New year, new post(s), new gun.

Sorry I've been down for a bit. Took a trip for New Year's Eve to escort some showgirls up to do a show in Jackson, MS and caught one hell of a respiratory bug from one of them. Guess that's what happens when you share a suite with five gals. I'm still coughing from it. But it was fun nonetheless.

But with the coming Second Civil War brewing in Virginia, the long-awaited arrival of the latest pistol is timely. I may need it for when I head up and join in.

It's a 1911A1, ex-US Gov't Property, just released from the CMP stores to me after over a year's wait. It's been refinished a bit since it's birthdate in 1943--the last rebuild mark visible is 1981--but she's pretty and tight and as much a shooter as she is a collectible.

She's been refinished. Some of the old markings are gone. Frank J Atwood's initials are barely legible to my eyes.

But she's genuine WW2 US issue, and she was obviously still in service as late as 1981 if not longer.

And she looks good paired with my WW1 Colt 1911 made back in 1918.

Just the heft and feel of these makes me want to go fight some of America's enemies. Two 1911's = 16rds without reloading. And some may say that they are big and heavy by today's standards but they got lanyard loops and that right there is worth something.

Still alive...and 100 Years of the .45

I'm still here. was a bit sicker after Mardi Gras (And I didn't even get to go out much...) and then when I got back to wrk, I found out that I can no longer post to Blogger from our work machines so that's going to sting a bit.

But today I got out to the range and fired a few of the best .45s out there.

(Top: Thompson 1928. Lower Left: Springfield Armory 1911A1 Lower Right: Smith and Wesson Model 1917.)

The 1911 is my first gun, purchased new back in 1988 from Patrick Sweeney back when we were both a lot younger. It's got thousands of rounds through it and it's still my "go-to" handgun. The M1917 came aboard a few years back, complete with it's "US Property" markings and wearing it's original World War One blued finish. The Thompson... What a problem child. I bought it from a "well respected" dealer in Pennsylvania who allegedly warranties the guns he sells, but I guess "All Guns Guaranteed" means "I'll take it back and let some guy mess with it two or three times and make it worse, then tell you that it's as good as it will ever shoot."

Fuck him. I finally sent it off to John Andrewski up in New Hampshire and he fixed it right and put a real spec finish on it instead of sprayed-on duracoat, and it just came back today so it was right off to the range. 200 rounds later, with just a few hiccups that seemed restricted to specific magazines, I'm pretty damned happy. And it even swallows hollow-points!

20-yard target. (Head shots came from the 1911.)

Yeah, that Thompson gun can do the job, I'm thinking.

This calls for some Zevon.

Shoot day--another Martini-Henry

This time I went out with the Martini-Henry MK IV, an 1886-dated Enfield-produced rifle.

Open wide! The breech awaits a new .577-450 cartridge; .468 diameter, 530 grains cast lead atop 85gr. black powder.

"V.R." for "Victoria Regina", or Queen Victoria. This one was sold out of British service in November, 1908. A stock stamping shows it accepted by the Nepalese military in 1909.

Like it's rack-mate, the MK II, it shoots a bit high at 100 yards bit hits dead on for windage. Recoil is stout but manageable and the smoke cloud quickly draws crowds on the firing line.

As always, I need to remember to bring at least one round of ammunition home with me, darn it! That's one of two deer spotted next to Murphy's pen. Distance: 30 yards max.

I also got some .45 ACP shooting in with this vintage custom Agentine Model 1927.

Besides being re-parkerized, it now sports an ambidextrous safety, Trijicon night sights (tall ones to clear a suppressor), Hogue grips and a trigger job.

It breaks sporting clays at 25 yards, so I'm happy with it.

Also exercised today: The bedside gun:

13+1 rounds of .45 ought to be enough to fight my way to the rifle in the gun safe, I figure.

A Memorial Day well spent

Memorial Day. What a great day to head out to the range with some old military veterans that have "been there and done that" in defense of this great country.

Of course I mean old military firearms, but I suppose we can include my shooting buddy, too.

A famous blogger and former military aviator came out to do some shooting. Murphy sure was happy to see his old pal again.

"Hey! It's him! He's back!"

