Weapons Wednesday - The Rifleman's Rifle

In the fall of 2015, Jackie and I moved into together. A small little rambling turn of the century house on the edge of a small town. It was one of those I woke up one morning, thinking about what kinda of flooring I would re do the kitchen with and suddenly realized: "Oh, I have a house. That isn't owned by the Fraternity, Army, or Boy Scouts." I'm an adult. I love this woman. And the woman I loved put forth an ultimatum. No more guns until I proposed. So I furiously started saving money. I had a .50 caliber ammo can labeled turkey loads. I put all my turkey loads in a cooler and hid money in said ammo can. Genius plan. We'll circle back to that.

Sometime around the fall of 1923, the fine folks at Winchester began experimenting with 6.8mm bullet in a necked down .30 Government Model of 1906 casing. The .270 Winchester was unveiled in 1925. And Jack O'Connor, the dean of the American gun writers, became a huge proponent. Jack O'Connor favored the Model 70, praising it as the Rifleman's Rifle. And the .270 went on to become one the nation's most popular sporting cartridges.

So, flash forward to April of 2016. Having secured enough funds in the turkey ammo can, I ventured up to Atlanta. First stopping to have lunch with MrGarabaldi and OldNFO. If I recall correctly, OldNFO took pity on me and sprang for lunch. I met up with one of Jackie's friends (Thanks Jess!) and purchased the ring, using the stone out of Mother's engagement ring. And that evening she said yes,

And that brings us to how the Rifleman's Rifle became my engagement gun.

Walnut and blued, of course

Jackie bought me a FN made Winchester Model 70 Sporter in Mr. Jack's beloved .270 Winchester. Topped with a Leupold 3x9x40, it is an exquisite rifle.

.270 loads are generally 130 or 150 grn, in several different bullet loads. And Sierra is now producing a MatchKing bullet for it as well. The 130 grn load is good for most anything in North America, with the 150 grn being acceptable for moose.

Winchester is now a brand wholly owned by FN, with guns produced in Belgium, Portugal, and Japan. My Model 70 is made in Portugal and assembled in the South Carolina FN plant. A very close copy of the vaunted Pre-64 Winchester.

The gun looks good and shoots great. While only a light weight sporter, it shoots far better than it's pencil thin barrel would lead you to believe. And it looks really good in the case next to the 7mm Rem Mag Hawkeye, a hold over from my days when I though bigger was better.

The two don't quite know what to think of one another

And as a plus, my now wife bought it for me. The Rifleman's Rifle is a great gun. From a great lady.

Tinkering Tuesday - America's Rifle (half a one)

So, in today's Tinkering Tuesday will take a look at America's Rifle. I'm sure as I type that Garand purists and M-14 fanbois probably tensed a little bit at that one. And to be honest I did too, because, well Jack O'Connor knew what he was talking about. A good Model 70 in .270 Winchester will do you just about anything that you need it to. Oh hey, there we go. That's tomorrow Weapon's Wednesday.

But today we're going to talk about my half finished AR- platform. You see, when Gander Mountain closed, I sold a lot of guns. And a lot of those were Rugers. So Ruger sent me free complete lower.
And I took it out of the box and put it on my vice.

Progress! And Hail Southern!

And well, that's where we're at with it currently. My original plan was to build a .300 BLk carbine. And then Old NFO made fun of me for that caliber choice. And then we took in a 700 AAC SD bolt gun in said caliber. So, probably not going down that route. .224 Valkyrie looks really promising.
But 6.8 SPC II is still near and dear to my heart. But Jackie needs a 5.56mm carbine for her, so as to be prepared for when the Zombies come.

And, well, I got a bunch of magazines and MagPul BUIS for it, and that's it. This tinkering tuesday is going to be slow going. But hey, it looks good on the bench. Feel free to discuss among yourselves what caliber for AR.

Military Monday - Memorial Day

A lot of Americans consider Memorial Day weekend as a three day weekend and not much else.

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day. When war widows and sons and daughters of those who fell in the War Between the States would place flowers and flags upon the graves of the war dead. Both Union and Confederate. Many of whom were interned at General Lee's estate at Arlington. The most holy of American military shrines. But on this Memorial Day I would like to discuss a different type of memorial.

