Ko's Firearms Collection

While it may surprise some, considering my knowledge and the number of firearms I have accumulated over the years, I have not been into firearms all that long. I would estimate that I got my first only ten years ago. Before that, again a surprise to many, I was actually against gun rights. This was because I was young and stupid and had grown up with the propaganda of the media filling my head. “A Real Man doesn't need a gun, he can fight with his fists,” was the sort of nonsense that I believed back then. I saw gun owners as cowards who hid behind their weapon rather than fight “honestly.” I have since grown up and seen that the world just isn't like that.

Many of the firearms I own have no “practical purpose” for, as they are owned just for my enjoyment. I equate this to owning a Ford Mustang. Having 300 horsepower under your hood does not change the speed limit. There's no practical purpose for owning a Mustang. But this does not, in any way, mean people shouldn't have them if they want them. While having a Mustang doesn't mean you're a race car driver, or even that you want to be one, it's still nice to have something like that.

Without further ado, here is my collection. I will be adding pictures, slowly, over time, as I bother to produce them.

Handguns

Beretta Neos – .22 LR – Target pistol

I would like to say I bought this for its merits as a target pistol, but in reality, it was one of the firearms I bought from St. Louis Arms as a combination of low cost and “to keep the shop from getting stuck with it.” Thankfully, I was lucky, in terms of the quality of this pistol and in terms of how much I've enjoyed it. In the years since I've bought it, I've come to really appreciate how easily the gun disassembles. Where Ruger Mark IIIs have this convoluted procedure, and is so sensitive to how you put it together that many people have trouble doing it, this Neos has a button you hold down while rotating a little wheel. This wheel unscrews the top assembly from the frame, after which you can release the slide and pull it and the mainspring out.

Beyond the disassembly, the gun also shoots fairly well. Resting it, I've been able to get pie-plate groups at fifty yards, with that red/green dot sight. It might be better with a magnified optic, but I'm not going to shell out for one to find out.

At some point, I need to get a bunch of small boxes of ammunition together and do some recorded accuracy testing with it, to see what the best ammunition for it is. I've neglected to do this simply because it never occurs to me that this is the one pistol I have that wouldn't it be superfluous with.

Beretta 21A Bobcat - .25 ACP – Collection Gun

This replaced an earlier pistol, a FIE Titan, that I seriously regretted buying. When a gentleman brought this gun in to Mid America Arms to sell it, I snatched it up quickly and sold that POS Titan for what little I could get for it. Mine is blued with a wood grip, so is also a fairly nice looking piece.

My attempts at handloading for this gun haven't been too great. The handloads don't feed as well as the factory ammunition does, and I haven't really experimented enough to figure out why. They may be too weak, but the load range for this chambering is tiny and I don't really want to weigh each charge.

I've considered buying new grips for it for Ixia to paint, but those that are available are too expensive to really do this with.

Beretta 3032 Tomcat - .32 ACP – Collection Gun

This was my brother's light-clothes concealed carry weapon for years. He got it at the same time I got my old North American Arms Guardian in .32 ACP, and at the time, we both had the mentality of “it may not have loads of stopping power, but it will at least give an assailant a reason to stop doing what got him shot.” I have since retired that mentality, and I believe my brother has, as well. One of my memories about this gun is that the first time my brother and I shot it, we also shot my PT938, and he liked my gun better. :)

It is a blued gun, with a XS Big Dot front post night sight on it, factory installed. I've heard stories about them cracking with hotter loads, so I've been hesitant to really push my handloads for it, but since the gun it replaced liked the lighter loads, anyway, it wasn't a big change.

I've considered buying new grips for it for Ixia to paint, but those that are available are too expensive to really do this with.

Ruger SP-101 - .327 Federal Magnum – Collection Gun

When I heard about this new cartridge, I knew I would own something chambered in it eventually. In essence, it is taking the .32 caliber revolver to the modern cutting edge. The gun itself is nice, a stainless gun with a moderate barrel. Despite that, I would, someday, like to replace it with a Blackhawk and a Smith & Wesson snubnose in the same chambering. One to get more of the potential out of the cartridge, the other as a concealed carry weapon. The latter is unlikely to happen, since I'm fairly happy with my XDSC.

Taurus PT938 - .380 ACP – Collection Gun

This was one of the guns I chose when doing my initial research to get one gun in each of the major handgun calibers. I chose it because of the capacity. There weren't - and still aren't - many double-stack .380 ACP pistols, and at the time, I was still in the mentality of wanting lots of capacity. Even though I've gotten over that idea, I still really love this gun. It's one of my favorites.

It is based, loosely, on the Beretta 92 and 84/85/86 copies Taurus has been making for years. Same take down, same trigger system, same decocker/safety. But, it's a compact pistol. When I first saw it, during the 1994 Evil Black Rifle Ban, it was listed has having a ten-round magazine, and after the ban was allowed to sunset, Taurus updated the listing as fifteen round, and then promptly discontinued the gun, and for a reason I can easily come to grips with. It's rather big for a .380 ACP, and is big enough to be a 9mm Luger (in fact, they made a version of it in 9mm Luger), hence Big Bore loving, “Magnumitis” suffering Americans aren't much interested in it. Only weirdos like me. For years, I searched for the elusive 15-round magazines for it, even had an outstanding order with Taurus for two of them, and then eventually came to be told that they didn't exist, and never would. A few years later, they started making them for another gun, which was never sold in the states.

The action is, in a word, sweet. The action is very smooth, the trigger, while having some room for improvement, is actually pretty good. To phrase it another way: it is so nice, I am surprised Taurus actually made it.

Ruger P95 – 9mm Luger – Collection Gun

This was the first handgun I ever shot. At the time, it belonged to my brother. He'd bought it for his wife, years before, but I think it was a fair bit optimistic to think she'd ever shoot it, since she had a phobia of anything that did, or could, make a loud noise. Either way, one day he offered, out of the blue, to take me to shoot a handgun. Despite being anti-gun, I took him up on it, and it totally changed my perspective on guns. After a few years, he replaced it with a Glock, and gave this thing to me.

Say what you will about a gun that, even today, retails for about $350, but this is actually a very nice pistol. Bulky, certainly, but the trigger is very smooth, and it has never once mis-fed on me since I stopped limp-wristing that first day at the range with it. I even bought a thirty-two-round magazine for it, though I never use it in the pistol, as it makes the balance very weird.

Springfield XD9SC – 9mm Luger – Concealed Carry Weapon

Due to the extremely positive experience I'd had with my first XD 45, when my mindset on how many rounds a concealed weapon should have shifted away from a five-shot revolver, it was serendipity that one of these Springfields came in used, and the owners of Mid America Arms had practically stolen it from the previous owner. So, I got a very inexpensive change over in my CCW pistol, and got to cut the owners of the shop out of potentially doubling their money on it.

