Handgun Stopping Power

In the early 80s, when I first pinned on a badge and took the oath, the .357 Magnum was king of the law enforcement community.  Everyone carried one, along with the .38 Special. There were big things happening in the firearms world. Jeff Cooper was still the guru, touting the .45 ACP and the 1911 platform as the top of the lie for serious handgun use. Then, in 1986, a couple of things happened.

The FBI Miami shootout happened, calling into question the tactics and handguns currently in use. And, also in 1986, Gaston Glock introduced the Model 17 in the US market, introducing the popular age of polymer handguns.  Each of these developments spurred development of handguns and cartridges for law enforcement and self-defense use. There was no internet back then, so we would have to wait for the monthly magazines to come out, telling us what  the latest thinkers were saying and the products that were hitting the market.

Everything moved more slowly back then. s we hashed out our differences, the lines were drawn, and there were several lines to draw.  Semiauto vs revolver,  Polymer vs steel.  Glock vs 1911. Those were exciting times around the coffee pot in the squad room.  Everyone had an opinion.

In January of 1990, Smith and Wesson introduced the .40SW cartridge. It grew out of tests that the FBI was conducting to find a better handgun cartridge and the debate really cranked up. The US Army had adopted the Beretta 92FS in 1985, but I didn't see the first one until late 1990, supply issues being what they are. Exciting times.

We heard rumors about a big study being done as part of an academic exercise. Then, in 1992, Evan Marshal and Edwin Sanow published their study, Handgun Stopping Power.   You can still find it on Amazon, sometimes. With this study, the wheels fell off the debate. We can find a very brief summation of it at US Carry forum here.

I say all this to remind the youngsters that we are still arguing about the best gun to carry and use for self defense. The 9mm is now the king of the hill, but that does nothing to diminish the utility of the others. I find a couple of things interesting.  Marshal and Sanow found the diminutive .32 ACP to be a 64% stopper with good bullets.  And, the renowned FBI Miami shoot was finished with the old FBI .38 Special load. Both of those are considered extremely anemic by today's standards.

Todays bullets and powders are worlds apart from what we were using in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, those same cartridges have benefitted from the technology that gives us better powder and bullets. Technique and bullet placement are still critical. The best parameter for success is still hitting the target. Every thing else is secondary. Don't scoff at the little lady with the .32, or the old man who is carrying a revolver. They probably know how to use them.

Gun SHopping

 I stopped by the local gun shop today to look thru his used gun rack. Specifically J-frame Smiths.  He had one used Model 640 at over MSRP, and one Model 38 Airweight for over $900.00.  I told him that I had seen a lot of things in my time, but I had never seen a $900.00 Airweight. I am  not going to pay over MSRP for a used gun, it ain't happening.

I've been jonesing for another J-frame.  I gave my last one away after a cerakoting and rebuild, and my daughter-in-law fell in love with it. It rides with her now. The model I'm looking at is the Model 60 3". In .357 Magnum, it might be quite a handful, but I like that longer barrel and the adjustable sights. And, I can get it for less than the local shop wanted for the used 640. I may have to order it closer to BAG day.

Questions Answered

 In the post below, Sport Pilot asks:

How much flame cutting did your M-66 have above its forcing cone

Hardly any.  Back in the day, flame cutting was a bugaboo that we talked about a lot.  It was generally accepted that the 125 grain loads were responsible for most of the flame cutting.  I carried the Federal 125 grain load for duty, but shot very little of it.  

My favorite, go-to load was a reload of mine that featured a .38 Special case, anyone's primer, a hard cast 158 grain semi-wadcutter and 4.3 grains of Unique.  That has always been my go-to .38 Special load.  It has accounted for dozens, if not hundreds of rabbits, armadillos, skunks, and raccoons.  That load probably counted for 99% of the bullets down the barrel.

When younger son sent the revolver off to be reworked, Smith and Wesson sent it to their Performance Center.  As far as I know, they were not concerned with the minimal flame cutting.  If they considered it dangerous, the gun would have been scrapped.

Next up, DreW458 asks:

Do you know the hardness of those RanchDog bullets?

Nope.  The cast recipe for them was 10 lbs of my wheelweight metal, with 1 lb of scrap linotype.  As soon as the sprue was sut, they were dropped into a bucket of water by my feet.  Then, they were dipped in liquid alox, run through a .358 sizer, and re-dipped in alox. I have no clue what the hardness was.  If I ever measured it, I'd have to look in my notes.

Younger son has that mold now, along with my Model 66 and m Marlin 1894C.  That Marlin had a 16" barrel, and I think that a 20: tube would detract from the handiness.

Is This Really The Ultimate Carry J-Frame?

Scrolling through my YouTube feed this morning, we find this video from Lucky Gunner.  Evidently, Lipsey's has talked Smith and Wesson into coming out with a new carry J-frame.  It can be had in either .38 Special or in .32 H&R Magnum.  As it turns out, I have a wicked fondness for J-frame revolvers, and Belle has a wicked fondness for the .32 caliber .  He father taught her to shoot with a .32 revolver, and she thinks it is the bees knees.

She owns three.  A Colt Police Positive, a Charter Arms Professional, and a Smith Model 30. 

Lucky Gunner makes the argument, below, that the .32 is eminently suitable as a defensive carry round.  Others may disagree. As in all handgun calibers, shot placement is king. When friends get serious with the questions, I simply remind then that Belle is a top competitor in a revolver game where shot placement is king.  She has won money, at last count, in Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana.