In the Argonne, there was once a P-17 Enfield stuck in the ground with, an Indian Head bedecked helmet sitting atop it. On Bataan there was a -1903 Springfield stuck in the ground much the same way, with a helemt sitting atop it. In Belgium, it would have been the charred remains of a M-4E3 Sherman tank. In Korea, a F-86 that got tangled up with Russian supplied and flown MiG-15s. Vietnam would have been an M-16A1 or maybe a Crusader driver who didn't make it back to his old Essex class fleet carrier after a strike up North. In Desert Storm it would have been a LAV-25 that ran afoul of a Swagger ATGM. And in the GWOT, the memorial would be a M-4 carbine and a set of dog tags.

But there is more to it than that. The guy whose tags hung off that M-4 was a tall, gangly kid from a dried up mill town in west central Georgia. He joined the Guard because his buddies did, there was a war on, and they would pay for him to go to technical school. If he could get his HVAC certification, he could take care of his Mom, pay off the truck, and buy a new boat. Oh, and those raghead bastards used planes as cruise missiles, and well, his Daddy didn't fight in Vietnam for that shit to happen here.

And that kid was my friend. And my turret gunner. And he died doing his job. And the town put a marble marker on the square for him. It's right next to the Vietnam one. Our small town got lucky in Gulf War I. The mill was still operating so those 18 year high school grads had a place to go other than the Army. We won't stay lucky. Kids join the Army because their low ASVAB scores preclude anything else. But it's okay. They understand the risk. And still go. Just like Danny did.

The clitter clatter of the NJROTC Battalion's deactivated M-1 Garands bore him good tribute.He had been the high school BN S-3 when we graduated. The drum major of the high school band played taps. His Mother spoke of her pride. His Scoutmaster spoke of his service. I tried to speak and couldn't find the words.  A star on the small bore team, the new rifle range bears his name. He'd get a kick out of that.

And above all, to him, the apprentice HVAC Tech, Memorial Day was a three day. He'd load up the cooler and head to the lake. Enough beer to lay low an Infantry Platoon and enough bourbon to open a liquor store. And maybe, just maybe, if he played his cards right, talk the bikini bottoms off a chick from the small neighboring community college.

I like to think that he is somewhere in Valhalla working on his flies, or maybe futzing about his Savage 110 in .308, wanting the perfect deer load because we just got that new lease down in Taylor county.

And above all, Danny wouldn't want you to be sad. He would want to ask why you weren't piss drunk and trying to talk your way into that pretty DG's bikini bottoms.

And, to me, anyway that is Memorial Day.

Honor the Fallen. However you chose. That's what they died for.

So today, I'm gonna wake up, have some coffee. Go to work. Hopefully sell some guns.And then probably drink a beer or two. Danny would like that, but first he'd call me a little bitch for not having a three day.

Weapons Wednesday - What caliber for Joe's Weapon?

 So, still pulling six days a week at the shop. Which is awesome for the wallet. Not so much for the writing. Nor the wallet in a way because we're picking up a bit, which means cool things coming in.
How many Glocks does one man need? Well, Jackie and I disagree on that. Oh, and I went saw the Braves beat the Marlins. Always a good day.

And some other people came too

So, on to today's musing. But first, a brief history lesson. Six. Six calibers were supplied to the far flung forces of the United States military during WWII. So, one thing that I get irrationally angry about is when chairborne small arm experts proclaim that we'll never issue more than 5.56mm and 7.62 NATO because of logistics. Yeah, no.

Now that is not to say we should.

L to R; 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Remington, .223 Remington 

All three of the above cartridges are great and all three suck at some things. All are available in the AR- platform which is a plus. However, 6.5 CM and .260 Rem don't work in STANAGs. Logisitics raises it's ugly head again. And let's not discount the .300 AAC, 6.5 Grendel, and 6.8 SPC II. And those do fit in a STANAG.

But the question remains, and this is where my inner wookie suiter liberatarian comes into play, do any of the above cartridges offer enough improvement over the 5.56 do to be the new general issue rifle round. However, my inner gun guy also recognizes that one cartridge does not fit the bill in all situations, especially out of a carbine.