Even if I ever change to a different concealed carry weapon, I adore this little gun, and will probably never sell it. It has been flawless. I've tried to get this gun to misfeed, and it won't. I've shot underpowered ammunition through it, shot it full of pocket lint, shot it sideways, one handed, left handed, put two hundred rounds through it fast. It just refuses to suck.

Smith & Wesson 15-2 - .38 Special – Collection Gun

A fairly recent acquisition, this was part of a plan, half-aborted now, to get a gun in four “old” chamberings that, while I have guns that shoot the successor magnum round, I just don't feel are quite “appropriate” to shoot the shorter rounds in. This replaced a Taurus 82 Military Surplus revolver that I had buyers remorse over. It was another forfeit that came out, and it was perfect timing (aside from how little money I had ready to spend at the time).

It has adjustable rear sights (which the Taurus lacked, and needed) and a really good trigger. I've been getting better groups with it, at fifteen yards, than I was getting with the Taurus at seven. I'm extremely satisfied with the gun.

Rock Island Armory 1911 - .38 Super – Collection Gun

This is truly the gun I replaced those Llamas with, as what I really had wanted was a .38 Super. I opted for this gun mainly for the ability to put a Mech Tech CCU on it. Otherwise, I'd have ordered in an EAA Witness. I've been very satisfied with this gun, though, and Ixia likes how nice it looks with nice grips. It's the nickel-plated version, and it really boggled the owners of Mid America when it came in as it was certainly not something they'd have ordered, themselves.

I'd had some trouble, early on, as it apparently doesn't like flat-nose FMJ bullets. I've not tried any hollow-points, but I suspect it'll dislike them just as much. But, since there are plenty of round-nose 9mm bullets, that's not a hard problem to deal with. It's a gun that roars with the right powder, too. :)

Taurus M627SS6 - .357 Magnum – Hunting Sidearm

I originally got this as a collection gun, as well as one step toward being able to handle the .454 Casull. It was a gift from my brother. One of the things I remember was getting it right before a trip to Colorado to see my sister, and sitting there itching to go shoot it, but it was hundreds of miles away.

It is a six inch barreled gun with porting at the end, which tames the recoil more than I understood at the time. It also makes the gun louder, which is both fun and problematic.

When a hog hunting trip was proposed, I needed something as a sidearm in case the pigs charged, and the only reasonable gun I had for it was this one. Since then, it has remained my hunting sidearm, even though I have other guns that are more powerful.

Glock 31 - .357 Sig, .40 S&W, 9mm Luger – SBR Project Gun

I bought this as part of a project to turn a pistol into a Short Barreled Rifle, via a device that encloses the pistol and provides a stock and some “rail estate.” This project has since been put onto the back burner, at least until during or after gunsmithing school. The original idea was to have three different chamberings in the same gun, since there are means of doing that with a Glock. Since I handload, I had to make sure the barrel had a fully-supported chamber in the .40 S&W. When a Glock 31 with a Bar-Sto .40 S&W barrel and three magazines came up on Gun Broker, I had to get it, as that was perfect. Thankfully, I wasn't outbid. Afterward, I bought a Lone-Wolf Distributors 9mm conversion barrel for it and a Glock 17 magazine.

I had some early problems with the 9mm Luger barrel. Two problems, one after the other. First, the long 124gr bullets I'd been using were engaging the lands of the barrel, even though they were pretty deeply seated. Switching to 115gr bullets corrected that, but I found a new problem. Some of the rounds were getting light primer strikes, but nothing in the .357 Sig or .40 S&W were showing this. I came to realize that, though none of the three other 9mm Luger firearms I had at this time seemed to care, this gun didn't like how tightly I was crimping the cases. Backing off the crimp solved the problem. (Plus one brownie point to the XD SC, too)

As for the SBR project, I have everything I need for it to be ready for the registration step, including a thirty three round 9mm Luger magazine and a thirty-something round .40 S&W / .357 Sig magazine. Once registered as an SBR, I can order in the “carbine conversion” kit without any worries of assumed illegality of owning the kit and a pistol to go in the kit, but not having the paperwork to make it legal to put them together.

Sig Sauer P229R - .40 S&W and .357 Sig – Former Concealed Carry Weapon turned Collection Gun

My favorite handgun. Sometimes, I forget that it's my favorite, but once I shoot it, the love comes back. :) I traded in a Glock 32 towards this gun, which had been a “project gun” of the owner of St. Louis Arms. He'd given it a trigger job, Hogue grips, added a .357 Sig barrel to the package, and three extra magazines. Then, he ran out of time, or changed his mind, or something. So, he put it up for sale, and I bought it.

I used to carry this gun, in a shoulder holster, during the cooler months. I was occasionally self-conscious about it, but my worries were often dispelled by people being surprised they never noticed that I was carrying such a large pistol. More recently, an incident of a lawful person carrying his concealed firearm resulted in him being effectively murdered by the police, and it spooked me into carrying a pocket gun more often, because it's less likely to be noticed.

Sadly, it's not as pretty as it used to be due to both shoulder holsters I owned for this thing having a faulty retention strap that meant my gun got dropped, loaded, a few times. Once on concrete. :(

This is one of the guns Ixia's been allowed to paint the grips of, though they were the original polymer grips that I never used.

Glock 20 – 10mm Auto – Collection Gun

Although I sometimes kick around the idea of replacing this with a more modern version, I most likely never will. This was what replaced an EAA Witness because of that gun's problems. The original barrel is undersupported and caused some scary levels of bulging in the brass. So, I bought it a Lone Wolf Distributors replacement barrel and it's been flawless ever since.

I used to have a Hogue grip around its frame, but I ended up cutting that off because it felt weird after a while. I'm planning to, some day, get a 9x25mm Dillon barrel for it, but it's a pretty low priority project, since I'll have to buy ammunition.

Ruger Redhawk - .41 Magnum – Collection Gun

This is the gun I should probably switch to carrying as my hunting side-arm, since I may have to deal with larger critters in Colorado. It walked into Mid America as a used gun and I snatched it up quickly. Although the backstrap of the grip has some pitting from past rust, I don't regret buying this gun at all. It's smooth as silk and shoots fairly well. I'd been considering a Taurus Tracker in .41 Mag, but this was a much better option.

Ixia's been allowed to paint a set of wood grips for this that actually make the gun look fairly nice.

Ruger Super Redhawk - .44 Magnum – Collection Gun

So overbuilt that I won't worry about going to maximum loads, this gun is another one that I rescued from Mid America Arms. Since the floor manager had effectively stolen a Smith & Wesson I'd put dibs on, I bought this one as quickly as I could before he tried it again. It's a pretty big gun, however, and as such I'll probably never use it as a hunting sidearm, though I might consider using it for a primary hunting gun if I ever go handgun hunting.

It has a built in scope mount and I have the rings for it, but I've just never bothered to put a scope on it. I may, someday, but for now it's fine as it is.

