Firearms Law - Change is Coming:

This morning Sunday - Radio New Zealand National "Insight" broadcast a thirty minute 'debate' on "Gun Control".

Frankly there wasn't much new in the presentation - just the latest opinions from the usual collection of 'experts'. They presented the voices of the Police Association, Senior Police officers, a Gun Dealer, a Collector, a spokesman from COLFO etc. etc.

Same Old - same old ...  Claims that thousands of illegal gun imports are increasing criminal gun use were countered by the police official statistics of reducing gun crime at a very low level in overall crime figures.

Opinion voiced that EVERY GUN SHOULD BE REGISTERED ..

One clown voiced concern at how easy it was to convert an 'A-Cat.' rifle into a 'MSSA' !

To This?

- Really?

Ah well - the end result is more calls for a "REVIEW" and counter claim that They would be better to spend that review money on better policing of existing regulations.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the outcome will in due course involve more restrictive rules and more expense for firearms users.

Fifty four dollars will buy you membership of SSANZ and a years subscription to New Zealands best shooting magazine 'NZ Guns & Hunting' in one deal .. CHEAP

Marty K.

The Custom Revolver (Hamilton S Bowen, Ross Seyfreid)

This e-book was only published in 2012 - but the original dead tree version was dated 2001.

(I see Amazon are asking US$300 for a used copy!)

It's a bloody good read - informative and entertaining from a guy who qualifies as a well known custom revolver craftsman. The Kindle version cost me only $7.67 and is worth every cent - as I expect to read it again very soon. Like a favourite dinner from the menu - it will be savoured whenever I fancy.

The Custom Revolver contains some sharply humorous comments and asides - together with much stuff that I didn't know about revolvers, ammunition - and gun making craftsmanship.

Hamilton S Bowen must be a talented guy to work as a gun maker, successful business director - and still find the time to set down and write such a good read.

- His guns make me wish I had a lot more money to spend eh.

Just Look At This Custom Vaquero Barrel.

 

Good stuff .. now some borrowed video

- Bowen Perfected Bearcat.

 - Just The Holster Rig For You eh Cutters

 

Marty K.

Hurunui Avian Wildlife:

Just before midday today (Thursday) I went to the door intending to fetch in some firewood and what did I spy in the front yard but ..

 This Cute Plump Couple Having a Seed Feed - California Quale.

 

 

- So having done my best to get these pictures through the window glass - I was returning the camera when I spotted in the back yard ..

 Mrs? Pheasant on my veggie garden.

I  think that it may be all the 'wild greens' and weed seed that's attracting them to my section - I was a bit crook in the last couple of years and it's got away from me a bit eh.

 

- It may be either a Common or a Golden Pheasant - hard to tell on a very dull morning - but I certainly considered fetching my quiet .22 rifle - but that would have entailed disturbing the bird to go get the "Shiny-thing" from its 'lock-up'.  - And anyway - is there a restricted season around here?

 

 

- I've just recently read a review of Benjamins Trail NP2 gas piston .22" calibre air rifle in NZ Guns & Hunting .. now if I had bought one for NZ$500 it should have been ideal eh - apart from the cost..

 

 

Marty K.

 

AR15s Infest Pistol Club Range:

This weekend nearly all the range shooting bays seemed to have some version of an AR15 'Black Rifle' lurking ready to shoot.

This one boasts a double optic set-up and silencer - and comes with the warning not to shoot at steel plates!

Nice.

 

- The second one spotted was just about all light weight plastic and being freshly purchased was being sighted-in:

- A "real" leggo toy - with another 'Silencer'.

 

Interesting action this one - being a light-weight carbon fibre filled ' Receiver':

 

 

 

Windham Weaponry say that they aim to produce the finest AR15s - they certainly seem to have built a very light version using injection moulded carbon-fibre polymers to make the receiver parts. - It is definitely lightweight and handy. 'Cutters' says he has a bad back and reckons that this carbon-lite is much easier to handle than his chunky Russian Saiga AK.

 

'CARBON' Video Review:

 

 

- A third AR that crept into sight proved to be a 'Bushmaster' lower that is being homebuilt as a registered & restricted 'E Cat' by JBTFL.

