I haven’t done one of these in a bit, and need to get back to it. And since it looks like the baseball season begins this week, I’m going to take the opportunity to throw a metaphorical change-up pitch with a train related book.
I would love to be able to document a book about guns on trains, but I don’t have a copy of Gerald Bull’s book. Yet.
After the jump…
A short one for you. My book buddy in the Association sent me scans from a 1928 Smith and Wesson catalog, along with a scan of a letter from the great Walter Roper. This was a very nice Christmas present, and one I can’t thank him enough for.
You will find each of our arms fully described in the catalog we are enclosing but we want you to ask any questions you may wish about either guns or ammunition, as it will be a real pleasure to help you select a revolver.
The past was another country.
I don’t want to reproduce the whole thing, as I’m not sure about the copyright status and I don’t want to make my book buddy mad. However, I thought people might find this one page interesting, and I think it qualifies as fair use. Keep in mind, this is 1928 data.
How do you feel about gunstocks?
Not gun stocks, but gunstocks. The kind made out of wood, back in the day before synthetics became common.
After the jump, some more Samworths for those of you who still like wood.
This is going to be a shorter than usual gun crankery post, since it touches on a lot of things I’ve written about before.
For example, I’ve written a lot about .45 ACP revolvers with moon clips. As I noted in that post, the first one I shot was a S&W 625 JM at the late Smith and Wesson Shooting Sports Center.
I’ve also written a lot about Jerry Miculek. You remember Jerry Miculek, don’t you?
He used a 625 to set the 12 shots with a reload in 2.99 seconds record. I don’t think it was a 625-8 JM, as I believe that was introduced after he set the record. (The Standard Catalog says the 625-8 was introduced in 2001, as an engineering change that added the lock. It also says the 625 JM was introduced at SHOT in 2005.) But it was a 625, it was almost certainly modified by the Performance Center to his specifications, and he almost certainly had input into the design of the 625-8 JM.
Even though it is a stainless steel revolver, the sort-of dull (I think “bead blasted”) finish isn’t obnoxious to me. So when one of these showed up used at my official arms dealer…
Rockin’ the signed JM hat there.
Unfortunately, it does have the internal lock (or as some call it, “the Hillary hole”).
I didn’t get keys for the lock. (I did get moon clips, and a moon clip tool.) It came unlocked, and I’m not sure I’m ever going to use the lock. But here’s a fun fact for you. Do you know where you can get keys for the internal lock on a S&W revolver? Amazon, that’s where.
I think that “gold bead” (which is probably not an actual “gold bead”, but I can’t think of a better description) sight is very nice. I’d love to take this out and shoot a bowling pin match or something similar with this one. This also wouldn’t be a bad barbecue gun, with a nice holster and maybe some tasteful engraving.
Here is another interesting fact: Smith and Wesson claims to offer Performance Center gunsmithing services. The “Outdoor Package Large Frame – N” looks particularly interesting. I’ve measured the trigger pull on this one, and it comes in right at 11 pounds. That’s probably not out of line, but I wouldn’t mind shaving some off of that. As long as it goes “bang” when I pull the trigger.
Sometime after Christmas, I plan to give them a call and see what the backlog for those services is. I know I’m not the only person wondering, and I also get the feeling that S&W (like everyone else) is being pinched by the gunsmith shortage.
Review of the 625 JM from The Firearm Blog.
Coming up: two more followup teaser posts, plus another post about a gun I’ve written about previously. I’m hoping to get at least one of those up before Christmas.
I’ve been neglecting gun books and guns for a minute now. It just seems like every time I sit down to try and work on one of my gun related projects, either I just can’t build up the motivation, or I end up getting involved in someone else’s bolshie bushwa.
The early part of next week I’m going on the road. I’m hoping that when I get back, the bushwa should have tapered off, plus the holidays will be approaching, plus my morale will have improved, and I can work on gun books and guns. In the meantime, some quick previews with captions that the educated reader could take as “hints”.
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Three of an imperfect pair.
There is no God but John Moses Browning, and Cooper is his prophet.
I’m kind of hoping that I can get another gun book post up, and maybe even a post about one of these guns, before I leave next week. I’ve already kind of written about one of the pictured guns before, so my post about that one will probably be short (and refer back to older posts) but educational.
