BarryinIN

I've seen a couple reports of the firing stop being loosely fitted on these. One claimed it dropped out when hand cycling the gun. That would be a tricky thing to accomplish, but I suppose not impossible. I've also seen one photo of the rear end of the slide that was poorly finished, with circular tool marks visible. I'm not too picky about wanting a gun's finish to be absolutely flawless, but I sure would not have accepted what I saw. Being very early production guns, I am not a bit surprised to learn of issues like these. Also, being early production guns, I am not a bit put off from the SA-35 by it. Things like this will happen. I'd be more surprised if such a project went perfect from the start. The good news is maybe the selling price on these will now plummet to around $2,200.

I have five Browning/FNs. Seriously, my cost for all five adds up to less than that. And no, I didn’t buy them in 1970 either.

That one sold for $2525. Well congratulations, someone gets to say they are first.

I’ve heard that Brownell’s shows it in stock at $679.99. I was hoping for better than MSRP minus $20, but I’ll see what I can shake out. Want to make that $680 from Brownell’s sound better? https://www.gunbroker.com/item/914387224 It started at one penny. After 3.5 hours, it’s at $930. Only six days, 20 and one half hours to go! Ah, the first of a new gun to hit Gunbroker. Always fun. OK, what I SHOULD wait for is an optics-ready model. If it ever happens. In stainless.

The world’s best handgun… The handgun designed to fit the human hand… The handgun carried by the coolest people… The glorious, celebrated, loved, and admired Browning HiPower… Is back. But not from FN/Browning. Springfield Armory is making them right here in the USA. Or so they say here: https://www.springfield-armory.com/sa-35-series-handguns/sa-35-handguns/ I swear I have ranted on here before that SA or Kimber should start making them, with the small changes it begs for (sights and thumb safety), maybe in stainless and a lightweight alum frame option, and actually TRY to sell them unlike Browning… but I can’t find it now. My dream might be here. Please, SA, don’t screw this up. I won’t even comment that they didn’t extend the frame tang and used the most bite-prone hammer design because I’m so appreciative of this gift to the world. I read rumblings of this a week or two ago but didn’t believe it. Well, boy howdy doo, there it is. Shipping now, they say. The local gun shop is closed today, but I pestered the owner’s son and found they don’t have any yet. He is going to start checking tomorrow. I had another gun purchase in mind, but I might hold off on that one. I do have to wonder about SA’s claim to making them in the US. This could have changed, but they didn’t used to actually make any guns, at least not the way most people think of it. The 1911s had the frames and slides made in Brazil by Imbel. Entry level guns were more or less rebranded Imbels. At the other end of the scale, the Custom Shop guns were made up from not-quite-finished frames and slides, machined and finished by SA. The rest fell somewhere in between. The XDs are made in Croatia and rebranded. At least some rifles had their receivers made in Australia by ADI. So I have to wonder what the situation is with their HiPower. I seriously doubt they invested in a total manufacturing process for them. As much as I like the design, it’s not going to be the biggest seller. But welcome back, wherever you’re from!

I’m not sure now that you mention it. Some comes from the Ukraine, like Century Arms’ “Red Army” brand. I tend to forget that some of these places aren’t “Russia” anymore Brown/Silver/Golden Bear is Barnaul, which is Russia. Wolf and TulAmmo are in Tula, which is Russia. Those make up a lot of it.

The US State Department announced this late Thursday, in response to the possible state-sponsored poisoning of Russian government critic Aleksey Navalny a year ago. Russian ammo like Wolf and Tula has already shot up in price. https://www.state.gov/fact-sheet-united-states-imposes-additional-costs-on-russia-for-the-poisoning-of-aleksey-navalny/

Well, I didn’t think that. Didn’t.

Picture a Kimber version of the Shield/P365/Hellcat/G43/G48. Mag capacity of 11 or 13 (extended) rounds of 9mm. Tritium night sights standard. Available with or without factory red dot sight. MSRP isn't bad for Kimber, $599 or $799 with red dot. Remember- both include tritium sights. https://www.r7mako.com/ P.S. I always check prices for spare magazines for any new pistol. They want $35 for the flush 11-rd and $40 for the extended 13-rd. That will probably put them around $29 and $34 in the real world. Not bad.

