SOME PRODUCT SUGGESTIONS FOR PACHMAYR, HOGUE, KIMBER, PIERCE GRIPS, ROSSI/TAURUS AND WHERE IS THAT AMERICAN MADE SEMI-AUTOMATIC COPY OF THE AA-12?

PRODUCT SUGGESTIONS FOR PACHMAYR AND HOGUE AND OTHER SIMILAR GRIP AND STOCK MAKERS

I'd like to see a couple of things.

My first suggestion is some sort of wrap around grip for a Peacemaker. You might have to remove the grip frame and spring but I'd like to have this product so much that I'd endure an afternoon to disassemble and reassemble a SAA clone to have a nice rubber grip over the stock one piece wood grips. OR it would be even cooler to have replaceable grip panels AND a one piece gripset for the SAA and it's variants, or at least for the more modern, uniformly sized guns that don't require "fitting" to match the grip to a slightly varied grip frame size.

I think I said that right.

My second suggestion is to start making some rifle stocks for some popular rifles out of your fantastic recoil absorbing materials. If your company doesn't want to have to make all the frame parts that such a stock would need, surely there is a stock making company or some company who would gladly make same to your specs, and then you could cover it in a thick envelope of that great grip material. A thick, shock absorbing envelope of a stock. Yowzaa.

I saw a cut down NFA firearm in an old ad and some blog posts from Wild West Guns in yonder in Alaska. They make the great Co-Pilot lever action custom rifle that I would really like to have. They also made a "Mare's Leg" sort of cut down NFA version from a Marlin 45-70, with a Pachmayr looking rubber pistol grip and forestock. I forget what it was called, but it becomes a highly effective defense and hunting gun with the laser he had attached to the tube magazine

The Pachmayr Decelerator pad works great on all my heavy kicking rifles, and I just think a little more of that rubber magic that you make in a whole stock would be a great thing for those of us always looking for a little less recoil in heavy kicking rifles.

I'm not sure, but it seems like Pachmayr made a rifle stock at one time for the Thompson Contender, back in the day. I know they made forestocks for the TC's, because I have several of them and they are great. I might be wrong on this, so maybe a TC expert can let me know.

My third idea is a lanyard hole in certain pistol grips for those fishermen, who are legion, who tote some kind of J frame or even K or N frame when near the water in fishing adventures for snakes and two and four legged predators. Some great Smith and Wesson guns come with a lanyard ready inset in the rear bottom of the grip frame, and with Hogue open back grips, you can hook your lanyard up to the gun easily. But most fishermen don't carry those guns. A nice lanyard hole, perhaps lined with a stainless lanyard tunnel, running above the bottom of the grip frame through the grip from side to side would provide a secure place to affix a lanyard yet with the liner it would ensure the lanyard itself would interfere with the revolver internals, particularly a spring.

My final suggestion is some kind of partnership with Crimson Trace. Their grip material blows. I'd have their grips on many of my revolvers if they were made of the great material that Pachmayr or Hogue uses. Whatever stuff they are making their grips out of are a fail to me. I don't like the feel of it and it doesn't handle well for me. CT's laser + Pachmayr/Hogue grips = something lots of folks would buy.

KIMBER SOLO MAGAZINE EXTENSION

You can buy an extended magazine for the Kimber Solo but it is way too bulky for just adding one round and it's twice the size it needs to be for my hand. I truly value function over form (I like the FN 5.7) but the extended magazine base on the Kimber Solo accessory extended magazine is almost bulbous and twice the size of what it needs to be to get the job done for me in terms of pinky accomodation.

I wish Kimber would make a "half-size" extended mag, which would then perfectly fit my hand.  As it is, even with the stock mag that sits flush, it's not a hard gun to shoot. But call me old fashioned but I like to have my middle, ring and pinky all wrapped around the grip.

