It’s been light blogging lately, what with the cold, midterms, 13-hour school days, and the freelance projects on the side. Today in particular was one of those days when I just couldn’t get ahead, despite spending 12 hours (and counting!) at the keyboard. It’s hard to be productive when your 12-hour workday is broken into five-minute chunks by a constant stream of interruptions.

Like my friend Squeaky, I’m probably slightly assburgers. When I’m doing something like programming or writing, I focus very intensely and get very annoyed by distractions. And today was full of ‘em. Especially phone calls.

I try not to be a hateful person, I really do. But I hate, hate, HATE telephones with a great, vicious hatred. I can count on one hand the people from whom I’ll actually take a call; everyone else gets punted to voicemail. If they won’t leave a message, they don’t need to talk to me that badly. And if I didn’t have a grandmother in failing health, and if the Chinese joint down the street took carry-out orders via e-mail, I’d get rid of the damn thing completely.

But it is, for now, a necessary evil.

Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.

- Ambrose Bierce

Anyways, I’ve got some actual gunblogging coming up. Tomorrow’s another 13-hour school day, so it might not get posted ’till Thursday.

Happy Blogiversary to me! Never thought I’d keep it up for a full year…

517 posts, 475 comments, ~32,000 hits, one cranky asshole.

Thanks for reading, y’all.

Seen over at Mad Ogre’s place:

The Browning High Power remains in the 2008 Catalog. This is interesting because I had been told that FNH was ending production of the High Power all together. I’m glad to see they haven’t.

You know, the Hi Power might sell better if Browning actually put even the slightest effort into promoting it. As I said before, there’s no advertising, no promotion of any kind, no new models (aside from this abomination), no factory night sights, no stainless guns. Their entire marketing effort consists of one page in the back of the annual catalog. That’s not the way to sell guns.

My cold is finally in retreat, though I’m still a bit too spaced-out to do any serious blogging. Watch this space!

• Pounding headache? Check.
• Stuffed-up nose? Check.
• Watery eyes? Check.
• Teeth aching and shifting? Check.
• Sore throat? Check.

It’s official, we have the first cold of the season.

It seems that the Browning/FN/Winchester rep told me the truth last summer; the Model 70 is on its way back.

First off: yay! I love the Model 70 and I’m glad it’s getting resurrected.

Now then, on to the criticism (hey, it’s what I do):

Redesigned, three-lever trigger. With an adjustment range of 3 to 5 pounds. Not makin’ a whole lot of sense there, guys…

The classic Model 70 trigger was a masterpiece of elegant simplicity and it worked just fine from 1936 to 2006. It’s a great, bulletproof design, one that can easily deliver safe 3-pound pulls. All it takes is proper execution; build it out of the right materials, to the right tolerances, and adjust it properly.

Now, three-lever triggers are usually seen on benchrest rifles. They can deliver amazingly light pulls (measured in ounces, not pounds), but they also have lots of tiny little pieces and don’t always work well in field conditions. So it makes no sense to me to use a three-lever system on a hunting rifle just to produce a 3- to 5-pound pull, when that result can easily be achieved with a simpler, more robust conventional design. Like the one they’re replacing. I dunno, maybe you have to be in marketing to understand.

Speaking of that trigger, anyone else think it looks a little funny?

Kinda stubby, innit? Hopefully they’ll fix that before it goes into mass production.

Another cosmetic goof on the prototypes:

That’s not exactly the proper way to inlet a Super Grade sling swivel stud. Not if you expect people to shell out a grand for one, at least…

… And that brings me to my last gripe. MSRPs start at $999, which is really pushing the limit. If (and it’s a sizeable if) the fit and finish are up to snuff, I could see paying $750 or so. Then again, I could just buy another CZ 550 for $600 and put the rest of the cash towards a scope.

Anyways, that’s my first impression of it. The press release says the guns won’t be out for another nine months, so hopefully the Winchester/FN guys take their time and get it right. If they do, I can see a Super Grade in my future.

(H/T to Kit, who’s almost as full of sunshine and cheer as my charming self)

“Where’s that tequila guy? I want him on my side!”

- A go-go dancer in a sexy pirate costume, recruiting me for a game of beer pong

Well, when duty calls…

We lost, badly, but I didn’t really mind. That’s her on the left; she’s taken, unfortunately.

In the comments on a previous post DirtCrashr asked,

“I’ve heard things about Hi-Powers being a favorite of custom ’smiths because they need certain things done to them – what would that be?”

The only thing that current-production Hi-Powers really need is a trigger job. HP triggers are usually heavy and gritty out-of-the box. It’s partly due to the unconventional trigger linkage and partly due to the magazine disconnect, which introduces extra friction to the mix. Removing the mag disconnect makes a big difference, and a good gunsmith can work miracles and get an almost-1911-quality pull. The trigger reset will still be longer than on a 1911, but that can be said of just about every handgun on earth.

Older guns could use a little more help; they came with tiny sights and a small, mushy thumb safety. The humped feed ramps on earlier barrels also had problems with hollowpoint ammo. None of this applies to today’s models, which have high-profile dovetailed sights, extended ambi thumb safeties and throated barrels.

Personally, I bought my Hi-Power during the big CDNN blowout last year and like it so much that I’ve practically retired my Glocks and 1911s. Try one, you’ll like it!

Still recovering from last night’s excesses. Midterms tomorrow. No blog for you.

White Stripes drummer (and local girl!) Meg White