This time of year is always hard to get my Gun Notes
done on time. It seems that as soon as I get off the phone with one person the
other line rings. A lot of interest in many of the new products that are
coming out this fall. There have been a lot of calls for the 204 Ruger in
rifles and Encores over at our gun shop next door. The main problem is the
ammo. It seems to have dried up and at the worst time possible. Colleen has it
back ordered thru at least 5 distributors.
The 475 Linebaugh in the 1895 Marlin has been dropped,
at least that is what one of their techs told me recently. I was afraid of
this. The 1895 is a long action and the 475 Linebaugh is a short cartridge and
it's very hard to get one to work in the other.
Another Marlin is out that I feel very good about. That
is our new Big Horn Hunter which is the 410 GNR cartridge built on the Marlin
1894. The only snags are small ones. The BHH is built on your base gun and the
base gun has to be one of the newer Marlins with the cross-bolt safety and
chambered in either 44 or 45. If you have a good used 1894 in either of those
calibers then we can build you our Big Horn Hunter. It works extremely well
too and accuracy is excellent. Larry Kovach hasn't had a chance to chrono the
255 in the 16 or 18 inch barrel yet but will do so soon. About a 3 month
delivery time on this one.
I got a big batch of ammo from Grizzly Ammunition
recently and although I haven't had time to shoot any of it. it sure looks
good. They make it in 475 Linebaugh and 500 Linebaugh and in boxes of 20. This
will be especially good news for those that shoot the 500 Linebaugh. Now there
is some affordable ammo on the market. The 475 comes in 5 loads, the 500
Linebaugh comes in 4 loads. They also load all the standard calibers from 357
mag up thru 454 and load the 480 Ruger, 500 S&W, 45-70 +P, and 50 Alaskan
plus a couple of other standard rifle loads. You can get in touch with them at
503-556-3006. They are based in Rainier Oregon.
If you shoot in the cowboy shoots and you use one of the
Colt clones, you will need this next info. Parts for the Uberti, Pietta,
Pedersoli, San Marcos and a lot of other replica guns are now available here
in the states. The company is VTI out of Lakefield CT. You can call them at
860-435-8068 or get them on line at www.vtigunparts.com
.
In case you haven't been on our forum lately and haven't
heard about our bear hunt in Alaska 3 weeks ago, it was a helluva hunt.
Unfortunately the weather played havoc with the grizzly population. It has
been extremely hot in Alaska and the grizzlys are feeding from about midnite
til 4 in the morning. The black bears are out all day and are very unusual in
that area. It is like they have never seen people before. And when they do see
you the either try to stalk you and come in behind you or stand and challenge
you or they simply charge. We were seeing 6 to 10 bears a day and in most
cases when they realized we were there they did just what I mentioned above.
They would circle around and try to come in at us from behind, often to within
5 to 10 feet of where we were sitting in the brush. They would stamp their
front feet and challenge us. Dave Manson was charged by a grizzly the second
day and killed her within about 10 feet of him with a 348 caliber rifle. It
took several shots to put her down. Unfortunately she had a cub that was about
1 1/2 years old with her (plenty old enough to live on his own), but the law
there says if the sow has a cub she has to be turned into the state, which he
did. Later in the hunt he took a large black bear with his 348.
My bear was a medium size black bear, about 250 pounds,
but he chose me instead of me choosing him. I was sitting on a point
overlooking the confluence of two streams and had been sitting there for a
couple of hours. I stood up to stretch my legs and took a couple of steps back
from the camp chair where I had been sitting. I heard a grunt from behind me
and turning saw a black bear standing on his hind legs about 20 feet from me
on a small sand bar. I stood still for a couple of seconds figuring he would
turn and go back into the heavy brush. Instead he came right at me in a full
charge. I had a scoped 510 GNR revolver with me and at that range the scope
was totally useless. As the bear came up the bank he slowed down long enough
to swat the camp chair, sending it flying into a crumpled heap. When he did
this I simply pointed the 510 at his chest and pulled the trigger. He was
probably a foot from me at the time. At the shot he slammed into the ground at
my feet, only to come back up and turn to run back the way he came. My second
shot was back in his short ribs from about 3 feet. He showed no sign of a hit
from that shot but ran off into the extremely heavy brush. At about 8 feet
away from me he was swallowed up by the head high cat claw and undergrowth. I
heard him thrashing about in the brush and decided to give him a minute or two
to either settle down or go his way. At the time I didn't know whether I had
hit him or not. Although had I looked down at my 510 I would have known for
sure. It was completely covered in blood. I did reload the gun and replace the
2 rounds (which I didn't realize until later when I opened the gun and felt
the two spent cases in my pocket) but must have done it by feel as I kept my
eyes on the brush in front of me in case Mr. Bear decided to come back. This
is where a freewheeling cylinder comes in handy. I couldn't have replaced
those 2 rounds by feel with a standard set up.
