Gary's Gun Notes #116

Time is oozing past us and we are now less than 2 months from the next HHC coming up October 25 thru the 28th. This hunt will be unusual in a way in that several folks are bringing their family members. From daughters and sons to brothers, uncles and fathers the people are signing up their family. This is an excellent idea as the Wilderness Hunting Lodge is a perfect place to start a beginning hunter off. Some of the areas are perfect for ground blinds where the novice hunter can sit and wait for the various critters to walk by, while other areas are hard even for the seasoned hunter. Alan Wilson, the owner of the lodge has added 3 large sections to his acreage and now has almost 15,000 acres to hunt. Much of it is steep hillsides and deep canyons while some areas are rolling land with woods around the edges of the fields. I have hunted several hunting preserves and this preserve is by far the best and is a true hunt with no free lunches. Some of the animals that will be available to hunt are Elk, Red Stag, the exotic deer like Fallow Deer, Sika Deer, and Axis deer, all the exotic sheep like Merino, Corsican, Black Hawaiian, 4 Horn sheep, Dall Sheep, and the hardest to hunt of them all, the Aoudad. He also normally has Spanish Goats, a large herd of Bison and Water Buffalo, Nilgai, Himalayan Yak, Watusi Bulls, Blackbuck, and hundreds of wild hogs. It is not unusual for him to have Javelina and the little 15 pound Muntjac. Plus Alan’s prices are about half of what the other preserves charge and there are no hidden charges. Whatever price is shown on his price list is it, nothing added. Plus our prices are normally less than those shown on his price list. All in all it is hard to beat the animals, the prices or the hospitality of the folks at the Wilderness Hunting Lodge in Monterey Tennessee. If you want to join us, call Sherry and put down your deposit. The number is 931-839-2091. Join us.

Our hunting seasons are quickly coming around. Our early deer season has started here in Arizona and the early Elk season is about 3 weeks away. I found it unusual that the seasons started so early when I moved out here. Being from Tennessee I was used to the deer seasons beginning the weekend after Thanksgiving. If our seasons go as normal, we are less than 3 weeks away from our first killing frost and about 6 weeks away from our first snow. The big heavy snows won’t begin until closer to early December but we normally get a few small snowfalls in mid to late October and the first of November.

Gun sales continue to defy the forecasters who said it would be a bad summer and fall. Guns are selling like never before. I am sure the possibility of Obama being reelected is behind this as folks figure they better get them while they can. The wild crazy rush to buy anything and everything hasn’t materialized as people are buying guns more thoughtfully this time. The last time we had this rush was right after Obama got into office and people were buying everything they saw. Dealer’s shelves were almost bare and the ammo racks were bare. This time the buyers are doing their homework a bit more and buying what they feel they might want or need later. The same goes for the ammo. Part of this studied buying of the guns and the ammunition probably is in part due to people stocking up the last time. More than likely those that bought many cases of ammo probably still have much of it left so this time they are buying what they think they will need.

The gun companies are giving those that want the guns their choices of quite a few new offerings. As I have mentioned on here before the main sellers are the new Ruger American rifle and the new Savage Axis rifle. Both sell for well under $400 and both have full lifetime warranties. Plus they are both high quality rifles loaded with features normally found only on the high dollar guns. And speaking of the high dollar guns the ones that are what I call the high medium dollar guns from Remington, Winchester and Ruger are not dead in the water but for sure are not flying off the shelf. The real high dollar guns are still selling, the guns in the $1500 to $3500 range as the people that are buying them are not as effected by this economy slump as the average blue collar worker.

Savage is coming back out with an over/under rifle/shotgun combo. For many years the Model 24 Savage was a highly sought after firearm due to it being chambered in 2 calibers, usually a small caliber like 22 LR or 22 Magnum in the top barrel and a shotgun caliber like the 12 gauge or 20 gauge for the bottom barrel. It also came in centerfire calibers like 22 Hornet 223 and others for those that needed a bit more punch in the rifle barrel. It has been a good while since Savage has made the Model 24 but now they are revising the idea with their new Model 42. It also is an over/under with rifle barrel on top and shotgun underneath. The gun comes with a black nylon stock with red piping and lettering. A very nice looking gun and with Savage’s experience in this type firearm it should perform just as good as it looks.