Springfield XD45 - .45 ACP & .400 Corbon – Collection Gun

This is actually the second time I've owned this model in this configuration. I'd been having troubles with getting it to shoot .400 Corbon, as my handloading dies would either insufficiently crimp the case, or would buckle the shoulder. I foolishly gave up on it, rather than find a different solution. So, since I was getting bitten by the 1911 bug at that time, I sold it to get a Springfield 1911. I never should have. The XD was a far superior gun in the original chambering, as it would feed anything and didn't feel like it had as much recoil. So, I've bought another one and a new .400 Corbon barrel for it.

I'd wanted to get the Olive Drab frame gun, but it was just never available, so I gave in and got an all-black one again.

I still have some trouble with .400 Corbon, but I think I've found a solution in not loading as many rounds in the magazine.

Taurus PT145 - .45 ACP – Collection Gun

I cannot adequately explain why I bought this gun. I got this from South Side, well into the time when I knew Tauruses were iffy. I already had a .45 ACP. I had, and still have, no intention of using it as a CCW. I just really liked how it looked. It helped that it wasn't too expensive.

I often like to refer to shooting this gun as “bull riding,” as the recoil is strong enough that I feel I have to hang on pretty tight.

Springfield XD-LE - .45 GAP – Collection Gun

I should have gotten a Glock 37, but the one chance I had at one, the douchebag floor manager snatched it up, probably just to spite me.

I've had a few misfeeding issues with this gun, both with handloads and with factory ammunition, and I tend to blame it on the “stack-and-a-half” magazine this thing uses.

Uberti Cattleman Hombre - .45 Colt – Collection Gun

I'm not terribly happy with this gun. It works fine, and is probably plenty accurate for the design, but I just don't like it much. The “Hombre” means that the gun is parkerized, which is part of the problem; it's ugly. I'm also not really happy with the loading gate concept, though two of the guns I'm thinking about replacing it with both have a very similar loading method. The real thing that bothers me, however, is that the grip beats up on my hand, regardless of holding it “right.”

I got it, as I too often do, because it was cheap. The guy on Gun Broker who was selling it had gotten some amazing deal from Uberti/Benelli and I got it for something like $100 under retail price. Hard to pass up for that, but I feel, now, that I should have passed up on it.

Taurus Raging Bull - .454 Casull – Collection Gun

My monster. Early on in my pursuit of this collection, I'd decided I should have at least one “Big Bore Magnum,” and I was enchanted by the concept of one gun that shoots two different chamberings. I talked to a few people that had experience with several of these chamberings, and even the fact that they all said the .454 Casull was a brutally recoiling gun, it wasn't enough to steer me away. It did, however, cause me to “train” my hands to handle the recoil before I jumped into the Casull. I got the above mentioned Taurus 627, and shot it until it was no big deal. Then, I got a Raging Bull in .44 Magnum, and shot it until it was no big deal. Then, finally, I took the step up to the .454 Casull. Each of those steps I was surprised at how much more recoil the gun had, and was glad I'd approached the .454 Casull this way.

For a time, I had a scope mounted on this gun, but I've since removed it and given the mount away. I suspect the .454 Casull recoil was damaging the scope, but it was cheap and I won't mourn it if it turns out to be bad.

I had a little trouble, early on, with cases sticking, but years of use have polished those chambers to the point that the cases come out easily, and I have had rare issues of the firing pin getting stuck in the primers, but it hasn't happened recently, so maybe it also has broken in to the point that it's not occurring any more.

Mine has an 8”+ barrel, and I sometimes wish I'd gotten the 6” barrel, but not enough to trade the gun off.

Rifles

Savage Mark II - .22 Long Rifle – Target and Small Game Rifle

Being disappointed with the accuracy I was getting out of the Mossberg 142-A I'd been given, I sold it off and bought this thing. It's a magazine-fed, bolt action rifle. Polymer stocked with an Accutrigger. It's really not much better than the 142-A, but it is a slight improvement. I might hunt rabbits with this thing at 100 yards, if I had any place where the rabbits sat in the middle of a finely manicured lawn waiting to be shot or picked up by a hawk. As is my way, I scoped it with the 3-9x40 scope that my brother had given me with the Mossberg.

It's not yet blooded, and I'm not likely to do so any time soon, but the chance is always there.

It likes a certain kind of Fiocchi ammunition, which is a shame, since it seems to be rather hard to come by.

Ruger 10/22 - .22 Long Rifle – Painting Project Gun

I got this as a reward from Ruger for selling a decent amount of their products. From day one, it was meant to be Ixia's for her to paint. She has since painted it black with stylized blood and barbed wire in honor of her ex-wife. We've put one of the spare red-dot optics we had around the house onto it, and it's not a bad shooting gun. I don't like the dis-assembly process, so it may not get thoroughly cleaned all that often.

Remington 510 - .22 Long Rifle – Painting Project Gun

This is a single-shot bolt-action rifle we picked up solely for one of Ixia's painting projects. If memory serves, this one is now ivory with gold accenting. The cretin who owned the gun before it was sold to Mid America Arms had drilled and tapped the gun, and wound up drilling into the chamber. As such, we only shoot CCI CB Longs through it, so as not to abuse the screw that's holding the scope mount in. It has a tiny little scope on it, but it's clear enough to watch those super-slow bullets travel to the target.

Remington 514 - .22 Long Rifle – Painting Project Gun

This is also a single-shot bolt-action rifle we picked up solely for one of Ixia's painting projects. I don't see a whole lot of difference between this and the 510, in function, but the parts are certainly not the same. This one is still unfinished at the time of this writing, but is brown with dark green accenting. It will have light green accenting on top of the dark green eventually. This one has no scope, and I have no intention of trying to fit one onto it. I may change my mind later, but who knows?

Marlin 60 - .22 Long Rifle – Gunsmithing School Project Gun

This is a tube-fed semi-automatic rifle that I bought specifically to make a tactical chassis for in Specializations section in my gunsmithing school. There's not a whole lot to say about it, other than that I'm pissed that it's been more accurate than my Savage Mark II.

Browning A-Bolt - .223 WSSM – Gunsmithing School Project Gun

This is a bolt-action rifle, and the second gun I bought for Specializations with the intent of building a tactical chassis for it. It's not been as accurate as I'd hoped or expected, but I've done no serious accuracy testing loads for it, yet. I'm planning to wait on that until after the chassis is done and installed on it.

