Two new LCR models by Ruger raise 5-shot snubby bar higher

Ruger's not resting on its laurels since the introduction of its LCR, Light Compact Revolver, which really is a new wrinkle in double-action-only .38 Special+P 5-shot wheel guns.

It's almost heresy for a Smith & Wesson lover like me to say it, but the LCR has a better out-of-the-box trigger and shoots more comfortably with +P loads than any Airweight J-frame Smith currently offers.

According to reviews I've read of the new S&W Bodyguard .38 Special with an integral lasersight, this new Smith will also include a new and improved DAO trigger, but I haven't seen one yet so I'll reserve judgment on whether it measures up to the LCR.

At least for now IMHO, the LCR has raised the bar for snubbies. And the two new LCRs being introduced raise it even higher, a model in .38 Special+P with an XS Tritium Dot front night sight and smaller, slimmer boot grips, and an LCR .357 Magnum.

American Rifleman reports on the two new LCRs.

Ruger has updated the LCR for faster acquisition and better concealment with XS® Sight Systems 24/7 Tritium Standard Dot front sight, and the lighter LCR Boot Grip.

The new front sight increases low-light acquisition and offers users a flash sight picture to increase shot speed in self-defense situations, while the LCR Boot Grip is smaller, lighter (by ½ oz) than the standard grip, and features smooth side panels and a smooth bottom contour, making the grip less likely to snag on clothing. 

The other new LCR is a .357 Magnum version with a lightweight steel frame to handle the heavier loads.

Previously only available in .38 Spl., Ruger has created a .357 Mag. version for shooters desiring more power and versatility in a compact revolver. The double-action LCR-357 weighs only 17.25 ounces and features the same friction-reducing cam and accessories as the original LCR, including optional Crimson Trace grips. 

"The new LCR-357 is perfectly optimized for the .357 Magnum," remarked Joe Zajk, Ruger's Chief Engineer for revolvers. "Its 17-1/4 ounce weight is just heavy enough to make shooting full-house .357 loads manageable, yet it is still small and light enough for discreet carry."

Ruger LCR Revolver tops S&W for shooting comfort and light trigger

Brought a new friend home today, a new-to-me gently used Ruger Light Compact Revolver, or LCR .38 Special+P revolver.

There's a reason the NRA gave the Ruger LCR its Golden Bullseye Award for 2010 as new revolver of the year to "honor excellence and innovation in firearms."

The 13.5 ounce, small frame, 5-shot Ruger LCR has three main components: a polymer fire control housing, an aircraft quality aluminum monolithic frame, and an extensively fluted stainless steel cylinder. The LCR’s lightweight, chemical-resistant polymer fire control housing contains the entire fire control mechanism and provides a reduction in perceived recoil. The fire control housing’s grip peg allows for a variety of grips to be installed, and the LCR’s standard Hogue® Tamer™ grip reduces perceived recoil even further. A joint effort with Hogue, the LCR’s standard grip was designed using US military anthropomorphic data on hand shape, so the LCR can be comfortably held by a broad spectrum of hand sizes. An available Crimson Trace® LaserGrip® model offers the advantages of a laser sighting system.

The LCR’s monolithic frame is an aerospace grade, 7000 series aluminum forging treated with a black synergistic hard coat that is applied after machining. Successfully tested with over 30 different aggressive chemicals, this synergistic hard coat exceeds mil-spec salt spray tests, and offers performance considerably greater than hard coat anodizing. The monolithic frame provides sturdy, rigid support for the cylinder and the barrel. The 1-7/8″ long barrel features a 1:16 twist.
The extensively fluted 400 series stainless steel cylinder is lightweight and compact. Treated to an advanced form of Ruger’s Target Grey® finish, this stainless steel cylinder is strong, durable and designed to handle .38 Special +P loads. The Ruger LCR’s patent pending cylinder front latching system uses titanium components, optimized spring tension, and enhanced lockup geometry to ensure that the LCR’s cylinder stays locked in place during firing.

The LCR’s double-action-only trigger pull is uniquely engineered to minimize friction between the fire control components. This friction-reducing cam fire control system results in a non-stacking, smooth trigger pull. This results in more controllable shooting, even among those with smaller hands or less grip strength who find traditional DAO triggers difficult to operate.

One of the perks of working at a gun shop is getting a shot at almost-new products after somebody buys one and then changes their mind. Thus I acquired my new-to-me LCR after waiting somewhat impatiently for the first used one to come in. I say impatiently, because I already got the chance to fire an LCR and knew exactly what I was getting and why I wanted one.