I mentioned a while back that I was amazed that several large gun companies were announcing fairly large price increases. With the economy in the dumpster that is not always the best move. I guess some are finding out that selling a lot of guns with a slightly lower profit margin is a lot better than only selling a few high priced guns. Now quite a few are dropping their prices for fall. Some of these are Zeiss Optics, Leupold and Steyr. Several other companies are apparently planning price reductions for fall buying. These reductions may not be permanent but will last at least thru the end of the year.

Over the past 2 years we have seen a multitude of new small frame guns designed for the small statured man or for women. That trend hasn’t slowed down at all. Colt has recently brought back their little 1911 looking Mustang Pocketlite in 380 auto. I heard they were bringing back the Government 380 which would fit a man’s hand a bit better, but nothing concrete on that yet. Smith & Wesson has their new M&P Shield in 9mm and 40 caliber. It is simply a miniature version of their already popular M&P auto. Another small framed pistol is one called the Hedy Jane Double Tap and no, I have no idea where they got the name. It is a solid white 2 shot derringer and comes in 9mm and 45 ACP. It holds 2 rounds in it’s 2 barrels with two more stashed in the grip. The little gun comes in titanium and in aluminum and weighs 14 ounces in titanium and 12 ounces in aluminum. The 2 barrels are ported to keep the recoil down.

Something unusual that has begun to sell is tactical tomahawks. Quite a few companies make them and the ones priced reasonable sell like the proverbial hotcakes. We got a small shipment of them in Monday just to try them out. In one day they were all sold. I am not sure exactly what the proposed use for a tactical tomahawk is but they look mean and are extremely sharp with cutting edge on the front and a spike on the back and an 18” polymer handle. Be that as it may when the savages come over the mealy bags (no I don’t know what that means either) I prefer to have 2 1911s in my hands and be a bit farther than 18” away from them.

A couple of years back Savage brought the Stevens line of rifles back and they have been doing very well. With a retail of about $350 they are a very good seller. Recently they brought out the new Stevens model 320 and model 350 pump shotguns. The 320 has a rotary bolt and polymer stock that comes in either standard style stock or a pistol grip model. The model 350 comes with sturdy open sights for those that plan to use it for slug hunting up in the northeast. The open sighted model is also bottom load and eject which is perfect for lefties and sells for about $250 new and the pistol grip slick top model that is side load and eject is about $225. The older crowd that don’t feel comfortable with an AR-15 in the house are buying these up left and right.

Winchester came out a while back with a Featherlite shotgun ammo that did very well for them. It was a reduced load that didn’t abuse the shooter like the normal 12 gauge load did. Now they have added the 20 gauge Featherlite to the line up. This one is a 2 3/4” shell with 7/8 ounce payload and a velocity of a bit under 1000 fps. This would be a perfect load to start a lady or youngster out on.

With all the gun companies coming out with special guns for the ladies, Kimber was not going to be left out. They have a new 9mm out that they call the Sapphire Ultra 2 that is a stainless steel slide and aluminum frame and the appealing thing to the ladies is it’s color. It is a bright blue color, not the dark blue of other guns but a bright lighter blue with gold piping and some light engraving. The frame is white with the blue accents. Everything is rounded and scaled down a slight bit for those with smaller hands.

We are right now about 2 months away from the most important election in America’s history. For America to stay free and Americans to keep our God given rights and freedoms we must take this election away from Obama. If Obama wins another 4 years this country as we know it is doomed. It is imperative that we get every gun owner out to vote in November. I talked to a fellow earlier this week and he said he wasn’t going to vote for Romney because he was a Mormon. I told him to his face if that was so then he deserved to have his guns and freedoms taken away as morons don’t deserve guns. Anyone that spouts that kind of crap is a complete idiot and I will and have told them to their faces. That kind of idiocy was what got Obama in office in the first place. Getting all your friends and hunting buddies out to vote should be our #1 goal. If not and we lose this election, we lose everything.