We hit the range and broke out the rifles first. I had this Harrington and Richardson M1 Garand that I got from the CMP back in 2000. As far as I know, this it the first time I've actually shot it.

It has a February of 1954 barrel that gauged almost new at both throat and muzzle. This more than made up for a stock that looked like someone had thrown it down a flight of stairs.

It shot fantastically, too. Much better than I did. It's rear sight had to come up 14 clicks to hit point-of-aim at 100 yards, but once set, it was all sweet spot and joy.

Old NFO had himself a Garand too--a National Match job that was just beautiful to behold. (He's like Batman, folks...he's got all the really neat toys.)

Next, I broke out the 1903A3 Springfield.

This one is a Smith Corona-manufactured rifle built in 1943. (Yep, the typewriter people. Go ask your parents, kids.)

I think I last shot it at Camp Perry back in 2002. It was a CMP return from Greece, and like the M-1 above, it shot well, only issue being a somewhat loose stock that allowed the action to shift slightly with every recoil. It made for a weird feeling shooting it but it still kept every round on a paper pate at 100 yards. I think that, since it's still in it's old Greek stock, that it's going to get some glass bedding to tighten things up. Then we'll see what it's really capable of.

Then it was M1 Carbine time.


This one was manufactured by the Underwood Corporation in 1944. (They made typewriters, too.) I got this one from the CMP back in 2001 as well and I've never shot it until today. It shot great, but it's not exactly "left-hander friendly"; I got popped in the head by so many ejected cases that I still have a sore spot hours later.

Old NFO had a early-model Winchester carbine that he was shooting that could have come out of a time capsule. It was most impressive. I'm really hoping that he posts pictures of his way-cool guns on his blog when he gets home (Hint, hint..)

Everyone else on the range seemed to have some AR variant but none of them carry the cool points of these old war rifles.


Of course there were pistols too.

In keeping with the military arms theme, I brought out my old Colt 1911 and Smith and Wesson Model 10 "Victory", both military issue.

The 1911 was stock World War One military, apparently departing US Military custody and control before any of the 1911A1 upgrades were performed on it.

Sadly, this vet was a bit under the weather. While firing the first magazine, the extractor broke. Big sigh. But those are easy to come by and replace, and being an internal part, the pistol won't look any different once the old one has been swapped out.

Next, I shot the Smith and Wesson "Victory".

This one also has a military history. I got it from the estate of a doctor about 15 years ago. Per his daughter, he'd obtained it while a military MD in the South Pacific during World War Two. According to the story, a Marine pilot gave it to the young doctor as the island that they were on still had plenty of Japanese soldiers in the jungle around the airfield. The doctor brought it home with him after the war and kept it in his office until he passed. I acquired it from the daughter through a mutual friend, and it still had six corroded .38 Special cartridges in the cylinder when she handed it to me for inspection. It also has the appropriate stampings:

GHD is the initials of Guy H. Drewry, US Army Ordnance Dept. Chief Inspector. His initials were used as the acceptance stamp for all military pistols produced between June 1942 and July 1945.
This pistol astounded me.
I think I've shot it once, maybe twice since I bought it. It's been a safe queen and sometime wall-hanger for the last decade and a half, but right out of the gate, it proved that it was dead on with this target shot at 25 yards, standing.

This pistol was not blessed with a crisp, smooth trigger like most old Smith and Wessons so I never figured that it could be much of a shooter. Wow, was I wrong. I spent some time chasing an empty soda can around the 25-yard berm, rarely missing it. Then I gave it to Old NFO, who also bulls-eyed his own target with it every shot but one. This pistol's great. Come the bad times, I'll have no qualms about pressing this one back into service.

Of course there were more cool Old NFO guns. I shot his Ruger single-action .45 Long Colt a few times and now I've just got to have one. (Thanks, guy!) I'd been on the fence mulling one for a while but shooting his knocked me right off on the "must buy one" side. (Sigh...)

After shooting, we grabbed a couple of burgers at Five Guys and then headed out to the airport. What better way to commemorate Memorial Day then a flight over Antietam Battlefield in Maryland? On this battlefield, on one day--September 17th, 1862--22,717 men were killed, wounded or went missing. America has never seen a slaughter of it's young fighting men equal to that before or since.

