Personally, while most people are wringing their hands about getting oil on their seabirds, I'm freaking out because they're getting seabirds in my oil. A couple of baby albatross feathers will clog up a fuel filter like you wouldn't believe.Damn. Wish I'd said that.
I'm a sucker for a good deal and I just got one. CDNN had been sending me emails for about a month offering a Sig Sauer P220 Compact Tactical Elite Single-Action-Only .45 ACP, so I took the credit card plunge even though I hate to do that. Good deals wait for no man.- Sig P220 Compact "Elite" as they call itI can say "Amen!" to all of the above, including the steel guide rod that I didn't discover until this morning when I took a magnet to it, but for the life of me I can't be sure about the SRT until I actually shoot it.
- Beavertail frame
- SRT trigger
- SAO kit
- Ambidextrous thumb safety
- Sig aluminum grips
- Sig night sights
- Metal guide rod
Working at a gun shop for the past 16 months has been quite an education for me on firearms, particularly handguns and even more particularly, on classic Smith and Wessons and Colts.
When describing a classic Smith & Wesson revolver in a gunbroker auction, it always helps if it has "the big four T's", target sights, target trigger, target hammer and target grips, like this S&W 29-2.The recessed chambers, which began in 1935 and continued late into the epoch of the Model 27, were prized by revolver aficionados. The reason was the exquisite machining that went into them. They served no actual purpose, according to most firearms engineers and experts, other than creating an illusion of more steel support for a high-powered cartridge.Now ain't that a pip? Sorta the reverse of the famous Microsoft saying, "it's not a bug, it's a feature." Those prized recessed chambers are actually a bug and not a feature. Whodathunkit?
In field use, they actually had a downside. Particles of unburned powder could find their way there as spent casings were ejected, creating a buildup that could prevent full insertion of the next cartridge. This could potentially lock up the gun.
Magnum snubby Mas was shooting when I first saw the photo on Gun Digest but then I got the opportunity to find out when I shot photos of the S&W 327 snubby at the gun shop where I work to list it on gunbroker.
One of my favorite revolvers is my Charter Patriot stainless snubby in .327 Federal Magnum. In a J-sized frame you get six rounds of 357-Magnum power instead of five rounds of .38 Special and that's a deal I couldn't pass up.
.327 Magnum revolvers with two new models, a 7-shot GP100 double-action and an 8-shot Blackhawk single-action, both all-stainless revolvers.
If I've learned nothing else in 16 months working at a gun shop, it's that Colt buyers have got to be the absolute pickiest people on God's green earth.
more questions about things they imagine they see in the photos. (Colt flaws are never tiny scratches or nicks to picky Colt buyers, they are gouges.)
RICHMOND -- The Virginia General Assembly has directed the state's Board of Education to develop course materials for teaching gun safety to elementary school children that incorporate the guidelines of a National Rifle Association program.
The measure, approved during the legislature's recently concluded annual session, allows local school boards to choose whether to implement the program.
A leading Democrat in the state Senate had amended the bill to allow the state board to also incorporate materials from a second group, the National Crime Prevention Center. But Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has proposed stripping the amendment from the bill, leaving the reference only to NRA material.
A McDonnell spokeswoman said there is no such group as the National Crime Prevention Center. The similarly named National Crime Prevention Council, best known for its McGruff the Crime Dog programs, did develop a gun safety curriculum several years ago, but a spokesman for the group said it has not been updated in several years.
What could possibly be wrong with teaching gun safety to elementary school children? Nothing, but when the left knee jerks, that's what leftwingnuts do, protest anything with the word gun.
As an NRA gun safety instructor, I'm all for teaching gun safety to the kids in school. They just might know what to do the next time some jerk goes off with a gun on school property.
There's one exception to that statement. DO NOT allow this ex-federal DEA agent teach gun safety to anybody, much less a group of 8th grade kids in Orlando, Fla., on April 9, 2004. Really.
How did you celebrate "Patriot's Day"? Jules Crittenden 'splains it for those ignorant of history who never heard of "the shot heard 'round the world."Speaking of tectonic templates Massachusetts has provided for the nation, happy Patriots Day. Today, we mark the day in 1775 when Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.My generation could recite the famous poem that begins "By the rude bridge that arched the flood..." but since they stopped teaching "dead white men's history" in the schools, the current generation most likely has not heard of the shot heard 'round the world. If you'd like a refresher course on the events of that day, Jules has the historical facts.
