A Gun in the House

The purpose of fighting is to win.
There is no possible victory in defense.
The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more importantthan either.
The final weapon is the brain.
All else is supplemental.
As John Steinbeck once said:
1. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'lljust kill you.
2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.
3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.
5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporterrecognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why doyou carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.'
6. An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.
7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented onhis wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are youexpecting trouble?' 'No Ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would havebrought my rifle.'
8. Beware the man who only has one gun. HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!

But wait, there's more!I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said Idid.
She said 'Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!'To which I said, of course it is loaded, can't work without bullets!'She then asked, 'Are you that afraid of some one evil coming into yourhouse?'My reply was, 'No not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too.
'To which I'll add, having a gun in the house that isn't loaded is likehaving a car in the garage without gas in the tank.
I'm a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment! If you are too, please forward.

The post said "Please Forward",

done.

Short Guns I have known 2

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This is the big daddy of the collection. A Dan Wesson .44 Mag with an eight inch barrel. This is reported to be one of the worlds most accurate handguns out of the box. That might be PR but they have some impressive stats to back it up.
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I am by no means the best hand gun shot in town, but I'm better than most, and this gun is way better than I can make it perform. A ransom rest is needed to really put it through it's paces, but with practice I can hit a quarter sized bull at 25 yards regularly.

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These pistols were manufactured with interchangeable barrels, they come with a clearance shim

and a barrel wrench. The cylinder to cone gap is adjustable as is the tension on the barrel.

Which brings us back to the design claims. Supposedly the barrel being under tension makes the vibrations that occur as a bullet passes through the barrel more consistent. Additionally the forward locking cylinder crane gives better alignment with the forcing cone.

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When I bought the pistol, from a friend with a FFL, I picked it up late at night, and before work the next morning I returned it with a list of ten items I was dissatisfied with. He returned it to Dan Wesson who said they would do what they could. "What they could" turned out to be a trip to the company gunsmith shop for the full treatment, trigger, springs honing and smoothing the internal parts. The checkered hammer strikes a transfer bar, as you probably know this arrangement makes for a very safe weapon with the hammer down. Single action trigger pull is about three pounds, double is about ten. It is with out doubt the easiest to shoot of all my pistols. Dan and company believed in customer service.

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This is a six round rumble of thunder. I scoped it at one time, but couldn't shoot it as well with optics (I know, old dog, new trick), so I went back to iron sights, so it will remain.

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It may not be obvious, but the weapon is huge. It needs to be, recoil is impressive. If I allow

some one to fire it, they are required to wear a ball cap for the first few rounds, to ensure the vent rib doesn't split their head open. With a little instruction the cannon is easily controlled and somewhat pleasant to shoot, in an arm numbing kind of way.

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It has Pachmayer grips and a red front sight blade. The sight blades are interchangeable.

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Just in case anyone wondered, it is neither a concealed carry piece nor is it a home defence piece, that would be if you didn't care to shoot through the walls and hit a neighbor. Other wise feel free, if you miss, the concussion from the muzzle blast may knock your adversary unconscious or the muzzle blast might toast the critter on the spot.

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They will for sure need a new laundry person.

Busy day yesterday....

Signed my contract, spent an hour looting for my spotting scope, didn't find it until about nine last night,

Figured out that all my cases for the guns were at the storage unit (rats) !

The boys came over a little early and we loaded up, we took about Four hundred dollars worth of ammo and a truck load of guns to the range.

I keep a stock of belts, holsters, ear plugs, targets, and my cleaning kit is a huge tackle box.

We had four long guns and eight pistols.


Even though a shot from some of those guns amounts to throwing two dollars on the fire, we had a blast.

I am secure in my position as family marksman, I can still out shoot the boys. The entertainment industry continues to have a disastrous effect on marksmanship. I did some coaching and demonstration, to good effect.


Two of the rifles fire vastly different calibers at about the same velocity. The big bore is three times as heavy per bullet as the smaller. Each has a target style scope with large turrets for adjustment.

