Trego's Mountain Ear

"Serving North Lincoln County"

Tag: Firearms

  • SCCY Is Gone

    Years ago, I used my Cabelas card points to buy a SCCY pistol that was on deal.  Half of the reason I bought it was the impressive warranty.  Then the doggone thing worked so well that I never used the guarantee.  The only problems I ever encountered were some ancient Egyptian ammunition that had been captured by Israel in the Six Days War (back in 1967) and stored poorly until they auctioned it off as military surplus.  When ammunition is over a half-century old, and has been stored poorly, it probably isn’t the pistol’s fault when it doesn’t fire.

    It isn’t a bad little pistol – but SCCY (which produced 987,075 pistols between 2017 and 2023 according to BATF) found itself sued by Rochester and Buffalo (New York) in 2022.  In 2024, SCCY learned that the company’s insurer didn’t cover this sort of liability.  (Another comment was that there were over 50,000 SCCY pistols recovered from crime scenes – I’m not sure what the time length was for this statistic).  Anyway SCCY went under the auctioneer’s hammer – and mine still hasn’t malfed.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have a warranty anymore.

    Mine looks like this:

    Other colors are (or maybe were) available – like this:

     The bright colors and the pastels never were my thing.  Neither was the newest model – the SCCY cpx-3 versions.  I’m old fashioned.  I like hammers, and the new versions solved the problem of a heavy trigger pull by replacing the hammer with a striker mechanism.  On my cpx-2, I can’t cock the hammer (double action only) but I can see it through a slot in the back of the slide.  And a long, hard trigger pull is the only safety on the pistol.  To be fair, the hammer isn’t cocked until the trigger makes it all the way back – so it’s really just as safe as the old double action revolver.  Safety aside – baby blue, bright orange, and pink just aren’t colors that belong on my sidearm.  If you feel differently, that’s fine.  

    Back to the striker versus hammer argument – my only striker fired pistol is a 1914 Mauser design.  It cocks every time the slide goes back, and the only protection is the safety.  One safety.  The old 1911 design (Colt, by John Moses Browning) with a hammer has a bunch of safeties.  Mauser had only one.  There have been a lot of changes to strikers over the past century – but I didn’t get my first semi-automatic until Browning’s design was almost 75 years old.  Since I’m now 75, I don’t expect to ever be comfortable with a striker fired semi-auto pistol.  Heck, I’m not comfortable with a concealed hammer single action.

    Anyway, SCCY is no more – and without that outstanding warranty, the prices on both new and used SCCY pistols seem to have dropped.  My own experience is simple – I have taken my magazines apart, and smoothed the rough edges.  They worked before, and I’m not certain they needed the smoothing – it’s something I learned at TSJC, and I do it more based on faith than science. 

  • Use Enough Gun

    I think it was Robert Ruark who coined that phrase. Most occasions where I needed to follow that advice, I’ve had a 22 – which the experts do not classify as enough gun. Whether it’s defense against bears, or against human predators, the experts generally start with a recommendation of using a caliber that starts with 4.

    There are few really good studies that provide data that gives a conclusive answer. Weingarten’s data (https://www.ammoland.com/2024/05/bear-defense-with-handguns-update-20-more-cases-98-effective/) includes “162 handgun-only incidents, not counting the three indeterminate cases. Over a dozen incidents are under investigation. Four failures out of the 161 incidents calculate to a 98% success rate. ” One of the failures was a 44 magnum, and another was a 22 pistol on a polar bear. While there were a lot of 44 magnums in Weingarten’s data set, the biggest takeaway I had from his numbers was that carrying a pistol is more important than the caliber.

    To me that makes sense – I know that a 357 didn’t seem adequate when two of us were less than10 feet from a large Grizzly – fortunately the bear felt the same about being outnumbered 2:1. And there’s always the Bella Twin story from 1953 – she not only took the year’s largest bear with a single shot 22, she used 22 long cartridges instead of 22 long rifle.

    Greg Ellifritz did his own data collection on handgun stopping power (https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/handgun-stopping-power-science-vs-40-years-of-experience ) He begins his article with a simple statement: “Most gunwriters are idiots.” He explains why, then shares a link to his own study (https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/an-alternate-look-at-handgun-stopping-power) That study begins with this graph:

    It’s no surprise to me that the 22 scores higher than the 25ACP – heck, 25 ACP is the only caliber he displays that I’ve never owned. Still, look at how close the 22 is to the 60% line – and realize only the 32 surpasses it. Still, Weingarten has a data set with less than 200 incidents, and Ellfritz’ data set is slightly over 1500 incidents covering ten different calibers. Both data sets suggest that the caliber is of less importance than just having the pistol. Ellefritz says “I also believe the data for the .25, .32 and .44 magnum should be viewed with suspicion. I simply don’t have enough data (in comparison to the other calibers) to draw an accurate comparison. I reported the data I have, but I really don’t believe that a .32 ACP incapacitates people at a higher rate than the .45 ACP!”

