We are heading toward the “Dog days of summer” which means normally the hottest time of year for most of us. But thankfully our Monsoon season coincides with the Dog Days so the heat shouldn’t be too bad at all. As I type this it is raining with temps in the low 50s, which is normal for our Monsoon season. It pretty much rains every day from the 4th of July to Labor Day. Because of the heavy rains every day the grass is high and the game animals are healthy so the good part of this is we should have a great hunting season.
Our next HHC, (Handgun Hunter’s Challenge) is now about 2 months off. It is scheduled for Oct 5th thru 8th and set for Monterey Tennessee at the Wilderness Lodge where we normally have it. We have been there now over 20 times so that should tell you it is a great place to hunt. The lodge has room for about 50 hunters and our October hunt is normally full. Also something new in the last year or so is Alan Wilson, the owner, has added suites for married couples. We currently have about 35 people signed up for the hunt and normally fill it up the last month before the hunt . If you would like to join us, call Sandy at 931-979-4050 and sign up. I guarantee that you will have a good time. Bring a buddy, wife or youngster if you like also. It is a great place to get a youngster or wife started hunting.
Most of the firearms companies are rushing to get their new products out before our hunting season rolls around. One company I have to give credit to is Ruger. In most cases if they announce something, more than likely it is in a truck headed to the distributors and within days the gun shops will have it on their shelves.
A while back Ruger announced they were coming out with a 4” Redhawk in 41 Magnum. I wrote them mentioning that handgun hunters would rather see a 6 or 7” barrel for hunting. Now whether they read my note or laughed and chucked it out the window is anybody’s guess but they are now bringing out a 7½” barreled Super Redhawk in 41 Magnum. Now I would have rather seen a standard Redhawk in 41, like the one they produced back in the early 90s but the Super Redhawk is super strong and only requires a rechamber of the cylinder to convert it to 41 GNR or 410 GNR. And to add frosting to the cake they are bringing back the Super Blackhawk Hunter in 41 Magnum. This one would be just as good, if not better for rechambering to 41 GNR, but would need a 5 shot cylinder for the 410 GNR. Either way, kudos go out to Ruger for listening to their customers, something few companies do these days. They are also bringing back the blued Redhawk in 44 Magnum which was a really nice wheelgun and it will be good to see it back again.
While on the subject of new guns from Ruger, they have a new GP-100 with a 10 shot cylinder in 22 LR. Also something interesting is the new Ruger #1 in 450 Bushmaster. This will accompany their new Scout rifle in 450 Bushmaster.
We have been working on a special 450 Bushmaster rifle for a couple of months and I was hoping to announce it before Ruger did theirs but didn’t make it. We still have a special AR-15 in process in the 450 Bushmaster and hopefully I will have one or two at the HHC for anyone that wishes to shoot a big hog with it.
The 10mm keeps getting more and more popular every month. I mentioned a while back that Colt was bringing the Delta Elite back in 10mm, in a bit beefier version than their earlier gun in the early 80s. Speaking of Colt, they may have learned something about their popularity lately. When they got back to the gun business a while back with their new owners they decided to only sell their guns to authorized Colt dealers. I think they found the young shooters these days are not in awe of Colt firearms, at least not as much as they thought they would be. They have now changed their policy and any gun shop can buy them from their favorite distributor. I guess it was sort of a slap on the face when the Seals and Marines handed back the special Close Quarter Combat (CQB) 1911s that Colt had built for them, and asked for their Glock 19s back. Citing less magazine capacity, failure to function reliably in the sand and frequent jams with JHP ammo, the special forces folks wanted their always reliable Glock 19s back. Colt is fighting back by bring back their Series 70 system in 9mm, 38 Super and 45 ACP. Whether that is enough to bring the young shooters to Colt is yet to be seen, as the young shooters are not familiar with the Series 70 guns. They weren’t around then so they don’t get excited reading that the Series 70 is back. To them it is just “ho hum”.
Several big companies that were expecting Clinton to win the election are now scrounging for sales on their expensive AR-15s. The market has been flooded to over flowing with ARs since the election and there aren’t that many shooters that can easily put $3000 to $5000 in an AR-15, no matter how many gimmicks are crammed on it. These days it is fairly easy to find a very well made AR-15 for less than $700. And I really do believe every household needs to have at least one AR. It is an easy rifle for a youngster or wife to learn on and a great one in the short barrel M-4 version to have around the house for home protection, plus ammo is readily available. And I would buy one just to piss off a liberal.
