As I type this, it is Christmas eve. Tomorrow is the big day for youngsters of all ages around the world. Before I go into the new Gun Notes I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and hope the new year is all you have wished for. You have been more than generous to Reeder Custom Guns and the Pistol Parlor and for that I am eternally grateful. God bless and protect you in the coming new year.

People in the know say this will be the busiest Christmas season in over 30 years and we owe this to our new president. There are a lot of ignorant people that still believe all the liberal newscasts (AKA fake news) that badmouth Trump at every turn. These people are determined to destroy this country. I cannot fathom why they are trying to do this. Where else in the world can they enjoy the freedoms we have here in this country. We have to continue to be strong and fight off at every turn their efforts to destroy our liberties. Never give up and never quit working to defend our freedoms.

As we get close to the 2018 SHOT show I have received a lot of flyers concerning new products, both guns and accessories. Amazingly there are still more and more AR-15 companies emerging every month. They are going to have to have some special something that puts them over all the rest to be able to survive as the AR market is flooded and priced are down to $500 or so for the base guns.

Another thing that I am not too thrilled about is the trend of promoting cartridges that are “faster than any other cartridge around”. Nosler started this with their proprietary line of cartridges that promote ultra speed. Now Savage has come out with their new 224 Valkyrie cartridge. This one is basically a 6.8 necked down to 224. Like the Nosler line of cartridges they are pushing it as the fastest 224 bullet on the market, still super sonic at 1300 yards and shot in Savages new AR-15. Masterpiece Arms is also making a rifle for the 224 Valkyrie. It is the MPA 224BA Bolt Action rifle. With their good reputation it should be a good one. My question in all this is simply WHY? How many of us shoot out past 1300 yards. There is a growing group of wannabe snipers out there that eat, sleep and breath sniper guns, cartridges, shooting at excessive ranges etc. I am not saying this is a bad thing. I just wonder why. How many of us plan on taking a shot at a deer at 1300 yards? Hopefully not many. I guess my problem with this is me being a handgunner I don’t see any usefulness in these super hyper cartridges. Personally I hope they stay on the ranges and not in the hunting field as we don’t need more wounded animals out there to give the anti hunters more reason to try to stop all hunting.

Sort of on the same subject of WHY? There is a new AR-10 and a new cartridge from Phoenix Weaponry. The new cartridge is the 45-70 Auto. It is simply a 45-70 with the rim turned down to 308/30-06 specs. The gun is a beefed up AR-10. That is all and well, but they promote it as equaling the 45-70 with Ruger #1 loads. Now the Ruger #1 loads are hot and the AR-10 type rifle has an alloy receiver. They say it is great for these “over-pressure loads”. The rifles start at almost $5000 so not every shooter will have one. I just hope those alloy (aluminum) receivers will hold up to that range of pressures.

Those of us older than navel lint will remember the great line of Ruger revolvers on a medium frame called the Security Six. This little mid frame revolver was a great little gun in 357 Magnum. It has adjustable sights and came in blue or stainless with barrels in the 4” and 6” range. Ruger also had the slick top fixed sight revolvers out in their Speed Six and Service Six. Both of these were designed for the law enforcement crowd or for those wanting a little 3” revolver in 38 Special or 357 mag for concealed carry. Now Ruger has their new Security 9. And if you are saying, “damn, a 9 shot 357 Mag” as I did, no, it isn’t. It is a new semi auto. This little beauty (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) is Ruger’s new offering for those than can’t afford the $600 to $1000 range of semi autos. This little 9mm in more than affordable and should hit the dealer’s shelved at a bit over $350, give or take. The new Security 9 is a 15 round 9mm, with a double stack mag about halfway between a compact and full size auto. It has a 4” barrel and weighs 23 ounces empty, perfect for concealed carry. This one should be a sure winner for Ruger.

Have you noticed that camo is the “in thing” these days. Whether in outwear, jock straps or guns and holsters various versions of camo are everywhere. The ladies have handguns and longguns in the nasty pig pen looking Muddy Girl camo. Even Weatherby has ladies rifles out is their proprietary camo. Besides guns, many accessories are in the various shades of camo and a new camo comes out every year. Lord knows you can’t be seen in the field with last year’s camo. Even small handguns are camo’d these days. One of the big gun distributors has camo Ruger SR-22, LCP and LCP 2 all in what is called Moonshine Serenity camo. It is a mixture of faded green and upchuck purple. To each his own.

