Archive for the ‘Hoplobibilophilia’ Category
Protected: Travel notes: Springfield, MO.
Thursday, September 17th, 2026Random crankery.
Saturday, August 29th, 2026First off, a matter of somewhat pecuniary interest, since I’d like to keep good relations with Jacob and the Widener’s blog folks.
Jacob was kind enough to send over a link to a recent post: “1986 VS 2026: Guns And Ammo Pricing“.
Jacob goes through and compares prices between 1986 and 2026, and does some historical and cultural analysis of the changes during that period (the rise of the Internet, regulatory factors, panic buying after certain events, etc.)
In 1986, a box of 9mm cost $22.50, or about $0.45 per round.
In 2026, it averages $10.00 per box, or $0.20 per round.
Even without adjusting for inflation, that’s a dramatic decrease. When adjusted for inflation, 9mm is significantly cheaper today than it was in the 1980s.
My main quibble with Jacob here is: that’s really the only place where he mentions “adjusted for inflation”. Though he does say:
Firearms: Moderately more expensive, but roughly in line with inflation
I would have liked to see more of a breakdown of this.
The two inflation calculators I use are: the US Inflation Calculator and the CPI Inflation Calculator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If we plug some of Jacob’s numbers into those calculators and compare 1986 to 2026 dollars:
- The $249 in 1986 Glock 17 would be $758.63 in 2026. A veritable bargain, since Jacob has it for $649!
- The $79 Ruger 10/22 would be $240.69 today. MSRP on the cheapest 10/22 I could find on Ruger’s site is $339, Jacob has it for $349 (which is also correct: Ruger has various models with various prices, of course.)
- The Colt AR-15 Carbine that was $499 would go for $1,520.30 adjusted for inflation today. I find it hard to do a direct comparison, because so much depends on configuration, but MidwayUSA lists a Colt AR15A4 for $1136.41. Another bargain! (Jacob has it for $1,099.)
- Your $5.49 .22 LR ammo would come out to $16.73 in 2026 dollars.
That’s probably enough examples. I’ll leave additional analysis as an exercise for the reader. I’ll note that both of the calculators I use gave exactly the same numbers for the 1986-2026 comparisons: I suspect they draw from the same source. Generally, $1 in 1986 is equal to $3.05 today, so you can use that as a factor when doing your math.
I like Jacob’s post. I just think it would be worthwhile to do a direct 1986-2026 dollar value comparison as part of the analysis. Jacob (or anyone else, for that matter) is welcome to flame me in comments if they think I’m wrong.
After the jump, a couple of books, mostly because I’m done with them and would like to move them from the downstairs stack to the upstairs shelves.
Shortish lazy gun book blogging.
Tuesday, July 28th, 2026First of all, I recommend you go over to the Revolver Guy blog and read Darren S.’s article, “The RevolverGuy’s Reading List“.
I think this is a pretty swell list. And yes, there were a few on there that I was not previously familiar with.
Changing gears a bit…I’ve found out some interesting information about this old Smith and Wesson. I have not received the actual history letter yet, and I want to wait on that before I post. I’ll update when I do get the history letter, and I’m hoping that my saying “I have not received the actual history letter yet” will cause the history letter to show up before the weekend. Because the fundamental perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum, as we like to say around here.
Changing gears a bit again…Jacob at the Widener’s Shooting, Hunting & Gun Blog sent me a nice email about their recent blog post: “Armor Piercing Rounds: 308 Winchester?” I swear that I had already seen this post and that it was linked somewhere else (maybe McThag linked to it?) but AP ammo is something I’m interested in, the email from Widener’s was flattering, and I might want to take Jacob up on his offer (“If you ever need a caliber or two sent your way, let me know.”) one of these days.
There’s also a YouTube video with Chad Finchum, who’s a NASCAR driver. I don’t follow NASCAR as much as I did when I was younger, but I do sort of keep an eye on it. Haven’t watched the video yet, but I’ll embed it anyway.
Changing gears a bit again (I feel like I’m driving an 18-wheeler. On the downhill side. Of Wolf Creek Pass.)…I’m not sure if this actually qualifies as “lazy”, but I did want to get this in. The moderately lazy part is that it ties back to a book I’ve previously written about, so I can cover it in a shorter post.
Obit watch: June 25, 2026.
Thursday, June 25th, 2026Dr. Roy G. Jinks passed away last night. I’m sorry that I don’t have anything to link to at the moment.
Dr. Jinks was a driving force in Smith and Wesson collecting. Arguably, he was the driving force. He was one of the founders of the Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association. He was a long time S&W employee, working in multiple positions within the company (including as their official historian for quite a while). He did more to preserve S&W history than any other person. And he wrote the definitive (though about 1980) history of S&W.
