Marlin would be a nice chambering, not to forget a scaled down version in .30-30 based on the 336 large loop pistol grip.

Believe it or not, some pundits on internet forums gave the owner of Wild West Guns a lot of grief about The Bushwacker.Why I don't know. I'd sure like to have one, but as a production pistol and not an NFA weapon.

The other product missing from your line is the above-mentioned takedown rifle in several calibers. Being a Texan, I'd like to have one in .30-30 or .35 Remington, just cause we don't have the bear issue here. Our biggest threat in the woods is a large russian boar, perhaps wounded or cornered, in a situation where it will charge you.

Maybe you could work a deal with the Wild West guy and avoid the inevitable litigation if you made either of these guns part of your product line. Seems like he's created many works of art from your original product. How about making him consultant on a line of innovative firearms like these and working together to put out a custom line AND a budget line of the same guns.

Me myself, I'd like a Bushwacker IN A BIG CALIBER and could only hope that the black synthetic appearing stock was actually made of Pachmayr materials. I'd like a takedown 16" trapper or carbine based on the pistol gripped .30-30 and outfitted with some of the options Wild West offers, particularly the replacement sights and the internal gun work Wild West does.

So that's what I say Marlin.

WALTHER

I fail to understand why your company does not make the PPK/S or PPK in .22 caliber. You make it in .380 and .32 ACP. It was, as you know, made for decades in .22 L.R. caliber. It took several decades of S&W making the stainless Walthers to offer the blued version. I think you'd sell a profitable number of guns if you reintroduced the .22 L.R. into your PPK/S lineup.

SPRINGFIELD ARMORY

You need to make and actually market the pistol version of the M6 Scout Rifle. As i recall, the pistol was chambered for .45 Long Colt and .410 in one barrel, and I guess .22 L.R. or .22 WMR or .22 Hornet in the other. Shown at several mid-2000's gun shows as a product that would soon be for sale.

Likewise, how about selling more scopes and mounts for the M6, or making the M6 again/buying it again from CZ. These guns are selling for a lot of cash now. I'd buy the pistol version I've seen RIOT NOW if you had them for sale.

Are you listening, CZ?

COLT

How about some reasonably priced Single Action Army or Peacemaker guns for the loyal customers of your company. I like the recently (re?) introduced New Frontier but it's too expensive for me. How's about getting that priced down to about $700?

Likewise with the 1911's.

And think really seriously about putting the Python, Detective Special and Cobra back into production.

THE SPRINGFIELD ARMORY SCOUT M6 PROJECT: PART ONE

2011-11-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

I've assembled all of the parts and pieces and various stuff that I might use except for a scope and scope rings to modify my M6. All my modifications will be temporary and won't affect the permanant nature of the gun, unlike some I've seen. Each to their own.

I got the cordura bag that holds the broken down rifle. SA sells them and calls them a "holster" but really it looks like a small assault rifle bag. It also looks like it would hold a scoped Contender fairly well. Or a couple of them, as without being baggy or too large, it's got a lot of room in it once the rifle is in there. More about this in a moment.

If I were going into a situation where I was going to possibly have to be hunting small and possibly larger game (deer) to survive, I'd be considering adding a Thompson Contender to the bag. A scoped Thompson Contender rifle setup with the Pachmayr stock in a larger caliber would pretty much solve larger game problems.

But the type situation I've been in, and would foresee myself in where I would want a weapon like an M6 is more likely an injury or accident situation. In the Great Kayak Wreck of 1993, I learned all kinds of valuable lessons about survival gear and adversity. I'll intersperse some of those lessons throughout this series.

Also, as a kid, when we would take to the woods, we were taking knowledge gleaned from authors of library books like Bradford Angier and those who wrote for Sports Afield, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life. Through junior high and high school, we had a group that regularly went fishing and/or shooting. First on bikes, then on motorcycles and then in cars with boats. We practiced woodsmanship and outdoor skills whenever we could. The M6 would have been the perfect companion on many of those youthful adventures, and now I aim to make it even more perfect for me.

COMPANION HANDGUN: The flap front pocket on the M6 Cordura holster is big enough to hold a variety of handguns. Two frequent guns that often fall into my kit bag are either a Glock 19/26 or a S&W Model 66 with a 2 1/2" barrel. Another possibility for ultra lightweight carry is the S&W Model 360 in .357 as well.

The pocket is large enough to hold a gun like the Model 66 in a cordura holster with some kind of firm utility belt, extra ammo and a folding knife.

If I'm carrying a rifle with smaller calibers like the M6, I like to have a readily accessible handgun with enough gusto to take out the threats I might encounter in the Texas woods. Big ole' poisonous snakes, feral dogs, mean bobcats, a cornered hog, rabid skunks and armadillos and gators. All of these critters are pretty prevalent in my part of the state. You'd be surprised how many rabid skunks and dillos I've seen over the years, having once been chased by a hissing and very ill with something dillo until I could get enough ahead of him to get my double barrrel shotgun into action.

On two occasions whilst traversing dry ravines, I've encountered hogs in the hundred pound catagory that got trapped or cornered trying to avoid me or something else and were in a bit of a frenzy and I was glad I had substantial firearms with me in both cases. In case one, a .357 Python, and in case two, a Marlin 336 with a shoot through scope mount for when you need those sights.

CARTRIDGE CONVERTER: They sell these in stainless for $28 through one mail order house. I'd get one to convert .22 Hornet to .22 L.R. It's tiny, adds great versatility and greatly expands the use of this gun.

EXTRA FOLDING PINS: I don't know what to properly call them, but it is the pin that holds the two halves of the gun together. I ordered some extras from SA. I plan to put one in one of the cartridge compartments under the stock in lieu of a cartridge and then put a piece of the non-adhesive camo tape over the pin to secure it in the socket, so I have an extra in the field.

I found some pins at the local hardware store that are a bit too long but have nice holes drilled in them. I don't want to use a cotter pin arrangement as others have done to retain this pin in the gun but will use something that won't cut or abraid me if I accidently strike against it like a cotter pin would. I'm kinda thinking a large split ring, smaller than the split ring you'd use on a keychain, but that's the general idea.

SCOPE: The scope rings are on order. I have a see-the-sights rail I found that fits the holes on the receiver. There is already a short rail in place that is big enough for a red dot and works well with it. This new rail is see through and just a wee bit longer so I can mount a larger scope on it.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SCOPES AND MOUNTS FOR THE M6: I have a bunch of questions, but here are the main ones:
1. What is a recommended scope for this outfit? I know SA had one but no longer sells it, so what's a good similar scope both brand and size?
2. I'm using an improvised scope mount. I'd be interested in buying an actual mount made for this gun and even better, a whole setup. If anyone is so inclined or sees any of these scope for sale somewhere, throw an old dog a bone and please comment or email and advise.

THE FOREGRIP/FOREND SITUATION:

I originally planned to wrap both barrels together with paracord, as some have done, to provide some protection from hot barrels. But then I read that this could warp the two barrels and cause problems. But the solution is to wrap each barrel separately, and then warping them is not an issue. So I plan to wrap each barrel separately.

I had the great idea that if I could mount a short rail under the bottom barrel, that one of the "assault rifle pistol grips" could take the place of a foreend. I envisioned using one of the pistol grips that can fold back horizontal against the barrel, as this would also provide an excellent foregrip for the gun and solve all problems in that regard.

El Fisho Jr. even supplied a nifty heavy duty rail mount desert camo pistol grip that not only folds back but has a pop out 6" bipod legs built in, thus making a bipod of about 11". A cool grip that came with one of his airsoft guns a few years ago, I thought the bipod plus the function of the folding grip was just the low profile grip for the M6.

Alas, the problem has been finding a clamp that fits between top and bottom barrels, and there is only enough space for something like a metal hose clamp (I'm afraid it would scratch me or the finish of the gun) or a plastic flex tie. I've seen clamps for some lever actions that had similarly tiny space in between the barrel and the magazine and was just a thin piece of metal on a forum somewhere, and I'll find it again.

So as it is, I'll use the scavanged Rossi carbine fore end that I found laying on the shelf at my lgs. I'll rest it against the bottom paracorded barrel and paracord it to the bottom barrel only. I've had it on in sort of a dry run and it'll work well. The Rossi fore end actually will fit OVER the bottom barrel with careful sliding from the front end of the barrel, but then that requires binding the fore arm to the top barrel, which would create tension possibly between the top and bottom barrels and contribute to warpage. Maybe. So I'm going to avoid that.

SHELL CARRIERS AND SHOULDER SLING

I have not found the right shoulder sling for this gun yet, but it will have some sort of ability to carry ammo on it. El Fisho Jr. is pretty intent on putting one of the rubber GRABBER slings on the gun, so I may be adding a Mosin Nagant or SKS sort of ammo pouch(es) onto the bottom of it for holding a knife, lighters and extra booletts.

I'll write some more later about what else I want to include in the gun bag with the M6, like a Zebco travel fishing kit, a first aid kit, something to eat and drink and things like a water purifier, flashlight and other survival type gear.

One thought I've had is that some of the more hardcore survival components of this kit could be "seal'a'mealed'" inside plastic so as to reduce the mass it takes up as well as waterproofing it. I'm gonna keep thinking about that.

One final consideration in a survival situation is water and as much of it as you can take. I've noticed some of the camelback setups that come with elongated and skinny backpacks are large enough to hold the M6 Holster bag and that's got me thinking that might not be a bad way to carry the M6, with a supply of water. I've got an old top fold down dry bag from my kayaking days that's just perfect for the M6 Holster, and it would probably be a good idea to put the M6 holster in a dry bag if toting it with a bag full of water.

So that's some thoughts about my M6 project. Tell me five things that hopefully I haven't mentioned that would be in your survival bag.

Likewise, I want to order one of the padded Allen shoulder stock pads that has a padded cheek pad on one side and a large velcro pocket on the other. It fits on the stock like a regular shell carrier, except it has the pocket instead of shell loops. And then of course you can always remove it for accessing the shells in the shoulder stock.

RANDOM ROCKTOBER RUMINATIONS

2011-10-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

The past two months have been absolutely crazy. I've made many attempts at writing here going back to late August, and part way through writer's block or just plain dissatisfaction sets in and I save it to a draft file.

I do have a lot to say about a lot of things political, and I'm going to leave those alone right now, and maybe forever. Who knows. All politics is local, pretty much, and I've adopted a wait and see attitude on this situation I'm alluding to.

More importantly, we'll be doing some shooting in a variety of settings over the next few weeks. El Fisho Jr. and I were starved of much outdoor shooting this summer due to the stifling temperatures and string of record-breaking 100+ degree days in my part of the Heart of Texas.

We've gotten a bit of rain lately, and my very localized area has had no real water issues during the drought, owing to a lot of man-made factors that do a little rerouting of nature. Still, my Bermuda grass is coming back well and the San Augustine has shown signs of life outside the shaded areas where it survived the summer. Despite watering and all sorts of hired gardening and lawn help, the part of the yard hit by the direct sun for most of the day just gave up the ghost about mid-August.

Our rose gardens made it and are doing pretty well, but thanks only to some shade and lots of drip watering.

One day soon we'll be in a locale and residential setup where we'll have gardens and crops and no yard to speak of. Not self-sufficient by any means but certainly able to move in that direction over time.

Getting back to the lack of shooting we were able to do this summer, I mean, stuff was and really still is so tinder dry that the flame discharge from a firearm could easily ignite a serious fast spreading fire. As we had in our area just a few short weeks ago.

Indoor range shooting is always a mixed bag. There are certain ranges in Houston and College Station that are well-ventilated. Being well-ventilated is the key not only healthwise but as far as having as much as a level of comfort as one can in a shooting gallery with loud hand cannons blasting away.

Still, a well designed HVAC system that not only keeps it cool but keeps the air filtered is always the mark of a great range.

We'll be shooting at a competition next weekend, an informal qualification in some sort of combat handgun competition. I'll be shooting a stock out of the box Glock Model 19 with the only modification being a Pachmayr slip on grip. I'll be shooting cheap ammo too, yet I think I'll do well.

My buddy who is one of the organizers says they're big on Sigs in this group and not so big on Glocks. Pity.

Then it'll be off to a friend's HUGE family farm about 100 miles or so west of Houston. Rolling hills. Water. Several homes and cabins. Several places set up to shoot shotguns and rifles and pistols. Without any pressure from time constraints or someone wanting our stall or shooting position at the long distance rifle range.

That's what I miss about not having our own place, as it's been for a few years now, but that will soon change.

GINGER BAKER

2011-09-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

As a drummer now for 4/5th's of my life, going back now 40 years, I was heavily influenced by drummers of the sixties like Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell. Not that I play like either of the two, au contraire, but if I could I certainly would. Yeah, I can play their parts on most of their works, but having seen videos and listening to some of the stuff they laid down that wasn't more commercial in nature, I know well what these folks are capable of. Massive hyper-technical drumming that would blind the drummers who play the massive hyper-technical zillion drum and cymbal setups.

A brief example of this virtuosity can be found in the double Sonor bass drum kit phase that Mitchell briefly visited in the late sixties, the album of which escapes me but I'll try to update late. Sheer lightning drumming of a blinding nature, unlike anything else he played with Hendrix.

What Mitchell and Baker share are several things. First, both have a strong jazz backround, which they merged with a hard blues drumming style to make what became the blueprint, if you will, for hard rock and roll drumming in a trio format.

Second, taking their respective jazz backrounds, they each had their own take on setups. Mitchell's became much emulated (24" bass drum, one wing tom, snare, two floor toms and one ride and 2 or 3 crashes, and a high hat) while Baker's double bass kit was more idiosyncratic with stacked cymbals and such. Both players used kits were mostly Ludwigs.

I'll say this: if you have the right folks in the rock trio, meaning guitar-bass-drums, it can be no tighter musically. Three people can merge better than four, anyday of the week. Sometimes four or more is better, but with the right three members, you can't beat a trio.

And therein lay the lesson of Baker and Mitchell. Be simple, be sparse, but when you do speak, speak loudly and say something worth hearing.

The whole origin of this post just came when for some strange reason today I recalled an article I read in a music magazine about Baker way back in the mid-80's. It was a short interview piece with Baker, who by the way my good Irish friend Patrick and BIG "THE CREAM" fan calls "JEN-JAR BAY-KURR". It was one of a now defunct group of magazines, like Musician or Rhythm, that had the article. I tore the article out and stuck it in a notebook that houses a few other articles I've been struck by over the years, and perhaps one day I'll update this reference as well.

At the time, the mid-80's, Baker was living in Italy outside of some small village on an olive farm. His home was a plaster and rock type home, if memory serves, on top of a huge hill on his property. There were pictures with the article showing a relaxing terrain with a white washed plaster house on a hill, perhaps a several hundred year old home, with large windows cranked open.

His Ludwig White Marine Pearl double bass set was also in a picture or two, more or less what he played with Cream. The article said that when Baker would jam out, that his neighbors and the nearby villagers would gather and listen as his sounds resounded through the hills and valleys.

At the time, Baker had released a great CD with Bill Laswell producing called Horses and Trees, an instrumental CD I still listen to regularly. The story was that Baker just walked into the studio and laid down tracks on the drums, and then Laswell came in with a crowd of NYC and Middle Eastern and African musicians and laid down the music. It's a great CD and it rocks like nothing else.

The focus of the article was not all of that, however, but involved Ginger's pontifications about "How all time moves in Four", with which I agree wholeheartedly in terms of music. Mr. Baker does understand his mathematics when it comes to applying them to music and various time signatures, all root based in four.

When you think of four, and play in four, and subdivide four, and play different parts of the count of four, then you're moving in time and you're making time. Add to that, a drummer has four limbs, capable of playing independently of each other. They call that four way independence.

So all of those thoughts have been floating around my head today, thinking of various Baker tunes moving in four. And how I'd like, right now, to be esconced in that Italian hilltop home from that article, with a nice drum set and nowhere else to be but there, watching the olives grow.

GREAT WEBPAGE ON .357 MAGNUM HANDGUNS

2011-09-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Funny how you can stumble upon very informative web pages, just what you were looking for but not finding in your googling, and BAM! COOL WEB PAGES.

.357 MAGNUM PAGE ONE

.357 MAGNUM PAGE TWO

No, it's not like Elmer Keith himself is writing a compendium of history of the .357 Magnum, but the author does a very nice job of concisely covering the history and guns of the .357 Magnum in a very interesting short read. I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to know more about the .357 Magnum, which is much forgotten by many nowadays it seems, and for them I say go read the ballistics testing again.

The site has some great pictures of some great guns, some old and some new. I like the S&W tricked out Performance Center gun with a laser under the barrel and a red dot atop the gun. It would be nice to see the Performance Center do a gun for sale based on the XXX S&W Performance Center gun carried first by Vin Diesel then by Ice Cube in the sequel.

I realize the gun used in the XXX movies was a S&W Model 629 in .44 magnum, but the concept remains the same.

Or how about the simple but cool scoped S&W Model 67 4" barrel revolver from the Escape From New York movie? You could make that now with the very cool S&W Performance Center Model 67 and a holographic scope and update it a few decades. Just for grins. Throw a green laser and small flashlight on it too.

Last year I wrote about this cool gun, the Smith and Wesson Peformance Center Model 67 Carry Comp and it could only be cooler as a replacement for Snake Pliskin if he ever does a follow up to the Escape movies.

The past year has been a .357 Magnum revival for me personally. My slavery to cheap 9mm ammo has overwhelmed much of my shooting time and dollars the past few years, by virtue of finding good and cheap 9mm ammo in bulk. I can shoot 3x's as much right now with the 9mm ammo I have versus what the most reasonable but decent 38 Special ammo is going for. And we can't even talk about .357 ammo prices without shaking our heads in disbelief. It's almost unAmerican how expensive ammo has become, for the guy like me.

Nonetheless, I've been scouting and finding deals on .38 Special and even .357 ammo. Finding a screaming deal on an Australian police trade in Model 66-7 with a 2 1/2" barrel in just great condition. It looks much carried and little shot, and an exam of the innards seems to confirm that theory.

It's as tight as the day it walked off the assembly line, and on that day S&W disabled the dreaded safety lock that lies next to the cylinder release. It just turns and turns and does not lock up the gun in any way. Web lore says you can get this fact noted in a S&W factory letter, as police guns apparently can have this feature deactivated at the factory.

I thought it was cool in this day and age that a department was still issuing revolvers and that they were the Model 66-7 in .357 and not some bogus .38 Special +P "rated" revolver. I found reference to the practice of governments trading in old service weapons for new and the controversy it can relate about these very pistols. Various social critics in Australia just think these deals enrich the gun companies. And maybe they do.

But what else are you going to do with hundreds or thousands of basically combat level handguns, guns issued to police to keep public order? Who does the agency sell these weapons to once they decide to change or upgrade?

In any event, for the past year or so, these Australian Model 66-7 police trade in's have been making the rounds. I've since seen several 4" and one 6" version of these guns, and although their bores looked a little more used than the 2 1/2" version I bought, the guns were uniformly in excellent condition with really, really nice trigger action.

The Model 66-7 didn't go into production until sometime into the early 2000's, so I found it cool that ten years ago or so a major Australian police agency STILL went with revolvers, some 10-15 years after pretty much every other police agency IN THE WORLD went with Glocks and Sigs and other brands and 9mm's and then 40's.

Behind the times, yes, because of course they traded in the Model 66-7's on new S&W M&P semi-autos some twenty years after the rest of the world.

Sounds like my kind of place. I'll write more about the gun and department later. Happy Labor Day, fellow laborers!

EXCELLENT POST ON ULTRALIGHT FLY FISHING

2011-08-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

I've had the Fishing For History: The History of Fishing and Fishing Tackle on my blogroll for sometime now, and the above link is to a recent post about ultralight fly fishing. Excellent post and pictures. That is exactly what I need is a nice 5' two weight fly rod with a nice cork seat. One day soon I'll find a nice one like that.

Dr. Todd Larson is the author, and I haven't read his bio so I can't tell you much about him, other than I share some of his arcane interest in old fishing tackle and the history of it and the companies who made and sold it. Why, it's the story of fishing in America itself!

I'm particularly interested in efforts like this, however. This rod and reel is a nice little find for the good doctor.

TEN GUNS I'D LIKE TO SEE...

2011-08-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

under my Christmas tree!

Mrs. El Fisho replaced our keyboard and this one has some sort of wildcard key on either side bottom row that basically BLANKS OUT everything you've typed into explorer even if saved. Bummer. This is the third time I've attempted this post.

From http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l602/GED011/S22LRexprt.jpg

1. THE WALTHER PPK/S INTERARMS .22 LR

I bought mine in the 70's, and foolishly sold it in the 80's. I think I paid about $276 for mine new, now used they go for about $900-$1500. I recently saw one for a grand and it was gone in minutes.

I don't know why Smith and Wesson/Walther don't offer this model. They make the PPK/S in .32 and .380, why not .22? I mean, all the design and heavy lifting has been done, and I guess there would be some firing system parts to be changed for rimfire and the barrel and magazine but basically you're slightly modifying an existing product.

And given the quality of the PPK/S and the raging popularity of "replica" guns in .22, I this the PPK/S in .22 L.R. would sell, sell, sell!

from http://www.americanrifleman.org/Webcontent/gallery/104/2021ColtSeries70.jpg

from http://cdn.armslist.com/images/posts/634244718332335143mbz00sob.jpg

from http://picturearchive.gunauction.com/2555125549/7976816/9a85d9e3dba5975c1b33d100aab4a875.jpg

from http://www.collectablearmsllc.com/products/Colt%20Python/images/2Colt%20Python%20357%20-%206%20inch%20Barrel%20Blue%20-%2098%20percent%20Very%20Nice%20-%20pix02.jpg

2. VARIOUS USED COLT FIREARMS

I can't afford to pay what is quickly becoming the low end pricing for all the older Colts I want, i.e. about $1,200. I'd like to have a 3rd generation Single Action Colt. A 1970's series Government and/or Lightweight blued Commander. A 6" Python.

You can find deals on all the above guns, although I'm sure feeling ready for some more deal-stumblin'-into as it's been awhile. I see 4" and 6" Pythons (as well as .22 caliber Diamondbacks, another fine gun) in Very Good to Excellent condition on auction sites going for less than $1200 at times, and see the 1970's series 1911 guns going for $700-$900 in excellent condition. The Peacemaker or it's variants are always the pricey guns. I don't have a real Colt single action, and I'd like one.

What I'd really like to see in a Colt under my tree would be a very good condition Government 1911 that's at least 50 or 60 years old. It can have patina. It can be holster worn. Well cared for but with some use. It could be in .45 ACP or even .38 Super.

If you're wanting a Colt but can't afford the guns mentioned above, I'll note that I've seen a few Detective Specials 3rd generation lately in excellent condition going for from $500 to $700. IMHO, these are amongst the finests snubnose 38's available. I'd like to have a 2nd generation Cobra or Detective Special as well, because they are fine firearms.

from http://www.proguns.com/images/browning-blr-lightweight-w-takedown-pistol-grip.jpg
3. THE BROWNING BLR LIGHTWEIGHT TAKEDOWN PISTOL GRIP RIFLE

An ingenous design that makes for a compact and handy rifle. Available in numerous chamberings and corresponding barrel lengths, it's a classy, quality weapon. I've hefted one recently in 30.06 Sprgfld, and what a nice gun. Beautiful wood. Serious metal. Flawless action and trigger.

Although the Southern Man in me feels the need to have a 30-06 in this gun, the experienced shooter in me says a lightweight gun is not the forte for the 30-06 for me. I'd have to go for the .308 for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I find it much more pleasureable to shoot.

Althou
I'd personally opt for using the receiver scope mounts, but it can also be set up like a scout rifle if one prefers. A very versatile weapon.

from http://www.ruger.com/products/gunsiteScoutRifle/images/6803.jpg

4. RUGER GUNSITE SCOUT RIFLE

I got to handle one of these, including some dry firing on snap caps, a few months ago. Saw it at a Cabela's and at one other small local gun shop. Since then, nada. Have not seen one and the dealers say they're like the other new, in-demand guns that they can't keep or sometimes get in stock right now.

I was surprised by the weight. I knew the weight of the gun before I picked it up, but was still surprised that it was lighter than it looked. I didn't care for the appearance of the laminated stock, to me it is just not attractive. I'd rather have a rubber Pachmayr composite stock or some good old American Walnut. Anything but the depressing gray laminate.

The gun itself, other than the stock, was an attractively built weapon. It felt solid and the bolt felt like almost any other Ruger M77 I've shot. I don't know if the Gunsite Scout bolt is a M77 but it felt as solid to me as the M77 does.