All that having been said, I see that Lipsey's has commissioned a bunch of really nice J-frames in .32.  Just about the time I think that the .32 is as dead as Kristi's dog, someone else brings out a new revolver chambered for the old cartridge.

The Perfect Pistol

 The perfect pistol doesn't exist.

I can remember when the pre-eminent handgun in law enforcement was the Smith and Wesson Model 66, with the 4" barrel.  I owned two, one with the 2.75 barrel and one with the 4" barrel.  When I retired, the short barrel went back to the state (it was issued) and the long barrel stayed with me. For a while, as a supervisor, I carried a SW Model 60,

The 1986 Miami Shootout made everyone reconsider their armament.  What I was always stuck by was the fact that the gunfight was finally ended by a wounded man who refused to quit and got close with the only gun he had left.  A Smith revolver shooting .38 Special semi-wadcutters,  Yet, there were other lessons to be learned from that fiasco and the entire law enforcement community started searching for answers.

Then came the wondernine revolution and many agencies went to Glocks.  Nowadays, the market is split between Glock, Sig, and Smith.  A few old dinosaurs like me carried a 1911 because, why not?

But, the linked article is right.  The perfect pistol does not exist.

Back In Service

 My old Model 38, the Smith and Wesson Airweight is back in service.  I found this gun in late 2011 or early 2012, a pawn shop find.  Originally a nickeled aluminum revolver, I bought it very used and it became a pocket gun.  I've always been enamored of J-frame pistols.  A blast from the past.

Here is the old girl as she came from the pawn shop, wearing Herrett grips.

A couple of years ago during routine service, we found some problems with the nickel finish.  It was starting to peel.  My Smith mechanic recommended that we refinish the frame, and I put it on the back burner to fighure out what I wanted to do.

After a couple of years, grandson Zach is now a cerracote gguy at a local AR manufactory.  He took the frame in and stripped it, then coated it with what he calls Armorers Black.  My Smith mechanic was in town today and he reassembled the gun.  I wanted to keep the cylinder and crane nickeledd, with a black frame, to make it a bi-color.

It's back together now, with a new set of cocobolo grips.  This revolver has a pinned barrel, so I know that its date of manufacture pre-dates 1982.  In 1982, SW dropped the pinned barrel as an unnecessary production step.  The revolver is at least 40 years old, and is ready for another 40 years of service.

Tuesday Monring

 I awoke this morning to cool temps, in the lower 50s on my back porch.  

Mostly Cajun commented on my post from yesterday.  He is able to get liquor shipped in, and I admit I was surprised.  I've tried in the recent past to get hooch shipped in and was told it was illegal.  So, I went to some other sites and liquor can be shipped to Louisiana.  Okay, I stand corrected.  Some ship to LA, some don't.  Odd.

Hurricane Ian is the prime focus on my news feed right now.  The storm keeps wobbling and will right up until the time it makes landfall.

I got a little movement on a long-term project yesterday.  I own a Smith and Wesson Model 38.  Mine was originally nickeled, but over the years the nickel had started flaking off and needed to be re-finished.  I had stripped it to the frame, and was considering who I would get to do the work.  The project has languished for a couple of years.

Grandson Zach recently went to work for a gun manufactory that builds AR rifles from the ground up, and he is their powder coat and cerracote guy.  He took the frame in, bead-blasted the frame, prepped it, and put a nice black cerracote on it.

I'm going to leave the cylinder and crane nickeled for a two-tone look.  This old revolver will go back in service.

Old School

When I began my cop career in 1981,  the reigning king of police handguns was the Smith and Wesson Model 66.  A stainless steel revolver in .357 magnum, it was beloved of law enforcement offices who worked in hot, humid environs.  It worked, it was accurate, powerful and reliable.  In fact, in those days, very few police departments issued guns.  The officers bought their own, and my first agency policy required " a Colt, Smith and Wesson, or Ruger revolver in .38 Special or .357 magnum."

I, like many of my brethren, acquired a Model 66 and never looked back.  I learned to shoot it and to trust it, and all of my kids learned to shoot handguns on that revolve.  I carried it until 2003 because I was never smitten by the 9mm plastic-fantastic craze and the department wouldn't let me carry a 1911.

Model 66, pinned and recessed.

But, eventually, my department started issuing guns, and in 2004 the Model 66 was retied for whatever the department issued.  The old K-frame was retired and did duty as a training revolver.  It remained largely forgotten, unless I needed it it to make a teaching point.

Last night, dressing for church, I decided to put it on  I always carry at church, but the weather was cool and I wanted a jacket, so I threaded a pancake holster on to my belt loops, stoked the revolver with good  ammo, and dropped it into the holster.  The pancake tucked it in tight, and the sport coat concealed it completely.  By the time I had walked down the hall, I had almost forgotten it was there.  Like slipping on a comfortable pair of boots, it just seemed to fit perfectly.

Later, at church, one lady was talking about the horrific event in Texas on Sunday.  She commented that she hoped that someone in  our congregation was armed.  I simply lifted the lapel of my jacket, exposing the revolver, and winked at her.  Her eyes went wide and she smiled.

I guess it's time to put the old girl back in the rotation.   Sometime soon, I'll order a set of Crimson Traces for her.

J-Frames, Gawd, I Love Them.

