Friday, July 30, 2010

Damnit, Charter Arms!

So, Charter Arms has now pulled all mentions of the Charter Arms Rimless Revolver off of their website.

So, this joins the league of Vapor-Ware guns that I have fallen for and they never got produced. Like the Remington/Spartan SxS double rifle. I wanted one of those in .45-70, and one in 7.62x39.

Hint to gun manufacturers- If you announce it at SHOT- At LEAST do one production run.

"Class III" is not cheap

A while ago, I won $700 and dedicated that cash to go to buying a suppressor. Everything I read and heard was "It's easy!" Supposedly, all you do is get a Trust, fill out some paperwork, mail it all off to the BATFE with a $200 check, wait a few months, and Ta-DAH! You have a suppressor!

So, I get with the guys at Major Malfunction and figure out for my needs that a pistol caliber suppressor will get me the most 'suppressed bang' for the buck. I'll be able to fit it to all sorts of stuff and use one can for a whole pile of guns in my safe. I go for the Yankee Hill Machine Cobra M2 .45 caliber suppressor. It is the only one in this price range that can be disassembled for cleaning, which means I can use it (with the right threaded barrel and adapter) on things from .22LR up through .45ACP. Awesome.

My Can, or one just like it:


So, I pay $499 for the suppressor. It gets shipped to my local Class III dealer, Chuck's Class III, and I fill out the paperwork and send in my $200 check to the BATFE.

I start trying to decide what is going to get threaded, and in what order. I want to make sure that once I have that tax stamp, I am going to go shoot THAT FREAKING DAY.

I figure these are the ones I want to have the option to mount the suppressor on:
1911, Glock 22, CZ-75, Uzi Carbine, the Wife's Walther P22, Ruger 10-22, Marlin Camp Carbine, Kel Tec Sub 2000 carbine. And I'm sure there will be more.

I come up with another oddball idea, as well. You know that I mentioned that Rossi Ranch Hand a while ago? Well, wouldn't that be freaking cool if you could figure out a way to mount the suppressor on there? I find a company that can do such things by fitting a barrel extension on the gun- Tornado Technologies. Why suppress that? Because no one else has. And the conventional wisdom is that you CAN'T suppress a .357 Mag handgun because of the Barrel/ cylinder gap on revolvers. Well, this .357 Mag Pistol does not have a B/C gap, so- Nyah. I guess from looking at their price list that it would be about $150. Kinda expensive, but this is custom.

Then I start pricing barrels for the pistols- Holy Crap! They are more expensive then the tax stamp! The cheapest is a Lone Wolf barrel for the Glock 22, and that is $140 plus shipping and a thread protector. The ones for the 1911 and CZ-75 are all $240+

So, here is the math:
Can- $499
Tax- $200
Transfer Fee- $50
3 Month Wait- FREE!
Cheapest threaded barrel- $140

So this will be $889 to just suppress the Glock. Damn. This is NOT the hobby for the impatient or the thrifty.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Recoil- .45 Colt and .454 Casull

Took the Ruger Super Redhawk .454 Casull to the range yesterday. I happened to have the trusty Flip Video camcorder with me, so I loaded up one round of .45 Colt and one of .454 Casull and let fly.

Here is the gun:


And here is the video of the recoil differences firing one handed:


MI2Tall fired 2 rounds, and while he did not find recoil intolerable, his middle knuckle got beat by the back of the trigger guard. He liked the .45 Colt loads, though.

I have a couple of vids on MI2Tall firing the Scoped Marlin .44Mag that I'll try and upload later.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Great thoughts on carrying Ruger wheelguns

Over at the Revolver Liberation Alliance

Guess I need to add a GP-100 to the short list.

Or get the 4" Barreled .44 Mag Redhawk. For Daily carry, of course.