A Family Find

On By Tom LindsayIn Uncategorized4 Comments

I had originally written this post as a straightforward review of an old pistol that my brother-in-law Mike inherited from his father. But, like a lot of things in life, it is turning out to be something more.

Mike came over the other day, and he and I and my son went to the shooting range for Mike’s very first shooting session. To say he enjoyed himself would be an understatement.

When he arrived, though, he handed me an old paper bag, and said “Here’s something I’d like you to take a look at.”

In the bag, in a worn leather holster, adorned in a few places with my late father-in-law’s name, was a Beretta Model 1935 pistol, chambered in 7.65mm, or .32ACP. My curiosity was piqued. After a quick visit to Youtube, I took it to the work bench and took it down, and except for some rust on the spare magazine, it isn’t in bad shape at all.

My late father-in-law was in the US Air Force during the Korean War, but spent his time in Europe. This wasn’t unusual, given that the prevailing suspicion at the time was that the Korean assault was merely a feint by the USSR and China, in prelude to an attack on Europe.

While there, he acquired the Beretta pistol from a European officer, by means of which neither my brother-in-law nor my wife are aware.

Being the Family Gun Guy, Mike brought it to me for a couple of reasons. First, he wanted to see what kind of shape it was in – could he still shoot it, and if so, would it make a good defense gun?

My inspection showed that the gun is in good shape. Some of the bluing is worn in the pbvious places, like where the barrel cycles and where the hammer falls. But none of the surfaces show undue wear, and there is no corrosion or rust on the barrel, chamber, or rails. A few shots of Gun Scrub and a nylon brush cleaned the workings, and a light oiling and wipe down made it look very nice indeed. If I had the time, I think I would look at replacing the springs, just to be sure, but I think the gun is safe to shoot.

Second, he was worried. Since my father-in-law had brought it back from Europe, Mike was concerned that the gun wasn’t licensed. There, I was able to allay his fears.

Fortunately for us, Georgia does not require registration or licensing of guns. And, after questioning him, it was clear to me that Mike had nothing in his past or his record that would prevent him from owning the gun. All was cool.

As an aside, I am continually frustrated by people I meet who are convinced that all guns are registered, or should be registered. Moreover, when I tell them that very few states require registration, or licensing of shooters, they don’t believe me. This is why I encourage everyone who shoots to join the NRA, SAF, and other gun rights organizations.

So, back to our story, we packed up, and headed to the range. On the way, we stopped by our local favorite gun store to buy some ammo.

Yikes. It turns out that .32ACP was selling for $40 a box. (I’ve since found it on line for half that.) Mike decided to hold off on shooting it. Instead, he shot everything else I brought to the range, and fell in love with my .22LR Browning Buck Mark.

The next day, Mike came by the house, and he was still talking about our range trip. He asked me to look into selling the Beretta and getting him a Buck Mark or other .22LR pistol. He’s obviously smitten, and I have gained another range buddy. I can’t blame him. $20 for 500 rounds of .22LR beats $20 for 50 any day.

So now begins my quest to trade or sell this quaint Italian masterpiece. Give a holler if you have some leads.

Ammo Review – CCI 9mm Shotshells

On By Tom LindsayIn Review4 Comments

At the suggestion of a Twitter follower, @EnBloc, I set out to perform a scientific test of CCI 9mm shotshells, for protection against snakes and other small varmints in the woods. I planned to measure shot patterns at normal snake distances, and, as a final test, to shoot a tube sock filled with sand to show its real power.

That is, until a three foot long Canebrake Rattlesnake surprised us the other day at the range.

So, I decided to use another scientifically rigorous method. I shot that snake in the face.


Video courtesy of @RKBArms

As you can see, the shotshell was quite effective. In my opinion, one shot would have sufficed, but a follow-up shot was administered, just to be sure.

The 9mm CCI Shotshell contains number 12 shot, and claims to shoot at 1450 feet per second. However, at only 298 foot-pounds, the recoil from the round was not enough to cycle my Glock 17, so I had to cycle the slide myself. This is important to know in case the first shot is not as effective as this one was.

I had always wondered if these loads were effective. Now I know.

A Day at the Range

On By Tom LindsayIn Bruce, Bucky, Captain America, Lee

There are trips to the range, and then there are Trips To The Range. Today’s trip was the latter.

My son Joey and I took my brother-in-law Mike to the range for his first shooting outing, and we met a fellow Twitter feller, Michael, a.k.a. @RKBArms.

It was a first for a lot of things: Mike’s first time shooting; Joey’s first time shooting an AR-15; the first time we shot the reincarnated version of my Ruger 10/22, Captain America; and my first time to meet and shoot with Michael. It would not be a boring day.

Captain America

What can I say? The gun is sweet. With the heavy barrel, there is almost no recoil. I was able to get the scope set on the side to side axis in my shop, so it was just a matter of dialing in the elevation at the range, and soon it was shooting just about spot on at 100 yards, or whatever distance it was to the dirt berm at the end of the range. There were several tin cans, pieces of cardboard, and clay pigeons on the berm, and we made them dance at will all day.

I wasn’t able to shoot it for a group measurement, since I found it hard to keep steady when I supported it by the foregrip. I need to add a bipod, or bring a chair and a sand bag.

Bucky

Complementing the 10/22, I brought the Buck Mark pistol, outfitted with my Tasco Red Dot sight. A couple of turns at it was spot on at the berm, too. My brother-in-law fell in love with Bucky, and I think he’s going to get one.