I like to shoot long distance.


The bowing to the master started when I started calling my shots and picking clothespins off the line at a hundred yards, with a .300 Winmag. That's not up to my previous standard, but I'm going to work on that. Most of our long distance shooting was done with a .223 with a heavy stainless barrel, much easier on the shoulder.

The final shot sealed the deal, I called the pin and centered the pin and the rebar it was pinned to with the first shot.


The son-in-law was suitably impressed.

Short guns I have known 6

This is my competition piece, when I used to compete. It's a S&W 686 with a six inch barrel, in .357. The Packmyer grips soften the recoil and give a nice, soft, consistent grip.

I used to shoot a S&W 66 Combat Masterpiece with a four inch barrel. We (the ex and I) had fired tens of thousand rounds of .38 through it and were capable of shooting a perfect score on her qualification course. Her security company had started shooting competition against the two other plants on her system. In the course of practicing for the matches, their supervision decided to sponsor some friendly competition against any challengers.

I organised a team and set up a match or several. Life being what it is, we were constantly changing people to make up our five shooters. Eventually it turned into a free for all.
One of the people who showed up with gun and holster in hand to show his ability was my friend and shooting buddy from the sheriffs office. He shot on the sheriffs team in their state competition. He failed to excel because he shot a group tight enough to be one ragged hole and the judge wouldn't count anything but a cut hole on the paper. He carried a 686. I fired it one round and decided to get one for the ex to shoot.

The action was good and the solid heavy feel was very comfortable. The under barrel lug makes it nose heavy and helps it point well. It was one of those weapons that you know on the first shot, it will do well.

Being in a competitive frame of mind can get expensive. The first add on was a Safari Land clam shell holster, spring loaded speed loaders came next. The final tune up was a trip down to Fast Freddie Floyd for an action job. Fred is quite the unique character. He put in competition trigger springs for a lighter trigger pull, polished the inner surfaces for smoothness and retimed the action. Retimeing is more tedious and less technical than it sounds. Some parts are a few thousandths different than the next, if you change them out with other pieces, you eventually get a revolver that has locked up the cylinder before the hammer falls.

We shot the contents of a small lead mining operation thorough this piece with complete satisfaction. When I was in practice, I could put twelve rounds in the "X" ring in thirteen seconds.

OK, that was from the seven yard line. Go out and beat that with a revolver and tell me how easy it is.

Short Guns I have known 5

This is one of those serious pieces, it is as you can see a Ruger P89 in 9mm. Stainless of course. I picked this weapon for two very good reasons, price and it was runner up in the competition to replace the Govt. Issue 1911.

If you are a Navy SEAL, runner up means first loser. To the rest of the world it means almost as good and in this case $200 bucks cheaper than the winner.

I didn't like the winner anyway because the barrel has no guide cone that will align the sights and the bore. That's right your M92f barrel will wiggle like a belly dancer and the sights don't move.

The P89 loads 15 and 1, it has the double action trigger pull that you would expect, and a fair to good single action trigger. I like the decocker safety, just get the hammer down and put it back in the fire position. To this date it has functioned well with everything that will fit in the clip, Isralei, Russian, Winchester, round nose, hollow point, it doesn't care.

Unfortunately, this pistol, like most close tolerance pistols is a warm weather weapon. If you get busy and it warms up quickly, it will very likely fail to go into battery. I highly recommend if you have a new pistol test it! Spare yourself a nasty surprise at the worst possible moment!

What more need be said? Four clips for this and a pump shot gun, and we ready to party!

A long time ago I had some body armor and web gear built. I could choose between a pistol and rifle, or a pistol and shotgun combination. No one carrys both rifle and shotgun for CQC. I chose the shotgun and pistol. Now I can carry 61 rounds of 9mm and 18 rounds of 12ga, thats 547 pellets, if you can't negotiate a settlement with that, call your cousins.

