JayPee

G-Man I think you've got your groundhog gitter even without the handloads or the .311 bullets. Jer

Ruger's Model 77 stock was designed for him by a famous custom rifle maker of that era whose name I forget. Forty two years does that to one! Anyway, he sure knew his stuff. JP

Very nice rifle. I never shouldered a rifle in my life that shouldered as naturally as the M77. Mine was a 7x57 purchased in '80 and still had the tang safety. The trigger was a good one too. I think you'll love it. JP

Enjoyment is what it's all about. www.opticsplanet.com has a wide variety of just about everyone's scopes and their prices are pretty good too. JP

G-Man: If you're going to use it for home defense, then the level of accuracy you produced under these circumstances is more than adequate and I wouldn't worry about making a target gun out of it either. You shot it very well and my eyes would still be watering. Also, my feelings about home defense and optics is that....my 20/20's can still shoot minute of angle from the bench at 100 yards with my mid-length DPMS and factory sights, so I don't care to use optics on it when my longest possible shot would be 25 to 35 yards. One can easily spend as much or more on optics as for the rifle and I'm concerned about using them inside the house. Purely a personal choice. We're starting to see some home invasions in the county, thus the HD rifle and its 25 yard zero.

Probably so. different types of ammo with different bullet weights, etc, could make a real difference too. JP

I googled it and the basic gun appears to be well thought of by clay bird shooters. Here's one: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=199509 I have heard a lot of good things about Beretta autos over the years. But I have never fired one. Sorry I can't help more than that. JP

G-Man I'll bow to Wayne from here on out since I am a skeet shooter. Shooting the clay bird sports with field guns, like Wayne said, is a good way to get turned off completely to shooting in them because of the amount of shells fired. And you always score better with a dedicated trap gun. I tried it with several guns for about a year and finally had to get a good gun or quit shooting skeet, it was beating me up so bad. Trap is harder on you because of the full choke. I wound up with a Browning Citori XS Skeet 12 guage that is so well fitted to me it can shoot without me. These shotguns are like finding a defensive pistol in that shootability is everything and all else is unimportant. JP PS....if you buy a dedicated trap gun from another shooter, you can always get your money back out of it. You just don't lose money on these guns unless you shoot them to pieces, and in that event you've gotten your money out of them in enjoyment.

G-Man: Trap shooting usually requires a full choke barrel, which produces more recoil than a skeet gun with a more open choke while shooting the same load. So you are going to get whacked hard 25 times in a row.....which in turn means you absolutely must buy a gun that fits you perfectly, or you'll go home with a black eye or a bloody nose. The best place to look for a beginning trap gun is from other trap shooters. Lots of guys start out with pump guns and set them up specifically for trap shooting with adjustable cheek pieces and adjustable recoil pads, and so on. Then they decide to go on to an auto or O/U and leave their beginning gun in the closet. I am a skeet shooter who has tried trap shooting and was surprised at the difference in recoil between the two choke constrictions. So put a lot of effort into getting a gun that fits you. Selling shotguns to fellow clay bird shooters is a brisk practice among trap and skeet shooters. Give it a try. JP PS - Don't ever buy a clay bird shotgun without at least shouldering it first. i.e. no catalog purchases without trying one first.

For you fellows who might be contemplating installing an extra power recoil spring in your 9mm Hi Power, or for those of you who have a .40 caliber Hi Power, the removal or replacement of the stiff spring can be a real hand eater . Well, rejoice.....the C&S Hi Power Recoil Spring Tool takes it out and puts it back in with no pain or strain after a little practice. Here are some photos of it: Here is the tool alongside half of my PJK 9HP. Remember that little portion of the recoil spring guide sticking up above the flat of the barrel cam lug....that's what the tool engages to install and remove the assembly....like this: In order to use the tool, you turn it upside down over the recoil spring and guide assembly with the open end facing the muzzle. The vertical end of the tool captures the small surface of the guide sticking up above the barrel cam lug. You simply push towards the muzzle end to remove the guide from its slot in the lug, then ease it up and back towards you carefully while holding the slide down with the other hand. It replaces the assembly just as well, but takes more control and care than removing it, so be sure to read the instructions. (I used the term "up and back towards you" because of the orientation of the photograph only. You don't want to be directly behind it when you release the spring and guide.) Here is the tool alone. Be sure to read the instructions that come with it as there are a couple of things you don't want to let it do, but I'll let them tell you about that.It is very easy to use with only a small amount of practice. Just remember you are handling a strong spring and you really should have eye protection on when you use it. You know those little squirt bottles of eye wash the eye doctors send you home with? They make wonderful little emergency oilers. I have one in the case with each pistol. I have no idea why I'm including this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time...... The tool is at this link for $17.50 and worth every penny of it. And yes, it works on the clones too: http://www.cylinder-slide.com/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=49 (No, they don't sell the squirt bottles.) JP