Marlin is coming along very well even though they still have a very limited choice in models. Mainly they have the 1895 in 45-70 in a few different versions and the 336, also in a few versions in 30-30 to choose from. They are adding the 444 back into their line up and I am hoping they will soon add the extremely popular model 39 in 22 LR. And for those thinking about buying a good 30-30 or 45-70 but have been reading all the crap in the internet that the new Marlins are junk, it is pure BS. The new Marlins under their new owners are as good if not better than the old Marlins. The wood to metal fit is near perfect and the steels are better than in the older guns. We have built several dozen full custom rifles based on the new Marlins and the internals are cleaner and smoother than the older models. So if you are wanting a great 30-30 or 45-70, buy the new Marlin. They are excellent rifles.
Sort of on the same subject I mentioned this on my forum on my site. I had a young man call today and ask me about building him a 10mm custom 1911. He asked what frames we used. I told mostly STI, Rock Island Armory and Caspian. He immediately jumped in and told me the Rock Island and STI were junk guns. I asked him where he heard that. He said everyone knew it. I started trying to tell him that was completely false and he pretty much told me I was full of shit and hung up. It is a real shame that ignorant wannabe gunsmiths are spreading this crap around. We have built literally hundreds of full custom 1911s using Rock Island frames and NEVER had any problems with them. The Rock Island (RIA) frames are about as close to perfect as any you will see today. The hole placement for the safety, the slide release and the beavertail are perfect, something I can’t say about some more popular and more well known 1911s. The steels are very good and blue perfectly. The frames are smooth inside where they took some extra time producing them, again something a couple of American made 1911s are horrible at. What this boils down to is don’t believe all the crap you read on the internet unless you have experienced it yourself Like John Taffin says, it is the internet Ninjas again. If you want a good 1911 without spending a grand, check out the RIA 1911. They are as good if not better than a 1911 costing twice as much.
Winchester is another company that I wish would listen to the public rather than the bean counters. With folks begging for a smooth, lightweight 30-30 lever action rifle, a rifle that Winchester could furnish easily and one that would help them get back to producing some great rifles again, instead they are putting out $1200 to $1800 special almost custom rifles. Their standard model 94 in 30-30 in the short rifle package is somewhere around $1200, which is insane. And their new model 73 that they have brought back out is somewhere in the $1500 to $1600 range. Again someone at Winchester must be smokin’ dope.
I saw one of the new Mossberg model 930 Pro Series shotguns recently and I will have to give them credit where it is due. That shotgun was as nice as any Remington 1100 I have ever seen.
I have been amazed at how many little pocket pistols in 380 are coming out with camo finishes. From standard green and brown camo to that Muddy Girl camo to a more flagrant bright yellow and green camo for those in San Francisco. The little pistols with the composite frames also come in all the colors in the rainbow and some no rainbow would have. Bright purples, yellows that would cross your eyes, some that look like a bloody gunfight was the image they wanted to show. I have noticed they are not pushing the word “pink” much anymore as they turns a lot of women off. Instead they call them Strawberry and Raspberry. That is much better.
For many years there have been 3 barrel shotgun/rifle combos called drillings. Now Charles Daly is bring back the 3 barreled guns, but this time all 3 are shotgun barrels. They are really nice shotguns and come in 12, 20, 28 and 410 gauge. Not really sure of the reasoning behind this unless they figure it will give the shooter 3 shots as quick as a semi auto and in some states semi autos are a no no. Anyway, nice to see something a bit different.
I bought a new safe recently for our shop as we were running out of room (we already have 8 safes in the 3 shops) and I bought one of the big Cannon safes. A really nice safe and looking at the booklet on how to set the combo, I noticed the safe has an EMP feature. As in Electro Magnetic Pulse, something a nuke exploded over the U.S. would kill everything that runs on electronics from cars to watches, to everything we use every day, except my new safe. I will sleep better tonight because of that.
That’s it for this month. Our hunting seasons are getting close so get ready now, and not the day before the season opens. And when you go out shooting, take a youngster or lady with you. They are our future. Also bring them to the HHC. They will have a great time.
God bless,
Gary