Guns & Gun Related Stuff

[Old Hunter]

Charlie, great pictures of the Quackenbush (your friend sure owns a jewel there). The picture of the young boy with his rifle and knife illustrates the value put on those items by his family and community (studio portrait featuring the items). Very few people would do that today; look what happened to the father in NJ when he published a facebook picture of his young son with a rifle - raided by Social Services. Most telling concerning our society and quite sad - we once valued self reliance, now we value group-think and socialism (yep Jerry, you've got it right too). We are all dinosaurs. OH

[RobesonsRme.com]

My friend is a collector/accumulator of many genre of things. His knives and firearms being only two.

I'd love to own a little Quackenbush like that. I looked them up on the internet and an example no where nearly as nice was listed at $800.00.

Someone needs to take that simple design, bring it up to date, increase the calibre of the round and market it as a simple compact survival piece.

The photogravure of the boy is really interesting, but we will never know how many of those accoutrements belonged to the boy and how many to the photographic studio as props.

I wish that knife was turned sideways so I could see it in profile.

BTW; Go to Ebay and search Photographic Images using keywords "Boy Gun", and just read some of the auction descriptions. Some of the sellers have taken it upon themselves to pass judgement on the wisdom of parents from times gone by.

Charlie Noyes

[Jspurlock93]

Very nice yall!

Here's a Ruger sr1911 I recently picked up and a .50 cal round I found in the truck I've been driving for a year both the primer and powder gone though.

[MikeEngland]

I'm very happy with my Ruger! Does anybody have any experience with the LC9? Mine has had a couple modifications done including a shortened trigger pull and removal of the magazine safety.
Comfortable in the hand and discrete on the hip. A joy to shoot.

[zp4ja]

Never seen one Mike. Handsome looking gun.

I apologize if I derail your question and this is directed as an observation/ question to all but...

Ya know, call me ingnorant, but when you stated magazine safety, I actually had to google it to figure out what the hell you were talking about. I personally would have no interest in a gun that had that safety functionality from what I have read. Maybe gun in hand might be a different story when I can "feel the process". But based on what I read, I can see why you removed it. Might be useful for LEO if they are struggling with someone trying to get possession of their gun. God forbid Joe Citizen or Mr. Officer hits the mag release when they really need to pull the trigger. I may be incorrect but what I read was that some of these mag safeties even prevent slide movement. Makes it a bit cumbersome if you have one in the pipe and a half full mag and want to unload and clear. You would have to eject/unload the half full clip and reinsert it (then reload it later) or carry a empty magazine and insert to clear the pipe to make it "safe". For a owner that handles his guns alot and may possibly have one in the pipe, sounds like a pain in the rear to me. Even on some that state the trigger is deactivated only when the mag is out and you can still work the slide, just not discharge the weapon, sorry but I want that option to discharge the remaining round in that case also.

Of the 3 slide guns I have, there are no external or minimal safeties. The biggest gun safety is having your head screwed on straight while handling and discharging, in my opinion. Always treat a gun as loaded, never put your finger in the trigger guard unless intending to discharge, etc, etc.
The 2 SIGs I have only have a decocking lever to activate the internal safety to prevent accidental discharge in the event of dropping the firearm. A valuable but optional safety. Not that I would pull the trigger and "thumb" the hammer down anyway in lieu of the decocking lever. Point is choosing not to use the decocking lever does not render the gun inoperable.
Same deal on the GLOCK 21 I have, trigger safety only to prevent accidental discharge in the event of dropping the firearm. Of the external safety options, I like the trigger safety as if my finger is in the guard, I am planning on shooting so there is no additional step to discharge.
The lack of mulptiple and having limited external safeties was a huge factor in my desicion to purchase each of these guns. Just how I do it. One could argue that muscle memory and pratice mitigate external safeties.