Back inn 1987 I began my love affair with the J-frame Smith ad Wesson revolvers.  It began with a used Model 60 that I acquired from a local judge.  I carried that gun, both on duty and as an off-duty piece,

I carried that Model 60 (in .38 Special) and stoked with with the Federal Ny-Clad ammo that was common in the day.  I still have a few cylinders of Ny-Clad left.  It served me well over the years, and had good reviews back in the day.  I carred that Mode 60 until 2012.  My daughter-in-law wanted a steel J-frame and I wanted an Airweight, so I happened upon a nice, clean Model 38 and gave her the old Model 60.  I never looked back.  I dropped the Model 38 in my pocket ad it has been a constant companion for over seven years.  It's a gun that is carried a lot and shot little, although I did qualify with it on the Sheriff's range three or four years ago.

Yesterday, my son did a detail strip on the Model 38 and we found some corrosion under the cylinder release, between the aluminum frame and the nickel plating.  Two sons inspected it, and declared that I should have the frame stripped and re-coated before putting it back into service.

Younger son is a pretty fair SW mechanic, and elder son worked for a while as a body-and-fender ma on aluminum aircraft.  They both recommended immediate repair and I trust their combined judgement.  So, my beloved Airweight is going to the body-and-fender shop.  Probably for a Duro-coat job.

As younger son was leaving, he handed me a replacement J-Frame.  "Here, Pop, carry this until your gun comes back from the shop."

"I've got carry guns, " I retorted.  "You might need this one."

"I've got two more at home." he said.  "I don't need this one right now."

So, I slipped it in my pocket and went about my business.  I noticed it was heavier than my Airweight, but that is the nature of steel vs aluminum.  It wasn't till this morning that I inspected it.  Holy-Moly.

This is the Model 640-1, in .357 magnum.  With Crimson Trace grips.  And, yes, the barrel is marked SW 357 Magnum.  It should be quite a handful if I ever have to touch it off.

On the other hand, it might be a lot of fun.  Thanks, son.  I'll try not to hurt it.

Humpday

Casting about for a Wednesday post, I figured I'd highlight my Model 38.  It is a hump-back, a vestige of an earlier time, and one of my favorites.  It's my everyday carry pocket revolver.

Some have said, from a purely logical, rational perspective that it is less than optimal to carry a small revolver.  With only five shots, I'd me much better served by one of the wondernines (and, I include there the various .380s, which are simply short 9mms).

But, in the final analysis, I'm probably less than optimal in lots of things, and the J-frame revolver has been a trusted friend for  about three decades, even if I've only had this one for six years.

Charter Arms Off-Duty

You never know what you're going to find, pawn shop crawling, and when I went into my favorite pawn shop today, I found a little jewel under the glass.

It's a Charter Arms Off-Duty, the original version with the exposed hammer spur, of course in .38 Special.  It's a five-shot, snubnose revolver, suitable for concealed  carry.  It seems to be an aluminum framed gun, and I admit that I'm not that familiar with the history of this particular model, but I suspect that this one should be used with standard pressure ammo only..

However, a quick checkout indicated that the gun locks up tight, indexes properly, and has transfer-bar ignition.  The double-action pull is heavier than the single-action pull, which has a little creep, but breaks cleanly.  The little gun shows very little wear, and I suspect that it was carried a lot more than it was shot.

The small fame feels good in my hand, and it seems to have the original grips.  This is a small frame revolver of the type normally seen during the early 1970s and 80s, and I suspect that it is from that era.  The "old"Charter Arms went bankrupt in the 1990s and I believe that this little pistol is from that era.

The "new" Charter Arms is another company that bought the rights to the name of the company and the model names.  The company today is s still manufacturing firearms.

I admit that I'm always on the lookout or a Charter Arms Bulldog, their revolver chambered in .44 Special.  This little revolver will go away soon, as I told my daughter that I'd keep an eye out for a nice, clean, solid little small-frame .38 Special revolver.  This one seems to fit the bill.

Detail Cleaning

Back about 2012 I stumbled upon an Airweight in a pawn shop.  More specifically a Smith and Wesson Model 38, the classic snubnose revolver both beloved and hated of revolver lovers.  Beloved because it's so light, almost the perfect pocket pistol, and hated because it's so light, recoil is intensified.  Whatever, it was on my bucket list.

I bought it, shot it a few times, qualified with it, then dropped it in my pocket where it has been almost a constant companion for the past four years.  I didn't clean it much, because I didn't shoot it much, but lately, I've noticed that the action got a bit stiffer.  I figured an accumulation of pocket lint and other goodies had worked its way into the action.

I don't know how to detail strip a J-frame, never bothered to learn.  I have that most valuable of assets, a kid that knows how to detail strip a J-frame, so yesterday after lunch, I asked the question that all fathers learn to ask.  "So, you want to teach me how to strip a J-frame?"

"Sure, Pop" he said, so we set up under the patio, and I got the cleaning gear.  He took off the grip, looked into the fiddly bits, and exclaimed "OhmyGod".

Then he unscrewed the side plate screws, tapped off the side plate, and asked "Have you been carrying honey in your pocket?  Maybe spilled Pepsi at some point?"  Evidently, the accumulation of pocket lint, gun oil and solvent make the interior workings of the little levers and springs something special to clean, so we got out a can of carb cleaner to help with the de-greasing.

