Them baby albatross feathers are killing my mileage

Tam on the gulf oil spill:

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.

All-time dumbest gun question EVAH! may never get topped

I'm working at home today after a brief trip to the gun shop, during which the all-time dumbest gun question was overheard.

Q: Is a .45 bigger than a .44?

A: Uh, yeah.
(Answer should be: "Sir, I'm sorry but you'll have to leave now. You're too stupid to own a gun.")

That one may never get topped. Reminds me of what the Texas Ranger said when asked:

Q: Why do you carry a .45?

A: Because they don't make a .46!

Sig P220 Compact SAO .45 ACP followed me home: Can I keep it?

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.

I finally got my hands on it today and brought it home. CDNN calls it a "Tactical Elite" model that's a limited edition with the Elite-style beavertail frame and aluminum grips. I'd trade both the Elite beavertail and the aluminum grips for Sig's SRT short-reset trigger like my P229 SAS, but that's not part of the package. It is a Sig P220 Compact SAO with SigLite Night Sights, so that's more than good enough for me.

I'm a lefty so the P220 SAO models with ambi safeties work well for me, not to mention carrying the P220 like you're supposed to carry a .45, cocked and locked. If the single-action trigger on this compact is a good as my full-size P220 SAO, I'm in deep clover. I can shoot that big P220 better than any of the three 1911 .45s I own so I'm hopeful this compact will be somewhere close to as good.

You can't expect a compact pistol to shoot as well as a full-size one, but if it's anywhere close, I'll be a very happy camper. Now if I can just hold my breath until Saturday when I can take her to the range and see how she runs.

I never have liked that gunwriter's worn-out phrase, "put it through its paces." It ain't a horse, it's a pistol and I don't expect it to pace, but I do expect it to run. Very well as a matter of fact.

Anything less than very well would be a big surprise as I've never shot a Sig yet that didn't.

Chapter Two:
Over at the Sigforum there's a couple of threads going on the CDNN "Tactical Elite" P220 Compact sale under way and one guy who just got one says the list of features includes:

- Sig P220 Compact "Elite" as they call it
- Beavertail frame
- SRT trigger
- SAO kit
- Ambidextrous thumb safety
- Sig aluminum grips
- Sig night sights
- Metal guide rod

I 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.

I tried cycling the slide by hand while "riding the trigger" to check the reset. It seems to be the same short reset as the SRT on my P229 SAS Gen2, but I won't know for sure 'til I shoot it.

This deal just keeps getting better all the time. I also read on the Sigforum that Sig assembled this batch of a couple hundred or so P220 compacts on the last of the P245 frames, so it's sort of a catchall of their top features loaded onto some older frames. The Sigforum guys seem to think this is a great idea as they appear to like the P245s better than the P220s.

I'm still a newby about Sigs, but if that's what the "experts" say it's fine with me. I really can't wait to shoot it now. And God help me the wife has already made plans for yard work Saturday.

I shall have to call on the Good Lord to deliver me from the yard work and part the Red Sea so I can cross over to DeWitt's Range on Saturday. Or failing that, I'll just have to work like hell Saturday morning so I can go shooting Saturday afternoon. Better the former than the latter, but either way if the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be shooting Saturday.

And if you're a Sig nut, or wanta be one, CDNN is still selling them for $650. That's a great deal!

Classic S&W revolver recessed chambers: A bug, not a feature?

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.

And an even bigger plus for S&W collectors and I presume shooters, too, is a classic Smith which has recessed chambers and a pinned barrel. Just what advantage a pinned barrel is, I have no clue. Seems to me a barrel screwed into the frame would be stronger than one pinned in place.

But the mere words "pinned barrel" will definitely help sell a classic Smith, like this Model 29-2 .44 Magnum with a 6" barrel, the classic "Dirty Harry" sixgun made famous by San Francisco Police Department Inspector Harry Callahan, Clint Eastwood's most famous role.

And most models with pinned barrels also have recessed chambers, another prized "feature" for S&W buyers. But Massad Ayoob sticks a pin in that balloon in his article about the S&W 27 in his new book, Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns of the World.

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.

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.

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?

Maybe next I'll be finding out that pinned barrels ain't such a big deal either.

