For a change there is some good news on the political
front. It appears that the gun ban bill, HR1022 has been dropped for the time
being. Several democrats who are conservative democrats have urged that it be
dropped as it was way too radical. Since that time, about 10 days ago, I
haven't heard anything more about it, so I am hoping that is true.
It is a strange situation in our government. 50 to 75 years ago the democrats
were the good guys and the republicans were off in la la land. The democrats
were for the blue collar worker. Most were from the country and were gun
owners and hunters. As the years passed, the democrats began to lean more and
more to the left while the republicans began to be the common sense party.
Then by the late 80's, it had totally switched with the democrats being fully
liberal and the republicans the conservative party.
These days we are seeing more republicans leaning to the left and more and
more democrats moving toward the center. The democrat party is still the most
liberal and in my opinion, anti American, in history but the edges are
crumbling with more and more young democrats being elected that are
conservative.
This is good news for us that are conservative and right wing as we need all
the help we can get and it's these new democrats that are conservative that
are urging this anti gun bill be dropped. So we'll see what happens in the
near future, but don't sit back and say "we won " and forget it. We
haven't won anything. We just got some breathing room. Keep vigilant, keep up
with what your elected officials are doing, and always be prepared. A wise man
once said "It is better to arrive fully armed to fight a battle that
never happens than to walk unprepared into an ambush".
More gun companies are putting their names out in front of the public these
days by sponsoring various things like boat racing, sports activities and
NASCAR. Glock now is heading the team Glock on the NASCAR circuit with their
cars sporting the familiar black Glock logo.
Back in December we mentioned here that we should expect some drastic price
hikes in ammo, reloading components and such. Well, it's here. As a for
instance, the low priced FMJ 223 and 7.62x39 that we were selling in December
for $4.50 a box of 20 now costs us $6.25 wholesale. Which means it's going to
go out on the shelf for almost $8 a box, almost double what it was in
December. Our distributors are telling us to expect it to double again by mid
summer.
Part of the problem is that several countries, including China have realized
that capitalism is good. They are buying up all the raw components they can
get their hands on such as copper, brass, steel, lead, aluminum, zinc and so
on. This means now we are in a bidding war with them.
Take a hundred pounds of steel, for instance. If we normally pay $60 for this
hunk of steel, by the time we get thru processing it and adding in the wages
for doing so we now have $200 in it. The Chinese, for instance, with their
highly underpaid workers can buy the same steel for $60 and after they finish
the processing they now have $85 in it, so they can afford to bid higher for
the raw materials.
One of our distributors told me to expect the price of gun powder to take a
large hike the second half of this year. He said due to India and Pakistan
building up their reserves of ammunition and weapons, they have taken several
large contracts out with the foreign companies that furnish Hodgdon and Dupont
with their powders. From what he told me the companies that load the ammo for
these 2 countries have made several extremely large orders of powder. How much
of this is true I don't know, but we shall see in the coming months. If you
reload my suggestion is to stock up now while the prices are at least somewhat
competitive.
Still some new products being announced, just months after the SHOT SHOW.
Ruger continues to add new products and revise some of the older ones. The
model 77 rifle has been totally revised and is now featuring the model 77
Frontier with the scout scope set up that is becoming so popular. As a side
note to this Jeff Cooper pushed the scout scope set up for years and finally
the public is accepting it, unfortunately not before Jeff died. It would have
been nice for him to see this upsurge in the scout rifle use.
Back to the model 77, they also now have the model 77 Hawkeye which features a
much better trigger than on the older model 77s, a Mauser type controlled feed
extractor, hammer forged barrels and a whole new slimmer look than before. The
Hawkeye also features the new 375 Ruger chambering in their Alaskan and their
African series. I just wish they had named it something other than Hawkeye as
that was one of their older 1960s' era handguns.
Ruger's Mini 14 has taken on a whole new look with a thumbhole stock, satin
stainless finish and a harmonic dampener on the barrel. For a target rifle I
can see the value of the dampener but I see no use for it on a hunting rifle,
but the new Mini 14 is being advertised as a target rifle, so I guess that
works.
Several months ago we released the first custom bolt action rifle series we
have ever built. I figured we would get a couple of orders for it, and it
would taper off. I was totally wrong on this as we have almost 2 dozen orders
on the order board for our bolt action Beast rifle. We have built 4 in the
last 2 months planning to show them at a custom show or two but they have sold
before we could even get pictures of them. I have another Beast on a bolt
action, built on the Remington magnum action, chambered in 470 Capstick that
will be finished within 2 weeks and hopefully this one will stay here long
enough to at least get some pictures of it so we can get it on the internet
and in the national magazines.