Stag Arms AR-15 – .204 Ruger, 5.56mm Nato, .264 LBC AR, 6.8 SPC, 300 AAC – Collection Gun and SHTF Weapon

My AR-Mutt. I originally bought the lower due to Obama Fever in 2009, I think. I bought it as a “complete minus stock” lower, and Bi Gal put a CMMG stock onto it. It stayed this way for months. Just a lower with no uppers. Then, I broke down and bought a CMMG 5.56mm Nato upper for it, just to complete it. It stayed this way for a year, with a decent scope on it. Then, I decided to sell off my PTR-91, because it was heavy, and used the money I got for it to turn my CMMG upper into a .264 LBC AR upper via some Les Baer parts, and sold off the 5.56mm Nato barrel. A nearly useless decision, since I've turned that .264 LBC AR into as heavy a gun, if not perhaps heavier, as that PTR-91, and later kicked myself for not keeping the barrel to turn into a new 5.56mm Nato upper.

For a time, I also had a pair of Olympic Arms pistol-cartridge uppers, but I had plenty of problems with them and got rid of them.

About two years ago, I bought a Model 1 Sales 5.56mm Nato upper, and have regretted it since. I'm not sure, but I think the products from that company come completely unassembled. Either way, the handguard was crooked, so I took it apart and found out that the moron who put the gun together didn't use the right tools, chewed the shit out of the barrel nut, and installed the gas tube wrong. So, Shadowfax and I took it apart, put a new barrel nut on it, and put it together right. Even so, it was a gun of poor accuracy. The first few shots were fine, but after that, the best I could do was 1.5 MOA, and I think it was purely a fluke when I did it. I've rebarreled it with a DPMS 20” bull barrel, and the results have been excellent. Half-MOA accuracy with several loads.

Next I got a YHM 6.8 SPC Upper, which I regretted jumping on so soon, but it has turned out to be a very nice gun. Fairly light, too, so it may be used as a hunting rifle some day.

Just recently, I picked up a .204 Ruger and a .300 AAC Blackout upper.

The .204 Ruger is a DPMS 24” heavy fluted barrel with a free-float fore end. It's already produced sub-MOA groups with factory ammunition. I'm a little excited to try handloading for it and see if I can get that even lower.

The .300 AAC Blackout is a CMMG 16” 1:7” twist upper with a pistol-length gas system. It's not done quite as well as other uppers I have, but I've only shot factory ammunition through it, so far.

Swedish Mauser 98 – 6.5x55mm Swedish – Painting Project Gun

This was originally part of my “last paycheck” from St. Louis Arms. And, I gave too much for it, too. It's a restocked Mauser. Years later, after shooting it a few times, I decided to let Ixia turn it into the first of our art project guns. It gave us some troubles in this regard, and is ruined in that the bolt has gouged a hole in the paint job. I do, occasionally, shoot it, but only on rare occasions.

I tried to sell it once, but the closest to an offer I got was for $50 so that the guy could “fix” it. Asshole.

Savage 16 “Bear Hunter” - .300 Winchester Short Magnum – Hunting Rifle

This is meant to be my “Colorado Hunting Gun.” Meaning, with the likelihood of 300+ yard shots at deer and maybe even elk, I decided I needed something considerably better ranged than my 1894FG. I settled on something like an actual magnum round, and, due to my experience of less powder meaning less recoil, I went with a Winchester Short Magnum. I considered the Mossberg 4x4, but I just didn't get the sense of rightness that the Savage gave me.

When I was first working up to it, I was expecting the recoil to be fierce, so I started trying to build up my recoil tolerance. I shot my Mauser with full power loads, fifty at a time until my shoulder was more accepting of the heavy hitting rounds, and still I worried it wouldn't be enough. But, that recoil pad and muzzle brake helped a ton.

At the end of last year's deer season, I decided that I needed something with more punch than my .41 Mag rifle could produce, so I switched to this as my primary deer rifle. I didn't get a shot at anything with it, though, so I don't know how effective it will really be in my hands.

Ruger PC9 – 9mm Luger – Collection Gun

When I was looking for a 9mm Luger PCC, it was strangely easy to decide which one. There are more 9mm Luger PCCs than any other chambering, but the simple fact that it took the same magazines as my Ruger P95 sealed the deal.

Shady and I ended up removing the rear sight in order to put a scope on it at the proper height, but beyond that it's been a pretty good rifle. It's strange to take apart, but at least not as strange as the 10/22 or Ruger's Mark III. The trigger isn't great, but it was a Bill Ruger Era gun, so there was an idiot involved in the design of it.

For all that I bitch about the trigger, it's not that inaccurate of a gun. Three MOA might sound like a lot, but it's my second best result with a PCC.

Mech Tech Carbine - .38 Super – Collection Gun

This is the gun that really drove the choice of what .38 Super pistol to get. I have yet to chronograph it, but I'm betting it's pushing the 115gr bullets to over 1500 fps with the right powders.

It does, I'll admit, look weird as hell with the bright shiny 1911 grip, often with some ornate panels on it, sticking out of the matte and kinda gritty looking upper.

This was the first of the Mech Techs I got, and I'm really happy with the gun, aside from its looks. It does make an odd “sproing” sound every shot, but you can't let things like that bother you.

Marlin 1894 - .357 Magnum – Collection Gun

One of my guns that has a story :) I bought this gun used from Mid America Arms. When I got it home, I played with it a bit and found that it would only hold six rounds in the magazine. This was strange, since I was pretty sure it should be able to hold nine or ten. It didn't bother me too much, though, and I made nothing of it for months. Then, one day, I decided to take the magazine apart and see if it's fixable. I unscrewed the endcap's retention screw, pulled the endcap and spring out.... and on the end of the spring was a live round. This was a shock, all on its own. I tipped the gun forward to get the follower out, and two more live rounds slide out, followed by the follower. No, I had not forgotten to unload the rifle, some moron had taken the magazine apart and stuck three rounds in between the spring and the follower. This isn't something you can do by accident. It requires a screwdriver. Maybe the idiot thought he was saving money and making a magazine limiter (not that such things are needed in Missouri). I think he was just an idiot and sold the rifle when his “brilliant idea” didn't work. I'm extremely glad I did this when I did, since the round that was against the follower showed a dimple forming in the primer from the little nipple on the back of the follower. Eventually, this gun would have blown up in my hands, otherwise.

Either way, I put a scope on it and tried to find an accurate load for it, but I've only, so far, tried a Nosler bullet that the gun doesn't seem to have liked. I need to try other bullets and see if I can find something it does like.

Beretta CX4 Storm - .40 S&W – Collection Gun, SHTF Weapon

The first gun I owned that was mine, was a Hi-Point 4095. It worked well enough and it was reasonably accurate at 50 yards. But it was ugly and it was a Hi-Point. Eventually, it would fail, and the magazine capacity was a joke.

One day, someone walks into Mid America Arms with this Beretta CX4. The shop wasn't interested, but I was. So, they told me to offer what I was interested in the gun for, and I did. The guy tried to haggle me up, but I'd offered what I could reasonably afford to pay for the gun, and it was, to be honest, more than I should have offered. But, he took the offer, in the end.

My only real issue with this gun is that the iron sights just get in the way when you're wanting to put an optic on the gun. I've seen pictures of people who have hacked those sights off, but I really don't want to do that, yet. I just bought a riser and mounted the scope high.