A buddy of mine in 3rd Batt is convinced our path to salvation lies in a piston driven mid length chambered in .260 Remington. I admit that the concept makes me all warm and fuzzy.

But do we give that to S-1 Clerk Suzy and S-4 Officer Steve? And what if we're clearing structures ib in down town Tehran? Suddenly that 10.5 inch .300 Whisper seems might fine.

And maybe just maybe, it is time for us to realize our current crop of bad guys do not honor any facet of the Hague Convention and do not have what we would consider traditional logistics in regards to CASEVAC. Freed from that asinine ban, 5.56 seems pretty damn good. Especially once we move away from M855A1. We ain't fighting the Russians currently. Nor was penetration of Soviet helmets at 600 yards ever a realistic standard.

Oh, but we totally need to give everybody Glock 19s. Unless they opt for a M-45A1 rail gun.

Quick Bleg Post

Y'all go stab the Tip Jar button on View From the Porch.. Tam done fell up out her chair and broke her collar bone. As a guy who fell out the attic and dislocated his shoulder, I know that one hurts like a Patriots win the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl.

She beats the shit out of poor 3rd Gen S&Ws for our enjoyment, well some of y'alls, it makes my heart hurt, so we can show our appreciation.

Tinkering Tuesday/Thursday - An Interesting Rifle

Savage entered the disposable entry level market in 2010 with the Axis, briefly flirting with the term Edge. The first generation Axis was not the best rifle in the world, even in the disposable synthetic stocked bought at Wal-Mart atopped with a Chinese made weaver. The Axis II, fitted with the AccuTrigger is a quality rifle. I have one in .22-250 that I bought on a whim. Seriously, I had just gotten off a plane coming back from Hawaii, I still had money in my pocket, it seemed like a good idea.

But on my to new interesting rifle. A first generation new in box Savage Axis in .30-06 Springfield.

Parkerized and Synthetic. So pretty. 

Oh yeah, it's awesome. Okay, I can hear the wheels turning now. This rifle, which I got for a steal at $187.25, which believe it or not, actually hit my margins number, will hopefully soon be an interesting rifle as Col Whelen described it. In the cartridge to bare his name.

My plan, taking advantage of the fact that Axis has the same barrel nut as the 10/110 series rifles is to affix a Green Mountain Barrel to it. Ordered a Boyd's stock in something tasteful, maybe with some nekkid ladies on it, and mount a Loopy VX-1 atop it.

I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do with it past that, already having a .30-06 Hawkeye and a 7mm Rem Mag Hawkeye; but, everyone should have a rifle in a classic caliber.

I'll keep you posted.

Weapons Wednesday #3 - A fine sporting rifle

Oh, yes I had a posting schedule. Sorry about that. Still short handed at work. And for Mother's Day the old man requested my assistance in a small house hold task. What was that? Oh, yes. Ripping up the entire bathroom floor and replacing it for Mother. My back is still killing me.

Tinkering Tuesday will be Tinkering Thursday this week. And Free Form Friday will be long rambling view on what G.I. Joe should carry in his fight against Cobra, err, Haji, uh, bad guys.

But for today, a weapon's Wednesday like normal.

A couple of weeks ago at work, a gentleman brought in a soft sided rifle case asking if we traded.

"Sure" I responded with more enthusiasm than felt, for generally a trade is something to make me despair. But this turned out okay. The nice guy pulls out a Remington 721. Oh boy.

The Remington 721 was the first commercial rifle Big Green released after WWII. It was also the first rifle to be built from the ground up as a sporting rifle. The 30S a fine rifle released after WWI, but it built up on surplus Enfield recievers.

The 721 was also a fairly low cost rifle, sort of a fore runner to the Ruger American and Savage Axis. But a very well crafted one. Some of the elements of the 721 carried over to the 700, Remington's flagship rifle.

Plain stock, iron sights, shooting the Lord's Own caliber, .30-06 Gov't, I'm sure this rifle provided deer to some serviceman home from WWII. And then passed hands a couple of times. And wound up in my shop as a trade for a GP-100.

It will look good on the wall. And maybe take a white tail this fall.