The I LOVE THIS GUN Thread

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Alejo

We have the smallest bears here and still I want a smaller .44 magnum that I'll probably get soon enough.

But the hottest .357 I could find will have to do the trick for now.

You don't need anything more than a .22. Just aim for its eye.

[HardCase]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

Why didn't you kill it?

I don't know about Colorado, but the fish&game guys in Montana wouldn't be too keen on shooting a bear out-of-season unless it had actually done damage or caused a problem greater than just meandering around, basically bein' a bear. Around here they'll trap and remove bears like that to more remote locations, tagging them first so that they can be monitored in case they return. They'll only be destroyed if they prove to be too acclimated to people, eating garbage, that sort of thing. We just had that happen to a bear in a town about 15 miles from where I live.

Last summer two young male griz were trapped and relocated from some private property abutting some that I own on the Swan River. I'd never seen these bears, but had found some massive piles of bear shit on mine and suspect it came from them. My property is near the mountains, but not in them, so these particular bears were definitely getting into areas outside of their normal habitat.

[Pete™]

Originally Posted by HardCase

I don't know about Colorado, but the fish&game guys in Montana wouldn't be too keen on shooting a bear out-of-season unless it had actually done damage or caused a problem greater than just meandering around, basically bein' a bear. Around here they'll trap and remove bears like that to more remote locations, tagging them first so that they can be monitored in case they return. They'll only be destroyed if they prove to be too acclimated to people, eating garbage, that sort of thing. We just had that happen to a bear in a town about 15 miles from where I live.

Last summer two young male griz were trapped and relocated from some private property abutting some that I own on the Swan River. I'd never seen these bears, but had found some massive piles of bear shit on mine and suspect it came from them. My property is near the mountains, but not in them, so these particular bears were definitely getting into areas outside of their normal habitat.

So they Do shit in the woods.

[FatChance]

Originally Posted by HardCase

I don't know about Colorado, but the fish&game guys in Montana wouldn't be too keen on shooting a bear out-of-season unless it had actually done damage or caused a problem greater than just meandering around, basically bein' a bear.

Exactly. Even though it came back a second time, it hadn't crossed the line for me to shoot it. Had it been aggressive or tried to forcibly get into the house or attacked the dogs, that would have been different. It was just being a bear and looking for an easy meal. The fish&game guys would not have been involved as it would have been covered by the three "S"s (shoot, shovel, shut up), but shooting it was not necessary. I think having a short-barrel .357 going off not far from his face would probably have him thinking about looking for other easier opportunities elsewhere.

[Wind-venture]

+1 on the not necessary.

Hope the bear doesn't cause you any harm. The bears I saw in Colorado, near Black Mountain, were huge. Much bigger than any black bear i've ever seen. The shoulders and snout sure looked like grizzly pics i've seen. A red/cinamon color

[Waco]

Originally Posted by FatChance

Exactly. Even though it came back a second time, it hadn't crossed the line for me to shoot it. Had it been aggressive or tried to forcibly get into the house or attacked the dogs, that would have been different. It was just being a bear and looking for an easy meal. The fish&game guys would not have been involved as it would have been covered by the three "S"s (shoot, shovel, shut up), but shooting it was not necessary. I think having a short-barrel .357 going off not far from his face would probably have him thinking about looking for other easier opportunities elsewhere.

Sounds like a pretty fine line if a bear stiffing around the doors and windows is ok. If he smells something good in your kitchen, a screen door isn't going to slow him down.

[NDEBT]

Originally Posted by HardCase

I was a medic in '71-72 and they issued me an old WW2 vintage 45 that was so loose it rattled when you picked it up. Not real accurate either. OTOH, I've got zero experience with the Luger. I have heard that they were finicky and am guessing that it might have been partially due to some pretty tight tolerances. If I had to choose between an unknown Luger, or that 1911 I had back in the early 70s, I'd probably take my chances and pick the Luger. If I could have a modern 1911, I'd pick that in a nanosecond.

