Monday, April 30, 2018

Tinkering Tuesday #1 "An almost great idea."

In American history, strike that in the parts of American history that interest me, there have been a couple of things that were good but not quite great and sadly never caught on.
  • The F-20 Tigershark. Designed by Chuck Yeager and relegated to being gutted and hung in a museum/used for cannon fodder in half remembered Mack Maloney novels (no relation)
  • The Remington 600/6mm Remington. A Scout Rifle from back when Colonel Cooper was still shooting a SAA with one hand. 
  • And finally, the topic of today's Tinkering Tuesday: the .357 Sig    
So, we, as members of the gun culture, all know that the .357 Magnum throwing a 125 grain JHP or SJSP is going to end a fight yesterday. And make the bad guy's momma go to Church and repent for her sins, too. Well, at least S&W's ad copy said so. But, we also know, that in the 80s bad guys armed with wonder nines and hopped up on dope were out gunning Officer Friendly and his six shooter. Or at least, the FBI said so after Miami.  Well, S&W once again came to the rescue, sorta kinda.

The FBI adopted the 10mm cartridge in the 1076, and it was awesome. Well, at least to Tom Clancy. To Special Agent Suzy the white collar financial investigation specialist, it was a lot of gun. And to be fair, it's a lot of gun for anybody. And they were heavy. And with heavy, for real "man stopping" loads, the guns had short service lives. Granted it was the 80s, and everyone was saving money by not buying socks, you still couldn't be buying the guys in HRT new pistols every quarter. And thus was born the fortay. *insert eye roll and teen angst I still have yet to resolve here*

Now, as all of this was going, there was a culture shift of epic proportions, I mean we're talking cave man figuring out the war club here, as American cops ditched the stalwarts of Hartfield, Springfield, and Prescott in favor of plastic crap from Austria via Smryna. The days of the .357 Magnum as a police issued cartridge look numbered. And yet, from the barren wintry plains of Exeter and Anoka came this new fangled bottle necked little round that purported to hit just as hard as the vaunted old magnum but yet was based that gosh forsaken .40 short and weak round so you could shove it in one of them double stacked clips for a bottom feeder. Thus was born the .357 Sig. Okay, if you haven't picked up on it now, I'm a bit of a gun hipster. I like odd ball calibers in guns that have been long since discontinued. If I have was a cowboy, you can bet my Colt would have been in .38-40.

I got a hella good deal on used German made P-226 at the shop a week or two back. My plan was to have a .357 Sig barrel already in it by now and post lots of cool pics from the indoor range where it would generate a nice fire ball. And then the garage door went out. So, yeah. That's where I'm at with that project currently. But, until the next pay period with tinkering funds allocated, enjoy a cheesy gun on desk picture.

Oddly, enough I don't have any Federal brass yet.

9 comments:

  1. My my - someone said Remington 600 on the internet. A gun way ahead of its time for the woods roamer. Someone (not me) wrote that the Model 600 was Remington's attempt to elbow into the Winchester 94 / Marlin 336 carbine market and its as good an explanation as any. Same size and weight, only bolt action and with more power. Remington tried with three different versions for 15 years - no love for the 600. We do now have updated versions of it though - I guess that counts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a gun that the American buying public was just stupid to appreciate. I get Model 7 rifles in the store aall the time and they just sort of make go "meh"

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  2. I have a lot softer spot for the .357SIG than I probably should.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too. I rank it alongside the .41 AE as awesome calibers that most people have never heard of.

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  3. But...but...Model 58, Coonan, Sonny Crocket...

    Good start - keep it coming

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    Replies
    1. If you could have gotten magazines with Bren Tens we wouldn't be here!
      Thank you!

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  4. I have a .40 P226. I thought about buying a .357 barrel for it, because that round was available during the last two shortages. But I just bought more ammo.

    Nice blog, BTW. I've added you to my blogroll.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I've wanted a .357 Sig since I read "American Gunfight" by Stephen Hunter.

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  5. Hey Mack;

    My brother bought back in the 1980's from the rod and bottle a IDI Jerico with 2 barrels, one for .41 AE and 9mm. You need to do a writeup on the 45 GAP?

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