Short guns I have known 4

This weapon is my carry piece. Although it looks like a Walther it is a Sig P230SS. The .380 I load it with is a Hornaday hollow point. The seven round clip with one in the chamber puts me one ahead of the revolver in most cases. There is an indicator that pops out, with a red dot, to show that there is something in the chamber. This is an old design with a hammer and a decocking lever. The hammer is blocked until the trigger is pulled preventing the accidental firing of the pistol. I have no clue as to how robust the block might be. I hope to never be unlucky enough to test this component. The slide will lock back at the last round, as most autos, and must be released manually when reloaded. It's double action, with a long, relatively smooth trigger pull of ten pounds or so.

I have always been a fan of James Bond, and the Walther PPKS was a natural choice when searching for a carry pistol. I found this one in a pawn shop after a relatively long, for me, search. I asked the shop owner, by phone, if he had a Walther. He said he did and he said he was ready to sell this one because it had been in the case long enough. The price was no more than some weapons of lesser quality. I still thought it was a Walther, until I held it i my hand. A Sig was the only brand I would have accepted other than a PPKS. As far as I can tell it had never been fired.

The rounded edges make it nice to carry, the stainless frame and slide with plastic grips renders it fairly immune to weather and sweat.

The down side, small as it is, would be the fixed sights. That is a small thing to worry about in something that is unlikely to be used for sniping.

Again with the extra clip, if I can't settle the issue, or get running room with the ammo I carry, I need to go back to the range.

Short guns I have known 3

This particular little piece epitomises my ideal hand gun, cheap to shoot, reliable, accurate to a fault, and fun. It is a Ruger MKII, as you can see, with a six inch heavy barrel, in stainless.

This is an old design, some one knows the release date, I don't, sometime in the forty's or fifty's, for the MKI. It's an updated classic. The heavy barrel is pretty much pointless, except to make it look cool and point better,(I seriously believe most guns are more accurate than most shooters). The stainless is for me because I'm a lazy bastard and don't enjoy cleaning guns.

It comes with two ten shot clips and adjustable sights.

This piece was developed when someone was on the bandwagon, with cheaper, not less quality. The round upper frame and bolt help manufacturing processes because drilling is less expensive and faster than milling. Some of the parts are stampings.
Those alone would keep the price down. It has a passing resemblance to the grease gun and the Sten.

The down side is it's sensitivity to ammo. This one will not fire a Remington round reliably. I have several thousand rounds of Remington .22, and of course wondered why that could be. A .22 is a .22, isn't it?

Actually, the answer would be "no", there are details. The minor differences in chamber diameter, the minor differences in swaging dies, the coating and type of bullet lube, can and sometimes will, add up to one or two thousandths of an inch of diameter. That means the additive error can cause the slide to fail to lock up.

The answer is Federal ammo. It has, so far, never failed to load as it should. It has a slightly smaller diameter, .002 if I remember correctly.

This pistol is the favorite of all the females in my house, light, simple, low to no recoil, and you can put ten rounds down range before the brass from the first stops rolling.

There are good arguments to promote the MkI and II as self defense weapons.
1) The only way to shoot good is to shoot a lot.
2) Can't shoot a lot if it's too expensive.
3) You won't practice if it hurts too much.
4) If you can hit what you shoot at, anything will work. If you can't hit the target nothing will work. Training and practice will help you under pressure. (see one through three)

Someone out there will snort something about bullet weight and velocity and retained energy and mag capacity. Well, all that is true, but if you need fifteen rounds to dissuade someone from stupidity, it ain't self defence, it's a fire fight! You need to go back to the range. If you get the chance.

A certain fact is if I put three rounds from this pistol in your chest, or one in your Adam's apple, the judge will only have me to listen to, unless your family shows up.

My paternal grandfather carried one of these and would shoot squirrels on the way home from work, so dinner would be fresh.

