A strange long weekend for Gunbroker sales with Sunday as holiday

Gunbroker sales for the gun shop where I work run in spurts but this weekend has been even stranger than usual. Starting on Friday and through 7 p.m. Monday as I write this, we have sold 12 guns for a grand total of $9,073.95, not including shipping, credit-card fees, et c. Not too shabby for a mom and pop gun shop in the little town of Wadesboro, NC, which most folks couldn't find on a map. It probably helps that we currently have more than 700 auctions going so there's a lot of choice stuff to choose from.

And here's the strange part, that four-day period is actually only three days of sales. For some unknown reason, our gunbroker customers all got religion at once and not a single firearm was sold on Sunday. Weird.

There were several high-dollar guns in this spurt, the biggest of which was a Lew Horton Special Government Colt engraved in gold "God Created Man, Col. Colt Made Them Equal" for $1550.

In second place was a Kimber USA Shooting Team Match II 9mm 1911 for $1,399. Frankly I figured that 9mm would sit for a while, but what do I know?

Third place was a fairly well used WWII Springfield Garand with a crack in the stock for $850.

Ultimate Colt Ananconda .44 Magnum in RealTree Camo in the bag

We have an Anaconda emergency at the gun shop last week. We sold down to our last Colt Anaconda and the Colt counter was looking skimpy with just one of the big .44 Magnums in residence.

So the owners decided that at long last, I could take photos and list on gunbroker an Anaconda in RealTree Camo they had been hiding in the back office for several months.

Colt only made this beauty one year, in 1996, and the owners just weren't tired of looking at it yet.

BlueBook on COLT'S MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. : REVOLVERS: DOUBLE ACTION, SWING OUT CYLINDER
Anaconda with scope
- .44 Mag. cal. only, 8 in. barrel, Realtree Grey camo finish on gun and scope. Mfg. 1996 only.

But since it was an Anaconda emergency, they agreed to let me list it.

Here's the Ultimate Colt Anaconda, in the Colt Team RealTree Anaconda camo bag, just like it came from the factory, complete with Redfield scope, also in RealTree Camo.

It can be yours for a mere $1,850 for buy-it-new on gunbroker.com.

I have been a Colt owner only once briefly when I bought a .22 Huntsman for $300. Then along came a guy who offered me $450 for it and it was gone. Besides, I had shot it alongside my S&W 22A-1 and the Smith beat it easily for accuracy and ease of shooting.

Anyway, I've been Colt-less since. I'm not counting the brief period when I had a Colt Cobra .38 Special on layaway, but before I could get it paid off, a Charter Bulldog stainless .44 Special came in the door. So I bid adios to the Cobra. A .44 trumps a .38 every time in my book.

So fellow gun nutz, you're welcome to the RealTree Anaconda. Can't afford it and don't even want to try. I could buy half a dozen nice handguns for the price of this beauty.

Newtonian physics rules vs. lightweight snubby revolvers

Sooner or later, I'm gonna get around to buying a lightweight .38 Special snubby, but every time I've made a move toward one since I started thinking about .38 snubbies back the spring of 2008, something sexier has popped up.

First snubby that caught my eye was a Smith & Wesson 396 SC .44 Special called the Mountain Lite. Then I shot it and learned you can't repeal Newtonian physics that says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

If a handgun is light as a feather, unless it's shooting a projectile that's both underpowered and also very light, it's gonna kick like a Missouri mule, like the "Mountain Bite" .44 Smith snubby. And underpowered light projectiles sucketh when it comes to actually doing what bullets are supposed to do, deter bad actions.

Then I bought a pair of stainless-steel Charter snubbies, .327 Magnum and .44 Special. While neither has what anybody would call low recoil, they're both manageable enough to enjoy shooting and to control for accuracy. And both are more than adequate in the deterrence department, ballistically speaking.

Then I fell in love with another stainless sorta snubby, a S&W 65-3 .357 Magnum with 3" barrel, which is also pleasant to shoot unless you load it up with CorBon 180-grain loads, which I found out the hard way are just too hot for a K-Frame, even an all-steel one.