In case your mother was a witch. https://ruger.com/products/1022Competition/specSheets/31110.html My left-handed buddy says: “Why?” Apparently he hasn’t heard that cases crossing his line of sight is a tragedy.

I’ve looked and thought and thought and looked for a couple of years, and gave in. I’ve shot the Ruger American and liked it fine. A shop nearby had a Howa Mini 1500 I looked at, and it was OK. I really wanted the CZ though, and pretty much knew it was where I’d end up. I used the excuse that the Ruger is pretty hard to find right now. Why do I want a 7.62x39 bolt action? Uhhhhhhh... Because I have ammo? Because they’re so cute? Just because? I don’t know, but it should be here next week.

My first Long Range .22 match of the year is Wednesday. They had one already, but I couldn’t go. The weather has this one in doubt already, though. Believe it or not, four bricks of my favored ammo came maybe ten days ago. I got an In-Stock notice, ordered, and after two weeks or so, there it was. I couldn’t find any early last year before things went nuts.

https://www.ammoland.com/2021/03/colt-reintroduces-the-44-magnum-anaconda-revolver/#axzz6q0ZRgDBE

It’s been nearly three years since I’ve given an AUG update. Nothing new to report. The pace of use has slowed down quite a bit. I’ve gotten sloppy with my round count notebook, but in pretty sure it’s at almost 12,000. I used it last weekend in a carbine class, tromping around in the snow. No malfunctions, bobbles, or errors. I had one magazine change that looked like a was missing all my fingers, but that wasn’t the rifle’s fault.

I never thought about that. I did all my trap shooting in the summer months. I bet with the importance of pull length, that is an issue. And if I know trap shooters, some have stocks for summer, stocks for winter, and stocks for spring and fall. And all are adjustable within the confines of their intended season. The class went pretty well. It was a first-time experiment for the instructor, having changed the lesson plan from a two-day class to single day after getting beat up by people saying a two-day class was too hard to commit to. Naturally, he caught grief for not spreading things out over two days. I’ve known the instructor for a while, but have only taken classes with him, not from him. This was a Revere’s Riders course. I don’t know how well Revere’s Riders is known outside of a couple of states. They split off from the Appleseed Project a few years ago , and is sorta kinda the tacticool version. They even hold a class or two each year here at the Camp Atterbury army ranges using the pop-up targets. I’m going to take this opportunity to ask people considering ANY class to read the course description and class requirements/prerequisites. Then read them again. And follow them. This was a basic class, but it wasn’t a beginners class. That’s not the same thing. Nobody expected a bunch of John Wicks, but there were some expectations stated in the course description. One of those expectations was having a zeroed rifle. It didn’t matter what distance, just as long as it was zeroed and you knew it then you’d have something to work with. Therefore, there should not have been people showing up needing to zero their rifles first thing. There should not have been people being so “prepared” they had a bag of empty mags in one hand and boxed ammo in the other. When a two day class gets compressed into one, there is already no spare time. Once you start fooling with zeroing, you can lose two hours before you know it. The instructor held this tight. You got three rounds. Go. Load your mags and keep up. He did something I had never seen before in a class. It could have happened, but I hadn’t seen it before. Once he started the safety brief* he said that was the class start, and anyone showing up late and missing it was out. Sure enough, here comes someone rolling it at 0810, and sure enough, they got sent packing. *At 0800 sharp, the accurate start time being another first. We did a lot of movement work all day, which was good so we could take advantage of the snow to sludge around in. The host club’s range layout was unusual to me, in that you shot one direction for 50 yards and turned 90 degrees to the right to shoot 100. (They can get 200 there, but only after some reconfiguring.) This was taken advantage of by letting us shoot close (25 and under) and 100 yards in the same drill. It’s a shame, but the truth is that doesn’t happen as much as you might think or I’d like in classes. You might shoot close, then farther, but seldom both at once. There are lots of devious tricks that can be used for. Since I’ve already bashed my fellow students, I might as well climb on my high horse and finish them off. Shooting at 100 yards was kryptonite to a lot of people. Maybe I should stop there. I’m trying. I’m really trying not to say anything. Oh man, this is hard. OK, OK, Let me just say this: If given an 8” plate at 100 yards... from prone... with a quality AR... and a low power variable scope (plus at least one ACOG)... that you’ve been shooting all day... and three shots to hit it... and you can’t pull it off... Don’t spend the class talking about what gun or optic you plan to buy next. Your priorities are off. Then when we get a second run and you can’t do it the second time either... It should become more plain. The gear is definitely not what is holding you back. A bright spot was the AK guy banging the steel on the first shot. Twice. I hope if anyone there was the type who say AKs are no good because they only shoot 4MOA, that they realized what they saw.