Speaking of new guns, Kase has finally released his new Tactical 12. This is a
new full tactical shotgun with collapsible stock, extended mag tube, red dot
sight, sidesaddle, and much more. This comes built on the Mossberg model 590
pump shotgun, one of the absolute best and most reliable pump shotguns on the
market, plus it comes in a "violin" case, although whoever gave that
large case the name Violin, doesn't know much about music. It is the same case
that the Thompson Submachine gun comes in. You can walk out of your house with
all the power you ever need and the neighbors will think you have taken up
playing the fiddle. Little do they know. But Kase's new Tactical 12 will hit
our web site this coming week and hit the national magazines in about 2 weeks.
A good tactical type shotgun is by far the best home defense weapon you could
ever have and Kase's new Tactical 12 is the best I have seen yet.
I have had quite a few people call or e-mail me asking about these new
cartridges they are seeing mentioned on other forums across the internet.
Sometimes I forget that not everybody gets on our forum and may now know about
these new offerings. So here is a quick trip down wildcat lane.
The newest is our 256 GNR Magnum. This is one I developed many years ago for
use in the Contender but for some reason nobody was interested in it at the
time. I dropped it for a few years and have now brought it back out in a
stretch frame revolver. It is chambered in the customer furnished Ruger
Maximum revolver. It is very similar to the old 256 Winchester which was
basically a 357 magnum necked down to 25. Our 256 is a 357 Maximum necked down
to 25. It has 250 to 275 FPS more than the old 256 Winchester and should make
an excellent whitetail deer and black bear cartridge.
While on the 25 caliber topic, Sean Harper is right in the midst of the
testing and load developing for our 257 GNR Magnum. This one is another of our
cartridges based on the 405 Winchester brass. This one is the full length case
necked down to 25. The case has 18% more case capacity than the 25-06 so I am
hoping for some good things out of this one. Sean is already reporting several
sub MOA groups at 100 with each of the bullet weights. Dies and loading data
are currently available.
Next up is our 375 GNR. This one is not new but is just now being chambered in
a revolver. This one, our new Wyoming Hunter , is built on the customers Ruger
357 Maximum revolver. It does very well and comes very close to the ballistics
of the 375 Winchester out of the rifle. This is basically the 445 super mag
case necked down to 375. Dies are available and load data is in our loading
manual.
Next is our 455 GNR. This one is one of 3 of our newest that is not really
new. I developed this one in 1990 but set it back as the parent case wasn't
available yet and making it was a pain.It is basically a 475 Linebaugh necked
to 45. In all our testing so far, it equals the 454 but with much less
pressure and much less recoil. Sean is also working on more load data as I
type this. It is available in our new 455 Alaskan Express revolver. Dies and
loading data are available.
Next up is again one we developed a few years back but never continued with
it. The reamer is stamped January 2003 but just recently was brought out of
retirement due to people wanting a cartridge with more power than the 44 mag.
This cartridge is our 429 GNR. It is basically a 454 casull necked down to 44.
It holds from 8 to 11 grains more powder, according to the bullet weight, than
the 44 mag and equals the power factor and speed of the 454 but without the
recoil or twist. Dies should be available within a month. It is being released
first in our Stealth Hawk series on the Redhawk.
Now we get to the big boys. And neither of these is totally new. The first is
our 586 GNR. On this one I take a 577 Snider case, which is readily available
from Jamison brass and neck it up very slightly to .585. The original 577
Snider was .570 in diameter but the common bullet these days for a 577 is
.585. This one is strictly for a short barreled rifle, another of our Beast
rifles in fact. This one, even if we only get mediocre velocities out of it
should show a TKO of 70 or better. For reference, a hot 458 Winchester magnum
is about 55 or so. Dies and loading data should be available within a month or
so.
Next up and lastly is our 610 GNR. This one, like our 586 GNR is based on the
577 Snider case. You simply run it thru the expander die, necking it up to
.620 and that's it. There are a couple of other .620 calibers on the market
but both require you to buy the very expensive 577 Nitro or 600 nitro brass
and go thru the hassle of trimming and neck reaming and so on to make the
case. I prefer to keep it simple. I have ordered special moulds in 450 grain
and 550 grain weights for the 586 GNR and for the 610 GNR. The factory bullets
are 900 grains or more and this cuts down on your speed so drastically that
you end up with much less than you should. This new 610 GNR is also designed
for the short barreled Beast type rifle and again like the 586 GNR above, even
if it just gives us mediocre speeds, the TKO should run about 80.
I know people will ask me WHY? Why a 585 and a 620 caliber rifle. Why not?
Everyone wants something the average guy doesn't have, and this is that gun.
Besides if you decided you wanted to buy a 600 Nitro rifle these days, the
cheapest will run you $25,000 or better and our new Beast will run somewhere
in the $3500 range, give or take and according to the options the customer
wants. And with more and more guys going to Africa and Alaska for really big
game, there is plenty of reason for these rifles and calibers to exist.
Lots of new items cropping up and as they do I will keep you posted.
Good shooting!
Gary
