Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Old School Guns

Best Gun Handling Celebrities: Leif Erickson

Leif Ericson firing a Winchester model 1892 modified to look like an 1860 Henry rifle.

Leif Erickson (1911-1986) was a tall and handsome actor with a powerful booming voice.  Leif had many memorable performances in film. He is best known as the tough determined rancher John Cannon in the western series “High Chaparral”. 

 

 The High Chaparral may be the best western TV series ever made. It features a variety of characters, innovative writing, and consistently good acting. Leif and the other cast member routinely handled firearms against Apaches and various bandits. In a credible attempt to replicate henry rifles, Winchester 92s with hand guards removed, are used to portray the earlier rifles.  In several non-shooting scenes, actual Henry’s are used.

 

Of course, almost every character carries or uses a single action pistol, the most memorable is a nickel plated 1875 Remington carried by John Cannon’s brother in law. Leif is believable with his weapon handling. He may have learned about weapons during his World War II service. Leif was a Navy combat photographer and was wounded twice.  Sadly, The High Chaparral was cancelled after four seasons.  The western was on it way out and even the shows high ratings could not save it.           

National Disgrace!

NEVER FORGET!

The magazine of the USS Shaw Exploding on December 7th, 1941

Our country largely ignored the 72^nd anniversary of the unprovoked sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. The nation was just not concerned.  It was the same with the 150^th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and the sesquicentennial of the War for Southern Independence as well. No attention paid by our national leaders.  Ignore history at your peril. There is a foolish, dimwitted, and short sighted view of history which professes the idea any history before the civil rights movement of the 1960s is irrelevant. This is stupid, inaccurate, and dangerous in the extreme.    I suppose, like so many other things, our leaders and education system are to blame. If you don’t understand history, you can’t understand and appreciate America and Freedom.

Gun Musings: Opinions and Observations of a Lifelong Shooter.

Good news! Today’s gun owners and shooting community is well funded, well organized. Victories against tyrants in Colorado and the defeat of anti-freedom gun legislation in the last year are a welcome contrast to the bleak days after the oppressive 1994 gun ban. 

Bad news! The war on freedom continues. The Obama administration is blocking the return of American M1 rifles from South Korea. I hope the importers can wait another three years, until our inevitable regime change in 2016, when hopefully adults may again be in charge of our government. 

Youtube Madness! I’ve seen a number of videos “testing guns to destruction”. I don’t find them interesting. Firearms should be treasured and respected. To simply abuse them until they break for video sensationalism seems foolish and disturbing.

Open Carry?  Is it a good idea? As a boy, growing up on a cattle ranch, we open carried all the time, in the pastures and woods.  We often had firearms with us in ranch trucks and tractors while using county roads. We used mostly rifles, but there were revolvers occasionally present. This would be open carry by today’s standards, and a good idea.  Walking around a large or small city with a rifle or openly holstered sidearm, seems like a very bad idea.   

Ammunition is once again widely available for every caliber except .22 Long Rifle cartridges. I hope that situation improves soon. The shortages over the last year were sheer frustration for many shooters. I hoped manufacturers learned a few lessons. 

Pearl Harbor Day

72 years ago today our forces at Pearl Harbor were the victims of a sneak attack. This lead to four years of total war which spilled onto or around every inhabited continent. Remember our heroes on this day, including a personal hero of this blog named Commander Howard R. Healy whose heroic efforts saved 2700 men on the stricken U.S.S. Lexington (CV-2) during the early 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea.  DD 672 the U.S.S. Healy was named in his honor.

45 Caliber 1911 Transition model salvaged from the USS Shaw after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

 

Shooting the Mosin Nagant M91-30 Sniper Rifle

 

The Nosin Nagant may be the most storied rifle of all time.  Adopted in 1891 by the Imperial Russian Army and used in the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo Japanese War, the First World War (by Russia and Germany), the Finnish Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, the Winter War, the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and in limited use in numerous Middle East wars to the present day. There may be several conflicts I’ve forgotten. The rifle has gone through several minor modifications from the original model 1891. These included barrel length and sights and several telescopic sight models for sniping use.

 

Most countries have divested their supplies of M91/30s to the surplus rifle market.    This has included the latest model of Mosin sniper rifle, the Model 91/30 equipped with a 3.5 power PU telescopic sight.  The 91/30 sniper was replaced in Soviet service by the SVD rifle starting in 1963, however it still serves irregular forces. It was certainly used by insurgents in Iraq and perhaps in Afghanistan also.

 

The 91/30 sniper is a pleasure to shoot, the recoil is manageable and the scope offer clarity and a decent field of view. The scope is very old school and quite simple with a simple bullet drop compensator.  The scope must be matched to the rifle. And excellent explanation and instructions are here on How to Sight a Mosin Nagant Sniper.  The excellent shooting qualities of Mosin 91/30 are well known to military rifle collectors and shooters.  The rifle performed above expectations in World War II and in subsequent conflicts.   In truth, in the modern rifle era, the M91/30 is labeled a designated marksman’s rifle.  It’s technical performance is bested by most civilian hunting rifles.  However, riflemen can appreciate the good accuracy and other shooting qualities of the 91/30 Sniper.

This target was fired in the prone unsupported position at 100 yards.

The targets shown here were fired at 100 yards in in sub-freezing weather with the wind chill in the single digits.         

This target was fired from the prone supported position, more steady than the target above.

The ammunition used was 174 gr COMBLOC surplus. This case cracked during the firing session. It was the only one out of 60 rounds total.

 

 

AR-15 Gets the Blame

NOV 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed during a motorcade movement in Dallas Texas.  Movies, Books, and endless television documentaries, debunk or support the Warren Commission Report. There are a lot of strange facts about the assassination.  These have fed dozens of different conspiracy theories over the years.  One, which cannot possible be true, blames a Secret Service agent for accidently shooting the President with an AR-15 from the automobile directly behind the presidential limousine. Presumably, this would be the third or fourth shot, depending on how many Oswald actually fired.

The lower rifle is a Carcano similar to the one used by Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and recovered in the school book depository.

This theory, although interesting, is bunk. The firing signature of the AR-15 at that range is significantly different than the Carcano rifle Oswald used. A shot from the trailing car would have been seen and heard (as something different) by hundreds of people who witnessed the assassination.  

Early model AR-15 similar to the one used by the Secret Service in Dallas

The AR-15 is one of the most wrongly vilified weapons of all time. It was used to protect the President Kennedy, not kill him.