Ko's Firearms Wishlist

Thompson Centerfire Encore Pro Hunter (rifle frame)

Shady's right, I should have one of these, if nothing else than for all the weird little rounds I want to play with, but might be best not buying a whole rifle to play with them with. Because of some of the rounds I'm wanting to shoot with this, I'm thinking I want that recoil pad on the back of the thing. I might also consider cheaping out and just using the PAST recoil shield I have to tame the recoil, and get a standard Encore frame in blued.

Thompson Centerfire Encore Barrels: (pretty much all of these will need to be custom ordered from someone like Matchgrade Machine. Consult Michael. If it has a ¥ at the end, and you're getting it for me, please get it with a muzzle brake, or at least threaded so I can put a brake on it myself.)

• 327 Federal Magnum – This round has so much potential in a rifle. I want to see how much, and I want to see just how well the bullets will hold up hitting at the higher velocities possible with this round in a rifle. This is, as far as I know, the only way I'd be able to get a rifle chambered in this, as no one, yet, has bothered to do so.

• 32 H&R Magnum – It's hard to really explain why I want this, since I'm already looking at getting a .327 Fed Mag barrel for this frame. Again, I think this round has potential in a rifle, but of those rifles chambered in it, all have, to my knowledge, been discontinued.

• 357 Maximum – I'll also want to play with this in a pistol, but gods does this round have potential in a rifle.

• 41 Remington Magnum – I'm replacing my 1894FG with this, so I'll need a .41 Magnum barrel for it, I think.

• 414 Super Magnum – A weird bore diameter super magnum? Count me in! Dies will be tricky to find, however. I might look into getting it ported for extra measure. ¥

• 445 Super Magnum – Another of the super magnums I would like to play with. Dies will be tricky to find, however. I might look into getting it ported for extra measure. ¥

• 45 Colt

• 454 Casull

• 460 S&W Magnum – This will be a beast, but I want it. I might look into getting it ported for extra measure. ¥

• 500 S&W Magnum – This will be a monster, but I want it. I might look into getting it ported for extra measure. ¥

Thompson Centerfire Pistol Frame

Obviously, I should also get the pistol, for some of those expensive and/or hard to find things as you'll see in the list below. I'm not sure yet which pistol frame to get, but I might get the Contender so that the barrels are not interchangable with the rifle frame.

Thompson Centerfire Pistol Barrels:

• 32 H&R Magnum

• 357 Maximum

• 414 Super Magnum

• 445 Super Magnum

• 460 S&W Magnum

• 500 S&W Magnum

9x25 Dillon Conversion for Glock 20

I like bottleneck pistol cartridges. This one, however, will be problematic to handload for, unless I get Lee to make me some custom dies. The only dies I'm aware of for this cartridge are from Dillon, and are thus like $300 for no valid reason. I can buy ammunition, but I think it's like $1 a round, which would make it something like the most expensive ammunition I would shoot.

Mechtech Carbine Conversion for Glock 31

Ironically, this is the last gun I need to complete my original idea for my collection. This would give me a .357 Sig rifle. My only hesitation with this is that, as a blow-back rifle, it'd ruin the cases. I could handload for it, but I would have to throw away the brass I get out of it, as it wouldn't likely be safe to shoot again, even in a recoil operated handgun. Perhaps, when I'm a gunsmith, I'll build a gas-operated .357 Sig rifle, instead of buying this upper.

Unchosen .17 Caliber Rifle and Pistol

I don't know why I want one, or have a real legitimate purpose for getting one, but I want a .17 caliber rifle and pistol. For the rifle, I think I would like to have it be something reloadable, so that I can tweak it for accuracy. The pistol, sadly, will almost certainly have to be a .17 HMR. Although, a .17 Mach IV barrel for the T/C might be tempting.

