BROWNING BUCKMARK

My very first firearm!!  My Nephew and I purchased this gun used around 1999.  I had just gotten into shooting and was looking to get a little something.  As it turned out, his friend's Dad had this Buckmark that he was willing to part with.

It's a Buckmark plus model, which gave you wood grips and a 5.5 inch slab sided bull barrel.  For those unfamiliar with these pistols, they are a further development of the challenger series of target pistols that Browning had been making for many years.  They are a single action, blow back operated, semi automatic using a hammer that is hidden inside the gun.  The magazine holds 10 rounds of .22 long rifle.

The frame is aluminum alloy, which is very light, but the bull barrel weighs as much as the rest of the gun.  This heft up front keeps the pistol on target and stops the shooter from swaying around too much.  These guns are a pleasure to shoot.  The trigger is ultra light.  Mine breaks at just over 2 pounds.  The sights are large in comparison to rifle sights but are easy to acquire.  The front is fixed and the rear is adjustable for windage and elevation.  My gun is an early 1990s example.  Most newer buckmarks are equipped with fiber optic sights.  I think I will replace mine with the williams fire sights at some point in the future.



The strange thing about the Buckmark is the arrangement of the slide under a cover that also serves as a mount for the rear sight.  It is uncommon and seems an odd way to design a pistol.  My Dad hates racking the slide on it because he invariably grabs the cover along with the slide.  Browning has since added a couple of blocks to give you something to grab.





This gun's accuracy is simply amazing.  The heavy barrel and ultra light trigger combine to make a target pistol that hits targets well.  I have amazed myself so many times with this gun.  Shooting golf balls standing one handed at 30 yards is so satisfying.  I used to shoot wires strung off of logs or between buildings when I had the chance.  The gun is like a helping hand, encouraging you to go for it.

It has been remarkably durable despite the thousands and thousands of rounds that have gone down the barrel.  I replaced the original recoil spring assembly with a new one from Brownells. I've also replaced the buffer that sits at the back of the frame. And this past fall I purchased 2 new magazines because the original mag had started to cause jambs, due to the spring just plain wearing out.  The new mags have an extended floor plate that make it easier to load them into the gun.

I love this gun!  If I had to replace it, I would consider a Ruger.  I've shot them and I like them.  But, the Buckmark has done me well.  Why mess with success?

An amazing engraving done by Baron Engraving

.25 ACP Revisited

John Browning designed the .25 as a semi rimmed case to aid in extraction

As you may have figured out, I'm a defender of the defenseless.  When it comes to pistol cartridges, the most hated of all is the .25 acp.  People love to hate on it because of its lack of stopping power and the fact that most guns chambered for it are tiny.  Anti gunners hate it because it it used in a fair amount of illegal activities.  Well, they hate anything.

Truth be known, there are lots of guns chambered for it.  Some of them are cheep and some are just the opposite.  Throughout the 20th century there were a plethora of very cheep automatic pistols manufactured.  Some of these "Saturday night specials" found their way into the hands of criminals.  Why?  I guess because they were cheap.  It's certainly not because they were going to blow anyone's head off.  If that's the reason to buy a gun, these thugs should carry a 500 s&w.

That's not to say that every .25 ever made was a pot metal p.o.s. My Bauer is a fine gun.  Certainly Walther, FN, and Colt never made any junk.  Unfortunately, the .25 will never shake the reputation of the poor criminal with his $50 Raven, shooting up the slums.  Not that everyone with a Raven is a criminal.  I've always felt that everyone should be able to defend themselves, regardless of how much they can spend on a gun.

I've considered hand loading for the .25 acp.  A box of 50 Remington fmj rounds is $20-$25.  Not bad for the occasional outing with the Bauer, but if I were to acquire more arms in this round, I would start loading for it.  A mere 1.6 grains of unique will push a 49 grain bullet over 800 fps.  Sounds like an economy round to me.

GUN LUST PART ONE - WINCHESTER 1907

We all have those guns that keep coming back to us in our dreams.  You know, the ones that you just can't get out of your head?  I have quite a few of these guns rattling around my skull.  One of the ones that I just can't let go of is the Winchester 1907.  I first fell for the 1907 when I saw Jim Green disassemble one on his you tube channel.  I thought, wow, what a nice handy little rifle.



I love the fact that it is an auto-loader designed and built in the age of bolt and lever guns.  Like many of Winchesters offerings back then, the 07 was never really intended to chamber a 30-06 or any other super high power cartridges.  It was the quintessential carbine.  With a box magazine and a handy charging rod up in front of the forearm, the 07 just looks like it would be quick and easy to handle.  Truth be known, I've never even seen one of these things in person, but I just love the idea of a short, quick handling carbine with decent fire power.

