Tag Archives: guns

Video – 1911 vs. M1 Carbine

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As you know, the M1 Carbine was never supposed to be a replacement for the M1 rifle. Rather, the purpose of the M1 Carbine was to give people who normally don’t carry a full-size rifle (radiomen, mortar crews, messengers, truck drivers, etc.) something more efficient than a pistol. Basically, the idea wasn’t to replace the M1 Rifle, the goal was to replace the 1911 pistol for people who would, normally, only be carrying a pistol.

The 1911, like any pistol really, is challenging to shoot well under stress. A carbine is way easier to handle and get hits with under stress. Gun Jesus ran an impromptu course using both a 1911 and an M1 Carbine and the results are interesting.

As Chuck Connors pointed out in virtually every episode of his show, a short carbine with a pistol cartridge at pistol ranges will outperform a pistol pretty often. This seems to answer the age-old question of ‘what good is a pistol caliber carbine’. Or..does it?

An M1 Garand is about ten pounds. The M1 carbine was about half that. Obviously, theres a tremendous weight advantage. But….a 9mm carbine like a 9mm AR is virtually the same weight as…a .223 AR. So you get virtually no advantage.

You could say, though, that a 9mm AR pistol would be more compact and lighter than a .223 AR carbine and you’d be right. But then you could also just carry a .223 AR pistol and be right back to zero.

So, comparing apples to apples…..AR platform to AR platform..is a zero-sum game it seems. But as mentioned, the M1 Carbine wasnt meant to replace the M1 Garand, it was meant to replace the pistol. So…what about when you compare the 9mm carbine against the pistol? Thats where things would change. But…since you can get your 9mm AR carbine in .223, why not just use your .223 carbine?

It’s an interesting mental exercise. Almost anything you can do with a 9mm carbine you can do with a .223 carbine, so why take the ballistic penalty of being in 9mm? I gotta say, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where a 9mm carbine is a better choice than an M4. Easy to suppress and marginally lower recoil but after that…………..?

Having said that, though…I still like my 9mm carbines. I especially like my Ruger PC Charger which is probably the only format (an arm-braced ‘pistol’) that gives an advantage over the M4..namely, compactness.

Anyway, an interesting video although I’m not sure the implications it suggests are as relevant in a world of M4 carbines that ape the M1 Carbine in terms of length and weight.

Savage Mk II extended mags

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Couple weeks ago I mentioned that there was a company making extended mags for the Savage Mk II series of bolt action rifles. Since I have one of these rifles tricked out for quietly introducing varmints into the afterlife, I decided to get a couple to try out. They arrived the other day and I finally got a chance to take them to the range.

Worked fine. They have a ‘parkerized’-type porous finish that, according to the manufacturer, needs to have its pores filled with brass from the .22 cartridges. Simply load the mag and then press the round at the top of the mag down a bit and let it come back up. Repeat this a few times and the stack of cartridges will rub some brass into the pores of the magazine. I did as described and…no problems.

Construction appears very good and I see no reason to think the mags won’t last as long as an OEM mag. However, as much as I really like my Savage, the logistics-minded part of me says I should probably get the Ruger version so I can use my hundreds of 10/22 mags.

But..I like my little Savage, its quite accurate, and I rather like it’s sharp looks with that forest camo Boyds laminate stock.

By the by, I’ve run all sortsa silencer-recommended ammo through this thing and the best ammo I’ve found so far are the Remington Subsonic HP. Yes, even over the Eley.

Anyway, if youve got aone of the Savages, and youre looking for something more than the 5- and 10-rounders, it looks like these are the way to go.

Link – Savage Mk II 20-rd mags

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Years ago I bought a Savage MkII as a suppressor host for my Silencerco Sparrow. And…awesome .22. But the stock was crap so I spent the cash and got a Boyds Tacticool which made this thing into a wonderful little varmint killer / sentry remover. Thing is, the gun uses a 5-round detachable mag, which is fine. And Savage makes a 10-round magazine which is also a good idea. But….why not something with a little more capacity. You know, for those times where theres a lot of somethings needing to be quietly introduced to a hollowpoint. The free market provides – Savage MK II 20rd magazine.

Figured I’ll get a couple and try them out.