Smith of the Week: S&W 327 Titanium/Scandium 8-Shot .357 Magnum

I have seen and handled the S&W Performance Center revolver I may have the fortitude to save up for and I owe my dreams of my first S&W PC gun to Mas.

It's definitely a case of hero worship, but if you're a gun nut, who better to emulate than the great Massad Ayoob? IMHO he is one of the best gun writers in the business today, if not the best.

At right is Mas shooting the S&W Performance Center Model 327 8-shot .357 Magnum, the latest and greatest iteration of the venerable S&W Model 27, the original "Registered Magnum" with which Smith launched the .357 Magnum cartridge lo many years ago in 1935.

The photo I stole from Gun Digest, which is excerpting Mas' new book, Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns of the World.

I didn't know what 8-shot .357 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.

S&W lists the features of the Model 327 .8-shot .357 Magnum double-action/single-action revolver thusly:

• Lothar-Walther Custom German Rifle Barrel
• Polished Button Rifling
• Smooth Double Action with Wolff Mainspring
• Includes 3 Full Moon Clips

It's 2" stainless-steel barrel liner is housed in a Titanium barrel shroud with its button rifling and Lothar-Walther custom magic. The 8-shot cylinder is also Titanium and the frame is black Scandium alloy, the combination of Titanium and Scandium making this ultra-light cannon weigh a mere 21 ounces unloaded.

Of course eight rounds of .357 Magnum would add considerably to that weight, maybe doubling it, but what good is an empty revolver? And I would hope the extra ammo weight would mitigate the substantial recoil to be expected from such an ultra-light snubby.

You can't repeal the laws of physics and what goes out the barrel also comes back into the shooter's hands. And the lighter the pistol, the more recoil the shooter has to absorb. I shot a S&W 396 .44 Special Titanium-Scandium Mountain Lite 5-shot revolver and it was a full load to handle. I learned why one gunwriter dubbed it the "Mountain Bite."

Hopefully one of these days I'll get the chance to shoot this S&W 327 before I plunk down the $1,250 required to take a new one home. But until then, dreams cost nothing.
P.S. If you thinking about it, too late. It's sold.

.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.

The Perfect Colt: Blue steel and Ivory Grips without a flaw

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.

I learned the hard way if there is any tiny little flaw in a Colt, new or used, even one you have to hold the light just right and squint to see, point it out in the text of a gunbroker auction.

Because if I don't, some picky Colt buyer will send an email or even worse, tie up the phone at the shop for half an hour to ask "Is that a gouge on the bottom of the frame?" and a dozen 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.)

But today I finally listed an absolutely perfect Colt with no flaws. The previous owner kept it in the factory box wrapped in plastic and never even cut the factory wire tie around the hammer, locking the cylinder. So this Colt Single Action Army is unfired and the cylinder is unturned.

It may be the fabled Colt Royal Blue, but the box labels don't say that, so we aren't saying it either. But if that ain't Royal Blue, just how blue can Royal Blue be?

And the label on the box does say "Ivory Grips" so no picky Colt buyer can write to ask "Are the grips real ivory?" But they'll probably ask that anyway. And they'll probably ask "Is that a gouge on the end of the barrel?" Answer: "No, it's a light reflection. I can do a lot with my camera, but I can't stop light from reflecting."

Sanity breaks out in Virginia: School kids to learn gun safety

OMG! Have you heard what those crazy redneck gun-lovers in Virginia are going to do? They're gonna teach GUN SAFETY to those poor defenseless kids in the public schools! Really!

Now that I'm through pretending to be a leftwingnut, here's the story from the Leftwingnut News, (AKA The Washington Post).

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.

Patrot's Day celebrates 'The Shot Heard 'Round the World'

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.

On Monday, Massad Ayoob made a prediction that was so easy to make it's certainly not surprising that it came to pass that same day.

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.

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.

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?

Tam as usual gives a short, succinct roundup of the day's events from her porch view.

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.

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.

Speaking of "pants-filling shrillness," Milbank voices his own alarmed view of the pro-gun movement, reporting on recent successes.

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.

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.

Ayoob also noted the growing movement toward exercising Second Amendment rights.

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.

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.

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."

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.