About ten minutes later, it was done.  The interior of the frame was spotless, all the springs and levers had been de-funked.  A few drops of oil, judiciously applied, and the fiddly bits replaced.  A quick function check, and the trigger of my Model 38 feels much nicer.  Very much nicer indeed.

Thanks, son.  The old man appreciates it.

My Time With the .357 Magnum

It may surprise youngsters, but at one time the revolver was the most carried handgun in police work.  Before Gaston Glock invented his plastic fantastic, Indeed, from the 1880s until about 1990, the revolver was the pre-eminent law enforcement handgun across the nation.

In 1970, Smith and Wesson introduced the stainless steel version of their Model 19, and called it the 66.  It was a stainless steel K-frame revolver and by the time I got into police work in 1981, probably 90% of the police officers carried them. Back in those days, the Model 66 was as ubiquitous in police work as the Glock is today.  About 1982, I acquired a clean used one and began carrying it.  Mine was the standard 4" revolver.  It is still in my battery today.



What I liked about the revolver for police work was the ability to match the ammo to the task at hand.  You could use the ammo like a throttle.  Mild, .38 Special cartridges for target and training, or hotter stuff for longer range work.  Back in those days I read a lot of Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, and Skeeter Skelton's work.  When I began reloading, the very first cartridge I reloaded for was for that revolver.  Target loads in .38 Special.  After a little while I started loading stouter loads for the magnum, and came to settle on a couple of pet loads.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on semi-auto handguns.  I like them just fine, but the ammo has to match the spring tension.  Too light and the gun won't cycle.  Too hot and you batter the gun.  With a revolver, that's not a problem.  From a squib load to the hottest magnum, if you can close the cylinder, the gun will probably fire and extract.

I continued to carry a revolver till the turn of the century, long after most officers had switched over to the semi.  One day right in the winter of early 2002, I was at a training class.  We had just qualified and the instructors wanted to send us through a firing scenario.  It went like this.  On our tactical range, we'd walk through a door and immediately engage two targets to our left, about 10 feet away.  Then, looking downrange, you'd see three targets at the 50 yard line, with a covered position at 25 yards.

The idea was to engage the two close targets, then run downrange and engage the three targets from cover.  But the instructors were nefarious.  The targets downrage were heavy steel silhouettes.  and we had to knock them over.  I was halfway back in the line, and I saw the problem that the guys were having with their 9mm pistols.    They would have to advance on those heavy steel silhouettes to knock them down.  My revolver was stoked with standard .38 special training ammo, and I knew that I'd have problems.

But, one of my pet loads was a heavy magnum load.  It consisted of a 180 grain hard cast bullet with a wide, flat meplat and was loaded with a stout charge of 2400.  I knew what that load would do, and as importantly, I knew it was very accurate.  And, it was visually impressive.  It threw a fireball at night.

So, I walked out to my truck, and got a box of those stout loads.  By the time I got back in line, I had swapped my pathetic training ammo for the heavy stuff, and when the instructor asked me if I were ready.  I nodded and stepped through the door.

The first round caught the close steel target at the hinge, breaking it.  The target flopped but I didn't see it.  I was engaging the second target, one round and it fell too.  Then I turned, kneeled, and engaged the 50 yard targets.  One round each, high in the steel, and they flopped too.Five rounds, five targets, I was done.  The first, close target was broken.

The instructor went ape-shit.  I had just cleaned his course, his nefarious "advance on the target" course, but I hadn't taken two steps since I came through the door.  He was livid.  He was hollering and shouting. It was one of those spittle-flinging moments.  He had carefully engineered this training so that the targets wouldn't fall with standard .38 or 9mm ammo.  I had put the lie to it with my demonstration of magnum ammunition.  He looked as if his head was going to explode.  Then the Chief Instructor walked up.

The Chief cleared his throat. "Leave him alone.  If you bring enough gun, you don't have to walk down there."  He laughed.  "If you bring the right gun, you can shoot them from right here."

That's the lesson of the .357 magnum, a very useful cartridge that can be tailored to a specific use.  It's one cartridge that can be loaded mild or wild.  My go-target load pushes a 145 grain wadcutter at about 650 fps.  My standard .38 load pushes a 158 SWC at 750 fps.  My heavy magnum load pushes a 180 grain WF bullet to just under 1300 fps.  They all shoot from the same revolver.  If I put those loads in a carbine, they gain velocity.  My heavy load goes to just over 1500 fps in the carbine, a load suitable for hogs and deer at 100 yards or less.  The .357 magnum is a handloader's dream.  Accurate, easy to load for, it loves cast bullets.

Nowadays, as do most cops, I carry one of Gaston's pistols.  It suits me, and the department, just fine.  But that doesn't mean that the .357 revolver is obsolete.  It has found it's niche in places other than a lawman's belt.  We still see them in hunting camps and pickup trucks, and in gun safes and gun shops all over the country.  If you're looking for a handgun that can go from mild to wild, the .357 magnum might be a good place to look.

My Time With The 1911 Pistol.

I never shot a pistol until adulthood.  Dad saw no reason for them.  We were shotgunners, plain and simple.  We duck hunted, squirrel hunted, dove hunted, shot skeet and trap, and he didn't see the need for a pistol.  The shotgun met our needs, plainly and simply.