In between the two Charter snubbies, I almost bought my first Colt, a .38 Special Cobra, the alloy-frame version of the famous all-steel Detective Special. With the factory grips, it beat the hell outa my ring finger, so I bought some gap-filling grips that made it more comfortable to shoot.

But when I had the Cobra almost paid off at the gun store where I work, in came my second Charter snubby, the Bulldog .44 Special. It has a better trigger than the Colt, plus it's a .44, not a .38. So the Colt went back in the counter and the Bulldog came home.

But I have shot one lightweight .38 that both has a good trigger and won't beat you up too bad with +P loads, the new Ruger LCR polymer-frame .38 snubby.

A customer bought one that didn't have the Crimson Trace Lasergrips properly zeroed at the factory so I volunteered for the job of fixing that.

It took me a whole box of Hornady Critical Defense .38 Special +P jacketed hollow points to get those laser grips properly zeroed. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.

And now Smith is finally stepping up with its first polymer frame .38 snubby, the new Bodyguard model soon to be delivered.

I'll pass on the new Bodyguard .380, 9mm is as small as I go with pistols, but the .38 Bodyguard got my attention with an ambi cylinder release as well as ambi controls for the integrated laser. That's a real feature for lefty shooters like me.

Maybe I'll get a chance to shoot one of the new Bodyguards before I finally buy my first .38 snubby. But until then, I'll just get by with my .44, .327 Magnum and .357 Magnum snubbies.

Here's a S&W video commercial on the two new Bodyguard models.

Para P12-45, Colt Cobra .38 and S&W 65-3 .357 Mag. showoff time

In the spirit of "It's my blog and I can show off if I want to" I finally got around to taking some new photos of my latest carry pieces yesterday, so here they are.

My new-to-me Para Ordnance P12-45 is first up, along with the Galco shoulder harness with double-mag holder which was purchased along with the pistol from the former owner, a retired Navy chief corpsman.

The P12 has several custom features, including ambi thumb safeties and a 3-hole adjustable trigger, which I presume was done by Cylinder & Slide since that shop also customized the chief's former P14-45, which I'm in the process of purchasing also.

I didn't appreciate the customization fully until I tried to order a set of wood grips and discovered that stock P12 grips are not fitted for ambi safeties, like mine. So either I find somebody who can custom fit some grips or just stick with the black Para grips that have already been custom fitted to the pistol. Probably the latter.

Then there's my new-to-me Colt Cobra .38 Special snubby, which is almost paid off. I took the liberty of finding some new grips for it after discovering the painful truth that the original grips fit too high and the back of the trigger guard raps your knuckle when you shoot it.

I have test-fired it with a new set of wood grips, shown installed, and they work fine. Also got a set of rubber grips which I haven't tested yet, but I suspect I'll stick with the new wood grips. I'll be carrying it with my small-of-back Galco holster, belt holsters or a new Bianchi shoulder rig, shown with the Colt.

My Colt Cobra, according to Bluebook, was made sometime prior to 1972.

COBRA (FIRST ISSUE)- .22 LR, .32 Colt NP, .38 Colt NP, or .38 Spl. cal., first issue, 2, 3, or 4 (square butt on early model, later models had round butt) in. barrel, blue or nickel finish, similar to Detective Special, only alloy frame and available in .22 LR, very early guns had plastic grips with silver medallions, changed to plastic w/o medallions, and finally changed to wood grips. Mfg. 1950-72.

It has a square-butt frame, which makes it an early model, but it came with wood grips, which makes it a later model? Go figure. It's old, that I know for sure, and it has a great trigger so it will be a fine backup carry piece. Plus it's a D-Frame Colt, same size as a K-Frame S&W, so it's a 6-shooter, not a 5-shooter, like the Smith J-Frames. I'm math challenged, but I am pretty sure 6 shots in a snubby beats 5 shots.