I'm proud to say North Carolina is among those "shall issue" states and I'm also proud to say I'm doing my part to help our state's residents become legally armed with monthly concealed carry classes held at the gun shop where I work.

Gunbroker Gun of the Day: Marlin 1894SS .44 Magnum Carbine

Shameless Commercial Plug:
In the 15 months I've worked at Village Pawn & Gun Shop, we've only have three Marlin Model 1894 Stainless .44 Magnum carbines in stock, two new ones and one used one.

I bought the first new one and we sold the second new one a few weeks ago. We now have our third in stock, a like-new one with everything but the factory box in minty condition.

I just listed it on gunbroker today for a mere $650 and it can now be yours.

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.

If you want a carbine that will swiftly and accurately dispense 10 rounds of .44 Magnum or .44 Special that will swiftly dispose of most two-legged or four-legged threats on the North American continent, this is it.

IMHO, this is a great home defense gun or hunting gun.

Marlin recently announced the closing of their long-time manufacturing plant in the northeast and the company owners have yet to announce where production will be resumed.

So my advice is if you want a Marlin .44 Magnum carbine, the time is now. If you wait a while, they might be available from the new plant, wherever it will be.

But as someone wise said, a bird in hand is worth five in the bush. And a Marlin carbine in hand might just save your life.

Mine is hanging on the wall behind me as I type this, right above my Ithaca 37 12 gauge pump riot gun. Neither is for sale because if trouble comes calling here at my house I will be using whichever comes to hand quickest, or maybe both. Get yours while you can.

Stupid Gunbroker.com Question of the Day: Can I mount a scope?

Stupid Gunbroker.com auction question of the day:

"Q: Can I mount a scope on this Ruger 10/22 rifle?" (Which is shown and described in the auction as coming with no iron sights and scope rail and mounting screws included in the box.)

"A: I doubt it. You don't sound smart enough to own a gun, much less figure out how to mount a scope, even with the rail and screws included. There is no screwdriver included in the box."

I may top that later. It's only 7:38 a.m. so the day is quite young.

A Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer for America the fallen

In light of ex-President Jimmy Carter-appointed Judge Barbara Crabb's ruling in U.S. District Court that the upcoming National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, I quote a proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, in which he called for “A Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.”

“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.

"You Picked A Fine Time To Lead Us Barack" -- NOT!

It'll never make the pop hit charts, but here's a new song I really, really like. "This is a parody of "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille" by Kenny Rogers. Written and sung by Jonathan McWhite. Guitar accompaniment by David McWhite." Rock on dudes!

For the comment behind the line "bowl like a retard" see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBEejv... ; For the comment about Obama's brother in the Kenyan mudshack, see here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world...

A little humor to ease the wallet pain on 'Send in all your money Day"

Marvin Olasky has a few jokes for you to lighten up "Give All Your Cash Money to the Federal Guvmint and Keep the Change Day." This one is my favorite.

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.

S&W Top-Break Safety Hammerless .32 evolves into S&W 40 .38

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.

I'll start with an ancient Smith we're trying to get off the books at the gun shop, first photo. It's a S&W Top-Break .32 Safety Hammerless 1st Model.

It has no grips and we're hoping somebody will want it for a mere $150, but no takers so far. But the lack of grips exposes the revolutionary feature of this little .32 revolver that was introduced by S&W in 1888, a grip safety. It came to be popularly known as the "Lemon Squeezer" because you gotta squeeze the grip to activate the safety before it will fire.

BlueBook on SMITH & WESSON : TOP-BREAKS
.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.

The design evolved over the 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)
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.

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.

The grip safety never really caught on with revolvers as nobody else copied it to my knowledge, which admittedly is not complete and never will be. But a fella named John M. Browning certainly made it famous with his auto-pistol designs featuring grip safeties, the most famed of which is the 1911 .45, which is now celebrating its Centennial, not to be confused with the S&W Centennial Model. Even though Browning's famed model is called the 1911, it actually was introduced in 1910 by Colt hence this is its 100th year. It was only after adoption as the official U.S. service pistol the following year that it got its moniker that has stuck for the ages, the 1911.

What's your favorite barrel length for .357 Magnum revolvers?