Speaking of which, here's the best of both worlds. A Springfield Armory EMP 1911 in 9x19. I picked this up a few months back. Sniper asked me to post a pic but I didn't have one then and subsequently spaced it out. This gun is sweet, accurate, mild recoil, fairly light and easy to CCW in an IWB holster. It has a narrow profile grip, and while I have big hands it still fits great. I've often commented that the only 1911 that hasn't jammed simply hasn't been shot enough, and that might be the case here as this gun only has maybe 400 rounds through it so far, but it has been 100% reliable. In keeping with the premise of this thread, I love this gun:

That is beautifull . If you ever get a chance to fire a Luger do it. It is one of those guns that was way ahead of it's time.And is just a wonder to look at and see th workings. Mine has never failed even dirty but I only shoot white box winchesters though it.

The spent cases will end up in the back of your're shirt though as it spits them straight up. No shit .

[Tellydoug]

Originally Posted by Pete™

So they Do shit in the woods.

Yes they do, I have watched them do it. I have also watched porcupines mating in the woods, and the answer to the question "How do porcupines make love?" is, indeed, carefully.

[Photog]

Just picked up the 686 in the lower left hand, and the G19 police turn-in in the right hand column.

One of these days I'll take some artsy-fartsy pics of them.

[frewhl]

Yeah, the gun thread got good again.
Now I can go to sleep.

[NDEBT]

Is the second from the left a .44 special?

[beefjerky]

Originally Posted by Waco Kid

Sounds like a pretty fine line if a bear stiffing around the doors and windows is ok. If he smells something good in your kitchen, a screen door isn't going to slow him down.

As much as I'd like a bear rug, I don't think I'd crack off a 357 indoors unless I absolutely had to.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by beefjerky

As much as I'd like a bear rug, I don't think I'd crack off a 357 indoors unless I absolutely had to.

[HardCase]

Originally Posted by beefjerky

As much as I'd like a bear rug, I don't think I'd crack off a 357 indoors unless I absolutely had to.

I fired one inside of a car once without hearing protection. Not to be recommended!

[Aurelius]

I spent part of the weekend fine tuning my latest acquisition, the Ruger 10/22.



Its previous owner had already done me the favor of fitting a Fajen thumbhole stock and .920 contour Butler Creek barrel. I completed the process by replacing the stock trigger with a drop in unit from Timney, which reduced trigger pull from 7lbs to 2.5 lbs.



Installation was fairly straightforward, but a bench mounted vice or a second pair of hands would have helped in one of the steps. Though there’s no mention of it in the documentation, trigger pull is controlled by a small spring loaded Allen screw which remains accessible even after the unit is installed. I managed to reduce the pull by backing out the screw, but this caused the sear to fail to engage on occasion. Tightening the screw half a turn solved that problem, and according to my trigger gauge, left the pull weight at 20 ounces (YMMV).

During re-assembly, I discovered that the Fajen’s barrel channel wasn’t fitted correctly. Fixing that required two hours of careful sanding until I could easily slide a piece of paper through the gap between the barrel and stock.

Saturday morning I took the gun to the range for some bench testing. At 50 meters with no crosswinds, it managed to consistently produce five shot groups ranging in size from .39” to .5”.



The scope was a cheap 3-9X BSA that had been gathering dust in my closet for a couple of years. Ammo was 40 grain Federal Auto Match, available at Wal-Mart for $15 for a box of 350. This relatively inexpensive bulk ammo has established quite a reputation among NRA and IHMSA silhouette shooters for its accuracy and consistency. I have used it in a variety of pistols and rifles with excellent results. I have no doubt that slightly better groups could be achieved with expensive match grade ammo like Eley Tenex, but at ten times the price ($20 for a box of 50), it’s a very poor value.

On Sunday, I swapped out the cheap BSA scope for a much better quality 3-32X Mueller target scope, thinking this might shrink my groups even further. Surprisingly, it didn’t. Despite the scope’s much better optical clarity, finer crosshairs, and far greater magnification, five shot groups at 50 meters were no better than before. Neither were my offhand results, which were exactly the same as they had been the previous day. My conclusion is that, aside from any psychological benefit that might be gained by using the best equipment, rifle silhouette competitors using expensive Leupolds and Nightforce scopes have simply wasted their money.