Ruger makes a good gun. No doubt about it. I'm hoping they tweek this design a bit. Take a few cues from the Steyr Scout. Composite stock with a built in disappearing bipod. Space in the stock for an extra magazine. An adjustable cheek piece. These mods wouldn't cost too much and would make the rifle actually worth it's current MSRP of a grand. Cabela's was selling them for something like $750.

You can read some of the late Jeff Cooper's thoughts on his Scout rifle design here at Eric Ching's Scout Rifle Archive. You'll note that the Ruger does not meet some of Mr. Cooper's criteria, for example, Mr. Cooper lists things like having a stainless barrel that's about 19" long. I have no doubt that the Steyr Scout rifle, which costs about twice what the Ruger does, is a better, more accurate approach to the rifle Mr. Cooper envisioned.

The Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle has been both hailed and cursed by the gun press and online critics. On the one hand, it's a handy length ranch rifle, by a gunmaker known for reliability, durability and product support. Critics attack the magazine as unnecessary, but I like the feature of a detachable mag.

This rifle should not sell for more than $600 street. It is overpriced and it sorely needs some different stock options. I'll have one ultimately, but I'll be waiting for a used one and then putting a different stock on it.

from http://gunsforsale.com/ghg/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/kel-tec_pmr30_01.jpg
5. THE KEL TEC PMR-30

Yes, everyone wants this low priced, 30 shot .22 magnum pistol that weighs 13.8 oz. unloaded and less than 20 oz. fully loaded with 31 rounds (one in chamber) of .22 magnum. According to Gunblast, it fits perfectly into holsters for the Glock 9mm's like the 17 and 19, so those with Glock holsters are ready to go.

Some folks call it a poor man's 5-7. The .22 magnum hardly holds a candle ballistically to what the Herstal 5.7 round can do. Indeed, as we've discussed here in a previous thread about the FN Five-seveN pistol, it's combat ability was fully proven by the traitorous Army officer in Killeen.

The Herstal 5.7 round behaves far differently than the .22 magnum once they enter into ballistic testing materials, with the theory that in practice the effect would be similar on a live target. I need to look up some more data on this subject but from the limited amount I've read the PMR-30 may be a poor man's 5-7 in terms of capacity and low recoil, we are talking the difference between low end Ford and perhaps a Benz/Beemer here in terms of design and performance.

In any event, the ammo cost for the PMR-30 is less, of course, and the cost for admission is 2 and a half times less. I look forword to shooting, or even seeing, one of these guns in the near future. They're scarce right now, with one large Houston gun dealer telling me he hopes to have them in stock by the Christmas holidays!

from http://gunnuts.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ruger-sr-1911.jpg

from http://www.chuckhawks.com/ruger_deerfield.gif

6. RUGER SR1911 AND THE DISCONTINUED RUGER 99/44 DEERFIELD CARBINE

We've talked about it before. American Made. Street price at one of the higher priced gun stores is $750, but they don't have it in stock yet. There have been a few here and there, but like the PMR-30, there's waiting lists everywhere for them.

Made in America. Slide milled from solid steel. Selling for the price, give or take a couple hundred bucks, of far lesser quality foreign made clones of so many brands. Even the brands who have high end 1911's import their low end entry level models.

Ruger has never made a 1911. That's ok, I figure the design is sound enough that Ruger's crack team figured it out. It's a full size, full weight 1911 with nice aftermarket features, and I can say before even seeing it that it will have that Ruger build quality.

I personally have 40 years of off and on shooting experience with a small variety of Ruger firearms. Blackhawks. Super Blackhawks. Single Sixes. Bearcats. Mark I-III. 10-22's. Mini-14's. Security Six. Model 22/45. I've either owned, still own or my family at one time owned these various models. And there remains a list of Ruger guns I'd like to have.

I'd like a Ruger 99/44 carbine, or it's predecessor model. But the more recent model that uses a 4 shot rotary magazine would be more my liking. A .44 magnum rifle and a great companion for when I'm toting a .44 Magnum handgun. Of course, this is another example of a rifle I could have picked up "back in the day" before it was discontinued for a reasonable price. Now they are selling for a big old high price, and I'm not likely to spend that kind of money on that gun. But if I find one a little less than pristine in finish but mechanically sound for a decent price, I'd buy it in a minute.

AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF A SAVAGE 24-V IN 30-30 OVER 20 GAUGE FROM
http://www.22-250.com/24v.jpg

7. THE ELUSIVE LARGE RIFLE CALIBER COMBO RIFLE SHOTGUN

Searching high and low I've been for a variety of acceptable caliber combinations in several brands. I'd be happy as I could be with a late model Savage 24 30-30 over a 20, which is built on a lighter frame than the 30-30 over a 12 gauge. However, either would be fine. But nary a one at a reasonable price have I been able to find. In fact, I found one on a gun auction site a few weeks ago and it disappeared a day into the 10 day auction.

The few .357 over 20's that I've seen, Savages, have been going and going strong on auction and ending up in the $1,300-$1,500 range. That would be a nice combo to have, as I bought into the whole .357 thing as a young police officer studying ballistics and police shootings. I think it's a magnificent round, and in the right gun it's a sheer joy to shoot.

I have several of the "right guns", both hand and long, with which to shoot the .357, and now El Fisho Jr. has caught on to the long distance accuracy (for a pistol anyway) and knock down metal plate shooting power that this round has. El Fisho Jr. has found that his dear old dad was right about heavier guns having less felt recoil and the miracle of Pachmayr Presentation grips on a K frame (or any gun, really) sized .357.

So I'm totally discounting the .357/20 due to the out of control pricing on this particular combination gun unless someone starts making them in a newer, cheaper combo rifle.

Frankly, it would seem that if Savage, for who so long was THE GUN to have in a combination gun in this great country (along with Stevens and a few others), would see the writing on the wall and say hey, people are paying into the mid-$1,000's for these guns, maybe we should make them and sell them for like $700. With a Walnut stock. Scope ready. Nice blue and case finish.

This is a favorite gun for one of my favorite things in the world to do, which is take a walk in the woods. My next post will be about that, so I'll pick this combination gun thread up there.

FROM
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/152/izh9403nx2.jpg/
THE BAIKAL IZH94. NOTE THE DOUBLE TRIGGERS VS. THE SINGLE TRIGGER ON THE SAVAGE 24-V.

I'm also interested in the Baikal IZH94, which has been in and out of importation the past decade, and like the SKS, I never got one on the cheap just 7 or so years ago when you could get one for 3 bills. These Baikal combo guns are supposedly now being imported by EAA and are on their website, coming in either .308 or .30-06 over 12. I'd prefer the .308 but would pretty much jump on the other as well at a reasonable price.

Remington also sold these Baikal guns a few years ago under their brand, I forget the model number, but likewise I'd take one of those as well. Certainly, I'd also consider the 7.62 x 39 over 20 that Baikal once made, as well as a .223. There are several Savage 24-V's, .222 over 20's for sale that I've seen, but again I really would like a .308 or 30-06. Besides, I want something if possible that shoots cheap, or cheaper ammo, as in mil surplus. Also, I'd like a popular caliber, not because I want to be popular, but because I'd like to be able to get ammo for it. Calibers like .223, .556, 7.62 x 39, .308, 30-06 are mostly reasonably priced and good bulk deals can be found. Calibers like .222, very popular in Europe due to the fact they can't use calibers like the ones I listed above because they are military calibers, are a wee bit expensive here. 30-30 is a bit more pricey but deals on good quality ammo can be found, and that's when you stockpile.

And although I have a few guns in calibers that are somewhat expensive for ammo, it's just a couple. And every purchase into a new ammo area, particularly one where cheap ammo is not now available nor expected to be available in the foreseeable future, is a carefully considered prospect.

In any event, help a brother out. If you see a combo gun such as I've mentioned in your LGS or elsewhere, send me an email and a link. I'd be mighty grateful.

FROM http://forum.saiga-12.com/style_images/1/Saiga.gif

8. SAIGA 12 GAUGE SEMI-AUTO SHOTGUN

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Yeah, I know. But I've shot one, and I LIKED IT! A LOT! I've also shot the .410, and the problem with that one, which was an older one from years ago during their first run, and it would only function with metal cased .410 shells, which are el expense.

The 12 gauge, owned by the same fellow, digested everything. All plastic. Cheap shells. Expensive slugs and buckshot. Cheap buckshot. Medium and expensive priced shells. Like a Glock, it'll eat anything.

In fact, he had numerous 20 round drums loaded with everything from the cheapest of the cheap on sale mil surplus 00 buckshot to expensive 12 gauge rounds and slugs and sat up all night at the deer feeder at a friend's ranch that is plagued with big ole' hairy and toothy East Texas Hogs, with night vision goggles on awaiting the evening feeding crew. They came en masse, about 50-75 of them large and small, he saw, he conquered. Massively. With the shotgun forearm resting on a heavy duty bipod and a laser sight going, it was like a .50 caliber plowing through the herd of nasty beasts.

Of course, it would be a poor choice indeed to invade this man's home if one were of the home invasion criminal persuasion as guess what gun is this man's home defense weapon. You guessed it. A folding stock Saiga with drum magazine, flashlight and laser. BAM!

He and his crew were cleaning small hogs until the early morning light and then off to the processing plant to get it all butchered up. They began hauling it after he was halfway threw his first drum, but they were so clustered to begin with that it was shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel (which, by the way, Outdoor humorist Ed Zern once wrote a hilarious article about how shooting fish in a barrel is actually not that easy of a task). Literally, many small, medium and large hogs fell from the first drum of the shotgun alone, and several of his companions were using rifles with the cheaper, spotlight fed infared scopes to pick off some of the larger, more destructive hogs.

So the Saiga was proven in battle action to me from those exploits, and it seems like a dandy home defense weapon. A Saiga could very well end up under my tree this year. Besides, relatively cheap to shoot, a proven and simple basic AK design, and it works with all kinds of ammo. And if for some reason I don't like it, one of my friends will and they'll have something cool to trade. What's not to like?

I blew about 10 boxes of pretty cheap #7 shot shells through the Saiga 12 a couple of years ago on the visit to the friends place when other Houston friends did the great hog hunt. It had no failures to feed or eject. It worked like it should. It was a hoot to shoot, and it shot well point shooting from the hip.

FROM
http://www.browning.com/products/catalog/images/images-by-title-name/1911-22-A1-MID-051802-m.jpg

THE LLAMA MINI-.22LR PISTOL FROM DAYS OF YORE

9. THE PLETHORA OF REPLICA .22'S OUT THERE, PARTICULARLY THE 1911 VARIETY.

I'm waiting to see the Browning version. It would be nice if someone would make a reasonably priced Gold Cup version WITH NO RAIL and if it didn't feel janky when you handled it. I've been almost ready to buy one of several different makes of these guns when on extreme sale recently, only to decide to keep on waiting after handling them.

The Sig version is the same as one of the other imports, and looking at all the guns has left me unexcited. Critics of the Browning cite their 7/8th size scale to the real 1911 but that doesn't bother me. Although I have medium hands, the 1911 itself fits me just perfect, as if it were made for me.

But in the same breath I'll say that one of the more fun .22's I've ever shot was the mini-1911 Llama .22 (also sold in .32 and .380, I think) back in the 70's. It was bigger than the little Sig .380 single action 1911 clone, but not by much and smaller than the 3" mini-45's being sold by so 1911 makers. Wish I'd have bought two of them at the bargain sub-$100 prices back then.

So the idea of a not exactly exact clone in size doesn't bother me. I'm more interested in the feel of the gun and how well made it is. Again, some of these guns have been through some of the larger gun shops I've traded with, but they go right away, like in less than a day, and it'll be some while before gun shops have these just lazily laying around awaiting a willing purchaser.

That being said, with all the guns mentioned above, you never know when you'll walk in a gun store at the right time to find a new and in demand gun being traded in that someone just bought but didn't like or perhaps a new shipment of a new gun that isn't spoken for. It happens, but it's all contingent upon being in the right place at the right time.

10. RUGER BLACKHAWKS AND THOMPSON CONTENDER BARRELS

After seeing my cousin Jimmy's extra fine handmade gun (see my previous post), I've been eyeing and spying the Super Blackhawk with the non-fluted cylinder in blue with the 4 7/8's (or something like that) barrel, realizing that even if Jimmy kicked up production today, it'd be a long while until I could get one.

That being said, as I've mentioned ad nauseum, my dad and I shot Blackhawks and Super Blackhawks pretty extensively at one time. They are easy to find on the used market, along with the regular Blackhawk, for reasonable prices. Like all Ruger products I've owned (the ones made from metal), they're a gun you can rest assured given a reasonable amount of care that your great-great grandchildren could still be enjoying a Blackhawk, and lamenting your memory for having such fine taste in guns.

In terms of "if you could only have one handgun", if some kind of dangerous game or long distance hunting was involved, it'd be hard to beat the Ruger Blackhawk in .41 or the Super in .44. Neither of these guns would be at the top of the list (sorry, Glock beats out the Blackhawk as does the venerable Ruger Security Six, but the Blackhawks are in the top five).

But I have not been seeing any Super Blackhawks with the short barrel in blue with the non-fluted cylinder. I DO keep seeing a plethora of very tempting Ruger .357/9mm Blackhawks in both new and used. Some months ago, I saw a pristine version of the .357/9mm with no cylinder line and really, it looked unfired. $325. I didn't have the cash that day and it was gone two days later.
But even new, which lately the prices I've seen have been right around $450, it's a deal.

Lots of internet critics bemoan the lesser accuracy of this type of setup of combo cylinders, stating the .357 bore is larger and thus doesn't allow the 9mm to get enough stability to be as accurate as it could be. That may be true, and I'd make the analogy to those folks who claim to have "dog's ears" that can hear the difference between sounds that I would suspect could only be differentiated digitally.

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon many years ago at a friend's cattle ranch near Crockett, Texas. His several cattle tanks (small usually shallow ponds) and two large lakes (what I call a lake, which is a pond over 1 acre) were low on water due to a drought. Nutria had somehow multiplied like the members of the rat family they are and were everywhere.

My friends tanks and lakes were dependent upon several springfed creeks that originated on his property, and his ancestors had spent much time and effort, as had succeeding generations, in keeping these springs unplugged and in arranging the watercourses so they fed the lakes and tanks with clean water.

The nutria, and an astounding number of cottonmouths had basically located themselves around the spring head that spawned one of the larger creeks. The nutria kept building dams at the wrong places and diverting the water flow to other natural creases, bypassing the lakes and ponds.

My friend who owned the place recruited me and another of our friends for a day of nutria and snake cleansing. He got about 1,000 rounds of 7.62 x 39 ammo and another 1,000 of 9mm. We were going to do some shooting.

We made the trip from Houston, and long story short, I ended using the Ruger Blackhawk with the 9mm cylinder for most of the day. I found it to be an accurate gun, or at least accurate enough to take out big thick 4'-6' snakes and lots of nutria with head shots. So call me skeptical when folks on the internets are saying thay can't even hit the inner torso of an FBI target at 25 yards with the 9mm equipped Blackhawk. Like the late, great Houstonian Issac Peyton Sweatt's most famous song "The Cotton Eyed Joe" proclaims repeatedly, I call B.S.

I'm getting interested in doing some more shooting with my Contender. My LGS has a ton of extra barrels he took in trade, and I do plan to get a couple of those before too long. They've been under his counter for several years now, and I think the time is getting close to making a deal on a few to expand my library.

The Contender has many uses. First, it's a fun gun to shoot. For over 30 years, my .45LC/.410 has been one of my go to snake guns. LARGE Copperhead or Cottonmouth in my yard? Contender. Snakes when fishing? Contender.

I always meant to expand my barrel selection, but then I quit the police department and went to law school and the funding for barrels dried up, more or less. Back then, my good friend Mike the Mercedes Mechanic, who more or less re-built my first engine, a 351 Cleveland out of a Mach 1 Mustang back when we were in high school. Truth be known, he basically rebuilt the entire vehicle.

In any event, post high school Mike, dubbed by his friends THE RAVEN, who was probably voted least likely to succeed by our high school hypocrits, actually became far more successful than the doctors and lawyers spawned by our class. And lots happier than the professional crowd as well. I've always been so proud of The Raven.

Anyway, about the time of our fifth year reunion, The Raven was doing exceptionally well with his own shop after leaving Mercedes (he still is doing fabulously, by the way, 30 years on) and had accumulated through trades and good buys an incredible collection of Contenders and barrels and accessories. So I got to do lots of shooting and experimentation with various calibers and setups.

I want to get a stock and some rifle barrels, as well as a few pistol barrels. Double up on some of the calibers I have in other handguns that work well in the Contender. There's also custom barrels available, and I'd like to have a 10" or 12" barrel in 7.62 x39 done custom.

The coolest thing about the Contender, which by the way can be found in the Harrington and Richardson Handi-Rifle, is that a man or woman of very limited means can acquire a nice variety of caliber options with a few interchangeable barrels and one receiver. The H&R version even sports full length shotgun barrels in addition to some large caliber centerfire choices.

No, the trigger, feel and overall stoutness of the H&R is not what the T/C features, but again, on a budget the H&R comes in much cheaper for rifle alternatives. A trigger job and a good scope goes a long way on the H&R rifles.

The H&R's are not in my future, but expanding the Contender barrel collection is certainly a long term goal.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

That, of course, is the artist formerly known as EL FISHO's recreation of twenty rounds of 12 gauge being fired very quickly from a Saiga 12 with a 20 round drum.

MY COUSIN AND THE GUN

2011-07-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

Normally, within the colorful confines of my family tree, a post with this header would, could and should conjure possibilities of a East-Texas Hillbilly-esque fued replete with gunfire or at least gunplay.

And I strongly suspect that at some point in my families history it has happened, folks. Either with firearms or swords or knives or whathaveyou deadly weapon of the day and age. Some inter-family feud spawned some sort of combat.

And more. But I don't want to air the family dirty laundry, fortunately I want to rave about my great cousin Jimmy and a simply magnificent creation of art as a firearm and a TRULY custom and handmade firearm as a superior example of it's genre, that being the single action revolver.

Handmade. Hand machined. All parts made from solid steel. You can literally feel the sturdiness and excellence of the lockwork just by fondling the very attractive and might I add, very well done non-fluted cylinder.

I'm a sucker for a non-fluted cylinder on a SA revolver, heck, on any revolver, and although Jimmy doesn't know that, I bet he'd tell you my eyes really lit up as that fine weapon cleared the holster and I spied the lack of fluting and said something instinctual like "ohhhhhh, that's nicccceeeeeeeee" as my finger shot out to touch the cylinder, as if to confirm my aging eyes were not deceiving me.

I don't want to give too many details, because I'm not familiar enough with the gun and don't want to err in it's description. I'll get more details, as I've promised to do the legal research to find out what he needs to do to explore starting a firearm company. It's a daunting and serious proposition, but he's a serious craftsman and has some great support in his immediate family. It'd be my pleasure to do it pro bono, i.e. free, as Jimmy and his clan have always been there for my family, in sickness and in health. Literally.

And besides, they are close family. They're the kind of folks that make you proud you're kin to them because they are honest and earnest and they support and take care of each other within their family, as does my family.

And my cousin Jimmy has always been a highly talented individual, not only occupationally, working his way into management as a success story, but with his kids and grandkids and wife as well as with his parents and siblings. But I'd like to see him get some recognition as an artist, which when you see some pics of this pistol, you will say to yourself, "Self, that's a work of art. It's also a revolver but it's truly a work of art. It's a gorgeous simple yet sturdy design, and it just glows with quality.

I'm sure I'd "have to demand" as part of my pro-bono contract an early sample, not for keeping "long term" but to ensure my ethical requirements of adequately representing my client are fully developed. So I can tell people what an absolutely excellent firearm it is for multiple purposes, and truly know what of I speak. LOL.

Jimmy hails from what I'd consider the normal side of my gene pool. Indeed, his mother and lovely wife, three brothers and sister are all sterling examples of what any family tree could claim as their finest. Jimmy's mother and my father were siblings and close in age. Raised in the depression in a poor farm family, they've seen the things that make this nation great. Several of her sons served our country, and all of her children have successful family and work lives.

They, like my parents, wife, sister and I, have a work ethic. They can't imagine not working. Their hard working mother, making sure they wanted for nothing materially or spiritually or in a family sense, spoiled them with not only good love but with common sense as well. Like my father, my Aunt (Jimmy's mother) was more successful than most of her siblings but shared that success readily with her mother, relatives in need and of course, taking care of her family first.

So first I have to establish that these are the cousins I'm always been impressed with, and I do come from a large family. Mannerly. Friendly. Very sweet and kind and genuinely loving to our family for many years, as long as I can remember. Non Toxic to us.

I just wanted to establish that these are good people. Good Americans. Good Texans. To me that's important because I'm trying to talk my cousin Jimmy into going into the custom handgun business. Read on, and I hope to inspire him to chase the American dream.

It seems that 20 years ago, my cousin Jimmy, a one time machinest extraordinaire who later became an administrator and management type, got associated with a veteran artist in revolvers and had the opportunity, as I understand it, to build three single action revolvers under the license and tuttledge of this master handgun craftsman who built/milled most or all of the parts by hand.

I don't have the full story and but I'll be getting it. I'll have more details later and will clarify. I can't recall the fellows name but I have heard it before. This master's name was engraved on the buttstrap of the frame of the gun, as was my cousin's on the barrel.

So Jimmy pulls out this holstered gun that appears as it sits in the holster to be of a cross between a Ruger Super Blackhawk and a Colt Single Action/Peacemaker with what I can see of the gun in the near full coverage Hunter holster it's in.

First now, I've have not seen Jimmy in over a decade, and we've never discussed holsters in the past, yet I see he and I favor the same type of Hunter holster for traveling, a near full coverage belt holster with an old school strap and snap instead of a thumb break for keeping the gun under the seat or on you.

This is the type Hunter holster that has the flap on the rear with a loop and snap so the holster can be placed on the belt while wearing the buckled belt. It's sort of the standard Hunter holster of years gone by.

So I have several Hunter holsters and began using them as a kid in the early 70's, buying them via mail through Herter's catalog. I just got a new one at a great ebay price for a Colt .357. And I found it "DNA/Same bloodline" interesting that here two cousins tend to use the same type holster when traveling with big guns.

So once the revolver, finished in a deep, deep, deep, deep blue begins to clear leather, I can see it is neither a Colt nor a Ruger. I later learn there are only two screws for the entire exterior of the gun. It is a .44 Magnum for sure, and it looks magnificent.

It seemed that the barrel is a bit larger, bigger than a Ruger or a Colt. Jimmy's gun had adjustable rear sights. It seems lighter on handling that the Ruger Super Blackhawks that I've owned and shot, and if this makes sense, it WAS lighter than it looked.

The barrel, as I said, was of larger diameter than a Colt or Ruger, although not by a whole lot. Enough to be noticeable to someone like me or perhaps a handgun expert and "genius gun chooser/trendsetter" like James Zachary would notice. In any event, Jimmy's lovely wife reports that the gun has minimal recoil in her opinion, shooting full on magnum loads. That tells me a heavier barrel has something to do with it, as well as a well designed gun with the right tolerances.

I have never in my life had the urge to call anyone, as I did with Jimmy today, over to my gun safe, open it, stand back and say start looking for gunS (note the plural GUNS) you want to trade me for that work of art you made.

I'll be honest. I thought about it. Before we split up today, I joked about it, and I think he and his brother knew I was really not so joking.

It's nice to know that even though I don't own any of these guns that there are some REAL family heirloom weapons in the family now. El Fisho Jr. was with me today, and of course he like me appreciates fine horseflesh in the form of a firearm. He was near speechless for a few moments upon the initial inspection of Jimmy's gun. That's because as you go from feature to feature to feature, you see the quality and detail built into every part.

El Fisho Jr. noted the wide hammer and the very nice grooves in it. He noted the comfortable grip angle and like me, also said the gun felt lighter than he thought it would. He noted the tight cylinder lock up and liked he way that gun felt in his hand. The trigger face was comfortable and wide as well, reminding me of a fine German trigger face on the high end guns.

Note to self: Ask Jimmy more questions about the gun next time instead of staring in awe at it as you pawed your mitts over it's gleaming surfact. Like, how much does it weigh? Why is the barrel bigger? Do you have any idea the kind of money that gun people with money would pay for a gun like this?

In any event, before I could ever get Jimmy to make me one, no matter how much I would pay, and trust me on this, I would pay A LOT more than I've ever paid for any gun for the gun I saw today, or one made by the same hands.

Of course, part of that is the family tie. I wouldn't be willing to spend that kind of money, even on a Bowen gun or other like dream gun, but the fact that one of my favorite and *has always been very nice to me* cousins made this fine instrument with his own hands would motivate me to do some ebaying and some serious saving to pay enough money for the blood, sweat and tears that would go into crafting a single action masterpiece, built from solid steel.