In terms of shooting, this gun is beautiful in function. The trigger isn't great, but I've long since gotten used to poor triggers. I'm considering sticking a red-dot sight I picked up recently onto it, since the design of the stock doesn't lend itself to shooting this gun from a rest. I may wait until I've done a more thorough accuracy testing with it and found a load it really really likes.

Mech Tech Carbine – 10mm Auto – Collection Gun

With all the trouble I had with the Olympic Upper I used to have to fill this niche in my collection, I wound up selling the stupid thing, after having waited sixteen goddamn months for it.

Originally, I was toying with the idea of getting this for a 1911 frame, but I decided I wanted the capacity that came with the Glock frame, which I already had in a Glock 20. I'm pretty happy with that decision, since it meant that I could sell off that Springfield 1911, instead of using it for this gun's trigger group and mag well.

I haven't even tried doing any accuracy testing for this gun, but I hope to do so some day. During gunsmithing school would be a fairly good time, I suspect.

Marlin 1894FG - .41 Magnum – Former Hunting Rifle, Collection Gun

I originally bought this for my collection, as it was the only .41 Magnum rifle on the market. After a bit of thinking, though, I decided to adopt it as my deer hunting rifle, owing to it being light and, I thought, good enough to take a deer with.

Accuracy testing showed it really only liked XTPs, though the other bullet designs were good enough for deer at 50 yards. Shady got us some 265gr Beartooth hard cast wide meplat bullets, but they wouldn't feed well through the gun (and it was a bitch getting them out, as the Henges officers had called a cease-fire, and weren't happy that I was holding them up).

I have shot three deer with this rifle. None of them died fast enough. The first I hit twice, and Shady still had to finish it off. The second, I hit and it ran, and we never found it, but it was most likely going to die soon. Not certainly, which bothered me the rest of the year. The third, I hit and it ran, and we never found it. It was almost certainly dead by the time we found the last, and very large, spot of blood, but it either stopped bleeding at that point, or it flew away, as there was no more blood trail beyond that. The problem was probably with the construction of the bullet. It was probably opening up too fast and losing too much energy. A soft point would have been a much better option.

H&R Handirifle - .44 Magnum – Collection Gun

This was a tough decision. It was between a Marlin lever-action (I already had two of those at this point), a Ruger 77/44 (which was crazy light, and I was worried about the recoil), and this gun, which was also inexpensive. I think I made the right choice, even if this isn't a repeater.

The barrel on this gun is so super thick, I'm not at all worried about pushing to maximum loads. It'll take it, and then some. Prior to last years deer season, I was tempted to get some heavy Beartooth wide meplat bullets and see if I could find a nice load and use it for deer, but I think my .300 WSM will be better, anyway.

This gun also has the distinction of being my most accurate PCC, with a 1.5 MOA group.

I like this gun so much, I'm almost disappointed I couldn't get other niches in my collection filled with these Handirifles.

Mech Tech Carbine - .45 ACP – Collection Gun

The other of my replacements for Olympic uppers, this also uses my Glock frame. Not much more to say that I haven't said about the other Mech Techs, though. It's been a great gun, so far.

Shotguns

Winchester 1200 – 20 Gauge – Hunting Shotgun

I'm not really a shotgun guy, as you can probably gather from the fact that I've only ever had one. I really only use this for squirrel and rabbit hunting, and since I don't do that much, I really don't use the gun much. If we go hunting for other small fast animals, I'll use it for them, as well, but for the time being, it just sits in my safe.

This is the second 1200 I've owned. Both I bought from Mid America Arms. The first had a fixed choke, and I really wanted the options of choke tubes. So, when another 1200 came in, with the ability to use Winchokes, I snatched it up. Functionally, the first was better, but this isn't a bad gun.

Previous Collection Items

Astra Model 1921 – 9mm Largo – Collection Gun

I had purchased this gun as a means of getting a new 9mm Largo pistol, and almost immediately regretted it. It is, allegedly, designed for a lower pressure standard for that cartridge, and thus I had to load it down somewhat to avoid beating it to death. It's also ugly, but that's not really why I regretted it.

In essence, I wanted another of those Llamas, and at the time of this writing, have one coming in. So, when the pawn shop I'd gotten it from told me it turned out to have been stolen when it was sold to them, and that I'd need to sell it back to them, I wasn't too upset.

North American Arms Guardian - .32 ACP – Concealed Carry Weapon

This was my first true concealed carry gun. I was carrying my Ruger P95 for a bit, but it was just too bulky and I was worried about it getting seen. So, I did some research and I went a little nuts on getting the smallest thing I could get and feel comfortable relying on. So, I got this thing.

Initially, it worked fine, and then it developed this issue where the slide would stay back and need to be pushed forward for it to close. Note that this gun had no last-round-lock-open function, so this was certainly a malfunction, so I sent it in for warranty work. The problem was, it was apparently working well in my hand because of how worn the mainspring was, and NAA replaced that mainspring with a brand new one. After that, it wouldn't feed anything. I sent it in again to see if they could get it working right, and they truly did a fine job of keeping me happy, but by that time, I'd already decided that I needed something else. So, I sold it for that Taurus PT132.

An additional reason why I sold it off was that this gun had the distinction of being the only gun I've ever had to pull on someone, and I was inside a car and would probably have had to shoot through my passenger side window. I simply wasn't sure the .32 ACP round would do so.

North American Arms Guardian - .32 NAA – Collection Gun

As you've probably noticed, I like bottlenecked pistol cartridges. NAA came out with two neat little rounds, and I bought one of their pistols to play with that round. I thought the .380 ACP Guardian was mean with its recoil. This thing was pretty brutal.

It had all the pluses and minuses of the other two Guardians I'd owned by this point, but it also had the problem that I was having loads of trouble getting the bullets crimped in tight enough that they wouldn't get pushed into the case. I have no idea why .357 Sig has no such troubles, or why factory loads never have this issue, but many bottleneck pistol cartridges I've owned have been a bitch to handload this way.

I wound up selling the gun out of fear that if I didn't sell it before the .32 NAA was discontinued, I would have a bitch of a time doing it after. I regret selling it, now, as I'm a little more comfortable with the idea of just buying ammunition for it, but that's life.

North American Arms Guardian - .380 ACP – Concealed Carry Weapon

When I sold off my .32 ACP Guardian, this is the gun I replaced it with for my CCW. Basically, I decided that the reason I couldn't get that .32 ACP one to feed right was that I couldn't get two fingers around the grip. The gun would just pivot in my hand, no matter how tightly I held it, and as such, I would be forever “limp-wristing” the gun. The .380 ACP Guardian, however, was long enough to get two fingers on. It also helped that the .380 ACP round was superior, in every way, to the .32 ACP.