AIM Surplus is announcing a recall of some of the the Romanian TT-33 pistols imported by I.O. Inc made in October of '09. Here is a quote from their website, www.aimsurplus.com. "January 5, 2010 To: All Customers who have purchased I.O. Inc imported TT-33 Tokarev Pistol(s) Re: Safety Warning/Recall I.O. Inc, the importer of the Romanian made Tokarev TT-33 pistols, has notified us as to a potential safety concern with some of these pistols. It appears that a small number of the pistols imported in October 2009 may have defective safety devices. This IS a safety concern and we highly recommend that you comply with the attached recall instructions. Please read the attached instructions from I.O. Inc. There will be no financial cost for our customers to comply. We certainly apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have transferred or sold this firearm(s) to another individual or dealer, please pass this notice onto them. We appreciate your attention and cooperation in this matter. Best regards, AIM" From the photo on the website, they appear to be talking about the gun's manual safety. AIM is a good outfit. Jerry

Unless something has changed radically in recent years, you're pretty well stuck with American factory ammo, G-Man, although I'd certainly take a look at Privi Partizan and see if they make it in pressures suitable for your rifle. They just may. The 7x57 Mausers were the first to be released for sale to the public back in the 50's, coming mostly from Mexico and South America, and the good military ammo has been gone for quite a number of years. I started hand loading it in 1978. In a '93 I'd pretty well stick with the pressures of the original service load, which was around a 173 grain bullet at a velocity of about 2375 fps or so. The Remington and Winchester factory loads using the 175 grain bullet at roughly the same velocities approximate those pressures and are usually safe to shoot in a '93 if it's in good condition. They also make a 140 grain load for it, but your gun has the long chamber throat for the 173 grain bullet and the 1:8.75" rate of twist for it, so I think 140 grain accuracy would be minute of supper table in your '93. If it was me, I'd go looking for the best deal I could find on domestic loads in the correct pressure range, and I'd start with Remington loaded with Core-Lokt bullets, or Winchester with Power Point bullets, or Federal with whatever their common non-premium bullet is. I would also buy Privi in the correct pressure range if they make it. But stay away from any European ammo such as Norma or DWM, or any Domestic premium ammo......all of which are normally loaded too hot for your rifle. $40 a box is ridiculous for domestic 175 grain ammo as I've described above. Long answer to a short question. Sorry. I do that.

My former employer used around 7,000 S&W M4006's, a similar number of Remington 870's, and a few hundred Mini-14's and AR's in a state with a broad range of climatic conditions. For a couple of decades at least, the only substance allowed on any departmental firearm was BreakFree CLP. In one particular training course we were required to fire 1,260 rounds of WW Ranger LE 165 grain .40 in two range days in brand new, unfired 4006's lubed with BreakFree CLP and cleaned every 250-300 rounds. The number of failures were very few and very far between...almost none really. I had none in the 2,000+ rounds I fired in my pistol before I retired, using Break Free exclusively. So while I'm sure there is more advanced stuff out there now, I don't see how the average shooter can go wrong with a body of usage that broad. No offense, but I have never considered RemOil to be a good enough lubricant for any of my guns. But that, I realize, is a personal choice. I'm now in the Mobil 1 camp for my auto pistols and AR's, but I'm not firing large amounts of ammo any more either. JP