Old NFO grabbed some pics while I flew. Again, hopefully he'll post them. In the meantime though, here's some I took a couple years back when I was there on my bike.

I gave him the plane a couple of times, and he proved that he's still got it. He's the first passenger that I've ever felt comfortable enough with to take some pictures of my own while he flew.

And old Navy aviators never lost the knack for finding bad guys in the water apparently, because the first thing we found was a fishing boat that was sneakily hunting fish in that closed quarry near The Lair--the one that's supposedly so "off limits" to trespassers.

We also spotted what looked to be four vehicles back in the verboten zone, but on closer examination of this picture, there were really five.

Old NFO is such a great Naval Aviator that he can catch bad guys afloat even in land-locked West Virginia. Of course he's been at it for a while. Here's a pic I found of him back when he was first starting out in the Navy.

I think that's him in the hat. The guy with the mustache is Orville Wright.

Heading back into the airport, we overflew the local KOA campgroud. Looks like lots of RV space, in case someone currently in Texas who reads this blog and travels in an RV might be temptable.

Back at the airport, we found this way-cool Taylorcraft tied down in transient parking and naturally we thought of someone that we know.


It's fabric-covered! I think it uses a Briggs and Stratton motor, or maybe it's one of the earlier hamster-powered ones. In any case, it was neat to drool over for a few minutes.

Fun is finally over. Now I'm home, with a ton of guns to clean. But it was a great day with great company and I look forward to doing it again.

Lest we forget the real reason for the day though...

New Glock Fail

So a couple of weeks ago, I spotted a Glock 21 (.45 ACP) on Gunbroker. It had a pretty low starting price that looked ok to me so I bid that amount and forgot about it...until I got the e-mail letting me know that I'd won.

Well I sent the money off and it came in to my dealer yesterday so I went to get it today.

Shiny, eh?

It was used, but you'd never know it. Not a scratch, scuff, or dull spot on it. The inside was as clean as the outside and the magazines were a bitch to load to capacity, as new Glock mags typically are.

So after competing the transfer, including the oh-so-redundant background check, I eagerly trotted it out to the firing line and began shooting at the steel plates on the dueling tree target stand.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click...

Hmmm.. Tap, rack...BANG! BANG! click.

And so it went, all through both magazines that it came with. The pistol was misfiring about one in three rounds, always hitting the primers dead center, but not hard enough to set them off.

Yay. A new puzzle-project.

It's a Glock, so it shouldn't be hard to fix. I figure I'll replace the firing pin assembly and see what that does. Granted, I like to tinker with "project" guns, but still...space is getting tight on my "fix it" bench, which is where this one is now residing, right next to the Sig 229 that I bought last month--the one that turned out to be DAO when I was expecting a SA/DA. (That one will be getting a new SA/DA SRT trigger assembly when I get around to it.)

Anyway, the day wasn't a total loss. I still had "Old Reliable with me as a back-up.

It fired every round that the Glock failed to, and the rest of the bag to boot, all without a hiccup.

Apparent moral of the story: Glocks are ok, but there's no beating a good 30 year-old 1911A1 when you really need something shot. (Psst! Glock fanboys...that's satire. I own four of them because I really do like them. Relax.)


Oh, and on the bonus side, I did some probing and found out that the stunningly cute little range-mistress that I saw working out there last Sunday is not dating anyone at the range and I've been given the official blessing of the range manager to pursue her to the best of my abilities. Tally-ho!

Old Friend: The Springfield Armory 1911A1

Today I took an old friend out to the range.

This is my 1911A1, made by Springfield Armory. A bit worn these days, I bought it new back in the 1980s from a then little-known pistolsmith in Redford, Mi named Patrick Sweeney.