We will see how things go.
The Elvis gun went for $199,750. I don’t know if that’s inclusive of the bidder’s premium. (Previously.)
I wrote a while back about the criminal charges against Thomas Moyer, Apple’s security head and the somewhat related (I think) case against former Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.
I missed, however, that the case against Moyer was dismissed in 2021.
But: a California appellate court reinstated the charges last week.
Appellate decision here. Interesting quote:
During the relevant time frame, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office rarely issued CCW licenses. Indeed, the office’s practice was to not even process an application for a CCW license absent a special instruction to do so. Only Sheriff Laurie Smith and a small number of others in the Sheriff’s Office had the authority to give such instructions. One of those individuals was Rick Sung, who appears to have run Sheriff Smith’s 2018 re-election campaign and after the election became the undersheriff, second in command to the sheriff. Undersheriff Sung also had authority to place license applications on hold even after licenses were signed by the sheriff.
I wanted to quickly bookmark this article from the American Handgunner website, even though it is basically an advertisement for an upcoming Rock Island Auctions event.
It provides a useful introduction to a couple of this blog’s ongoing obsessions:
First, a preview of something that I hope to post very soon.
You may remember a while back – April of 2022, as a matter of fact – I said I was special ordering a gun from my local gun shop for Buy a Gun Day.
It came in…on August 3rd. Yes, this year. I actually waited longer for this than Someone Who Isn’t Me expects to wait for their Form 4 item. (Don’t ask. I will not be taking questions at this time.) Not that I blame my local gun shop for this. As I understand it, there are reasons for the delay related to the manufacturer. All will be revealed soon, I hope.
In the meantime, let no man say that I am not PC.
After the jump, some more gun books for my loyal reader…
One of the guns that is currently high on my want list is a Smith and Wesson Model 53.
The Model 53 is a weird gun. It was designed and chambered to shoot the .22 Jet cartridge, which is a .357 Magnum necked down to take a .222 bullet. This was a relic of the time when people were experimenting with odd .22 caliber wildcat cartridges in revolvers.
I’ll probably write some more about the Jet when I get mine, but for now I’ll just say the .22 Jet and the Model 53 were not a complete success. Fortunately, the Model 53 can also bet set up to fire .22 LR: either by swapping out the .22 Jet cylinder for a .22 LR cylinder (it was fairly common for the guns to ship with both) or by using special inserts in the .22 Jet cylinder.
The 53 shipped with 4″, 6″, and 8 3/8″ barrels. I’m pretty set on getting one with a 8 3/8″ barrel, as that seems ideal for varmint hunting.
I’ve actually just found a really nice Model 53 with an 8 3/8″ barrel and both .22 LR and .22 Jet cylinders…that I won’t be buying.
Why?
Three reasons:
1) The estimated auction price is between $60,000 and $90,000.
2) It is really really really nice. Too nice to shoot.
3) (related to #2 above): it was Elvis’s gun.
“Elvis’ Guns: The Bicentennial Smith & Wesson” from Rock Island Auction.
RIA lot number 1504: Elvis Presley’s Exhibition Quality S&W Model 53 Revolver.
I saw this gun, up close and personal like, at the 2022 S&WCA Collector’s Association Symposium. it is a beautiful gun, and if any of my readers have a spare $90,000 I encourage you to submit a bid. Better photos than I can take are in the RIA listing.
Finally. The position of the sun, the condition of the back porch, and all the other things going on in my life lined up, and I can bring you the senses shattering part two of “Day of the .45”.
The same day I picked up my CMP 1911, I also took a second gun off layaway. It was also chambered in .45 ACP, and also has a military background. It had been sitting in layaway purgatory for a few months, and I didn’t take out before then because holidays.
But once the holidays passed, I was free to buy things, and had the last tranche of funds available to take it home. After the jump, more history. And some pictures…
So where was I last week?
Glendale, Arizona, for the annual Smith and Wesson Collectors Association Symposium.