A customer bought the Ruger LCR Crimson Trace Lasergrip model and for some reason the lasersight was not properly set at the factory. So I volunteered for the job to take care of that, which took an entire box of Hornady Critical Defense .38 Special+P to get the job done right at the firing range.

It was a dirty job but somebody had to do it. And along the way I learned to love the LCR, even with .38 Special+P loads, which is something you really can't say about the former head of the class in lightweight snubby revolvers, the Smith & Wesson Airweights. After about five rounds of +P with an Airweight, you're either close to done for the day or wishing that you were.

And in addition to handling those hot .38+P loads with ease, the LCR also has a better double-action trigger than any S&W out of the box, unless it comes from the S&W Performance Center.

I'm a Smith & Wesson lover, but I gotta say, this LCR tops the Smith Airweights and I'm proud to own one. I could say the LCR is the most significant new development in revolvers since Mr. Smith met Mr. Wesson. But it's not really. It is a great new revolver and it's even about $50 cheaper than any of the new S&W Airweight revolvers. It really hasn't caught on big with our gun shop customers yet and the revolver buying public as a whole, but I predict it will soon. Better trigger and more comfortable shooting for practice and when it counts, what more could you ask from a lightweight compact revolver than the Ruger LCR?

.327 Magnum gets 2 new Ruger models, but where's the ammo?

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.

My daddy always said my life philosophy is if a little bit is good, a whole lot is more good and he's right. Why settle for a .38 when you can have a .327 Magnum?

To date, other manufacturers besides Charter offering .327 Magnum pistols since its introduction include Ruger with their SP101 stainless, Taurus with blue and stainless snubbies and Smith & Wesson with its compensated-barrel Model 632 in black stainless or matte stainless.

The .327 Magnum is such a high-pressure load at 45,000 psi that it requires an all-steel revolver to hold it in, no alloy frames can stand up to that abuse.

I'm not particularly recoil-shy but I do have my limits and the hottest .327 Magnum load, Federal American Eagle 100-gr. JSP, is right there close to my mine. It's loud enough to wake the dead and after about a half dozen, I'm saying that's enough of that for a while.

I tried all the available loads when I first got my Charter and chose the Speer Gold Dot 115-gr. JHP for my carry load and zeroed the Crimson Trace Lasergrips on the Charter for it. The easiest-shooting load among the three I tried is Federal Hydra-Shok 85-gr. JHP, which is rightly labeled a low-recoil load. But the foot-pounds of energy is the telling difference between the Gold Dots and the Hydra-Shoks, 530 vs. 398. IMHO, ft./lbs. of energy is more important than velocity (feet per second) when determining defensive effectiveness of a caliber load.

What I'd really like to have to pair up with my Charter is a Marlin stainless lever-action carbine in .327 Magnum, but that hasn't happened yet. When it does, I'll be all over it.

But meanwhile, Ruger has upped the ante in .327 Magnum revolvers with two new models, a 7-shot GP100 double-action and an 8-shot Blackhawk single-action, both all-stainless revolvers.

I got the chance to handle both at the gun shop where I work when they came in and I listed them for sale on gunbroker. My first choice between the two is the 7-shot GP100, but I'm slowly becoming a fan of single-action revolvers, so that 8-shot Blackhawk is tempting. We also just got in our first Ruger Blackhawk .44 Special, so that's a great temptation in single-action for me also. I do love .44 Special revolvers.

American Rifleman's current issue has a write-up on the two new Rugers in .327 Magnum and they like them a lot. I'm sure I'd love either one of them because a little more stainless-steel weight in hand would make shooting the .327 Magnum a lot more fun than shooting my Charter.

One of the best things I like about .327 in general and my Charter in particular is the ability to shoot other shorter less-powerful and cheaper .32 ammo, including .32 H&R Magnum, .32 S&W Long and .32 S&W, also called .32 Short. My Charter doesn't like .32 ACP, but I've read that some .32 revolvers will fire .32 ACP because it's a semi-rimmed round that will fit the cylinders. The .32 ACP cartridges apparently sit too deep in the Charter cylinder as only one out of six fired when I tried it.

And more ammo choices for .327 Magnum are in the pipeline, though we haven't seen any of them at the shop yet.

Federal is making a lower weight and power American Eagle load in 85-grain to match up with the Hydra-Shok JHP for practice. And there's supposed to be a new Speer Gold Dot load also.

