Something the NYTimes actually can do right

A package arrived from Numrich---er, Gun Parts Corp---today.  A pack of 1911 magazines. 

Instead of styrofoam dunnage, the box was packed with crumpled pages from the New York Times. 

¡Vachement!

Hunh

I might have failed to tell you that on neighboring Farflung Silos AFB, the base exchange has installed a firearms counter and does land-office business in blasters.  Not just yer plain-jane duck-hunting NEF break-open shotguns and bolt .22's either.  They seem to lean hard on pocket blasters and Black rifles.  Quite good prices on everything Springer.  And I never knew how pretty a Ruger 77/44 was until I saw one there. 

I walked past that counter the other day with FrankenBoy in tow, and noticed a family crowded up to the counter.  Dad talking to the dealer, one or two offspring units in a stroller, and Momma in faux-stretch-leather pants handling a S&W M&P. 

Double-take:  she was slowly, deliberately turning the pistol and looking straight down the barrel. 

PMC .45 ACP

$19.99 for box of 50, 230gr FMJ.

At your local Murdoch's.

If you don't have a local Murdoch's, well, it sucks to be you.

A ring job in order

At about 200 rounds of Wolf Gold 6.5mm Grendel, and after firing fewer than 40 rounds of reloads, Bobbie Jo is in need of a ring job.

These are the rings originally provided by Alexander Arms with their bolt/barrel set. From left to right, the rings are nearest bolt face to farthest, so the ring closest to the hot gases is the one on the right, the one with most of its substance eaten away:



Bobbie Jo now sports a McFarland one-piece gapless ring, and the other ARs will probably have theirs soon too. But it makes me wonder, am I not lubricating the rings adequately for break-in? Can break-in of gas rings be improved with bore paste?


I can also see which parts I want in a spares kit for ARs, and which deserve periodic replacement.

BTW, the reloads were a) 120 gr Sierra Pro Hunters in front of 30.5 gr AA2520, 2349 fps, and b) 95 gr Hornady V-Max over 28.5 gr WC846, 2257 fps. At 6100 feet above MSL, with Alexander's (E. R. Shaw's) 16" stainless barrel, stock midlength gas tube.

Gun pr0n dreamy dreams

First, I always wanted one of these, more than I lusted for a SPAS 12, say.
The High Standard 10B, a bullpup shotgun. I'm borrowing this photo from a Gunbroker auction, sorry if that offends.

If I were a lunatic independently-wealthy tinkering gunsmith, I'd apply the 10B treatment to a newer semi-auto, and extend that tubular magazine right out to the muzzle. Then I'd package the treatment as a kit for the hobbyist to mount on his own. I don't know enough about modern selfloading shotguns to pick the right one. Bleg?

Meanwhile, on the AR front:

With everybody except me offering a gas-piston AR clone design, the criticisms of the gas piston versus direct gas impingement are emerging, and the most cogent I've heard is this: the direct impingement system applies force exactly along the axis of the bore, breechbolt, and bolt carrier. All are in balance.

A piston offsets that force above the bore axis, causing the bolt carrier to tilt and shave away the soft aluminum of the AR's receiver pieces. A full-auto pistonized AR will grind itself to swarf in one firefight. AKs, in comparison, have rails that guide the bolt carrier and bolt in the needed direction; the offset force harms nothing.

If I were a lunatic independently-wealthy tinkering gunsmith, I'd solve that problem by integrating a steel supporting rail in the roof of the upper receiver. It would take the place of the cocking piece, and probably still function as one. The face of the bolt carrier that takes the force of the gas piston (no longer a "key") would be shaped to ride in that rail, and would not come down out of that rail unless the rail itself were extracted from the upper. The rail would have ample room for lubrication and for the accumulation of chum for the happy soldier to clean away. The bolt carrier would then have little or no surface on it to bear against the inside of the upper receiver---the rail handles all of that. No damage to aluminum receiver.

Whether this configuration would continue to use the existing buffer spring, buffer and buffer tube assembly is still undecided. Maybe the bolt carrier can be carved up to make room for recoil springs that fit within the upper receiver, like on the para FAL?

Meet Bettie Jean

Bettie Jean arrived. I've had the receiver, a Grade B Springfield from Civilian Marksmanship Program, for about 2 years. The barrel is a New Criterion from Midway. The rest of the parts came in a cosmoline-jammed bag from Sarco. Will tell you later how they all came together, but they did just yesterday and here's the first bearskin-rug photo of her.

TCM: I've proved myself wrong. Bobbie Jo the Grendel was supposed to be done first, my bad. Once Bettie Jean got into qualified hands, well, she just happened.

She's still not quite done, there will be some Eliza-Doolittle-style improvements to be made to her. But she's here.

With all the trimmings

Blogroller James Rummel points to very old advertisements for the Thanksgiving dinner of pre-NFA Lugers. James admits to a fascination for a pistol with all of the trimmings---optics, stock, muzzle devices, extended barrels and such.

This reminds me of one of only two great unrequited loves and unfulfilled material yearnings of my life.

Reprint permission for the photo comes courtesy of www.automagpistol.com


The AutoMag. A rotating-bolt pistol, all stainless, with shoulder stock if you wanted it, and changes of top-end for your taste of barrel length, compensator, and optics.

It fired cartridges based on the 7.62 NATO case cut short, straightwalled, and turned inside to take a .44 bullet. Or necked down to .41 (ideal Thumper cartridge) or .357.