This ordinarily would have been a flying situation, but when Mike the Musicologist heard where the Symposium was, he offered to drive. He’s not a S&WCA member, but he is a gun guy, and I bought him a guest pass so he could look around. Plus he wanted to see Taliesin West, which he has been hosed out of seeing in the past. Plus driving allowed us to take guns more easily than flying.
MtM did see Taliesin West (finally) but they don’t offer guided tours during the summer. Which is odd to me, because I took a guided tour when the S&WCA Convention (it wasn’t a symposium back then) was in Tuscon in the summer of 2010. (I had a rental car and drove from Tuscon to Scottsdale on one of the off days.) MtM did get to take the audio tour, and had a good time as far as I can tell.
I can’t talk a lot about what goes on at the Symposium, since it is a private meeting. I don’t feel like I’m giving too much away by saying Smith and Wesson actually sent a factory rep (for the second year in a row!) to talk with us and hang out at the convention. The gentleman in question even sat at our table during the Saturday night banquet that closed the show, and both MtM and I were able to chat him up about some…things, which I will keep secret but expect to be announced soon.
(Full disclosure: I own some stock in Smith and Wesson Brands, the holding company for the gun business, and American Outdoor Brands, the holding company for the non-gun business.)
The Symposiums are always like old home week to me. I get to meet up with friends that I only see once a year, though some of those folks were missing this year for various reasons. I get to talk shop with my people. And I get to relax for a few days, or in this case an entire week.
The question people always ask me: “Did you buy any guns?” The short answer: no, just paper and trinkets. The long answer: I came very close to purchasing one, and even had a handshake deal with the seller. But we mutually called the deal off for reasons that I don’t think I need to go into here. MtM and I traveled about 2,700 miles round trip…and I did end up buying a gun, not at the Symposium, but about five miles from my house. (Photos to come after part 2 of Day of the .45.)
It was a two-day drive both ways. We decided to take a scenic route going out to Arizona and went down to Del Rio and along the Rio Grande, paralleling the river and stopping overnight in Marathon at the Gage Hotel (and eating at the 12 Gage Restaurant). We did drive through Marfa (and past the Prada Store, but we missed the world’s smallest Buc-ees by just a few days). We also drove through Alpine and past Sul Ross State University, which gave me both an excuse and a captive audience to talk about Jack O’Connor (who, as you know, Bob, taught English at Sul Ross for a while). The second day we drove through Hatch, New Mexico, and up into the national forests before reaching Glendale late in the afternoon.
For the curious: we were stopped by the Border Patrol three times, twice out and once back, though the third time they just waved us through the checkpoint. The longest exchange we had: “Are you both US citizens?” “Yes.” “Anybody else in the car?” “No.” “Okay, go ahead.”
I don’t think we had a bad meal on the trip, though we did eat catered hotel food two nights. (There’s a “cocktail party”, which is really more like a buffet dinner, on Thursday night of the Symposium, and a sit-down banquet to close things out on Saturday night. The hotel food was somewhat better than decent.) Mike and I ate at The Wild Thaiger on Tuesday night after we got in, and I thought that was very good (I had the Mi Dang and we split an order of Dragon Eggz). Wednesday night we took a couple of my friends to the Barrio Cafe, which was another solid choice that everyone loved. Friday night we took a larger group to Giuseppe’s on 28th, which was also universally beloved by everyone who went.
(MtM picked all the restaurants. His secret: he picks places that have been on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives”.)
I heartily endorse all three of these restaurants, and The Old German Bakery and Restaurant in Fredericksburg.
We took advantage of one of the slower days to go visit some bookstores and some gun stores. The one bookstore we visited (Bookmans) I didn’t buy anything at, though I did think it was a good store. Tombstone Tactical was more of a modern firearms store. They had good prices on new guns, but I didn’t find anything I wanted. Legendary Guns, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of funky mixed gun shop I love. And I bought some books there.
We took I-10 coming back, and stopped for dinner at the Cattleman’s Steakhouse in Fabens (also heartily endorsed), staying overnight at the Hotel El Capitan before the final push back to Austin the following day.
Thanks to MtM for driving, and to everyone who attended the Symposium. Next year: back to Tulsa (which is not that far).
From YouTube: a factory tour of the Smith and Wesson plant in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I have been on that tour…