Ammo availability is the biggest stumbling block for .327 Magnum that I've seen so far. I recommend the caliber to customers at the shop, but we only have two of the three current loads in stock. I haven't seen any new boxes of Speer Gold Dots in months and we only recently got more American Eagle and Hydra-Shok ammo in. The .327 ammo shortage is even worse than the .380 ACP ammo shortage because we can manage to keep .380 in stock at the shop now.

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.

Revolver Day: S&W K-38, Ruger LCR and 2 Charter .327 Magnums

Something new vs. something old. Which one wins? Usually it's the new and improved and supposedly better. But sometimes it ain't.

Case in point is the latest and greatest .38 Special revolver, the Ruger LCR with Crimson Trace Laser Grips, which went to the range with me today along with a pair of Charter Arms .327 Magnums, both equipped with CT Laser Grips. All needed zeroing and it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. That would be me.

The pair of Charter .327 Magnums is one owned by me that just got back from some work at the factory and I needed to verify zero hadn't changed. It had not. The other is one owned by a friend of mine who has not zeroed the laser grips yet, so I volunteered to handle that chore.

I really like the .327 Federal Magnum cartridge, the NRA Ammo of the Year. It has ballistics that are almost identical to .357 Magnum, but without the punishing recoil in a lightweight revolver. The Charter .327 is one of the new breed that IMHO is better than a standard .38 snubby. Six shots vs. 5, better ballistics than .38 Special or even .38 +P. What's not to like?

And then there's a new wrinkle in .38 snubbies. The friend with the other Charter also bought a new Ruger LCR, which stands for Lightweight Compact Revolver. The friend, let's call her Annie Oakley, is a great natural shooter who just took my first NRA Basic Pistol Class. She was previously untrained with handguns, but you'd never know it.

So I also volunteered to zero her new Ruger LCR, which she purchased last week at the gun store where I work.

The LCR is the world's first polymer-grip revolver, with an aluminum frame, steel 5-shot cylinder and steel-lined 1.875" barrel. It came from the factory with the Crimson Trace Laser Grips installed, unlike the two Charter magnums, which had their CT grips installed at the gun shop where I work.

So I expected the Ruger lasergrips to be at least close to zero. Wrong.

The first two shots I fired with the LCR laser were almost in the same hole, but several inches and high and a bit left. (First yellow target, two holes high and left.) So I checked the iron sights. Bam, bam, two holes on each side of the bull. (Same yellow target, holes at bull)

Nothing wrong with those iron sights. So I did the zero the easy way, aligning the zero with the iron sights, then firing a group of five. (Orange target.) Not bad. I'm not all that great at firing a double-action trigger, but this one is pretty good. Better than the average Smith & Wesson double-action .38 snubby, which heretofore has been the standard by which other .38 snubbies are measured.

There's a new snubby in town and it has a pretty good trigger, maybe a great one for somebody who actually knows how to shoot a DA snubby, and that ain't me.

I proved that by setting up a 11x17" little redman target at 21 feet and standing on my hind legs the way you're supposed to shoot a snubby. The five holes in the 8 and 9 rings are .38s from the DA snubby Ruger LCR.

That kinda ticked me off, shooting so lousy at Tueller Drill distance.

So I loaded up my S&W 14-3, which back before Smith got stupid and used model numbers to identify their pistols was known as the K-38 Target Masterpiece. Now which says excellence to you, Model 14-3 or K-38 Target Masterpiece? I rest my case.

Anyway, I loaded up the K-38 and fired a dozen double-action rounds or so at the little redman's head. That lovely Target Masterpiece has such a sweet, smooth double-action trigger that even I can shoot it well. Just because something's "new" don't necessarily mean it's improved.

Now I gotta find me an old Smith snubby that ain't "new and improved" and has a great trigger like my K-38.

I also spent a good part of my range time today zeroing the Bomar sight on my K-38. The last set of targets is the K-38 zeroed up at 50 feet, at left, and then a pair of cylinder loads shot at 100 feet, in the target at right.

Lordy, they really don't make 'em like this K-38 Target Masterpiece anymore. It makes an old fart like me look like I can really shoot, double-action or single-action.

A trio of Ruger classic .22 rifles at a great price

Shameless Commercial Plugs: I'm a shooter, not a collector. But if I was a collector, I recently posted a trio of classic rifles I can actually afford on gunbroker.com for the gun shop where I work.

It's a set of three Ruger 10/22 semi-auto .22LR rifles, all Talo distributor exclusives in walnut and blue steel: Ruger 10/22RB 3 Classics: RB-C, RB-CII and RB-CIII.

