Category Archives: Weapons

Crusader, Weapons

Can’t leave well enough alone

18 Comments

The 870 Tactical got stripped… then Cerakoted Gun Metal Grey.

The funny thing about this, was that I did it Saturday night… Sunday morning I woke up late.  So I jumped into the shower, threw on some clothes, ran out to the Crusader Coating Laboratory and grabbed the gun.  Inside, I just slapped all the parts together and we ran out to the Gun Show.  Just before the show starts, I pick up the shotgun again and rack it.  JAM.  WTF?  I look into the action and I see Magazine Spring.  What?  AAahahhh… I forgot the Magazine Follower.  Ran back to Crusader HQ, there’s the follower sitting right on the work bench.   I need a new follower though… I don’t like the cheap plastic one that comes stock in the Remingtons.  Brownells offers a Stainless one that looks pretty good.  I might do that one.

Also, that “Tactical Choke” as Remington calls it.  It’s a breaching choke.  Designed not for shooting – but for Breaching.  I’m going to pop in an Improved Cylinder choke.  Maybe a Modified.  Maybe one of those extended ones.  I like those.

Here’s the deal.  HOW THE HELL DO YOU REALLY IMPROVE SOMETHING THAT IS FREAKING AWESOME AS IT IS?  Crusader is doing it… A killer action job that makes the 870 just stupid slick…. but what else does it really need?  What parts can we put on them (or the Mossberg) that is going to actually give you a tangible benefit that makes the weapon more effective and the user more efficient with it?  There isn’t a lot.  Oh, there’s tons of options for you… catalogs full of stuff.  But what really works?  Not much.  But my mission is to find it.

Weapons

Armchair Quarterbacking: SIG SAUER

25 Comments

SIG has always been one of my favorite gun companies.  I’ve said before that SIG is one of the three gun makers that I would bet my life on out of the box.  Their handguns on the 22X series are world class.  The P220 has been called “The Thinking Man’s .45.”  And for good reason.  It’s extremely accurate and reliable… a personal favorite as is the 228 and 229 pistols.  I tend to equate SIG as being the Mercedes Benz of the handgun world.  SIG’s 550 series of rifles is also top notch.  Yet SIG is not without its flaws.  What SIG makes themselves is generally pretty dang good… What SIG doesn’t make is where the problems lay.  All except the P250 pistol.

The SIG P250 is an interesting idea that’s poorly executed.  I’m not really a fan and I don’t think I’d actually buy one.  Ever.  But that’s just me.

The SIG Mosquito is also problematic.  It too is a good idea that has less than stellar execution.  It looks good, feels good… and just doesn’t quite work as any SIG should.

SIG’s name branded accessories… their holster, lights, laser combos… they just don’t quite work well enough to really warrant the SIG names.  See,  a long time ago Winchester whored out their name onto a lot of cheap Chinese made crap.  SIG has evidently done the same.  The SIG holster is a rather poor Serpa knockoff.  Their lights either fail or burn through batteries too quickly.

If I were SIG’s CEO, Chairman, Ultimate and Final Decision Maker… Here’s what I’d do:

1.  Discontinue the P250 and write it off as a loss.  All remaining P250’s would be given to the NRA’s Training program.  All of them.  Or maybe to the SIG employees who want one.  Write them all off for tax purposes.

2. The 2022 pistol needs a bit of work.  It seems like an unfinished product.  Such as the way the takedown pin sticks out a bit too far and the slide lock lever feels a bit too… chinsey

3. All the cheap items with the SIG name… they are all done.  Gone.  Instead of cheap crap… contract with those that actually make good products.  Or just not bother with them at all, because those items are not in SIG’s mission.  Simple as that.  SIG makes fine weapons and SIG needs to concentrate on just that.

4.  SIG needs to make a tactical shotgun to complete their line up.

5.  Drop the Mosquito and bring back the Trailside.

6.  Concentrate on Quality Control… above all else… quality.

Weapons

If it cost the same per round…

78 Comments

A lot of guys have been arguing more and more passionately that 9mm is plenty good enough.  They say that 9mm is tested out to be just fine… just as good… smaller and more rounds in the mag is better.  I’m not going to argue that more rounds can be better than less rounds, but I’d argue that bigger rounds are better than smaller rounds.  I wonder if the cost of each main stream auto handguns rounds were all the same low price… all the same as 9mm… if people wouldn’t be looking at the more potent rounds instead of the cheaper 9.  I understand the economy sucks and money is tight everywhere.  So a lot of guys are telling themselves Nine is Fine.  Really?  Is it?

