MORE PRODUCTS I'D LIKE TO SEE FOR SHOOTING AND FISHING

I've posted about some of these before and some of these are new, or at least I've forgotten writing about them in the past and think they're new, so we'll pretend they're new.

FOBUS PADDLE HOLSTERS

I've had great luck with the Fobus Paddle Holsters I've used for Glocks, 1911, revolvers (j frame, k frame and the FN 5.7. I don't have adverse use factors in my life too much, so most of my use with these holsters is as a concealment holster during the cooler months when wearing a jacket or over shirt or when afield.

I wish the Fobus Evolution holster I have were thinner like the regular paddle holster they make. I wish they made a non-Evolution paddle holster for some of the guns they make the Evolution ones for.

I wish they made a paddle holster model for the Colt Single Action Army with some various barrel lengths (HINT: beginning at 4 3/4"). Accordingly, models for the Blackhawk and Single Six guns would be nice as well.

I wish they made a model for S and W N frames with 3", 4" and 6 1/2" lengths.

Ditto for the Colt Python, except at 2 1/2" instead of 3". And one for a 2 1/2" or 3" K frame as well.

I wish they were making a paddle holster for the Ruger SR21 and the Browning 1911-22, and some of the bull barreled Mark III 22/44 Rugers.

And most of all, I wish they made a paddle holster for the H and K P7.

Heckler and Koch

It took me years to warm to their current series of handguns, and I still prefer the P7 series to them all. I wish that they made a perhaps (a'la Browning and the 1911-22) would make a 7/8ths scale .22 LR version of the P7 for those fans of us. I know they made a convertible model "like" the P7 using a different gas system that had interchangeable barrels of .380, .32 and .22. They were expensive and as I recall, were perhaps 7/8ths the size of the actual P7.

I'd sure like to have a .22 caliber P7. I think it'd be a fun and accurate gun to shoot.

Likewise, just as other gun makers bring back their classic models, bring back the HK4 and the P9S. It hasn't been that long since you've made the P7, and it'd be nice to see it on the market again. Market it also to women as one of the safest carry guns ever made, and I think you'd sell the heck out of it in .40 and .9mm. Maybe a few space age material changes = a tad bit lighter weight and what a great pistol you'd have.

I've always wanted a P9S and have enjoyed shooting the ones I've shot. I recently got to shoot a .45 version after many years, and found it to be a fun and accurate gun to shoot.  It's not on the short list or even on the long list of guns I'd like to have, but if a trade ever came along that involved one, it'd certainly get my attention.

SAVAGE

Savage needs to bring back their line of centerfire over 20 gauge Combination rifle/shotgun, the venerable Model 24. They've begun making a .22 and .22 mag over .410 combo again, looking sorta space-agey to me. But it's lightweight, and that's a chief attribute in a combo rifle/shotgun.

Still, I'd like to buy a synthetic or wood stocked version of the 24 series with a 30-30 or a .223 over a .20. Maybe both. I prefer the 20 gauge based Model 24's over the 12 gauge ones because the 20 gauge ones were on a lighter frame and were lighter by several pounds than the 12's. So I'd like to get one of these or perhaps one of each of these and not pay a king's ransom like you have to now in most places for the centerfire version of the Model 24. I'd dance for joy if I could get a .357 or 7.62 x 39 version over a 20 gauge, and again, having interchangeable barrel sets might not be a bad way to make some money for a gun company.

A .357 over a 20 or 12 Savage 24 is gonna cost some bucks, in excellent condition approaching or exceeding a grand. As far as I know, Savage never made a combo with a 7.62 x 39 centerfire, but Baikal does in their current combo rifle/shotgun.

I'd buy a Baikal and be done with it except their centerfires are over a 12 gauge, and although my 12 gauge shooting days are not totally over, they are far less nowadays with a 20 being far more pleasurable to shoot in both skeet, defensive practice and hunting.

I know I'd like to, a'la Thompson Contender, be able to spend $300 or so and get an extra barrel set with  for a different caliber or  barrel lengths for the Model 24. It just makes the gun more useful and given the takedown nature of most Model 24's already, it wouldn't require a big change in the manufacturing process.

GUNMAKERS LIKE SAVAGE, BROWNING, RUGER, REMINGTON AND WINCHESTER

And other makers like Kimber, CZ, Umarex, Thompson, H and R, etc...

I don't understand why more gun makers are not making affordable combination rifle/shotguns. There seems to be a thriving market for them both on the internet and in gun shops. They are scarce as hen's teeth and don't last long when they are around, commanding some prices far in excess of what they originally sold for and what most of us normal folks can afford to pay.