Over the last few years more and more shotguns have come out with the triple or dual tube magazines that hold 16 to 18 rounds. Now Kel Tec, one of the innovators of the large capacity shotguns has come out with their KSG-25. It holds a whole box of shotshells, that’s right, 24 + 1 of 2 ¾” shells. It is the dual tube shotgun and if it is like most of Kel Tec’s other guns it should be a good one.

I mentioned above that the many AR-15 manufacturers are trying to come up with their little niche in the market that will help sell their rifles. Anderson has their “never clean the gun” thing going along with them showing them dipping the dirty gun in the nearby creek, sloshing it around a bit and saying “it’s clean”. That appeals to me quite a bit as I don’t believe in cleaning guns unless they really really need it. There is no real reason for all the cleaning. So Anderson gets an “atta boy” from me. Now POF USA, also a manufacturer of fine AR-15s is showing their ARs dropped in thick mud, sloshed round, rolled over and then picked up and shot. Again that appeals to me. I don’t use an AR much (hardly ever) in my hunting but it is nice to know I can depend upon POF USA should I get in a mud wrestling contest while carrying my AR.

Another niche I like and one that we are doing is the camo dipped guns in larger calibers. We are set up to do the camo dipping and have been doing quite a few 450 Bushmaster conversions on AR-15s and then doing the camo dipping process. This is a great process and super strong.

Several years ago, 25 maybe, Colt came out with the AR-15 in 9mm. Big time flop. Nobody wanted it. Now several of those AR-15 manufacturers are chambering their ARs in 9mm as their little niche in the market. With the new 9mm rounds these days being head over heels more powerful than most 9mm ammo of years past, except for Super Vel in the late 60s and early to mid 70s, this give some reason to have a 9mm AR.

Speaking of 9mm, there are a couple of companies coming out with a special 9mm round that is supposed to be devastating on bad guys. This design was originally designed by a good friend back in the early to mid 80s who designed a special S&W Model 39 converted into his ASP. His name was Charlie (we won’t go any farther than that). He sent us a large amount of the special bullets, all in 45 caliber, to test for him. We found out later that Charlie had been selling his 9mm version of these rounds to some Arab bad guys. Apparently, as the story was told to me, a couple of Mossad operators were found dead with these bullets in them. The Israelis told Charlie not to sell any more to them. Charlie, being a good businessman but not too smart, sold a bunch more to them,. Charlie was found shortly afterward in a ditch outside Atlanta with two 22 caliber holes in his head. We still have those special 45 caliber bullets and I for sure don’t plan to sell them to any Arabs. Anyway, these new spiral shaped bullets are being sold under a couple of names and are probably the most devastating 9mm bullets on the market today. One of the companies is NOVX. It is a fluted 65 grain bullet, poly coated, and does over 1700 fps in a short compact 9mm barrel. It has a bit over 400 foot/pounds of energy which is the same as a hot +P 45 ACP. On the effect on a bad guy the round almost cuts the person in half. That’s a good reason to carry a 9mm.

Many of you will remember Charles Daly guns thru the years. They have been in and out of business for a hundred years. Charles Daly is really just an importer and distributor of fine guns. They are back and are importing some really unusual guns, one being the new 3 barreled shotguns. It is one barrel on top and two below, just like the drillings except reversed. We had one in here a short time ago and the quality and workmanship was great. Built like an over/under except it is 1 over and 2 under.

Speaking of shotguns, the Mossberg Shockwave is another good one. It is really not a shotgun although it is. Mossberg developed this gun on it’s own, not a cut down shotgun, and registered it as a “firearm” with the feds so this way they can produce a 14” barreled “shotgun” with a pistol grip and you don’t have to go thru all the special paperwork to own one. You just walk in your local gunshop, do the normal 4473, pay for it and walk out. No waiting, no class 3 forms and no high price as a “short barreled shotgun” or SBS. It holds 6 rounds and comes in 12 gauge or 20 gauge. And if you can’t solve your problem in 6 rounds, you are in deep pucky.

