Late summer is finally here, the schools are back in
session and ads for the first football games are on the TVs, so can hunting
season be far behind? This is the time of year I look forward to. Even though
the days will be much shorter and my spare time will be a lot less, I can
still get out in the fields with the dogs and wreak havoc among the furry
critters.
Most of the western states now have drawings for big
game hunts and those that don't do it yet have plans to do so soon. This is a
pain in the ass but really is the only way to do it fairly. I don't like it
but I see the need for it. I went up to Craig Colorado a couple of years ago
to deliver a Jack Russell pup and we got there on the first day of elk season.
The people who bought the pup lived up in the foothills in prime elk country
and as we got up into the hills all of a sudden there was no open area on
either side of the road. It was completely covered by cars parked, end to end,
for miles. For the most part they were Texas, California and Oklahoma cars and
trucks parked end to end as far as you could see. There must have been 500 to
800 cars parked on both sides of the road just on the couple of mile drive up
to their house.
When we got to the people's home, they said it was like
this every year with thousands of out of state hunters descending upon the
little town for their elk season. I thought it was bad here but not 1/100th of
the hunters come here, even though the biggest elk taken each year are from
Arizona. And this is because of the draw system. It's a cursed system but it
works. I didn't get drawn for anything this year but maybe next year.
Some new stuff.
I received a packet of bullets from Kelye Schlepp of
Belt Mountain recently. Kelye is making the new Punch Bullet which is a heavy
brass jacket with a lead core. The nose of the bullet is flat, much like an
LBT style. The bullets that Kelye sent me are his new 370 grain .475 caliber
Punch bullets. These new bullets have 3 different crimp grooves, the top one
for Freedom Arms revolvers (the FA cylinders are a bit shorter than some), the
second crimp groove is for longer cylinders like those we build in our 475
Linebaugh conversions on a Ruger frame, while the third crimp groove is for
rifles like our new Master Hunter in 476 GNR and the Buffalo Hunter in 475 GNR.
I hope to get a chance to try out Kelye's new Punch bullets this coming
weekend. If you want more info give Kelye a call at 406-388-1396 or check out www.beltmountain.com.
Smith & Wesson has a whole new semi auto coming out
soon. I found it unusual that S&W had taken the name of their premier
small off duty cop gun for years and years and put that name on a new semi
auto a while back. Their little model 36 snubbie revolver was for years the
Chiefs Special. Then S&W dubbed a new 45 auto the Chiefs Special. Now they
have done the same thing again. For a hundred years the old model 10 was the
Military and Police model. Now S&W has a new line of semi autos out called
the Military and Police. They come in 9mm and 40 and look amazingly like a
certain polymer pistol whose name starts with a G. The new Military and Police
has an interchangeable grip, and only weighs 27 ounces. And also unusual it
will be introduced in 40 S&W first and 9mm later, a reverse of the normal
way of doing things.
S&W just got a huge military contract from the
Afghanistan National Army to furnish them with their polymer framed SW9VE.
This is a very unusual contract for S&W and probably won't be the last
one. With Colt all but gone, lots of military contracts will be up for grabs.
Winchester is not asleep at the wheel either. They are
coming out with lots of accessories like a line of targets in conjunction with
Birchwood Casey's Shoot N C targets. They also have new Win-Oil lube and
Win-Wipes gun cleaning rag. They also are teaming with Gerber for a new line
of tactical knives
A good friend of mine who is fairly high up in the
covert operations of the U.S. government told me recently that the Secret
Service and a couple of branches of the government that deal in covert
operations have recently taken possession of the new 5.7 pistols from FN. I
thought this was very unusual in that a lot of the liberal politicians are
doing their best to get the 5-7 banned from importation. They are already
calling it a cop killer gun even though no cop has ever been shot at with it
much less shot with it. This very unusual polymer semi auto holds 20 rounds of
this tiny little round but it appears the gun has a definite use in law
enforcement. I shot one about a year ago and it has no recoil at all. I was
also told that some new FN mini guns are being adapted to the Little Bird
miniature helicopters. These mini guns in a 7 second sweep over a football
field can put a round in every square foot on the field. That sure could ruin
a good football game.
Quite often I have people ask me which is the best way
to ship a gun to us, UPS or FED EX. UPS has been pretty blatant about being
anti gun and now Fed Ex has actually come out pro gun, well, at least pro gun
business. They have some new money saving deals for gun shops and firearm
distributors. Unfortunately there are times when we still have to ship UPS but
we are slowly swinging toward Fed Ex.
Those of you that watch the Sci Fi flicks have all seen
the various good guys using a "Death Ray" on the bad guys. Well, our
military is experimenting with one right now. It is called the XADS, and is
not really a death ray but close. The XADS is a Non Lethal Directed Energy
Weapon. They say they can sweep the weapon across a rioting crowd and
incapacitate the whole crowd, without doing lethal damage. Another Star Wars
type weapon is the Photon Disruptor. This one is a high intensity green laser
that temporarily blinds you and causes nausea and loss of equilibrium. Kind of
like being blind drunk.
They say they are doing it to avoid legal tangles and
legal litigation that always follows a shooting. They say that even if you
shoot a really bad guy who is killing a child you will probably go to court
and more than likely lose everything you own. This way with the various XADS
weapons on the market, the Taser is another one of them, you can probably
avoid all the career ending litigation.
I think just shooting all the lawyers would be a better idea.
One other thing. Winchester has recalled some of their
Ballistic Silvertip ammo in the 150 grain load. It has a lot number VL82, VL92
or VM10 in the inner end flap. If you have any of this don't shoot it. Get in
touch with Winchester and they will replace it immediately.
More later.
Gary