Massad Ayoob excerpts part of his entry on the classic Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum in his new book and covers one of my favorite topics, what barrel length is best? For what John Taffin calls "the perfect packing pistol" I prefer 3 to 4 inches. The 2-inch snubby is easier to hide but it's not nearly as well balanced and easy to shoot as a 3- or 4-inch model.

But we're also talking about N-frame Smiths here, which may be suitable for carry in some rigs but are hardly easy to conceal and are big, heavy all-steel frames. No alloys allowed here. When it comes to carry, an all-stainless K-frame with a 3-inch pipe is as big as I want to tote. It isn't designed to stand up to a steady diet of .357 Magnum loads, but it can handle carry duty well with magnums of about 110-grain and for practice, that's what .38 Specials are made for.

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.


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!”

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.

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.

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.

So, what's your favorite barrel length for .357 Magnums, or your favorite caliber? And why?

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'Go Down Moses... Tell ol' Pharoah, Let My People Go!'

The sweet wife and I have started the Book of Exodus in our daily Bible reading as we start over from Genesis to Revelation once again, a chapter a day. An old spiritual hymn, "Go Down Moses" has been playing in my head since we started Exodus. The story of the Hebrew nation coming out to slavery in Egypt into freedom in the Promised Land is a theme that is not only repeated through the rest of the Bible, but is also repeated daily in the lives of believers and unbelievers alike today. I was 29 when Jesus came to me and set me free from slavery and I shall be eternally grateful.

I googled it and found the lyrics so I could sing the whole anthem and I also found this video with Jess Lee Brooks performing the classic spiritual. From the 1941 Preston Sturges movie "Sullivan's Travels", starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake.

The spiritual is sung during a powerful scene of white and black convicts in chains tramping into a black church on Sunday to worship as "special guests," Joel McCrea among them. If this don't get your spiritual waterwheel turning, you better check up because your Holy Ghost well is dry.

Smith of the Week: Tam's purse gun, S&W 296 DAO .44 Special

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,
"and taken way your name"

goes that song of the '60s from the TV show, "Secret Agent Man."

So I have decided for furtherance of my own education, as well as my faithful readers, that I shall henceforth begin a regular feature I shall dub "Smith of the Week" or maybe day or month or whenever inspiration strikes.

This inaugural post is dedicated to Tamara, who confided in a comment post when she visited my humble blog that a S&W 296 .44 Special has a permanent home in her purse.

Bluebook sez:

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.

Aside from the fact that I love Tam from afar and greatly admire her gun knowledge -- what's not to love, a good lookin' woman who has a lot of guns and shoots them regularly and shares her knowledge? -- I also got the chance to actually hold and dry-fire a S&W 296 this week.

One came into the gun shop and when I picked it up and snapped it, lo and behold it has a great double-action-only trigger. It also has a really nice set of combat finger-groove checkered wood grips of the type used on Talo and other special-edition S&W round-butt revolvers.

But alas, it was purchased by a customer from afar who had it shipped to our shop for a transfer. My hope was I would be able to shoot it and perhaps add it to my humble collection of Smith's, but that is not to be, at least immediately.

The boss lady gave me hope after informing me it is for transfer and not for sale. She said this customer often purchases guns off the Internet, tries them out and then brings them back for resale. So maybe I'll get a shot -- literally -- at this 296 yet.

It's one of Smith's alloy frame, Titanium cylinder creations that is remarkably light for its size and shooting a respectable cartridge, certainly a lot more potent than .38 Special, and I am one of the many who love .44 Specials.

My hope, if I ever to get a 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.

One writer I read termed it the "Mountain Bite" and after five rounds of full-house .44 Specials I had to agree with that assessment. It had a serious bite on the back end as well as the business end.

The 296 differs from the 396 in two regards, it is double-action-only not traditional double/single like the 396. And despite that Bodyguard-looking hump, it does have not a shrouded hammer but a fully enclosed hammer of the Centennial-Smith style.

And is seemed some gunsmith worked some magic on the trigger as it was very light and eminently shootable. Who knows if the recoil is "biteable"?

Tam likes it so it can't be too bad. Time will tell as to whether I ever get a chance to shoot this 296. But if not, it's something else I can be on the lookout for future acquisitions.