I was a brand-new lieutenant in April of 1976, still in the Basic Armor Course that all young butterbars go through.  One morning, we parked our cars at the Paddock, a huge gravel parking lot, and climbed on buses that took us to an arms room, where we drew pistols.  The one I drew, as I recall, was an old rebuild.  It had a slide from the Ithaca Firearms company and a Colt frame.  It was stamped, of course, with the roll mark US GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.  We went into a classroom where a senior NCO gave us a one-hour class on the Pistol, Cal .45, M1911A1.

Then, we loaded on to the bus and drove out to the range.  That was the coolest pistol range I had ever seen.  I still consider it a cool range.  About 20 firing lanes, with little berms scattered all over the lanes, out to 50 yards.  The NCO told us to stand easy and called for the targets, to test the range.  Suddenly, all those little berms sprouted popup targets.  The close ones, at 5 yards or so, looked like a helmet.  The ones father out, were half-size silhouettes.  The ones farthest out, at 50 yards, were full size silhouettes.

Back in those days, we weren't taught the Weaver, or the Isosceles.  The pistol was a one-handed devise and we were supposed to operate it with one hand.  The Sergeant had given us good instruction, because when the first target, a full silhouette at 50 yards popped up, I did as I was told.  I raised the pistol, firmly gripping it in the firing hand.  I aligned the sights on the center of the silhouette and squeezed the trigger.  The target fell, a hit.

"That wasn't so hard," I thought.  So, I fell into a rhythm.  A target would pop up, I'd put the front sight on it, and squeeze the trigger.  It was like playing whack-a-mole with a handgun.  Target pops up, I'd whack it down.  It was a liberating experience and I was hooked.  Also, after five magazines, I was done.  Clear the firearm, holster it, and go sit down.  Later that day we cleaned them and turned them in.  I don't know what happened to that mixmaster pistol after that.

In April of '76 a shavetail lieutenant made the princely sum of $690.00 per month, and I had a beautiful wife and a brand-new son.  True, we lived in quarters, but children are expensive and my lieutenant's pay didn't allow the luxury of buying my own handgun.  A Colt Gold Cup cost about$350.00, which was half a month's pay, and before long, I had a second child on the way.

By 1981, I was off active duty, sworn on as a Parole Officer with the State of Louisiana.  At that point, I was making about $900 a month, and had two kids, with a third on the way.  I was in the Army Reserves, but the weekend pay wasn't much, and like most cops at that time, I was working every detail I could find to put food on the table and pay the light bill.  The State required that I buy my own handgun, so I asked about a 1911.

"No, hell, no," I was told.  "Those things are dangerous.  You will buy a revolver, Colt, Smith and Wesson, or Ruger, in .38 or .357 magnum."  Truth be told, I owned exactly three revolvers during that period.  A Ruger Security Six.  A no-dash Smith and Wesson 66, and a Smith and Wesson model 60.  They all served me well during that time and kept me safe during my first two decades of police work.  I kept my hand in with the 1911 during drills, shooting it every chance I could find or wrangle.

By the time I had been promoted to Captain, I was the unit's handgun instructor, responsible for annual qualifications, general handgun instruction, and over the next decade I trained hundreds, if not thousands of officers and enlisted personnel on the proper use, nomenclature and employment of the M1911A1 pistol.  I was till enamored with the device, but could never find the extra cash to get one of my own.  Life intrudes sometimes.

Even today, I have to admit that there is something magical about a 230 grain ball going about 850 fps.

In 2000, life changed.  I went through a divorce, retired from the State, retired from the National Guard and spent a year or so trying to find myself in the world.  I was lost, I'll plainly admit it.  By late 2001, a good friend saved me by offering me a job at the local Sheriff's office.  I had just met the gal that we call Milady, who also played a big part in saving me.  But that's another story.  So, I strapped on my revolver and went to work.

In early 2002, I walked into a local gun shop and there lay a brand-spanking new Kimber Custom 1911A1.  Oh, I was smitten.  Kimber called it the Eclipse.  Stainless steetl with a blackout treatment, it glowed in the display case.  The wanted $900.00 for it.  I talked to the salesman, who told me that it had been in the case for about six months, and the store was going to use it as a promotion.  They'd drop the price ten dollars a week until someone bought it.

I watched that pistol for two or three months as the price crept steadily downard.  When it broke under $700, the salesman told me that someone else was looking at it.  The next week, I walked in, it was till in the case, and I put it on layaway for the sum of $680.00.

So, I finally had a 1911, on layaway.  Next payday I took it out.  Then I researched the Sheriff's firearms regulation.  They were very specific on the type of firearm we could carry on duty, but the 1911 wasn't on the list.  On the bottom of the regulation was another paragraph which said something like "Or any other firearm approved by the Chief Firearms Instructor."

Well, the die was cast.  I happened to know that our Chief Firearms Instructor was also a retired Command Sergeant Major.  Two tours in Vietnam, he retired as the Command Sergeant Major of the same Brigade I retired from.  The skids were greased.

One day, a week after I took the gun off layaway, I walked into his office. "Hey, Sergeant Major."

He looked up from his desk.  "What the hell do you want?"

"I want to carry a 1911."

"Those things are dangerous." he said.

"Don't give me the standard ration, Sergeant Major."  I looked at him across the tops of my glasses.  "Of course they're dangerous.  That's why we carry them."

"You got it, and some ammo?"

We walked out to his range, and a half-hour later, I was qualified.    At that time, I was one of three deputies in the department that was authorized to carry the 1911.

As it turned out, the Sergeant Major was the other fellow who was looking at that Kimber in the gun shop in the spring of 2002.