After a minute or so I started pushing my way into the
brush. That was when I noticed a large blood trail, more like a spray. As I
eased farther into the brush I saw him in a heap about 20 yards from where I
had seen him last. About the time I got to him I heard Larry and George
Faerber splashing thru the stream coming to the point where I had been
sitting. Larry had gone about 100 yards downstream to check out some fresh
prints George had found and had been gone maybe 10 minutes when it all broke
loose. Larry said when he heard two shots within about 1 1/2 seconds of each
other he knew something was up, and probably not good. When they stepped up
onto the bank where I had been sitting, I think they thought a grizzly had
stopped by for lunch. My chair was crumpled up and my backpack was trampled
with gear strewn about and there was blood spray all over. They both had guns
out and pointed into every dark corner so I let them know real quick that it
was me walking back thru the brush.
On examining the bear the first shot had hit him point
blank in the chest exiting the other side. This was the shot that sprayed
blood all over everything including my 510. The second shot had hit him in the
short ribs exiting the opposite shoulder. He wasn't a large bear by any means
but the fact that I had to shoot him in that type of situation made it my kind
of hunt. Pictures of the bear and bloodied 510 GNR are on our photo page.
On the last day Larry Kovach spotted a large black bear
from the same spot where I had sat a day or two before and put a 435 grain 510
GNR slug thru him center chest, side to side. Even then he ran like hell thru
the heavy brush leaving a swatch of blood with every beat of his heart.
All in all it was a good hunt. We all 3 took bears, not
the grizzly we had hoped for but just seeing the amount of bear we did each
day and having those little encounters with them made it a hunt we will all
remember. And if the state of Alaska has that special hunt next year we will
all be back.
On another subject we are now finishing up the second of
two guns that we are building that are based on the original Keith #5 revolver
from 1929. This revolver, in 44 special, is a classic and I have wanted to
build one for years. Now it looks like we will be building two versions of it.
Our first one, shown here on the site, was the one we planned to make as the
#5, in fact it is shown with the #5 logo on it. After finishing it we realized
it was a bit too beefy to be a copy of the original #5. At first I planned to
just drop that model and work on the second one that should be more like the
original #5. But I had so many people say they liked that model that we are
going to keep it and rename it. It will officially be our #6 revolver. It is
#6 because of a comment gun writer Gary Paul Johnston made when he saw it. He
said "this gun is what Keith and his gunsmith Croft would be building
today if they were still alive". Thus the #6 name. For those of you that
are not familiar with the #5 designation. Croft built 4 others for Keith, each
one different, and each one not quite what Keith had in mind, until the 5th
gun. Keith liked it and dubbed it the Keith #5.
Our new version is also based on our own frame but is on
one that we have never shown yet. It is a familiar looking frame but
completely different from what was. I had a wax casting made up of the
original Colt first generation and a wax made up of the first generation 3
screw Ruger, then started cutting, and moving parts around. We ended up with 2
new frames, one flattop, 3 screw the size of the Colt and the other a round
top 3 screw for another series we have coming out eventually. It is also the
same size and weight as the early Colt and the early Ruger. The flattop will
be our new #5 and I hope to have a couple of these finished and out to gun
writers within a week or two. I hope to have a deluxe grade and a standard or
field grade. I'll keep you posted on the progress of these two as we go along.
Also our next Africa hunt is coming along well. We now
have 5 hunters booked and room for 7 more. So far we have Keith Kallsen, Sean
Harper, Joe Butler, Tracy Marshall and myself booked on this one. This should
be an excellent hunt as they all are. On the last two hunts we took 36 animals
and 32 animals respectively and of the 36, 32 went record book, and of the 32
on the most recent hunt, it looks like 29 will go record book. We will know
for sure in a couple of weeks. You have to wait 60 days before final scoring.
This is a great hunt if you have always wanted to hunt
Africa. It is a hard hunt too but the type of hard hunt that you feel good
about at the end of each day. Everyone thinks an Africa hunt has to be
expensive but that is not so. The average spent on our last hunt was $5300
plus airfare. If you book an elk hunt out west with a guide and outfitter you
will normally pay from $6500 to $10,000 and you pay that whether you see an
elk or not. In Africa you only pay for what you kill. The evening of the last
day you sit down with the PH and figure out what you killed and you pay for
that, nothing more.
On this last hunt, Jason Parr worked his butt off for an
eland, walking miles each day, but was never able to get within range of the
big bull he was after. So, even though he hunted for at least 2 or 3 days for
this big bull, he didn't have to pay for it because he didn't kill one. He
took several extremely good animals but no eland. So it's like that. If you
don't kill, you don't pay.
Our camp this coming year hasn't been set yet. I will
decide which one as we go along and as we see what animals the guys want to
hunt. The camp may well be a tent camp or it might be a thatch roof hut camp,
but either way it will be first class all the way. Our hunt dates are April 9
thru the 15th. We get there late in the day the 8th of April and leave out the
morning of the 16th of April. This is their fall as the seasons are just the
opposite of ours and as such our airfare should be decent. From mid May thru
September is their prime time and is the tourist season and the airfare is
higher at that time.
If you are interested in the hunt of a lifetime, give me
a call at 928-526-3313. get a buddy and the two of you hunt with us. Last year
a couple of good friends since childhood, Chuck Place and Greg Schuchmann,
went with us and had a helluva hunt. In fact Chuck and Greg are trying to
arrange it so they can go back with us again this year. It's a great hunt, and
not expensive. Don't miss out on it. Call me today and get on the list of
hunters that will be going with us next April.
Gary
