GARY'S GUN NOTES

For a short time a month or so ago I had hopes of at least some of the log jam on primers and powder was easing up as one of our distributors called with some primers. It turned out they were just giving us the name and phone number of a gun shop that was going under. We did buy some primers from him but it cost us. We had to pay $80 per brick, something I said I would never do. That put us having to sell the 100 packs at a bit over $10, again something I said I would never do. But sometimes we get in a situation where we have to just grin and bear it. Primers and powder are getting easier to find but at scalper prices and I really hate that.

An older fellow stopped in the shop Saturday and said he was getting out of reloading and had some reloading gear to sell if we were interested. I told him sure and followed him to a self storage unit where he had the gear. When he rolled up the front door I wished I had driven my GMC truck. The unit was loaded wall to wall in one of the 8’ units. It took an hour to load it up in my Expedition and it barely made it in there. Some of it in the front seat next to me. We got it back to the shop and spent a couple of hours unloading it. Then the work began. Jay Bunnell stopped by and pitched in to help. The problem with a lot of the gear is the old fellow would buy a box of bullets, pull out 5 and load them and see how they did. Then on to another brand of bullets, or another can of powder. I had well over 100 lbs of bullets, most boxes 5 or 6 shy a full box. I carried several huge boxes home last night and was up til 2 AM sorting out the bullets and counting them. We ended up with a large amount of powder and bullets that were a few rounds shy a full box. But that was a lot better than nothing at all. We have about 50 cans of powder that are maybe 3 or 4 ounces shy a full load, but partial boxes of bullets and cans of powder are a lot better than none at all. The old fellow also probably had 10,000 rounds of new brass. He liked the 35 calibers and the large caliber stuff. We ended up with a lot of the top end Weatherby brass, 348 brass, 338 Win mag brass, 8mm Magnum brass and so on. Also maybe another 10000 rounds of once fired brass. He had dozens of sets of dies and unfortunately some of them had some rust starting. I am tumbling them right now to get the rust off. I can polish out the interior of the dies tomorrow at the shop. I spent most of today at the shop sorting out the gear. So it was a good day but I brought home a small truck load tonight of gear to sort out as I can. Shelves full of partial boxes of bullets and partial cans of powder is better than empty shelves.

A lot of new guns are being advertised these days but in many cases it will be months before we actually see them. When a company comes out with a new caliber he has to have it accepted by SAAMI which is Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturing Institute. Hornady has some new ones for us in the coming months as does Weatherby. The new Hornady cartridges are the 6mm GT which is a 109grain round at 2910 fps. Another is by a company called True Velocity Composite Inc. They have a new 6.8 True Velocity which is a 150 grain bullet at 2700 fps. A third round is from Weatherby and is the 338 Weatherby Rebated Precision Magnum which is a 225 grain bullet 2800 fps. The name initials are RPM so they may well use that.

On the topic of Hornady new products they are branching out into new home safes. These are some really nice safes and every gun owner needs one, or two, or…

Several years ago Winchester introduced a lever gun chambered in 410 gauge. Somewhere along the line it flopped. Now it seems everyone is doing it. Henry has one and a company called GForce has several models out. I am not bad mouthing the gun at all as it is good to see new products hit the market but I really wonder at what it is actually useful for. Now I know some shotgun shooters compete with 28 gauge and 410 gauge shotguns. Larry Farley being one. He can do with a 410 gauge what I have trouble doing with a 12 gauge. But a 410 just seems to be more of a wounder than a killer in the hunting fields. Personal opinion only.

One of my favorite people and one of our 3 Amigos group, John Taffin (Jim Taylor is the other of our 3 amigos) has just announced his newest book will be out soon. It is Double Action Sixguns. If you have a shooter in your family, a copy of any of John’s books is a true heirloom and a perfect Christmas or birthday present.

This never ending shortage of guns and ammo does have one benefit. It is bringing to the front some of the smaller gun companies that would normally be inundated with guns from the larger companies. We are seeing new guns just about every week. Some of these smaller companies will probably not last long as the big companies will get all the magazine coverage instead of the new smaller companies but it nice to see some new companies coming out with some unusual new guns. As we go along if I have a chance to try some of them out I will pass that on to you. I really hate to promote a new gun unless I have actually held it and at least shot a couple of new rounds thru it.

Mossberg’s new version of their great 590 shotgun, the new 590S series is doing very well. I have had one of the standard 590 shotguns ever since they came out. The new 590S is capable of functioning the little shorty shotshells up thru the 3” magnum. It has new internals to stop any jamming with the new mini shells. It also has new open sights and several other new features. When it comes to shotguns it is hard to beat a Mossberg.

Thru the last year or two I have mentioned the new Canik pistols. So let me do so again. If you want a really nice semi auto simply check out the Canik Mete SFX pistols. These beauties are not only made of the finest materials but they look, feel and shoot with the best of them. Check one out when you can.

The new FN Hi Power is quickly becoming the Hi Power to buy. Of the 3 new models released the FN is, to me, the best of the bunch. The FN is the company that made all the original Hi Powers for the last 80 or so years. The 65 full custom Hi Powers that we have built were from the Israeli Defense Force and were Belgium made guns from FN. Buying a gun from the company that designed and developed it just makes sense to me.

Gotta run. I have probably 50 lbs of loose bullets to sort out and put back in the original boxes. It is going to be a long night.

Our varmint seasons in most states are here and time to get that lady or youngster out and let them get into varmint hunting. Remember now more than ever they are our future.

Til next month, God bless.

Gary