New Items in the Safe and A Rant (or two)

Have a peek

Although it is tough to see, that would be my recently purchased Belgian Browning Hi Power.

Sorry for the lighting (though it works halfway decently for night firing exercises).

I picked up the Hi Power very recently and used this range time to decide which improvements will be made sooner rather than later. PowerCustom, here I come.

Here’s some more video

That would be my Ruger MKII 10in bbl. The first two shots were sighters before I remembered to hit the “go” button on the camera. There would be more video of the MKII except that the Volquartzen grips failed miserably for the last time (the molded-in washers for the grip screws ripped out and the grips stopped holding the parts in).

The videos were taken via me and my tripod at Champion Arms Indoor Range last week. Mucho thankee to the staff there (if you’re wanting to take some vids, bring your URL as they’ll want to scope out your site beforehand).

Last week we did the “Wouldn’t It Be Neat” post and had some very good suggestions in the comments. In this post, I would like to discuss something mentioned within those comments which I completely forgot to include in my list of wants from the gun manufacturing industry. I would also like to make a request of select members of the gun-owning community.

I picked up the Hi Power bug in my yoot. Even though I love the 1911 without end, I like the handling and the pointing prowess of the Hi Power with the strength of 100 men. I put off buying one until I could do so no longer.

My main reason for holding back is that I’m not a fan of 9mm (although with the right load, it does it’s job well enough) and I did not want to expand my caliber library any further. However, this gun will be a project and I can wait to buy 5000 rounds of 9mm until it is finished (although a quick 500 rounds are already on their way).

This one has the sweetest 2-3/4lb trigger you’ll every give squeeze to and keeping it will be a demand I put on the smith who installs the new hammer. It is a “shooter” and not a collector, with the usual light sweat pitting on the front and back of the grip and holster wear on the slide edges, so I won’t feel too bad in making it “carry ready” with the addition of a new slide stop, thumb safety and new sights.

Although getting it parkerized might be a bit much for me to ask of myself.

There is one downside that I discovered while at the range: These pistols are currently being made from the factory in .40S&W, and I knew that before I bought it. But some pitiable soul felt the need to tell me all about it that afternoon. I’ve already had to deal with the guys who worship at “The Altar of 40” when shooting my .45 for years, and now it seems that I’m going to have to suffer these fools with my 9mm.

I truly want to give these twerps a quick history lesson of their precious dot-four messiah, or maybe just tell them the true story about the local constable who couldn’t even shoot though the window of his own squad car at point blank range with his .40, until his seventh round, sending the first six ricochetting off the inside of the glass, down and into his dashboard, when a felon tried to run the officer down by backing his truck over the front of the officers car.

But that would accomplish little other than reminding me that .40 should have been left in the bin of fads where it belongs. If you can’t do it with a 9mm, .40 isn’t going to put you over the top. Period, end of story.

I’m not trying to break any hearts here, so if you don’t like my opinion, we’re here to talk about this stuff, so let’s do so.

Everyday folks who shoot .40 are great. I’m glad that they’ve found a cartridge that they like and hope that it gets them shooting more often. The people I’m talking about, and there seem to be quite a number of them locally and on this here interweb, are those who want to evangelize about .40. I don’t know if they’re hoping I’ll convert or if it is some sort of inadequacy problem, but they’re as annoying as the folks who wake me up in the middle of the day to hand me religious pamphlets.

If you know of someone like this, let them know to knock it off. If this gets regular, like it used to be at a different range I used to visit, I’m going to stop being gentle with them.

Which leads me to my request of the firearms industry:

10mm pistols were brought up in last week’s post. Unfortunately, the 10mm was left in the dustbin of fads, though it shouldn’t have been. And as much as I try to forget my like of the 10mm, I would have one additional request of the manufacturers:

If I can’t get an upsized Hi Power in .45ACP, could I at least get a standard sized one in 10mm (or at least barrel/recoil spring kit with 12rnd mags)?

I caught the 10mm bug at the same time as the Hi Power bug. I’ve seen it in real-world tests and it does damn well, though it still has problems with auto glass in the faster/lighter-weight projectiles.

I’d have bought myself a Colt Delta 10 by now, except that the curent owners seem to think that these pistols are made of some rare and expensive metals, and I don’t buy Kimbers any more after their extractor fiasco.

Folks made mention of the Bren-Ten, which was a fine pistol, except for it’s bad looks, weird trigger and horrible controls. Others listed the S&W pistols as their gun of choice in 10mm. For me though, every other pistol in 10mm, including the current Combat Tupperware with their “Staplegun Chic” triggers, would have to disappear off the planet before I put my life in the hands of a S&W auto (although this looks interesting).

Nope, a Hi Power in 10mm would be about the only reason I’d expand my caliber library any further, and if I have to promise to buy at least two at $1000 each before they’ll make them, I’ll buy three.