Our hunting season is finally here and we are BUSY. Both
at our gun shop and in my machine shops. People that have guns ordered have
all of a sudden decided that it would be nice to have that gun for hunting
season. And in many eastern states the main deer season begins around
Thanksgiving so that gives me 2 weeks to get 40 or 50 guns finished, yeah
right. Guys, I'm trying,
We are still trying to catch up on the backlog of #5 revolvers. And we are
making some progress. We got 4 more out so far this week but still have nearly
40 ordered. Once we catch up on these orders for the #5s and the Western
Classics I hope to put them back in the line up around the first of the year,
hopefully. I won't do it until I am fully caught up though.
Just got up and answered the phone and had a fellow
asking what did I use to clean a stainless gun that was REALLY blackened from
firing hundreds of rounds over the past few months. He knew I didn't use oil
on my guns and really hate to use solvents due to their horrible smell that
lingers forever, And this is a good way to spook game. So here goes. When I
have a revolver come in to me to work on and it is really crudded up with
caked on burned powder and everything else, I soak it in Simple Green. It
seems to get everything out and leave the gun cleaner than solvents and
doesn't smell as bad. So there. That's my secret. You can get it just about
anywhere. I buy mine in bulk at Sam's Club.
I got to play with one of the new H&K P2000 semi
autos recently. A really nice gun. I am not much of a lover of the Glocks and
such, although I think the Glock is the absolute most foolproof semi auto
there is. I grew up with 1911's and would have a hard time changing. The
H&K feels awful nice in the hand though. Colleen, Kase and I are all Glock
armorers and have all worked on them from time to time. Yesterday I came over
to the gun shop and Colleen had one apart down to the little trigger bar
springs cleaning it for a moron that had used some spray on crap that just
gummed the whole thing up. It's nice to walk in and find your wife up to her
elbows in Glock parts. She had some unladylike comments about the owner too.
I finally had a chance to watch some of the Saturday
morning hunting shows and I now see what you guys are talking about. What a
farce. It is all staged. There was one fellow shooting at a moose in what was
apparently an Alaska hunt. The moose was standing in some very thick alders
with alders in every direction as far as you could see. They pan back to the
hunter who raises his rifle very dramatically and takes a shot. The camera
stays on the hunter while the commentator says " a perfect one shot kill.
The moose has dropped in his tracks". They walk up to the moose and he is
in a wide open field, not a tree or alder bush for miles. Do they think we are
complete idiots, that we believe all this bull? But now I see what you guys
have been talking about.
Let's see, where was I? Oh yeah. New stuff. CZ, who
bought out Dan Wesson a year or so back is coming out with new rifles that are
a bit more streamlined than the standard 550 or 602 big game rifles. The CZ
BRNO rifles are some of the absolute best ever made and are built like a tank.
I used the old model 602 back in the late 80's as the base gun for large
caliber conversions, and still have a short heavy barreled 416 Rigby that we
built. The Rigby is available now as a factory chambering but way back then it
wasn't, and I like the Rigby. Kase has taken several large game with the rifle
including several buffalo, kudu, eland and a lot more. It sure thumps them.
Anyway, CZ is bringing out a slimmer more American styled rifle and calling it
appropriately the American. They also have a varmint rifle coming.
We got a Wilson Combat 45 auto in on consignment this
week and I took a good look at it. I will have to call Billy Wilson up and
give him hell. His name was only on the gun 7 or 8 times. Usually it is on
there 10 or 11 times. Bill is a good friend and makes a helluva pistol but he
sure loves to put his name on the guns. And yes, Jay Bunnell, I am talking
about your 45 that you brought in. But I will have to compliment you as you
are selling a Wilson Combat pistol and have ordered one of Kase's Condition
One pistols. Good choice. Bill Firman sure swears by his.
For a few years Crimson Trace has had the laser grip
market by the cojones but it seems like they are getting some competition.
LaserMax is coming out with a very similar product at a very competitive
price. The first one will be for the J frame S&W.