It was designed by Thomas Crossley Johnson, who was responsible for several other Winchester designs.  Most notably in my book, the Model 12 shotgun.  It fires the .351 Winchester Self-Loading cartridge, which is not overpowered for large game, but I suspect many a deer fell to it through the years.  The blow back design certainly does have its limitations, but the .351 is no slouch.   Police agencies were one of its fans.  As were some military customers in WWI.  I would have welcomed the chance to field one of these as opposed to a 5 round bolt gun.  Sure, it won't reach out 800 yards like an 03 Springfield, but closer in I'd imagine it would do fine.  And it's quick handling and semi auto action would have been a major plus to me over a 6 foot bayoneted pig sticker.

And its a take down.  Ya gotta love Winchester!  So if anyone has one of these they want to sell me for a song, Ahhhhh dreams.

To LOAD or not to LOAD

A great resurgence in the art of hand loading, aka reloading, is upon us.  Ammo shortages have driven folks who otherwise would never have considered loading their own ammo into one of the countless horde standing in line for the last pound of powder at the gun store.

For those who have yet to take the plunge, you may have questions.  So lets go through the basics.

Why reload?  

#1  Cost

Do the math and you will quickly realize that loading your own ammo is more cost effective.  Some high volume rounds such as 9mm Luger can be bought in bulk for reasonable prices as new ammo.  So the cost savings may be somewhat minimal.  In fact you might say that it just isn't worth the investment.

However, for most rifle rounds, as well as many less common pistol rounds the savings can be substantial.  So, look at what you plan to load, and decide.  Is it worth the investment in equipment and time for me to do this?  If your only reason to consider re loading is cost and you only shoot common calibers every once in a while, no it's not worth it to re load.  But, if you are an avid shooter that runs through tons of ammo, even the common calibers can be cost effective to load for.

#2 Control

Having control over your ammo has always been one of the big draws to hand loading.  For example, I was loading a 125 grain hollow point bullet for my Mauser 98.  It was a great round.  Low recoil and a heck of a lot of fun.  You simply cannot walk into any store and buy that ammo.  It is not made with that bullet weight.  But I could make it and save money over factory ammo at the same time.  There are just way more bullet choices out there for the re loader that aren't available as loaded ammo.  Having options is always nice.  Want a light load for new shooters?  No problem.  Want
accuracy and consistency?  Hand load. 

#3 Obsolete and odd calibers

Ever seen 38-40 ammo on the shelf.  What you say?  Sure, you can order a box for nearly $100 and shoot your Winchester.  No thanks!  Or, you could have your rifle re-chambered to some popular caliber and ruin the collector value.  Again, not a good option.  So, gather up some brass and load your own.  The 38-40 takes a 40 caliber bullet and pistol powder, so it's really no big deal once you have your brass located.  It's a way of having your rifle and shooting it too.



Going back to the Mauser that I loaded for.  7.92x57 (8mm Mauser) brass is not exactly laying all over the range, But you can always find someone with a supply of 30-06 brass that they will practically give you.  Run the 06 brass through the Mauser die and trim the excess and now you have Mauser brass.  Not so hard right?

Why on earth would you pay astronomical prices for factory loaded ammo when you can make your own for so much less?  The big ammo makers have setup and tooling time to recoup.  That's why they charge so much for low volume calibers.  You don't have to worry about all that.  Cha Ching!!

So, it's up to you.  Do you value the control factor that hand loading affords?  Is the cost savings of loading your own worth the investment?  Are you tired of paying through the nose for those odd calibers?  Answer yes to any of those questions and you are in the re loading game.  Enjoy!

Gander mountain prices way too high

Went to Gander Mountain this Sunday to look around and Geez Louise the prices were astronomical! Lots of people were looking, I'm not sure how many were buying, but it was probably too many.  They had the Taurus TCP with a black slide priced at well over $300.  I don't know if it was black stainless or not, but come on.  I can buy the TCP with a black steel slide for $225 at the local shop and he has bunches of them in stock.  Another example was the Taurus raging judge.  $1088 at Gander, $968 at Big R.  Really?  That much more?  And the kicker was the high points for $250, HA! And it wasn't just the guns.  There were all kinds of jacked up prices on everything from gun cases to ammo to whatever you can name.

Bass Pro is usually high as well.  They run sales, but the everyday prices on most shooting supplies are pretty high,  Just think what these places would do if the little guy were to go out of business.  All the more reason to shop local when you can.  Why buy from a huge destination store that has all the overhead of a huge fish tank and a national radio campaign when you can walk into "BOB's" little old gun shop and get the same stuff for less and support a local businessman?  Oh we price match.  No thanks, I'd rather just go in and get a good deal to begin with.

Just a bit of a rant.

GUN CLEANING SOLVENTS FROM THE AUTO PARTS STORE

This is the spray type Top Engine Cleaner avalible at GM parts departments.  Not to be confused with the liquid that comes in a plastic bottle.  Good old Sea foam has been around for decades.  It's around $7 at any retailer.