I carried that pistol for about 10 years, until we got a new sheriff, who bought us guns and told us to carry a standard weapon.  It's a Glock, as it turns out, and I carry it every day.  The Glock is a fine gun, and it shoots, but it doesn't have the soul of a 1911.

As I type what started out as a blog post, and turned into a short story, the 1911 is within arms reach.  It's stoked with my good handload of a soft lead bullet that travels about 850 fps.  And, as the Sergeant Major recognized so long ago, it's dangerous.

And that's the whole point.

The .243 Winchester

Yesterday afternoon, after loading a bunch of .38 Special, I was taking stock of my ammo supply and realized that I was just about out of .243 Winchester.  That, simply, will not do.  So, I dropped a double-handful of brass into the tumbler and let it tumble for a couple of hours.

In the years after WWII, a handloader, cartridge designer, and writer named Warren Page started tinkering with a case that later became the .308 Winchester.  He necked it down to 6mm and called it the .240 Page Pooper.  Being a writer, he wrote about it, and Winchester saw the potential of the round.  They standardized it in 1955, and it took off like a rocket.

Touted as a multi-purpose caliber, it suffered for a while simply because of bullet design at the time.  It's hard to make a bullet that will go 3000 fps and hang together when it hits meat and bone.  It took the bullet designers a while to catch up, but over the past 30 years they've made some dramatic strides in bullet design.  Folks like Hornady, Speer, Nosler and the like have spent a lot of time and effort making sure that their bullets hold up to the speed and impact that the modern powders put those bullets into.

I bought my first .243 rifle in 2004.  I picked it up on a whim, literally at Wal-Mart on a year end clearance.  The price was too good to walk past.  It's a Savage Model 10 with the tupperware stock, and picked it up, actually to hunt with for a couple of years, and keep in my battery to give to a grandkid when he got old enough to hunt.

I played with the rifle a bit, and shot a variety of factory ammo through it.  What I liked about it was the moderate recoil and the inherent accuracy of the caliber.  I've got a target in my files, a composite target where I plotted the groups from several factory loads, several handloads, and several bullet weights.  At a hundred yards, they all fell in to under four inches.  It didn't matter what I put in that rifle, I knew that it was going to fall into that four inch circle.Now, a four inch group isn't anything to brag about, but this group has about 100 shots with a variety of ammo, factory and home-rolled.

Late in 2008, I was surfing about, looking for information and came upon a reference that said I should try Alliant'sReloder 22 with a 100 grain bullet.  So, I loaded a few, using Hornady's 100 grain flat based softpoint bullet.  (Note, I don't see it in the catalog this morning.  They must have quit making it.)  When I took that particular load to the range and set up a target, I was surprised later when I looked through the spotting scope.

I knew then that I'd found the load for that rifle.  A month or so later, I was back at the range, with my chronograph and put that load across the screens.  When I first looked at the display, I thought i had an error, so I reset and tried again.  Great Jumping Jehosephat!  I'm getting better than 3100 fps from that load.  With small SDs and ES.  That load is everything a rifleman could want.  Fast, accurate, flat shooting, what else could you want?

The next year, I took that rifle to the deer stand, late in December.  I wanted to make meat with it and just about 9:00 in the morning, a nice little meat buck presented himself at what I later measured as 150 yards.  He was across a creek from my deer stand, standing in on a clear pipeline, in three-quarter profile.  I put the crosshairs on the point of his shoulder, and let fly.  He hit the ground, so I watched him for a minute, finished my cup of coffee, then climbed down out of the stand.

He must have heard me as I crossed the creek, because when I got to the spot where I had shot him, he wasn't there.  I could see blood, lots of it, and as I looked toward the tree line, I saw that he's piled up at the edge of the woods.  Well, okay.  Thirty steps later, I had collected him.  Later, at the camp, I autopsied him.  The bullet had entered at the point of the shoulder, gotten into the chest cavity, and absolutely destroyed both lungs.  Fair enough.  I didn't recover the bullet, although I found bits of jacket in the lungs.

In 2014, I gave that rifle to a grandkid, as I've done to each of my grandkids when the time was right. He was old enough then to handle a centerfire rifle, and I thought that the .243 would serve him well.

It's enough rifle, in a caliber that should take him into adulthood and beyond.  The .243 Winchester isn't a kid's caliber, it's probably one of the best all around calibers for game in the continental US.  With the right bullet (and today, the bullet manufacturers are making much better bullets than even the Hornady's I used to take that deer eight years ago), it's perfectly suitable for any medium game in the US.  The rifles are light, the recoil is moderate, the caliber is accurate, and the ammo is better than anything available 20 years ago.  The .243 Winchester is a great choice for just about anyone.

Plugged Barrel.

Old Grafton posts a picture of a plugged barrel, from what he reports is a Colt Officers Model in .38 Special.  We'll let Old Grafton explain:

I had the job of changing out this barrel on an Officer's Model Colt .38 a few years ago; kinda interesting. After I slabbed off the side out of curiosity, the next morning there were raised bumps on the exposed lead cores from compressed air trapped in the hollowpoints! I never did find out who did it; the revolver was purchased at auction by a friend. My only charge to him was that I got to keep the barrel.

Just Damn!  If you don't see holes in the target, maybe you should stop firing to figure it out.  I've stuck a couple of bullets in barrels over the years, but I've never stacked them like that.