Carbine class Saturday. Forecast high is 30, low of 16. Plenty of snow on the ground. I’ve learned before that a couple more layers of clothing repositions the vests/chest rigs/belts enough to create some fumbling. It looks like an AUG day for me.

I've shot it a couple of times now. More magazines should be here Tuesday; holster on Saturday.

I grumble about the date every year, thinking a month earlier would be appreciably warmer yet still allow it to get dark early enough. Then we get there and start fumbling in the winter clothes we just started wearing again. That's when I remember it's a dual learning experience- the dark and the cold. Would I be out there in that cold for a regular class? Nope. That's the trick John the instructor figured out long ago. The valuable opportunity of a night shoot lures us out there to find and sort out cold hand and winter clothing problems.

Right, no sun beating down. That hasn't been a problem yet. One year we had sideways blowing snow. That was one condition where lasers were truly awful. Back scatter is probably the right term! Pistol mounted lights worked against the shooter, too!

Saturday night was this year’s annual night shoot class. I’ve been taking this same class since around 2010, and have missed one, maybe two in that time. There is a core group of us that attend each year or close to every year, and we have a discussion before and after each class over what we’ve learned and what we’ve changed because of it. Being the same people taking the same class over the years, it has been interesting to watch the changes as we learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s funny that we mostly come to the same conclusions, though we do so independent of each other. For example, those of us who have attended for a while all have hand held lights. We may or may not have a weapon-mounted light, but we all have and use a handheld. A lot of the time, you have to move the light around to get it to come in from the angle you need. We al use some sort of lanyard or retention ring on the light. We may have night sights, but haven’t found them to be a necessity. The last three years in particular, it’s been harder each year for me to find and focus on the front sight. This is a daytime challenge also, but at night it’s a real problem. This year I had several instances where I could not get the light where I could see the front sight at all. This was new. Even when I could see it, it was taking me forever to get a shot off. I was feeling pretty vulnerable in the scenarios when I was without cover. That was Saturday night. As of Tuesday, I own a Sig P320 with red dot sight. I’ve known a red dot was in my future, and finally gave in. As polymer framed guns go, I like the S&W M&P, but I used a friend’s red dot equipped P320 Saturday and liked it. It did something no other red dot handgun has done for me- It let me see the dot when I extended to shoot. No hunting for the dot, like every other one I’ve tried. His had the Wilson Combat grip frame which made it feel almost 1911-like, and that’s probably why it worked so well for me (I mostly shoot 1911s and HiPowers). We will see how it shoots. Maybe it will stick around. I haven’t bought holsters and a bunch of magazines yet. I picked a good time to need magazines and more ammo.

.410- Yes! Same deal. .357 Mag in a small gun is just awful. Even in a K-frame, in the rare times I carry one, it’s usually with .38 +P. On the the other hand, sometimes when I carry a revolver it’s because I want the greater power of magnums. I’ll deal with it in a K frame then, but not smaller. I’ve shot magnums in my Kimber K6s, which is more Detective Special size, and it wasn’t much different t from a K. There are some mild magnums like Remington .357 Golden Saber, that’s more of an in-between 38 and 357, that aren’t so terrible. When ammo supplies loosen up, I’ll try to get more of that and give it another test. But in a five-shot J-frame snubby, I have no need for a Scandium framed model so I can use .357 magnums. The Airweights with .38s are plenty abusive for me. What I’d like to see done for concealed hammer pocket models is the addition of some sort of “crud barrier”. Maybe a sliding gate or a brush-like guard over the trigger travel slot would keep it clear but allow the trigger to move. Not much gets in there anyway, but nothing getting in would be better.