And again speaking of shotguns, more and more companies are coming out with AR-15 style semi auto shotguns. One of the newer ones is Triple F shotguns. They have a super slick 20” 12 gauge that has 5, 10, and 18 round magazines. It comes with 2 five round mags. They have been the manufacturer of parts or other AR style shotguns for a good while and finally started to make their own full guns.

More and more folks are entering the 6.5 market. That Reeder guy had a 6.5 GNR, then a 6.5 Raptor and now another one on the drawing board. Then the 6.5 Creedmore, and now the 6.5 PRC from Hornady. That is the 6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge. Hornady says this one leaves the 6.5 Creedmore in the dirt. And if Steve Hornady had anything to do with it you can believe it.

Hornady also has more in their DGX Bonded bullet. That stands for Dangerous Game Expanding bullet. It is a copper clad steel jacket bonded to a lead core. This gives them deep penetration controlled expansion and high weight retention. These come as bullets only in 375, 416, 458, 470 and 510 calibers. We have our next African hunt coming in a bit over 2 ½ months and we have 11 hunters going back to Africa. Of these 11 hunters these special bullets could come in very handy. In the 375 caliber they have the 300 grain. In the 416 caliber they have a 400 grain. In the 458 they have a 480 and a 500 grain and a few others for the 470 Nitro and 500 Nitro. You can always depend upon Hornady to come thru for hunters. Colleen just ordered me some in 375 caliber for my 378 GNR and some in 416 caliber, for my 416 GNR, both of which will probably be heading to Africa, good Lord willing. She also ordered some of the .458 caliber for my 450 GNR, as a stand by.

Not exactly a dangerous game handgun but North American Arms has a new Ranger 2 revolver out. This little palm size revolver holds 5 22 magnum rounds and unlike the older guns where you had to take the cylinder out and poke the empties out with the base pin, which is nerve wracking when the bad guys are shooting at you, the new Ranger 2 has a break top barrel which ejects the empties as it breaks open. Much better when the bad guy has his Uzi and KG-9 sending lead your way. It also come with a 22 LR cylinder as an option.

We have had the 6 hole RCBS Turret press along with the Lyman 6 hole turret press for many years. Then Redding came out with the 7 hole turret. Now Lyman, not to be outdone has a new press called the Brass Smith with an 8 hole turret. Lyman products, while not as well known as RCBS are as good if not better than any other press on the market.

Another new press for the shooters wanting match grade ammo, is the Bald Eagle Heavy Duty Match Press from Bullets.com. It is a very high tech single stage press designed for the match shooters or any other reloader that is slightly anal.

Iver Johnson, a company that has been around for over 100 years is back in business again after being gone for a few years. They have actually been back for several years now but had not a whole lot that I considered interesting, but now one of their newer products is interesting if now sort of useless. It is their new 1911A1 carbine. It is basically a 1911 in 45 ACP with a 16 ½” barrel and a wood stock. We had one in the shop recently and looked fine if maybe a bit ugly. They also have a new longslide 10mm and 45 ACP out called the Eagle XLC. It has a 6” longslide barrel and slide. It is a chrome plated pistol. I wish it were stainless but the satin industrial chrome finish looks fine too.

Speaking of 1911s, the military, under our new president, is releasing a gazillion old world war 1 and 2 1911s to the public. Obama tried to have them destroyed but ran into opposition from the Secretary of Defense. Along with the standard 1911s will be some parts guns, which are guns slapped together by military armors. My guess would be the majority of these guns will be in that latter category. They will be sold on a drawing process and you may only buy one gun per year. The only down side of this is just like when they sold off a batch of Garands you have to be a member of a Civilian marksmanship program and show proof that you have shot in some CMP matches. For instance up here we have no ranges, indoor or outdoor so showing that I have shot in some CMP matches would be hard if not impossible. But if you are interested, stay tuned. When the info is released, I will pass it along.

I think I hear some rattling in our chimney, so old fatty might be coming down it. Not Al Franken or Weinstein or for sure not Rosie O’Donnell. There is not enough KY Jelly to coat her and get her down anyone’s chimney. Either way, I need to close for now.

In these next few months if you have a chance, take a youngster or lady hunting besides being our future you will have a hunting and shooting buddy for life.

God bless,

Gary