Short Guns I have Known 1

I would like to preface this series by saying, although I'm a certified instructor and a life long gun nut, I am not a know-it-all. I have shot many different weapons, I reserve the right to fire any hand gun that is new to me, when I teach a fire arms class. I get around a little, in some odd groups, some military, some police, and know a couple of murderous bastards who always have something nasty in their pocket. I am always interested in new things to shoot. I've had the chance to shoot hand guns ranging from a river boat gamblers break top .38SW revolver to the newest Walther 9mm. That doesn't cover everything by any means, but it's a good sample.

These weapons are all legally owned.

The pistol pictured above is a Jennings / Bryco .22 semi auto. It is the Saturday night special everyone is terrified of. It cost the grand sum of $65. The weapon is a lot of fun to shoot. It comes with two clips that hold seven shots each. It is surprisingly accurate considering the cast in place sights, the twenty or so pounds of ragged trigger pull, and the totally inadequate grips. With the use of carefully managed trigger control, one can hit regularly a three inch circle ten or so feet away. Not a tack driver, but if you sit on someones chest and stick it up their nose, entirely adequate for self defence. The body silencer position is also adequate. I know people who have shot these things to death, the top of the slide completely worn through. Like I said a lot of fun to shoot.

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I bought this on on the recommendation of a retired SF type who made the statement, "I like these because if you ever have to use it, you just kick it under a coke machine and it will never be found, you just report it stolen."

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As I said odd circles.

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This gun can be easily covered by my double extra lovely hands, however, as it has three moving parts and a plastic safety, there isn't enough money readily available to persuade me to stick it in my pocket.

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There are some places that a tourniquet just wouldn't do!

The classic my Dad always wanted.

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My Dad was always a good shot. When the weapon came to his shoulder it seemed to align and fire on it's own, an instinctive very quick shot.

We never had very much and what there was went to the needs of the many rather than the wants of a few. Dad always wanted to hunt deer. He never had the tools for the job until he was unable to take to the field. He horse traded for this classic model 94 Winchester in 30-30, like there was any other choice. When he passed away it came to me. I particularly like the darkening of the finish, and the compact feel it has.

I've seen and handled many of these rifles over the years, from an octagonal barreled 30WCF, with a serial number that was slightly over 10K, to some of the latest, and some of the "collectible" series, none of them have that feeling of solid quality.

The 30-30 is a one hundred yard rifle. It will do a lot out to that distance, then the rainbow trajectory makes marksmanship way to chancy. A 150 gr bullet at about 1800 to 2200 fps and a top eject limit it's usefulness to thin skinned stuff that doesn't bite. I know you can get heavier bullets and you could hunt anything with it, but that would not be wise considering the choices available and the consequences of inadequate power.

Even with all the short comings, relative to modern cartridges, this is still a great gun. It is an icon, and a tool that no one can turn their nose up at.

The best deer rifle I own!

This will continue the list of rifles I really enjoy.

It started life as an 1896 Krag-Jorgenson Mauser in 6.5 X 55. This lively little round launches a 140gr bullet at a comfortable 2700 fps, if I remember right. It is a favorite because you can shoot all day and the only thing it hurts is your pocket, and that no more than any other.

We have a local gunsmith that loves his work enough that he doesn't overcharge for it. I am a sort of weird type when it comes to guns, I don't really care if the weapon is pretty as long as it's functional. I discussed the changes with the smith and settled on a shorter barrel, drilled and tapped for a scope, mounted and bore sighted, with some spot bluing and a sporter safety for the first round. That cost me seventy dollars. I did some range work, and didn't care for the trigger. For the sum of thirty five dollars he added three pieces and made it a fully adjustable trigger. The synthetic stock is from Butler Creek and the Scope is Simmons. The last touch was a black finish that resembles Parkerised.

I have actually murdered a deer with this one (it has to be murder, cause it isn't a fair fight), it's effectiveness is beyond question. The only shot fired in hunger resulted in a chunk of lung the size of my fist on the ground, and a dead deer in about four seconds. Rough on the deer, but better than laying in your lap after a tumble through the wind shield.

Some folks like their guns shiny and new. I'll take mine as individuals, the way I want them.

