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Post by wordweaver3 on Apr 4, 2019 4:34:28 GMT
Made an 80 yard offhand shot on a woodchuck today with my Glenfield. Killed it stone cold on the spot.
The CCI mini mags are a hell of a pill.
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Post by Horsie on Apr 4, 2019 5:58:58 GMT
That's good to hear, because I'm going to have to clear a bunch of pigeons and rats out of a barn soon (though my buddy keeps trying to convince me to use a Lee-Enfield or something in that ballpark, I guess he really hates vermin).
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Post by Canuovea on Apr 4, 2019 6:00:13 GMT
Sweet Jesus, that would be a mess.
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Post by wordweaver3 on Apr 4, 2019 6:50:12 GMT
(though my buddy keeps trying to convince me to use a Lee-Enfield or something in that ballpark, I guess he really hates vermin).
If he's willing to spring for the ammo cost.
Funny thing is I almost took the M1 Carbine with me instead of the Glenfield, which would have made a heck of a mess out of a groundhog.
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Post by Horsie on Apr 5, 2019 6:29:52 GMT
In case you need to kill God? This is the Tranter revolver he mentions in the video;
I know solid frame revolvers are supposed to be stronger than break action revolvers, but the Bland-Pryse has a lot more meat on the frame and cylinder than the Tranter.
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Post by Horsie on Apr 7, 2019 2:16:21 GMT
Speaking of revolvers, I just ordered a Model 1929 Swiss Ordnance revolver;
It's impossible to get surplus Swiss ammunition for these, they used a 7.5mm wax lubricated black powder cartridge (loaded like that right up until they were taken out of service in the 1970s), but the black powder loading seems to have been to ensure that any older M1882 revolvers still somehow in service weren't loaded with something they couldn't handle.
My understanding is that the M1929 works just fine loaded with .32 S&W Long (like the M1882 Nagant), although the cases tend to bulge a bit, and reloadable brass can be made from modified .32-20 casings.
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Post by wordweaver3 on Apr 12, 2019 3:03:46 GMT
I wonder how many of those rusted to hell? I know the Swiss typically take very good care of their firearms, but black powder is really rough on guns.
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Post by Horsie on Apr 12, 2019 6:24:10 GMT
Most of the ones I've seen for sale have been described as very good or excellent condition, normally they just have varying degrees of holster wear.
The thing with the Swiss military is that when you're issued a firearm that's your firearm, when you're not training or otherwise on active duty it goes home with you; it's government property but 100% your responsibility 24/7 for a decade or more. Not sure if this is true, but I heard they'd make soldiers pay for repairs to weapons over and above normal wear and tear, that'd certainly encourage guys to look after them.
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Post by wordweaver3 on Apr 12, 2019 16:49:46 GMT
Yeah, I've heard that too.
I think I'd be annoyed to have been issued a black powder service revolver. The thing about black powder is the instant you shoot it you're on a timer. Your weapon is going to start to corrode, especially if you're in a humid environment. In a situation like a war you might not have as many opportunities to clean your weapon as you would like.
Not to mention for standard day-to-day use it's a big pain to clean up.
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Post by Horsie on Apr 12, 2019 17:49:51 GMT
Yeah, I'd rather be one of the guys who got a Luger instead, even if they issued corrosive ammo it wouldn't be as bad as black powder.
Mine just arrived at my door while I was typing this, I'll get some photos tomorrow at the range, got a gun show to go to as well, gonna see if one of the dealers still has an old Royal Navy cutlass.
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Post by Horsie on Apr 13, 2019 21:43:31 GMT
The M1929 seems to shoot alright with the .32S&W Long, although it's definitely a weird experience, and I'm probably going to see about gearing up to load modified .32-20 rounds for it this summer, as those are pretty close to the original.
The rim isn't much wider than the casing itself, and the casing is just slightly smaller than the chamber, so the rim actually seats right inside the chamber mouth, obviously the casing bulges noticeably when fired, but of the dozen rounds I fired none of them split or had and serious issues, no problem ejecting, and at 15m I was getting a 5" group with wadcutters firing one handed. The pistol itself looks like new, the light spots on the frame in this photo are almost all glare, there's a little bit of wear on one of the front corners of the frame, a little alongside the barrel from the ejector rod, and at the muzzle and around the forcing cone, but it's really good for a pistol this old. I took the sideplate off last night to check the internals and they're still coated in that foul smelling grey grease the Swiss use.
Picked up a cheap rifle at a gun show today too, it's going to be a bit of a project since there's some surface rust on the outside, the wood needs to be refinished, and the bore cleaned properly (plenty of rust, but after a quick cleaning at the range and then firing a few shots it looks alright, only minor pitting).
It shoots pretty well actually, although like all Mausers it requires a pretty serious bottom hold to hit centre on a target at 100m.
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Post by wordweaver3 on Apr 14, 2019 3:11:45 GMT
That pistol looks clean as fuck.