This is a great loss. I will perhaps have more to say about this in the coming days. I will say that we were (sort of) friends, in the sense that he could probably have picked me out of a police lineup, and we talked pretty regularly at the Symposiums.
Shirley Lord, writer.
Excuse me. That’s “bosomy dirty book writer Shirley Lord“, as the late lamented (by me, anyway) “SPY Magazine” used to refer to her.
Lawrence gave me copies of a couple of her books one year. I have to say, “steamy” is a pretty accurate description of those books. I also would accept “kinky”.
Not gun book blogging, for once.
Monday, June 22nd, 2026I’ve been tied up with various things and haven’t been able to book blog as much as I would like. Plus blogging with Bluehost is a constant struggle, and I really need to get on the stick about moving this blog.
But I had a three day weekend, and I had a little time, so I thought I’d blog some things from the backlog. It took a little longer than I expected, for the usual reasons.
This time, though, I’m not doing gun books. Oh, I have plenty of those to blog. But I wanted to do something different. So these are not “gun” books in the sense I would use. A couple of these are peripherally “gun” books, and a couple are completely not “gun” books.
So: weird Australian mammals, a cookbook, a history book, and Roy Chapman Andrews after the jump…
Relatively quick gun book blog.
Thursday, April 23rd, 2026While Mike the Musicologist and I were on our way to the hotel for NRAAM, we stopped by Collectors Firearms in Houston.
Collectors has a section of books for sale. Books aren’t a big part of their business, but they have some. And the section had a “20% off” on everything sign.
This was on the shelf.
The Custom Revolver. Bowen, Hamilton S. Bowen Classic Arms Corporation, Louisville, 2001.
I have a copy of this, and have read it, but in a Kindle edition. The original hardcover is long out of print.
I think this is a wonderful book. Mr. Bowen starts out with a detailed analysis of the famous Keith #5 and goes forward from there, covering things like “Basic mechanical detailing”, “Cylinders & Cylinder Conversions”, finishing, grips, and pretty much every aspect that goes into building a custom revolver, based on his extensive experience building custom revolvers at Bowen Classic Arms.
(Fact that I think is fun, and I’m probably the only one: Mr. Bowen mentions at one point that you can take a spare .22 LR cylinder from a S&W Model 53 Jet, and bore it out to .218 Bee.)
After reading Mr. Bowen’s book, I wanted to send a gun off to BCA for work. But I needed both a gun that was worth it, and the money to do it. Those things came together in mid-June of last year, and I emailed BCA to get the process started…
…only to be informed, politely, that Mr. Bowen retired effective June 1st, and they were no longer accepting custom work.
They were very kind about it. I even got a personal email from Mr. Bowen himself, thanking me and stating that he plans to work on some book projects, including an updated edition of The Custom Revolver. (BCA is still in business, but just sells parts.)
I’d call this “almost fine”. There’s one tiny little white spot on the top front cover, but you have to squint to see it. Other than those, the book is in fine shape.
Collectors had a $65 price tag on this. I confirmed with them that this was correct, and that the 20% off discount applied. So I got this for $52, plus tax.
The cheapest copy currently on ABEBooks is $274.95 in “good” condition, and it goes up from there.
I’m telling you, books in gun shops, especially gun shops that have been around for a while, are your best bet for the gun book collector.
NRA annual meeting: more collected thoughts.
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026I added both an “NRA” category (for general NRA things) and a subsidiary “NRAAM” tag for annual meeting coverage. This should make things easier next time I want to print off my NRAAM coverage for a press pass (though they never ask to see that). But that won’t be for a while: the next two annual meetings are in Atlanta and Orlando.
FotB Andrew sent over a link to the HouChron‘s coverage of the meeting (archived).
Oddly, I never made it back to the press room after I picked up my credentials. The last time I went with credentials, the snack and drink offerings in the room were mingey, and I intended to see if they were better this year.
The quality of the tchotchkes seemed off this year. Mostly pens, pins, stickers, and morale patches. And paper. So much paper. Oddly, also, a lot of lip balm. Hogue was giving away those really nice gun mats again, in two different sizes, which I would say was the best giveaway of the show. Buy stuff from Hogue. Second best: lens pens from Holosun. Buy stuff from Holosun. Also, I really like the foam earplugs Aguila hands out: they are cheap and disposable, but they’re also compact enough to slip in a go bag, just in case I get a chance to shoot and didn’t bring my full range bag.