The real classic.

This is an 1898 Chilean Mauser in 7X57, it was a gift (?) that has a little history. This weapon in its general classification of 1898 Mauser is probably one of the most numerous in the world. I obviously don't know how many were produced world wide, does anyone? It does seem though it should be up there with the AK's.

The rifle has been fired only once while in my possession. The previous owners were somewhat more active.

One my best friends got it from his Dad, who I believe got it from his youngest son. Both of these people are certifiably nuts. The one has killed at least five people and the other was convinced, before his death, that the Russians were poisoning the water supply in Valdese NC.

I am certain the Russians neither know nor care that Valdese exists. The old man lived on "the hill" in town and considered all the animals in the woods his "pets". The animals had the same attitude as the Russians regarding the old man. One day the old man heard a shot in the woods near his house, assuming correctly that some one was hunting, the old man decided to protect them by driving the hunters away. He promptly fired a full magazine of 7mm soft points toward the noise. I suspect the hunter soiled himself and ran, I know I would! Probably some murderous twelve year old.

On another occasion my friend was visiting the old man. It was icy cold winter, in the middle of the night, when the old man's dog started barking. The dog hated everyone and everything, so the barking was because someone was outside. The old man didn't want to get out of his warm bed, so he just shot through the wall. The dog shut up, the visitor recalled an appointment elsewhere, and everyone else went back to sleep. When he got up the next morning the old man whittled a peg to fill the bullet hole and nailed a tin can lid over the outside hole. I've seen the lid.

The rifle came into my possession one night, fairly late, when my friend came to my door with his arms full of guns and a sad look on his face. He asked me if I would keep them for him, I said I would, I suppose the puzzled look asked "why?" for me. He had been going through some rough times, and said he had been thinking of using them on himself. He just wanted the temptation out of his reach.

I've had them since then.

This one is for the memories

My Dad always loved a Springfield 1903A3. It was the first weapon he qualified with in the Army, and I believe the rifle he carried on D-Day. He used to tell of breaking marbles with his at a distance I found hard to believe, but I've seen him shoot and wouldn't want to lay heavy cash on it. This one I found in a pawn shop. The sights are military peep in the rear, and sporter ramp in the front. The barrel is a hunter profile with a funny looking thing threaded into the front. Flash suppressor maybe? If you know please let me know.

This action is actually the better 1903, the A3 changed to a cheaper ladder type rear sight.The classic 30-06 round fits the chamber. The stock is an after market job with white caps, which are not ivory. I've fired it a few times, you really wouldn't want me to shoot at you with it, but not enough to say if the sights are truly zeroed in.

This is the classic rifleman's weapon. Years ago shooters would come to Camp Perry and draw a weapon, scrub the comsmoline out of the barrel and proceed to shoot 1000 yard bulls eyes with iron sights and issued ammo. They had to use some after market micrometer adjusters for the sights, but I can forgive them that because they were using iron sights instead of a scope.

The action is a direct rip off of the Mauser, close enough to incur a lawsuit for patent infringement that Mauser won.

If there could be only one.......

I have fired a lot of weapons in a lot of calibers, and this one has caught my attention like no other. This is a Marlin 783 in .22 WMR. It has a tubular magazine, and a micro groove barrel. It's topped with the only Marlin scope I have ever seen. The scope is a 3x to 9x by20 with a 3/4 inch tube. The scope was originally put on my .22 over 40 years ago. Most things just don't last that long or work so well.

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I think the .22 WMR needs a little more scope, but we'll see.

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I was so impressed with the power of this little rifle that I decided to own one after one hunting trip, and some one else was using it! Three of us were hunting squirrels down on the river, and one of the guys had one of these rifles. The rest of us used shotguns for conservation of meat and running shots that were the norm. We split up and stalked separately for a while. Each of us got several shots with varying success. At the end of the day I was the only one that cared to clean the kill, we would not waste them, so I took them home.