You could just cut that magazine extension you currently sell in half for the perfect sized grip. Or even add a bottom to the standard flush mag like a Pierce Grip extension on a Glock 26. What would be even cooler would be to have a "snap down" finger ledge like the Beretta PX4 Storm Subcompact uses on it's flip bottom magazine that becomes a finger extension when flipped down. Otherwise, when in the up position, it's more concealable.

I think Kimber should think in terms  of design like the Walther PPK finger extension magazine or the kind of finger extensions that Pierce Grip makes for the Glock, Kel-Tec and other pistols.

Perhaps if Kimber won't do it, some aftermarket company will. Realistically, for Kimber, they could simply replace the spring and base of the existing stock flush mag as I said above with a PPK-esque type extension on it. I may even mess around with trying to attach some similarly sized lip onto a Kimber mag.

I've been real pleased with Kimber mags. I have had no issues with the officer  and regular sized 1911 mags and use those along with the most excellent Chip McCormick 1911 mags.

Maybe folks with extra large hands will find the extended grip for the Solo that Kimber currently markets a good sized grip, but the almost bulbous shape and large size inhibits the very thing the Solo is supposed to accomplish, which is concealability.

AND ANOTHER KIMBER SOLO SUGGESTION AND KUDOS FOR AN EXCELLENT SOLO HOLSTER

I'd like to have a non-ambi safety. I just don't like them. I need to check in and see if there is a factory conversion they sell to just have a pin instead of a lever on the right side of the gun.

The Kimber branded but made by Mitch Rosen pancake high rise holster is one of the finest holsters I've ever owned. I know I've said that about a lot of holsters, like High Noon and Bianchi and some others, but this baby fit perfect out of the bag. And a bargain on ebay. Fit and finish are el perfecto and as I said, it fit perfect out of the bag. Very secure and tight for retention purposes yet easy to draw. It's the perfect height placement on the belt as opposed to the size and weight distribution of the gun.

It is a very well balanced holster. It is a firm holster that even works with, egads,  a regular medium strength pants belt of the proper size and made of one ply leather. That's almost unheard of in gun toting. Yes, the Solo is a fairly lightweight pistol at about 16 oz unloaded, but there's lots of other holsters for other guns that won't work with a "normal" pants belt, where they sag or flop around or lean outwards,  all of which being unsatisfactory.

So this is a very well designed and well made holster. I need to see if he makes the 1911 holsters branded by Kimber.

That's a great holster, Kimber. It's not just a product, my friends, it's holster. It's as least as important as the gun that's carried in it. And holsters are very personal items, just like that favorite gun.

SPRINGFIELD ARMORY

I don't know what the problem is. The M6 Scout combination .22 or .22 Hornet rifle/.410 shotgun should be imported by you again. You and CZ need to figure this one out. It's a fine product, but make a few important changes that will increase your market for this weapon. Hear me out...and by the way, based on what these go for used nowadays, you can sell these for three times what you last sold them for.

MAKE IT BE ABLE TO CHAMBER AND SHOOT .45 COLT AS WELL AS .410 SHOTSHELLS
I've been told that the shotgun barrel and receiver of the .410 are tough enough to take the .45 Colt round, but the chamber requires boring or some kind of alteration, as does the end bore of the barrel. And all that is for naught unless you rifle the barrel. I've spoken with several gunsmiths who have enlarged the chambers and bores and rifled the bores to make what they think is the ultimate survival gun, capable of taking either a big bore centerfire, a .410 shotshell and a .22 or .22 Hornet. Quite a versatile weapon.

Make it happen. How hard could it be? Make that bore rifled and if necessary beef up the .410 barrel so it will safely chamber and fire the .45 Colt round in some hot loads.

M6 SCOUT RECOIL PADS AND EXTENSIONS
Add some slip on recoil pads of different sizes, so that the LOP can be varied and some extra recoil protection for the shotgun and .45 Colt barrel recoil. Ideally, they could even be of the screw on attached variety, like the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle,  incorporated into the lid covering the ammo storage area and with a nice variable check rest made of some of the firm memory foam material and covered in a durable tarp material.

