Category Archives: Weapons

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!

Weapons

Retextured Glock: Done

2 Comments

Sanding, grinding, filing, and then stippling… I reshaped and retextured the gripframe of my Glock.  Let me explain this from square one. I wanted to make my Glock 23 fit my hand better, and I wanted a new texture that would be grippy, yet not snag on my clothes like the RTF2 finish can sometimes do.

The first of the process was to identify just what I wanted to change to make it fit better.  These areas got attention with some very careful application of a rotory hand tool that is normally the bane of all would be weaponsmiths.  Then I used a hand file and some sandpaper to make it feel better in my hand.  This is where I have to warn those that would follow my example – I’m a Professional Ogre, so don’t try this at home unless you are prepared to deal with the consequences.  “Hello, Glock?  Yeah, I pooched my pistol.”

After the prep work, it was time to do the stippling.  I used a sharp pointed soldering iron that I used to use for repairing laptops back when I could tolerate doing such work.  I don’t do that anymore so don’t ask.  This soldering iron gets pretty damn hot, and probably a lot hotter than is necessary or a good idea for this purpose, because it could easily go straight through the frame.  “Hello, Glock?”  So I had to be extremely careful and use a light touch.   The resulting grip shape and texture accomplished my goal perfectly.  It might not be pretty, but it feels a lot better in my hand than the original.

If you want this work done to your Glock, but you don’t want to do it yourself… This can be arranged through Crusader Weaponry.  Send your gun to Joe, so he can do his magic to it… slick it up, trigger work, maybe even refinish into a new color… and if you want the grip frame retexured by the Ogre, I would be happy to do it at a very reasonable price.

Uprising, Weapons

Notes on the day…

24 Comments

Nothing important to say tonight.  Just some thoughts I had.  First, I am disappointed that I missed my goat of finishing my second book.  I got carried away in Uprising: UK.  My goal on this five day weekend I just had, was to write/edit until it was finished.  This didn’t happen. However, today I expanded U:UK by 10 thousand more words.  Sections of text, details, and lose ends that I felt needed tying up.  I still don’t have an ending.
Returning characters are Rebecca Hallbrook, Arizona Police Officer and Stacy Roth, daughter of the fighter pilot that killed a Chinese aircraft carrier, and Cadet Jackson, who was a casualty of some wackos from Wyoming.  Not all of these characters live to book three.  Speaking of Character Mortality, I rewrote the death of Paul, aka FMJ from WTA.  Paul’s role as a sniper comes to a sudden end due to a case of acute of thermal ingestion.  He goes out in a great ball of fire.  Mark Walters, our friend from Armed American Radio is seen taking part in the Invasion of France as he storms the beach with a sword and a Krinkov SMG.  He might make it to book three… hmmm….

Also today, I realize that I do indeed like the Glock 23 a great deal, so much so, that it just may have taken the place of the venerable 1911.  Examining the Defensive Power Factor of a magazine of .45 in a typical 8 round mag +1 and + a Reload, and comparing that to the typical magazine of .40 caliber… +1 and +reload… the 23 does indeed dish out twice the firepower.  (I reload with a Glock 22 magazine) Now, why would I be all over the Glock 23 over the 1911?  Well… Man, I have to say that I really like the trigger that Joe gave this Glock.  I had some trick parts in the Glock to start with, then Joe checked it out and freaking made it better.  Seriously.  He made it better.  I liked it before, but I love it now.  The break is super crisp with zero over travel… no safetly lever to get in the way or forget to swipe off.  I used to prefer a manual safety.  But I’m now moving away from them.  Glock type and SIG types, I think, are better for the modern gunslinger.

Two words to remember:  VULTURE DOWN.

Weapons

Lever Action Reaction

10 Comments

There are few firearms that just give me such gratification as a lever action rifle. The elegant lines that fuse form and function with a mechanical simplicity that makes the Lever Action one of the most beautiful of all firearms.  Doesn’t matter which lever you have… they are truly lovely.  I find myself simply taking out my Rossi made Winchester 92 clone, just to look at it, just to feel it, just to hold it in my hands.  I’ve got a lot of other guns that I like… but they don’t stick in my mind like that little 92.  I’ve got my guns I use for certain purposes… and to be honest, this 92 doesn’t fall in to any of those purposes. But that’s all besides the point.  I could probably very easily adopt the 92 for more serious purposes.  Maybe I will. But I do prefer the right tool for the right job, shotguns, magazine fed semi-auto rifles, long range precision bolt actions.  And they are all fine and good within their spheres.  But if I had to have just one gun… well… that would still be an 870, but the 92 is encroaching on that in a big way.