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The rifle was devastating to small game. The 37 grain bullet leaves the muzzle at 2120 fps, and at 100 yards still moves faster than a standard .22 at the muzzle. The 154 ft/lbs of energy is unimpressive compared to a lot of calibers, but this is a .22 for goodness sakes.

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The shot that clenched the deal, entered the skin over the shoulder of the squirrel, and never penetrated the flesh, it did break the spine from the shock. I cleaned it, and I still couldn't believe it.

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If I could only own one caliber of weapon, it would be a .22 WMR. No recoil, effectively, light weight, chambered in rifles and pistols. The ammo is not as widely available as it once was, but what is? The round from a six inch barrel equals the .38 special in energy. I'm thinking a combo of rifle and pistol chambered for the same calibre would be worth having. If they were in stainless they would last forever.

The first one

This was my first rifle, a Sears single shot made by Winchester. It now bears the cheapest .22 scope made, and doesn't get much use. I will say, however when I was twelve, the barrel never cooled off. It was, and is, the most reliable firearm I have ever owned. I learned to shoot carefully and attended to the basics religiously. Some of my contemporaries would take two boxes of ammo, that's a hundred rounds people, and bring home nothing. I'm sure those little semi auto rifles were a lot of fun, but I like game dinners. I have gone hunting with two bullets, and brought home two squirrels.

I think my Dad may have paid twenty five dollars for it.

I will keep this one until my son wants it, or someday his son.

The real A$$ whoopin' in a box

I have a book at home that covers many of the obsolete calibers of the world. There are references to arcane calibers of every shape and size. The most common thing among them is their lack of power. Most are so bad you might be better off with a sharp stick, I know you would be safer with a sling and a big rock.

Along about the early sixties a dude with a chronograph and an idea set about changing that forever. His name was Weatherby. He set about building the best hunting rifle in the world, and the most powerful.

The original Weatherby was a work of art in all respects. The wood was beautiful, the action was custom with a nine lug bolt, lapped until the action would slide open smoothly when the angle of repose was exceeded. Expensive as all get out.

When sales dropped off in the Eighties a grade of rifle for the rest of us was built. The Vanguard was a Weatherby built on a Belgian Mauser action, with a synthetic stock and chambered for a Weatherby round.

Walmart entered the picture and offered the rifles at a low enough price that I bought one because I thought it was priced wrong. One of my friends bought three. They come with a target from the test firing at the factory. Friends you have no excuses, if there is a miss, it was the shooter, not the gun. My target shows a three leaf clover at one hundred yards.

The .300 Weatherby Magnum boots a 165 grain bullet along at about 3200 fps.

I bought a decent scope and headed out to give it a try. The first shot destroyed the internals of the scope, knocked everything out of focus. It now wears a long eye relief 5 to 9 scope with a five inch eye relief. The 180 grain slug whacks you with 54 ft/lbs of free recoil. I weigh above 250 lbs, and it will pick me and the rifle up off the bench.

The Love of my life will not even stand behind me when I shoot it, she says the blast makes her teeth hurt. It makes my teeth hurt too, though for another reason.

All the little boy's want this,,,,,

After the first dust up in the Gulf I was asked if I would care to attend a class to certify new NRA firearms instructors. For free. The cost for the rest of the world was around $260 a person.

No brainer, I'm in!

I met some of the Special Ops folks that made that excursion the success it was. They were pupils, looking for a resume line for post military life. One character in particular, sort of stood out. I shouldn't say a lot about him because he would be too easy to find, based on the superlatives attached to his name. Let's just say his resume made James Bond look like a girl.

He's the only person I know of who looks on getting flash-banged in training, as something to take in stride.

We struck up a conversation regarding the weapons in the room, that we brought for the range session, and show and tell. I brought an HK93, he brought an AR 15 with an entry light. He was completely amazed that I hated the HK. I wasn't raised on ghost ring sights, and they just don't work for me. Additionally the curve at the rear of the action fits your cheek bone nicely to line up your eye with the sights, and give you a black eye after a long day at the range. This was in the era of the import ban, and the price of the HK was up to about $850 by then. He had financial reasons for wanting to swap, I had personal reasons. He is the generous sort and left the entry light attached. I added the Aimpoint scope. His comment, "If the other guy has one and you don't, by the time you can aim, you're shot"! 'Nuff said!

