Browning/FNH-USA says a special thank you to all veterans

Browning has a special tribute to veterans. I missed it yesterday, but found it today.

From all of us at Browning we would like to say "thank you" to all the veterans who have sacrificed in the past and continue to sacrifice in the cause of freedom on behalf of all Americans and freedom loving people throughout the world.
In honor of all veterans we would like to share this video tribute produced by our good friends at FNH-USA.

New, improved, resdesigned site for my gun shop is 'live'!

The new, improved, redesigned website for the gun shop where I work is live, finally, after dorking around with Network Solutions (a pox on their house) for five business days.

In my so-called spare time, I am also a web designer and it was truly a labor of love to redesign and relaunch the rather atrocious company website that we formerly had for the gun shop. Good riddance.

Village Pawn & Gun Shop of Wadesboro, NC, is a small family business but a pretty big player among gun shops here in North Carolina, with more than 1,800 guns in inventory at present.

The first photo is the cluster of handgun counters at one end of our store with long guns on the wall behind. That's Jonathan and Wes at the counters.

Second photo is the shop crew, from left, Wes, Dorothy, William, Jennifer, Jonathan and moi, John.

We attend every gun show of almost any substance here in NC and almost always have a bigger presence there than any other gun shop attending. So far, yours truly has managed to evade duty at the gun shows as I not only savor my weekends at home and church, I am of sufficient advanced age as to plead senior citizen status. Well, the two senior members of the family that owns the shop, William and Dorothy, are my age and they both go to all the guns shows. But as the country song goes, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm too old for guns shows.
But my hat is off to the gun show crew which labors long and hard on Saturdays and Sundays and not only sells sometimes hundreds of guns, but brings home some real beauties which end up in our baby doll counters and even occasionally going home with me when I can afford one.

I don't think I've written about our baby doll counters here before. That's where we keep the like-new and near-perfect condition Smiths, Colts, Brownings, Rugers and other rare handguns.

The next three photos are the baby dolls, first the classic Colts, the second is classic Smiths, Rugers and others, and the third is reserved for all the boxed-presentation handguns.

Almost all of these baby dolls are priced way out of my reach, but they are nice to look at and handle lovingly and I get the pleasure of keeping these counters arranged as newcomers arrive and current occupants are sold and shipped out to new homes.

In fact, stocking and restocking the baby doll counters is perhaps the best part of my job. But of course, what's not to love about the job? Talking guns, selling guns, teaching guns, even shooting guns, and doing it all for a living. Getting paid doing what you love is the best of all worlds.

Like-New .45 ACP BHP Shooter needs a good home

Another of my "too big to carry pistols" is up for sale on gunbroker, my Like-New Browning Hi-Power .45 ACP clone, an FEG GKK-45 made in Hungary during the Cold War and imported into the U.S. by KBI Inc.

It's a great shooter with 8-rd. magazines of my first love in pistol calibers, .45 ACP, and I hate to let it go. But us poor, bitter, backwoods, God-clinging rednecks have to make some sacrifices in these troubled times, since this particular redneck ain't got enough money to buy more carry pistols without selling off some of my full-size pistols.

When I bought it, I found the existing 3-White-Dot sights shot about 2-3 inches low, which is close enough for most folks but not yours truly. So I bought and had installed an LPA rear sight fully adjustable for windage and elevation to replace the existing dovetailed rear sight. Then I discovered with the LPA rear sight adjusted all the way down, it shoots about 1-2 inches high!

But I found if you draw a fine bead without about half of the front White-Dot sight peeping through the LPA rear sight, you can shoot the hairs off a gnat's behind. Close enough.

Ships with original FEG Two-White-Dot Dovetailed Rear Sight, LPA Rear Sight package with Sight Adjustment Tool and Allen Wrench, (1) 8-rd. FEG GKK-45 magazine and (4) 8-rd. ProMag GKK-45 magazines.

The Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol is the last design of famous arms inventor John M. Browning and was completed after his death by others, first manufactured in 1935 by Browning Arms of Belgium. Most shooters say the grip angle of the Browning Hi-Power is the most comfortable and natural pointing of all pistols, exceeding Browning's most famous design, the 1911 pistol.

Following World War II, the Browning Hi-Power became the leading military pistol in France, England and thoughout Western Europe and was copied behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.

FEG of Hungary, the Hungarian national military arms manufacturer, copied the Browning Hi-Power 9mm design during the Cold War and supplied the Hungarian army with small arms. FEG also improved the BHP 9mm design by replacing the Browning Single-Action trigger (with its awful heavy pull) with a Double-Action/Single-Action trigger design copied from Smith & Wesson.

KBI Inc. of Harrisburg, Pa., imported FEG Browning Hi-Power pistols into the U.S. starting in the 1980s, first the 9mm and later the FEG .45 ACP. The FEG .45 ACP GKK-45 has a DA/SA trigger and is a slightly larger version of the classic Browning Hi-Power in 9mm, scaled up for .45 ACP.

KBI Inc. is owner of Charles Daly and though it is no longer importing FEG pistols from Hungary, the company still provides parts and service for all FEG pistols KBI previously imported.

I pray there's a .45 ACP and Browning Hi-Power enthusiast out there somewhere that will give my GKK-45 a good home and shoot it with pleasure for many years to come.

What iz it? It'z a Browning BDM 9mm Ambi Pistol

One of my gun nut buddies identified the "What iz it" gun photo I posted earlier. Ain't it great to have gun nut buddies all over the world linked up on the Wide Wonderful Web?

I shoulda known, it's a Browning. See that little Buckmark logo at the top of the grip right behind the trigger? That's what detectives call a clue.

Next photo down is a Browning BDM from the World Guns site, which gives the nomenclature.

"BDM stands for the Browning Double Mode (or Dual Mode), and it means that the pistol can be had in either traditional Double Action mode or in Double Action Only Mode ... in the same gun, and the change of mode can take a split a second, not more.

"It is done via the small slotted switch in the left side of the slide. The switch has two positions, marked "P" and "R". P stands for Pistol, or DA mode, R stands for revolver, or DAO mode. The switch can be turned from one position to another by any sharp-tipped tool such a knife, screwdriver or even a coin. BDM is equipped with ambidextrous, frame-mounted safety / decocker levers. To engage safety (and decock the hammer in DA mode) one must pull the lever down, and the lever will stay in this position. To disengage safety the lever must be pulled up, so a red dot will show on the frame."

And the last photo is a current Browning by FN, the Hi-Power Mark II 9mm, which also a lefty-friendly thumb safety on the right side in addition to one on the normal left side for righties.

Mystery solved. I'll be on the lookout for one of those Browning BDMs, now out of production.

Another of my gun nut buddies also came up with a link to a fellow gun nut who hacked an inch off the grip and 3/4" off the slide and barrel to create a short Browning BDM.