9mm, .40, .45, .357SIG, 10mm… if they were all 12.99 a box of 5o for FMJ’s and 18.99 for 25 rounds of JHP’s.  I think 9mm would fall out of favor pretty quick.

The Trials of 1905 found that they didn’t like the small caliber, so they went with .45.  Recently the Army put out the Request for Proposal for a new gun that was basically “Not a Beretta in 9mm.”  That request was later withdrawn, but the fact remains that the US Army isn’t all that tickled anymore with the smaller caliber.

Given my experiences with the 10mm cartridge, I could happily run 10 exclusively.  I know MHI is all about the .45, but the MCB guys are happy with their 10’s.   If the cost was indeed all the same, what would you run?  Would you opt for 9?

 

Weapons

SIG’s 1911 .22

8 Comments

My buddy Fenris purchased a SIG 1911 in .22.  It’s not really made by SIG like their other 1911 pistols, but it’s made by GSG for them.  The other GSG’s are imported by ATI and are otherwise identical to the SIG, save for Grips and other Markings.

Well, Fenris and I took it out for the first time and we had a mixed box of random bulk rimfire rounds.  We fired 250 rounds through it. The accuracy was remarkable and the reliability was flawless.  Impressive for any rimfire…

Now SIG has a new version…  One I like a bit more.

Oh baby… That’s a good looking .22 Rimfire pistol right there!  Yes, t really is green… OD Green with simple walnut wood grips.

Uncategorized, Weapons

Round Count

5 Comments

Let me start by saying this… Round count doesn’t matter.  When you bring in a gun to trade in, the store doesn’t need the full Biography of the gun.  We don’t need to hear the round count.  I don’t care that you only had 1 magazine fired through it.  You only fired 1 box so it’s practically brand new.  That’s all meaningless.  I had a guy that swore he only fired 3 rounds out of his Ruger revolver.  Doesn’t matter.  A.  People lie about that big time… and B.  Firearms don’t have Odometers on them.  Unlike the value of a Car, the value of a gun doesn’t factor the number of rounds fired.  Not at all.

What we do care about is CONDITION.  In fact, that’s practically all that matters.  Unless you have a gun that was NEVER fired and is in PERFECT and FLAWLESS condition, then maybe.  But that almost never happens, so it’s moot.    On just about any gun, firing some rounds is going to effect the condition a little.  Most guns go from 100% to 98% almost instantly.  After that, they could stay there for awhile at 98 for good long time of careful handling.  Most guns tend to be 95%.  This effects the value more drastically.

Now when you bring in a gun, and it’s 95%, say it’s worth X amount of dollars according to the book.  That’s the Max we could sell it for.  We have to make some money on that gun, so we are going to give you less than that.  About half, because we have to mark it up, but keep it less than a brand new gun by a margin that would still let the gun move instead of people saying “Well, I’d just buy the gun new.”  Don’t be offended if your baby doesn’t bring the big bucks you wanted.  It’s nothing personal.  And your beautifully crafted, bitter-sweet story isn’t going to raise the value either.  Come on, if the gun meant so much to you, why the hell are you trading it in?  Don’t be thick. If your Baby is worth so much – then sell it yourself.   You know you are going to take a hit on value if you trade it.  If we gave people what they wanted for a trade in gun – Used guns would cost double what New guns would cost.  We can’t sell a used gun that’s priced outside of it’s Book Value.  The store ends up sitting on them for years until they are finally marked down to Give Away prices just to get rid of the things.

So no, Sir.  I’m not going to give you twelve hundred bucks for your late Grandfather’s WWI Ruger Mini-14 with a Simmons scope on top.

Weapons

Guns I hate.

16 Comments

As much as I love firearms… There are some guns I absolutely hate. No justification… I just hate them. People will of course jump to to defense of these… But I still hate them. The Howa Axiom. The stock is awkward and owners are always futsing with them. The rifles are heavier than they should be. And the stock fore end feels chinsy as hell. The Desert Eagle. “I just want to hold one.” Huge, heavy, ugly, and useless. The Taurus Judge. I hated them since I first saw them. I hate selling them to people who don’t know anything about guns and have the impression that the .410 is some monster slayer. The Henry Golden Boy. I don’t mind selling Golden Boys… I just hate selling them to guys who want to scope them up… No, you can’t drill and tap the soft brass receiver. You have to use a cheesy cantelever mount. The Browning BLR. I cant stand the BLR’s bolt. That gigantic phallus that comes at your eye when you cycle the action… It’s rude. The Remington 700 BDL. Really, who uses the iron sights? Why leave them on? And if you take them off, you leave the screw holes that you have to plug up… So all that nice polished blueing is scared and flawed. Just leave the bloody sights off to start with. Seriously. The Walther G22. The carry handle and rear sight are cheesy as hell, and useless. The gun feels as cheep as something from a box of cracker jacks, and is about as reliable as Joe Biden trying to play it straight. There… I said it. These are the guns I hate.