 

 

Keeping out of sight was my own AR? Just Right Carbine in 9x19mm (full over-barrel silencer):

 

- There are another couple of ARs not shown but hiding around.

 

This is a pistol club eh ..  but we pistoleros do mostly seem to have good taste for wide ranging technology and ballistics.

 

The use of 'silencers' in the confined shooting 'tin shed' with hard ply dividing partitions definitely has the welcome effect of moderating the shockwaves / blast from the .223" muzzles. - 'Naked' rifles can bounce a percussive pressure wave into nearby shooters bays and really disturb a quiet day :-0

 

Marty K.

Polishing My Nipples (Ruger Old Army):

The nipples (cones) on my fixed sight Old Army 'cap'n'ball' were hard to cap (as bought used) - so I unscrewed them ,- chucked them up in my drill press and gently filed them to shape using a small 'Swiss file'.

- Actually this was complicated by my needing to buy a 3/16" A.F. socket to fit the Ruger brand of nipple - and that was complicated further again by also needing to buy a socket driver with a 1/4" drive .. these were not cheap either!

- I also had to grind the end face of the socket to reduce the lead-in and give as much grip on the hex-nuts as possible.

All up - it proved to be not as simple to do as it was simple to plan-to-do eh.

- Anyway job done and each nipple was "gauged" using #11 caps - and they worked perfectly on range yesterday. Proof-of-the-pudding was that I managed to hit the 6" steel plate at 25 metres two out of three 'off-hand' with cast balls (Give-up while you're ahead eh)

"Labour Weekend Holiday" here and the weather did the decent thing with sunshine but a blustery 'Norwester' wind.

We are meant to get our veggie gardens all planted over the 3-Day w/e and I'm well up with that task.

Life is Good: - by-the-by - something that makes it good is the way the 'old fashioned' fixed sight ROA looks .. I do know why the adjustable sights are needed for accurate shooting at distance - but that smooth rounded top surface such as on this gun and Vaqueros is so very graceful, ergonomic, and evocative of the 'Wild West' and Frontier history:

Eh.

Marty K.

ON THE FIRING LINE NZ Police Assoc Conference Today:

I missed last nights TV3 story about a .22" rifle being illegally bought - by a woman reporter - using a false Firearms Licence and an unsigned 'Mail Order Purchase Form'

 .. However you should be aware that today the NZ Police Assoc. are starting their three day Conference titled ' ON THE FIRING LINE' - and according to a radio interview on 'Nine to Noon'  with Professor Alexander Gillespie - this assembly of police officers will be looking at our current New Zealand firearms legislation and their concerns as they see it ..

CURRENTLY:

96% of guns here are not registered.

Estimated 1M to 1.5M guns currently in NZ

230,000 current Firearms Licence Holders

All guns used to be registered up till 1982 - and computers now may make it practical to again require registration of all firearms.

Concern about 'on-line' gun sales.

Estimated 100,000 firearms are not in the possession of their licenced owners.

Registration and 'Buybacks'.

Customs estimate that there are 2,000 attempts every year to illegally import firearms into NZ. (That probably includes my impounded $9 after-market lightened trigger spring eh!).


IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY A MEMBER OF SSANZ - PLEASE SIGN-UP.

Marty K

Ruger Ammunition:

The latest e-mail from 'Ruger Newsroom' details new "Ruger" ammunition that is manufactured by Polycase. 

They are offering the normal full range of  pistol calibres in this branded ammunition that uses injection moulded bullets that are their own blend of metal powder filled polymer.

- While Polycase also manufacture plastic cartridge cases - it seems that the 'Ruger' range of rounds are using conventional brass cases to market these moulded 'defensive' light weight - high velocity loads.

As noted previously - I consider that injection moulding technology should mean LOW COST product and not highly priced ammunition that is marketed as being something specially effective.

It must surely be only a matter of time before another brand of ammunition takes-up this low cost bulk production technique to market an equally effective "economy line".

Marty K.

Colourful plastic cartridge cases & brass on right.

Australian Gun Rights Problems:

- A few days back on 27 Sept. I wrote a bit about the problem being caused in Australia by a "new" lever-action shotgun  being banned despite being 'legal'..