AR-15

Back when I went to the Blogger Shoot, I had borrowed a friend’s AR-15, which lasted all of 4 rounds before it TARFU’d on me. I finally bought the parts to fix it, and took it to the range with us.

I got to shoot about 10 rounds from it. My son then commandeered it and shot all the rest of the ammo. He wants one, bad. Okay, time for Project 3, I suppose.

Shotgun

I also took my newly refinished Mossberg 500 along, and shot about 10 rounds through it. I like the recoil pad that Hogue included with the overmolded stock. I’m going to try to go shoot some trap this week with it, so look for another report.

I also shot Michael’s shotgun, a Maverick 88 with an 18 inch barrel. Nice.

Here’s Michael with his shotgun.

Pistols

I also took Bruce my Glock 17 and the Duke, my Glock 21, and shot quite a bit through them. It was a good demonstration for my brother-in-law, to compare them to the .22LR of the Buck Mark.

My son shot a lot with the Glock 17, and I took the opportunity to try to talk him into his first competition, the GSSF Match at Conyers in September. We’ll see.

Michael also compared my Glock 17 to his Glock 19.

Other Stuff

In the middle of our shooting, up walks a small flock of 6 wild turkeys. They were completely -unfazed by all the shooting, but when my brother-in-law tried to call them over, the ran off into the woods.

We also saw a cheap semi-auto pistol whose slide completed cracked, all the way around, about an inch in front of the ejection port. The person shooting it said he had borrowed it from a friend, and that it was cheap, cheap. I guess so.

Ammo Test

Look for another blog post soon about this, with video.

All in all, a very nice trip to the range for us all.

From Steve Rogers to Captain America

On By Tom LindsayIn 10/22, Captain America, Projects

A few years back, I won $200 in a sales contest right before Christmas, and I used it to buy a bare bones 10/22 on Christmas Eve. At the time, I named the gun Paul after my boss. Earlier this year, I bought a Browning Buck Mark .22LR pistol that I named Bucky, and it just made sense to start calling the 10/22 Captain America.

The problem was, Captain America wasn’t special. It was still bare bones. Yes, it was fun to shoot, and I had proved that about 2,000 times. But it wasn’t an Avenger by any stretch.

In fact, it was more like 90 pound Steve Rogers.

So, I decided to start my own Super Soldier program*.

I started by disassembling the 10/22. This can be done with a screwdriver and a punch. In fact, my Glock Armorer tool just worked just fine. For my modifications, I needed the receiver, the trigger group, the bolt assembly, and the bolt handle, guide rod, and recoil spring assembly.

Actually, this photo is a little deceiving, as it shows the parts after about 20 minutes of cleaning. I had shot about 2,300 rounds through the gun without cleaning the bolt or the receiver. The bolt assembly was completely black.

For my first modification I swapped out the factory extractor with a Power Custom Sharp Claw Titanium Extractor. The factory extractor is a stamped metal piece, and I could see the Power Custom replacement has a sharper profile and a cleaner face. This new piece should eliminate the periodic failures to extract that I have seen.

I also changed out the bolt release with a Volquartsen Automatic Bolt Release. One of the things found annoying about the 10/22 was that to release the bolt, you had to press up on the bottom of the bolt release, while pulling back on the bolt handle, and holding your mouth a certain way, and reciting a Druid chant. Okay, the last two weren’t really necessary, but they didn’t seem to hurt.

This Volquartsen piece is designed so that you just pull back on the bolt handle, let it go, and the bolt releases. Just like a regular rifle. Gee.

Next, I removed the factory barrel. The barrel is held in place by a barrel retainer and two hex head screws. Removing the screws, the barrel slides out. Actually, since my gun had 2,300 rounds through it, I had to put the barrel in a vise (protecting it with a rubber insert) and pound the receiver with a rubber mallet to get it to let go.

I then scrubber out the receiver and made sure it was ready for a new barrel.

Then, out came the new hardware.

The barrel I chose was a Shooter’s Ridge bull barrel, that I bought at the gun show last weekend, and a Tapco T-6 stock I bought off of Amazon.

The barrel is installed in the reverse of how the old one was removed, but without the pounding and cussing. Slide the barrel into the receiver and line up the ridge for retainer with the retainer lip. Much easier.

Install the retainer using the two hex head bolts.

Install the bolt, then the trigger group.

The Tapco stock takes a little assembly. The pistol grip is bolted on, and the stock is installed using two screws and bolts. Tapco includes two stock tubes, one slanted if your’re planning to use iron sights, and one straight if you’re going to use optics. I used the straight one.

Finally the barrel and receiver are installed using the take down screw from the original stock.

A hand guard is installed over the barrel, too.

It’s important to know that the barrel for a Ruger 10/22 should not be free floated, but should be supported on the stock per the manufacturer’s instructions. This has to do with barrel harmonics of the .22LR, and a free floated barrel will not be as accurate on a 10/22 as it would on a larger caliber rifle.

Finally, I installed a 2-6 x 28mm scope I had from a previous project, using some Weaver rings I had.

The final rifle is considerably heavier than the original, but is well balanced. The stock angle makes for an easy pointing gun, and set at 2x, the scope should do well even for close-in work.

Having said that, I am contemplating installing a 45 degree offset Weaver rail on the front rails, and installing a reflex or red dot sight for close-in shooting.

But, even without the red dot, at last, Captain America is ready to go fight the Nazis, or zombies, or whatever comes our way.

Tomorrow, the range!

* I’m not going to explain the history of Captain America. If none of these things – Bucky, Steve Rogers, the Super Soldier program – make sense to you, do some research.