Tip of the hat to The Guncounter Forum.

Promises

For a long time I've been looking at J-frame Smith and Wesson revolvers.  Several months ago, my son and I were discussing that particular frame and he told me how much he liked them.  A week or so later, I happened to find one in Jimmy Deramus' shop, so I put it on layaway.  It's a Smith Model 36 in factory nickel, .38 Special, with a 3" barrel.  I've been looking at Model 36s for years and very seldom have seen the 3" barrel.  It's a 36-1, which indicates the 3" heavy barrel, which was introduced in 1967,

I got it off layaway today.  It's got that old-time silky-smooth feel of a hand-tuned revolver, and the single-action pull must be felt to be believed.  I've promised this one to my son in exchange for some holster work. Promised kept, and he can pick  it up this weekend.  He's a cop, and it will make a great little off-duty or plainclothes revolver.  Perfectly suitable for serious social work.  I'll let him figure that out.

Another promise kept today.  In that same shop, I've been looking at a Ruger (Old) Vaquero in the glass case.  Deramus had it priced too high, at $750.00.  But, it's the old model, in .45 Long Colt, with the 7.5" barrel.  Bued steel, but the blueing is very nice.  Case-hardened frame, it's really a pretty revolver, but he wanted too much for it.

However, if you look at the Ruger website, they're not making 7.5" Vaqueros right now.  Of any flavor, so if you want a Ruger long gun, you either hit the pawn shops, or you try to find new-old stock.  I had promised myself that if Deramus dropped the price any, I'd put it on layaway as well.

When I walked in the shop today to get the Model 36, the counter guy put the 4473 directly over the Vaquero.  I, of course, noticed that the price had been reduced to $600.  Crap, crap, crap!  I put it on layaway as soon as the first transaction was complete.

Hey, Joey.  When I get that one off layaway, you've got one more holster to make.

Vintage Leather

Last week sometime, I was surprised to find an email in my inbox from a fellow I've never met.  Jim and I are members of the same forum and he goes by the screen name Old Grafton (an alias that I think is very cool, in a poetic fashion.)  He told me that he had come upon some vintage leather from the '60s and thought that I might be interested in it.

Vintage leather appeals to me and when he told me that it was from the old Lawrence company, I was intrigued.  I thanked him kindly and asked him to send it on.  I talked with my leather-working son, who told me that when it came in, to treat it carefully.  That old leather might need preservative techniques so that it wouldn't crack or split, and that if I had any questions, to get with him before I did anything.  That's good advise.

Lawrence Gunleather used to be a huge name in the gun-leather industry.  They made saddles and leather goods of all kinds.  A complete history is here.  They made very good leather products, and when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s I saw lots of ads for Lawrence leather products in the various hunting and fishing magazines I read.  To say the least, I watched for that package with great anticipation.

It came in on Friday, packed in a Boyd's gunstock box.  Milady asked if I had ordered a stock and I told her "No, but someone sent me a gift."  Like an archaeologist opening a tomb, I gently opened the box wondering what I'd find.

Great Jumping Jehosephat!  This leather is in  great shape.  Supple, well preserved, it looks almost as good as it did when it came out of the box a half-century ago.  Let's take a look, shall we?

First up, we have an absolutely marvelous Lawrence Model 120BN holster for the Ruger Super Blackhawk.  It's fleece lined and absolutely pristine.  I don't think that it's ever been on a belt, indeed my SBH may be the first gun that has ever been in that holster.

Next, we have a box from the period.

Cool graphics, and reminiscent of the boxes I remember from my youth as I'd drool over those magazine ads.  Of course, you can click on the picture for a better look.  I think that the box is cooler than hell.  But wait, there's something inside.

It's a Lawrence Model 79 holster for what looks like a Colt Single Action.  Of course, I immediately grabbed a cowboy revolver and tried to  holster it.  That didn't work, the holster is simply too small by a degree to hold the Model P.  So, I look at the fitment chart on the back of the box.  This particular model is designed for the Ruger Single Six or similar sized revolver.  I don't own one of those, but this holster is pristine, supple, and looks like new-old stock.  I'll keep it in the box and I'm sure that eventually we'll find a home for it.

Then I found a gunbelt at the bottom of the box.  Stilll supple, it feels like it was oiled regularly.  It's tooled with cartridge loops, and just beautiful.

The stamp on the inside of the belt says that it's their Sportsman model and that it's cut for a 40" waist.  The cartridge loops are adjustable and it is 1-3/4 inches wide.  I may set it up for .45 Colt cartridges and see if I "lock" the adjustment in place.  Either way, it will go in my spares bag as a trying belt for new shooters, grandkids, or other folks who need to borrow a belt.  My tape measure tells me that it will fit from a 38" to a 42" waist, but the way we wear our belts in the cowboy game, it will likely be a good fit for someone with a 36" to a 40" waist size.  It's a size that I don't have in the bag right now, and it's a really beautiful belt.

Thanks, Jim, for thinking of me.  We'll use them for sure.

Pawn Shop Crawling

In 1950, Smith and Wesson introduced what was destined to become an iconic revolver, the Chief's Special.  A five-shot, small frame revolver in .38 special, it was introduced at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Colorado.  Derived from the old Hand-Ejector, the frame was beefed up to handle the new .38 Special cartridge and the new frame was called the J-frame.