So I now own an AR-15 with a forward assist and barrel for the heavy NATO .223, with entry light and Aimpoint. I would love to have a holosight, but maybe later. He also threw in enough 30 round clips to give Billary the hives.

Strictly for social work.

And if you really want to get their attention.....

Then use a bigger hammer. A few years ago I had a business that sort of migrated to a handy man service. If you got the money, I will find the time, kind of. A coworker with a positive aversion to manual labor asked me to give him a price for painting his house. He mentioned he might barter a rifle for the work. It was a brick house. I researched the rifle and found it to be worth about fifteen hundred dollars. Needless to say, I went for the brushes.

So for about forty hours work I acquired a Browning "A" Bolt in stainless, with the boss system. It was topped with a Leopold 4 to 14 Police Sniper Scope. The rifle is chambered for .300 Win Mag

With a 165 grain bullet and a sand bag, I can hit a dime at 100 yards. On the first shot anyway, after that it becomes a process of will to soak up the punishment, it needs to be much heavier.

That was my first rifle chambered for "an A$$ whuppin' in a box."

Long Distance,,,,,,almost as good as being there

If you have to reach out and touch something, it always helps to have the tool for the job. I am going to guess that the attraction for the marksman is the sheer difficulty in controlling your actions and, as much as possible the environment, and still be able to hit your selected target. Not just hit it, but hit exactly where you select.

Old military rifles had ladder sights that carried increments out to thousands of yards. If you have ever read ballistics tables and perhaps even taken a few Trig courses, then the complexity becomes more obvious. What is the angle, when the opposite side is 750 ft. and the adjacent side is one inch? Anyone with a scientific calculator can punch up the answer in short order. The answer is in seconds of angle, something like 24 seconds of angle. I did the math in my head, so if I'm off a little, please forgive me. The point? When you can see the beat of your heart and your breathing in the movement of your scope, controlling your movements to achieve an arc that small is iffy at best. The addition of the arc of the bullet, time of flight, wind (more trig), bullet coefficient, humidity, altitude, temperature and configuration of the target, it becomes very interesting.

Sniper training manuals show rules of thumb for reading the wind and normal leads for walking and running targets at various distances. They also recommend huge amounts of ammo for the training. That's a good idea because someday you will have to take a shot with out the time for the calculations.

Where does the tool come in? It must be extremely consistent and stable. It should be relatively heavy, to dampen movement. The components should be robust, any system pushed to it's limits becomes less predictable, and thereby inaccurate.

My choice for long range has a heavy, fluted barrel, synthetic stock, a twelve power BSA scope, folding bipod, and is chambered for .223.

The Savage 12FVSS now comes with a two stage trigger, I may modify mine in the future. The single stage trigger isn't that great, but I have read testimonials of prairie dog kills at 450 yards. That would be way better than me. The .223 in this weapon is almost recoil free.

I'm lovin' it.

This one is just for fun

If anyone had ever told me I would have five or six hundred dollars in a .22 rifle, I would have laughed in their face, and been wrong.

A few years ago I fell in love with the Ruger 10-22, along with almost everyone that has ever pulled the trigger on one. I was pilfering around a pawn shop in Fayetteville, and found a version with a .9 inch barrel and a scope already mounted. It was blued, and being the lazy dog that I am, I wanted stainless. I continued to search in all the usual places and eventually found one, $450 later it was mine. I added a 3 to 9 scope and later a Blazer thumb hole stock. Of course every 10-22 owner MUST have a collection of 25 to 50 round clips, and I do.

This is the Love of My Life's favorite rifle. We go to the range and shoot clay birds at 100 yards, then we shoot the pieces. Great fun, and inexpensive.