    I don’t have a recommended caliber for bears. As a kid, I took 10 black bears with either my single shot 22 or my 22 revolver. Never really knew that I wasn’t using enough gun – and bullet placement is a lot easier when you get in close. My most important rule about a gun in bear country is to have a gun. It’s amazing how much better a 22 has made me feel when the alternative was praying.

    I’m no longer young. I’d like to believe in bear spray – but it’s a new tool, and requires practice to develop the skills needed to use it effectively. I may be slowed down – I am slowed down. But the years have included a lot of practice with revolvers and Browning designed pistols.

  • Rules For A Gunfight – From Gerard Van der Leun

    One of the last emails I received from Gerard Van der Leun was the following “Rules For A Gunfight.” Gerard has passed from writing his American Digest – and I kind of miss his observations and humor. These bits of wisdom are reputed to come from Drill Instructor Joe Frick.

    American Digest: Conceived in Liberty

    RULES TO LIVE BY
    1. Forget about knives, bats, and fists. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. Bring four times the ammunition you think you could ever need.
    2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap – life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap – funerals are expensive.
    3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
    4. If your shooting stance is good, you’re probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
    5. Move away from your attacker and go to cover. Distance is your friend. (Bulletproof cover and diagonal or lateral movement are preferred.)
    6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a semi or full-automatic long gun and a friend with a long gun.
    7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
    8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running. Yell “Fire!” Why “Fire”? Cops will come with the Fire Department, sirens often scare off the bad guys, or at least cause them to lose concentration and will…. and who is going to summon help if you yell ”Intruder,” “Glock” or “Winchester?”
    9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on “pucker factor” than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
    10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
    11. Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
    12. Have a plan.
    13. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won’t work. “No battle plan ever survives 10 seconds past first contact with an enemy.”
    14. Use cover or concealment as much as possible, but remember, sheetrock walls and the like stop nothing but your pulse when bullets tear through them.
    15. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
    16. Don’t drop your guard.
    17. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees. Practice reloading one-handed and off-hand shooting. That’s how you live if hit in your “good” side.
    18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don’t (In God we trust. Everyone else keeps your hands where I can see them.)
    19. Decide NOW to always be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.
    20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
    21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet if necessary, because they may want to kill you.
    22. Be courteous to everyone, overly friendly to no one.
    23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
    24. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than ”4″.
    25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. “All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket.” At a practice session, throw your gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.
    26. Practice shooting in the dark, with someone shouting at you, when out of breath, etc.
    27. Regardless of whether justified or not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. It is better to be sad than to be room temperature.
    28. The only thing you EVER say afterward is, “He said he was going to kill me. I believed him. I’m sorry, Officer, but I’m very upset now. I can’t say anything more. Please speak with my attorney.”
    Finally, Drill Instructor Frick’s Rules For Un-armed Combat.
    1: Never be unarmed.
    Thank you for being a member. Please forward this to others that should be members. All writers need readers. I would like to have many more like you. – Gerard Van der Leun American Digest © 2022

  • My Cheap, Accurate Pistol

    I’m not much of a collector.  A collector has a theme to the collection.  John McBride’s collection included American Military firearms.  I’m not sure how a collector would describe my TT Olympia – it’s a Chinese copy of the Walther that beat out the Colt Woodsman at the 1936 Olympics.  Somehow mine isn’t marked with anything to say ‘made in China’ – but it is.  It’s also well finished, and, since my cataract surgery a few years ago, shoots well for me again.

    It’s an example of how things connect in the gun world.  I never found a Woodsman for sale at the right price when I wanted one – not that I couldn’t stretch a budget to include one, but that they’re more costly than I can justify for my purposes.  So is the Walther.  Instead, my Chinese knock-off was more accurate than pricey – so I kept it.  It came in cheap cardboard and styrofoam, like this: 

    The Chinese builders did a nice job – good trigger pull, and must be at least close to the pre-war German workmanship.  Admitted, the wood in the grips would never have made it into either Walther or Colt’s factory – the grips are downright ugly – but they do fit my hand well.  Bolting the weight on does control the minimal recoil of a 22 cartridge – and it’s set up to be used with one hand.  The right hand – it doesn’t fit the left.