But a big part of it is the gun. I didn't get to fire it, live or dry, but felt the action and cylinder which to me is as important as trigger pull. And something *just tells me* that a gun with that much handcrafting and attention to detail and custom features he built into the gun did not get neglected in the trigger department. I listened to the lockwork as my cousin worked it, and opened and closed the extremely nice feeding gate. Oh man, the firm yet easy feel of opening and closing the feeding gate was enough to tell you this is no normal single action.

Like me and most of the rest of my cousins, Jimmy's been a shooter all of his life. His dad who passed recently was a legendary North Texas lawman for decades. Twenty years ago, I heard numerous excellent stories about Jimmy's dad duing several teaching stints I had at the DPS academy, where many of the old timers who worked with their dad and had known him for decades had stories to tell me and respect for him.

So Jimmy has not only been around general shooting, he's been around lots of law enforcement shooters and lots of the philosophy and opinion about defense shooting that comes along with hanging out with coppers socially.

So although the gun I saw today is not per se a self defense gun, I'd surely take it into a gun fight. I'm not one of those who believes that a single action is too obsolete for personal protection, but you need a back-up piece and you better be a good shot and good at reloading a single action revolver.

But if I owned Jimmy's gun, you can bet I'd have a Bianchi or Mernickle holster for the occasional carry when it is serious jacket or coat weather and a larger gun like this can more easily be concealed. And I'd carry it often in the field. And I'd be proud that I was carrying it.

So I'll be doing an update and if Jimmy will allow, some pictures and let me flesh out the story. I'm still struck by the fact that Jimmy's lovely wife (I'm not using a lot of names here on purpose) told me it kicks less than a 9mm, and she's an astute and very experienced handgun shooter as well. And thus I have absolutely no reason to doubt her as she's never steered me wrong before so I'll accept her assersion about the recoil sight unseen and simply say: Please put my name on the waiting list for one today. Exactly like the one I saw.

GUNS I'D LIKE TO SEE (AS IN, FOR SALE, AT MY LGS)

2011-07-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season of awaiting some of the supposed new models introduced at the SHOT show and other venues this year. There are a lot of very reasonably priced guns that came out in the past few years, with new models and variants trickling out this year.

For example, the supposedly street priced Kel-Tec PMR-30, the 30 round magazine holdin' .22 mag-a-num. Although the .22 magnum pales in comparison to the 5.7 round shot by the FN Five-seveN pistol, more than one reviewer of the Kel-Tec has referred to it as the poor man's 5-7. And to some extent, I have to agree.

Thirty rounds in a 16 oz pistol that fits in Glock 9mm holsters (According to Mr. Q at Gunblast, I think) that will cost, once supply begins hitting demand, about $300. And, it actually comes with an extra magazine! How about that in this day and age of companies selling what I consider to be high end guns with only one magazine included in the deal. You buy one of these guns and get a crappy plastic box you'll likely never use again and some kind of crap gun lock and frankly, I'd rather have a cardboard box, fired casing, the paperwork, maybe a cleaning tool and an extra magazine instead of the plastic box and gun lock.

In any event, I'm looking forward to the day of getting to feel the heft of the PMR-30 in my hand. The grip angle. Depending on where I run into it, perhaps sample the trigger pull, with or without a snap cap, depending on store preferences. You already know that with a .22 magnum the grip will be long, probably not unlike the old AMT or whatever they were autos in the 80's that shot .30 caliber rounds. But I suspect it won't be bad at all.

Likewise, all my friends have been wanting to see this Ruger version of the 1911. It's the big boy, and weighs in at full 1911 weight. I'm hoping they come out with a Commander sized version with an alloy frame and get that weight down to about 26 to 28 oz with empty magazine. I'm a big Ruger fan, and so even if this ends up being the only 1911 they make, I'll have to get one someday.

If Ruger could ever get some inventory out there to the stores, they could be well competing with the TONS of entry level and foreign made 1911 clones that are out there for sale at or just under the street price that the few Rugers I've seen reports on have been going for. Even near the full list price, me thinks it's a good deal based on who is making it, it's made in America and that it comes with many mods from the factory.

Those that have seen it and handled it say the Ruger version of the 1911 is a tight pistol and well made. In fact, several friends at several different gun shops report the 1911's coming in and that only one person out of about 10 that advance ordered did not buy the gun after it came in. The pistols are apparently coming in one or two at a time, and far apart in time.

I'm glad for Ruger and for Kel-Tec. They've got a little feeding frenzy going on with their product lines with these two guns. Both are American companies and they make many very cool products and I think they deserve our support. Lots of folks I know are ready to buy either or both if they hold up upon actual physical inspection to the great reviews and internet lore that has been circulating about them.

I've been looking at a lot of the .22 clones of different guns coming out, and it's a cool market in this area right now, with lots of reasonable and semi-reasonably priced weapon out there. A couple of observations. It would be cool to see a AR-15 clone that shoots .22 magnums. Also, why hasn't a company made a .22 replica of a light machine gun, with some kind of belt feed?

And since Colt has all but abandoned the making of double action revolvers, perhaps Umarex could start making some .22 double actions revolvers from the past Colt catalog. Perhaps start with the Diamondback and the Cobra in .22 LR AND .22 Magnum. Alloy frames. Steel barrels and cylinders. Nice triggers. Tight lock up.

Billy Ray has been waiting to see the Governor. Me too. I've wanted to handle one, in hopes it feels more sturdy than the countless Taurus Judge and Public Defenders I've messed with. The full size all steel 3" Judge feels the most sturdy, but the lockwork and the trigger, to me at least, are lacking. They just don't feel sturdy to go the long haul shooting shotgun shells.

So I'm hoping that the Smith is like the Smith of old or at least the better Smiths of new and sturdy in it's construction and heft. With a nice trigger.

The added ability to shoot .45 ACP with the Governor over the Taurus is another big win. I'm a big fan of .45 ACP and for a defensive weapon like the Governor, a followup of three .410 buckshot shells followed by three .45 ACP Cor-Bon's or Federal Low Recoil (depending on the shooter and environment) shells would be a great combo.

I've owned (note the past tense) S&W 25-5 revolvers and although both were excellent quality handguns in every way, the .45 Long Colt did nothing for me. I much prefer the .45 ACP, as does my wallet, incidentally.

There are other guns out there, of course, that have caught my interest. The crop of 1911-22 clones in .22 long rifle seems to be getting larger every year. In reading about the various guns on internet forums, it seems the Chiappa is not very well regarded, but the GSG version (same factory as the Sig .22 btw) has some finish issues and it sure seems like a lot of them are breaking internal parts, if the internet reviews are correct.

I did get to handle the Umarex Colt Rail Gun, and although it seems to get the best forum frenzy going about it, I wasn't that impressed. I want to wait and see the Gold Cup model their website touts, which I have not seen in stores. I've just seen the Rail Gun.

I was more impressed with the construction of the Umarex than the Chiappa, but liked the construction and "feel" of the GSG better than the Umarex. I wish these companies wouldn't feel the need to throw a rail on everything to make guns "cool and upgraded" for cheap, or at least wish the rail could easily be detached. One problem, gun makers, with rails is that I have a bunch of 1911 holsers for 1911's without rails and don't really want to have to buy yet another holster just because a rail is a cheap way to upgrade a gun for marketing purposes: it becomes "tactical".

I'll talk more later about the new crop of .22 LR 1911 clones as well as some of the .45 ACP clones of the 1911.

I'll close with this, about a gun I'd like to see that is not currently on the drawing boards. The Walther PPK/S in .22LR. Why doesn't Walther/Smith and Wesson make this a part of their lineup? It was made in German made PPK's for many years, and although American made PPK's are sold in .380 and .32, they're not made here in .22 LR.

Why not, Walther?

THE GIFT ROOSTER STILL ABIDES

2011-07-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

As one of the commenters whom I am honored to have grace the webspace of this effort of mine, Helene Burnett introduced me to the phrase "Gift Rooster", which is not just a phrase but really a descriptor, a series of events and much more that surround a surprise rooster that appears in the area.

Several months ago, Gift Rooster appeared from down the road. Several folks in my area raise yardbirds, small time chicken and egg operations mostly for their own consumption and for farmer's market fodder for trade and sale. After a few weeks of circling my home and my terrified bird dog mutts, the Gift Rooster moved on down the street, several blocks away. One neighbor who lives over that way erected a canopy, a stoop and a feeding area for the Gift Rooster on the side of his garage.

It's been hot as Hades ALREADY in Texas back in May, same kind of hot others in the USA are getting in this heat wave we're having. And back then, Gift Rooster spent his days under foliage in the back of a neighbors yard, roaming and crowing in the early and late hours when it was much cooler.

Somewhere in the past several weeks, Gift Rooster managed to talk my neighbor Ms. College Professor/Urban Farmer into letting him move into her coop. I don't know what her rooster situation was before Gift Rooster, but apparently the coop belongeth to Gift Rooster now, as evidenced by the cell phone pics from last Thursday.

Gift Rooster climbed atop the metal chicken coop that Professor Urban Farmer has and was letting the world know that he's the king of that roost. Man, he was crowing as if his life depended on it. The pic is not that great, and bear in mind I had to sneak up on him and take the shot without him knowing, because he's highly skittish and will move at a moments noise or activity. So I crept up on him and at least got a couple of pics.

I haven't had a chance to talk to the Professor Urban Farmer to find out why she moved the Rooster in her coop. I'm sure she has her reasons, and I still enjoy hearing the crowing in the mornings, because it reminds me of the old days at Grandma's in East Texas.

So alls well that, for now, ends well. The old owner doesn't want Gift Rooster back, and his new owner appears to be getting along great with him. And the psychological condition of my dogs has improved vastly since the Gift Rooster found a permanant abode out of their sight. They can't see him but they can hear him, and when his crow flies through the air, they stop and listen and try to figure out how far away he is.

The Gift Rooster Abides.

TIL' THE RIVER RUNS DRY

2011-06-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

We've likely all expressed that sentiment at one time or another, in profession of our love for another and how long that love will last. But for the first time in my life, rivers are running dry in my State of Texas. Rivers that I know well and that are beloved among many people, and indeed, depended upon in many ways by many people and animals.

I'm talking about LARGE rivers. Big and powerful rivers. Rivers that have not run dry in my parent's lifetime or in one case, in over 100 years. Rivers that I've spent an awful lot of recreational time on. Rivers that I've seen low, slow and even pathetically trickling in parts, but never dry.

Two Texas Hill Country rivers that I'm thinking of specifically, the GUADALUPE RIVER above Canyon Lake in the Ingram/Hunt area, and the LLANO RIVER. Both were featured in articles last week discussing this unfortunate result of the long running drought we're plagued with in Texas right now. You can also read about what is called the Lower Guadalupe River, that is, what comes out of CANYON DAM, which according to the articles is flowing at 17% of regular capacity.

KXAN TV NEWS IN AUSTIN tonight said the Llano River is having it's last gasp. Llano has two reserviors outside of town for such emergencies, but the fear last week was about excess algea growth prohibiting their use, meaning trucking in water as the Statesman article said.

Note to self: A Roof/Cistern water collection, storage and distribution system, purification system and a windmill driven water well with a backup electric pump are a must at the next abode or more likely, the vacation/retirement abode we're seeking right now.

So I have lots of friends in Llano, several of them engaged in the cattle business. Their places front the Llano River outside of town, and if it's running dry, that means their cattle are having to drink from tanks that might or might not have dry wells right now.

Water is, of course, the lifeblood in the River of Life, no matter whether it is the Llano or the Guadalupe or any other number of rivers, creeks and streams that have run dry or are running dry.

The Hill Country is full of aquifers, wonderful underground water being filtered through limestone and other rock and coming out as close to pure as can be through springs mostly. The Texas Hill Country is an expansive area, bigger than many other states, and when rains are plentiful, the often harsh yet engaging landscape of the Hill Country is supplanted with plentiful water from springs for mostly gin clear creeks and rivers.

Growing up in Houston, learning to fish in sometimes brackish waters of the Gulf Coast bays and canals as well as the sand colored waters of the lakes, creeks and rivers around Houston. Occasionally you would chance upon a lake or pond that was actually spring fed, and we Houston boys in our pre-teens, about 6th grade, would marvel at the fact WE COULD SEE the bass swimming around in the water.

So after my first family spring break trout fishing trip to the Guadalupe River in the 7th grade or so, I was hooked on fishing "attractive" waters. By that term attractive I mean water that at least looks clean, whether it actually is or not, and that smells clean. Spring fed cool waters, green and blue and clear, rushing over rapids and rocks and life growing and flourishing like an oasis, all around it's edges.

And life underwater. Vivid underwater life. Guadalupe bass. Smallmouth bass (unheard of in Texas until 40 years ago or so, except on the Devil's River where they were privately stocked before that, I think). Stocked Rainbow and Brown trout. Largemouth bass. Hybrid bass. Various panfish and perch. Alligator Gar. And the ever present channel and yellow and blue catfish.

Being a huge Texas recreational river, the Guadalupe also has some huge fish in it. Once, many years ago, when taking a canoe through a side channel of a stand of cypress, I reached my paddle down in the green, clear water to push off of the extended root of the huge Cypress tree so that we would clear an obstacle.

Only it wasn't a tree root. It was a big old catfish, and I could feel it move through my paddle when I pushed on it. We were both surprised, I think. I'm guess 40 or 50 pounds, it was a big one, and it had to be a yellow cat and not a channel because he was big and thick. I could see enough of it to see that it was:
a. a big fish
b. an old fish
c. a powerful fish.
d. with a flat head.
So take that lesson next time you go fishing on a swift river. Them monster cats like to stake a claim under the tree roots and undercut banks. I knew that years ago, that all river fish seek shelter and protection in such areas, but wasn't even thinking about that when it happened.

I've got more river stories than I have time to tell or that the reader would have interest in reading. Some involve catfishing, and some involve drinking. Some involve various canoeing and kayaking exploits, with one of near death (for me) proportions, which was a repeat of what had happened to Billy Ray the year before in the same kayak, at the same location of the same rapid with the same kayaking buddies. Billy had no stitches like I did but did blow out a disc in his back, so that might be a story worth telling.

Probably wouldn't be much danger in Billy Ray and I doing some kayaking in the Guadalupe right now, except getting in and out of a kayak is a pain in the rear under the best of circumstances, and if you run aground sideways in shallow conditions, extrication might be wet and unpleasantly muddy.

A REASONABLY PRICED .45 AUTO

2011-06-19T00:17:00.000-07:00

I was at the Academy store the other week shopping with the family and of course spent some time at the gun counter. I know my wife shudders when we go to Academy for sporting goods for El Fisho Jr. or for family shoes or clothes, as they have great selections of both along with good and sometimes really good prices.

And of course they have an "ok" gun department and a pretty good fishing department as well as camping and boating and the other things one would expect at a major line sporting goods store. Their prices can be decent on some guns, and I noticed a new item in their handgun inventory, the REGENT R100 1911A1 .45 ACP FROM UMAREX USA. Go to that link there and read an excellent albeit brief review of this pistol by the excellent gun writer/blogger Jeff Quinn over at GUNBLAST, then come on back here and read some of my ramblings about this handgun.

Ok, now I've never known Quinn or his bunch to sweetheart a bunch of reviews. I've found them to be credible handgun reviewers, which some magazines and websites and blogs are not. For what it's worth, I enjoy their site and have perused it thoroughly. Their articles have influenced purchases I've made and have certainly brought things to mind to think about regarding possible gun purchases and uses and things to look for and and problems to spot. We like GUNBLAST and so do all the friends I've turned on to it.

So'se there I am at Academy having skulked away from my bride amid her concerns of what I might find in the firearm department. I spy, as I said, a new gun for their inventory, a 1911. I get a look at it and see it's from Umarex. It's a gun of tight construction, the steel felt good, and the throat work and slide enlargement were done well. It was a well put together gun, and the only thing I'd change about it pronto is the puny front sight. No bueno. Bad news. Yes, to be true to the 1911A1 I guess that's what it had on it, but the first thing to go on that pistol should be the sights and replaced with at least a set of white dot front and white outline or dot rear sights, preferably night sights.

I've had some older 1911A1's as well as some kind of grip-safety-less Star in .45 ACP that had the puny front sights, and they did just fine for what they were intended, which is short range shooting. I could hit a soda can at 25 yards more often than not, and my misses were very close, so the puny front sight is a serviceable concept.

Then after reading Quinn's review and seeing this pistol I saw one out at the range. The particular range I was at is a gun dealer as well and has a deal on their demo guns that you get five shots for $5. So I demo'd this gun and found it to be a nice shooting firearm. I was shooting military ball ammo out of it, and the gun handled it well. I wasn't shooting 1 1/2" groups at 25 feet much less 25 yards (as Jeff Quinn did in the review), but I got a group of 3 shots into a 4" mid-torso target grouping and was very pleased with that.

I've always been fascinated with the rare inexpensive handgun or firearm that functions very well but is sort of a "sleeper" because it's low on the price scale and because usually these guns tend to be somewhat utilitarian.

For example, in the late 80's and early 90's, you could buy various Norinco firearms made in China. All of the Norinco guns I've owned or shot were of excellent quality, but were cheap in price. I've owned a Norinco AK-47 and have several friends who got theirs, like me, for under $200 pre-ban, way back when.

At some point in that time frame, Norinco came out with a parkerized 1911A1 clone that was low priced (maybe around $350 or so) but high performing. Pretty soon all of my friends who are shooters were buying these guns. Of course, back then, we were all buying guns of different types due to fears of the ban that was coming on certain types of weapons.

It's my understanding, and I could be wrong, but the excellent and inexpensive Norinco 1911A1 got banned as a result of who made it and where it was made. Now, I do try to avoid buying Chinese products and have for a long time, but I'm afraid I will bend the rules now and then for something like this gun.

Because the Norinco 1911A1 was Glocklike in it's ammo consumption and reliability and accuracy, it became a favored "fun gun" for my friends and I. We'd buy some bulk .45 ACP ammo and go to one of our places in the country and do some .45 shooting with some old school SA 1911's.

For the person trying to build a gun collection on a budget, the Regent R100 1911A1 is a great choice for a foundation builder. Who of us that actually works/did work for a living is not on a budget nowadays? I've got one of these on the short list after shooting it. Yes, I've owned and own much finer firearms than this particular gun, but this gun is well constructed. I would replace the sights immediately but that's the only change I'd make.

After seeing and then briefly road testing the Regent R100, in talking to friends I've found several folks I know have bought these Umarex .45's as their glovebox gun or their farmtruck gun.

One of them, we'll call him "The Country Gentleman", caught up not in western shooting but in the whole Texas idea of having a 1911 in a western style rig a'la "The Wild Bunch", got a rig for his Umarex (or his Norinco or any other of his 1911's) and uses it for his home place gun. He hangs his rig on his coatrack in his living room and straps it on whenever he's heading outside. He lives on a big place out in the country, and the law is a long way away under the best of circumstances. Although like most country folks, he has a locking gate and some cameras on his place to help him watch for trespassers, would be home invaders, cattle thieves or East Texas meth heads looking for an easy score. That's the reality in Texas today, folks.

Another friend, who we'll call "The Houston Cattleman", also a member of the Norinco club of days gone by, keeps his in an old green army web belt rig with leather army surplus (black, non-hanger, alice clipped to the belt) flap holster and canvas magazine pouch. There's usually some kind of folding knife de jour as well, in a case on the belt. One day might be a Buck 110, the next an Applegate-Fairborne. Full of surprises and super well maintained *blasts* from the past in terms of firearms and edged weaponry. I've been friends, dang good friends with The Houston Cattleman for more than 25 years now, and he still surprises me with what he pulls out of his gun safe(s) that he's owned for years that I've never heard about or seen.

He's got another green army surplus web belt that's long enough to hang from or across your shoulder like a bandalier that has a machete and alice clip holder, 2 army issue canteens, a mag pouch for his *black rifle collection* or shotgun shells (which ever he has with him, and he has *extensive* weaponry to choose from) and some kind of general purpose fixed KBar type knife.

That's his tractor and farm truck gun belts, and goes around his property with him when tending to his cattle. Again, this friend has a good many upscale firearms he could be carrying with him, but enjoys shooting the inexpensive .45's and thinks they are a great knockaround/glovebox gun. He can take them to cattle sales with him, his web belt rig and gun rolled up and locked in his glovebox. Worst case scenario and it gets stolen, he's lost $500 vs. losing a far more expensive gun.

Both of these fellows are like me. They won't carry a gun for defense, even snake defense (they might say ESPECIALLY SNAKE DEFENSE), if it's not reliable. They are gonna shoot a gun, and fairly extensively if possible, before it becomes an actual carry gun.

Both The Country Gentleman and The Houston Cattleman have proclaimed this gun is "another Norinco" and in our crowd, that's a big compliment. That means it eats what you feed it without problem, it's reasonably accurate given it's sights, and it has no issues.

I know lots of folks are into highly modified 1911's. You gotta have this, you've gotta have that, and if you don't have this this this this and that by this certain gunsmith then YOU ARE DOOMED to fail if that dreaded time of a self-defense gunfight occurs and you're armed with a gun deemed inadequate by the 1911 gurus.

Here's my take on it. I've owned many, many Colt 1911's. All have had jamming issues with hollow point ammo. Some more than others, but at one time or another, all of them jammed. The most expensive Colt Gold Cup I ever owned, a race gun, that had been worked on by a gunsmith with a sterling rep, jammed like no other auto I've ever owned. It even jammed on ball ammo. It was a far better gun before I had it worked on, but even then, it still had a few jams.

I've been of the belief for awhile that the way the gun designer designed the gun is the way the gun is meant to be used. This means some of the modifications common to custom 1911's were not the idea of John Browning. I don't foreclose all mods that Browning didn't include, but I see nothing wrong with more or less trying to stick to the original design in a gun and see how it works. It works well in the Regent R100.

The Regent, as mentioned by Jeff Quinn, has an updated safety device that renders the firing pin inoperable until the trigger is pulled. That's an improvement that every 1911 that will be carried Condition One - Cocked and Locked needs to have. Really, any 1911 needs that safety feature. Other than that, sights included, it's a pretty fair rendition of the old fella.

And yes, a gun like this will have some "inferior" parts, according to the .45 gurus. Probably some MIM parts to hit this price point, almost certainly. Something I've always wanted to do, and have never done, was make the ultimate *non-fancy* combat 1911. By non-fancy I mean no fancy BBQ gun with a flashy finish or all kinds of throated this and polished that and ambi safety and extended and flared magazine wells and custom engraving and hand checkered front straps

If you've got a good functioning gun like a Norinco or Umarex, a bargain basement gun that eats all ammo and functions flawlessly, then don't go changing any parts, MIM or otherwise. Put some combat sights (I like Novak) on it, some laser grips of your choosing. If something goes south later, or if you decide to get some trigger work done, then maybe you can replace some internals. But be sure to hang on to the old parts, since they are already "fitted" and in case there is a later failure of the new part. But my philosophy is why mess with something if it's already working?

Both The Country Gentleman and The Houston Cattleman are given assumed names because they are good freinds and know of this blog and don't want their guns being talked about. It's a Texas thing, maybe. They don't want people to know that Joe Blow has this gun or that one and connect the dots and figure out it's them.

I never messed much with the Norinco's shooting abilities past 25 yards, and rarely that far. If I get an Umarex, I doubt I'll do much shooting past 25 yards with that gun either. It's a plinker, although
The Houston Cattleman and The Country Gentleman both have bad hog problems on their places. The Country Gentleman is not running any cattle or other stock right now, so all he has to worry about is his dog getting waylaid by hogs.

But The Houston Cattleman has a fairly large and active cattle operation with several hundred head of cattle. Of course, many of those are calves and part of his life is taking care of his cattle from predators when they are small. Heck, big hogs have been known to attack full grown cows, although that's rare, but it has happened.

The Houston Cattleman often encounters herds of hogs at night when he's out checking on the cattle, because there is also an overpopulation of wolves and coyotes throughout many parts of Texas. Although the hogs are the worst problem for The Houston Cattleman ("They're just like a tick, you kain't get rid of them"), wolves and coyotes are more of a problem for his neighbors who have chicken and goat operations.

The Houston Cattleman almost always has a longarm of some sort handy on the seat of the truck or back of the tractor, but he tells me of some encounters with hogs when he's out of the truck with a flashlight checking on a water or feed trough or a water tank. The Houston Cattleman says more than one time he's rounded a corner through brush or a natural feature like a bluff or ravine and run into one or more hogs. It's then his practice with "point and shoot" with his cheap .45 auto comes in handy.