We also have the three classics listed individually, but this is a package deal to get all at one time while they're still available.

The Talo classics series begins with the Ruger 10/22RB-C Classic Altamont Stock .22LR Rifle which is at the rear in the photo, continues with Ruger 10/22RB-CII Classic II Altamont Stock .22LR which is the rifle in the middle, then concludes with what the French call "the piece de resistance," the Ruger 10/22RB-CIII French Walnut Monte Carlo Stock. The first two are American walnut stocks, but the third classic is French walnut with a Monte Carlo stock.

It's a rare chance to get some great walnut and blue steel at an affordable price, not to mention they're .22LR rifles, so you won't break the bank when you're shooting your set of classics.

Good news from an American industry that's booming

Now for some good business news. In case you haven't heard there are two companies on the blue-chip-stock index of American businesses that are doing just great, in fact spectacular business.

Take a wild guess.

I'll give you a hint. The two stock market acronyms in the chart at right are fairly easy to decipher, but I'll do it for you. SWHC is the famed Smith & Wesson and RGR is Ruger.

What a great time to be working in a gun store. Life is good. And the Good Lord takes care of fools and drunks and this ol' boy who got laid off from another industry job in January.

CZ P-07 Safeties, Ruger LCR dreams and a Steyr carbine

I had a pleasant surprise with my new CZ P-07 today. The trigger guard isn't as big as it looks. I tried out my holsters to see what would fit and lo and behold, it fits my JMG OWB-4 leather holster that was made for my Steyr MA1s. It also fits perfectly and locks into the Bianchi paddle holster I got for my Sig P229 SAS Generation 2. I love it when a plan comes together. Well actually, I didn't plan it at all but it all came together anyway. The Good Lord helps fools and drunks.

I also upgraded the P-07 from decocker to ambi safeties. I'm a klutz and I know it so I took it back to work and got the young man who runs the gun shop to remove the ambi decocker levers and install the ambi safeties. I'll post some photos later this week. I left my camera at work until tomorrow.

I had a bad case of feeling like the southern end of a northbound mule this weekend so I didn't get a chance to take my new P-07 out for a spin. But next weekend, surely. And I've got another trade under way with a .45 ACP Witness P-Compact that's supposed to arrive tomorrow. If it is as promised, I'll ship out my GKK-45, a Browning Hi-Power 45 from Hungary.

And that will complete my trading and sales. My Sig P226 .357 Sig was sold and turned into a Sig P229 .357 Sig (eventually after a tangenital trip for a Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum lever-action rifle). My Steyr M357-A1 was sold and financed the purchase of the CZ P-07.

And lo and behold, on Sunday my CZ SP-01 Custom was purchased by one of Angus Hobdell's range buddies in Mesa, Arizona, who is adding it to his CZ collection. I will be able to pay off my credit-card debt incurred for the unexpected early arrival of the Sig P229! If you were anywhere on the eastern seaboard Sunday afternoon when I saw the sale on gunbroker, you woulda heard me holler.

And there will be a small surplus left over for my next acquisition, which I expect to be a .38 Super slide to convert the EAA Witness .45 P-Compact.

But I've also got my eyes on the new Ruger Light Compact Revolver. We've got them in the shop and it really is an improvement over the Smith .38s.

The trigger really has to be experienced to believe. It'll make a great backup and is worthy of me breaking my rule about no .38 Specials. It's as light as a Smith & Wesson Airweight but one gun writer reported he fired 500+ rounds of .38 +Ps without a stop and the rubber grip and polymer frame soaked up the recoil so well his hand wasn't even sore after that marathon firing session.

But guess what happened today? Some guy sold the gun shop a Steyr 1895 8x56R straight-pull bolt action that looks to be in perfect condition, very nice wood, even has five boxes of ammo with the stripper clips and a couple of boxes of modern Hornady ammo without the stripper clips. And it's only $175. Damn. There goes my next pistol plan. It looks just like this Steyr Model 1895 Budapest Stutzen carbine at J&G Sales. And they got ammo too.

Single-Action bug bite may be worse than swine flu

A funny thing has happened again on the way to downsizing my handguns.

I keep getting sidetracked in my plan to downsize from full-size pistols to subcompact, light carry pistols. I nearly gave in to the lure of my first single-action 6-shooter a couple of weeks ago when I took a Hy Hunter Six-Shooter for a test run from the gun shop where I'm working. That's it in the top photo.