Double rifles have also become of interest to American shooters as of late. Hog hunting abounds in many places, and several of my friends have bought Baikal Double Rifles in either .30-06 or .45-70 to have some "African plains" experiences hog hunting with a double rifle they can afford.

These friends that bought these guns have MANY scoped hunting rifles in numerous calibers suitable for hog action, and in fact that are probably better shooting rifles, going up to 300 Winchester Magnum. Yet they prefer the challenge of iron sights on the Baikal Double rifle, and the close approach almost as close as they get when they are bowhunting as they hunt with whatever method is in season.

Part of it is that it's a new challenge to use an iron sighted double rifle like they might be using on the dark continent, and part of it is that it's nice to have a follow up shot with two barrels. I would think that a nicely built gun with some fiber optic sights would be hard to beat for large game use.

And for me, a guy whose only use for a double rifle would be hog hunting and perhaps the occasional deer hunt, it'd be the fun factor at being able to afford a double rifle at somewhere in the $600-$800 range.

It would seem like American gun makers could make a good double rifle and combo rifle/shotgun for a decent affordable price. Remington for a few years was rebranding Baikal combo guns as their own.

For a guy like me, I'll never be able to afford a double gun like the ones I read about in the safari articles in magazines and online, even the ones that are the cheapest of the cheap used ones. I don't really NEED a double rifle in safari type caliber either, and a .30-06 would be about perfect  for me and I could see how lots of folks might be partial to a double rifle in a 45-70, .308 and even a .30-30.  Maybe even a good old .300 Winchester Magnum chambering for North American Big Game Hunting.

I wonder why a gunmaker like H and R or Thompson, who've both been making single shot rifles and shotguns for decades, don't somehow develop a double rifle or a combo rifle/shotgun for their line of guns. It would seem a natural extension of their single-shot and break-open lines, and with both being owned now by larger companies, surely they have the funding for R and D on something fairly simple like these guns. I mean, you're not designing rockets for travel to mars and back,  you're simply re-designing a simple (hopefully) newish take on a much made gun.

I would love to see a combo gun from H and R myself. My first shotgun was the venerable H and R .410 Topper Jr., and it's still a great gun. It's long been a boat gun that I've taken in various boats we've had and that I've used.  I would be sad if it went overboard but not to the point of despair, and it has handled many a large poisonous and pesky-won't-go-away snake problems over the years. It has been an exceedingly reliable single shot shotgun and boy would I love to have a combo rifle/shotgun with the same build quality and simple functional reliability that H and R has always featured.

GLOCK

Where is that .22 LR factory "thin" Glock, or even in .22 magnum, or even a high capacity model in rimfire? How about a Glock in the 5.7 FN cartridge? That would be a big seller right away.

Nobody of note has touched the 5.7 platform in handguns, other of course than FN. A Glock at half the price would sell sell sell, even to those who already own an FN 5.7 or the rifle that shoots the same cartridge. Those who believe it is a viable defense and hunting round would buy a Glock chambered in this round. Make an extended magazine that holds LOTS of bullets, like 40 or 50. Yowza.

And many of us Glock diehards are still waiting for a slim, lightweight and thin single stack Glock 9mm designed for concealed carry. You'd just sell as many of those as you could make as fast as you could make them. For. Years. And. Years.

You know the tech and know how is there in your very own company already, if there haven't been numerous designs already of a slim 9mm. I'm thinking that you could get the whole gun under an inch in width, and put a full grip length on it using a  slightly extended magazine (like the Model 36 features and like many of us do with the Model 26 and it's ilk) on it. Something to where it fits a hand like mine, which must be average since the 36 and 26 with add on magazine extension fit my hand just perfect, like it was made just for me.

A high capacity .22 or .22 Magnum would hella fun. Made in the same size as the competition 9mm's, with the extended 6" barrel, or at least a 5" barrel. Again, I can convert an existing Glock with the purchase of a conversion kit. Glock fans would lourve a dedicated .22 platform that was a real Glock instead of something marketed by Umarex and made in the mountains of Turkey or somewhere. You could make a Glock .22 thin or make it big with a high capacity, like the Kel-Tec .22 magnum.

RUGER AGAIN

In addition to the Combination rifle/shotgun and double rifle you should already be making, it'd be cool to see a Blackhawk or Super Blackhawk in the FN 5.7 caliber.