I tell him he needs a pump shotgun with buckshot and a integrated flashlight/laser in his hand or slung over his shoulder in his nocturnal cattle caretaking. He has several to chose from, both pump and auto, regular or tactical, but often chooses to carry an HK 91. But then leaves it in the truck when he's on foot at night, when the hogs are out.

So there's a different kind of take on the Regent R100 1911A1.

The only question is, do I make me a field rig like a Wild Bunch Rig or do I hit some army surplus sites and get me a web belt rig with a flap holster?

THE SALTWATERTROUTBASS FISHERMAN'S BIBLES

2011-06-11T22:51:00.000-07:00

I bought these two books, or rather my parent's did, back in my 4th or 5th grade year. I had already read the simpler pamphlet type fishing books by Garcia that cost a $1, and they were a bit slim on information as well as pictures and travel stories to spur my imagination about future fishing adventures. These were a bit more expensive, at about $2 or so.

The Fisherman's Bible series of outdoor books which were not only full of good technical fishing information and information on gear and tackle selection but were also full of great travel stories and pictures. Published by Doubleday, they were called THE OUTDOOR BIBLES.

Some other OUTDOOR BIBLE series books you can find on other subjects are:

-Archery (by Fred Bear hissownself!)
-Camper's
-Canoer's
-Deer Hunter's
-Fresh Water Fisherman's
-Golfer's
-Gunner's
-Horsemen's
-Hunter's
-Rifleman's
-Runner's
-Shotgunner's
-Skin Diver's
-Stargazer's
-Waterfowler's

The Saltwater Fisherman's Bible was of interest to me. It did have some brief reference to Gulf {of Mexico} Coast fishing in it, but was a compendium of fishing opportunities from coast to coast. Over the years, in travels from east to west, some of the stuff I read in this book many times over the years came in handy when fishing in the Atlantic or the Pacific while on vacation. The Saltwater Fisherman's bible was written by Erwin A. Bauer, who along with his wife Peggy, were noted outdoorsmen, writers, photographers, fishermen, hunters and other such wildlife related pursuits.

Here's a link to find THE SALTWATER FISHERMAN'S BIBLE yourself, or do like I did when my initial copy finally fell to pieces and pick one up at a Half Price Books for $3.98. My new to me copy is a revised addition with yellow and white as shown in the bottom photo.

I personally prefer the older, black cover editions of these books which were first published in 1962, and there is really cool stuff in the gear section. In fact, I have much of the gear depicted in those photos and have had since, well, way back then. Although I supplement fishing gear now and then, I'm pretty tried and true using what has worked for me over the years, both tackle and gear and lures wise. Rods represent the biggest change, as graphite and what has followed have been too strong to ignore.

At the same time, I got a copy of the Trout Fisherman's Bible as well. It was another book in this series by different authors about various hunting and fishing and sporting endeavors. These books sold often in racks in sporting goods stores in Houston like Oshman's and in the sporting goods departments of stores like K Mart, Gibson's Discount Center, Ward's and Sears.

Again, this book was tremendously valuable to me, as well as being highly interested in the great pictures of fishing adventures that it contained. Later in the year after getting this book, and getting a fly fishing rig and a spinning rig, I was ready to go trout fishing in Colorado on vacation with the parents. Custom dicatated that we stop at various public fishing spots, of which there were many at rivers and creeks on our way to Aspen.

Being a Texas boy with no trout to fish for and no real reading materials other than Field and Stream, Sports Afield and Outdoor Life to try to gleen the basics of trout fishing in creeks, rivers and lakes, The Bible was a big filler in of gaps in knowledge for me. I learned about things like using salmon eggs for bait, and found they worked *well* in a gin clear, strong running creek near Branson, Missouri, which was the appropriately named "Fish Creek", and later, in a creek near Aspen.

I can't find any biographical information on Mr. Holland right now, and if you know some I'd be very interested to know more about the lives of Erwin and Peggy Bauer and Dan Holland. I don't have that book handy right now to see if there is anything there. I do know it was published originally in 1962 and has been revised since then. Once revision I found was revised in 1979 by Dan and Gary Holland, with no further infomation found. Again, I've commonly seen this book at Half Price and it's readily available online.

Going back to Erwin Bauer and another book in this series that he authored about bass fishing. Another great book, and although there have been advances aplenty in the last 50 years since this book was written, the same basics he talks about apply, particularly if you're not fishing with the bass boat equivolent of the Starship Enterprise or to make a more current reference, not fishing with the Escalade of bass boats.

So my advice is that if you're at all into saltwater or bass or trout fishing and you've never read these books, go to ebay or half price or amazon and get the original "old school" editions.

Just check out the coolness of the metal v-hull fishing boat depicted on the Bass Fisherman's Bible cover. Just as functional as it can be, and it's a reasonable size for one or two persons to deal with when launching and loading.

These books are all outdoor classics from the early 60's. My guess is the market was the folks like, well, my folks, who were now into their 30's with some expendable income after serving in the Korean War, going to college and law school while working full time and having kids. I know my folks were ready for some relaxation once school ended and my Dad's career started and he wasn't going going going all the time.

Fishing. Boating. Golfing. Hunting. Shooting. These were the leisure time pursuits of my parents and their friends and our neighbors. About the only thing missing from the list of book titles of hobbies that we had in Houston is BBQ'ing, and I think all those folks already had a great idea of how to do that.

Do you remember these books? Did you like them? Read them?

A FEW FAVORITE TEXAS FARM POND LURES

2011-06-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

I do like live bait fishing, but when possible I've been a lure guy since I was in elementary school. At age 11, I got a cheap but functional bamboo fly rod outfit from the Green Stamp folks, and then bought my first Garcia spinning rod and reel and it came complete with various spinners, spoons and plastic lures with which I found some surprising success on vacations to Florida, Arkansas, Missouri and Colorado. All of these vacations took place the summer of my fifth grade year.

All of a sudden, before I was even in junior high school, I was hooked on river fishing for black bass in the swirling black waters of the Suwannee River, worm fishing for largemouths in a large Florida impoundment, trout fishing in some pristine creeks and ponds I still dream about to this day in the hills around Aspen, fishing for lake trout in Lake Tanycomo and rainbows in a pristine and appropriately named "Fish Creek" in then undeveloped Branson, Missouri, more bass fishing at Table Rock Lake in Arkansas and then trout fishing on the White River in Arkansas.

Between my 5th and 6th grades, I got A LOT of fishing all over the place. Great fishing and family fishing.

But before, during and after all of the above mentioned adventures, I was farm pond fishing every chance I got. My dad had a lot of friends who had ranches/farms/places with ponds and lakes and creeks and river frontage, and then we soon had several places, and between all of these, I fished every chance I could.

Living near a famous golf course, I soon discovered the joys of fishing the large lakes and the small ponds on the course. We'd sneak over there at night, huddling quietly in bushes on vacant lots fronting the large 5 acre lake near our house. We used mostly bait, and found much success with bacon beleive it or not, trying to keep noise to a minimum and not fishing with lures. We caught lots of bass and catfish on bacon.

But when fishing what I'll generically call a farm pond, I have found certain lures to be very effective. Here's a few of them.

HEDDON CHUGGER SPOOK

My favorite all time topwater lure is the Heddon Chugger Spook in yellow. I've caught so many fish with this lure, and topwater largemouth bass strikes are always exciting. I try to keep several of these lures in my tackle box. The great thing about this lure is, you can pop it or work it with a slow jerking wounded routine or retrieve it fast. I've found the fast retrieve to aggravate many a bass into a hard furious surface slamming strike. There's something about the red eyes and the red mouth of this lure that bothers bass and makes them want to attack it.

WEEDLESS PLASTIC FROG

I have always found great success in farm ponds and creeks and rivers with the weedless plastic frog lures. They can have legs or no legs, but the Creme Burke variety have always been my favorites. These lures feature a twin upturned set of hooks and a soft plastic body that basically weighs nothing, and it glides across the tops of weeds and lily pads and other water weeds and such with east. Of course, fish are often hiding in this growth and fish like frogs.

These lures are great in weedy lakes and ponds and shorelines. In fact, some of the best fishing in any given pond or lake might be the heavy cover that affords both protection and a hiding place to prey on the next meal. It's nice to be able to throw this lure into a weedy or overgrown patch and just jerk it through as a frog would do. It's also great for boat fishing when you can cast onto the shore and then pull the frog off into the water straight on. Fish will come unglued at times and come out from underneath bank/shoreline undercuts and other cover and POUNCE on a frog. Pounce I say.

I've never used the variety with the legs as shown in the bottom pic but the designs and functions are the same. I prefer the more classic design. I'm not afraid of change, but I am against change simply for the sake of change. I've had great success with the original version of this lure, and they're cheap compared to the other lures I'm writing about.

RAT-L-TRAP

This is the RAT-L-TRAP lure by Bill Lewis. It is a great lure. I've had great success with seveal colors but this one and one like it that is just a little darker green have been the most successful. You can use several different types of retrieves to fish this lure but it's a wobbler and a rattler and a diver. I prefer to pull the rod without reeling which causes this lure to wobble and dive, then while the lure is slowing rising I reel in the slack. This is also another great lure for a buzz bomb fast retrieve.

The best time I ever had with this lure was in 1999. A friend of mine whose family had owned the land in question since they came here from Italy in the early 1900's. They began cattle ranching and farming and dug sand and gravel pits on their land and got into that business as well. There was plentiful water in the area and when the pits reached anywhere from 15 to 60 feet, they hit springs that quickly filled the lakes with clear water.

There were five lakes on his property. In any event, the largest and deepest of the lakes (way suitable for water skiing) had these huge gravel driveways going down from the shoreline to the bottom of the lake, and I found that casting down these driveways enabled me to reach the Florida black bass that my friends dad had stocked there in the 1960's. And it was this exact Rat-L-Trap that drove them crazy.

I'll mention that I've had great luck with specks in the surf and bay with this exact same lure as well. I guess it looks like a minnow and a mullet.

ABU SPINNER

There are many expensive spinners that you can buy, but I've always had great results with the line of spinners called ABU spinners, which are painted spinner bodies with dots, and they have worked well for me in farm ponds. Particularly the yellow with black dots to a lesser degree, the white with black dots. Never caught anything with the black or red ones.

CREME PLASTIC WORM

The venerable plastic worm has always been a good producer in Texas in waters large and small. Whether rigged lead headed bass worming style or Texas jig style or june bug style, it's a very effective lure. I only fish Creme brand worms and always have. Purple and ones with purple in them work best for me. The Scoundrel line reminds me of the first Creme worms I bought in the early 70's when plastic worm fishing was just beginning to be a craze.

I often fish worms with the rattler plastic rattle capsules shoved inside them. I know all of the *modern* obsessed amateur and pro bass tourny fisherpeople talk in terms of "hard plastics" and "soft plastics" and I'm not of that generation.

I use worms with a bullet weight on top and a worm hook inverted weedless into the worm with a rattle underneath. Work it on the bottom and over and through bottom cover and structure.

THE CANE POLE TACTIC

Another great way to fish what I call "complex" structure or cover (meaning there is a 75% chance I would snag my lure trying to get into a fishy looking spot and a 100% chance Billy Ray would also snag MY lure trying to fish that spot) is with a bamboo cane pole with a plastic worm rigged "Texas Style" in a jig method.

A 10 or 12 foot 3 piece cane pole can reach a worm jig in places you can't cast and where your perhaps 5-7 foot rod can't reach to jig a hole. And, if you're bank fishing, if you're not using the cane pole to jig you can rig it up as a live bait rig with a bobber, doing it old school to amuse the young 'uns that might be fishing with you. Throw some bacon on the hook and see what happens.

CHARTRUESE SPINNERBAIT

Any of the chartruese spinnerbaits that are out there have always done well for me on bass. I like to get the ones that have the firm monofiliment weed guard in front of the hook point that makes them semi-weedless but doesn't inhibit a biting fish. I've used a bunch of different colors from black to white and in between over the years, but for some reason I do better with this day glo version.

These are the big six lures that for the past 40 or so years have done well for me in Texas farm/ranch ponds and tanks and lakes ranging from small to 20 acres. I'll generally have at least three and sometimes six or more rigged rods with me. Three if I'm solo and six or more if I've got El Fisho and Billy Ray with me. We'll each fish something different and see what will work, then the rest of us switch lures to the winning lure (if they are biting).

If I'm carrying three rods, I'll often have a yellow, brown or green plastic frog on a spinning rig, the Heddon Chugger Spook on a spincasting or baitcasting rig, and a Rat-L-Trap on a baitcasting rig.

If those three strike out, it's time to switch out, and often if plugs and topwater don't summon any fishy interest, I find that mid-water lures like spinners and spinnerbaits and bottom lures like worm fishing sometimes do.

If it's July or August, my rods are rigged in reverse, with spinnerbait, spinner and worm up first. And yes, that's when you're early morning and late night fishing, when it's cool{er} and {like me} when fish are more likely to be active and moving around.

DAVE'S HOPPER AND GREEN RUBBER SPIDERS
I've always got at least one fly rod with me, and that rod is going to rigged with either a foam rubber spider with white rubber legs in yellow or green or a Dave's Hopper grasshopper fly. Both of these patterns continually produce for me more than any other. Any survival kit should contain several each of these flies and a yellow Abu spinner.

A few other lures bear honorable mention. The Arbogast Jitterbug in green or yellow is a great lure, but it seems I do better with the Chugger Spook. Silver and gold spoons as well as Mepps silver or bronze/gold spinners are always in my tackle box and are usually the next in line if the above six fail. At one time in my teens the lizard variety of plastic worms were popular, not only with fishermen but with largemouths in my part of Texas.

I had great succuss using Creme black, purple and lime green lizards, rigged in the traditional plastic worm fishing style. Then, like a faucet, fish stopped biting them. It's like they had a meeting and decided, no, we're not going there anymore. Which is surprising because Texas has A LOT of lizards and gekos and such of all types large and small (some of which crawled in one of my air conditioner compressors some years back, shorting out the entire unit = several thousand dollars= went death wish on large lizards with a pellet gun for awhile). So one would think lizards fall in the water all the time or crawl on lily pads and such and become prey for fish.

But although I've fished over and over with plastic lizards in lakes and rivers and creeks and farm ponds large and small, I have not caught a fish on one in decades. And yet, every couple of years, I'll rig one up when fish are hitting on similar plastic worms, and NADA. Boom. Bam. Beep Be Beep beep Be beep be beep. Some kind of fish morse code goes out and all feeding ceases. BAM.

So it's a mystery why my lizard days are seeming over, and have been for quite awhile. I'm sure as soon as I finish this post I'll think of some other outstanding lures I've forgotten, and as I write this sentence, I recall the Hellbender or the Hula Popper. I'm big on old school Arbogast lures as you can see. And used to catch fish with both of those lures. So it looks like there might be a part II of this post...

SNUBNOSE REVOLVERS: CAN YOU HAVE TOO MANY? I FEEL THE FEVER...

2011-06-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

FROM: http://adjunct.diodon349.com/attack_on_usa/favorite_all_around_cf_pistol_Colt_Python_357_Mag_files/image002.jpg

Sorry for the title but it's true. Can you have too many? Of course, the answer is an immediate and assertive "NO", you can never own too many guns in general or too many snub nose revolvers specifically.

Recently, although I've proclaimed that in looking around at various Kit Guns that I might one day want to have that I didn't want a snub nose Kit Gun. And then of course, I saw a royally blued Model 43 with a 2" barrel at a gun store. It went fast, and for a reasonable price for being in excellent condition, about $450.

You know, it just looked like a good solid gun. Of course, since I already have holsters to fit a J frame and K frame, I'd have all the based covered no matter what kind of S&W Kit Gun I might find in a snub nose variety. And of course, for the longest time, I've been wanting one of them nice Model 60 snubbies in .357 stainless. Rationalizations abound.

I think it's a thing, at least with males my age and generation, that we were raised on TV cops and private eyes carrying snub nose revolvers and some of us developed a fixation on snub nose revolvers. Hawaii 5-0. Dragnet (Model 10's or 15's?). Mannix. Barnaby Jones (As I recall, he carried some kind of old school 4" or 5" tapered barrel pre-war Smith or Colt but it was still cool and so was he. He also fished a lot on the show.). And a ton of other movies and shows from back in the 60's and 70's.

My dad was carrying snub nose revolvers as he was a prosecutor and most prosecutors in the 60's and 70's were holding law enforcement officer commissions as well to enable them to carry guns, as were private eyes and reputable defense attorneys all over Houston. Hell, most folks carried guns then and now in Houston, law abiding and otherwise.

So I grew up in an environment where it was common when you found yourself in the shotgun seat of your friend's mom's or dad's car, when you were maybe in fifth or sixth grade, to sneak a peak in their glove box and see what they were packing. We knew well to look but never touch. Ever.

But I or friends of mine would sneak a peak in that glove box because it seemed almost everyone we knew, save for the liberals, had a resident pistol in the glove box of each car. Usually some kind of .38 Special, and often a snub nose. A smattering of .25 autos and .22 revolvers and pistols. An occasional 1911.

You see, so many of the parents of my friends when I was coming up came from similar backgrounds as my folks. They were from smaller, often rural, Texas towns and had moved to Houston seeking their fortune, and many found it in the 50's and 60's and 70's when Houston was a full on raging boom town.

Their people carried guns in their vehicles back home, and that was the way it had always been. The law was often A LONG WAY AWAY back in the days when my folks grew up, and then like now, there were people that would kill you for a dollar and never blink an eye. As far as I can remember, all of my father's police friends always told me as a kid that if a law abiding person carried a pistol (which term way back then often referred to both revolver and semi-auto handguns in Houston) in a responsible way, then they had no problem with that and were not going to arrest them. Act a fool, go to jail but if it's just speeding or some such thing, well, their wives carried pistols in the car just like these citizens did.

Most of my Dad's police friends carried snub noses of some sort, often fancy with gold plating and gold-silver butt plates and engraving and fancy belts and holsters made by Stelzig's Saddle Company or down Mexico way. His friends were often detectives or big brass in the police or sheriff's department, but he had patrol friends and one motorcycle cop buddy who was particularly gruff and funny.

Some cops carried 1911's and a few carried 4" revolvers but most carried some kind of snub nose at least part of the time and I'll damn sure bet you that all of their wives carried snub nose revolvers in their purses or cars. I know we had different ones in the house, at his office, in the cars and those that were carried by my father on his person.

As I've mentioned before, lots of folks had them for self and home defense. Parents of friends of mine from school, folks who did things like worked for NASA or worked for a paper company or worked for an oil company or all sorts of non-law enforcement types of folks had snub nose .38 revolvers, resplendent in their royal blue hue, shining under the display lights in their wooden living room gun cabinet.

I remember talking to the dads of my friends about their different guns and why they had them and when they used them. Most of these folks were deer and bird hunters and so during the seasons their snub nose was a constant companion to their long gun.

Lots of these parents of school friends in the neighborhood were not handgunners but were hunters and long gun shooters, and had several hunting rifles and shotguns for different situations, but they only had a couple of pistols, a .22 of some kind and then a snub nose and usually it was either a Chief's Special or a K frame snub nose in .38 Special. Some of them had .357 Magnums and I recall vividly the first time I saw a Python snubbie and thinking that was probably the coolest snub nose I'd ever seen. And even at age 10 or 11, which was when that was, I was right about that Python.

{NOTE: Once again, see ZACH who beats me to this by years. I think I am subconsciously riffing off of some of his coolest prose that I've read before. Again, apologies, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery}

Never mind that snub nose revolvers can be a very accurate handgun. My Colt Cobra point shoots better than anything I own except the Glock Family of Firearms, and it dang near points as well as the Glocks. Perhaps it's the fact I've shot the Cobra for thirty years, and it's been carried as a concealed handgun or off duty (and yes, I know, egads, I did carry it on occasion as a plain clothes weapon as a young officer) for all of those years. I have a permanent worn in dent (not really) on my right hip from the Bianchi #6 IWB suede holster holding the Cobra that I've worn all of these years now.

When I'm at this one range that El Fisho Jr. and Billy Ray and I sometimes use, it's a younger urban crowd that is present at this indoor range. Occasionally, someone there has a revolver, but it's mostly 9's and 40's and even some 45's. But mostly 9's and 40's. Males and females in their twenties and thirties. USP's. Glock. Springfield. Beretta. That's what you mostly see.

So when they see me and El Fisho Jr. pulling out snub nose revolvers that shoot well, like the Cobra, they stop and take notice.
I'll shoot a couple of cycles with the Cobra, knocking out some black space in the target at 25 yards, and they'll begin to gather behind our shooting stall and look at the gun and me shooting it.

Then it's time for El Fisho, who is quite proficient and confident with a snub nose already. It's always funny because they look at El Fisho Jr. like he'll barely be able to contain the recoil when it's his turn to shoot. He'll load with the HKS speedloader, and toss it aside like I've taught him to do. It lands on a mat on the ground, and I'll pick it up later.

The eyebrows of the onlooking shooters raise a bit after his speedloading, but then when he is shooting 3" groups point shooting at 15 yards in double taps, jaws begin to drop and heads to shake. People ask what kind of gun it is and has it been worked on and I tell them it's a Colt from the factory that has been shot many times. Fixed sights. Never worked on. Stock.

Then El Fisho Jr. will take up a Glock 19 and do the same thing he did with the Cobra. He does the same thing with the S&W Model 1917 in 45 ACP. Now, the Model 1917 is another gun that when it comes out at the range, people stop and stare. Most have never seen the likes of a full moon clip, or a big bore revolver for that matter.

And again, El Fisho Jr. amazes onlookers with the Model 1917, which although it is a big gun, the felt recoil with Pachmayrs is very, very low and it's an easy gun to shoot well. Pretty much like a Glock in that the Model 1917 we have makes you think you're a much better shooter than what you really are.

People ask how long he's been shooting and it's like, well, real guns just over a year and a half now but bb guns and airsoft the 4 years before that. A single shot BB gun. Weekly Sunday afternoon lessons of first safety and then marksmanship on the back porch with the Red Ryder, which he could not even cock himself at the time. Many years of firearms safety training with the bb guns and airsoft before he actually ever fired a gun himself.

And no, he doesn't have a coach, but we do plan to get involved with NRA and State shooting events and competitions this summer.

But back to the snub nose. I've been reflecting on how I used to walk into certain gun stores in Houston and most of the handgun section, apart from 1911's, was revolvers and a goodly portion of that was snub noses new and used. Nowadays, you see the Smith and Taurus and Rossi and sometimes Ruger selections of snubbies new and sometimes used, but you don't seen the old school revolvers like you used to being sold as used fodder.

It's not uncommon at the larger gun shops or places like Cabela's to encounter the know it all behind the counter who is was born a few years after I bought my Cobra. I ran into a very nice 70's example of a Dan Wesson snub nose revolver at a store recently, somewhere around 30 years old in like new condition, and had a kid behind the counter tell me that they were some kind of Asian made Smith copy from the 90's. I'm no Dan Wesson expert, but I had a friend who had an early Model 15 and this one is identical to that one and it wasn't from the 90's and it wasn't made in Asia.

And yes, it had a great trigger and I bet it shoots very nice. Very nice. In fact, it was bought by the guy standing behind me who also knew more about the gun than the kid working there. It was all I could do to pass up a pristine Dan Wesson snubbie in .357, but I had to that day, and I'm glad the buyer knew what a treasure he was getting. I've not shot a Dan Wesson in many years, but several friends own them, and I shot them extensively in the early 80's. Dang nice shooting irons for not a lot of money. Even today, they're a bargain.

I think the Dan Wesson Pistol Pak was a great idea, and they seem to be going used in the $600 to $1000 range for a complete set in very good to fine condition. The complete Pistol Pak had a .357 frame with 2", 4", 6" and 8" barrels and a variety of grips that could be interchanged. I was skeptical of how good those guns would shoot 35 years ago when they were new until I shot my first one. It was right up there with the finest S&W or Python, and in fact, it shot as well as the Python I carried as a young police officer.

But the call of the snub nose, perhaps a new to me snub nose, is calling in the wind. A nice .357 snub nose would certainly be an interesting proposition for a cold weather carry gun as well as a field gun to carry with a nice combination rifle shotgun in .22/20 gauge.

LA NOIR: Tales from the Gangster Squad

2011-06-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

THERE'S A MILLION STORIES OUT THERE IN THE NAKED CITY...

FROM: http://missrosen.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/noir0521ladec311951.jpg

A couple of years ago on a visit to Los Angeles I fell back into my old 80's habit of reading the L.A. Times. Now, if you're a newspaper reader, like me you probably remember back when newspapers on Sunday were inches thick. Full of great stories and features. Well, the L.A. Times is still like that, whereas many newspapers across the country are not, and several years ago that's what I discovered.