Unchosen .44 Special Handgun

Yes, I can shoot .44 Special through my Ruger Super Redhawk, but I'm wanting something smaller and more “appropriate” for the chambering. I haven't really settled on what I want, though a Ruger Blackhawk is probably what I will get. I could also get a T/C barrel that shoots it, but I'd really rather have a repeater of some sort.

Unchosen .40 S&W Subcompact pistol

This is one of those guns I can't really explain why I want. I already have a .40 S&W pistol, but I'm getting an itch to also have subcompact pistols in several different chamberings. I already have a 9mm Luger and .45 ACP, so obviously, the gap is a subcompact .40 S&W, probably with the ability to accept a .357 Sig barrel.

That last part narrows it down to, I think, a Smith & Wesson M&P, another Springfield XDSC, or a Glock 27. However, the Glock might have an unsupported chamber, and require me to buy two new barrels for it.

Glock 37 .45 GAP

This will replace my Springfield XD in .45 GAP and hopefully be more reliable. I'm not sure what my Springfield doesn't like.

Glock 39 .45 GAP

This one is really hard to explain, but I think it would be an awesome gun to have. Low priority, however.

AR-15 Upper Assemblies:

• 5.7x28 – Another of those things I can't adequately explain why I want. It's just a neat little cartridge. My concern with it is in handloading it. Unless this is a gas-operated action, high-pressure blow-back sounds a little risky. So, I might pass on this if it is not gas-operated.

• 6x45mm – No real purpose in mind with this, just something I want. Because of how slow the bullet will be, I won't consider this better than a 300 yard gun, so a bull barrel isn't necessary, though a heavy profile might be nice. This is one of those things I certainly will need to build myself. Black Hole Weaponry sells barrels for a reasonable price in this chambering.

• 30 Remington AR – This might be used for deer hunting, but I'm not sure. It'll be a somewhat risky venture, as I don't know how long the brass and/or ammunition will be available. This will be the other half of my .30 caliber AR-15 collection, with the aim to shoot the lighter bullets nice and fast. As I might use it for hunting, I might want to go with a heavy profile barrel, instead of a bull barrel. That said, I doubt I'll need anything other than my Savage Bear Hunter, so I might go with a bull barrel if it's available.

• 450 Bushmaster – In terms of practical purposes, I might use this as a predator-defense rifle. Meaning, I might carry this while going out into the mountains with someone that's worried about grizzlies or mountain lions. It won't have long range, and I'll most likely put a red-dot on it, so a light rifle might be best for this. Government or heavy profile might be good for the barrel.

• 458 SOCOM – I can't really explain why I want one, it just seems like an interesting cartridge to play with. I'll probably want a muzzle brake, however.

• 50 Beowulf – This might also be used as a predator-defense rifle. I don't know if they make anything other than heavy profile barrels for this, though. I might need to use a heavy buffer to tame the recoil of this a bit, though.

• 223 WSSM, 243 WSSM, 25 WSSM – I'd like to get one or more of the WSSM chamberings in an AR-15 Upper, just 'cause. I'd probably hope for a faster twist rate to stabilize the heavy-for-caliber bullets to reduce throat erosion. I might make my own barrel, once I'm a gunsmith, and possibly might know something about how to prevent throat erosion even better.

308 AR Platform

I'm also wanting to get the big brother of the AR-15, though there's some issues with compatibility, so stick with DPMS uppers and lowers, as they offer all of the chamberings I wish to have (or used to). None of these would be used for anything practical, per se, but I still want them.

• .243 Winchester

• .260 Remington

• 7mm-08

• .308 Winchester

• .338 Federal

AR-15 Pistol Platform or maybe an SBR

I've always been attracted to the idea of these short little firearms shooting rifle rounds. It might end up being more practical to do a Short Barreled Rifle build, but the pistol variation has less paperwork. Because accuracy won't be expected out of this platform, buying from companies like Model 1 Sales is acceptable.

I want more than just the single gun, however. I want to have several uppers for the lower.

• .300 AAC

• Other chamberings would be nice, but most are going to be tricksy builds.