Was at the courthouse again today and noticed one of the sheriffs detectives with a 1911. Seems like half the guys carry 1911 and the other half carry Glocks. The sheriffs departement is ‘dealers choice’. Within certain parameters you can carry what you want. The particular 1911 I saw hanging off a guys hip was so eye-catching I asked him if I could take a picture. He said sure, led me into his office and he laid it out on the chair for me to take a picture of:

Is that style or what? Get past the absolutely stunning ivory (real) grips and you get MMC sights (old school!), extended beavertail, frontstrap checkering, adjustable trigger, what appears to be a bushingless barrel, etc, etc.

Those guys in the sheriff’s department do like their guns.

No time to shoot the automag but it’ll happen this weekend.

As you may know, my wife works in law enforcement. As a result, I spend a little time hanging around the cop shop and that sort of thing. I sometimes help the individual officers when theyre looking to buy/sell a gun or have gun-related questions.

I was at the courthouse today and ran into the sheriff, whom we affectionately refer to as “The Moustache”. (He has an awesome handlebar moustache that is probably wider than his head.) The Moustache and I were talking guns and it went like this:

Moustache: Yeah, I’ve got a [gun] that I bought from a guy years back. He had three of them and one that belonged to my dad, so he sold that one to me.

Me: Thats awesome. I’ve always wanted to shoot one but they’re hard to find and ammo wasnt a walk in the park either. Next time you take it out to the range, let me know. I’d love to add it to my resume of guns I’ve shot.
Moustache: Sure.

The Moustache continues on his way down the hallway, doing, I assumed, his sheriff duties and all that. A half hour later Im still sitting outside the courtroom when the elevator doors open and The Moustache steps out of the elevator with a plastic ammo box and a pistol rug in his hands.

Moustache: Here.
Me: Oh, man. You went home, got this and came back? No way!
Moustache: Have fun. Its a bit complicated to takedown so don’t worry about cleaning it.
Me: I will take exceptional care of this! Thank you!

And thats how I came into temporary possession of this:

Yes, indeedy…the .44 AutoMag. In city hall, outside a courtroom, the sheriiff walks up to me, hands me an AutoMag and 50 rounds of ammo, says ‘have fun’ and walks away like nothing just happened. Is this state awesome or what?

Our sheriff also has his own personal collection of supressed and short-barreled goodies, so when the ATF form requires the chief of local law enforcement to sign off on it…well, the most difficult part is not spending a half hour jawboning about cool guns with him.

We loves us our local sheriff! Solid guy with values like ours. A+++++ would vote again!

Oh the things you find on Amazon. Solvent Trap Adapter 1/2-28 3/4-16

Clearly whomever polices Amazon’s website hasn’t quite figured out these little geegaws. Ostensibly, the purpose of them is to prevent solvent spray when you’re cleaning the barrel of your gun. You thread this onto the end of your barrel and screw a capture/containment system, an oil filter usually, on the end of the barrel. When the bristle brush exits the muzzle the filter catches the spray of particulate and solvent, thereby keeping things neat and clean. And, in fact, this is exactly what happens.

But there’s always that creative group out there that thinks outside the box (which in this case might lead to thinking inside the cell) and re-purposes products like these. (A YouTube search for “solvent trap” comes up with some interesting results.) There’s an outfit that is actually selling these with the necessary regulatory procedures in place, but there appear to be more than a few that not. This looks like one of those ‘grey areas’ that aren’t going to look too terribly grey to someone with a badge and a federal paycheck. I doubt the “I just had it for cleaning purposes” excuse is gonna work.

Couple this with the recent tempest-in-a-teapot about 3D-printed guns and you can see that where there’s a will, theres a way. I don’t really understand the fuss about the 3D guns…its been legal for a long time to build your own non-NFA firearm. I suppose the fact that previously you needed rudimentary equipment (usually) kept the pool of homebrew gunbuilders fairly small. After all, Leroy The Gangbanger wasn’t terribly likely to have a bridgeport mill set up in his garage and know how to wire weld. And, really, its equally unlikely he’s gonna drop the money for a 3D printer to make a singleshot zip gun that would be made easier, faster, and safer out of a couple pieces of pipe and a nail.

While I can appreciate the DIY ability to create a firearm or firearm accessory out of virtually nothing but what you find in a scrapyard, there is no substitute for the genuine purpose-built article. But its nice to know that if the powers that be get really out of control and start swinging the banhammer with too much enthusiasm there’ll always be a way to get something that goes bang.

As an aside, that slamfire pipe-shotgun appears to be the same kind that was used in the over-the-top Death Wish 3. (And its a guilty pleasure but…that was one of my favorite Death Wish movies.)

Well, nuts…..for a deal like this, wouldn’t you have picked up a buncha these too? (Real deal, not the Korean stuff.) Normally, I’d just stick with the usual 30-rd aluminum mags. Theyre plentiful, theyre affordable and theyre usually pretty reliable. But, I guess that there might be a time when a couple magazine changes just aren’t in the cards and having a hundred rounds on tap might be a good thing…in which case I think I’d rather do that mag dump out of a piston gun rather than a DI gun, but thats a whole other post.