MARLIN, BROWNING, WINCHESTER AND OTHER MAKERS OF LEVER ACTION RIFLES AND THEIR RECEIVERS, I'M CALLING YOU OUT

No doubt each of you manufacturers are familiar with the great success that Henry and Rossi have had selling their inexpensive versions of the venerable "Mare's Leg or Mare's Laig" chopped down lever action.

As you know, and as I understand the law, as a maker of weapons, since you make the receiver, you could legally make what would otherwise be a cut down rifle if made from the get go by you as a pistol with a pistol length barrel.

Of course, Wild West Guns in Alaska for years has been making the ultra cool Alaskan Co-Pilot from a cut down Marlin lever action .45-70. Some of Wild West's guns come chambered for a wildcat round that will also shoot the .45-70 and will further let the shooter use .410 (metal cased?) shotshells in the weapon. The Co-Pilot can be had as a takedown rifle of various barrel lengths, enabling it to be compactly stowed and carried.

Marlin, of course, could build this same rifle and sell it for a fraction of what Wild West does. Likewise, so could Winchester, an elaboration on the Trapper design.

The guy at Wild West Guns also built a chopped down version (meaning Federal licenses required and taxes and such) from a rifle of a .45-70, and it was a great looking gun. Outfitted with a laser, there is not much in the wild kingdom you couldn't take on with this Mare's Leg on steroids, and it might actually make a better bear gun while trout fishing (with the laser feature) than the standard stocked version of the Co-Pilot.

Marlin could also make this gun if they wanted to and sell it without federal license as a pistol. It'd be sure to be a seller. Also, a version of the Model 336 in the popular .30-30 caliber would be cool as well.

Marlin should, at the very least, build a cool trapper version of the .45-70 and the .30-30, with great fiber optic sights, short barrels, high capacity tube magazines, large loop levers and those other features of the custom rifles made from stock Marlins. Even if Marlin doesn't ever build a takedown rifle or pistol version of the lever action rifle, some nice trapper versions of their guns in the above calibers would be cool.

Apparently, a .45-70 can have it's chamber bored in some fashion that allows a .410 shotshell to be fired from that gun. Perhaps using a metal shotshell to aid in ejection, I wonder? In any event, this is a nice feature I'd like to see in a production gun by Marlin, is the .45-70 guide gun that can take .410 shotshells in pinch.

Browning, who already makes the most excellent BLR rifles, makes a takedown lightweight version of the BLR in a diverse range of calibers. I myself have long wanted both the .223 and the .30-06 version, both in lightweight, pistol grip takedown version, and I'd want to cut the .223 barrel down to 16 and a half inches to make the gun truly portable.

A special Alaskan or trapper version of the Browning BLR lightweight takedown could be in .300 Winchester Magnum with a 16 inch barrel. A truly portable fishing shoulder weapon, particularly when paired with a fiber optic sight system and an Eotech sight over the iron sights. I wonder what the cost would be to have the Browning Custom shop cut down the barrel of a BLR to 16 and a half inches?  It would be a nice option to be able to order a BLR with a shorter barrel.

I've long wondered why Browning didn't make combo guns or especially double rifles, what with their high end shotgun trade.
Not to mention drillings. Something on the level of quality of their over/under and side/by/side shotguns. A Browning combo rifle/shotgun or side/by/side rifle would be a treat unto itself, even in the cheapest and unengraved model. 

FINALLY, TAURUS AND ROSSI

A couple of years ago almost, at a SHOT show or something of the like, you had a version of your Ranch Hand that shot not only .45 Colt but also .410 shotshells. Something I read months later on the internets said it was illegal as a sawed off shotgun basically.

Which I can't understand, given the legality and popularity of the Judge line of pistols, and the Thompson Contender for decades before it, all chambered and marketed for .45 Colt/.410 shell. The Smith and Wesson Governor. Derringers chambered in .45 Colt and .410 shotshells. There was a double barreled side by side derringer sold some years ago by Cobray, and I'm sure there have been others. I know there is a line of single action pistols that also chamber the .410 cartridge along with the .45 Colt. 

There have been several guns that are openly and legally marketed in this caliber combo, so why not a lever action pistol already chambered in .45 Colt? I assume the main mod might be the chamber depth as well as maybe an ejector issue, but what a great gun for the outdoorsman.

And if that project is dead in the water, and since you're making lever actions now in .45-70 AND in .410, howsa about a .45-70 in a trapper length barrel (might have to be 18" but maybe not considering the Alaskan Co-Pilot barrel of 16") that chambers .410 shotshells? A different kind of combo rifle to be sure, but having the first shot or two for a snake as a .410 and the followups as .45-70 has an appeal to me.