Everyone has different needs and desired functionality and I respect that. Just can't see for myself a gain, only hinderance, on a safety such as this except in law enforcement applications. Additionally I read that having young kids that could possibly access a firearm, would not be able to discharge the weapon. Great! If you were enough of a reckless gun owner to let them get ahold of the gun in the first place, where did you hide the clip? They won't find that too? If you are going there, might as well not have the mag safety and just hide the full clip.

I am a hardcore gun safety advocate and any improvement to safety is welcome. Just not sure this is an improvement.
You could put 19 differnt safeties on a gun and once they are all disabled/set to fire, just like the slide guns I own.

Although accidents do happen, a gun is only as safe as the person holding it. The user is the main safety, in my opinion.
My former brother in law (current Law Enforcement Officer at the time of the accident) was on a deer hunting trip in Utah with my Dad some 30 years ago. The front sight on his .30-06 was slighty cocked or had some debris in it or something. He sat down to rest and deal with the situation. Evidentally, the gun was still loaded, safety off when he attempted to rectify the issue with the front sight. Somehow a stick or his finger engaged the trigger and BOOM!!! while his hand was cupping the barrel end. Point of impact was middle of his palm with a .30-06 round, point blank. TRUE STORY!
Terrible accident and certainly not trying to make light of it but what part of any of his actions seemed like a good idea? That gun had a safety, just wasn't in use. The main safety (himself) was not on.

Personally, I think some safeties such as the mag safety mentioned, may actually make the gun less safe due to additional actions to clear the gun. Seems to me like discharging some firearms today is like working some sort of combination lock. Keep it safe and simple, in my opinion.

I look forward to your respected opinions. RANT ENDED!

Regards, Jerry

[johnnierotten]

Found this Marbles Cleaning Kit Today....

[Bret888]

Jerry, I just read your rant on the magazine safeties, and had to add my ideas on them. I know S&W used to have them on all their autos, and I don't know what has them and what doesn't anymore. I only have 2 S&W autos, and they are both model 41's, and I had to go check them to see. The old one did, and the newer(80's) one didn't. I wouldn't know, because when I unload one, I put my right thumb against the slide stop, and wrap my left hand over the top, and pull the slide back. Chambered round is in the left hand, then right thumb hits the magazine release.

In the past year, there have been 4 accidental discharges at gunshows, all by DEALERS, and all with autos that had the magazines removed, with a round in the chamber. The only injury was a guy that took a .22 in the leg after it hit the floor, so at least they had them pointed in as safe of a direction that they could, in a crowded building. I know of several other people, one very experienced(.22 through the palm), most not very experienced that have had the same thing happen.

About 10 miles from here, a few days before Christmas 2012, a guy with a 7 year old boy along, carried a Marlin 336, and a Taurus 9mm (Beretta 92 copy) into Twigs Reloading Den. He wanted to sell the guns to buy presents. She told him she wasn't interested in the Taurus, and didn't look at it, just the Marlin. She said it was rusted up bad, and she had several on the rack, and told him sorry she wasn't interested.

If she had looked at the Taurus, the first thing she would have done would have been to open it up, and have a live round come out, unfortunately she didn't. The guy went out, and put the boy in the truck, then went to put the gun in the console, and it went off, right into his sons chest, killing him....

What I am saying, is that when something is so transparent to me, that I had to go see if my guns even had the feature, why not have it? It could save a life someday, maybe long after we are gone.

There are thousands of people buying auto handguns in the Obama era, that have little or no understanding of the function. I would much rather see them buy revolvers, except for the few that will become intimately familiar with their auto.

Just my thoughts

[johnnierotten]

The thing that I hate and refuse to own (unless I trade or buy them for resale) are the autos with no visible hammer. ....they are just too damn dangerous..IMO.
I'm speaking of semi auto hand guns of course..

[Colonel26]

Here's my latest old school cool rifle! It's a Marlin 80E that neatest I can can tell dates to '35-'36. It's clip fed, shoots shorts, longs, and long rifles and with those finger groves and steel butt plate it just speaks to me. Today in between rain showers I ran out and did the old coke can in the fence row accuracy/function test at 25 yards. Flawless! I shot all three: shorts, longs. and long rifles without a hitch and out of that long barrel none of them made much racket. She'll shoot better than minute of squirrel too. I love old guns.