I had my first village idiot come into the gun shop a
couple of mornings ago while I was in there watching it for Colleen while she
was running errands. He said he had a TC Omega black powder rifle and wanted
to know if IMR3031 was the best powder to shoot in it. I told him not only no
but hell no. That he couldn't use smokeless powder in his black powder rifle.
He told me his buddy did, in his Savage rifle. I knew this was going to
happen. The new Savage 10ML is their new bolt action black powder rifle that
is built on their great model 10 frame, the same frame as their other
centerfire rifles are built on. The thing that is different about this rifle
is that it is set up for smokeless powder. Now I really don't know how they
can expect to be included in the primitive hunts or any blackpowder season
when the gun uses standard smokeless rifle powder like AA5744. They say their
rifle will do 1 1/2 inch groups at 100 and has a trigger pull of about 2 1/2
pounds and shoots sure and clean with 209 shotgun primers. Now this is all
good that the gun is accurate and all but what about when other blackpowder
rifle shooters decide that their gun is as strong as the Savage and they want
to try smokeless powder in it. I think this is a really stupid move on Savages
part. Of course a lot of gun whores will write it up as the best thing since
French Ticklers.
In the last couple of weeks LJ has done quite a bit of
scouting around our mountains here looking for elk sign. While on one of these
outings he spotted some bears, not one or two but over a dozen in one
afternoon. He is heading out tomorrow (Friday) morning to see if he can coax a
big one into handgun range. Kase and I had planned on going out Sunday morning
and try our luck in the area where LJ found this "herd" of bears.
Kase also in his "spare" time manages a night club here in town and
they have their annual Halloween "show me your tits" contest
Saturday night at the club and he won't be getting off until around 4 AM. So I
guess I will be going up on the mountain by myself to see if Massa Bear is
available for a meeting. Colleen reminded me that my last 3 encounters with
bears ended up being very close encounters, as in shots from about a foot away
from them. This has given me a deep respect for mister bear but I can't really
turn down a chance at another big one. And LJ said there were several that
were big bruisers. So if all goes well Sunday morning at O-dark hundred I will
be trudging up the mountain. This should be a good hunt for my 510 GNR
revolver. The last bear I danced with was in Alaska a bit over a year ago and
I used the same 510 on him.
Our next Africa hunt is getting closer with the
timeframe now being less than 5 months. As we get on closer to Christmas the
time will really fly as we are now less than 2 months from Christmas. Once the
first of the year is here, the hunt will be right around the corner. I have
been talking to John Abraham, our PH about the 2007 hunt and where we will
have it. He wants to see what new concessions he gets at the end of the year
before he suggests any area. I already have several people that want to sign
up for 2007 and I will start taking names and deposits right after the first
of the year. If you have been wanting to go, be doing some deep thinking about
it over the next 2 months. I hope to fly up to Reno to meet with John while he
is at the SCI convention in late January if all goes well. But either way I
will know more about the area we will be hunting in 2007 shortly after the
first of the year.
In all my African hunts (# 10 is coming up) I have never
had any of my guys (or ladies) shoot a giraffe, but it looks like that will
come to an end on this next hunt. Anthony Ransom, one of our FNGs says he
wants a giraffe. We should have some very interesting and unusual game taken
on this next hunt. With all the very unusual game in Baviaan that LJ, Bill
Firman, Jason Parr, Sean Harper, Ray Massey and I will be hunting plus the
Cape Buffalo that Bill Firman and Jason Parr will be hunting in Rooiport plus
the Sable and Roan and now Giraffe that will be hunted in that same area, this
should make for a very interesting hunt. Plus we have a total of 13 hunters
that will be going on this hunt, 6 in the Baviaan area and 11 in the Rooiport
area ( some of them will be going to both areas). Our 2006 hunters include the
folks already mentioned above along with Woody Seiders, Brian Tonnacliff,
Tracy Marshall, Tom Redman, Shawn DeRemer and Bill Springer. The last several
hunts we have averaged well over 90% of our animals being in the record book.
I think this coming hunt should do just as well, if not better.
If you want to hunt Africa with us in 2007, be thinking
about it. I'll keep you posted as it develops.
Gary