And last but certainly not least is my new-to-me Smith and Wesson 65-3 with 3" barrel, a great set of grips and a custom trigger job from the S&W Performance Center.

Bluebook says this about it: MODEL 65- .357 Mag. cal., stainless version of Model 13, K-frame, has 3 (round butt, disc. 2000) or 4 (square butt) in. heavy barrels, satin stainless steel, current production uses Uncle Mike's grips, fixed sights, 35 oz. Disc. 2004.

The grips may be the "smooth Dymondwood combat grips" which Bluebook says came on the Model 65 Ladysmith. Whatever they are, they fit my hand perfect and shoot great. I love the 3" barrel, which carries great and shoots great too. I have learned that shooting really hot .357 Magnum loads, like 180-grain Cor-Bon, is not a good idea with a K-Frame. Save those for your N-Frame Smiths. It shoots just fine with 110-grain .357 Magnum loads, which are more than adequate to stop anything short of a charging rhinoceros.

Mystery Colt No. 1 solved, how about Mystery Colt No. 2?

Mystery Colt solved by Jim Watson, senior member at TheHighRoad.us.

Parts gun in a big way.

Frame:
Colt sn 13719 was made in 1912 for the US Army. Therefore it is, or was, a true 1911.
The stamp over the magazine catch is WGP for Major Walter G. Penfield, chief inspector for military production at Colt from 1911 til 1914.
It would have had a big bold "United States Property" stamp on the left side in front of the slide stop. That has been removed to sanitize the frame and disguise the fact that it is stolen government property. Don't worry about that, the FBI and BATF don't care about the origin of a gun any more as long as the serial number is still there.

The finger thingie on the frontstrap was welded up, the rear tang ground to take a beavertail grip safety, an aluminum trigger with holes was installed, and Pachmayr grips added, slit to clear the thingie. The arched mainspring housing looks like a Pachmayr but I would need better pictures to be sure. Hammer is a flat type much newer than the frame.

Slide:
I can't read the slide markings, you say it says .38 Super but has a .45 ACP barrel?
That was a lot of work.

Besides that, the rear sight is a Smith & Wesson revolver sight, which is kind of a gunsmithing chore to install.

Next question, call it Mystery Colt No. 2: What's up with the other .38 Super 1911 in the double auction? It has the 1911 flat mainspring housing, but it has the scallops behind the trigger, which is a 1911-A1 frame change? Serial number is 163679.I'm all ears.

Mystery Colt 1911-A1 .38 Super/.45 ACP: What kinda frame izzit?

I need some help with a mystery Colt. The gun shop where I work bought a 1911-A1 with a Colt .38 Super slide, a .45 ACP barrel and an unknown frame.

That's it in the photos. The frame has this spike on the front grip frame that sticks out from the Pachmayr wraparound grip as part of a very aggressive set of fingergrooves.

It's a standard 1911-A1 that seems to be set up for target competition with an adjustable rear sight and a Patridge front sight.

The slide has the expected Colt .38 Super markings and patent dates the most recent of which is 1913 as expected with a 1911-A1.

But the frame is just plain weird. One of the changes from 1911 to 1911-A1 is the arched rear grip frame of the latter, which this frame has.

But another change on the 1911-A1 frame is the half-moon cuts behind the trigger and this one ain't got none of those. The frame is flat behind the trigger like a 1911.

And on the left side of the frame, behind the trigger guard, is a logo that might be a C with an M and a P. That's my best guess of what the logo says.

The fourth photo is a closeup of that logo. I figured it had to be some non-Colt company's logo.

But when a customer asked me to test fire this pistol to check its function, I did this past weekend. It shoots fine.

And then the mystery deepened. One of my buddies who was at the range is retired Air Force who collects military arms and he said he has some old military Colt 1911s that have that same logo.

So, is it a Colt? And if so, is it a 1911 or a 1911-A1? And is it a genuine .38 Super Colt? Serial number on the frame is 13719.