I like history, all kinds of history. And although I'm from Texas and my interests have primarily been in American and Texas history, as well as world history, I've always been interested in crime history. With a degree in Criminal Justice, what would you expect?

The unique American history of crime and criminality can be found in stories from New York to Miami to Chicago to New Orleans and to a thousand other cities and towns. But the big stories, the outlandish and outrageous crooks and their stories, came from the big cities mostly. Not always, remembering Bonnie and Clyde et al, but mostly. And over the years, the stories from L.A. somehow escaped me until I found this column in the L.A. Times called The Daily Mirror , where writer Larry Harnisch does an excellent job of capturing some of the very interesting history of L.A.

Of course, there are other writers at the Times, and some of them write stories that involve some of the tawdry history of L.A. and it's bright lights of the entertainment industry and how those bright lights and criminal folks mingled in the same circles sometimes, and that's part of the connection. You remember the stars and already know who they are.

For example, the series by Times writer Paul Lieberman that caught my eye a few years ago involved well known actor Max Baer (Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillys) who was a friend of an "alleged" mobster named Mickey Cohen. Seems like Jethro once chased down a car thief/dog thief for Mr. Cohen. The last of seven parts is here at Noir Justice catches up with Mickey Cohen. Here's the link to all seven installments, a cast of gangster characters from the story and a picture and video link called: LA NOIR: Tales from the Gangster Squad. This last page also has a link to all seven stories.

These stories will keep you busy for awhile and if you have ever heard the names of various crooks and gangsters in American history, you're bound to hear a few names you've heard before in this series. Moreover, it wasn't just in New York and Chicago that the mob was making itself felt back in the old days. There was plenty of money to be made in L.A. and the mob wasn't missing out on that.

There's another column in the LA Times that deserves a mention, and I cannot seem to find a link to it's home page right now. It's called L.A. Then and Now, and it involves some interesting stories as well. Here's a great story from today about Frank Sinatra, Joe Dimaggio, Marilyn Monroe and The Wrong Door.

Here also is a cool story from April of this year about how the L.A.P.D. and their SWAT team had some rough going early on.

THE COLT TROOPER

2011-06-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

http://picturearchive.auctionarms.com/4053102330/7217163/a881134d817728aefc18dad7f8d03cb0.jpg
A Colt Trooper 6" in .22 LR

This picture is from a great thread on The Firing Line and also appears in google images. It's a Colt Trooper .357 in a Western style SA holster, which I think is very cool. The guy that owns this gun posts a bunch of pics of other cool guns he owns, so check it out.
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=408433

I never paid much attention to the Colt Trooper in my younger days, when they were actually being made by Colt. I was carrying a Colt Python as a young police officer and so the need for a Trooper never rose at the time. Nowadays, I'd like to buy a .22 in a medium frame all steel revolver, and also on the list of guns I'd like to have is a nice 6" .357 revolver of some sort. I could buy a Trooper of each flavor used nowadays for what one 6" Python or Diamondback (in .22) would cost me.

So I started doing some reading on the Trooper. I've seen a few recently in gun stores, and even though the guns and their finishes were less than optimal, I had to give high marks to the actions of the ones I've seen. Now, I've never expected "Python-Like" triggers out of lesser Colt guns, but to be fair, my Cobra has an excellent set of DA/SA triggers as have many other Colts I've shot and handled over the years. I know that Colt did not put the time or hand work into guns other than the Python and select other high end offerings, and that that Trooper was not a series of gun thought of to be in the same class as the Python.

But I had forgotten that Colt did make a lot of Troopers in .22 caliber, and the later versions (Mark III0 have a solid ribbed barrel and more importantly, a protected ejector rod and apparently the Mark V version had the option of a Python like vent rib. So for me, anything in the Mark III or V catagory would be a fine gun.

Here's a link to a good GUNBLAST post on the Trooper from a few years back. As the author laments, it's a doggone shame Colt is not still making double action revolvers.

I think a double action revolver, particularly and perhaps fittingly due to western history, looks very cool in a western rig. This is one rig I don't have, and I know El Paso Saddlery does make many of their western holsters for DA revolvers as well. The rig pictured above is one of those perfect field rigs to accompany your favorite shotgun or rifle for your foray to the field and stream, or perhaps just the revolver alone.

STILL MORE ON KIT GUNS: THE GATOR GUN PROJECT

2011-06-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

Although a rifle or shotgun is not technically a kit gun, in reality it's a big part of the "Kit" or gear that folks like me would be carrying on a fishing trip through or into the woods. As I've been expounding on for the past few months, the combination rifle/shotgun like the venerable Stevens guns and Savage 24 guns are a great thing to have on any woods or water adventure.

As I've mentioned, the availability of different cartridges and shotgun shells/slugs makes the combo gun a very versatile gun for various hunting and fishing endeavors.

But I've got a long delayed project that has gotten my interest lately for a "fishing gun", in addition to a handgun, to take out on various lakes, ponds and creeks in a jonboat and for bank fishing expeditions in this, Texas My Texas, the land of many poisonous snakes.

As anyone who has done any kind of fishing in places that have snake populations of any note, the worth of any fishing hole is directly proportionate to it's remoteness (generally) and thus common sense tells us there are more snakes in more remote, less visited by human beings, places.

To me, it's just a fact of life that many of the places I fish, I get near snakes. Of course, some snakes live near the water, which coincidentally is where I fish when I'm bankfishing. In fact, the gnarly and mean tempered water moccasin and the copperhead are the two snakes I've encountered and shot most in my life of being outdoors.

Here's an example. Many years ago, our Boy Scout troup was on a canoe expedition in what was and maybe still is called "The Jungle" of Lake Livingston in deep East Texas. Gators ABOUND in the the entire Lake Livingston area, as do LARGE POISONOUS SNAKES. Lots of both of them, so much so that there is a significant amount of signage devoted to warning folks of both all around this large lake and the communities in it's area.

I was young, but had already spent much time in that area fishing and hunting with my parents. My folks had several friends that had places and lake houses in that area and we visited the area often. I was well aware of the GATOR AND SNAKE issues, as was pretty much everyone else.

What I didn't know at age 13 or so was that water moccasins like to climb in trees to catch various prey. So as we were about to get back into our canoes after a shore lunch, I watched my normally mild mannered Scout Leader literally jump about 10 feet back when a moccasin fell out of a tree and landed in his canoe as he was just about to step into said canoe.

A large water moccasin. Did I mention it was large?

The snake was ultimately dispatched but never forgotten. It made me think about another dimension other than the ground or the water where a snake could come from in my fishing trips, and I always try to look up in the treetops since then.

Which brings us to the Gator Gun. Here's the disclaimer: I don't hunt gators. I've never shot a gator. I hope I never have to shoot a gator, but if I did it would only be in a dire self defense situation where there was no other alternative. But seeing as how I live in gator country, and I fish a lot, and so me and gators tend to be in some of the same places at the same time, it's a good idea to be like a Boy Scout and be prepared, as I have mentioned before, not so much for gators but for the ever present snakes at the places I fish.

So I've mentioned before that an Uncle of mine had a bolt action 20 gauge shotgun with a tube magazine in his teens. At some point in time in the 40's or 50's, it got slammed in a car trunk and broke the back end of the stock off. My uncle cut it into a pistol grip and then cut the barrel down to about 19".

Although my Uncle didn't consult the lawbooks to check what a legal length would be, fortunately it's legal by several inches under today's Texas and Federal law.

The problem is, it was crudely done. The barrel cut is at an angle, and the cut at the pistol grip could be less janky and jagged and have been finished a little better. I've shot the gun, not in a few years, but back when he gave it to me in a state of very lightly surface rust on the barrel exterior, it shot well and I shot it a lot. I cleaned the rust off of it and lubed it down and basically have stored it and occasionally lubed it and cleaned it but have done nothing to it otherwise over the years except to shoot it and clean it once every five years or so.

And that's gonna change. My plan is this. Have a gunsmith who lives down the road fix the uneven barrel cut and polish it, have some sort of front sight put on the gun, clean up the uneven stock cut with a file and sanding and have the gun refinished in something durable like parkerization.

Everything will be done by the gunsmith except for the stock, which I can do. I want to put a short leather sling on it with ten loops for shells and slugs. The magazine with the plug removed holds five shells with the chamber empty, more than plenty. Because of the age of this gun, and although it has a safety that appears to function properly, I've always carried it chamber empty until ready for firing.

I want to add a flashlight mount. There is plenty of room between the end of the tube magazine and the end of the barrel for a mount and flashlight to fit, and a cheap and tiny green daytime laser sight wouldn't be a bad addition either.

It's gonna be a fishing camp gun, a daytime as well as nighttime fishing gun, and a good flashlight and aimed laser sight would be good things to add for not a lot of money.

Note that most of my guns are not outfitted with lasers and lights and rails, but I think this gun would be a fitting candidate for both laser and a good flashlight.

I had a friend who once said they preferred cheap cigarettes and expensive beer. To make my analogy, I have a friend who bought a cheap teeny tiny green laser sight that works extremely well and it's from a reputable maker. I was amazed at the brightness of the laser spot in the broad daylight, and want to get one. Chances are, it would get moved around from gun to gun like the flashlight, but a nice cheap laser and a good more expensive flashlight would be a great addition to a Gator Gun.

I've also found a few used stocks online for this gun, and when I find one for a bargain I'll be buying it as well. Probably transform it to a stocked 18.5" barreled gun. It's been waiting for many decades for some action and perhaps a complete stock, and I'm going to get going on this project for this summer.

When I was talking to Billy Ray about this project, without me mentioning the Gator Gun name I'd given it, well he up and calls it the Gator Gun too, proving that great minds do think alike. And El Fisho Jr. mentioned it sounded like a "Tactical Pistol Gripped Bolt-Action Shotgun". Hmmmm...

PROPERTY LINE

2011-06-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

One song that was and is a big favorite of mine is a lesser known tune by the Marshall Tucker Band called "Property Line", as in "Well, my idea of a good time, is walkin' my property line". It's off the 1976 Long Hard Ride album, and the youtube link above is a recording of the song.

MORE ON KIT GUNS

2011-06-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

I'm embarrassed. As I was surfing the web today reading about kit guns new and old, I came across a two year old post about the Model 63 by my good friend Zach over at The Next Chapter, which you'll conveniently find in my blog roll.

Now, at first blush, I said "Well, great minds think alike. This is not the first time I've had the idea to post on a firearm and then discover Zach already plowed that ground at some point before me." And maybe that's true, because what I do know about our taste in firearms from reading his excellent blog is that we do share a great deal of common ground in liking or owning certain firearms.

Which then raised the real question, to which I must plead that it's likely true. Sometime back, when I discovered Zach's website, I read through most of his posts. I'm sure I read the one about his Model 63. Thus, my original post idea wasn't that original after all. Thanks for inspiring me, Zach and I just wanted to give credit where credit was due.

Now, the term kit gun never really fell into use with my generation. I heard about it from my grandpa and father and read countless writers in outdoor magazines talking about them. I remember looking at the gun magazine annual catalogs that were big for us in the pre-internet days as far as seeing what guns were available for sale, and I remember that S&W still sold a few Kit Guns back then.

Although I'm not a big fan of the "new" kit gun that S&W sells, the Model 317, I see that Jeff Quinn over at Gunblast (a great website, by the way) tossed his long beloved Model 63 to the back of the gunsafe for the ultra lightweight 12 ounce loaded Model 317.

By the way, I snarfed those Gunblast links directly from the linked post above from Zach. Thanks again, Zach.

I agree with Zach on other points regarding this class and catagory of firearm. Or in fact, any firearm. I want no locks on my firearms, particularly those motivated and engineered by litigation. I don't own any weapons with locks on them (anymore) because of a lock up I had at the range with a .44 Special Taurus (in excellent condition, I might add) equipped with this monstrosity. One round threw it into lock mode, and the entire gun locked up until after several minutes I jimmied it open. I unloaded it and away it went from whence it came.

So whenever possible, I buy gently used guns over any newer model of the same gun. Because I don't want no stinkin' lock on my guns.

Like Zach, the Model 18 and 63 are guns that generations of police and military began their handgunning careers with. I still see them frequently at the range, the ever popular 4" Combat Masterpiece in both .22 and .38 Special, and I see parents teaching their kids, one friend teaching another, etc with these fine time honored weapons.

For the first year of handgun shooting, El Fisho Jr. was only allowed to shoot .22 revolvers. After learning to shoot and the manual of arms for a single action .22 revolver, my son El Fisho Jr. was moved up after several months with the Single Action .22 to my S&W Model 67, which is the stainless version of the Model 15 Combat Masterpiece in .38 Special. I loaded some very low recoil wadcutters and away El Fisho Jr. went on the Model 67. Since then, he's graduated to all kinds of other pistols and revolvers and calibers but the Model 67 remains one of his favorites. Because it's fun to shoot.

So although El Fisho Jr. didn't learn to shoot with the .22 version of the Combat Masterpiece, the centerfire version served him well through the remaining 8 months of his first year of firearm practice and training and safety classes. Like his dad, there is something about revolvers that he likes, and he's taken the time to learn speedloading and has learned the manual of arms for various revolvers and has responded perfectly to malfunctions we've encountered as per his training and safety education. People we shoot with and people at the ranges we frequent are always complimentary as to his safety and his manners, not to mention his marksmanship.

I'll write more on kit guns later, and think about this one. Why won't Walther a/k/a Smith and Wesson make a .22 LR version of the Walther PPK/S? I had one of these guns in my teens in .22 LR, a beautiful German made blued version, and it was a great kit gun and I was an idiot for trading it away. But seemingly like all other guns I really like from the past, it's way expensive.

Here's a short list of guns I think are cool that have skyrocketed in price on the used market:

1. Any centerfire HK semi-auto sporter hunting rifle
2. HK P7 and variants
3. The Colt Python and Diamondback revolvers

SOME S&W KIT GUNS TALK

2011-06-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

When I was reading Outdoor Life and Sports Afield (RIP) and Field and Stream as a pre-teen and teen, the "old timers" often talked about their "kit gun", a gun carried in their "kit" or backpack or tackle box or gear bag or fishing vest or whatever.

The guns referred to as kit guns were actually all S&W, since that was a copyrighted brand name, but in reality it could be any kind of handgun that one could tote with them. Mostly, the kit gun school of thought involved guns ranging from J frame .22's (I think this is what is called a 22/32, meaning a .22 on a .32 frame). to K frame .22's and .38's.

Many a Ruger .22 graced a kit bag and tackle box, and like wise the various Ruger, Colt et al single action .22's, particularly the smaller framed guns. Our kit gun was a rather decent shooting if not *function over form* H&R 9 shot double action revolver with a 4" barrel.

But let me tell you a story about one such kit gun adventure I had some years ago.

One of the family traditions the wife and I began was going certain places year after year with the kids for mini-vacations. One such place is in the East Texas Piney Woods, nestled in hundreds of acres on a private ranch. The lakeside cabins come with your choice of a cheap rental canoe or v-hull rowboat to traverse the five joined lakes this place features, and the lakes have different types of structure and even construction that gives a lot of different kinds of fishing opportunities from deep swamp thicket jungle bass fishing to gravel bottom fishing to several other designed lakes.

Knowing the area like I do, which is pretty well from an outdoors sense, I know that there are gonna be snakes and possibly alligators, although the property claimed they kept gators vetted and moved to other locales. Gators are gonna be gators, and they can move into new habitat as I've seen it happen. I've been happy never to have to shoot a gator, but there have been several close calls where it was nearly trigger pulling time before the creature from the deep backed off.

Besides, it's illegal in Texas to shoot gator but I'm willing to risk a fine if it's self defense, mano a' gator.

No, the much more prevalent creature at this property was snakes. Big ole snakes. Copperheads. Water Moccasins. These are two of my least favorite snakes, because they are what I have encountered most of my life.

So when I journeyed around the lake, in the front pocket of my Stearns combo fishing/PFD inflatable was my trusty S&W Model 38 Bodyguard Airweight with three rounds of snake shot and two of solid nose bullets.

I ran into several very large mocs as I was fishing near the banks and under some thick bankside growth, but was able to avoid them and was glad I saw them before I stumbled across the lily pads they occupied, sprawled in the shade with their camo skin making them hard to discern amongst the vegetation. So we both came out as winners on that one, but I was struck with the thought that I was glad I had the .38 Special snakeshot backed up by two solid bullets, rather than a lightweight .22 loaded with .22 snakeshot and cartridges.

You see, at that time S&W had introduced a super lightweight .22 revolver that came in under 10 oz. My M38 I think weights 14 or so unloaded, but at the time I thought the lightweight .22's were sort of cool and certainly when carrying a gun, ounces sometimes do count.

So all my envy for having some .22 caliber gun that weighed a few ounces less than what I was carrying went right out the window. Upon seeing the abnormally large size of the snakes, I was kinda wanting a shotgun and not a pistola, but I was glad I had the extra ommph of hte Model 38 if'n I'd of needed it.

Hence the new offering from Smith and Wesson, the Governor , might be the ideal outdoorsmans gun for carry afield. It can chamber and shoot a combination of .410 2 1/2" shotshells, .45 LC and .45 ACP in two-shell or full moon or half moon clips. I like to know if it would chamber (without clips) the .45 ACP auto-rim, but I don't know and you should ask your gunsmith unless the gun's manual says it's ok.

I've never gone for the Taurus Judge series, something which has frankly astonished Billy Ray for years, given my fondness for the Thompson Contender chambered in .45 LC/.410 for a fishing snake gun, or as he calls it, a gator gun. (note: we don't hunt gators, we leave them the hell alone and steer a wide berth and if they are active we go somewhere else. We respect them, and fear them, and go prepared but in over 40 years of fishing we've had a couple of close calls but made it out without problems)

But I've never been a fan of any of the Taurus revolvers made since the early 80's, as it seemed to me the earlier ones more mimicked real Smith and Wesson guns, and were made better. I had one very bad experience with a Taurus revolver and likely won't own one again.

So the Governor does interest me, and it is reasonably priced.

In the article I linked to by Skeeter Skelton in the previous post, he talks about two great guns of yore, the legendary REAL kit guns in .22. Those would be nice, but it would be nicer if Smith would make one of these guns as a classic reissue WITH A REASONABLE PRICE AS A THANK YOU TO LOYAL WORKING MAN CUSTOMERS.

Perhaps the epitome of the trail gun is the beautifully made little Smith & Wesson Model 34 .22/32 Kit Gun (the “32” indicating that the gun is built on the .32 frame). This fine revolver has been around in one form or another since 1935 and is now offered with adjustable lengths, and round or square butts. Its name, .22/32 Kit Gun is copyrighted, else I would have used the term “kit gun” here instead of the less descriptive “trail gun.”

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Smith_and_Wesson_model_34-1_left_side.JPG

This 24 ½ -ounce beauty is as accurate as any shooter can hold it and manifests all of the Smith & Wesson refinements. For my own use, I prefer the slightly larger square-butt model, with four-inch barrel for steadier holding.

This S&W is also available with a 3 ½ inch barrel on an aluminum-alloy frame, weighing only 14 ½ ounces. In .22 LR it is known as the Model 43 .22/32 Airweight. "

http://pictures.auctionarms.com/114623/10339406/s_w%2043%20002.jpg_thumbnail0.jpg

TEXT FROM SKEETER SKELTON http://www.darkcanyon.net/What's%20The%20Best%20Trail%20Gun%20For%20You.htm

I've seen examples recently of the Model 43, unfortunately with too much cylinder movement. Not a tight gun. But it seems they are around and go for around $300 to $600 on the average going for about $500. If I could find a decent one that was tight, I'd be having to have that. It's a big contender for when you do want a .22 as a sidearm.

http://www.centerfireguns.com/images/detailed/handgun-revolver-smith-and-wesson-m60-178013-pro-357-3-5r-wd-mss.jpg

Another gun that would be a nice gun if one wanted to occasionally shoot perhaps a hog at closer range or some other type of Texas type predator (we don't see many bears in Texas. I think some live protected in Big Bend although once black bears roamed East Texas) would be the venerable and time tested Smith and Wesson Model 60 yet with a new barrel design on the 3" barrrel, a danged nice looking gun as well. Weighing in a 23.6 oz., it might have enough bulk to allow the shooter to tolerate shooting full .357 loads yet be light enough to carry enjoyably.

http://gun-specifications.findthebest.com/sites/default/files/495/media/images/1_155.jpg

http://picturearchive.auctionarms.com/2992221307/9739501/0514r1.jpg_thumbnail1.jpg

I have a Model 67 Combat Masterpiece in .38 Special +P. My father thought it one of the finest combat revolvers ever, and gave me mine many years ago. It's a fun and easy gun to shoot, and is heavy enough to have little bite from heavy +P loads. I just wish I had one with a 2 1/2" barrel for vertical shoulder holster carry as a trail gun.

Smith and Wesson has a dandy .22 version of the Combat Masterpiece, the Model 18, but unfortunately I could buy two or maybe three very good to excellent condition used guns for the price they want for the new "classic" version of this gun. Like it's big brother, it's a heavy gun, but it's a nice K frame and fits nicely in my hand.

And although the Model 67 in .38 Special +P is a generally much better choice than the Model 18 in .22 for a field and stream gun, it's a heavy gun, and I'm more prone in the July and August Texas summers to go for my Model 38 Bodyguard Airweight with snakeshot and solid flat nosed bullets out of comfort. Still, I'd like to have a reasonably priced Model 18 since I'd already be good to go on holsters and because it's a great shooting gun.

There are other Smith and Wesson .22 revolvers out there, and I'm talking about the pre-1980 guns mostly. I have little interest in a snubnose .22 and like these guns with at least the 3" barrels.

In another post, I'll talk about some other cool guns for the field and stream and trail.

1977 SKEETER SKELTON ON TRAIL GUNS: STILL RIGHT ON THE MONEY, 30+ YEARS LATER

2011-06-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

I've always been a big fan of Skeeter Skelton's writings on handguns. Truly, along with many other of the famous gun writers from the 40's until now (the group has winnowed down quite a bit in recent years and few new exciting scribes out there), Skeeter was a legend and a legend to be listened to.

In this article called What's The Best Trail Gun For You?, Skeeter discusses concepts in excess of thirty years old, yet they are still sound today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEON HALE

2011-05-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

Longtime Houston Newspaper Scribe Leon Hale is cerlebrating his 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, Leon. Leon is a gifted and talented writer, to be sure. The Houston Chronicle, his longtime last newspaper job, is running a series of his articles that are good ones. The one about WWII was well written, hilarious and hopelessly heartbreaking, all at the same time, and all with very few well chosen sentences. I should be so lucky, being as wordy as I am. Can't blame it on law school, as I was wordy way before then.

Back when people, people like me for instance, used to begin the day and particularly Sundays with the newspaper and coffee, Leon was one of the first things I'd read. No matter where I was, the Sunday paper was a ritual, and I kept it up for many years until a few years ago when online news became snappier and available for free on the internet.

But I digress. Here's a link to some classic Leon Hale musings and writings and they go on and on for your enjoyment.

And for you fishermen and fisherwomen and those Texans who enjoy Hill Country River Fishing Camp stories, here's a few links to get you started on Leon's fishing trips here and here and here to the James and/or Llano Rivers with his buddies. I guess his last trip over there was in 2008 as that's the last post written on the James River by Leon that I could find.

So Happy Birthday, Leon Hale!

PROBLEMS IN EL FISHO WEBLAND

2011-05-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to respond to comments as myself right now, and other features are askew. I'll get them back to normal as soon as possible, as soon as I can get one of the children to straighten things out for me. Saying that, and it is true for the most part, particularly with The Princess, and it makes me sound more than a little bit like my parents did back in the ancient days of the mid-80's when they'd have me come over to set up/fix/program their VHS VCR for them.

But that's another subject entirely.

To Richard, happy I could help with the info on Tex Shoemaker Holsters for the COP Compact Off-Duty Police .357 four barreled derringer. Like the Roy Head song says, well at least paraphrased by Amarillo Geetar Scott, "They'll treat you right". Do let us know what you order and how you like it!

And to the visitor who scored the Lew's Speed Stick at the garage sale for a dollar, well, that's a dollar mighty well spent. They sold new, at first, for I think $25 bucks, and depending on action, length, style and condition, they average that to $50 on ebay. So you got quite a bargain there, my friend. I was just gandering at a pair set up in the garage ready to go fishing, a worm baitcasting rod with a Curado and a spinning speedstick with the rubber covered handle (a favorite and very comfortable to fish with, I wish more makers had this type of grip surface on their rods as it's very durable and has lasted in my case over 30 years with nolo problemos.