[Unk]

Nice old Marlin, Colonel.

Me and a buddy drove down to the NRA convention today. Red Jacket Firearms had a booth, and we saw Joe there (from the TV show Sons of Guns). Also saw Ronne Barrett of .50 cal fame, and Steve Hornady from Hornady ammo. Seems like all the manufacturers had a ton of 1911s and ARs. It felt like we walked about 400 miles - my feet are throbbing!! But had a good time.

[zp4ja]

Hi Bret,

Think about this for a moment and I will get back to it...

When you are handling a RAZOR sharp knife, do you handle it with more care than a dull one?

Thanks for your response and let me preface this reply with the utmost repsect to you and your point of view. These thought and questions are also posted to the forum as a whole. As I stated, I am a hardcore gun safety owner. I am certainly not against safeties that work and those can be obviously situation dependent. By my post, that may not be evident, but that is the case. I just agree to disagree on this one. While it appears that this mag safety has been proven to save lives of Law Enforcement in the event of a bad guy "gun grab", how many people may have been in a spot where an inadvertant mag eject left them helpless or dead. I highly doubt the media would publicize such events as they seem anti-gun to me. In fact, prior to my post, I read up on the mag safety subject. The majority of the many posts I read, were against these types of safeties due to the cumbersome nature of unloading and the fact the gun is rendered useless with a round in the chamber should one need it or by an inadvertant mag eject. While your unloading technique seems viable, as I said, I could be incorrect but it appears that some mag disconnects also deactive the slide. Could be wrong but that does not change my following viewpoints. If the gun forum poster is to be believed (did not bookmark the site), a LEO posted of a situation where he lost his mag after a bad guy drove him and his pistol into the ground and the mag went sliding away under a close by car. True or not, I could see this possibly happenning. The bad guy was beating the crap out of him and he was glad to have that one round even though it thankfully did not come to that conclusion.

In the past year, there have been 4 accidental discharges at gunshows, all by DEALERS, and all with autos that had the magazines removed, with a round in the chamber. The only injury was a guy that took a .22 in the leg after it hit the floor, so at least they had them pointed in as safe of a direction that they could, in a crowded building. I know of several other people, one very experienced(.22 through the palm), most not very experienced that have had the same thing happen.

Herein lies the problem, in my opinion. Mag safeties provide a false sense of security, in my opinion, as not all autos employ them. So if some have them, some gun owners may ASSUME that all do and when the mag is out, a round could be discharged if still in the chamber. Sorry but how I was trained and raised, after removing the mag, the next obvious step is to rack the slide twice, lock it back and check the chamber, twice. Then and only then would I hand it to someone with their head screwed on even though it is unloaded. With all due respect, why on earth would a dealer have a chambered round at a gun show? What about a faulty mag safety? So a careless guy ( in my opinion) at a gun show or with his buddies has a loaded chamber and mag. Drops the mag and is enough of a dumbass in my opinion to NOT rack the slide, clear the chamber, visually check to ensure extraction and that the chamber is empty, checked twice. Then hands it to someone else and says, "There is a round in the chamber but don't worry, it can't go off due to a mag safety". Or worse yet, does not even say anything. Gun is HOT in my opinion and not safe.

Even with no external or limited external safeties as I mentioned on the guns I own, I seldom have a round chambered. Depends on the situation. In fact, in situations where no round is chambered, I would argue that it is obviously safer than one in the pipe with an external safety. Does not take that long to chamber a round, probably same amount of time for disarming a safety. And much safer in my opinion.
I will not make light of someone getting shot or tragically dying, by gun or not. Always a sad thing! That being said, "the very experienced person" you mentioned, did his gun have the mag out? Either way, it had a safety it was off (if so equipped) with a round chambered. I also know that when looked back uopn the preceding actions, this person would admit that it was not the right actions to take, 19 safeties or no safeties. Not directed to the poor guy that shot himself, but as I said, the biggest safety was not on, the gun handler. Accidents happen to the best of us though. I mentioned my brother in law that shot himself in the palm with a .30-06. Accidents do happen but personally before I cupped my hand over the barrel of a gun, it would be checked 5 times to ensure unloaded, and probably would be totally disasembled.