If you want to see more photos and read the description in more detail, this mystery Colt and a genuine 1911 .38 Super Colt are both listed on gunbroker in an auction for my gun shop.

Anybody got any info on the mystery Colt or about the mystery logo?

Fabled Colt Royal Blue? Only Colt knows for sure

When I first started doing gunbroker.com auctions for the gun shop where I work, I made the grevious error on a Colt auction of calling a deep-blue finish "Colt Royal Blue" which is what BlueBook called it for that particular model.

I think it was a Colt King Cobra revolver, but since I don't have a clear memory of what I ate for breakfast I could be wrong on that little detail.

Whatever.

You woulda thought I suggested to a bunch of die-hard Catholics that the Pope might be a secret Baptist.

Howls of anguish and charges of "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!" came flooding in by email from every Colt "expert" on gunbroker. "Do you have a genuine Colt factory letter proving this Colt is Royal Blue!!!???" the "experts" all chorused/shouted by email?

As the Mexican bandits said to Bogart, we didn't have no stinkin' Colt letter so after the first jillion or so emails, I changed Colt Royal Blue to a mere blue.

And I have gone forth from there and sinned no more by never again claiming that any blue Colt we've offered on gunbroker is Royal Colt Blue cause we still ain't got no stinkin' Colt factory letters.

But at the risk of causing another eruption of hissy fits from the Colt "experts," today I listed a Colt Classic Government Model .45 ACP in extremely dark blue and I dared utter the forbidden words in the auction listing "Royal Colt Blue."

I phrased it thusly: We wouldn't dare claim this Colt Classic Government Model is the fabled Colt Royal Blue because we don't have a factory letter to back up that claim and we don't want to cause an eruption of hissy fits by Colt "experts." But it sure is a very dark blue with a beautiful set of ivory-appearing grips.

I will add this, hopefully far enough away from the wrath of Colt experts on gunbroker to escape their notice.

If this Colt Classic Government Model ain't Colt Royal Blue, I can't imagine what the real McCoy could look like. That blue finish is so deep and dark you could dive in there and swim around in it.

But I still ain't saying it's Colt Royal Blue. It just looks like it, that's all I'm saying. In case you feel compelled to respond with indignation, send all emails to heresaquartercallsomeonewhocares@idont.com

Gold-engraved Colt .45 commisioned by Saudi King in 1980

You are not gonna believe this one. I can hardly believe if myself and I shot the photos of this one-of-a-kind gold-engraved Colt Government Model 1911-A1.

I know I've never seen anything like this before and I seriously doubt I ever will again.

Here's the description I posted on gunbroker for this Colt Custom Shop engraved beauty, which can be yours for a mere $20,000.

You can come visit it at Village Pawn & Gun Shop, where I work. Looking costs nothing.

Like New In Presentation Box-Unfired: Colt Custom Shop Gold-Engraved 1980 Government Model 1911-A1 .45 ACP Single-Action Semi-Auto Pistol, Colt Signature Series 1980 Blue Government Model.

Ordered from the Colt Custom Shop by King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia, in 1980 as a personal gift to now-retired U.S. serviceman Athony Potter, who sold it to us, unfired in the Colt Custom Shop wooden presentation box.

The blue-steel Colt Government Model 1911-A1 is completely engraved with scrollwork and gold engraving, featuring the Royal Saudi Arabian Crest on top of the slide and gold Arabic Script on the left slide which translates "In the Name of God, The Beneficient, The Merciful."

The right slide features a gold-engraved eagle and dove. Both sides of the slide feature a gold-engraved Lilly.

This custom-engraved Colt also has hand-carved ivory grips in a floral design and (1) engraved blue-steel Colt magazine.

Ships in Colt Custom Shop wooden presentation box with blue velvet lining. Serial number is FG21893.

According to BlueBook, only 250 blue gold auroplated Colt Government Models were manufactured in the 1980-81 Signature Series and this is a one-of-a-kind custom engraved Colt from that 250.