I carried this gun for ages. Its downfall was that little parts kept breaking or disappearing. The gun functioned fine with them broken or gone, but it was a constant worry. Once a gun you consider a weapon fails on you, you have a lot of trouble trusting it after that. So, I wound up selling it off to replace it with something else, since I already had another .380 ACP pistol, and I liked it more.

Smith & Wesson 642 - .38 Special – Concealed Carry Weapon

This is another gun I regret, now, selling. This is what I replaced my Guardian .380 ACP with. I didn't carry it for terribly long before I came to realize that what I'd thought the .38 Special was, was not true. I thought it was a touch better than 9mm Luger, in that it would be going just a little slower, but with heavier bullets. It turns out it generally goes a lot slower with about the same weight of bullet, and very few defensive ammunition manufacturers were pushing it to the velocities of which it was even capable.

I did some research and found The Hottest .38 Special +P Known To Man. And I carried that for a while before I decided to shoot some of it, as the cases were getting a bit tarnished. I found I could barely control the gun with these rounds. I would be lucky to even hit my assailant they were so wild. So, I switched to a light fast round that had good gel testing results.

A while later, I started hearing a defensive shooting instructor named Massad Ayoob talking about needing the ability to deal with multiple threats, and it got under my skin. Enough so that I decided I should get something with a much larger capacity. Hence my Springfield XDSC 9mm Luger.

So, I sold it, and I shouldn't have. It did, at least, go to a good home, I think.

Taurus M605 - .357 Magnum – Concealed Carry Weapon

In the midst of my time owning my S&W 642, I decided I wanted to up-gun. I saw a Taurus 605, stainless, with the extended Hogue grip that I wanted, come into the shop. Serendipity, I thought. So, I snatched it up. Sensibly, I kept the 642 until I'd given this Taurus a good testing. Thank goodness I did.

It worked fine, most of the time, but there's this little ring that sits in the frame, through which the firing pin protrudes. On my gun, it was recessed into the frame, and it shouldn't have been. With even .38 Special rounds, sometimes the primer would back out into that recession, and the gun wouldn't want to cycle away from a fired round. Obviously a bad thing for a defensive gun. So, I sent it in for warranty work. It came back pretty fast, and I took it out to retest it. The problem was, I tested it with the wrong ammunition. This was just before I'd given up on Blue Dot for handgun loads, and the amunition I tested it with were Blue Dot filled. I had a very similar problem, and immediately stopped and started working on selling the gun.

I decided I didn't want to shaft Mid America Arms by selling it back to them (I'm too nice, they deserve such treatment), so I took it to a gun show. I expected to have to spend the entire show trying to sell the gun, and maybe have to try again at another show. While I was letting a cop at the front check the gun and put a zip tie in it to show it was Certified Unloaded, one of the people at the show saw what I was bringing. He asked me if I was selling it once I got away from the cop, and we haggled a little and he bought it. Five minutes in, and the gun was sold.

Months later, I was shooting up that .357 Magnum ammunition with the Blue Dot, in a revolver that had never given me a hint of trouble, and the rounds hung up, just like they did in this 605. So, I regret selling this gun, too.

Taurus PT132 - .32 ACP – Collection Gun

Ever only a Collection Gun, it was a very good gun for what I paid for it. I think I paid $180 for this thing, and it was pretty much flawless. It didn't like the hotter ammunition, but when I loaded the cartridge down, it was perfect. The trigger was long and squishy, as it was a Pre-Pro Millennium, and the grip was very square, but the gun just chugged along without a care, it seemed. It was even fairly accurate.

I sold it off primarily because I wanted something that “better fit what a .32 ACP gun should be,” and Shady gave me his old Beretta Tomcat for my birthday one year. So, not “needing” two .32 ACP pistols, I sent the PT132 away to a new home.

I don't regret selling it, exactly, but I think I should have thought about it in terms of not needing to sell it.

Taurus 82 Milsurp - .38 Special – Collection Gun

I regretted buying this gun from the very get go. The gun was rather rough in terms of finish, and it was loose like any modern Taurus (my other Taurus revolvers aren't this loose, FYI). Plus, with the fixed sights, it was not possible to correct it for the fact it was hitting high and right, and I just didn't like the grip angle that much. I tried to like it, I really did.

Once a Smith & Wesson model 15 rolled into the shop, however, this Taurus was history.

Taurus Raging Bull - .44 Magnum – Collection Gun

Strangely, this is not a gun I regret selling. It was a fine gun, and with the right loads was a real fire-breather with those ports. But, I'd decided to sell it off for a .44 Magnum barrel for my Desert Eagle. Not a whole lot more to say about it, really.

Don't get me wrong. I liked the gun, and it worked flawlessly. But, I liked the two .44 Magnums that succeeded it even more.

FIE Titan - .25 ACP – Collection Gun

Gods, did I get shafted when I bought this thing. I didn't do enough research. It wasn't even the gun I wanted. Some little FIE .25 Auto had come through St. Louis Arms as a transfer, and it caught my eye. So, I looked around for one, and I thought I'd found it in this little Titan. So, I paid the $200 for it and got it home. It was a turd. The thing was poorly made, and I'm not even entirely sure it was safe to shoot.

When a barely used Beretta 21 came into Mid America, I bought it and sold this thing there. The owners didn't even want to bother with it, but I convinced them to put it up on consignment for $80 and they could keep $30 of that. Obviously, with all the “What's your cheapest gun” sorts, it didn't stay on the wall long.

Heritage Manufacturing Rough Rider - .32 H&R – Collection Gun

I regret selling this gun a little. But only a little. I bought it because it was the only reasonably long barreled .32 H&R I could find. The pictures made it look a lot nicer. For some stupid reason, it has a hammer-block on-off safety lever on it. True, the old single-actions were dangerous to drop with a round in the chamber, but the manual still said to load it such that the hammer would be over an empty chamber. The “satin black” finish meant it was painted black, and the job they did on mine was poor, since there was a little solidified drip glob near the muzzle.

I shot all of twelve rounds out of this thing before I had to send it back for warranty work. For some reason, which I figured out later, the cylinder was binding up when trying to index. This happened to both myself and Shady, and we took the gun apart at the range to figure it out, and couldn't see any reason for it. So, it was sent back. A month after I knew they had received it, I called them to get a progress report. They said they hadn't touched it because they didn't know what the problem was, because they hadn't read the letter they themselves told me to put in with the gun to tell them what the problem was. Fucking morons. So, they told me they'd mess with it and call me back in an hour or two. I was at work, so that hour or two came and went and I had to call them the next day. I was told they'd mess with it for sure and call me back in an hour or two. Still no call by the following day, so I called again, very obviously irritated at this complete lack of an idea of customer service. This time, though, they really did call me back in an hour or two, and they told me the gun was fine and they were sending it back. They said they'd shot some thirty rounds through it without a single problem.