By the by, I cannot say enough nice things about that Savage MkII FV-SR. I like it so much that I might have to pick up a TRR-SR. But, realistically, for logistics, I’d be better off with the Ruger Precision in .22 LR.

Mags will be here in a week. I’ll let you know how they go.

Marlin surgery

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Pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) are all the rage today. Why not? Yes, you lose ballistics performance but you gain streamlined logistics. Anyway, let’s recall that the original idea behind PCC’s was not to have a carbine that took the same mags as your Glock. No, the original idea was to have a carbine that took the same ammo as your Colt revolver. The genesis of the PCC goes back to the Colt Single Action and the iconic Win. ’73. A fella with a saddlebag full of .44-40 ammo could keep his rifle, pistol, and himself fed. Leverguns: the OG PCC.

I have a lovely Marlin 1894 in .357 and it’s a perfect companion to my GP-100’s. But…I wanted a little more horsepower. Time for a .44 Mag. And then I came across a nice Marlin in .44 Mag but it had one glaring little problem:

This … abberation… has no place on a rifle as otherwise magnificent as this old-style Marlin

A crossbolt safety on a hammered lever-action rifle is an affront to Crom, nature, and pre-litigious society. If you run around in the woods with a cocked hammer on your levergun you are, sir, a fool. It is no less and no more work to cock the hammer when ready to fire than it is to push an ugly, obtrusive crossbolt safety. This is why Marlins (and Winchesters) without the crossbolt safety bring more money than those that have them. So, you have an otherwise excellent, high-quality, Marlin rifle but it has the absurd crossbolt safety. Do you live with it? Slap an itty bitty o-ring on the ‘FIRE’ side of it to prevent accidentally setting it to SAFE? Or….do you….remove it.

Duh and/or hello…..you remove the worthless thing.

Several outfits offer replacement ‘plugs’ to get that stupid safety outta there. I went with this one which was suggested to me by fellow blogger Ryan. (How ya doin’, buddy!) It arrived today. Time for gun surgery.

First, know your enemy:

Know your exploded diagram as you know yourself and in a thousand disassemblies you will never be left with ‘extra’ parts. In this case, that v-groove is what keeps you from pushing the crossbolt completely through and out the other side of the receiver. There is a set screw, spring, and ball bearing that keeps it in place. Let’s get the stock off and find that set screw.

I think I can guess where to start looking. Under whatever crap that yellow stuff is, there lies our starting point. Let’s clean that crap out with a dental pick and get rolling.

Alright…back that thing out and be careful not to lose it. It’s tiny. There’s also a ball and spring in there. Get those too and don’t lose ’em. Once it’s out, push the crossbolt out the ‘SAFE’ side of the receiver (right side). You’ll be left a with a glaringly large hole in the side of your beautiful Marlin.

Take your replacement crossbolt and slide it in. You need to line up the little dent for the detent on the crossbolt with the hole for the set screw. Easiest way? Get crossbolt in place, look down set screwhole with bright flashlight, rotate crossbolt until detent lines up with hole. Firmly hold crossbolt in place and replace set screw tightly. Put stock back on gun and bask in the beauty:

And there you go. Not as pretty as if it had never had the stupid crossbolt safety, but miles better than still having it.

Hey, if you find this imformative or useful howabout kicking back a little something to yours truly?

Range time with PC Charger and an upgrade for the Roof Koreans

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Took the little Ruger PC Charger out for a spin yesterday. Holy Drokk, it is fun!

But, we ain’t here for fun, son….we’re here to gear up against the unknown future. So..how’d it shoot in regard to that? Let’s review….

I only put fifty rounds of S&B 115 FMJ though it, using ETS happysticks, but of that fifty I had 0 malfs. Everything fed, fired, and flew just fine. I had  low hopes for the red dot Bushnell because, honestly, I’ve never really thought of myself as a red dot kinda guy and have no experience with them. As it turns out, it performed quite well. Got it sighted in and was ringing the 6″ plate at 50 yards with regularity.

The SB ‘brace’ (aluminum model) worked fine. One of the gun review sites had problems with theirs on the Ruger saying that the direct blowback caused a rear-and-downward recoil impulse that would unlock the folding mechanism on the brace. Not a problem for me since I prefer my stocks to fold to the right, so I had mounted the brace bracket upsidedown and reattached the arm. As a result, any rear-and-downward motion actually locks the thing up more. No problem.