BlueBook on COLT'S MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. : COMMEMORATIVES, SPECIAL EDITIONS, & LIMITED MFG.
1980-81 .45 ACP GOVT. SIGNATURE SERIES
- .45 ACP cal., blue finished Govt. with gold auroplated or nickel finish. 250 mfg. in both finishes, ser. no. range N/A.

As Eric Clapton said when he first met Muddy Waters, I'm gobsmacked.

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.

Colt Python joins 'Big Gun' blowout sales on gunbroker.com

The "big gun" blowout continues. This morning when I checked gunbroker sales overnight, lo and behold a Colt Python .357 Magnum in gorgeous Colt blue with a 6" barrel and Pachmayr grips has sold for a mere $1200.

Nobody does deep blue like Colt. God only knows why the company ever stopped production of their double-action revolvers. But they did and now Pythons, Diamondbacks, Anacondas, King Cobras and others Colt "snakes" are going for premium prices.

And though not a "big gun" like the Python, a Ruger GP-100 .38 Special in blue with 4" barrel also sold overnight for a more pedestrian price of $375. We've had the GP-100 in inventory for a while and the boss decided to list it on gunbroker to see if we could move it out. Voila, one GP-100 sold. Ruger has discontinued the GP-100 in .38 Special only, with all current models now in .357 Magnum, which of course will also chamber and fire .38 Special.

I'm sure when I get to work and take the beautiful blue Python out of the Colt baby doll counter where it resides, there will be mixed emotions. Glad for a sale but sad to see it go. As the family members who own the gun shop have said before, they aren't tired of looking at the Python yet. It joins some other "baby dolls" that have departed the Colt counter in recent days.

But we've still got a pretty good collection of classic Colts, Smiths and other gems listed among our current 427 new and used guns on gunbroker. There's even a few Colt "snakes" left.

I don't know what's fueling this spate of high-dollar guns being sold in recent days, but let the "big gun" boom roll on.

Colt joins the 10mm revival with Delta Elite's rebirth

Reports of the demise of 10mm pistols are greatly exaggerated, as Mark Twain said about himself when finding his obituary in his morning newspaper. At right is the new/old Colt Delta Elite 10mm Stainless, an old 10mm pistol newly brought back into production by Colt.

I love my job as a gun store salesman and gunbroker poster for a local gun shop, which is how I came to hold this fine piece of Colt workmanship in my hands and take photos of it for posting. It's up on gunbroker now for a mere $950 if you want one.

(P.S. Too late. The Colt Delta Elite is already sold. It didn't stay on gunbroker but a bit more than 24 hours. That was fast!)

I wrote earlier about the revival under way in 10mm pistols and being a 10mm gun lover, I'm delighted at this market correction. Frankly IMHO there is no finer pistol caliber than 10mm. It offers the size and grain weight that nearly equals the famed one-shot stopper .45 ACP with ballistics that far outstrip that caliber.

In my view, 10mm is the perfect pistol caliber and I'm still perplexed as to why the .40 S&W, which is a shortened 10mm, didn't find a way into my heart. Millions of law enforcement and civilians love .40s, so I expected I would, too. But alas, when I bought my first it turned out to be probably my last also. I bought a Steyr M40-A1, loving Steyr pistols, but I just didn't care for the caliber when it came to actually shooting it.

It's recoil is sort of weird, a slapping kind of torque that twists in my hand and I've got pretty big hands. I love shooting 10mm, .357 Sig, .45 ACP, .44 Magnum, .44 Special and all three flavors of 9mm I've tried, 9x19, 9x23 and 9x25, but I just don't like .40. So I swapped it for a 9x19mm.

But getting back to 10mm, I met a genuine fellow 10mm gun nut the other day in the gun shop. This gentleman has an entire collection of Bren Ten pistols and is one of the early members of the Bren-Ten Forum, where he snatched up the username of SCrockett for Sonny Crockett.

In case you're not an old gun nut like me, Sonny Crockett was the Bren-Ten-carrying detective in Miami Vice, that TV cop show of the olden days, recently revived as a cop movie.