Today the Second Amendment March is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC. I expect it to go peacefully, and therefore be largely ignored by the anti-gun elements of the mainstream media. It would not surprise me at all if the turnout dwarfed that of the Million Man March of anti-gunners a few years ago, whose attendance was a miniscule fraction of their eponymous name/number.
This immediate past weekend saw our friends in the Appleseed Project hold their excellent rifle clinics/history lectures all around the country, in celebration of the anniversary of the events at Concord and Lexington that sparked the American Revolution and the birth of this nation. The date for the peaceful march in Washington was chosen for the same reason. Of course, much of the mainstream media will choose to mention instead that it coincides with such anniversaries as the Branch Davidian debacle in Waco and the terrorist McVeigh’s bombing in Oklahoma City.
Sure nuff, the knee jerks and jerk Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports this morning:
They came in camouflage and ammunition vests, carrying AK-47s slung over their shoulders and pistols in their hip holsters. They were in Northern Virginia, on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, to stand on federal land and to voice violent thoughts.Not only did Milbank make the Oklahoma City bombing connection and tar the peaceful protesters with "violent thoughts" he also ridiculed their numbers as "hundreds." Whatcha bet Milbank saw "millions" on the day the anti-gunners gathered at the same spot?In the nation's capital, where possession of guns is strictly regulated, they came carrying only signs and handbills, which one man had thrust into an empty holster.
The protest by hundreds of gun-rights advocates, billed as a national march in support of the Second Amendment, drew small but fervent groups to the Washington area. As many as 2,000 people gathered in the shadow of the Washington Monument, and about 50 at Gravelly Point and Fort Hunt parks in Virginia.
So, there were some Second Amendment marches and protests around the country over the weekend, including here in Indianapolis, culminating in Monday's rallies, both armed and unarmed, in Washington D.C.Speaking of "pants-filling shrillness," Milbank voices his own alarmed view of the pro-gun movement, reporting on recent successes.
No shots fired. No swarms of inbred yahoos rising from the hollers and bayous of Red State Amerikkka to put civilization to fire and the sword. No cyborg invasions.
Reactions from the soft, toothless, pro-disarmament Lefties on the intertubes ranged from pants-filling shrillness to smug and self-congratulatory Freudian allusions.
The rallies come at a time when the trend appears to be toward normalizing the carrying of firearms in public. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller recognized an individual's constitutional right to possess firearms, an increasing number of states had allowed citizens to carry guns openly or conceal them on their person.Ayoob also noted the growing movement toward exercising Second Amendment rights.
Last year, 24 states loosened restrictions in firearms laws, and Iowa and Arizona passed laws this year easing restrictions on gun possession. Starbucks recently announced that it would heed applicable federal state and local laws on gun possession, opening the door to allowing people to order a mochaccino with a Glock on their hip.
Last week, the Governor of Arizona signed the legislation that will make that state the third in the nation that allows law-abiding adult citizens to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public without a permit. The law goes into effect this summer, I’m told. (LINK HERE). Vermont has had that system for as long as any living human can remember, and has always had one of the lowest rates of violent crime of any state in the nation – many years, THE lowest. Bad judgment shootings by law-abiding carriers are so infrequent as to be off the radar screen.Milbank couldn't resist putting in a plug for the anti-gunners trying to resist the growing tide, but even his boosterism is pitiful as he reports the numbers at two rallies as "about 30."
A few years ago, Alaska followed with what might be an even better system. I say that because Vermont, never having needed a permit system, has none in place, so the Vermont citizen can get no indigenous permit with which to reciprocate when he or she travels to states that recognize other state’s resident permits. Alaska kept its permit system in place, to allow for its citizens to have reciprocity elsewhere. This is the model Arizona is following.
Gun-control groups have pushed back. This weekend, gun-control advocates coordinated protests at Starbucks in Blacksburg, Va., and Denver to coincide with anniversaries of the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings. Abby Spangler, founder of Virginia-based Protest Easy Guns, said about 30 people attended each demonstration.Since Florida led the way some 20+ years ago with a "shall issue" concealed carry law for its citizens, the movement has spread across the nation. Today 40 of the union's 50 states have "shall issue" laws or even better, no restrictions at all like Vermont, Alaska and now Arizona.
Shameless Commercial Plug:
I love mine so much I chose it as part of the header image of my shameless blog where I write about my guns, my God and grits, not necessarily in that order.