It was marketing genius to introduce it at the IACP conference, but the simple fact is that the J-frame revolver makes a lot of sense for a lot of people  The .38 Special is a wonderful old cartridge, a cast-bullet dream, but the newer loadings from the ammo manufacturers today make the .38 Special into a perfectly capable defense package.  Combine the light weight and small frame of the Chief's Special with the good ammo we find today and the little revolver is perfectly suited to defensive carry.

I've owned and carried several J-frames over the years.  I like the little guns, and indeed, I carry a J-frame today, in the form of an Airweight Model 38, another revolver built on the J-frame.  But, like most revolver fans, I like the Model 36.  The Model 36, is of course, the basic Chief's Special, renamed when Smith and Wesson went to model numbers rather than names.

Yesterday, I walked into my favorite pawn shop.  A family friend had asked me to look for a small handgun.  I had an hour to kill between assignments and decided to see what Jimmy had in his gun case.  He had the usual semi-autos and a few revolvers, but all by itself, over in the corner, lay a gun that caught my eye.

It' s a nickeled Model 36, but it has the heavy, 3" barrel.  And Pachmayr grips.  I asked to look at it, and the counterman handed it across the counter.  It felt good in my hand, and those big grips may cover either the square butt or the round butt.  Smith made the little gun with both grip styles.  The little gun seemed tight, as most of them do.  J-frames are guns that are generally carried much and shot little, and even the survivors from 50 years ago are normally pretty tight.

I looked at the price tag, and it seemed about right for a used revolver, but pawn shops are places where the price is flexible, and I've been buying in this shop for more than a decade, so the counterguy and I began the dance.   Then along comes the shop owner, the world famous Cajun Pawn Star, and we started talking about other things. We walked toward the back door, and I shook Jimmy's hand and crossed the street to my parked truck.

I climbed up in the truck, started the engine, and realized that the counterguy and I had not finished our dance regarding the price.  I texted my son and asked him what he thought, then got the checkbook out of the console and walked back in the shop.  In a few minutes, the counterguy and I had come to a conclusion, so I wrote him a check to hold the gun on layaway.  I'll get it out in a month or so.

Handuns, Again

When I became a cop, the standard handgun for police officers was often stipulated in the various department manuals, to be a Colt, Smith and Wesson, or Ruger revolver in .38 Special or .357 magnum caliber with a 4" barrel.  Some allowed a shorter barrel for plainclothes work.

Elmer Keith pioneered the .44 Magnum, but it never really caught on for police work.  Regardless of what you see in the movies, most police chiefs or sheriffs would have a coronary if their officer was found to be carrying a .44 magnum, and sound reasoning dictated against that choice.  The N-Frame revolvers are heavy, certainly heavier than a K-Frame revolver,  And, they're big.  If you go look in the front seat of a well-used police cruiser you're likely to see a worn spot in the drivers seat where the muzzle of the gun rests against the upholstery.  An N-Frame is bigger than a K-Frame and sitting in a police cruiser is uncomfortable if the gun is too big.  The muzzle touches the seat and the grip digs into your ribs, and after just a little while, it's uncomfortable.  Damned uncomfortable.

Probably the very best cartridge that I've ever explored for rural police work is the old Colt cartridge, the .45 Long Colt.  Every lawman from St. Louis to San Francisco carried one in the early days, and by that I mean the frontier times.  The Colt Peacemaker and the .45 Colt cartridge were ubiquitous across the parries and the mountains of the west.  Those long-barreled Peacemakers were great for horseback riding, but for police cruiser riding, not so much.  Smith and Wesson still makes a double-action revolver, the Model 25, and I've always thought that a 4" Model 25 would be the bees knees for rural law enforcement if we could cut a hole in the seat to let the revolver ride naturally in the car.

In all my career, there is just one officer that I every heard about carrying a .44 magnum on duty.  I never saw it, I just heard about it, and if I remember the story correctly, it went something like this:

In Toledo Parish on the west coast of Louisiana in the late '70s there was this young deputy.  We'll call him Cowboy.  Cowboy was aptly named.  He had rodeo'd for a time.  Cowboy stood about 6'4" tall, skinny as a rail and came to police work while he finished college.  Like many of my generation, he had seen the Dirty Harry series of movies. Cowboy wanted to carry a .44 magnum, and he certainly had the physique for it, so he managed to acquire a 6" Model 29, and quietly started carrying it on duty.  It looked natural on his tall, lanky body, and anyone who casually glanced at the tall lawman didn't notice the big damned revolver he was carrying, it simply looked proportional to his frame.

Like all young, struggling police officer/student/fathers, money was tight.  One night, while doing a walk-through in a local beer joint, one of the patrons asked what he was carying. Cowboy told him and the patron offered to buy the pistol, right there, for cash, at a healthy premium over what Cowboy had originally paid for the revolver.  

The money sounded good, so Cowboy unholstered the revolver, dumped the cartridges, and the deal was made, right there at the bar.  Cowboy rolled the money into a roll, and dropped it in the holster.  He finished his shift several hours later and went home.

The next afternoon, the Sheriff noticed Cowboy at roll call without a revolver in his holster.  "Where is your gun, Cowboy?"

"Sold it."

"What are you going to do if you get in trouble tonight on the side of the road?"

Cowboy extracted the wad of cash from his holster.  "I figured I'd give him this, and buy my way out of trouble."

That's the story of Cowboy and the .44 Magnum.  I can't swear if it's all true, but that's the way I heard it.