And the Bren Ten, the daddy rabbit of 10mm pistols, is supposedly being revived also by gun manufacturer Vltor under a new name, the Fortis. According to the Vltor blog, its promised arrival in early 2009 has been pushed back a bit due to overwhelming demand for other products, in particular military contracts. I'm looking forward to seeing my first Fortis.

Three Lessons Learned About .22 Semi-Auto Pistols

I bought a pair of .22 semi-auto pistols a while back and I'm just now realizing how good that decision was. The one at bottom was my first choice, a Smith & Wesson 22A-1, and while I was in the gun shop I spotted the one at top, a
Colt Huntsman.

I thought about that little Colt for a day or two and decided I had to have it too. I had a Navy buddy, lo many years ago, who had a Colt Woodsman which has got to the greatest shooting .22 I ever laid hands on. Buying a Colt Woodsman today is generally reserved for Colt collectors who have a heck of a lot more money than I do. But the Huntsman is the budget version of the Woodsman and this one was only $300, which is a real bargain. So I went back to the shop and bought it, too.

Turned out they were both great shooting pistols, but the S&W has the edge over the 30+year-old Colt. The proof, as with almost all guns, is in the trigger. Both had great triggers, but the Smith was the best. It measures with my Lyman Digital Trigger Gauge, at 1 lb. 12.4 oz., while the Colt measured at 2 lbs. 3.9 oz. And I speak about the Colt in the past tense because I bought it for $300 and then sold it two weeks later for $375 after deciding I didn't need two .22 pistols.

I used the cash and a little extra to buy a brand new in box S&W 21-4 .44 Special, the Clint Smith Thunder Ranch version revived by S&W as the start of their current Classic series. I bought it the highway robbery price of $425. I shoulda been arrested for taking advantage of a gun dealer.

S&W Model 21-4, 4" barrel, blue steel with factory Rosewood grips.

Anyway, back to the .22 topic. I chose the S&W 22-A1 over two other leading candidates, the Ruger Mk. III series and the Browning Buck Mark Camper series. I knew the Browning .22 pistols would have great triggers, Browning pistols all share that great trait, but didn't know from experience about the Ruger .22s. But I did learn one common fault of both the Ruger and Browning .22s during research. They are neither for the mechanically inept when it comes to field stripping for cleaning. If a klutz like me gets one apart, it will probably end up going to a gunsmith in a box of parts to put it back together. And I am a klutz for sure, so they're out.

And though I may still get a Buck Mark one of these days, I have learned something about the Ruger Mk. IIIs that makes me mark them off my list permanently. They have terrible triggers.

The recent newsletter from Brownell's (the greatest source of gun parts and accessories in the free world) had a gunsmith's article about how to install a decent trigger in a Ruger Mk. III.

The trigger was probably the only real shortfall. It had a good deal of take up or pretravel, there was a considerable amount of creep before it broke heavily, then there was significant overtravel. Additionally, the Ruger's trigger pivot is located far forward of the trigger's vertical centerline, causing the trigger to move upward in a tight arc as it was pulled. I like the parallel pull of a 1911 trigger or other designs that place the pivot over the trigger centerline. Pull was a heavy 4¼ - 4 ¾ lbs.

Between the upward arc of the trigger, its long pull and overtravel, I found myself pulling shots to the right. Groups spread horizontally as the pressure exerted on the trigger was directed above the plane formed at the web of my hand. I liked the gun, but the trigger had to go.

If you're mechanically inclined, or have a good gunsmith to go to, go get yourself a Ruger Mk. III. The Brownell's article tells you how to fix that bad trigger. As for me, I'll just hang with Smiths.

10mm Pistol's Demise 'Greatly Exaggerated'

In addition to being gun nut in general and a pistol nut in particular, I'm even more peculiar than that. I'm a weird caliber lover. Love .357 Sig. Love .44 Special. Love 9x25mm (DoubleTap only).