So thanks for stopping by and send me some pics of the rod and the holster you get and I'll post them here. Email is in the profile.

THE PRO-MARK JOE RAYNOR DRUMSTICK

2011-05-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

The late Joe Raynor was THE drum instructor in Houston from the 1960's until the early 2000's, as well as a noted jazz, big band and popular music drummer for some pretty famous artists over a long career. I met him as an 11 year old beginning student, and although he had me using Pro-Mark 5a sticks, I couldn't help but notice his distinctive sticks, which had different sized tips and shafts on each end. Joe, being a master percussionist, could use those different stick sizes to great dynamic and dramatic effect.

I took lessons from Joe for many years during my teens, and then later in my twenties during law school Joe began teaching at a Brook Mays not too far from downtown in between the massive teaching he also did for the various schools he worked with. It was easy to slip in there late in the afternoon for a double length lesson, since I could record the lesson and work on it endlessly when at home. From the time I began with Joe, he recorded homework assignments on tape for you to learn. Rudimentary exercises. Counting. All kinds of stuff.

So back to these drumsticks. I'm not certain if he invented these. He never made that claim to me, or to any of my many friends who took lessons from him from the 1960's to the 2000's. My good friend El Bar has the actual Rogers White Marine Pearl double bass drum kit that Joe used in the 70's when I was taking lessons from him.

I had the good fortune to get to babysit that kit for about four years whilst El Bar was traveling and buying a ranch/farm (we call it a "place" here in Texas) and moving to his place in the deep piney woods of East Texas.

I've dealt in used drum kits since I started drumming, and I'm very good at restoration and cleaning, which the *years worth of dust* on the Rogers kit had. Soon, it was gleaming again, and enjoyed having it set up in my drum room outfitted with cymbals I've used since junior high school.

So it was also cool to be playing that kit with a set of genuine Joe Raynor sticks. Here's the rest of the drumstick story below.

When I started lessons with Joe, he worked out of Herb Brochstein's Music store in Houston. Herb had started the Pro-Mark drumstick company some years before, and soon became the largest (I'm pretty sure of this) drum stick maker in the world. Brochstein's Music closed as Pro-Mark skyrocketed in the early 70's, but Herb (also a stellar drummer), his store and his drum stick company are legendary in their own rights.

Herb's a great guy. I'm not his buddy or anything, but all the times I've seen him over the years he greets me fondly and shakes my hand although I'm pretty sure he doesn't know who I am. He's a nice fellow and has always treated all the drummers I know in Houston very well.

So in 1970 Herb's growing Pro-Mark drumstick company makes the Joe Raynor stick, which is labeled as such. I bought several pair of those when taking lessons from Joe and still have one intact drumstick from 1971 where the large (glued on) stick tip has not come off.

Over the years, I've mostly played with 5a's and 5b's, until making the switch to Vater drumsticks back in the early 2000's. I still use Pro-Mark sticks all the time, but I've grown fond of one particular Vater stick that is lightweight and yet beefy and a wee bit bigger than a 5a.

The Raynor stick at it's thickest is close (I have not measured) to that of the Pro-Mark 7a stick, and the length I think is also the same. The "regular" tip end and shaft of the Raynor stick is real similar to a 7a, but the stick butt tapers to form an end to which a larger tip is glued (unfortunate because if this tip was milled from the dowel blank it would hang on better).

Interestingly, I have not had the problem of the stick butt tip coming off on the second set of Raynor sticks that I stumbled into about twenty years after I first began lessons with Joe and saw his unique drumsticks.

The Houston DRUM*GUITAR*KEYBOARD Shop was shutting down, and the owner Keith Karnaky was selling everything. So Keith was escorting me through the massive parts bin he had accumulated over the years and I was getting all the available Collarlock and Tempus drum hardware I could find, as well as select replacement parts for other snares like Rogers and Ludwig and Slingerland. Basically, I was buying spare parts for every drum I had at bargain prices.

So as Keith was leading me through his various parts areas behind the counter (well organized as I recall), I came across a bucket of drumsticks that were priced at $2 a pair and spied a familiar butt end stick tip, a double ended Raynor stick.

These sticks were made sometime in the 80's or very early 90's, a "reissue of sorts" if you will, and there were about six pair. So I bought all of them, of course. These sticks were marked "Pro-Mark /W/".

I don't know what the "/W/" designation meant. These sticks are still in great shape, many years later, and I'm glad I found them. I used them for electronic drumming and also on more quiet gigs, rehearsals and musical passages where a softer touch is required, as they are significantly thinner than the several different types of drumsticks I might reach for at any normal rehearsal or performance.

So a couple of years ago I wrote the customer service department of Pro-Mark and asked if they still had the pattern or blank for this stick and if so what would it cost me to get a private run of these sticks. I knew enough well-heeled former Joe Raynor students that would be interested in buying into a one time Raynor stick order that I figured we could pull it off.

To my dismay, the customer service rep indicated that the pattern or blank or whatever they use in the drumstick industry had been destroyed and there were no plans to revisit the Raynor or /W/ stick design.

So there is another solution. Recently, a very talented lawyer friend of mine whose hobby is SERIOUS WOODWORKING of all sorts began making drumsticks for his daughter's boyfriend out of all sorts of exotic and regular drumstick woods. No kidding. This friend basically built his own luxury home that's probably 5000 square feet over the course of a year more or less by himself. In his "spare time". And when I say custom home, I mean, custom home. Finest of woods. Finest of workmanship. Innovative design and state of the art materials.

In his spare time, he built this fine home over the course of a year.

He first built a four car garage with a huge garage apartment above it. This was his work and storage area for the beginning stages of building his house, and he basically has a wood shop in his garage that puts many professional shops to shame with his extensive tools and gear.

He has some sort of router or mill or something that is CAD controlled and he can take a drumstick and basically make a pattern from it, if I understand what he's doing.

He then sometimes makes dowels himself, or buys them and makes drumsticks on his gizmos, finishing them by hand.

In any event, the sticks are extremely well made and some are heavy and some are light and all are just works of art unto themselves. So I'll be visiting him soon and taking some Raynor sticks and a few kinds and sizes of sticks and watching him craft me some custom sticks out of probably some very interesting woods.

TEX SHOEMAKER & SONS, INC. LEATHER = EXCELLENCE BEYOND DESCRIPTION!

2011-05-27T23:09:00.000-07:00

But I'll try to describe the excellent customer service and holster that I recently bought from Tex.

You see, I got this gun a few weeks ago, the 4 barreled .357 Magnum C.O.P., standing for Compact Off-Duty Police, which hasn't been made since the mid-1990's and was not probably a big seller back then. I wrote about THE COP here a few days ago, and the picture at the top of that post is from an Auction Arms sale that ended many years ago but the picture is still out there. It was the second picture of a holster I had seen that was actually made for the COP, and by zooming in on the photo I could see it was made by Tex Shoemaker and Sons, Inc., leather gurus.

One of my duty rigs as a police officer that I wore on extra jobs had a Tex Shoemaker holster for my Python. Thirty years later, it's still around, and it gets pressed into service as a field holster on cooler fall and winter and spring days when wearing a Sam Browne rig isn't too hot in my part of Texas.

So the COP is hard to fit. No one, and I mean no one that extensive google searching can find makes a holster for this gun.

Except for Tex.

So after I saw the pic of the holster I went to the TEX website and ultimately bought this holster for the COP.

But El Fisho, you say, how could you buy a holster for a long discontinued and always obscure gun and have that holster already, because you just got the gun and custom leather holster work often takes 6-8 weeks or more?

That's easy, my friends. Tex is a quality outfit. I sent a customer service inquiry on a Monday night using their website form, and the next day a nice lady named Jolie and I exchanged a series of emails.

I fully expected Tex, after the entire Tex office finished laughing and rolling on the floor at the thought that some Texan would dare to think that maybe, 15 or so years after an obscure gun was last made, that they might still be able to make a holster for that gun, to tell me that nope, they couldn't help me out.

But much to my surprise, Jolie said that they still had the dummy gun and so they could not only make a holster like the one pictured, they could make any holster new or old style from their catalog for this gun.

So I went here and found that I thought this thumbreak pancake belt slide holster might hold a heavy gun like the COP better than a regular revolver belt holster.

So Jolie informs me of this and tells me to simply add my comments and special requests (belt loop size, covered trigger, right or left hand and the finish) to the order form and tell them the gun (which by now probably everyone knew that a dusty dummy gun was coming out of storage) and that if they had a problem they'd let me know.

So on a Tuesday, I ordered it. Jolie and I didn't discuss how long it would take. I was willing to wait until Christmas or longer just because I had found someone to make me a holster, and for a reasonable non-custom price.

So I was astonished when just 3 days later on Friday I got an automated email that my holster had shipped out. Three days. Unbelieveable to me, someone who has bought several custom holsters from various makers over the last 30 years. The fastest I've ever had delivery before was probably a month, with the average being about 8 weeks for a custom holster.

So on the following Tuesday at noon, just seven short days after ordering, my new holster is at my door. And just check out the heavy duty TRIPLE STITCHING on each of the belt loops. This is a feature I've never seen (only double stitching) but it really firms up this area of the holster and makes it ride firm at each end of the holster. EXCELLENCE!

So thanks to Tex, to Jolie and the craftsmen/women who made my excellent holster and processed and shipped it and handled any other aspect of this flawless service and excellent holster.

You'll receive first rate customer service at Tex Shoemaker when you order your holster or other goods, and you're buying American and keeping an American institution like Tex going. They've been serving mostly police and firearms enthusiasts for many years now, making quality products for fair prices.

This holster from Tex, who are actually located in California, is as finely crafted as any I've owned at many, many times the price for those other holsters. It's a perfect fit for my pistol, and the quality of the leather is impressive and it was cheap in price. Of course, the ultimate test after fit and finish and so on is how does that leather smell, and it smells wonderful. It's a lightweight yet heavy duty holster that firmly holds the heavy COP and distributes the weight of the COP over it's area. It was a good choice by me.

I'll be buying a more traditional old style H Revolver Duty Style Holster from Tex in the very near future, which is like the one pictured on my previous post about the COP linked above and much smaller than the "new" style shown at the Tex website now, and will be asking Tex to make it crossdraw.

The COP is destined to be my four shot snake gun when out fishing, and I've already put a universal fit nylon holster on my 2" cordura?/nylon? "fishing belt". The holster (for a Colt Officers ACP and other guns, no less) holds the COP very securely, but very deeply. Holding the gun deep in this cheap nylon holster for fishing is fine, and keeps the gun secure near the water. But loaded with snakeshot, it's a four shot snake killa. But I'd rather have a nice leather crossdraw holster for this gun when fishing, and I think the Tex old style H revolver holster would work well for this.

I'll also be buying a 12 Inside the Waistband IWB holster from Tex for this gun.

So thanks again to Jolie and all the other great folks at Tex! You Rock!

MODIFIED MOSINS MORPH INTO COOL CARBINES AND MORE MOSIN PROJECTS

2011-05-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

pictures from The Pharmory

I found a cool new gun blog, courtesy of a post over at The Firearms Blog and it's called Pharmory and it's apparently a couple home gunsmiths working on various weapons and modifications.

The post that caught my eye was about converting some Mosin Nagant rifles into 16.25" barreled carbines modified to shoot .45-70. Lots of work here, my friends, but I'd like to have one of these guns when they get them working right. Pretty nifty, particularly considering that the fodder for the conversion can be had for anywhere from $79 to $99 with the higher grade pick weapons going for more.

Interesting looking guns that sort of remind me of the larger, bigger brother to a Norinco SKS carbine I saw recently.

Here's another interesting post, also from The Firearm Blog about making a 10 round magazine for the Mosin Nagant and the link to the project is here and he's built a very cool sniperized version of the Mosin he calls The Mosunov. And here's a link to a directory of his marked gun posts. Cool site and he's big into the steampunk movement and makes some interesting looking computer keyboards and other artworks. Obviously a very talented person.

THE SHOTGUN IN TEXAS

2011-05-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

Growing up in suburban Houston, Texas, it seemed like almost every household had at least one shotgun. Sometimes there were many shotguns in a home, back in those safer and less burgled times people actually openly displayed their firearms in wooden and glass gun cabinets. Sometimes these cabinets were ornate, and sometimes plain, but the contents were works of art.

As a child who began shooting at an early age, I knew the rule: Look but don't ever touch. My friends and I would stare literally for hours over our youth at the contents, these firearms, and from what we could see and from what we knew about particular guns, we'd talk about the features and good points and bad points of certain guns and designs. Rifles, shotguns and handguns.

Many folks had no handguns in their collections, and some just had one shotgun. Sometimes it was a family gun, like a friend's families Browning A5 shotgun, and other times it was a simple single barreled J.C. Higgens (Sears) or H&R. Of course, all of my East Texas relatives who lived in or sorta in the country had shotguns near the door. A big favorite was the Remington 870 in 20 or 12 gauge but again, there were all kinds of guns represented as "house guns".

Before I hit my teens, we moved to the outskirts of Houston to subdivisions being built in an extremely rural area. Lots of the kids I went to school with lived on working farms and ranches, and back then in those less violent and crazy times, there was no school rule against having a rifle and shotgun in a window rack of your truck. It was pretty common for the farm kids to have guns or cattle prods in their gun racks in their trucks, and wasn't any big deal back then in the 70's.

There was a huge influx of oil company folks from the land up yonder, north of the Mason Dixon Line, who moved to Texas in the 70's. Many of these folks did not come from gun cultures or families, and were shocked at the prevalance of guns and the guns in the school parking lot. To us from down here, it was no big deal.

But growing up in my teens in that unique rural developing area meant many friends of mine lived on large farms and ranches. We did lots of shooting and fishing on those places. There was always a place to hunt and someone was always having problems with wild hogs destroying crops or coyotes attacking calves/chickens/goats/etc at night. If we took off on a hog hunt or were laying low in the darkness of a barn waiting on coyotes or the occasional wolf to come calling in the midnight hour, most of us were carrying shotguns for night shooting.

Living in the country, one never knows when a stranger might suddenly pull in the driveway at a late hour, with police many miles and many minutes away. Critters also cause issues in the country homestead and here in Texas, it's likely to be mean, wild hogs or wild pigs, coyotes, big poisonous snakes, skunks, bad-arse stray and often ill dogs running in packs and various rabid critters acting strangely. And if you've got livestock of any kind, then predatory creatures tend to be attracted to feed on your animals.

So it makes sense for the country dweller to have at least a couple of firearms at the ready. Most folks I know had a shotgun and a .22 rifle and a lever or bolt action deer rifle in either 30/30 or 30.06.

But the default weapon of choice, if they just had one weapon, was almost always a shotgun.

I remember trot lining with relatives in East Texas, on a dark Trinity River, and my uncle carried a H&R 12 gauge single shot with the barrel shortened to 18". That was his trot lining gun for shooting the inevitable snakes we encountered and sometimes when a gar would get tangled in his trotline. He had a little wooden rack device on the right rear inside gunwale of the boat to hold the gun in position and broken open since it had no safety, right next to where he sat running the motor and running the trotline. My uncle was a farmer and a rancher and worked pretty hard his whole life, and I had to give it to him for having the foresight to see an accidental discharge from a single shot shotgun with no safety might not be a great thing in a boat with other folks in it..

Other old timers I've fished with over the years in more swamplike and "gator-y" water still carried shotguns, but often loaded with slugs or 00 Buckshot. The first couple of shots would be birdshot for snakes which could quickly be pumped out to get to the more serious ammo if the need arose.

Tales from my farming relatives who trapped, fished and hunted the East Texas woods extensively to literally survive frmo before the turn of the century until the early 40's. Alligators, panthers and cougars were somewhat common then, and of course the predators stayed near the water waiting for their prey to come to them. My uncle again told of missing a shot while trotlining on a river at what he swore was a mountain lion of some sort, 40 or 50 pounds worth, and other relatives told of encountering panthers and bobcats and sometimes catching them in their traps.

So most all of these folks carried shotguns when they went in the woods, not knowing if they would encounter birds or beast that needed shooting for food. As I mentioned in a previous article about combination guns, my father used to hunt with one of the family shotguns, a double barrel, as a youth with a slug in one barrel and shotshell in the other. Ready for deer or hog or bird or rabbit. My family, although hungry and absolutely broke like everyone else in the depression and the aftermath, did have their standards, and would eat potatos for days rather than eat any member of what they considered the "rat-like" family, like squirrels and possum and of course the armadillo.

But the suburban folks I grew up around in Houston also mostly were gun owning households, and most homes kept a shotgun locked in a gun cabinet or closet but ready for home defense. In those days, most of the kids I was around had Texas roots, their folks had come to Houston seeking employment and good money from West, Central, East and other parts of Texas.

Many of my good friends all have East Texas roots similar to mine, going back generations. Some of them still have their family land, and one good friends still works that land with a couple of hundred head of cattle. We all share the common gun and hunting culture, as all of our families had very similar lives despite being spread apart by many miles in different counties from large to small.

As I began to visit the East Texas families of my friends, I found they were much like my family members in that region, although they didn't know each other. Hard working. Earnest. Frugal. They liked to drive Chevy and Ford trucks and LTD's and Impalas. And they all had shotguns in their homes, and often in their vehicles.

I've neglected much posting about shotguns thus far on this blog, but the shotgun is often the best weapon in the house for many chores. Self defense, of course, by expert or novice, is often best and most safely accomplished with a shotgun. For the rare skunk or rabid or diseased possum, raccoon or armadillo that periodically have entered our lives over the years, along with numerous poisonous snakes.

I have not shot much skeet or trap in recent years, but that's a sport I'd like to re-enter. Shotgun shooting sports are very popular in Texas and all sorts of outstanding upland and coastal bird hunting is available throughout Texas. In fact, in many rural Texas western locales it seems that bird hunting and deer hunting are the only revenue sources.

I've only hit the high points here about the prevalence of shotguns in Texas for the time I've lived here, and I wonder how it is in other states and other places where we have the freedom to bear arms.

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO EBAY?

2011-05-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

I know that sometime ago ebay sort of turned into an Amazon like place, with so much of the stuff being sold new, cheap stuff from China and other eastern locales. That was a couple of years ago, but back then there were still lots of private sellers, folks like you and I, not running a business but buying and selling items in their hobbies, stuff like shooting and fishing and musical instruments.

Since the late 90's, when I first discovered Ebay, it's been steadily chipped away at for the average Joe. As far as I know, during much of the time for change at ebay during the 2000's, things I was interested in began to be banned. Firearm parts, magazines and such were banned from Ebay around 2004 or so, and then at some point Ebay decided to ban PICTURES of guns on an auction for a holster only, and the gun in the picture would simply serve to illustrate how the holster holds the gun. Ridiculous.

Over the past couple of years, I've noticed now that private sellers are in much shorter supply than they were a few years ago, and a lot less items. I'm not a big diverse shopper on Ebay, and over the years my searches and alerts are for either fishing or shooting or musical items unless one of the family has me looking for something for them to get.

Now Mrs. El Fisho mostly goes to Amazon, because books are far cheaper there, and that's what she's normally getting online.

I know prices have increased for sellers on ebay, but having sold some extra stuff lately, I don't feel like I'm being taken advantage of. I mean, some of the stuff I've sold, although having good value, would be hard to find a buyer for locally.

In the years since Ebay banned certain firearm accessories, I've gone to some of the gun auction sites, and you can generally find what you used to find on Ebay at the gun sites, but usually for a higher price. Unlike Ebay, at the gun auction sites, you don't often find that many holsters or magazines starting at a .99 cent no reserve auction, where bidding can be fun and where you might get a huge bargain on an item.

So where have all the sellers of items gone to online? Particularly for musical gear like drums and guitars/basses and amps and the things that go with them? Or for fishing gear? Or for shooting accessories? I know a lot of the forums I frequent in different areas of interest have classified sections, but are there other sites where folks are selling mass amounts of gear in these catagories and I just have not discovered them yet?

I know many people sell their things on Craigslist, but again, so many people I know, including myself, don't. I don't care for strangers coming to the house. For over 30 years now, when I sell a car, for example, I have the prospective buyer meet me somewhere, like in the parking lot of the police station or the Sheriff's department. I always figure that this way they are not finding out where I live and that the location would scare off all but the boldest of hijackers or con men.

So I'm thinking Craigslist is not the sole force that changed Ebay, although I think it and other free online classifieds destroyed the newspaper classified ad business.

My item sales have been good on Ebay, in terms of actually selling and in terms of the selling prices I've been getting. But it's not great like it was say 6 years ago in 2005, when things were still kinda fun crazy on Ebay?

I still find bargains on Ebay, but I find sifting through the multiple dealers selling the same crap as each other that I don't want in the same catagory I'm looking in. Say for instance when I was looking at shoulder holsters recently. There's a handful of used leather Safariland and Bianchi holsters, which are what I'm looking at, and a zillion sellers who have Ebay Stores selling the same crap nylon shoulder holsters (hundreds of them, all the same, at wildly divergent pricing for the same item) clogging up the screen.

I try to shop local when I can. I try to buy products first made in Texas, then the USA, then the countries that I think are friends to us. Of course, I end up buying stuff made elsewhere too, but that's my general policy.

On Ebay, I try to buy from folks like me, the hobbyist or garage sale hunter who finds cool stuff and sells it for a reasonable price. I sometimes buy from folks who have an Ebay store, but I prefer to spend my dollars with people like me.

TRANSFORMING A LEVER ACTION RIFLE INTO A "TRAPPER" CARBINE

2011-05-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

No I didn't turn my childhood 336 into a trapper carbine, but I came across an informative article that makes me want to consider finding a cheap used Marlin and making one. And of course there is always the chance of finding another good lever action chambered in .357 or .44 that already has a 16" factory barrel. All it would need would be a large loop and it would be RTG (Ready to Go, or as they say in Louisiana, Ready To Geaux.

There's also a fellow up in Alaska I think who makes, or at least used to make, modified take down 16" barrel versions of the Marlin 45-70 guide gun. Very nice weapons. I think they were called the Bush Pilot or something, made for bush pilots to take in their bail out bags.

Two very cool modified Marlins tells the story and has a couple of great pics, and once again it features very nice stock mount shell holders by this baldknobby leather that seems to be out of business.

A MIGHTY FINE FIELD RIG FOR A HANDGUN

2011-05-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

Recently, AMERICAN HANDGUNNER Editor (as well as being involved in GUNS magazine) Roy Huntington, who answers his own emails by the way to his loyal readers such as I, had an article on great rig made by PURDY GEAR, Custom Leather Goods. To say that craftsman Karla Van Horne has a gift with leather and can create TRUE ART in leather and metal with her holsters is like saying I like having air conditioning in Texas.

Roy had a holster crafted for his customized 1917 .45 ACP revolver that had been converted to a snubbie, and I'm pretty sure that the Purdy rig like his is going to be my request from Santa this year. I need to let Santa know pretty quick so that Santa can subcontract out to Karla for me to have a nice rig like this.

I stumbled up on this rig on the Purdy site, which might be the same rig Roy got, but in any event is in tribute to him, and tell me this is not some cool handgun leather:

If you go HERE, and scroll down the page about halfway, you see the advertisement for this work of art and the various features of this serious holster. Yes, it's not only exquisite in the carving and sewing and design but this is a serious holster, folks. You can see the sturdy nature of this holster. I must have one, I might add.

Here's the description of this rig from the Purdy site, since the description of this extremely cool holster rig doesn't have it's own separate page I can link to:

Roy's Field Holster

Color: British Tan

Holster: Roy's Field Holster with Ranger Belt

Holster Pattern: Huntington Floral with Repeating 9's Border

Belt: Main Body: Repeating 9's and Doc Martin Vine Border

Billets: Huntington Floral

About: We have always maintained that when you have completed your day out in forest or field that you should be able to hang you gunleather on a peg or over a chair and enjoy some memories. This holster is that pretty! But don't let appearances fool you. This rig is Field-hand tough!

Roy's Field Holster varies slightly from our standard holsters mostly from the cut at the throat and toe. The top of the pouch is cut so that the trigger guard is fully-enclosed for protection against brush and debris. The moveable rear sights are protected by an integral shroud. The combination of safety strap and shroud works particularly-well with the N-Frame revolvers which tend to have a wide, bulbous hammer that tends to hang up a thumb tab. The toe on this one is open by request. It can be had with a stitched-through toe or even with a toe plug.

This rig looks like it would work better with a snubbie, and it makes me want to buy a S&W M19 or (in my dreams) a Colt Python snubbie. I'd like to have one of these for a .357 Ruger Security Six 4" as well as a S&W N Frame 4" .44, both of which I already have, and I feel confident that this genius behind Purdy could position a holster such as this properly on the belt so that balance and positioning were optimum.