            

The stores are full of solvents and cleaners that will clean the bore of your guns.  You pick one, try it, and it hopefully gets the gunk out.  I've found that most anything will clean the barrel of a well maintained gun that just had 50 rounds of decent ammo put through it.  Being a cheapskate, I've been mixing up "Ed's red" for years.  Basically a mixture of 1 part each ATF, kerosene, brake cleaner or acetone, and WD-40.  It's worked well for me.  But recently I acquired and old Chinese type 53, Mosin Nagant carbine and let's just say it was not well maintained.  The bore had a light frosting of rust and I could not see the rifling.  It literally looked like the rifling had been shot out of it.  I suspect that it had been given a quick cleaning and shot with a cosmoline coating in the bore.  That resulted in a hard black mess in the bore.  I tried Ed's red and a bore brush.  The patches came out black every time.  Still no rifling.  I hosed it with brake clean and scrubbed with a brush.  It got better, but still patches were black.  I soaked it in GM rust penetrant overnight.

This is probably the best rust penetrant made.  It stinks terrible, but it loosens rusted bolts very well.  Dissolves lead oxide according to the label.  Available at any GM parts counter.

It says it dissolves lead oxide.  It helped a lot, but still the black patches.  By this time I saw shallow rifling, but the bore still looked worn out.  So, I went out and shot the thing for the first time.  That helped quite a bit.  I could actually see all the rifling for the first time.  Still it was quite dirty.  So I went online and found some bench rest shooters raving about GM top engine cleaner and Sea Foam.  Since I work in a GM parts department, I have easy access to those products.  I mixed the 2 products equally and shook them up.  They didn't blow up, but they never combined either.  The 2 products separate in the bottle, but remain in suspension for quite a while if shaken.  I ran 3 patches of this mixture through the barrel and voila, the 3rd came out clean.  Now, I'm not sure how much of this miracle can be attributed to the 2 products and how much of my success is due to the hot fireballs that came out of the muzzle when I pulled the trigger 15 times.  Surely all that fire helped it.  But I was still impressed with the cleaners.  I never get a bore that clean in that few patches with Ed's red.  Even in well maintained guns.  I need more experience to declare one or both of these products the be-all, end-all of gun solvents.  But, I am hopeful that one or both of these items will become my go to solution for everyday cleaning as well as those hard to clean acquisitions. 

When you stop and think about what these products are designed to do, it makes some sense.  They clean carbon deposits from the valves of an engine.  And, whatcha know?  Carbon is a major byproduct of burning gun powder.  Seems logical to me that if it cleans carbon from inside an engine, it will clean carbon from the bolt of an AR 15.  As I say, I'm no scientist.  I didn't do a real experiment.  I just thought I should get this out there for all to see.  Please be aware that these chemicals will eat varnish off of your stocks.  Some will soften plastics and peel paint.  So use with reason.

98/22 MAUSER REDO

Update:  I sold the rifle due to it being just too much of a pain and the expensive of buying all the little parts to put it back into a wood stock.  Purchased a Mosin.



Back in the day, I purchased an old Brno 98/22 Mauser at Dunham's sports.  I paid less than $100 for it and was delighted.  Before long though, my Nephew and I began wanting to convert it into a black opps sniper gun.  We ended up buying an ATI stock that allows for a scope without drilling and tapping the receiver.  Besides that, it just looked evil.  Big and black with the cheek rest and huge 60mm objective scope to top it off.

Well, fast forward a decade and I still have the Mauser, but I'm not so into the huge scope, 1000 yard head shot thing.  Actually, I've be come a fan of just plain old sights. Problem is, the original stock and hardware was thrown out long ago.  So, in order to facilitate the transition, I began to look for stocks.

I ground the bolt knob flat to clear the stock

I bought a "K98" stock off of Armslist only to find that my action is a "long" action and the stock I bought is for a "Short" action.  The only difference is that a "Short" action measures just slightly shorter between the 2 receiver screws.  Rather than go buy yet another stock, I decided to just alter stock I have.  I just used a dremel tool to rout the wood and will fill in the gaps with a good epoxy.

I will be re-sectioning the trigger guard to put it to the right length.  Yes, I could buy the right length guard, but what's the fun in that?

The gun originally had a straight bolt handle, but we had bent it to clear the scope.  Rather than heat it back up, I have chosen to clean it up and shave it to clear the stock.

 For sights, I plan to use a mojo rear peep sight in conjunction with the stock front blade and add a hood to that.  I'm not a big fan of the original Mauser sight picture.  I absolutely love the peep sights on GI rifles, so the mojo makes sense to me.

You may know this company better as CZ.

More to come as the project advances.

My workbench is a disaster!!

At least the hand guard fits like a glove

I believe the "23" proof mark dates this rifle to 1923

THE BOLT STARTED OUT STRAIGHT BUT WAS PREVIOUSLY BENT TO ACCOMMODATE THE SCOPE.