AND JUST WHERE IS THE MARVELOUS M6 SCOUT PISTOL?
I remember when it was marketed at a show some 10 years ago, and how I thought I'd buy the first one I saw. IT WAS rigged to fire both the .45 Colt and the .410 shotshell, as well as the .22 (and maybe .22 Hornet). It had a different trigger mechanism altogether and a pistol grip and I'd buy one today.

Sorta like the ultimate Contender for close range use primarily. The perfect camp and fishing gun. Three choices of ammo to cover a variety of situations. With one of those tiny pistol sized Eotec type red dot rear sights on top, and a moderately sized laser/flashlight combo on the barrel, it'd be a highly accurate field gun either for food, defense, snake and predator use.

Put a nice set of Pachmayrs or Hogues on it as well, not some spare and painful metal grip with plastic inserts, or a hard plastic grip.

I really wish SA had marketed and sold this pistol. From all I've been able to gather, it was shown as a demo but never went into production.


WAS THE FATE OF THE SPRINGFIELD ARMORY M6 SCOUT PISTOL THE SAME AS THE ROSSI RANCH HAND THAT CHAMBERED AND SHOT BOTH .410 AND .45 COLT?

Rumor had it that the reason Rossi isn't selling the combo .410/45 Colt chambering for the popular Ranch Hand lever action pistol is that the ATF had a problem with it as a short barreled firearm.

True, you can shoot shotshells out of the current calibers available in the Ranch Hand, being .357, .44 Magnum and .45 Colt. But it's not the same as a .410 coming out of that pistol length barrel for close range snake shooting.

Not hardly the same at 'tall.

I can't understand this rationale if this rumor is true. Surely (I know, Shirley) it can't be true. I can't resolve this logically or legally because a handgun like the Thompson Contender has been openly sold as a .45/.410 barrel and model for decades. I bought mine in that caliber twenty nine years ago this December and with all the fixin's like a holster, a side hammer extension, the Pachmayrs and a few other things, it was just over something like $300, with a nice TC second gen receiver and a very very very blue bull barrel with a vent rib. It got shorn in Pachmayr grips and foreend before it was ever shot with the wood grips and is a dandy.

Likewise, the Taurus Judge line of revolvers openly marketed as a .45/.410 chambering. Also, the several brands of derringers marked in this same chambering. And there's some heavy duty and not so heavy duty single action revolvers that take both cartridges.

So if the rumors are true, why can't Rossi sell the .45/.410 Ranch Hand in the US? I'd love to know. I've read what folks say on forums and at I think a few gun mag and interweb mag sites, but would like to know ther real scoop from the company.

So what's the deal?

SIDE FOLDING STOCK FOR A LEVER ACTION CARBINE

I've seen the "tactical" lever actions introduced and I think some aftermarket stocks, which are basically the same old tired CAR-15 stocks that have changed little in decades. Instead of a takedown gun, I'd consider a lever action trapper sized gun with a 16" barrel and a pistol grip stock, with some kind of substantial recoil protection in a side folding stock. At the rear of the pistol grip, it would fold to the left side, leaving enough room for the hand to hold the pistol grip.

Or it could even be a removeable stock, where it could be instantly slid on or slid off of the pistol grip. In both cases, the gun would have to conform to state and federal laws about barrel length and overall length, but I think most guns modified this way would be of legal length, just figuring and visualizing it in my head.

I don't want a tactical lever action, but I'd like a side folding stock for one.

WHERE IS THAT AMERICAN MADE SEMI-AUTOMATIC COPY OF THE AA-12?

I want one. The only way I will ever get one is if some American company makes it in semi-auto, or unless there is some way for a foreign company to make one. Frankly, given the nature of the Saiga AK shotgun import frenzy from Russia, I'm surprised that some company there has not modified a variant into semi-auto that can't be made into full auto version of this fine bullpup shotgun. I don't have my ear to the ground as far as who's making what where and what's on the drawing board, but seems like this is a solid enough weapon and a new variation that bears marketing in semi-auto.