Check out the other high quality and indeed, artwork on the holsters and rigs on her site. Magnificent!

BACTERIA KILLS FISHERMAN IN HOUSTON

2011-05-20T04:40:00.000-07:00

This is a chilling story, not only for the outdoorsman or woman but for anyone. RIP, Matt.

Deadly-bacteria-kills-Houston-area-man

AMMO HOLDER IDEAS FOR THE COMBINATION RIFLE/SHOTGUN SHOOTER

2011-05-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

Until I can locate me a custom leathersmith who can make/modify a buttcuff to hold both some 20 gauge shotgun shells/slugs AND .22 LR ammo. Although I've found several leather cuffs that fit the stock of the gun and hold some cartridges, I have not found anything close to what I'd like.

I didn't know much about such products before launching into a web search this weekend on the subject. I've long had one of the elastic shell holders that I throw on my Marlin .30-30 when I head out in the woods, but otherwise it stays in the Marlin gun case and not on the gun.

I've never seen the need to keep cartridges on my guns, save back in my police days when I thought it wise to use an adapted M1 Carbine buttstock magazine pouch to keep an extra Mini14 mag on the gun itself. I think that's also a good way of keeping a defensive rifle more at the ready in a gun safe, so if the need arises and time allows for a gun safe opening in a time of a home invasion or the like, you can just grab the gun knowing there is a charged magazine attached, with no fumbling through the gun safe for the RIGHT magazine for that gun.

But I digress. I agree with the logic that keeping a homestead/country rifle like the Savage 24 loaded up with a few extra shotgun shells and .22 ammo is a good idea. For instance, the last time Mr. Cottonmouth, a rather large and wide fellow on this occasion, decided to visit my backyard area, it took 3 shots from a .22 BB Caps to kill it. In fact, in between headshots 2 and 3, Mr. C bit into a large fallen branch with his fangs. He was *not happy*.

El Fisho Jr. was going "Why isn't he dead, dad?" I told him I thought the snake was just "tough", and that lots of times animals and creatures can be "tough". I also I told him I was using smallish ammo to keep the noise down not to bother the neighbors, since it was already dark when Mr. C came by to visit and got the dogs all upset.

A Savage 24 in .22 LR and 20 gauge with some 8 shot in the shotgun and some snakeshot in the .22 for close range dispatching. That would have been just the ticket for a snake situation. That's why having a few extra rounds isn't such a bad idea on a gun like this. Instead of running back in the house to fetch some more ammo because you grabbed the gun and ran in a hurry to dispatch the snake and save the day and make the wife, who could accurately be called *not a big fan of snakes*, very happy indeed.

So I did come up with a temporary quick fix. I got an elastic butt mounted shotshell holder for a couple of bucks in the used bargain bin at the gun shop the other day. It holds five shotshells. I decided I would remove the label from a vitamin bottle that is roughly the same size as a 20 gauge shotshell, although the loops could accomodate a 12 gauge sized bottle if need be. I've got it soaking the remnants of the label off right now in cup of soapy water, and the plan is to pack it full of .22 LR cartridges, along with one of the small soft (in a bag not a solid) dessicant packs that come in various vitamin and pill packages.

The idea is, fill the bottom of the bottle with some .22 LR or whatever kind of .22 you want, then put the dessicant pack in the middle of the shells, then put another layer of .22 shells until the bottle is filled. If need be, to make rattle free, just add a piece of paper towel or what have you.

I'm guessing this pill bottle full of .22 ammo is going to be heavier than a standard 20 gauge shell, so two things to mention. First, the overhang of the cap of the bottle should serve to keep the bottle from falling out, and failing that, I think I am going to put one wrap of this non-adhesive camo elastic wrap that El Fisho Jr. wraps around his airsoft guns. We got it from Amazon, and it's rough texture would serve to anchor it in the shell holder if it were to be a bit too heavy. Thicken it up a bit sortof, and provide a gripping surface.

So that's my great interim shell holder idea. I'm fixing to go do some river fishing with some of my friends on a big Texas river. Trotlining for sure, but also some regular rod and reel fishing. The two brothers I'll be going with, who have a very nice WIDE industrial sized HUGE jonboat with high gunwales and a nice open but carpeted interior and a BIG outboard. They actually have gunracks installed in a rodrack on one side of the boat, since they often see snakes and such on the river they grew up on. So when I go, I'll take a combo rifle and try out the shellholder. The brothers have a great rule of river fishing: Find out where the fish are biting or where you want to fish, put in downstream from there, go in upstream and work your way back down to the vehicles, which are generally parked at someone's property they know who front the river. Solves many problems. This is a throwback to their days as kids on the river with an iffy outboard on their boat. No matter what, by going upstream for adventure, even if the engine conked out, they would be home for dinner.

In surfing around the web, I've found that a lot of cowboy shooting leather companies make various shoulder stock or buttstock pads made of leather. None that I saw incorporated shell holders, but since they build shell holders for the cowboy shooting competition into virtually every other product they make, seems like you might be able to throw some money at them and sweet talk them into modifying one of their designs to incorporate ammo loops on the non-cheek side of the gun as a one-off custom deal.

There must be a rule in the SASS shooting game about having shell holders on your gun, because after visiting several sites that sell such leather shoulder stock pads, none had any shell holders on them. However, one product did have available for upgrade to their standard all leather model a neophrene insert for the cheek side/shooter side of the stock, to provide some cushioning for the shooter's face. I think this would be a great option to have when shooting any combo gun with a larger rifle caliber.

These leather shoulder stock pads lace up at the bottom, and the nice ones I've seen look really classy. I've also seen some that look like what my first attempt would probably look like, except theirs is not supposed to be their first attempt or look like one. Having been enamored with custom holsters for many years now, I know that not only talents but tastes of the buyer vary greatly, and what I think might be crude and not well finished might be the perfect treasure another has been seeking all along.

However, slings that can carry ammo that are available seem to contain, at most, one pocket that would hold 3 or 4 centerfire rifle shells. I have not seen any leather sling of any apparent quality that has either some number of .22 LR loops or a few shotshell loops. So the thought is to buy a nice suede lined sling like an old Bianchi or another current brand and find some .22 loops on some sort of leather strip and sew the strip to the outside of the sling.

I would dread trying to make even 10 loops in .22 LR caliber for such a project. I have rudimentary leather working skills, with the key word being rudimentary. I've made several leather holsters, and modified dozens more to work with guns for which no well fitting holsters could be found. But I've never made ammo loops, and .22 caliber might not be the place to start my loop making. Maybe something bigger, like in the forty caliber range.

Another cool product I noticed at the cowboy leather websites was that many leather makers sell something called a "loading strip", which is simply a strip of leather that holds some 10 to 20 cartridges. There are several designs, some that hang and some that wrap over belts. The purpose is some SASS rule about how you can carry spare ammo.

But the point is, a one sided loading strip would almost fit perfect, or could easily be made to do so, as something to add to a sling for a ready made cartridge loop. You just have to have someone sew the loading strip to the sling and BOOM, you've got ammo.

Tat's a couple of ideas about carrying ammo on a combination rifle/shotgun. If you have any ideas or know of leathersmiths who might entertain custom work at a reasonable price for what I mention in this post, please comment their name and contact info. Thanks!

MORE GLOCK PERFECTION: AMAZING STORIES

2011-05-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

In the current issue of American Handgunner, they have an advertisement with their spokesman, Gunny, talking about him meeting a guide in deepest, darkest Africa carrying a well-used 20 year old Glock. The ad says:

"On my last trip to Africa, I noticed my guide had an old Glock sidearm, so I offered to
get him a new one." He said "No thanks. I've carried this one in the bush everyday for
twenty years. It has saved my life five times. It's the only pistol I'll ever carry."

You can go to the digital edition page of the American Handgunner here and see the ad at pages 24-25. You'll have to flip through the online magazine to page 25 to find the ad, and the online access, which is free, is very cool and is one reason why AH is one of my favorite gun magazines. Roy Huntington has assembled a talented if not legendary group of modern day handgun scribes and his massive interaction with the magazine ensures it's excellence.

So my question is, in this series of ads entitled GLOCK AMAZING STORIES, how come they didn't have a picture of the guide and his gun?

How about letting us know what generation it was and what model?

I say How 'bout?

How about hearing some of those stories about how the Glock saved his life FIVE TIMES? I want to hear those stories. So do a lot of other folks, I'd venture a guess.

Folks at Glock, I already know all about Glock reliability. After carrying numerous reliable and critically acclaimed handguns of the day as a police officer, when the Model 21 was introduced there were no tears in my eyes as a competitive shooter as the 1911 faded away in the rear view mirror in the spring of 1992. And so it's been since then. The street cred of Glock is "Pull trigger, goes boom."

So what kind of rig does this guide use to carry his Glock every day? How many extra mags, if any, does this guide carry with him? Does he carry a long arm and if so what kind and caliber, or is the Glock his sole weapon? What kind of ammo and bullet does he use in his weapon?

These are the things we want to know.

I mean, just mentioning this, I know this guy told his story to Gunny. Let's here the whole story, Glock. Or as much of it as you can tell without putting him in jeopardy.

Most important though, I'm curious about whether this is man or beast we're talking about here that the Glock saved his life from, because either are equally possible in Africa. Now if we're talking man, then I could see any type of Glock being used, but I'd be betting on the 17 or the 19, due to the popularity and availability of 9mm ammo around the world. But, if were talking dangerous situations involving a beast and not man and the Glock saved his life 5 times, then I'd really like to know the caliber. Since .45 ACP or 10 mm or .45 GAP are the largest calibers that Glock makes guns in, it would seem a guide in the African bush would be carrying one of those calibers, to maybe do some double duty on two and four legged threats.

Who knows. We don't know if this guy is killing humans in self defense as a bush guide or whether cheetahs or lions or any other number of meat eating animals have bum rushed this guide and lost against the bite of his Glock.

Did it save his life because the guide stumbled upon a band of poachers and was able to run them off and safely extricate himself from the situation at gunpoint without firing a shot?

Or was he attacked by said poachers, weary of his interference with their illegal actions and weary of our guide's good citizenship, and guide threw down on the poachers with some 33 round extended 9mm magazines until our hero emerged unscathed from battle with the nefarious killers of animals?

There are many possible scenarios, all of which would be highly interesting to Glock enthusiasts like me and to the general handgunning public, regardless of their temperature on Glock pistols.

But Glock just throws a teaser with this ad.

Now, if someone at Glock reads this post and runs it up the flagpole there at corporate, the first thing you need to do is to decide NOT to try to cover this topic in the Glock Annual magazine that comes out. I know your intentions are good, but it's a catalog with a bunch of hype written by paid writers (and not feature writers but technical writers and PR writers).

Glock should get some leading handgun writers and bloggers who are Glock believers and have them do some articles. And something like this guide's story, with accompaning pictures of the places and scenes of these events, would translate into an ad campaign that would really catch the interest of the target audience.

I suppose there is a chance that this guide might risk prosecution or retaliation if the life saving exploits of his Glock involved other humans, and if so I understand then keeping all the details a big secret.

Still, he's got a story to tell, and I think I'd like to hear it.

FIELD AND STREAM MAGAZINE: THE RETRO ISSUE - JUNE, 2011

2011-05-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

FROM: http://preview.filesonic.com/img/1248511.jpg

I like it. I like it a lot. I guess that's because I AM retro myself. No, I've changed with the times. See, I do blogging and email and I'm a websurfaholic. I love the information access of the internet. It's like an encyclopedia of all things, and I love how I can skip from one subject to another without getting another volume of the Brittania down from the shelves as I had to do as a kid.

I've been a reader of the venerable Field and Stream Magazine for at least 40 years, since I was in elementary school. Soon, by junior high school, I was a subscriber to F&S and Outdoor Life, among other magazines like Downbeat! and Guns and Ammo and Scuba Diver and Dirt Bike. Later, magazines like Hot Rod! and other car magazines would dominate my late teens, but back then and even now, I still read F&S quite often. Although for many years OL was my favorite, sometime in the last decade F&S became my purchase at the grocery store, based on the articles in it.

So this month, at the local grocery, the intentional "going retro for a month" tactic employed by F&S really worked on my subconscious. I didn't think when I looked at the cover that F&S was telling me the issue was a "retro" special issue. No, when I looked at it I though how odd it was that a normal inexpensive jonboat was on the cover.

Maybe it's the fact I read so many of the magazines over and over back then, keeping them for months and often years as a reference point, going back for info recalled about fishing or hunting or boating.

I still have a favorite issue of F&S I've kept since the early 70's, with a story about a Golden Trout fishing adventure in California's High Sierras that looked very cool. To be fair, I've kept one OL mag as well from that era, with a story about a family vacation to the Gila National Wilderness in New Mexico. In both cases, they were great stories, better pictures and all of that allowed me to daydream about being there. And to go places like that when I grew up, which I have.

So I realize that F&S must chase their younger demographic, no doubt elusive these days like all else, but I wish they'd just return to the retro concept, say about 50% worth in each issue. Some retro covers. Some articles about retro guns and fishing gear and tactics and articles from the past, supplemented with current day updates.

I really liked the cover and the layout and the content of the Retro F&S issue. I wish they'd do it more often. And it would have been very nice to have seen them flesh out the 1911 diagram they did with a nice long article about all the tidbits that were in the diagram.

That's one of the problems with lots of magazines dealing with popular subjects. They keep their stories and articles short because they don't think the readers have the attention span for longer material. If it's an interesting subject and it's well written, I like longer articles.

Now, about attention spans, what were you saying?

THE "COMPACT OFF-DUTY POLICE".357 MAGNUM COP DERRINGER PART ONE

2011-05-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

http://picturearchive.auctionarms.com/7383103415/3980316/cop.jpg

and

http://www.auctionarms.com/closed/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=3980316.0

Showing a Tex Shoemaker and Sons Holster Model 59 HM

Monica Belluci with rare pearl grips on her COP loaded with silver bullets from The Matrix Reloaded

http://www.imfdb.org/w/images/thumb/7/7d/MatrixReloadedCOP357-2.jpg/600px-MatrixReloadedCOP357-2.jpg

http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Single-Shot-Pistols/COP_357.jpg

THE HILLBERG DESIGNED WINCHESTER LIBERATOR MARK II

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_abaJ0xbRju4/S9GxaozdZwI/AAAAAAAACdw/5FWc_YNHNvk/s400/Winchester+Liberator+Mark+II,+16-Gauge+Shotgun.jpg

THE HILLBERG DESIGNED COLT DEFENDER SHOTGUN

http://cdn5.thefirearmsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/hillberg-defender-muzzle.jpg

Through a series of good luck, I recently acquired one of these pistols, a four shot, four barreled derringer chambered in .357 Magnum. Now, there's a lot of internet lore out there about these guns, and even as the internet was in it's infancy when the company making these pistols went under in the mid-90's, I've heard lots of tales over the years.

About 15 years ago, a good friend owned one of these guns, and didn't want his wife to know he had it, so he asked me to keep it for awhile. I ended up shooting it a great deal as well as carrying it as an CCW. I also found great use for his gun in the field, loaded with snake shot, it did a fine job of dispatching two water moccasins while stock tank fishing in deep East Texas.

Ultimately, the COP pistol of my friend returned home to him, and over the last 15 years I've looked at them selling on line every now and then and thought about getting one. That's because I don't think they are a terrible pistol at all. I think they are a highly functional and useful self defense weapon. My experiences with this gun have been 100% reliable in terms of functioning and with very good accuracy at self defense distances (up to 25 feet, but more commonly from 5 to 15 feet).

Again, I've only had this gun a few days, but I expect based on the condition of this new gun [excellent with great bores (4 of them!)] that it'll be the same as my friend's gun from 15 years ago.

Back when the COP was introduced, it was a small concealable gun in terms of the powerful cartridge it shoots. It's flatter than a j frame cylinder, at least "in feel" in the way it carries in an IWB holster, and the edges are well rounded. It feels as if it was milled from two pieces of solid stainless steel. There is nothing shakey or "skinny" or thin or underbuilt on this gun. Obviously, that's what makes it a heavy gun but again, mass is your friend when shooting a .357 Magnum cartridge, particularly from a teeny gun.

The design of the handgrip is something I like on a small pistol, and in terms of grip size it compares right on with a flat bottomed magazine Glock Model 26 Subcompact or the Beretta PX3 Storm Subcompact using the magazine without the 3rd finger extension. The bottom of the handgrip has a hook portion, as you can see in the photos above, that sort of firms up the perch of the ring finger on the gun and grip itself, and it also acts to support the little finger, which is otherwise dangling in space.

So I find the COP grip much more firm than that of a Glock Model 26 without a Pearce Grip Extension (a great and CHEAP product, by the way, that turns the Glock 26 and other subcompacts into a "perfect grip" handgun, at least for me).

Rather than think of this gun as a bad or unsafe design (as many so called experts on the internet would have you believe), once I share with you the story of their design, and their designer, I think you'll agree with me that it was designed by a competent gun designer and is in fact a safe and functioning design for a self defense gun.

In fact, when you begin studying the work of the designer of the COP, you'll see that for decades before the COP was a reality, he was designing other cutting edge military assault and insurgency weapons with multiple barrels as shown in the pictures above.

First off, rumors abound on the internets ("I seen it, I seen it, I swears I did") about the COP discharging either all four barrels at once or two barrels at once. A look at the schematic and the design of the gun will show that this is likely impossible, barring some ammo/primer freak ignition unrelated to the gun itself.

The gun has four firing pins, one for each barrel, and a rotating striker that is activated by a heavy DAO trigger pull. There is no safety mechanism save for the DAO trigger mechanism, but it's a serious DAO pull and long and hard enough not only to keep a child from pulling the trigger but many adults as well.

I've found the trigger pull to be heavy but smooth travel and with predictable point of ammo ignition. Again, it's not like shooting any other kind of gun around. I have a hard time calling it a derringer, because to me it little resembles in form or function a derringer. In fact, the only attribute it shares with a derringer is the stacked barrels.

It is my very limited understanding from being a normal person with common sense (and not someone claiming to be knowledgeable about gun design), and from looking at my friend's COP disassembled, that until the trigger is engaged, the rotating striker is not able to have the force to strike the stationary firing pin until the spring is cocked via pulling the heavy DAO trigger.

Which means that internet follies about this gun having issues with multiple barrel ignitions/discharge or accidental discharges upon dropping should be over at snopes.

It is shaped like, and looks like, a small auto pistol. It is compared by the maker with a .25 auto pistol, but to be accurate, it'd have to be a .25 auto pistol on steroids. The COP is a thick gun. It's a solid gun that weighs 28 oz. unloaded.

The COP reminds me much more of the equally unique self defense handgun called the Semmerling LM4, which was a .45 ACP gun remarkably similar in appearance to the COP that was cocked manually via moving the front of the slide back and forth to eject and chamber a round from a 4 round magazine. I mean, look at the Semmerling and look at the COP and tell me they don't look alike! Here's an American Handgunner review of the Semmerling, in case you're interested. I beleive some more of these guns were made again in the recent past by the derringer maker in Waco, The American Derringer Corp.

I don't know about you, but assuming you are desirous of shooting a small handgun loaded with .357 magnum cartridges, you don't want a light gun. Not me anyway. I've shot the S&W j frame 12.5 wunder .357's, and although they're a joy to carry, a few shots of full on magnum ammo was all I really cared to shoot.

So based upon my looking at the design of this gun, since the firing pins are not under pressure (except the one with the rotating striker actually behind it), I fail to see how more than one barrel could accidently discharge either in a dropping event or when shooting the gun normally.

I found a copy of the manual to this gun online, and was astonished to know that the maker strongly advises that shooters only shoot the gun in a one-handed hold, rather than the two handed hold I generally shoot defensively with and was taught thirty years ago. The manual mentions that muzzle blast or a bullet could injure the supporting hand if it ventures too far in front of the triggerguard.

That's nice to know, since way back when I borrowed my friend's COP, at least 2/3rds of the shots were fired in a two handed hold. I did shoot the gun with one hand, as per my usual practice regimen, but I had no problems with slippage or my hand being too far in front of the triggerguard. Then again, I have a long used almost instictual hold that positions one hand directly on top of the other, with the support hand completely wrapped around the gripping hand and not using the triggerguard for support.

As wiki indicates, the COP was designed by Robert Hillberg, who had previously designed some extremely cool firearms. Mr. Hillberg is responsible for the insanely cool Wildey .45 Auto gas-operated pistol, the Whitney Wolverine, the Browning BPS shotgun, the Colt Defender Mark 1 eight barreled combat shotgun and the Winchester Liberator pistol, among others.

So we can first assume that based upon the success and the acclaim by users of the other guns, particularly the Wildey handgun, that Mr. Hillberg is no dummy when it comes to guns. There is some material, all interesting, about his life as a gun designer.

You can go to this 1956 edition of Guns Magazine and find an article about Mr. Hillberg from way back then. He works for Colt, and Pratt and Whitney and Republic Aviation. Here's the link to one of his many patents on firearms, and this patent is for what appears to be the firing mechanism for the COP and the abstract was filed in 1983.

Here's another internet page with some interesting information about Mr. Hillberg and the Winchester Liberator. Mr. Hillberg became known for his insurgency weapons and their excellent design, with excellence being defined by the terms reliability and real work funtion.

In my next post, I'll write about the holster options I've discovered for this hard to fit gun, and trust me, it is one of those "in between" guns that is very hard to fit. There were not, I suspect, that many holsters made for it to begin with, and I've only seen a couple of examples, which thanfully are simple enough that with a little initiative I could make one myself from leather.

And I'll do some more researching on the COP specifically and on it's interesting designer Mr. Hillberg and his gun designing life.

I hope that some of this history of the designer of the COP opens the eyes of some who have looked down on it in the past. It's a solid gun. It's not cheaply made and it's well made. The trigger design might not please those who like a light single action trigger but that kind of rig wouldn't work on this gun anyway. There has to be some kind of force to get the spring to get sufficient energy to both rotate and cock the striker, hence the DAO trigger, which also serves as the safety mechanism, at least as far as I'm concerned.

I'll be writing another post about holsters I've found for the COP and those that I'm looking for as well as what I plan to make from scratch or even fashion from another holster. I'll also do a follow up part two for this post at some point in the near future with more facts and figures and specs and maybe, just maybe if'n I can get off'n my lazy rear end, some actual real bonafide pictures by me.

Maybe.

SOME COMBINATION RIFLE/SHOTGUN LINKS

2011-05-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

In surfing the web and doing some research and learning about combination rifles and shotguns, particularly the Savage Model 24-V, I've come across some interesting sites with reviews of these guns and some others. I previously posted that no one is making combination rifle/shotguns and selling them in the US, and I did find one company, Brno, owned by CZ that makes a highly expensive large bore rifle and 12 gauge shotgun combo gun. Not sure if they are sold in the US but they are making these guns and the one price I saw was in the three thousands.

Here's a great and well-written review of two Savage 24 Combo rifles by John Dunn and A.K. Church. Here's a great page about the Springfield M6 and another also on the M6.

Here's one by Beartooth Bullets and it is an excellent discussion not only of the utility of the Savage 24 but some talking about the .22/20 vs. the .223/20. He also mentions, as I have found, that the 20 gauge models are lighter than the 12 gauge models, and for that he prefers the 20 gauge. He says if he lived anywhere other than where he lived and carried the gun in the field that he'd use the .223/20 rather than the .22/20 that he currently favors.

I'll note that I've been looking for both a rifle sling that holds spare ammo (preferably .22 LR) as well as a leather lace on buttstock shell holder that holds both 20 gauge shells and a few .22 shells, so that the gun is always ready to go. Several of the guns in the Beartooth Bullet article have some nice slings with shell holders, and in the pictures of the two gun review linked above by Dunn and Church, you'll see that both guns have a nifty leather buttstock shell holder holding both shotgun and .22 shells. They give the name and phone number of the maker of these items, Baldknobby Holsters, and I can't find any current reference to them on the internets. I may call the phone number, but I hesitate to do that.

So in surfing the web looking for slings and/or buttstock shell holders that can or will accomodate both shotshells and some .22 cartridges, I can't find anything that holds both. In fact, although there are a ton of shotshell buttstock holders and numerous for larger rifle cartridges, there are virtually none for .22 cartridges.

So I may have to buy a sling or buttstock holder already set up to take shotshells and then add a few .22 loops myself out of leather.

So maybe if I decide to start making holsters and such again I'll develop some items like a combination shell holder or sling since it doesn't appear that anyone is offering products to meet this need.

Meanwhile, what's a good scope for the combination rifle/shotguns? I've heard something referred to as a shotgun scope, and I have no idea what that is but would like to learn more about scopes for combination guns.