Weapons

Kahr vs Solo

15 Comments

Kimber’s new little Solo sub-compact is developing into quite the nice little carry package. While the main competitor, the Kahr sub-compacts are just not measuring up anymore.
The best selling Kahrs are the CW series guns. These have a cast slide, polymer frame, and come with just one magazine… but they are only 400 bucks. The nicer forged steel P series guns are right up there in Kimber Solo price territory, but they do come with an extra mag. They are good little guns and I am quite fond of them… but the ones people buy are the CW series and we’ve had some issues with them lately. The new ones from the factory are real notchy, sticky, and sharp. Very unpleasant guns to hold and operate. They are hard to pull the slide back and even more difficult to drop the slide again… the fit an finish look fine on the outside, but the way they work… just very poorly. These CW guns are actually hurting the Kahr brand. Had to take a return on one this week on one I sold, and that’s just not cool. A CW45. Those folks are never going to look at buying another Kahr for the rest of their lives. And I can’t blame them.  At that point you can’t try to talk them into the upper end Kahr pistol – because they look damn near the same.  They just got turned off one to spend more on another that looks the same?  Doesn’t work.
Then you pick up that Kimber solo. Whole other world. It’s like going from a Flinstones Kahr Car, sorry… to a Mercedes Benz.  Smooth action like melted chocolate.  None of the Kahrs can come close to that feeling.  They could – but they don’t.  Kahr persists in their sharp edged slide lock levers and sharp frames textures.  It’s like you reward yourself with buying a Solo, and punish yourself with a Kahr… and I have to say that I hate saying that.  Because I really do like Kahr! They are accurate, reliable, with great triggers… but they feel sharp and rough and are a hard sell.

Kahr needs to revamp their lines.  New cosmetic lines, a more agreeable texture on the grips.  The actions need to feel smooth and when someone – specifically women – try to press the slide release lever, that slide needs to drop with little effort instead of making their thumbs bleed.   Round off the sharp corners on everything.  Make it something you want to hold on to.    You do that… simple reworking of existing stuff without any reengineering… then Kahr would dominate the CCW market and we could price those at 499 instead of 399. The upper end P-series… would be redundant.    Kahr could dominate… they seriously could.

Weapons

Remington: Pulling a Boner.

7 Comments

Remington has cancelled production on dang near everything with a Marlin name tag. Specifically the lever action rifles. The Savage knock-off X7 rifles, I believe are still rolling out the door. We’ve had no problem getting those. Just Lever Actions, and the Rep told us that most of the orders we had were cancelled because they not in production. This doesn’t make me very happy. The problem Remington is having is that all the guys that used to know how to build a Marlin Lever Action are all now retired or laid off or working someplace else. This is just the tip of the iceberg that I’m seeing here. They buy Marlin pretty much to get into the lever action business… and then ruin it. Yet Remington is still cranking out the Savage Clones. To me, that makes no sense. If I was Remington, I’d kill the X7 line completely and concentrate on moving Remington’s own Bolt Action rifles. But Remington can do what it wants… that’s fine. But I also don’t get why Remington has moved the Sendero rifle to the Custom Shop, which has a completely different Dealer Program. What was one of the best production guns they made, and one of the most popular out here in my area of operation… they go and hamstring it.
I can’t get the Marlin Lever Actions to sell and now the Senderos are going to be difficult… Great. No, really… You guys concentrate on getting that ACR Contract and ignore the Hunters that have made Remington what it is. That’s a good plan. Worked great for Colt.
Here’s the deal… if you guys can’t sort out production of a gun made since the 1800’s… sell Marlin to someone who can actually build the things. Springfield would be great. Lifetime warranty, aggressive marketing, customer service like Marlin has never had before, and custom shop work that’s top notch. That would give Springfield some serious Hunting chops in the industry. I’d love to see Springfield own Marlin.
I can get worked up about Lever Actions… I love them. I have always loved them. And Marlin has always been a favorite brand. Most of the deer I’ve taken was with a .44 Mag Marlin 336… So it has a solid place in my heart. And we can’t even get any of the Marlin pistol calibers. I could have sold a hundred this summer… instead, I sold none. Can’t sell it if I can’t get it. Come on Remington!