About 10 miles from here, a few days before Christmas 2012, a guy with a 7 year old boy along, carried a Marlin 336, and a Taurus 9mm (Beretta 92 copy) into Twigs Reloading Den. He wanted to sell the guns to buy presents. She told him she wasn't interested in the Taurus, and didn't look at it, just the Marlin. She said it was rusted up bad, and she had several on the rack, and told him sorry she wasn't interested.
If she had looked at the Taurus, the first thing she would have done would have been to open it up, and have a live round come out, unfortunately she didn't. The guy went out, and put the boy in the truck, then went to put the gun in the console, and it went off, right into his sons chest, killing him....

Extremely tragic! May this young boy rest in peace.

That being said, possibly no amount of safeties could have avoided this tragedy besides the gun not being loaded.

What I am saying, is that when something is so transparent to me, that I had to go see if my guns even had the feature, why not have it? It could save a life someday, maybe long after we are gone.

To each his own and I respect that. In the unlikely event I will ever have to use my gun to protect myself of family, I would prefer to have the option of firing a round should the mag be out, purposely or not. I am not saying no one should need or use this type of safety, just not for my desires/needs. BTW, if you disable one of these safeties that comes stock on the gun, I would be real leary of using it for defensive purposes. Some shister lawyer gets wind of that and you may well be up a creek. "But your Honor, he disabled a safety feature of the gun. Yes, my client was breaking into his house with the intent to kill him and his family but his rights were obviously infringed upon due to being shot while the shooter protected his home with a firearm taht has been modified". Not that you disabled the safety, you are RAMBO Jr. You think I am exaggerating, look at the world today.

There are thousands of people buying auto handguns in the Obama era, that have little or no understanding of the function. I would much rather see them buy revolvers, except for the few that will become intimately familiar with their auto.

Interesting comment. I believe California now requires a gun safety course before you can even buy a firearm. GREAT! No revolvers I know of have safeties, I could be wrong though. Point that if you tell some idiot that has a gun, there is no safety, I imagine they will treat it more safely or not handle or own one at all. Tell them it has 19 safeties and all respect for safety goes out the window.

3 questions...

1) On the mag safety, how many idiots do not fully check and unload the gun and rely on the safety?
2) Since all guns do not have a mag safety, how many people do you think have been shot because they did not check and clear the weapon and assumed it had a mag safety.
3) Does anyone think a gun is safe with a round chambered with no mag?

So back the the original statement I made...

When you are handling a RAZOR sharp knife, do you handle it with more care than a dull one? Both can cut you, one is just easier to get a nasty cut so you respect it more and are appropriately more careful with it.

Regards, Jerry

[Old Hunter]

Colonel26 - NICE old Marlin! Like you, I love the old ones. OH

[Colonel26]

Thanks OH. While I was shooting it Sunday I actually thought to myself, this one would be right up OH's alley, for some reason. Great minds think alike I guess,lol.

You know, just about every .22 I've shot from that era was a real good shooter. Even the "economy" guns. I wonder if the same is true today?

[PigSticker]

Marlin .22's had some sweet barrels and are tack drivers never figured out why they didn't put better actions on the end of em though--

[RobesonsRme.com]

Years ago, I had a .22 magnum semi-automatic rifle that I wish I'd never sold.

It was a carbine with a straight grip stock and a heavy, half-round fore-end. The barrel was 20" long and almost a bull barrel, without much, if any, taper.

It had sling swivels and a nice leather sling.

It was a "KODIAK". That was the brand name. I have no idea where they were located.

I know that Colt later marketed a "Kodiak" model, but that is not what I had. The company that made my rifle might have been bought out by Colt and my rifle was a predecessor of Colt's model. I don't know.