I went into that shop as a novice shooter looking to order a frame and a slide for a 1911, having just read a magazine article that told how easy it was to build your own 1911. Now Pat could have taken my money and ordered the frame and slide that I'd come seeking, but being a decent guy, he took me back into his work area and showed me several botched "do-it-yourself" 1911 pistols that people had brought in at one time or another. Apparently, all of those parts from different manufacturers really don't go together as easily as the article implied. He then explained to me how it wasn't something that I, a non-gunsmith with no tools or know-how, was likely to pull off. Then he directed me to this brand new Springfield Armory pistol that sat in his display case--a cheap, no-frills, parkerized clone of the old GI model. "Try this one, and if you decide that you really like it, you can always trade it in and get a nicer one later."

I walked out with it, and then I spent a lot of time and money learning to shoot it. Along the way I had it's trigger reworked for a 4.5lb. pull instead of the 12lb+ pull that it came with. I also had new, hi-visibility sights put on it, added a Wilson Combat ambidextrous safety, and replaced the plastic grips with a set of Hogue wrap-around grips. And I never got around to trading it in for a "nicer" one. I like this one and I like it just the way it is.


Thing is, I hadn't shot it in quite a while, being too busy paying with newer acquisitions or repairing and test-firing other firearms. But lately, every time I'd open up the gun safe to get something else, I'd see this old pal of mine and feel just a bit guilty for not taking it out and dirtying it up.

Well today, I remedied that. I got out on the range with Proud Hillbilly, and I brought just one pistol--this one. And even though I haven't shot it in what seems like forever, it still fit my hand like a comfortable old shoe fits your foot. Then the steel plates began to fall, and the dueling tree targets began to flip back and forth.


PH's Glock may hold more ammo than my 1911, but even she noted that the .45 slugs moved the steel with noticeably more "oomph" than her 9mm. But it's like I always say: 9mm is fine if you're just shooting Europeans, but if you want to put an American bad guy in the dirt, you need to use a .45. If you hit something with a .45, it stays hit.

Nice shooting you, old friend. And we won't go so long between range sessions again. I promise.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be a 1911!"

So sayeth my newest acquisition, an Iver Johnson TP-22 in .22lr.

A 7-shot DA/SA .22 that's small enough to fit in your pocket behind your wallet, it's a handy back-up pistol or primary carry piece for those situations in which you cannot carry a larger pistol.

Size-wise, it's about the same as a Ruger LCP. The ergonomics are similar to that of the Walther PPK. I've been known to carry each of those as well, so this is a nice addition to the armory. Actually it's a "re-addition" as I had one once about ten years ago and sold it when I needed money. I'd always regretted that because it was totally reliable with high-powered ammunition (CCI Mini-Mag or comparable rounds) and it was pretty shootable and accurate at surprising distances. I carried it on many backbacking trips because the weight penalty was easily justified by the fun factor.

Here it is again, shown with it's role model and my preferred carry piece for reference:Cute little sucker, ain't it? It gets test-fired tomorrow.

Of Dogs and Guns...

So early this afternoon, I step out onto my deck and literally trip over a box that had been set there without my knowledge by UPS.

Some watchdog I have, right?
Sigh...

I open the box, and I find a ton of bubble wrap around...a smaller box. I open that and it's filled with styrofoam peanuts. Digging through that, I find more bubble wrap.

I'm getting pissed now.

I slice all of the tape holding that together, and I find this:

Heck, I remember that pistol. It's my Argentine Colt Sistema Model 1927. The last time I saw it, it looked like this:
I sent it out in March for some work. That would be March of 2010. It's been gone thirteen months (don't get me started on that) but now it's back. And now it has a new deep charcoal parkerizing that's still seeping oil, a Wilson Combat ambidextrous safety, Trijicon night sights, and a trigger that breaks like a fine glass rod.

I'm liking this.

Quickly I grabbed a bag of ammo and my range bag and I headed off to the range for a test.

The plus side: It ran flawlessly, and it doesn't group--it just makes ragged multi-round holes in the target. Wow.

The downside: It's shooting a bit high. Not high enough to miss center mass on the evil-doers, but just high enough to keep me from using it for pistol matches or classes where the shooting has to be precise. I'll have to see if I can't get a taller front sight. Also, it's not ejecting the magazines with any real force. When I hit a mag release, I want to hear that mag hitting the ground every time. But that should be an easy fix.

Overall, color me happy with the pistol.

Now as for the watchdog...