UPDATE: I got tired last night before I finished this post and left out a few links. These are excellent articles by Zach talking about his new combination rifle/shotgun and others he has. As you can see, Zach came to the party of liking combo rifle/shotguns before I did, and knows a whole lot more. Just check out his ammo kit on the Springfield M6. Cool, huh?

Zach's Stevens Model 22-410 combo is a good recent place to start, and truly I recommend any gun guy or gal take some time, put Zach's blog in your favorites, and when you are looking to do some interesting reading about guns and firearms, as well as a plethora of other subject, go to Zach's blog and read his archives of gun reviews.

I don't know what Zach did for a living in years prior to now, but it's my feeling that Zach should be scribin' for one of the gun magazines, imho. If he wasn't a writer in his work life before blogging, he is a writer now. Here's a great post with some very cool pics of his Springfield M6.

One major source I omitted above was the http://www.savage24.com/ which has a plethora of information. It appears it could use some livening up with some more current activity, but there's some good stuff there.

Here's another well-written tribute to the Savage 24 over at out your backdoor.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIFLE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY: WHY NO COMBINATION RIFLE/SHOTGUN?

2011-05-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/images/tech_photos/Savage%2024%2022%27s%20Comparison.jpg

http://www.milesfortis.com/church/images/shotguns/Savage_24C.jpg

http://outyourbackdoor.com/images/articles/212730_savage.24.jpg

http://iwantthatknife.com/Gallery/albums/EBR/savage_12.jpg

There are questions that I have about combination rifle/shotguns and the fact that none are currently being manufactured or even made elsewhere and sold in America. Why are none of the companies continuing to make this great idea for a firearm?

Second, why are there no intermediate or custom shop copies of these guns being made, instead of the basic lower grade quality that most of these rifles exhibit? A common complaint with the Savage 24 and other combo guns is based upon inadequate design of the way the rifle barrel is mounted, accuracy suffers. Surely this could be rectified through design and modern technology. I'm sure there are people who could afford some over the top engraved and otherwise accurized custom shop versions of these guns, but I'd want an intermediate grade gun made of stainless steel with a nice stock. Something more than the basic entry-level version of combo guns that Savage made for years.

Third, why has no company marketed the Savage 24 equivolent to the legendary Thompson Contender pistol with interchangeable barrels? By this I mean that the same receiver could be used for different barrel combinations. You could have a .22/20 and a .30-30 or .223/20 if you, like me, prefer the lighter weight 20 gauge gun frame/receiver over the heavier one used with the 12 gauge model of the Savage 24 series. Since many of the variants of the Savage Model 24 can be taken apart at the barrel-receiver junture into two pieces, it begs common sense as to why no company ever sold a combination gun where you could switch barrels. It's an idea whose time has come, and I'll elaborate on that in a moment.

Fourth, if there had to be just one combo gun made for marketing and sales reasons, I would think a take apart travel gun would be the one to make, as the kind of person who would be interested in a combination gun to begin with would often be the kind of outdoorsman or fisherman like myself who would take such a firearm on fishing expeditions. If there was just one model, a .223/12 gauge would be the way to go. That's two of the most popular calibers in America and although.30-30 is up there and might even be more popular than .223 in America, the .223 size has the advantage of being able to chamber a .22 long rifle shell with the use of a cartridge adapter.

In terms of a multi-purpose camping and fishing and outdoors gun, having three potential calibers to shoot (.22 Long Rifle, .223 and a shotgun shell in either 20 or 12 gauge) out of one gun makes this combination versatile indeed. I'm guessing Remington and Savage discontinued these combo gun models due to poor sales, but it would seem if a mid-quality gun were made in this one configuration that enough outdoors enthusiasts might buy it to provide a profitable line for a rifle making company.

I want to revisit the third question and discussion from above. I have thought for years, every now and then and then recently about the great design of the Thompson Contender, and how it was a shame that the company had never branched into either a double barreled weapon with interchangeable barrels/calibers. Billy Ray and I used to discuss this in depth when we were shooting my two Contenders A LOT back in the mid-80's.

And it's a logical progression that a combo gun like the Savage 24 that already breaks apart at the receiver/barrel juncture is a prime candidate for having replaceable barrels with different calibers. The lighter weight 20 gauge receiver could be paired up with one of several popular calibers, or the rifle caliber could be paired with a smaller .410 gauge barrel.

The larger 12 gauge receiver used in the Savage 24 line could have combinations with both the .410 and .20 gauge, since the larger receiver used with 12 gauge guns can handle the pressure of smaller shells but not vice-versa. It's significanly heavier in weight than the smaller receiver used in 20 gauge guns, and given preferences at this time in my life in a plinking gun, I'd go for the lighter in weight as well as recoil 20 gauge.

The key point is, one could have a lightweight, take apart gun with two barrels that would allow the use of 4 different kinds of ammo: a .22 LR/.410 barrel and a .223/20 or .30-30/20, for example. Different situations would allow use of different barrels and calibers.

Snakes. Predators. Game Animals. One gun for them all. It might not be for everybody, but based on the crazy high prices I've seen on the gun auction sites for some of these guns, they are quite popular and people are willing to pay high prices for excellent condition guns. And these are not collectors guns. I suspect most of these folks are buying these guns to shoot, not to invest in.

So maybe one day soon some gun company will have the idea to make a combo gun or two in their line.

Here's my dream gun:

-A decent mid-quality gun with heavy duty parts.
-Stainless steel receiver and finish on barrels
- It doesn't need rails all over it, but a detachable scope rail would be nice as a stock feature. A real "thinker" that wouldn't cost a lot extra to offer is a shoot through scope mount/rail that allows use of the stock sights with a scope mounted.
-An 18" set of barrels.
-The shotgun barrel could be steel, but the rifle barrel should be made of some lighter weight alloy to allow it to be made larger and mounted in a better fashion to the shotgun barrel. Pundits of combo guns always complain that rifle accuracy suffers because of the mounting method of the rifle barrel.
-Having some spare ammo storage in the bottom part of the stock would be in line with the purpose and use of the gun.
-Pre-drilled for scope mount and sling.
-Be innovative and pre-drill either the side of the front portion of the foregrip stock or the bottom of the shotgun barrel and include a short rail FREE so that the user could install a flashlight or laser or both, since both would be handy to have as the "go to" varmit gun around any household that has one. Varmits are usually out at night anyway. If you don't want to go this route, how about including a METAL clamp mount with short rail(s) attached that can be clamped to the front of the shotgun barrel for this purpose. Something durable that works. Not plastic.
-Speaking of innovation, how about partnering with Hogue or Pachmayr and making a synthetic stock and foregrip out of the infamous recoiling absorbing material in their grips. Again, the durability of the material in these products are in line with the purpose and use of this gun by outdoorsmen, and would render great service under adverse weather and environmental conditions but also would provide a solid and comfortable grip as well as major recoil relief. I would also think that the Pachmayr and Hogue grip material that I'd want the foregrip and stock made of would absorb shock if they were banged against an object or dropped, or at least would transmit less shock to the gun than a wood or hard synthetic stock would do. I also think a properly constructed Pachmayr stock would not shatter or break if dropped or banged hard, as I've seen some wood stocks do. I would think an interior polymer frame with an exterior Pachmayr grip covering would be just excellent.

Right now, I'm thinking that a gun in .223/12 or 20 would be a damn near perfect combination, and that using a cartridge adapter for .22 L.R. as well as slugs for the shotgun would make this gun versatile for many situations.

And that's it. That's the dream gun.

MORE CABIN FEVER

2011-05-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I was moaning and groaning about cabin fever. I had another attack again today, which was pleasantly cool most of the day with a nice cool breeze blowing this morning. We had a bit of rain yesterday, of which we are in dire need all over the Great State of Texas. We've had rain in my locale more recently than most of the rest of the state, so even though we are WAY down in terms of how much rain we've had, and that's counting other drought years, we have not been as hard hit in my part of the state as other parts of the state are.

But the cause of my cabin fever today was the fact that my friends, Dangerous Dan and Billy Ray, are rambling somewhere in northern New Mexico or southern Colorado, by now camping somewhere in some cool climate. Knowing Billy Ray, there will be some sort of water nearby, either a lake or a river or a creek. The million dollar question will be whether Billy Ray remembered to bring his fishing gear.

Now Billy Ray has been my good friend for coming up on 30 years next month. We met when we were in college, and thus began 30 years of a great and in some ways, legendary friendship. I became friends with his social group, and he with mine. We've spent a lot of time together, and as El Fisho Jr.'s Godfather, of course he accompanies us on many outdoors outings and adventures. He's not like family, at this point, he is family to our family, and has been for many years now.

My father was so fond of Billy Ray that many, many years ago, when we were in our young twenties, as I wallowed in an extremely dysfunctional romantic relationship, my father expressed sincere disbelief that ANYONE could dislike Billy Ray, when my father was told that my crazy girlfriend was jealous of Billy Ray and our friendship and expected me to end my friendship with Billy Ray in order to keep her as my woman.

My father lowered his reading glasses to look me in the eye, and said solemnly: "I hope there is not a question in your mind as to the fact that this woman is insane". My dad was quite comforted when I told him I'd already given her my choice.

I always bring at least one fishing rig for Billy Ray, as he is prone to be forgetful. Absentminded. Billy Ray might show up with his fishing vest and no rod/reel or with a rod and no reel or tackle. So I usually have one of my extra complete fly rod rigs and then some conventional tackle like a spinning or spincasting rig for him to use. I learned long ago that, unless I wanted to cut out a massive tangle or respool a reel or spend several hours untangling some of the worst backlashes in recorded fishing history, not to allow Billy Ray under any circumstances to use any of my baitcasting reels.

Although Billy Ray takes care of his possessions fairly well, he is tough on mechanical objects. Thus, the less levers and dials and adjustments that can be made to a reel, the better, because if adjustments can be made, there will come a time in the Billy Ray Fishing Experience that the reel owner (me) will have to spend a significant period of time correcting some heretofore unforseeable circumstance where the reel has been disabled through multiple conflicting adjustments.

I have found that the best policy in these cases is not to try to figure out the problem with the gear streamside, and lose valuable fishing time, but to just hand Billy Ray another rod and reel and again admonish him "not to mess with" the reel, just fish with it. Bull in a china closet is the best word description I can conjure at this time to describe Billy Ray. This is because whatever situation the reel has been "adjusted" into will most likely be something never encountered, or even contemplated, by the fishing industry or professional fishermen.

Billy Ray and Dangerous Dan both have the kind of life situations that allow them to take off more or less on a whim and take a fishing or camping or just rambling road trip to whatever locale strikes their fancy, with a very loose schedule that can again be expanded at will. Both are married and have wives that allow them to simply take off with no plan and destination unknown.

And that part of the trip appeals to me. Over the years, Billy Ray and I have taken more than one rambling road trip, usually combined at least minimally with some kind of fishing and often with fishing as the main purpose. They're a blast. I like heading out highways heading in a generally westerly direction towards perhaps an ultimate destination, but seeing new places and traveling the road less traveled to see parts of the state that few others get or care to see.

Many times we do have a set destination but being flexible in planning and even in the traveling can have great benefits. I've passed through places on my way to a fishing destination and stopped into a marina and found that fishing in that area was hot at the moment and modified the trip right then and there and have been very pleased with the fishing results. Other times it didn't pan out, but it's nice to have traveling companions willing to wing it instead of insisting on sticking to a highly regimented and planned out journey.

So cabin fever came in the form that I was at work and El Fisho was in school and we couldn't just jump into Dan's Trooper earlier this week and head off to parts unknown for some cooler climate and trout fishing.

Dangerous Dan and Billy Ray worked together twenty years ago and have been friends and camping buddies since then. I've spent some time with Dano and he's a funny fellow. He's a hoot to be around and quite knowledgeable about many things. The last time he was over at my place he was riding his big motorcycle, and I'm glad for safety reasons that Billy Ray has not fallen under the lure of the motorcycle as so many of our middle aged friends have in the past few years. I know Dan would love to have Billy Ray get a scooter so they could do the whole "Born to be wild" thing, but Billy Ray is too settled for that.

Like me, Billy Ray has lost friends and had friends sustain very serious lifelong disabilities and injuries on motorcycles, and the motorcycle accidents I speak of were largely not the fault of the cyclist. In fact, one mutual friend, Stunt Man Joe, is damn lucky to be alive after years in physical rehab and rehab for head injuries with a large number of bones in his body broken.

Stunt Man Joe survived years in the movie industry, and you guessed it, as a stunt man, and although he received TONS of injuries, broken bones and even some pins in his bones as a movie stunt man, those were nothing compared to his near killing as he sat at a stop light and was hit from behind at about 60 m.p.h. from a car that didn't see him or the stoplight.

So I'm glad they're not making this road trip on big road bikes, and I hope that they are knee deep in trout by now, or at least in a gorgeous mountain location where it is cool and that the sky is blue for them. I suspect that as I'm writing this, they are sitting around a campfire and making some kind of early morning plan for fishing.

THIS FAB TREK: A BLOG ABOUT LIVING PART-TIME AND PART-WAYS OFF THE GRID

2011-05-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

I wrote about a blog called This Fab Trek about a year ago. I came across this blog whilst looking at awesome 4x4 vehicles. Now, I don't mean monster mudder trucks but real 4wd vehicles made for real four wheeling in the deepest darkest corners of the world. In Manfred's case, he has a 6wd Land Rover, and if you read some of the posts about his crossing the Sahara (I know this desert has many, many names but to simply I'll simply refer to it as The Sahara) with a friend in a Uni-Mog, you'll be amazed at the pictures and video of these folks driving across huge sand dunes, basically crossing the desert on a "track" or path.

I had mixed feelings about the author of the blog initially, or moreover, about some of his opinions. I'm no stranger to the mindset of Europeans of various ilks, and count many various European friends among my family's friends and friends from work groups. I attended college with many European, Middle Eastern and African nationals who were not only here for an education but to figure out how to become an American. I know that it's fashionable now to be down on Americans in certain Euro liberal social groups, and I guess my response to them would be that they need to walk a mile in my shoes *before they accuse me, they need to look at themselves*, as Big Eric once said.

Manfred took off in 2004 for some adventure. Now so far, I'm all along for the ride. He was some sort of banker, and apparently made some cash, because he quit his white collar job and bought a SERIOUS Land Rover and had some custom work done to it by a really cool UK company that customizes off road vehicles for SERIOUS off-roading.

It's a fantasy that many I know have entertained. My friend and college roommate Australian Paul and his sidekick, John Juan, often tried to talk me into planning a post college roadtrip through Africa and Europe in the mid-80's. The trip never happened with or without me, but Billy Ray and I did discuss the subject in a "what if" format on numerous occasions with Paul and John Juan.

So Manfred was single and ultimately meets a highly likeable character named Hasna from Morrocco. They hook up and travel together and after some time as a couple, she becomes pregnant with twins. At this point, they've been living a pretty spartan lifestyle living out of the Land Rover. To say they are roughing it, at least as far as I'm concerned, is an understatement.

They decide to marry, and settle in her country. All seems grand, although there is not much writing going on, and then as their children are still babies they take off for a continuation of their adventure. There is not a lot of writing on this, but basically they don't make it far down the road until Hasna decides that the vagabond almost panhandling African travel plan is not for the kiddos. I applauded her choice.

So they divorce and he chooses Africa for more aimless traveling.

Again, as time progresses in this travelogue, Manfred's denunciations of Americans tone down and he becomes a much more dimensional character. The brightness and light that was there when Hasna was in the picture never fully returns after she departs, but the general tone improves after the passage of some time. His descriptions of music and indeed, of the topography and the so-called roads are quite inspired, as is his photography. The photography is excellent, and not only makes me want to visit Africa, but makes me feel like I've touched a piece of it through his photos.

And I'll say this, although Manfred comes off often as a terse dude, he does have his moments of insight. Again, insight in my humble opinion.

So Manfred can do things as an Austrian national that I could never do as a US citizen in the same travels. As it is, it's amazing he doesn't get shaken down more by the cops and security forces or various organized crime efforts among government forces.

Manfred can go places I could never go in many parts of Africa, or at least just not be angering everyone with their mere presence. I give him this, he's a man to make the journey he made without some kind of firearm. I realize it would be highly difficult, if not impossible and highly illegal to bring say a shotgun or even a backwards homemade "country" rifle with him.

But God bless him, he runs through some pretty isolated territory during some of his travels, with hazards both in form of beast and man. Later in his blog, he reveals he's carried a SAT phone for emergencies, as well as least one knife that can pass as a tool in a toolbox. but of course the problem is getting to it.

Manfred took the road less traveled, and he's turned into quite a good storyteller, or maybe it's just that he has much better stories to tell. But as his blog and life progresses, as he travels with his children on vacation or with his later friend Christina, he really grows as a writer.

This Fab Trek is in my blogroll to the right of the screen, so feel free to jump over there and read his story. It provides some good reading for several days time, working through the blog from start to current times.

THE COMEBACK TOURS OF ROCK MUSICIANS

2011-05-10T04:51:00.000-07:00

Over the past decade or so, being a boy raised on rock and roll who once, like many other millions, dreamed of being a rock musician full time. The years that have passed since that dream became cloudy has shown me that for me I made the right choice in going to law school instead of trucking out to L.A. where my other musicians freinds from Houston fled after high school and college.

Several of my friends have done quite well in the music business, although the digital inroads in recording and playback have definately altered not only their career model but how they live and work. The difference between the two guys who have done well in L.A. and I is that they are both, and both have been since very young teenage days, massively monsterous lead guitarist, with the kind of talent that ones doesn't find easily even in a music town like L.A. And it also helps if you have a music instruction degree from a name music college so that you can teach some music instruction in L.A. to keep that rent paid, at least when you initially arrive.

So over the last twenty years I've watched, sometimes with interest and often with chagrin, as numerous bands from the 60's and 70's and 80's have reformed for tours. I think most of us suspect the reason this occurs many times is for financial reasons. Many of these tours take place in significantly downgraded locales than these bands were playing the first time around.

I read this morning that the THE CARS are reforming. I certainly liked the Cars a lot in my day, until Ric Ocasek discovered the Synclaver and/or Linn Drum and removed live drumming and live playing from their albums. At that point, they became just another synth band with a great guitarist, because if memory serves even the guitar solos were digitized via the Synclaver. I saw them in concert in the early 80's before Ocasek became obsessed with digital synchronization and with how many BPM's their songs were going for.

The best thing so far about this Cars reunion is that someone other than Ocasek has been doing the talking. The worst thing about the reunion is that although 4/5th's of the original band is together for their new album, the original vocalist Ben Orr, arguably the heart of the band, passed on in 2000. So any recombobulation of The Cars is not going to sound right in terms of performing old songs.

I'm not excited about a Cars reunion. What would excite me in terms of bands or artists reuniting? I'll think on that one a while and maybe get some comments going about who you would want to see again in concert.

Meanwhile, I think I'll go get my Cars greatest hits CD to listen to in the car this morning. Those fellows had some great, great tunes early on in their heyday. I think it's just what I needed.

And btw, give a ganger to the picture at the CNN article on the regrouping of the Cars. Damn, I know I'm old but at least I am old and am not trying to be a teenager in attire or a sadly lacking disheivled hairdo. Oh well, I know rock starts like to look "larger than life", but somebody needs to tell Mr. Ocasek that the collarless shirts he was wearing are not back in style yet from the early 80's.

I'm just saying.

IT IS THAT EASY

2011-05-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

Picture from CNN, obviously. CNN I apologize but this is the only non-traumatic photo of Ms. al-Obeidy that I can find to post here.
I am proud of news from The Atlantic "WIRE" that French President Sarkozy has taken an "intimate interest" in case of the escape of Eman al-Obeidy from Libya. After several months of enduring undoubted harrassment and basically threats on her life by government agents and their ilk in Libya, someone needs to help this heroic young lady escape to freedom.

I'm not sure the link will work, because the web address is funky, but the Atlantic story says that Ms. al-Obeidy is cloistered away in the French Embassey in Tunis and being assisted by a diplomatic protection team.

If this turns out to be true, I will have to seriously reconsider many of my opinions about the French government developed since 911.

Seriously. I like the current French President. He has shown great resolve in Libya. His country needs to invest a lot more in missles and other heavy hardware.

I sure hope that Ms. al-Obeidy being protected by the French Government is the correct version because as related below, her families version has her in Qatar. I hope Ms. al-Obeidy is able to seek sanctuary where ever she chooses. I see her as having far more opportunity to do whatever she needs to do personally or professionally in a Western country versus another country in the Mid-East.

Other news reports have Ms. al-Obeidy in Qatar according to her father. That article on CNN also says she is hoping for protection from a Western Government. Mr. President, are you listening? This is a teachable moment for the entire world.

A DEDICATION OF FREEDOM

2011-05-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK1aDyik&feature=related

There have been many great songs written about Freedom, and America, over the past few centuries, but none have moved me more musically than this sleeper from BREAD in the early 1970's called Mother Freedom.

When I was a mere teen, barely a teen, several of the women in our social group were particularly smitten with the group Bread and their smaltzy love songs. Good songs, mind you, but smaltzy. Then the killer surprise came on their album as all the guys in our group of friends were about to fall off into a coma with all of the sugar coated lyrics when MOTHER FREEDOM came on. WOW! Where the hell did this song come from with the group Bread, and why didn't they do a whole album of stuff like this tune? It's been one of my favorites for nearly 40 years, and long before ipods and such I was making music tapes and then music cd's to listen to with my person mix favorites on it, and this tune is on a bunch of compilation listening cd's.

By the way, the comments on youtube suggest that this video posted above was from a concert after their first hiatus, making it from around '76 or '77. That could be, I don't know enough about the group to know any of that. What I DO KNOW from watching that video is that they had a killer drummer with feel, soul and chops for days, and the only person overshadowing the drummer was the Les Paul equipped lead guitarist to his right on the elevated pedestal who was doing all of the solo action in that song.

MAN! That cat can play guitar. I'm wondering if he and the drummer were hired guns for that tour or whether they were members of the band, because they are smoking hot players! I'm going to have to record a version of this live version of the song just because that guitar solo is so good, and trust me, nowadays it takes a momentous solo to make me stand up and take notice. The first solo through in the video above I just started dancing in the computer chair, and made a note to mention this excellent player in this post, and the second solo just made my mouth hang open and say...dang...that boy plays good.

So I'll do some investigating and see if I can discover who these players were, because I'm curious if they are someone I've heard before and just didn't recognize in the video or if they've totally been off my radar the last near 40 years as great players.

I want to dedicate this to a Freedom Fighter all the way around the world, Ms. Eman al-Obeidy, who says she has made a surreptitious escape from Libya to Tunesia. Good for her!

I wish someone in our government would bring this hero to our country and give her refugee status. She's educated and more importantly, motivated to change some things in this world she knows about. I feel certain crime victim's groups, women's groups, sexual assault survivors groups and others would rally around her and protect her and provide for her were she brought here, but I'd step up to the plate like countless other Americans would and contribute some small amount of money to help this hero to humanity get safe again.

I wonder why some of the more weathy folks who are engaged in media-politics, and I don't know any other word to describe people like Arianna Huffington or CNN's Anderson Cooper. How do you report the news and not help some of those you meet? Why didn't someone, anyone at CNN say "we've got to get this person out of Libya so they can live and survive?"

It would be inspiring to see some media mogul like Huffington charter a jet and pull the diplomatic strings to make something like this happen for this young lady, because everyday people like you and I simply don't have the financial or political wherewithall to do it ourselves. I'm not picking on Ms. Huffington, because there are hundreds of other rich stars and celebrities who could do a good deed every now and then for humanity. But I use Ms. Huffington because although I don't often agree with her politics, I think she is a person who is trying to make the world better. And we need more of those types of people in the world.

In any event, as I sit waiting for news that Arianna and Sean Penn and Matt Damon and Sarah Silverman and {insert names of policically active celebrity pundits here} have pooled just small portions of their millions and agreed to go rescue Ms. al-Obeidy, somehow I wonder why our First Lady or the Secretary of State has not made the rescue of Ms. al-Obeidy a priority.. I just know these stars will be calling their Senator friends and maybe even President Obama's cell phone and getting the red tape cut away so that the rescue of Ms. al-Obeidy could occur immediately.

I know from talking to a lot of ordinary folks that many of us consider Ms. al-Obeidy an uncommon hero. I hope that someone with the means and power to actually help rescue her and bring her to safety in this country does so. And Mr. Anderson Cooper, I'm talking to you, dude.

It's all about Mother Freedom, Anderson and Arianna, and all those of your ilk who have the soapbox and the publicity and the machines to let your opinions be known. Now make the world a better place.