Whats the purpose of this thing? For me, its pretty simple. When I roll into the office and tuck my Bag O’ Tricks under the desk I want to have a compact little ‘carbine’ with mag commonality with my Glock pistol for those days when things have gone so far sideways that just a pistol might not be enough to keep things calm. LA Riot type stuff.

So, thus far, with a very limited amount of range time, I rather like this thing. I need to dump a few hundred more rounds through it but so far I like it and I like the possibilities it opens up for me in terms of a handy little PDW-style gun that can travel quite well. It’s an absolute shame that Ruger was hamstrung for so many years by Billy Ruger and his Fuddness. Ruger clearly has some talented engineers and idea guys over there and the results of them getting let off the leash once in a while have been rather cool.

Speaking of LA Riots, we all know, love, and respect the Roof Koreans, right? Well, in (S.) Korea they take it to a whole new level:

Roof Korea is best Korea

Floor porn

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Oh merciful Crom, this thing is *cute*. I have always wanted a little 9mm carbine that would break down into a tiny package. Not as a first choice to Omega Man my way through some darkened city, but rather as a low-profile, easy-to-hide-in-a-desk-drawer option for when you’re at work when the riots start. Chuck a little red dot (leaning toward that TRS-25) on there, drop in a happystick, and you’re good to go.

I gotta hand it to Ruger, this is the sort of thing they never would have come out with when Billy Sr. was still breathing. This thing is lighter than my Uzi, and more compact than my Evo. I’m really curious to see how that short barrel does in terms of accuracy on steel plates at 50 yards.

And, yes, this thing really needs a suppressor on the end just to complete the look.

D’oh Canada

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Canada, a country almost entirely made of Nerf, has decided to ban ‘assault weapons’. Their list is pretty comprehensive, including some things that I had no idea were in common use…like mortars and grenade launchers. Anyway, here’s a link to the list of guns that are banned by name.

One thing that was quite interesting, and that you should expect to see our own domestically produced idiots put forward, is that the regulations also include a prohibition on AR upper receivers..

The Regulations also prescribe the upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15 and M4 pattern firearms to be prohibited devices in order to ensure that these firearms can-not easily be used with illicitly manufactured or acquired lower receivers. The M16, AR-10, AR-15 and M4 firearms are modular firearms consisting of the lower receiver assembly, which is the component bearing the serial number and subject to registration and that is now prohibited; and the upper receiver assembly, which is the pressure- bearing component and has not previously been regulated.
Not sure how you enforce such a regulation on a previously unregulated part, but I’ve no doubt some sort of awkward and unworkable solution will be put forth. As Tam says, ignorance is no excuse for a law.
The dog-shooting thugs at ATFE have, in the past, managed to prohibit previously non-regulated parts (which is why parts kits no longer come with barrels) so I suppose they could possibly make it stick.
What I can totally see happening, in light of the rather awkward realization that an AR lower receiver is not actually a receiver, is ATFE requiring upper/lower receivers to be numbered and ‘mated’.
One day, guys, it’s gonna happen.

Awesome deal on Leupold VX-R Patrol Scope

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A while back I bought a Ruger MPR (which I highly recommend) and needed to put a scope on it. After a lot of thought, I went with the Leupold VX-R Patrol 1.25×4 30mm tube scope. That scope, which I really like, has been discontinued. But…I think it’s a great scope.

Midway apparently has a few in stock that they are blowing out and there’s a discount code there to get you a free Leupold Mark AR 1-Piece Picatinny-Style Mount with Integral Rings.

Price? Scope + free mount + free shipping = $369

From Midway. You are seriously missing the boat if you pass up this deal.

A PDW for Cub Scouts

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Right place, right time = Silver Maples at spot + $3. That kinda made my day, along with gas being $1.99.

The Ruger Charger is, basically, a 10/22 pistol. Ruger makes a couple different flavors of them and I have a takedown one of them. But…it’s kind of an unusual piece…specifically: what is it good for? It’s a ‘handgun’ only the broadest sense, it’s not as handy as a rifle, it’s bulky, and I can’t foresee too many shooting scenarios where it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Except one. (And if you’ve read my blog for a number of years, I think you can see where this is going to wind up.)