Stupid Gunbroker.com auction question of the day:
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.”
I for one am indeed humiliated that our nation, founded on Christian principles by Christian men who gave their very life's blood for our freedom, has sunk this low. If ever we needed a national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, it is now, today, this day of our national humiliation.
Regarding the press and religion, did you hear the one about New York Times and Washington Post reporters having lunch and betting on who knows more about Christianity? Mr. NYT says, "I'll bet you $20 that you can't say the Lord's Prayer." Ms. WaPo says, "You're on." She bows her head and says, "Now I lay me down to sleep. . . ." Mr. NYT hands her $20, saying, "That's impressive. I didn't think you knew it."You're welcome.
It's time for my Smith of the Week, not to be confused with Tam's Sunday Smith. Hey, any good idea is worth stealing.BlueBook on SMITH & WESSON : TOP-BREAKSThe design evolved over the
.32 SAFETY HAMMERLESS FIRST MODEL (LEMON SQUEEZER)
- .32 S&W cal., double action only, 5 shot fluted cylinder, 2, 3 (most common), 3 1/4, 3 1/2, or 6 (rare) in. round barrel, blue or nickel, black rubber grips. This model was officially called the New Departure. 91,417 mfg. 1888-1902. Serial range 1-91,417.
years and in 1952 came out in a J-frame size .38 Special snubby called the Centennial, or the Pre-Model 40. When Smith took away their revolvers' names and gave them all numbers in 1957, the Centennial lemon-squeezer became the Model 40.BlueBook on SMITH & WESSON : NUMBERED MODEL REVOLVERS (MODERN HAND EJECTORS)That's what the second photo is, a S&W 40(No-Dash) .38 Special with stag grips in absolutely perfect Like-New-In-Box condition, we're offering on gunbroker for a mere $1,050.
MODEL 40 CENTENNIAL
- .38 S&W Spl. cal., 1 7/8 (new 2008) or 2 (disc. 1974) in. barrel, double action only, fully concealed hammer, grip safety, smooth walnut grips, case colored frame, blue or nickel finish. Mfg. 1952-1974, reintroduced 2008 as part of S&W's Classic Firearms series.
The very first .357 Magnum is still first in the hearts and minds of many advocates of that caliber. This milestone revolver continues to morph into the future. In Part II of this excerpt from Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns of the World, the author looks at the history of the .357 Magnum. Click here to read Part I.So, what's your favorite barrel length for .357 Magnums, or your favorite caliber? And why?
An original Registered Magnum from the Chuck McDonald collection. The iconic 5-inch barrel…
Over the years, the Model 27 series has been produced in a great variety of barrel lengths. There are few handguns whose fans are so split as to ideal barrel length. During the Registered Magnum years, the ordering customer could specify whatever barrel length he or she desired.
Noted Arnold, “The .357 Magnum revolver was first made in two main barrel lengths – 3-1/2 and 8-3/4 inches.” The guns that Douglas Wesson used on his spectacular big game hunts may well have been the latter length, and not 8-3/8 inches as Keith wrote.
The reduction from 8-3/4 to 8-3/8 inches as maximum length came about after Smith & Wesson discovered that their longest barrel exceeded the maximum length allowed in competition at the time. To achieve the maximum allowed sight radius, 10 inches, the barrel had to be shortened to the 8-3/8 inches dimension.
Soon the company was making 4-, 5-, 6-, and 6-1/2-inch barrels among their standard offerings. I have heard of, but not handled, 7-1/2-inch versions.
Each had its adherents, because in this gun, the balance and overall esthetics changed significantly with barrel length. So, of course, did its ballistics. The .357 Magnum cartridge in most of its loadings dropped velocity dramatically as barrel length shortened.
The great double action revolver expert of the mid-20th century, Bob Nichols, appeared to favor the 3-1/2-inch barrel. However, he also said of this gun, “The .357 Magnum is a lot of gun for any man to hold; and it’s too much gun for the average man.”
J. Edgar Hoover’s Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum (now lost to history, and believed to have been passed on to a relative of Hoover’s heir Clyde Tolson) may have had a 3-1/2-inch barrel. Certainly General Patton’s did. Writes modern authority John Taffin, an enthusiast who owns them in virtually all barrel lengths, “…we have the short-barreled 3-1/2-inch .357 Magnum that is absolutely the most business-like looking sixgun ever made available. Dirty Harry did not originate ‘Make my day!’, the 3-1/2-inch .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum did!”Charles Askins’ original .357 Magnum had a 4-inch barrel. So did the specimen Walter Walsh used to kill Al Brady in that famous Maine gunfight.