The beautiful black-steel single-action with fake pearl grips caught my eye when someone traded it in and with a bit of googling, I discovered it's a copy of the Single Action Army Colt known as the Peacemaker. And the killer is this particular model was made in what was then West Germany in the 1980s by J.P. Sauer & Sohn. In case you're not a gun nut like me, that's the Sauer that merged into Sig Sauer, which IMHO makes some of the finest handguns in the world, bar none, at any price.

So I shot it, which I loved, but I reloaded it very slowly, which I don't love. As I reported at the time, now I know why all the old cowboys are dead. They got killed while they were reloading, one cylinder at a time.

So I thought I was over my single-action pistol desires. And then this week, somebody traded in a Ruger Blackhawk .41 Magnum with a 4-5/8" barrel, second photo. My S&W 29 .44 Magnum has a 4" barrel which I think is just about perfect for balance while shooting as well as ease of carry and quick handling. And the extra 5/8" on the Ruger .41 Magnum barrel feels pretty darn handy, too. I may have to beg the shop owner to let me take the Ruger for a test fire run, too. God help me, I think I'm getting bit by the single-action bug. Again.

I've always wanted a .41 Magnum but never shot one. I love 10mm pistols and .41 Magnum is the revolver equivalent of 10mm in semi-auto pistols. Maybe somebody in the shop or on gunbroker will buy this Ruger before I can find time to scratch this itch. I've already made plans this weekend so I can't make it to the range. But if it's still there next weekend...

Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rifle arrives in Stainless Steel

The gun shop where I work just got its first Ruger Tactical Rifle with the ATI collapsible and folding stock. Here it is, but get ready for sticker shock. This one's stainless and the opening bid is $925 on gunbroker. Ruger doesn't even list a stainless model, their site has Tacticals in blue only.

But considering that the cheapest AR rifles in .223 are going for upwards of $1,200, with typical prices reaching past $2K, maybe that Ruger Mini 14 Tactical ain't so pricey after all.

At least here's one gun I'm not lusting after. I've never caught the .223 bug yet. I'm more of a 30'06 or .308 kinda guy. Old fashioned I know, but then, I'm old, so I got a right to be.

Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rifles are back again -- to stay?

The on-again, off-again Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rifle is back, plus a second compact tactical model. At bottom is the ATI 6-position collapsible and folding stock version and at top is the compact tactical flash suppressor version with synthetic stock. Both have the compact 16.125" barrels and come with 20-rd. magazines. I would say they're about the best buy out there for .223 assault rifles since ARs and AK variant prices have skyrocketed.

The gun shop where I'm working now has on Gunbroker what I suppose is an early release model of the flash suppressor version of the compact tactical, since it comes with only a 5-rd. magazine and no free scope rings. The two tactical models on Ruger's website say they come with scope rings and 1 20-rd. magazine. Of course, you can buy 20-rd. magazines from Ruger but they've finally seen the common sense to provide 20-rd. magazines in the box with some of their Mini-14 models. They should do it with all their models. I've always had a hard time with math ever since the 3rd grade, but I do know that 20 rounds is four times better than five.

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.

Ruger playing shell game with new Tatical Mini-14

Ruger is playing "hide the assault weapon," for some strange reason.

Now you see it, now you don't is the game Ruger Firearms is playing with a new Tactical Mini-14 with folding stock. What's up wid dat? Here's the image that was on the site, nabbed by Firearm Blog, plus a screen cap from the Ruger site before the page disappeared.

Certainly good news for Gun Nutz 'R' Us, a folding tactical stock for a Mini-14, just in time for the Obama Assault Weapons Ban, coming to a gun store near you as soon as he can.

Features, from the now-missing page at the Ruger site, are:

* Folding and collapsible stock
* Ergonomic pistol grip
* 20 round magazine
* Quad rails
* Polymer stock

What's not to like? Personally I was leaning more toward the Ruger Mini-14 Target Model, which does something no Mini-14 has done before, hit exactly what you're shooting at, as in:

"The heavy barrel Mini-14® Target Rifle delivers minute of angle accuracy when tuned using the adjustable harmonic dampener."

Regular Mini-14s deliver something closer to hour of angle accuracy, sorta in the same ballpark, but it's a semi-auto so you can saturate the zone with 20 rounds of .223, as in spray and pray.

But if you're gonna shoot a spray and pray model, it is nice to have folding stock on it. Whatever.

Just thought I'd post something on guns on a Sunday evening and this is it. See y'all later.