I started with revolvers and had a bias that way for a few years, but have been an auto guy for a long time. I know a lot of people say they shoot revolvers better, but I’m not one of them. I have to look for reasons and places to justify choosing a revolver in most cases, so I may not be the best one to sell you on them. I readily admit the nostalgia is one big attraction to me. I’ve been addicted to Adam-12 since old reruns have been showing this year, so maybe that’s it! I do prefer them for places like pocket and ankle carry. I think they resist pocket crud a lot better than autos, and the shape makes the grip easier to get my fingers around in a pocket. I like the S&W Centennial models (442/642/640) with the concealed hammer for this, so it has one less opening to collect crud. I have gotten sloppy and waited too long between “de-lintings” and found more than I’d like in the trigger travel opening, but I feel confident I could press through it on the shot. Manually operated is an advantage here, I think. The 2” model 12 I got last winter is a bit big for pants pocket carry since it’s a K frame, but it worked great in a jacket pocket. I really, really, like having a revolver in a jacket pocket. I can have it in my hand with nobody knowing. If I had to, I can shoot through the pocket, and keep shooting until empty. An auto’s slide would surely foul on the pocket some way or another. I see some other honest advantages to revolvers, mostly involving close quarters shooting. Really close, as in crushed up against each other. An auto slide can be blocked or bound by pinching up against someone, but you can power a revolver through it. And again, a “hammerless” model has less to get interfered with. Snubs are awful hard to shoot well. It drives me up the wall when well-meaning gunshop loafers suggest a snub as a first gun to people (almost always to women). They are NOT beginners’ guns. They are experts’ guns. Even at that, few “experts” shoot them well. But as what I call a “Get Off Me Gun” I think they are the best.

Just a little. I looked at their steel barrels since weight wasn’t a factor here. There was something I can’t recall that kept me from looking further, like maybe I didn’t like the length choices. I wanted a fairly long barrel for this, to get more weight out front since it’s a prone gun. Honestly, once I found a good deal on the IBI barrel from an outside source, I quit looking. A friend at the gun club who works with us in the Jr Program just built a lightweight Savage 6.5CM with a carbon fiber barrel. I’m not sure, but he might’ve used a Proof Research barrel. He’s in AK with it right now. I didn’t want a threaded muzzle, but since it came that way and without a thread protector, I had to find a way to protect the threads. I had a couple from other barrels- aluminum and stainless- and some other 1/2-28 muzzle devices, so I gave them all a try. Since they varied in weight, and some in function, I expected differing accuracy, and I got it. The best accuracy came with a muzzle brake of all things. It seems funny to have a muzzle break on a hefty weight .22, but there it is. It shot the worst groups by far with an A2 flash hider. I filed that away in my mind for further experimenting.

The 4” one isn't here yet, but I was doing some comparisons and realized this: A 2” barreled S&W Model 12 weighs 17oz. A 4” barreled S&W Model 12 weighs 19oz. A Glock 43 is right in the middle at 18oz. The S&Ws are six round guns. The Glock is 6+1. The G43 barrel is 3.41”, so it falls right in there also*. I didn’t realize they were all that close. I suppose the Glock 48 with its longer 4.17” barrel is a closer comparison to the 4” S&W 12. The G43 weighs 20.74oz empty. That is actually 1.74oz more than the S&W. *If I wanted to get really technically off in the weeds, I’d point out that revolver and auto barrel length specs aren’t a direct comparison. Since revolver barrel lengths are for the barrel only and don’t include the chamber like autos do, you can either add another 1.67” for the S&W cylinder or subtract 1.2” for a Glock 9mm chamber. Then things go all wonky.

I told you thought they were neat. I just won a Gunbroker auction for a 4” RB model 12. I wish they had made them with 3” barrels, but I’ll compromise with a 2” and a 4”.