Today’s 27-series N-frames give you eight rounds of .357 Magnum, and they’ve been chambered for a like number of .38 Super rounds.
The 5-inch barrel was perceived by many as having the best balance, in both the visual and the tactile sense, of any of the slender barrels ever fitted to this large-frame, heavy-cylindered revolver. Skeeter Skelton was particularly fond of the 5-inch and influenced so much demand among his loyal readers that Smith & Wesson reportedly produced a short run of 5-inch Model 27s to satisfy the clamor.
The 6-inch and 6-1/2-inch barrels were ideally in proportion to the .44-size frame, in the eyes of some other enthusiasts. Many of the police departments that adopted these original .357 Magnums during their heyday seem to have gone to one or the other of these lengths, the New Hampshire State Police for example.
The 8-3/8-inch barrel was unique to this gun until the coming of the Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum in the mid-1950s. Ed McGivern seems to have used this length more than any other. Chic Gaylord, an influential gun expert in the ‘50s and ‘60s, wrote: “One of the finest sidearms to take along on a hunt is Smith & Wesson’s .357 Magnum with the eight-and-three-eighths-inch barrel. It shoots as straight as a rifle and packs a lot of authority.”
To read Part I of this series, click here.
This article is an excerpt from the new book Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns of the World. To learn more, Click Here.
Gotta order me one of these t-shirts for those days when I'm too grumpy to even talk.
It's no surprise to my faithful readers, all dozen or so of you, that I love Smith & Wesson firearms. During the past year+ that I've working in a gun shop, I've had quite an education in the bewildering nomenclature of Smith handguns with two, three and four digit ID numbers established since the line got so large in 1958 that all models got numbers instead of names."They've given you a number,goes that song of the '60s from the TV show, "Secret Agent Man."
"and taken way your name"
MODEL 296 AIRLITE Ti CENTENNIAL- .44 S&W Spl. cal., L-frame, 5 shot, 2 1/2 in. barrel, similar to Model 242 in construction materials, alloy frame and titanium cylinder, Uncle Mike's Boot grips, 18.9 oz. Mfg. 1999-2002.Bluebook doesn't supply a photo and Tam didn't give me one, so I stole a couple of images from an auction on gunbroker for this post. It was available for a mere $999, so that puts if out of my league.
chance to try it out, is that it will be more shootable than the S&W 396 Scandium-Titanium "Mountain Lite" that I once tried out at another gun shop that had a range.
When I started looking around for a concealed-carry pistol in 2006, I ended up buying a Steyr-Mannlicher MA1 in .357 Sig.
a smoother, lighter-feeling trigger than the Glock, though both are rated at 5.5 lbs.
The same week a Norfolk-based Navy frigate crew captured Somali pirates who fired on them, another Navy ship intercepted a group of pirates who tried to attack a tanker in the Somali Basin.
The destroyer Farragut was called to the scene of a Sierra Leone-flagged tanker after the ship came under attack by three pirate skiffs, according to a Navy news release. During the attack, the pirates fired rifles and aimed rocket-propelled grenades at the vessel. The Farragut is homeported in Mayport, Fla.
The tanker M.V. Evita was north and northwest of the Seychelles when the pirates tried to stop the ship, the Navy release says.
The ship evaded the pirates by increasing its speed and firing flares at them.
The captain called for help from maritime officials in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, the release says. Coalition forces were contacted and a Swedish patrol aircraft located the pirates.
An SH-60 B Seahawk helicopter from the Farragut went to monitor the situation while the skiffs were boarded. The crew of the Swedish patrol aircraft watched as the pirates threw equipment overboard.
Eleven pirates were found aboard the skiffs and allowed to leave after coalition forces ensured they had no other equipment to conduct attacks.
The mother skiff was sunk.
On Thursday, the Norfolk-based frigate Nicholas took small-arms fire from suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean. The ship returned fire and captured five pirates.
I was stationed aboard U.S. Navy destroyers from Mayport, Fla., and Norfolk, Va., during my four years of service 1967-71, so I understand exactly how those sailors in the Indian Ocean felt when they got to call to take on some pirates. "Oh yeah, let's go have some fun with our guns!"
