London is safe....

[island_sands]

H.R.H. is protecting you all...

(just to break the tension guys!)

 

[monofin_diva]

haha granny is packin!..
lol she needs a spear gun.. reminds me of my gramma (who was from texas).

like she said.. "better have a gun and not need it, than need it and not have it"

 

[land shark]

Amen
it sure looks like a texan to me to.

 

[sinkweight]

No, a Texan would have his gun-totin' arm hangin' out the window. There are an overwhelming amount of gun owners though. Even me, though I never really went out and bought any of them. Some of them were handed down, and some were given as collateral for loans gone unpaid. So far, I have about 7 handguns and 4 shotguns. Haven't fired any of'em in about a year and a half, darn it.

I live in a nice neighborhood, ha ha ha.

 

[Oldsarge]

7 handguns and 4 shotguns? Not bad, though a little light for a native born Texan. Haven't been out to the gunsafe to count, lately, myself.

 

[sinkweight]

Well, I have some loverly Beretta shotguns coming my way if my old man gets some new ones. I'm not much of a hunter, unless I'm trying to fill up on dove. However, I do keep my Blackhawk 44 under my pillow when I sleep. That way I don't have to reach all the way over to hit the snooze button. I merely wave it in front of the clock and it shuts up.

 

[Amphibious]

4 shotguns, 8 rifles. but I'm just a little wee canadian... need to start in with the hand cannons soon....

Mmmmm berretta Shotguns are STUNNING! one day, one day... Silver Pigeon O/U 20ga MMmmmmm.....

 

[sinkweight]

I'm not a gun buff like most Texans, but man, those Berrettas are indeed beautiful.

Unfortunately, however, I tend to get that horrible theme song from the 70's TV series "Berretta" stuck in my head when I clean them.

 

[Oldsarge]

If anyone is interested, I am about 95% sure that this fall I'll be having some vintage British hammerguns coming for auction. These are fully nitro-proofed and are all documented to being made "in or before 1898", which for some odd bureaucratic reason makes them antiques not firearms. That means you don't have to either have or go through a FFL owner to buy them. They take modern 12 gauge ammunition and go BOOM when you pull the trigger but aren't firearms. Go figure. Will post pix when they arrive.

 

[sinkweight]

I have an old 10 gauge, damascus (spelling?) steel and side-by-side hammers. I need to have the gun identified. I haven't taken it out in about 5 years. I would like to fire the thing once or twice. I'll see if I can put some slugs in the beast.

 

[Oldsarge]

SINKY, YOU HAVE A PM!!!

 

[monofin_diva]

i'm a rifle woman.. i have one rifle and one hand gun..

dating a sherriff comes in handy :hmm

 

[sinkweight]

My next gun is going to be a Snakecharmer. I just love the utility of a .410.

However, I'd like a 22 rifle and a .410 combo. Does anybody know of such a gun?

 

[Oldsarge]

Savage made them by the thousands during the 60's and 70's. It was a forunner of the Savage 24 .22LR/20ga combination gun. Check out www.auctionarms.com, www.gunbroker.com, and www.gunsamerica.com and see what you can find.

Personally, in a .410 I like the Winchester 9410 levergun. Its sort of a .22 for kids (and adults) who live in rather crowded conditions, like wooded Eastern suburba. Give a 12-year-old one of those, a beagle and 40 acres of bottomland in June and you won't even see him or her until school is about to start and at that, you'd have to go looking!

 

[sinkweight]

Awesome! Thanks! It's Perfect!

 

[dallasdiver]

Hey Sarge
I didn't think you could shoot modern day ammo through those old shot guns? I thought it created to much pressure with modern gunpowder. Is that right?

 

[land shark]

yea sinky u got a death wish? trying to put a slug through a damascus barrel!
besides i would think u would love to have ur birds plcked before they hit the ground.

got a jp stevens 410 . with a slug itll drop a deer no sweat! why waste good shot on a snake there aint no meat on them bones anyway.

accually the pic looked like my grandma after she found out the damn rabbits had been in the bean patch again !

sorry about the pennmanship but it hurts to type

jim

 

[Oldsarge]

Whatever your political beliefs about centralized government, one thing that the European and British countries have that ours really needs is the concept of "proof". No firearm can be sold or resold without documentation that it its "proofed" for appropriate loads. This is established by government certified Proof Houses. Britain has one in Birmingham and, I believe, another in or around London. The firearms that I am involved with importing will have been legally sold in Britain as proofed for nitro loads. That doesn't mean that some ham-handed idiot with delusions of nuclear power can jam in High-base short magnum shells and expect to keep his face attached to the front of his head for any length of time. They will be proofed for modern, low-base, smokeless loads and perfectly safe so long as those are what you intend to shoot in them. As an example, I find that 1 oz or 7/8 oz international trap loads will kill any upland bird within 25 yards very handily. That is the kind of load these guns will be proofed for. I would strongly advise against trying to take them out for late pheasant in South Dakota where the ranges are long and you are shooting at the birds well-armored backs. On the other hand, dove, quail, early pheasant, chukar, partridge, cottontail and squirrel are all well within the capability of low-base loads. You could even use them on decoyed duck if your calling is really good and you can get them in really close. (Personally, I find that a double gun in a duck blind is a pain and prefer a good pumpgun, like a Winchester M12.) The bad reputation that old guns have is due to the low quality of Damascus steel that was used by inexpensive European guns and almost all American ones. Making Damascus steel was an artisan skill that our industrial production methods weren't up to so the vast majority of American Damascus barreled shotguns were made with lower grade Belgian barrels imported for that purpose. Those are only safe with black powder and even then should be checked out by a qualified smith. I recommend Dale Tate or Steven Dodd Hughes. Additionally, though most folks don't know this, by 1890 fluid steel had come onto the market and that kind of barrel is most definitely safe with smokeless loads so long as there is enough steel still wrapped around the chambers. Proof houses make sure that there is before allowing such guns to go on the market. A goodly number of these "antiques" will have been "sleeved" meaning that the original barrels had gotten too thin and were cut off. Then the chambers were reamed out and new barrels slipped into the chambers and braised or silver soldered in place. Properly done this is just as strong as a modern barrel and absolutely invisible. That does not change their status. Legally, a gun is the action. The stock is a handle and barrels are interchangeable so if the action was built "in or before 1898" it's an antique, not a firearm. It still goes BOOM when you pull the trigger but it's not a firearm. Ah, Congress! Y'gotta love'em.

 

[island_sands]

umm... nice gun talk!

i just wondered if any of you realise who the "granny" is sitting in the car rofl rofl

 

[sinkweight]

Of course! However, she's not MY mum.

That is a great picture. That's got to be one good thing about being the queen...It takes some serious test-teek-clez to take her keys away at that age, ha ha ha ha.