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.

World's first AR FiveSeven Carbine? Possibly

The gun shop where I work may well have created the world's first AR Five-Seven Carbine. What's that, you may ask?

The FN Herstal Five-Seven Pistol (top right) and the FN PS-90 Personal Defense Weapon (top left) share a new cartridge developed by FN, the 5.7x28mm, basically a short version of the .223/5.56x45mm NATO. If you convert the 5.7mm into its equivalent in inches it comes out to about .224 caliber, so it's just 1/1000th larger in diameter than .223. But the latter number indicates the length of the two cartridges, 45mm for NATO and 28mm for the FN 5.7mm.

But now the differences between the two have been bridged by a company that creates the AR Five-Seven upper assembly, designed to fit on the lower assembly of most AR-type rifles and carbines. Which is exactly what we did at our shop as seen in the third photo.

We took an AR Five-Seven upper assembly, which fires the 5.7x28mm round, and installed it on a Rock River AR lower assembly and voila! The world's first AR Five-Seven Carbine. Maybe. At least it's the first one I've ever seen or heard about. But since the AR Five-Seven upper assembly is on the market, surely some enterprising gun shop has put it on an AR lower assembly and is selling the duo as a complete AR Five-Seven carbine or rifle. Maybe so, but this is know for sure. Our shop has one and I listed it today on gunbroker, so you can have one.

Or you can buy yourself an AR Five-Seven upper and put it on your AR. Or you can buy both the AR Five-Seven upper and the Rock River lower assembly and build your own. But if you do, don't forget you gotta have the FN Five-Seven PDW magazine to make the thing work. And you gotta have some 5.7x28mm ammo too. If you can't find those, give the shop a call. We've got 'em.