The two Destroyers cited, the Nicholas and the Farragut, both have the same main cannon used on the USS Mullinnix, DD-944, that I served on during the Vietnam War, a 5-inch 54 caliber automatic gun that hurls 70 lbs. of high explosive TNT 16-20 miles with deadly accuracy.
Match that up against a bunch of idiots in skiffs with small arms and it is no contest. Yee hah!
After spending four days in a Newark jail cell, Revell was released on bail. Revell was eventually cleared of all charges, but he didn't get his firearm and other property back until almost three years later.I heard of another case where some clueless hunters were headed up the Interstate with a long gun on a rack in the back window, which is required equipment in all pickups in Redneck country down where I live. They also had their hunting dogs in a travel kennel in the back of the truck.
Spent some more quality time at DeWitt's outdoor range today with the main objective being determining a carry load for my new Charter Arms Southpaw .38 Special.
Premium 129 gr. HydraShok JHP.
.22LR revolver, shooting from a rest to zero its sights. I've had the Dan Wesson way too long to just now getting around to zeroing the sights, but I've been pretty busy. That's my Sig P220 next to the DW, ready for testing of Winchester Ranger T .230 gr. JHPs.
left-right fixed. Finally figured out you have to hold the flathead screw while tightening the Allen screw. Who knew?
I was privileged to get the chance to visit Israel on a Holy Land Tour in 1979 and I visited both the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb, the so-called Catholic and Protestant versions of the tomb of Christ. I have to say I felt no moving of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic church there but quite the opposite at the Garden Tomb. There was a flood of the Holy Spirit in that place which in my subjective opinion validates it as the genuine tomb.The Israeli Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1948, declares Israel to be a Jewish state, but further declares that the nation "will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants, irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions." It's a promise bereft of Jeffersonian eloquence, but it's plain and to the point.
In that long-ago day, in a burst of naive enthusiasm, certain idealists imagined that this example would spread to other places where religious freedom is understood to mean that you have the freedom to keep your head so long as you believe what the imams in the government tell you to believe. Israel has since enacted comprehensive legal codes to protect the hundreds of Christian, Muslim and Jewish monuments and markers and to guarantee universal access to them. Jordan, before the Six-Day War in 1967, controlled Jerusalem, and Jews were forbidden entry. Many Jewish holy sites were routinely vandalized.
Moshe Dayan, the defense minister who led the Israelis to victory in the Six-Day War, was clear about religious tolerance and protection in a radio broadcast the morning Jerusalem was captured. "This morning," he said, "the Israel Defense Force liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour - and with added emphasis 'at this hour' - our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights."
This clearly includes the right to disagree. Not every Christian regards the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre as the site of Christ's burial. A tomb in a garden below Calvary was discovered in 1867 and, popularized by Gen. Charles George "Chinese" Gordon, an eccentric Bible scholar once assigned to the British military in Palestine, became known as "the Protestant tomb." The Anglican church once recognized it as the authentic tomb. Scholars are divided today on whether this is so.
The tomb fits the description in Matthew 27:58, when Joseph of Arimathea begged Pilate for the body of Jesus: "Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own, new tomb, which he had hewn out of a rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed."
The stone is there today, and the track on which it was rolled away is visible in the rock. The tomb and the garden lie beneath a large stone outcropping, vaguely resembling a skull, marked by two gaping holes, as if eye sockets. Hence the name "Golgotha," or "skull," given to the site of the crucifixion.
The argument continues, as with so much about the meaning of the Scripture. But Christians agree on the Resurrection as the story of Easter, the central fact that gives the Gospel meaning. The pilgrims continue to make their way in peace to Jerusalem, scene of the holiest and most horrific events of history, watched over now with respect and reverence by Jews.
Truth be told, there's a little bit, or even more than a little, in all of us in each of the characters in the Easter story. Hypocritical Jewish Priests and Sanhedrin members who were holier-than-thou but plotted murder of an innocent man who threatened their hold on power, fickle crowds who said "Hosanna to the King!" one day and "Crucify him!" a week later, even fickle disciples who swore they would all die for Jesus and then fled like scared rabbits when he was arrested. My prayer is this Easter we will all become more like the one real hero of Easter, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:5-9 says let the mind of Christ be in you. "Let" means it's up to us whether we will allow the mind of Christ to be formed in us. Jesus has already done His part.Reflections on Good Friday
Today is Good Friday, the bleakest moment in the Gospel story. Reading the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion today, we have the benefit of knowing that it’s all leading up to the triumph of Easter. But to the Jesus-followers present at the scene, it must have seemed that the world as they knew it was falling apart.