While it was on its way back, I talked to people in the shooting community, and I was given a suggestion of what was wrong. The problem was that the reassembly instructions lacked a part telling people to push the axle pin all the way in and then pull it out until it clicks into the slot in the pin. Since the instructions lacked this, I'd put the pin in too deep and it was causing problems.

Even with the gun now working fine, I didn't like it much. It was ugly, it had that stupid safety lever. The introduction of the .327 Federal Magnum cartridge was the nail in the coffin for this gun. I sold it and replaced it with a Ruger SP-101 in the new cartridge. I sold it to a guy that liked cheap guns and didn't understand why they didn't work well.

Llama Model IV Especial – 9mm Largo – Collection Gun (Bitterly Missed)

One day, at Mid America Arms, some lady brought in some guns that her father, now deceased, had been playing with, as he was a bit of a tinkerer. The shop didn't know what to fairly offer her for them, and offered her $120 for the trio. Thinking they were .38 Super pistols, and I could use the other two as parts guns, I bought them all. The guys were especially happy I did this when it turned out they were 9mm Largo chambered.

These were interesting little 1911 clones, with 5.5” barrels. I wound up buying some CCI Blazer ammo off of Gun Broker, and shooting one of them, but since I really wanted a .38 Super, and 9mm Largo wasn't quite it, I wound up selling them off. I made a pretty penny off of them, but I regret getting rid of all three. I think I should have kept the good one, as it was a really neat gun, despite my now luke-warm feelings about 1911s.

I have a saved search on Gun Broker that I peek at now and then, hoping to find another one, but they're usually going for twice what I sold each of mine for, and it's hard to justify spending that for one again.

Desert Eagle - .44 Magnum & .50 Action Express – Collection Gun

Originally, I was just getting this to be a Collection Gun for .50 AE. But, after a bit, I decided the idea of a semi-auto .44 Magnum was very appealing. So, I traded my .44 Magnum Raging Bull even for a .44 Magnum barrel and magazine for the Desert Eagle.

It was a somewhat neat gun, in some ways. However, I had initial trouble handloading for it, since the large pistol primers weren't igniting enough of the powder. The bullet would get out of the barrel, but not very fast. Additionally, for the longest time, I was shooting it wrong. I was using a Weaver stance, instead of having both arms straight. As a result, the .50 AE brass would hit me in the head because of the gun torquing. Lastly, the .50 AE barrel's sights were way off, and without a Red Dot, I'd miss the target even at seven yards.

So, once the novelty wore off, I came to not like shooting it very much. So, I wound up selling it off and buying a Ruger Super Redhawk in .44 Magnum to replace it.

Puma 92 - .454 Casull – Collection Gun

This is a rifle, by the way. Yes. A .454 Casull rifle, and I parted ways with it. I occasionally regret doing so, but to be honest, it was a beast to shoot. This was one of my “Severance Package” guns from St. Louis Arms. Meaning, there was no money to pay me my last few paychecks, so the boss said to take a few guns that added up to what the shop owed me. I'd been eying this thing, already, so it was an obvious choice.

It was a little stainless carbine – sixteen inch barrel – with blackened wood furniture. It had hi-viz sights on it. I never could get the thing sighted in. I think the recoil was so intense that it was shaking the rear sight around. Additionally, as mentioned, since I habitually loaded my .454 Casull ammunition with things like Hodgdon H110, the thing got tremendous velocities and the pressure was still pretty good when the bullets were leaving the barrel. As such, it recoiled hard. It was like a light loaded .450 Marlin, pretty much literally. I just couldn't stand shooting it much. Had it been scopable, I might have put up with the recoil and tried to love it, but I'm betting I still would have gotten rid of it in the end.

Glock 32 - .357 Sig – Collection Gun

This was my first Glock, and my first .357 Sig. I bought it from the shop, which had had it languishing, slightly used, for years. And, it was the gun with which I discovered my Glock Incompatibility (which I have since worked off). My brother had two Glocks, Models 22 and 26. Including my Model 32, when I shot any of these three guns, I was four inches to the left, no matter how much I worked on good trigger control. When my brother shot any of these three guns, he was dead on with them. Obviously, the problem was me. So, instead of working on fixing my problem, I sold the gun and put it toward buying my Sig 229, which I don't regret at all.

European American Armory Witness – 10mm Auto – Collection Gun

I probably should have sent this thing in instead of selling it, but I was, at the time, sick of sending guns in for warranty work. I bought this thing to be my 10mm Auto pistol, as I was “Incompatible” with Glocks (see Glock 32 above) and 1911s were too expensive for my tastes.

I think this gun was just cursed. When it arrived, the oils that the gun had been packed in had basically eaten away at the brush that had been put in with the gun, and somehow the brass from it had adhered to the slide. Meaning, there was this series of brass stripes on the side of my gun that would never, no matter how much I scrubbed with good cleaning chemicals, come off.

When I took it to the range, I couldn't get more than thirteen rounds into the fifteen round magazines, even with a lot of force being applied. Then, when shooting the gun, it would misfeed at least twice per magazine. Now, it wasn't going to be a defensive gun, but nobody likes owning a crap gun. So, probably quite rightly, I assumed it was a magazine issue. So, I ordered two new ones. When they arrived, I had three broken magazines, as all three failed in the same two ways.

I decided to wash my hands of it, and stuck it up on Gun Broker for what I'd paid, sans shipping, with a Buy It Now for what I'd paid with shipping. I fully disclosed every issue with the gun and listed it as a No Returns auction. It was up there for less than an hour before someone hit that Buy It Now button. I sincerely hope that person knew how to address the issues and has a fine gun today as a result.

Springfield 1911 Loaded Stainless – .45 ACP & .400 Corbon – Collection Gun

After having my Llama 9mm Largos and buying my Rock Island .38 Super, I'd been bitten by the 1911 bug. So, since I was having a little trouble with .400 Corbon in my XD .45 ACP, I sold it and used the money to get this Springfield 1911. I'd really wanted a Longslide, but those were never available for less than a thousand dollars, and I hadn't been bitten that badly. So, I settled for this Loaded 1911. Loaded meaning it's full of customizations to make it a better gun.

The customization they failed to put on it was to make it a gun worthy of even $400, since it would reliably feed exactly one kind of ammunition: full metal jacketed 230gr round-nose. Nothing else. Especially not hollow-points. Turns out all 1911s are like this if nobody has bothered to correct the design to make them feed actual defensive ammunition (which some manufacturers do at the factory, don't jump down my throat yet). So, I'd traded a gun that fed any and all .45 ACP ammunition for a primadonna that I had to buy a specific bullet for, and couldn't use in my .45 GAP.

Not only that, but the desire to have something that shot .400 Corbon had returned and I bought it a barrel for that and it was even worse in this gun. So, I sold the gun and the barrel, and bought a new XD .45 ACP and a .400 Corbon barrel for it.

