Via my hunting buddy ernunnos I learn that the VLTOR Fortis has been renamed… as the Bren Ten!

Between that and the reintroduced Delta Elite, I’m really feeling the 10mm bug…

Two articles in this month’s American Rifleman are right up my alley:

“The Lure of the Double Rifle” profiles and field-tests some of the more-affordable (but still >$10k) doubles on the market today. I do believe I’d go for the Heym 88B if it were even remotely affordable.

“The Kwaheri Safari” is Part One of a two-parter written by Harry Selby himself, chronicling an elephant hunt with Robert Ruark. There’s a sidebar on the guns they used, Ruark’s Jeffery .450/.400 double (previously owned by Karamojo Bell) and Selby’s famous .416 Rigby.

I need to get out to the range with my own .450/.400 and .416 and play Bwana-be. Maybe someday I’ll make it to Africa…

Been otherwise occupied.

Michael Bane caught a S&W lock malfunction on video during Shooting Gallery filming. Much as I want a Night Guard 396, I won’t ever buy a Smith with that lock. For over a hundred years, S&W turned out fine double-action revolvers without an ugly, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous integral lock. Last year they did it again, with a short run of lock-free 642s, and I rushed out to buy one.

I look forward to the day they drop the lock entirely and I can buy another.

Saw Tam’s post today about abandoned big-box stores, wherein she mentioned Sportsman’s Warehouse. Thought to myself, “heh, our Sportsman’s Warehouse went out of business in less than a year.” Browsed over to Ernunnos’ place and found a post linking to the same AP article hosted at a different site. Clicked the link, and the photo at the top of the article was… the shuttered local Sportsman’s Warehouse.

It was a nice store, but they opened in the worst possible place at the worst possible time and did, as best I could tell, ZERO advertising. I only stumbled upon the store when I happened to visit that mall for the Barnes & Noble, and you’re not going to keep a store that size in business with “only stumbled upon” traffic.

Contacting your elected representatives to ask them to vote a certain way on a bill is SO 20th-century. The new and cool thing is asking them to at least read a bill before voting on it.

No matter how cynical you get, you just can’t keep up anymore…

Gunblogging, what a concept!

While actual shooting is still nonexistent, I was playing around with the Ruger No. 1 last night and decided it’s time for a change. The .450/.400 Nitro needs a new recoil pad. Now, I like this gun a lot, but Ruger did two things wrong (well, three if you count the original broken stock).

First, the gun’s at least a pound underweight. The good people at Holland & Holland (folks who know a thing or two about building big-bore rifles) like a .375 H&H to go 9 lbs in a bolt-action and about 9 1/2 in a double rifle. This .450/.400, with closely comparable power and recoil, is just under 8 lbs. I’d like to see it at 8 3/4 or 9 lbs.

Second, the factory recoil pad is a thin, rock-hard black rubber pad, the very same kind Ruger puts on light kickers like .243s and .270s. While I’m sure these skimpy pads work fine on those little guns, they’re simply not up to handling big-bore recoil. So the factory pad must go; I’m just having a little trouble deciding on a suitable replacement.

To my eye, the gun really should be wearing a red recoil pad. My first inclination is to use a Pachmayr Decelerator, a pad that’s worked very well on my other hard kickers in 9.3×62mm and .416 Rigby. They look great, soak up recoil very nicely, and don’t easily deform or degrade. Only problem is, the red pad doesn’t really look all that red on MidwayUSA’s site, and I can’t find any other pictures of it.

The other possibility is a genuine Silver’s, which is THE classic pad for big-bore rifles. I’m slightly hesitant to use a Silver’s because I’ve never fired a gun equipped with one. The few I’ve handled were very, very hard, but also very, very old (50+ years old). I’d hope a fresh new pad would be soft enough to soak up some kick.

Right now I’m leaning towards taking a chance on the Silver’s, if only for nostalgia. I don’t suppose any of my readers have used one recently?

Tam knocks one out of the park.

I’d like to celebrate my freedom and independence by setting off some fireworks, but my government won’t let me because I might hurt myself.