One of the challenges of reading the crucifixion story two thousands years after the event took place is that it’s difficult for us to empathize with its participants. From our perspective, the Easter crowds seem insanely fickle; Jesus’ disciples seem utterly clueless; the members of the Sandhedrin contemptibly evil; Pilate laughably corrupt.
Those things are true. Nobody except Jesus behaves well in the Good Friday story. But it’s these very people—fickle, clueless, evil, corrupt—that Jesus died for.
The truth is that we have much in common with the fools and villains of Easter. The wonder is that Jesus loved them, and us, enough to submit to foolishness, injustice, and death. The miracle is that three days later, he rose from the dead to offer us salvation. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
If you haven’t read the complete story of the crucifixion recently, today’s a perfect day to revisit it. Here are the four Gospel accounts of the story:
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9Happy Easter!
Read the whole thing at Gun Digest.In 1935, Smith & Wesson andWinchester announced a new revolver and a new cartridge simultaneously. Both would bear the same name. The cartridge would go on to become one of the most popular in the history of handgunning. The revolver would also be a milestone. More than 20 years later, it would get a mundane new name: “Model 27.” But until then, it would be known simply as the “Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.”
Gorgeous finish, “neutral balance,” and built-in accuracy made the Model 27 a long-lasting classic.
To many purists, this model would forever be the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.From its beginning, the revolver we now call the Model 27 (if only to distinguish it from its long list of descendants and stable-mates in the same caliber) was welcomed and then almost universally endorsed by gun experts. The ones of its time, and the ones that followed.
Finely checkered topstrap and barrel rib were trademark features of the Model 27.
The great Elmer Keith, of course, cheered its creation: he was a part of that, as we shall see in a bit. Charles Askins, Jr., carried one with a 4-inch barrel for a good part of his career on the United States Border Patrol. “This is the most sturdy revolver in the world,” Askins wrote. “As a service weapon it is tops! A very great deal of care goes into the production of each weapon; they are in fact custom made.”
The most enthusiastic ambassador of the new gun and cartridge was a member ofS&W ’s ruling family, Douglas Wesson, who had worked on the .357 Magnum project. Wrote Keith, “Major Wesson hunted big game and killed elk, antelope, moose and one grizzly with his 8-3/8 inch .357 Magnum.”
Later experts shared the appreciation. One was Henry M. Stebbins, who in 1961 noted that shooters were only then becoming adjusted to its power level. “When it came out in 1935 it was terrific enough to frighten some of us a bit by its noise and recoil,” he admitted. “Since then it has done much to educate us as to the amount of such ruction that we can stand and still do effective shooting...what used to seem a ferocious gun is accepted in handgun society today, with almost everyone agreeing that it has its points.”But more experts than those who wrote for gun magazines learned to appreciate the big Smith .357. George S. Patton bought one before he went overseas in WWII, embellishing it with his trademark ivory stocks bearing his inlaid initials. When he gave away one of his matched
With today’s iterations of the 27, you can put eight rounds downrange before reloading.Colt Single Action Army revolvers to a Hollywood star, he augmented the remaining .45 with the Magnum, which he called his “killing gun.” Patton’s weapon had a 3-1/2-inch barrel. So, legend has it, did the very first .357 Magnum to leave the factory, which was presented to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, though some who study the history ofS&W insist it had an 8-3/4-inch barrel.
Many agents bought identical revolvers for themselves, with the 3-1/2-inch barrel, or the 4-inch that Askins preferred. Among those with the 4-inch .357s was Walter Walsh, the legendary FBI agent, fast draw ace, and pistol champion. One day in Maine in 1937, Walsh shot it out with the notorious Brady gang. Armed with a Colt .45 automatic in one hand and his Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum in the other – and with a .45 slug through his own chest, collapsing a lung – Walsh used the .357 to kill gang leader Al Brady. Ed McGivern, the famed six-gun wizard of the period, often used one in his demonstrations, and repeatedly shot man-size targets with it at distances out to 600 yards.
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November 11, 2024 We just want to wish all of our veterans a very happy, healthy and safe Veterans Day 2024....