Mossberg 142-A - .22 LR – Small Game Rifle

This rifle had a little bit of a story to it, and had I had a good relationship with my father, I would have cared. Apparently, my grandfather bought this rifle in a failed attempt to bond with my father. When it didn't work, it sat in the basement for years, until my father brought it out in a failed attempt to bond with myself and my step-brother. It didn't work, and it returned to the basement for years, until my step-mother cracked the whip and my father gave it to my brother so that she could avoid having a gun in her house. Because, we all know that even properly locked away guns will sneak out, all on their own, and murder millions of people every night, and she just couldn't have that on her conscience.

My brother kept it for a while, and used it to pop a few groundhogs, before giving it to me once he'd replaced it with a more suitable rifle (this 142-A was technically a youth model). I kept it, and even used it in a rabbit hunting trip that yielded a squirrel for each myself and my brother. Then, seeing my brother's point about the trigger and the short stock, I yearned for something better, too. So, I to passed it on, but this time for money.

It was fairly unique in that the magazine had this little adapter pin that would allow it to properly feed .22 Shorts. That pin, itself, could fetch $50 from the right person, so some Mossberg collector is probably very happy with this rifle.

JLD Enterprises PTR-91K - .308 Winchester – SHTF Gun

I occasionally regret selling this gun. But, to be honest, I really really like the gun I replaced it with.

I bought this to be my When The Shit Hits The Fan Gun. It's a US-made copy of the HK-91, made on the original machines from H&K. It was also a little heavy, especially when I put a scope on it, which was the reason I wanted to sell it.

It was also stupidly weird to reassemble, with some rolling pins and a bolt you had to turn just so, and you had to read the instructions each time because it was so weird. It also chucked brass thirty feet forward and to the right, which made handloading a little tricky. The brass would be permanently blackened by the gas system in these interesting stripes.

When I bought the gun, I wasn't able to do so all at once. I had to sit there and drool over it for months while I put money down to slowly pay it off. I also had to worry that this .308 Winchester, with the tiny little butt pad, would be kicking me fiercely. My .243 Winchester was annoying enough. Turns out that the huge pound and a half bolt carrier gulps down the recoil energy and the thing was quite comfortable to shoot.

But, in the end, I sold it to my brother, and used the money to convert a CMMG 5.56mm Nato upper to my current .264 LBC AR upper. In the process, I replaced this heavy PTR-91K with an equally heavy AR-15.

Hi-Point 4095 - .40 S&W – Collection Gun

Don't judge. I was young and stupid and didn't have the money for something better. You might have done the same in my shoes!

This was my first gun. I heard and disregarded my brother's advice to get something better. Even then, the pistol-cartridge carbine called to me.

So, I tried to order it through a local shop called Denny Dennis. They told me it would take two weeks to get there. A month later, I called them and they had no recollection of having ever ordered one of these, let alone having taken an order from me. So, I went elsewhere. I went to Mid America Arms. Mark didn't think the gun existed, and when he called his distributor, he found out he actually had one already on its way. So, I bought it before it could even arrive.

I made a couple of first-time-buyer mistakes, having an ID without my current address, and once I had that straightened out, I kept abbreviating things. At this time, the ATF hadn't gotten the stick out of their ass and learned about this new fangled thing called Mapquest, so you couldn't abbreviate anything. Not St. for Saint, not MO for Missouri, not Ln. for Lane. Nothing. I went through like four forms before I got one free of abbreviations.

I probably put at least five thousand rounds through that gun in its time in my collection. It shot reasonably well for a cheap gun with an awful trigger, and it was reliable for a while until the crappy finish they sprayed on the feed ramp started flaking off. I haven't the words to describe how disgusting that revelation was. Also, one of the screws holding the rear sight had been cross-threaded in, but my brother had a tap and threading set to fix it. And, the first time I took it apart, several pieces tried to get themselves lost, and I started avoiding doing that thorough a job of cleaning it after that.

It was a long time before I found a good .40 S&W carbine to replace it, and I'm very happy with the gun I replaced it with.

Olympic Arms Uppers w/ RRA Lower – 10mm and .45 ACP – Collection Gun

This still makes me a little angry thinking about it. I was quite happy to find out that Olympic made 10mm Auto uppers for the AR-15. So, I got the money together and I ordered one through Mid America Arms. This was in the height of Obama Fever, so, I was willing to wait. And wait I did. I waited and waited, and eventually called for an update. “This Summer.” So, I waited and waited and waited and called again. “Late Fall. We're redesigning the magazines.” So, I waited and waited and waited. “First of the year for sure.” I waited and waited and waited.... I waited sixteen goddamn months. I had the money, at this point, for a .45 ACP upper as well, but I was leery. I'd been waiting a long time, and I asked them if I'd have to wait that long for the .45 ACP upper, too. “Oh, no, we have both of those in stock right now!” I'm sure I was a little more civil, but my response was “Why the fuck didn't you ship a 10mm one to me if you have them to fill my goddamn order with?” So, I ordered the .45 ACP one. For no apparent reason, they showed up on two separate days.

They had redesigned the magazines, yes. They'd gone from hokey looking modified Uzi magazines to hokey looking huge plastic magazines. I can deal with that though. I took them home and it was a bitch to even get them 80% loaded. They didn't have the loading tool available at this time. I went to the range and one of them immediately had a problem. Apparently, Timney triggers and blow-back uppers do not mix. My trigger failed. To add insult to injury, if I had more than ten rounds loaded in the magazines, they'd swell enough that I couldn't fit them into the magwell. These were 16 and 20 round magazines. I fixed the trigger, and the uppers would make it fail again.

I ended up buying a RRA lower with a NM trigger, but in the end, the weird problems I kept having with them, the craptastic magazines, and the poor accuracy all led me to just be sick to death of these goddamn things. So, I sold the lot and replaced them with a Mech Tech CCU in each chambering.

Savage Model 10 - .243 Winchester – Former Hunting Rifle

I probably should have listened to my brother, but he cautioned me against getting one rifle for both varmint and deer hunting, and I bought this with that intention. My idea, at the time, of rabbit hunting was sitting in a blind or laying on the ground or something and popping the heads off of lazy little bunnies sitting in the middle of finely manicured lawns. It wasn't until years later that I found out that this is nothing like what rabbit hunting is like.

Additionally, the .243 Winchester is a little marginal on deer. Plenty of people take plenty of deer with them, yes, but it's still marginal. Add to this my desire to hunt deer with a pistol-cartridge rifle, and my .243 Winchester mostly just sat and collected dust. I'd go a year at a time without shooting the damn thing.

It got a brief lease on life with my thinking about using it for a long-distance shooting practice gun, but that was squashed when I got my .264 LBC and my .300 WSM, both of which were better in terms of accuracy as well as recoil. I simply ran out of convenient reasons for it to be taking up space in my safe, as I didn't really like it that much.