Over the years, since the establishment of the internet, I have made frequent searches for a similar piece. I've never seen one.

Although the magnum wasn't the ideal calibre, I often wondered if it was available in long rifle.

Anybody familiar with the company or its rifles?

Addendum: Guess I should have searched one more time before posting this. I found one for sale. $400.00. Guess I won't be getting another. They were in North Haven, CT. I think that's right close to Colt.
Charlie Noyes

[Bret888]

That sure looks like the Colteer. If you run across any more info on the Kodiak, I would like to hear it. Did Colt buy the guns under contract, or did they buy the rights and make them themselves? They sold a pump shotgun along the same lines, that was kinda junky, and I believe was made in France. I have seen the same gun with other contract names on them. They are the only gun I ever saw with a round locking bolt that goes vertically into the top of the alloy receiver. I think Colt was struggling at these times, or else they were getting fat on government M-16's, and didn't care about the civilian market. At the same time frame, they also contracted Sauer to make beautiful bolt action centerfires, and drillings.

[tendots]

Charlie,there isn't such thing as an ideal calibre.I'm glad to have my Anschutz in .22WMR,great for pest control.

[Unk]

Charlie, Brett,

Yes, I have a Hawthorne Model 880 (Monkey Wards) - same as a Colt Colteer. It looks just like that Kodiak.

I took it to a friends house last month to do some .22 target shooting. Lot's of nice .22s there, but everyone kept picking up that little Hawthorne / Colt and commenting on how much they liked it.

It is the second one from the top.

[orvet]

Interesting video about high capacity magazines-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... F1nPSNnaBo

[tjmurphy]

I would bet that that has played out more than once. That's why I like my Glock, 15+1

[RobesonsRme.com]

In my Google search yesterday, I turned up a couple of the KODIAK .22 magnums in the rifle configuration, i.e. pistol grip stock neck and longer barrel.

The model numbers were 260.

The guns are discussed on numerous websites.

If accurate, the discussions indicate the company was originally called, "JEFFERSON", then "KODIAK".

It is unclear if Colt bought Kodiak or if KODIAK actually made the Colteers for Colt.

They were only in business from 1963 to 1966. That seems right. I know I had mine when I was in high school, I graduated in 65, and I know I had it my freshman year of college, because I and several of my dorm buddies went squirrel hunting in the fall of 65 and I took this gun along. That's why I stated the calibre wasn't ideal. That wmr did a number on a squirrel.

I do not recall when I sold it. I think my Dad called me while I was at school or possibly while I was In Service and told me there was a buyer at the house that wanted several of my Winchester .22 pumps (I had about a half dozen) and he wanted to know which ones I wanted to keep. I told him which one not to sell and he could sell the rest. That KODIAK most likely got sold at that time.

The discussion boards talked about some feeding problems over time and the need to use good clean burning ammo. Apparently, there was also a plastic part in the mechanism that needed replacement after extended use.

I think Colteer parts are compatible.

I'd dearly love to have another of the carbines, I would have no interest in the longer rifle version, but I'm not about to pay $400.00 for one.

Charlie

[Mossdancer]

Demitri or anyone knowledgable:
Here is one to study,look up or talk about. Have perused gunsight collectors till my eyes are burning. Thought I would post it here and see if I could get any info. The only marking is a 2 on the windage thumb screw. At what appears a possible elevation over a mile and a half, maybe a sniper device or used on a long range deck gun. Thanks for your help and interest. I have provided the ruler for size, the dowel is 1 inch with a 7/16" bushing knocker on other end. A sloppy fit.
moss

[Bret888]

Moss, that looks like an 03 Springfield or some similar battle rifle sight.

[Mossdancer]

It is similar but how would it mount with the fixed base. I am working different venues, I will keep this post updated.
moss

[Bret888]

The collar slid over the barrel, clear back against the receiver, then a retaining pin held it in position. I searched up a picture, but I didn't find one showing the retaining pin.