This is a homemade Mauser rifle, a Mark X Whitworth Mauser action with Shilen short chambered, medium weight, barrel in a piece of northern California English walnut. That little knot hole in the right forend of the stock reduced its value from a $450 blank to a $125 blank, and that was in '92. It is chambered for the 6.5X55mm Swedish Mauser cartridge The stock is finished with one coat of Birchwood Casey Stock Sealer and about ten coats of sprayed-on Tru-Oil, sanded with 600 W_D paper between coats, then 0000 steel wooled and finally rubbed out with Birchwood Casey Stock Sheen and Conditioner. This is its natural color as ambered by the Tru Oil. It is not stained. We also used a lot of pumice and rottenstone back then too. This is what us olpharts did with our time in the old days. I'm not a gunsmith, just a hobbyist. I lived in the northern Sacramento Valley back then, which is walnut country, and there are a number of small stock making outfits that produced semi-inletted stocks, with strong emphasis on the "semi-inletted" part. So putting together your own particular poison was a favorite hobby of rifle guys in that neck of the woods back then. (And that shadow-line cheekpiece is a real sono[censored]un to finish out!) My favorite all-time factory bolt gun was the Ruger Model 77 because it shouldered better than any rifle I ever shouldered and I loved its action. (It was a tough sono[censored]un to load for, however.) I prefer the Mauser 98 pattern action over all others, although I freely admit others are superior in some respects. I wouldn't use one for a serious target or bench rest gun any more, because newer actions would eat your lunch for you. I prefer the 7X57 Mauser cartridge over all others. Like I said, I'm an olphart, and if I can get otsix performance without otsix recoil, I'm your guy. Ol' Arthur put an end to my riflemaking...I can't do the detail work any more. I built seven of these between '85 and '95 using various Mauser actions and commercial barrels. It was a really fun ride for me and some really good pals. JP

Why thanks, Arkie. My Dad always said he was from Lapland....where Oklahoma laps over into Arkansas. Around Tishomingo, Wapanucka, Fillmore, and other places of staggering notoriety. Jerry

Let's not be going to the bank with this "JayPee knows more about Hi Powers than I do." business. I've been trying to unravel the mystery of FEG model numbers for two years and G-Man solved the puzzle for me in one paragraph. . JP

I stick with ammo that has a proven track record, which means a load that has a body of usage with law enforcement agencies. In my 9mm I carry Speer Gold Dot 124 grain +P JHP. It is the issue load of the New York City Police Department. In my 40's I use WW Ranger LE 155 gr JHP. You can usually find statistical information on these loads in studies of law enforcement experience with them, which I find very useful.

Hey Wayne, an Okiefornian is a Californian born there a couple of months after his parents arrived from Oklahoma. Lived there 54 years and had to go.

Since we have some real interest here in the Browning Hi Power and its clones, I thought I'd pass along a glitch you can wander into with them when attempting to remove the trigger for any reason. It's fixable, but you definitely want to stay away from it if you can. The glitch goes like this. The trigger is held in place by what is called the trigger axis pin, which is the large pin passing through both sides of the frame just above the trigger in the photographs below. Left side view of the trigger axis pin. Note how it has a flat end and is flush with the frame. This is how it is supposed to look. Right side view of the trigger axis pin.Note how it is slightly rounded on the end and sticks just a bit out of the frame. This is how it normally looks when installed properly.(No, I didn't bugger up the frame...it came that way...read on.) The pin is not a tapered pin, but the hole in the right side, or ejection port side of the frame is just slightly smaller than the hole in the left side, or slide stop side, and this gives the trigger axis pin a good, tight friction fit and keeps it from "walking" out of the hole in the frame during firing. The problem occurs when one attempts to drive this pin out from left to right, forcing the pin to overpower the constriction and basically ruins the friction fit. This will cause the pin to "walk" out the right side of the frame forever after during firing, or until you do the fix I'm about to talk about. And it will "walk" noticeably in only a few rounds, too. So the most important thing about removing this pin, aside from not scratching up the frame, is to always drive the pin out from right to left, or ejection port side to slide stop side, and to install it from left to right. Remember, it goes in the left side frame hole first, and you always insert the rounded end first. The gun in the photos is a FEG PJK 9HP which I bought used, and it came from the previous owner with a "walking" trigger axis pin. So acting on advice of some very experienced BHP guys, I drove the right side of the pin back into the frame and applied two coats of enamel modeling paint with a hatpin to the entire circumference of the wall of the right side hole. I then let it dry for a couple of days and drove the pin back into the hole. The pin pushed out the material it didn't need, and this effectively returned the hole to specs and stopped the "walking". I have heard of a number of different materials being used for this purpose, but enamel modeling paint is the most frequent one I see mentioned. I use flat black. You use as many coats as it takes to stop the walking. Now some of you sharpies know that the trigger axis pin has a groove in it that the trigger return spring pops into when the pin is installed, and want to know if this isn't enough to keep the pin from walking. The answer is no, it isn't. The spring in the groove retains the pin OK until you begin firing the gun, and then the spring can't hold it.....i.e. you must return the right side frame hole to its intended circumference. Hope this is helpful. JayPee

Greetings from DarnnearVirginia, Tennessee. I thought I'd stumble by and become the forum's first transplanted Okiefornian residing in Tennessee, the patron state of everything that shoots. G-Man told me y'all habla Browning Hi Power and all of its clones over here, so wild horses couldn't keep me away. JayPee