I did buy the Hi-Lux scout scope (previously). I got it at a slight discount as a show special. Rings are on order. (Ruger‘s customer service was incredibly nice and helpful when I called them to ask what rings I needed.)
Note: for most vendors, it is this blog’s policy that we will pay full retail for products, or a “special show price” that’s generally available to everyone at the show. I won’t accept free merchandise from most vendors. Though if SIG wants to send me that .22 Creedmor for review, or Glock wants to send me a gun, or CZ wants me to review those Spitfire inspired CZ 75s, I won’t turn them down.
One of the things that I don’t think gets enough appreciation at NRAAM is the collector’s organizations, which are grouped together (towards the back of the show) in what we like to call the “collector’s ghetto”. These groups put together excellent displays that take a lot of time and effort: if you ever go to an annual meeting, you should make a point of visiting this section. We had a great time hanging out with my friends in the Association, who were also gracious about offering us water and seats when we needed them. I also belong to the Winchester Arms Collectors Association, and they had a nice (but smaller) display. Both of the Ruger collectors associations were there as well, but I didn’t see the Remington collectors.
Wilson Combat wasn’t there, which disappointed me. I’d been holding out until the meeting to buy a copy of Mr. Wilson’s new book. Now I guess I have to mail order it.
One thing that I thought was incredibly neat was the leather gun racks from South Texas Slings. Here’s how it works: you have two leather straps. At the top of each one is a clip that goes on to the support post for your car’s headrest. At the bottom is a metal clip, kind of like a belt clip but a little larger, that clips on to your seat back pocket. (The clip position is adjustable.) You put one strap on each seat (front or rear).
The straps have two adjustable leather loops. Once you’ve got them attached to the seats, you can just slide your long gun in and adjust the loops to fit. Viola! It’s like a pickup truck gun rack, except made out of leather and for your family sedan, and doesn’t obstruct your rear window!
I find this a very clever idea: I missed out on the show special, but I just ordered a set of these for the Honda. (I don’t plan to keep guns in the car, but I do want a better solution for taking long guns to the range.)
One of our party also greatly admired the work of Modern Rugged Leather, and I concur: they make some nice looking gear.
We were walking around and went past the 4D Reamer Rentals booth. Now, I do not need a chamber reamer at all: I would leave this to a professional gunsmith. But a flyer on the table headlined “Ackely Headspace” caught my eye. Turns out, one of the principals of 4D Reamer Rental is the guy who wrote the book on P.O. Ackley (which I’ve read and recommend). So we had a good conversation.
I do think we saw the Bear’s Leg at the Henry booth, but I wasn’t paying much attention. As someone who is into the .45-70, this really does not fill a need for me. But I can absolutely see a backpacker in bear country carrying this, and I would gladly try one if someone offered.
We had very good meals at Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland, and Goode Company Seafood. We had a spectacularly good meal at the Rainbow Lodge. (I’d been to both Goode Seafood and Rainbow Lodge before.) Our other meal was really just snacks and appetizers at the GOA mixer (previously mentioned in this space), because none of us was really hungry. Breakfast was at the hotel (the Wyndham Downtown) and was good but a little pricey.
The nice thing about the hotel was that it was literally across the street from a church. Since the exhibit hall closed at 5 on Sunday (and we left a little before that, having seen everything) I was able to hit the 5:30 PM Mass (or, as a friend of mine calls it, “the desperado’s mass”, because that’s your last chance for the day).
It really is a beautiful church.
I think this pretty much covers everything I wanted to hit from NRAAM. If I think of anything else, I’ll post an update. And I owe everyone a gun book post (actually, more than one), coming soon.
Going fishing.
Saturday, February 7th, 2026I started the post months ago, but couldn’t do anything with it before now because of image uploading issues and Bluehost’s refusal to assist with those.
Bluehost upgraded my WordPress instance for this blog a few days ago, and image uploading seems to be working slightly better, so I think I can post this now and see what happens.
My intent when I started this was to dangle some stinky old bait in the water to see if a specific person took the bait.
Jump goes here.
Note to consumers.
Friday, August 22nd, 2025Wet Dog Publications is having a sale.
You may remember Wet Dog as the publisher of FN Browning Pistols – Sidearms that Shaped World History, which I have written about previously.
The sale is:
- 10% discount on all new Wet Dog books.
- 10% discount on all used books (which are under “Collectables” on their web site).
- And they have a sale on “consignment accessories”.