Well, I recently watched Hickok45 "shooting the breeze #5" and that led me on to a chat video between  Australian Steve Lee (who sings Hickok45s intro music) and Hickok45 - and another guy.

Steve Lee tells how their police are using "clever/creative" interpretations of the wording in the laws to remove shooters licences.

Go to via Google :  GCR #46 Hickok45 and Steve Lee. (GCR = The Gun Culture Radio)

OR click and watch below:

You need to watch this:

This 'podcast' is 1.35 hour long .. but anyone concerned about their shooting rights here in New Zealand or anywhere else - NEEDS to watch this interview.

- Seriously .. get a coffee and pin your ears back.

Marty K.

Bore Grease = Burst Barrel?:

Answer to a 'sticky' problem:

When shooting any Black Powder revolver - the best "tool" I've found for greasing the chambers after loading (and before capping them of course) are used wooden ice-block sticks. (They are probably made in China eh)

- Trouble is that eating all that moorish chocolate dipped ice-cream (to get the sticks) may make you fat ..

No - You can't buy a paper weight with cartridges displayed like that one - but you might make one similar yourself using "craft" acrylic resin - cast into a food container as I did years ago.. Come to think of it - you could probably sell them on-line for a profit.

Now to the Question: - I have read several times - Warnings not to shoot any gun with oil or grease left in the bore after cleaning - as it may well cause dangerous damage to the barrel. - Always run a clean dry patch through the bore to remove any oil or other obstruction (like a wasp nest etc.) from a gun that has been stored.

- How come then - when shooting a percussion revolver we plug the chambers in front of the bullet or ball with grease, tallow, bees-wax or dripping from the Sunday Roast - and that doesn't cause the same issues of bore damage ?

'Lubed' - Only Five Chambers Loaded.

- All answers written on small bottles of malt whiskey will be acknowledged .. Please

Marty K.    .. Hi Marty

 

The reason that the greased bullets are safe to use is that the grease and bullet travels together, accelerating and lubricating as they go.

  Oil in the bore is seldom of a uniform thickness, and can also settle in thicker areas if the barrel has stood for a while.  The bullet then hits this oil (remembering that you cannot compress a liquid) and forces it into a ring which the bullet passes through, causing a bulged or split barrel.
  In a high powered rifle where pressures are in the 60,000 PSI area, and the oil is in the bore in front of the chamber, then the burst can be catastrophic, often destroying the fore-end and sometimes causing the breech to burst.

 Oil in the chamber, particularly with tapered cartridges also increases rearward thrust on the breech as the case cannot grip the chamber walls.

 

Cheers

Rod  

Guns Easy to Get Claim:

The latest edition of the Police Association magazine 'Police News' has a claim by President Greg O'Connor that "it has become ridiculously easy for .. criminals to get firearms".

A "pistol" used in a recent Auckland incident.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush has responded that he was " Open to discussion" on the issue but that the incidence was "very low" - at less than half a percent of crime figures over the last five years.

Radio New Zealand National Radio discussed the story on "The Panel" this afternoon with an 'expert' - but they were inconclusive as to whether there was an issue currently or was it just that journalists like the panel members were just "ramping-up figures"

- What I observe about this "claim & counter-claim" session is that there is no agreement about 'fact' and that the most opinionated comments seem to come from folk who know next to nothing about shooting, guns, or crime.  This of course doesn't seem to limit the 'uninformed' enjoying themselves by blaming "guns" for everything that goes wrong in the world up to and including global warming!

You can read the New Zealand Herald report by Anna Leask dated 5th October on line.

The comment that "any publicity is good publicity" definitely does not apply to shooting stories.

____________

Meanwhile - here's a few figures:

 63% of those surveyed in USA think that having a gun in the home makes them safer.

- And nearly 11m guns were made in USA in 2013 - plus there were 5m legal imports according to the BATFE. (Total new guns for the year 16 Million)  - Population of USA is 320 million.

A 2011 Small Arms Survey there says that there are 89 guns for every 100 US residents.

(Switzerland has 46 guns per 100 head of population).

Marty K.