    When Walther got too busy with World War II, Hammerli (in Switzerland) picked up the design and produced slightly improved versions.  As the Olympic competition got tougher, the basic design went to America and became the basis of the Smith and Wesson model 41.  And mine is the Chinese knock-off that directly copies the 1936 Walther.  As you can see, good looking grips didn’t seem to be a Chinese priority.  

    So what do I actually have?  A cheap, accurate, well built pistol that just barely made it into the United States before Clinton cut off importation.  Then it briefly sold well in Canada before the Trudeau government shut off sales.  I have no idea where it might be sold today, or where parts might be available.  The TT Olympia’s barrel is just under 5 inches long, it feeds just about any 22 shells I load, and, while sight acquisition is a little slow, is amazingly accurate.

    I’ve written about cheaply made poor quality guns.  This little pistol was cheap, well made, and accurate.  I’ll keep using it -though the barrel weight will stay in the drawer.  And I expect it will still be working fine when it goes to the next generation.

  • Information Control

    Information Control

    The problem with gun control is that in the end, it turns out to be information control – and that isn’t easy.  Japan has some downright strict controls on firearms – but this thing got next to the former prime minister:

    No lathe.  No Mill.  A couple of pipes, home-made black powder, batteries to ignite the powder.  Looks to me that the most high-tech component of the gun build was a large roll of electrician’s tape.

    People have been making black powder for most of a millennium.  Charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur.  Charcoal is easy to obtain.  Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) might take a while – but you could use the Confederate Jno. Harrison’s method and get it from your own urine.  Push come to shove, I could extract sulfur from sheetrock – from drywall.  The Japanese assassin opted for electrical ignition – so I could do that with 9 volt transistor radio batteries. 

    The problem with keeping guns banned is that they are fairly simple tools – not so simple as an inclined plane or a lever, but still simple.  A tube that is open at one end and closed at the end that includes an explosive or propellant charge.  Basically a piece of pipe with an end cap.

  • A Well-regulated militia

    A Well-regulated militia

    As I listen to the comments about the need to do something to keep another Uvalde from happening, I’m hearing the usual comments that the second amendment is more to authorize a militia than the individual right to bear arms. 

    That I disagree is not an adequate reason to ignore the argument – scientific method pretty much demands listening respectfully to folks who disagree.  Fortunately, the internet gives me access to historical research that was confined to university campuses a quarter-century ago.  There is the problem of avoiding confirmation bias, but I can cope with that.

    Hartnation goes through the importance of the militias during the American revolution.  Remembering my long ago American History classes, I think George Washington expected a militia unit to be able to stand and fire 3 rounds, but not stand when the Brits closed with bayonets.  Hart described how dependent the Continental Army was on the local militias:

    At the beginning of American independence an immense task faced the colonial revolutionary. The English army, the best-trained, best-equipped military in the world, had served in the Americas, enforcing the will of the crown for many decades. American victory rested in the ability of the colonists to put together a viable fighting army. We know from history that the American Continental Army, commanded by George Washington, defeated the superior British army and expelled the rule of the crown from the colonies by 1783.

    . . . How much did the colonial militia contribute to enable the Continental army to defeat the British? I would posit that the militia movement was the driving force behind the Continental Army’s victory over the British because they were the main source of manpower, because they were already trained and armed with a 150 year harden tradition of defense to protect their own communities, and because the militia was made up of mostly  farmers and landowners, they stood to gain the most from independence giving them something tangible to fight for other than “liberty”.”

    battlefields.org

    Militias also provided the Continental armies in the field much-needed manpower, albeit on a temporary basis. When British commanders planned for their campaigns against the Continental armies in the field, they had to take in account the size of the militia forces operating in those same geographic areas. The British knew the militia were unpredictable, but they could not totally neglect their presence either. In some instances, militia units were the deciding factors in important battles. The war’s first battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts were fought mostly by militia with some minutemen units. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, outside Boston, militia dealt a deadly blow to the British. Later in the war at battles such as Bennington, Vermont, King’s Mountain, Cowpens, both in South Carolina and Guilford Courthouse, in North Carolina, the militia was crucial to American victories.”

    Reviewing those historical comments, I get the feeling that the militia at the time of the American Revolution could have been described (as in the quote misattributed to Admiral Yamamoto) as a rifle (or at least a musket) behind every blade of grass.  The better regulated, the better drilled and prepared, the more essential to the security of a free state.

    The Supreme Court  (Miller case) ruled that the Second Amendment did not protect weapon types not having a “reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia”.  This kind of invalidates the arguments against “weapons of war.”  That 1939 decision protects them.