The more you buy, the more you save:
-10% Discount on one accessory item (excludes books)
-15% Discount on two accessory items (excludes books)
– Spend $750 or more on accessories and get 20% Discount (excludes books)
– Spend $1500 or more on accessories and get 25% Discount (excludes books)
I know at least one person who might be interested in their book on the VIS Radom pistol. I personally ordered a copy of their book on the Browning Auto-5 for myself.
The sale runs through August 30th. I have no connection to Wet Dog except as a highly satisfied customer.
Use code SUMMER2025 at checkout for new books or email us directly for used books and accessories.
Used books and accessories are sold on a first come, first serve bases.
Springtime!
Thursday, May 29th, 2025And I’d like to talk about Spring…fields. Or at least books about Springfields. Plus some sniping content after the jump…
The Unintended Consequences of a Silly Person With Money. (Random gun and gun book crankery.)
Thursday, May 22nd, 202534. If you’re leaving scorch-marks, you need a bigger gun.
–“The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries“, Schlock Mercenary
Sometimes you buy the book, then you buy the gun.
Sometimes you buy the gun, then you buy the book.
Some days you get the bear, other days the bear gets you.
===
When the Smith and Wesson .500 Magnum came out, I didn’t care much for it. I still don’t like pretty much all of the production guns.
What’s not to like about one of the most powerful handguns in existence?
Well, for one thing, the factory guns are shiny. Awful shiny to me.
Secondly, I don’t care much for the barrel options. FotB Andrew is interested in the .500 Magnum, so I’ve taken a look at a few. There’s one with a 10 1/2″ barrel that we got a chance to handle at Collector’s Firearms in Austin. I’m sure that’s great for some people. For me, if i wanted a crew-served weapon, I’d buy a vintage French 75.
There’s an 8 3/8″ version that still seems awkward to me (and we haven’t found one anywhere recently). There’s a 7 1/2″ Performance Center version that seems perhaps less awkward than the 10 1/2″. (Since this is a Performance Center gun, we’d probably have to special order it: I don’t think anybody is going to have one in stock.) There’s a 4″ version that seems too short to me. And there’s a 3 1/2″ version that’s probably great for self-defense: if you don’t hit the bad guy, the muzzle blast will deafen him, and the fireball will set him on fire.
(Smith and Wesson at one point made an “Emergency Revolver Survival Kit” and a bear emergency kit, both containing a .500 Magnum with a 2 3/4″ barrel. I sort of vaguely wanted one of those, just because it seemed so ridiculous. Also, I like the fact that the bear one includes a book on “bear attacks”.)
(And, on a side note, why aren’t there more .500 Magnum lever guns? The few I have seen are from high-end custom or semi-custom gun makers. I haven’t seen any that I’d consider “mass produced”. I have heard rumors that S&W is looking at a .500 Magnum chambering for their 1854 lever gun, sometime in the not too distant future (but not next Sunday, A.D.).)
There is, however, one Smith and Wesson .500 Magnum that I do like. But I didn’t know about it until I read Timothy J. Mullin’s Serious Smith & Wessons The N- and X-Frame Revolvers: The S&W Phenomenon.
And speaking of Rugers…
Saturday, March 22nd, 2025…some quick random book geekery. “Quick” because I bought two copies of the same book, for reasons.
Obit watch: March 17, 2025.
Monday, March 17th, 2025Guns magazine and American Handgunner are reporting the passing of John Taffin last week. Podcast.
I was fortunate enough to meet him in 2012, shake his hand, and say “thank you”. And I’ve written about some of his books, too.
I’m hoping at some point this week (or by next Sunday) I can get a special gun crankery post up in memory of the late Mr. Taffin. He struck me as a swell guy, and he knew his Smith and Wessons.
Gene Winfield, custom car builder. He did a considerable amount of work in Hollywood.
(Also “Bewitched”.)
He also designed cars for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, “Get Smart”, “Sleeper”, and “Blade Runner”. And he designed the famous shuttle craft from a minor 1960s SF TV series.
All gun books, all the time!
Friday, March 7th, 2025This time on “What’s Been Added to my Library of Gun Books” recently, a special all gun books edition! No diversions into subjects such as absinthe or old bibles. Just some new and new old gun books. But I am going to include a gun crankery photo.
Since this is going to be gun book heavy, I’m following my usual policy of inserting a jump so the non-book, non-gun, and non-book non-gun people can skip easily to the next post…
Of making many books there is no end…
Thursday, February 27th, 2025It has been a difficult week. I thought it might cheer me up some to catalog more gun books for the library. As the saying goes, “I’ve suffered for my art. Now it’s your turn.”
This time, though, I have one that’s only sort of tangentially a gun book, and one that’s not a gun book at all. I’ll get into the reason for that one later.