Had a brief fling with .38 Super and 9x23mm Winchester, but they didn't work out. Not due to the calibers but because the barrel to convert my Glock 20 was "experiental" and it wouldn't feed properly. I'm still hopeful of a conversion barrel for my G20 that will actually work.

But until then, I am also a certified 10mm nut. First pistol I bought after 9/11 was a S&W 1076, the FBI duty weapon from 1990-95 until the feds wimped out and went with .40 S&W. I traded it straight up for a highly customized G29, the "baby" Glock in 10mm with a 3.76" barrel. Can you say pocket rocket? And of course, I also bought a G20 which is fine full-size 10mm pistol. (See my pair of 10's above, G29 and G20.)

And lo and behold, after being written off as dead, 10mm caliber is making a comeback, almost as if it's quoting Mark Twain, saying "Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

One of my gun-nut buddies says:

10mm is making a little bit of a comeback:

Glock is supposed to release the G20SF and G29SF this month.

Colt is making a new 1911 Delta Elite 10mm that should be out soon.

EAA has a bunch of 10mm options.

The latter refers to European-American Armory, which imports the full line of Italian Tangfolio pistols which are available in compact, full-size and even long slide with scope mounts in 10mm, as well as .38 Super, 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Swap a slide and you got any caliber you want.

And now in other 10mm comeback news, the daddy rabbit of all the 10mm pistols, the very first one which was almost still-born, the Bren Ten, may be resurrected soon under a new name!

Quote:

Tucson, AZ - Feb 01, 2008 - Vltor Weapon Systems today announced the launch of the Fortis Pistol Project, a modern version of the famous Bren Ten style pistol. Originally released in 1982, the Bren Ten pistol was designed to advance the state of the art in handgun technology. Designed to fill the need for a full size, full power, double action pistol, the Bren Ten created immense interest as a potent choice for law enforcement and military use. Developed as a pistol and cartridge combination, the Bren Ten was the first production pistol to chamber the powerful 10mm Auto cartridge. In its original loading, the 10mm Auto was capable of launching a 170gr buller at 1,300 fps - generating over 600ft/lb of muzzle energy. Unfortunately, the original Bren Ten and its successor fell victim to business management and financial problems - but the demand for a high quality American made, full size, double action pistol has still not been filled. According to Eric Kincel, the General Manager for Vltor, the Bren Ten may have truly been a design that was ahead of its time; "Now is the time to make this pistol. With today's precision manufacturing techniques and the superior materials available, the Fortis will be a pistol line that is everything people hoped previous attempts would be." Eric pointed out that the Fortis is nearly identical to the original Bren Ten in exterior appearance and ergonomics, but that some changes have been made to improve reliability, safety and strength. "The Fortis, while based on a twwnty-five year old idea, is very unique. It offers a high tech, high quality pistol that more than fills the demands for a full size, magnum power auto loader." The first released Fortis will be a "duty gun", a full size, all steel, high capacity 10mm Auto that will reliably answer the call of professionals and sportsmen that rely on a good pistol. However, Eric is quick to point out that the Fortis Project is a line of pistols based on one common design. "There will be other versions of the Fortis...different calibers, sizes and options specific to certain applications." When asked if they intend on releasing a faithful reproduction of the original Bren Ten, Eric's answer was simply "We sure want to". Fortis Pistol Proposed Specifications (subject to change in final production) * Manufacturer - Vltor Weapon Systems * Model - Fortis (original release) * Type - autoloading pistol * Operation - Semi-automatic, Double/single action * Caliber - 10mm Auto (others to follow) * Barrel length - 5.00" * Overall length - 8.75" * Height - 5.75" * Width - 1.30" * Weight - 38 ounces * Safety - reversible thumb and firing pin block * Sight radius - 6.88" * Sights - Adjustable, 3-Dot combat style * Rifling - 5 Groove, radiused, RH twist * Stocks - Engraved polymer panels * Capacity 0 12 rounds * Finish - Black Steel Slide and Subdued Finish Stainless Frame" http://www.vltor.com/ and http://vltor.wordpress.com/

From the most recent entry on the Vltor-Fortis Pistol blog, Dec. 10, 08:

Quote:

Fortis Pistol receivers after undergoing final QC inspection and waiting for the machine operations -- by the time you read this, they will be being made into the last run of pre-production guns, the next round will be for delivery!