That's a really short Mauser. Is it a cavalry variant?
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Post by Horsie on Apr 14, 2019 4:49:03 GMT
Yeah, it's a lot cleaner than I expected, the place I got it from has a few and they're all described as having some handling marks, but I had to look to find them on this one. I'm not sure if it would've been reblued at some point, the fact that it's still got a bunch of that nasty "Automatenfett" grease the Swiss military used makes me suspect it wasn't refinished since being removed from service, but I'm not sure if they would've reblued this in service either.
I'm gonna just tell people it's the original finish, it could very well be.
That's (I'm almost positive) a Spanish Model 1895 in 7x57mm, it's got that saddle ring on the wrist of the stock, I believe the only other Mauser carbine with that type of front barrel band/sight protector was used by the Swedes, chambered for 6.5x55mm. OA length of 37-1/2" with a 17-1/2" barrel, so it's tiny. Recoil isn't too bad, but it's loud.
It looks like someone had the receiver drilled and tapped, and then someone else tried to fill them in by running screws into the holes and polishing them smooth. The fix wasn't perfect, you can still see where the holes were, you can even see what's left of the slot in the rear screw on the receiver ring, and when buddy ground them down and polished them out he didn't properly protect the receiver itself, so he took off what was left of the markings, which is why I can't say with certainty it's a Spanish rifle.
On the plus side, all the numbers seem to match, and inspecting the fired brass I didn't see any bulging and the primers hadn't popped out, so the headspace is okay, but it's definitely a project rifle. The chamber is kind of sticky when I open the action sometimes thanks to some rust in there, I might replace the rear barrel since there's some serious pitting on the sling loop where it passes through the band (it'll be difficult trying to clean the rust out of there), and I may very well just end up cold bluing the whole thing over the summer, it seems like an ideal gun for that since most of the metal is covered by wood. Still, I won't know how much work it needs until I tear it down, I'll do that over the upcoming long weekend and probably get to work refinishing the stock as a start.
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Post by zaealix on Apr 16, 2019 16:07:16 GMT
Sooo this article caught my attention. Your thoughts on it (Since I'm not a gun enthusiast enough to really dig that much deeper into it, main reason I kept reading is that it was a surprisingly easy read!)
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Post by Horsie on Apr 16, 2019 19:28:10 GMT
My favourite line in that article is "Why is it the weapons we're still using haven't meaningfully changed since WW1?", the answer; because they work just fine.
I recall we talked about this a little while ago, and how that New Jersey law (and especially if it get adopted elsewhere (and God forbid, in Canada)) would be a nightmare.
For one, if you like in New Jersey and someone somewhere in the US started selling "smart" guns, and that triggered the law banning the sale of other firearms, then you're screwed. Let's say the only smart firearm is that Armatix P1, it's a .22LR semi-auto pistol, it's not a revolver, it's not a centre-fire pistol, you can't shoot deer or coyotes with it, it'd be outright dangerous to hunt waterfowl with it. Even if you had some options, what if none of the available options suits you, or is what you want in a rifle or pistol? If the thing that works best for me, if the thing that I want meets all the criteria for being A-okay, but it doesn't have a "smart" technology installed, then it's not available.
I'd also be concerned about what this might mean for older firearms, because I guarantee there'd be some well intentioned crusading dumbasses who think if you can put RFID technology in a brand new pistol then it should be required in a Martini-Henry or Luger as well.
Personally I don't even see the need for smart guns, though I'm biased because I don't like the idea of course. I mostly own old guns, some of them don't function completely reliably in the cold, they require a bit more persuasion when the temperature is really low, and I don't like shooting in the rain because I have to pull the stocks off and dry them completely with a towel when I get home, but being cold or being wet is really just a nuisance with them.
What happens when electronics get too cold or get soaked?
Like I said above, I don't see the need for them. The whole point of these things isn't so much to make sure the bad guys can't use them, because I don't think anyone seriously believes someone couldn't hack a gun and disable the lock, it seems like it's more about preventing kids from accessing them and hurting someone by accident. I can solve this pretty easily; don't leave your guns laying around where your kids can get them.
Most of the ideas for smart locking systems don't work all the time, and some are just plain stupid; one mentioned in the article talks about analysing the user's trigger pull, and unlocking it if the pull matches the owner's pull. What happens if you're under stress? Does this mean you'd have to register a "target shooting" trigger pull into the gun, and another one for the off chance that you're defending yourself? I'd love to see how you'd set that up, and that's assuming it works properly 100% of the time.
Going out right now, so I'll probably add a bit more when I get home. But we did discuss that Armatix P1 a while ago, and it seemed like a terrible idea (it's marketed as a self-defence pistol, but there's a big green or red indicator light on the frame, it's only offered in .22LR, and it's useless unless you're wearing the matching wristwatch and have both the watch and pistol charged).
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