Realistically, though, I’m just picking these up for future resale value. (Of course, if the world just hapens to end before I get a chance to sell ‘em…well…guess I’ll just have to use ‘em on the zombies.)

I remember during the ban years these things were north of $600. Ah, the old days.

I have always had the attitude that if a gun is cheap enough, buy it. Even if you don’t need it or want it, buy it. Why? Because someday there will be a buddy who is desperate for a gun, or you’ll need something that you dont care about getting lost or stolen, or we may experience a firearmageddon where people will pay an insane amount for anything with a trigger. So, lotsa reasons.

And thats why I actually bought, off all things, a SW9VE today. You may recall it as the S&W “Sigma”*. This gun is widely believed to have been S&W’s worst attempt at making an autoloader since…well, actually up to that point all S&W autos kinda sucked. The Smeg..uh..Sigma…did nothing to change that record. In fact, S&W aped the Glock so hard that Glock smacked ‘em in court and won. Smith eventually redeemed themselves with the M&P series, and the Sigma, rebranded as the SW9VE, wound up being issued to various indigenous armed police and military units in Afghanistan, thereby further increasing the likelihood they’ll continue to hate us.

The gun is actually not that terrible. Grip is kinda comfy, and it seems to handle well. The trigger pull will break most trigger pull gauges…I’ve had stapleguns with better triggers. There’s a proprietary accessory rail that isn’t going to make any friends, and the sights are Glock-y plastic.

But…these things were cheap, cheap, cheap. Even brand new they were in the $300-400 range. Even cheaper than the Glock (although, really, Id much rather have the Glock.) But I’d been looking for a reasonably well-made 9mm to keep in the truck or under the counter at the shop…something I wouldnt care if it got dirty, rusty, stolen or confiscated…and for $225 this seemed like a good choice.

And then..just as my bank card was starting to cool down…in walks one of my customers who spends his winters in Arizona buying guns. He walks in and has a cloth sack full of Cool Stuff ™. First off, an absolutely mint Mauser .32 ACP. Mint. Mint, mint, mint. Not a scratch. Same for a Colt 1903 .380 that looked easily 99.9%..pretty good for a gun that dated to 1933. Then a pair of Ruger Vaquero .44′s…one 5″ one 7″. And then a tiny little Beretta Minx, ca. 1966, in the original box. Oy. I took the Rugers and the Beretta. I’ll unload the Minx on GunBroker to anyone who collects pre-68 pocket guns, and I’ll lose the 7″ Vaquero as well. Hopefully make enough to pay for the 5″ that I’ll keep.

I think today may have been a record for me in terms of gun purchases.

* = SIGMA: Smith Imitating Glock, Made in America

Remember, the normal price is a buck a round so its a bargain when .223 is ninety cents a round!

I’m tellin’ ya, gang…I went through this in ’94, ’99, and ’08, but this panic is  resetting the bar.

This is why, years ago, when buying ammo I purchased it in large quantities. And, as usual in these matters, I was way ahead of the curve.

When it comes to the legislative weasels in Washington on gun control, Yogi Berra summed it up: It aint over, ’till it’s over.

Sure, it may look like a non-starter right now. But all it takes is a little media manipulation, some backroom political shenanigans, a couple distorted facts, and some emotional blackmail to generate another absurd attempt at nonsense ‘common sense’ gun ‘control’

So why take chances? I sat through the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban wondering where my next mag was coming from. Ain’t doin’ it again. BT;DT; GTTS.

Thus:

Twenty-five Butler Creek steel-lip mags ready to be socked away for that rainy decade. The only reason I got a case of 25 was because I couldnt afford 50. Or 100.

Gun show this weekend. Came close to picking up a few new Ruger 10/22′s but managed to keep my head together. Saw not one, not two, but THREE genuine HK-91 rifles floating around the show. Cheapest was $2500, most expensive (admittedly NIB) was $6000. If I’m paying $6000 for a twenty-some-odd year old gun it better go another notch past ‘SEMI’. The $2500 one was tempting, but, really, other than a bit of prestige, the PTR does pretty much the same thing.

Ammo was at the bargain price of ninety cents a round for .223. I decided to be a bastard and add to the fire by putting some bricks of .22 on my buddy’s table at $60 ea. We’ll see if anyone bites.

Mag availability is much better and pricing is coming down. Plenty of AR mags for around $25. AR’s were out as well, although prices are still over a grand. Very few of the ‘cheap’ guns like AK variants and that sorta thing. Glocks were also a little thin and overpriced when found. (Some crack-smoker had $550 on a Gen2 G17 that looked like it did an entire career bouncing around in a cop holster. Not worth more than $400 in my opinion.

Bargains? Not a one. But, despite that, it was a bit promising to see AR rifles and mags leaving the stratosphere and returning to earth.

ETA: Took the money from 4 bricks of .22 and used it to get a brand new 10/22. So, basically, I traded 4 bricks of .22 into a rifle. Awesome. Annnnnnd….a NIB-ish Beretta 92 (with accessory rail) with 4 mags, although I had to do a little gun trading for that. Might pick up another 10/22 if I can swing it.