Last word is they're shooting for SHOT '09 for the unveiling of the new Fortis/Bren Ten II, which is Jan. 15-18 in Orlando, Fl.

No photos of the complete Fortis pistol on their site except this thumbnail.

Here's what some of the originals look like from Bren-Ten.com, the definitive source:




Sounds like a good plan to me.

Hanging out with the 'Baby Dolls' for the holidays

I've been too busy to blog for a while, but that's a good thing. I had some time off my regular job for the holidays, so I took a part-time job with a local gunshop to keep busy. As a certified gun nut, I shoulda been paying them but they paid me so I didn't argue. What I've been doing is taking photos of their guns for sale on gunbroker.com and posting the photos and info for sale.

I had shopped there and bought guns previously but had never seen what they call the "Baby Doll Counter," down on the pawn shop end of the business, away from the other guns. This counter is full of classic, mostly out-of-production revolvers, almost entirely Smith & Wessons and Colts. And there I saw for the very first time a Colt revolver I'd never seen, a Colt King Cobra .357 Magnum (above) in Colt's Royal Blue finish. See why they call 'em baby dolls?

They also have a Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum, two Colt Pythons .357 Magnum (0nly the blue one is for sale, the Stainless one is reserved for one of the owner's Christmas presents) and a Colt Diamonback .38 Special, none of which I had ever seen before in the flesh, so to speak.

Colt no longer makes any of these revolvers, the Single-Action Army being the sole survivor of what was once a lineup of some of the best revolvers ever made. But they sure knew how to name 'em, didn't they? The Diamonback'll bite you and the Python and Anaconda eat you alive.

On the other hand, you have Smith and Wesson, who used to have some great names, the K-38 Combat Masterpiece, the K-38 Masterpiece, the very first .357 Magnum, the .357 Registered Magnum, and of course, the original Military & Police .38 Special revolver.

And then some marketing "genius"/idiot at S&W decided all those great names had to go. In 1957, the above pistols became, respectively, the Model 15, Model 14, Model 27 and Model 10.

Really gives you the warm fuzzies, don't it? But they're still great pistols and being a Smith guy, I expect one of more of them will end up going home with me. First on my list is the .357 Combat Magnum, but I ain't giving you no link to that bad boy. It's mine, all mine. Get yer own.

.44 Colt Walker revolver sells for record $920K!

(Photo by David Leaming, Morning Sentinel via AP.)
I'm a certified gun nut, particularly on pistols, but if I had this pistol, I'd sell it so fast it would be smoking when it left my hands. Would you believe $920,000, just pocket change shy of a cool million, for this .44 Colt Walker revolver?

An anonymous bidder paid $920,000 for this .44-caliber Colt Walker pistol yesterday in Fairfield, Maine.

James D. Julia Inc. says this is thought to be the highest price anyone has ever paid for a firearm at auction.

"Yee-ha," the gun's owner, John McBride, said as the winning bid was announced, according to the Morning Sentinel. "We did better than we had hoped."

The auction house says this "rare and historic" Colt Whitneyville-Walker pistol was issued during the Mexican-American war. "It is truly one of the greatest prizes of Colts in existence," auctioneer James Julia tells the paper.

It was made for U.S. marshals in the 1840s and its previous owner says he never fired it.

The price includes a buyer's fee of $120,000 charged by the auctioneer.

Julia was also the auctioneer for the previous Colt record of $480,000.

The gun was an heirloom passed down from John McBride's great-great-uncle. The 80-year-old from Montana says some of the money will be used to buy land in that state.

Wish I had a great-great uncle who collected Colt pistols.