A month or so back, I came across this at a somewhat reasonable price:

Now, as is, this thing wasn’t terribly useful to me. But the free market abhors a vacuum and I know there are several aftermarket  vendors who can help me capitalize on the modularity of the 10/22 system. This chasis from Enoch was pretty much exactly what I was looking for…slots for Mlok, takes any AR pistol grip, has QD sling attachment points on either side, and just looks cool AF. Ordered it online and:

Note that at the back of the chasis, in addition to QD sling holes, there is a section of pic rail. Hmm…now, what could possibly mount onto that?

Yup. A little ‘wrist brace’ to make things…uhm…bracier? Available with either an aluminum or polymer strut, I opted for the spendier aluminum because apocalypse.Let’s get that puppy on there and see what we get.

By the power of greyskull!………….

And, yes, that is in fact a four-cell chest rig for 10/22 mags. No, I don’t wanna talk about it.

Thats a 10″ barrel on there, and I might throw on a shorter one. The final goal? Well, I kinda wanted a little .22 PDW-style gun that could fit in a backpack. The regular 10/22 takedown would do the job but I wanted the short-barrel option. I’ll be losing that crappo dot scope and replacing it with something a little higher quality.

Oh, and before anyone comments, the folded brace does clear the ejection port. The angle of the photo makes it look like it doesn’t, but thats just bad camera angles doing the talking. The brace originally folded to the left but since I want to be able to hang this thing on my right side from a QD sling I swapped some parts around and made it a right-side folder. Handy, that.

This was a little project I’d been playing with in my mind for a while and when the opportunity came up, I decided to run with it. It is massively economically a bad idea. If you want a compact 10/22 to tuck in a bag, go buy a TD 10/22 and get the Magpul backpacker stock. I was kinda in love with the idea of a PDW-style 10/22 ‘pistol’ and this is what I came up with…impractical, sure, but it’ll be fun to play with. And, who knows, in certain circumstances it might be just what the doctor ordered. Especially if I get the shorter barrel and put my Sparrow suppressor on the end.

Stock options

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Well, other than deadly pathogens floating in the air, it was pretty nice the other day so why not take a trip to the range? Gun du jour? The PTR-91 GI model. Merciful Crom, it is a thunderous hammer of righteousness. There is no two ways about it – it’s heavy. But it shoots everything I feed it, and I was able to ring the 100-yd 8″ gong with pretty good regularity. The .308 AR-10 is probably a better choice in every regard (weight, ergonomics, availability, etc.) but dang if that heavy hunk of sheet metal doesn’t inspire confidence.

Realistically though…a little .223 carbine is hard to beat. And speaking of .223 carbine….

Cue the music………

Ta-da! Yes, it is the repro of the classic Ruger GB folding stock…made famous by a crack commando unit that was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. The folks who make this stock called me the other day to tell me it was on the way. Being a fabulously nosey person I asked what the backstory was. As it turned out, the company (Samson) had a pre-existing relationship with Ruger, making parts for them or somesuch. One of the Samson employees kept hassling Ruger to bring back the folding stock for the Mini-14. Ruger kept blowing the guy off, telling him that no one was interested, the Mini was a dated design that wasn’t really selling very well anyway, etc, etc. Finally, to shut the guy up, Ruger gave them the moulds and told them to go make it. Samson put out a pre-order and the response was far greater than what Ruger had imagined it would be. So…with Rugers blessing (and, it was hinted, some licensing fees) Samson picked up the torch and is now making the original Ruger folder stock. But, enough history…let’s drop it on a Mini-14 and get on the jazz.

No lie, I giggled like an idiot after this stock was on. Started whistling the A-Team theme and didn’t stop the whole time I wrote this post.

I’ll be the first to say it, when push comes to shoot, I’d rather have a little AR carbine than the Mini-14. The AR is more accurate, better ergonomics, better sights, better triggers, more modular, cheaper mags, etc, etc. But, there is just something about the Mini-14 that says ‘truck gun’ without going too Burt Gummer. This thing will most likely become a range toy or safe queen. Although…it might become a ‘truck gun’ for under the seat with a half dozen magazines. Telll you what though…I can’t wait to take this to the range and see the looks from people who either a) never knew Mini-14’s had stocks like this or b) people who haven’t seen one in thirty years.

And if you think that’s cute, wait’ll you see the itty-bitty baby PDW I’m putting together later this week.