A Gun a Week: Remington Model 700ML, .50 Caliber

Remington Model 700ML, .50 Caliber

Cool August mornings, the kind that surprise you when you walk out of the door before heading to work, used to remind me of early-in-the-year school days until I was about 35 years-old or so. But after I hit the forty-year mark they've only reminded me of one thing and that is deer season. And since I'm reluctant to try my hand at bow hunting, the first weapon of choice is a rifle that the state allows to have its own two-week season as the manner of taking game--the Remington Model 700ML--and the ML stands for Muzzle Loader.

A common theme with my rifles. Remington and Leupold.

We all know what "muzzleloader" means. It's a rifle, like our ancestors used before the states were united and the Indians were harder to ignore, that is loaded from the muzzle with loose black powder, a patch, and a lead ball all stuffed home with a ramrod. It's what Charlton Heston raised up over his head and shouted his famous line, "From my cold, dead hands!" It's what was around when the Framers wrote that pesky Amendment number two.

I admit, I had my first muzzle loading pistol before I finished high school! Who didn't? And somehow, a school buddy had given me his as well, so there I was, armed with two .45 caliber pistols that shot patched round balls about as accurately as Ray Charles could shoot skeet on a windy day. And that's about the time I saw Jeremiah Johnson pull a .50 caliber Hawken Rifle out of the dead, frozen hands of Hatchet Jack--suck it, Charlton Heston--and when I'd saved up enough money I bought one of my own in kit form from J&B Arms at the corner of Mackay Rd. and High Point Rd... An hour later I was returning it...mom thought two pistols was enough for any high schooler's arsenal. 

Fast forward to 2002 or so, and finally, I'd bought a modern, inline muzzleloader for the sole purpose of hunting deer in the earliest days of hunting season, the muzzle-loading season. Mom had no say in the matter as I'd been a cooperative, productive member of society since I'd dropped out of college ten years hence. I'd bought this rifle to replace another muzzleloader that'd I'd loaned a buddy to hunt with after I'd broken my leg and had to sit a hunting season out. Naturally, like every good friend who borrows something from you, he left it out and let it get ruined, and when he reimbursed me for it months later I bought the Remington.

The ramrod is the only obvious sign you're toting a modern muzzleloader.

This rifle is a traditional muzzleloader in name only. I mean, sure, you pour your loose black powder, or black powder substitute, down the barrel, stuff a projectile and its wad into the muzzle and cram it all down to the breech with an honest-to-god ramrod like our forefathers used to do, and prime the thing with a percussion cap...but that's about it. The rest of Remington's rifle is all modern...in fact, the rest of the rifle is all Remington 700--the Remington flagship model.

It's the same tubular steel receiver, same trigger group and safety controls, and the same stock and bolt action you ought to be used to if you've ever owned and shot another, short-action Model 700. The only difference is the ignition system. Rather than have a big, lever style hammer on the side of the receiver like a Hawken rifle, the ignition system on this rifle mimics the firing pin throw of a Model 700, but rather than striking the primer of a cartridge, it strikes a No. 11 percussion cap inside the breech block thus igniting the powder charge.

Same controls with which you're familiar. The trigger group is stainless
steel to fight the corrosive effects of black powder.

The barrel is longish and fat! Made to accommodate a .50 caliber projectile or, more often or not this day and age, a smaller caliber projectile held in the bore with a sabot. In other words, you can shoot a .44 caliber projectile or a .45 caliber one as long as you include the proper-sized sabot to help seal the bullet to the rifling ahead of the expanding gasses from the powder. You can still buy Minnie Bullets, huge .50 caliber semi-hollow based bullets if you want, but I've never had much luck in the accuracy department with them. Those are throwbacks to the Civil War.

My rifle shoots ok...I guess. The design of course, lends itself very easily to mounting a scope for easy target acquisition. In the early days, I'd singe the bottom of the scope with flaming, escaping primer gasses, but I finally just added the "weather shield" that completely hides the primer and striker inside the action and eliminated the problem--no more scope singes. There have been a few upgrades offered by manufacturers like making it work with a shotgun primer ignition, pelletized black powder, and substitutes, instead of loose powder, but I have never bought into that. I'm too cheap...and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

Instead of a cartridge case, there's a breech block and a percussion nipple in my rifle.
Thus far I've stuck with this system and it hasn't let me down.

Now! Fast forward another four years or so to 2004. In the early days of my hunting "career" (after I had taken decades off to work and go to school, and start a family..etc etc...all the trappings of adult life) I hadn't had much luck. Oh, I'd seen plenty of deer--running away--but had never connected, but that all changed in Rockingham County on my buddy's fish farm.

Before that year, I was a big fan of still hunting. That is, I was a big fan of walking quietly through the woods with a gun and hoping to sneak up on a deer. It can work, but I never stepped slowly enough, nor quietly enough, and as I mentioned, I always saw deer high-tailing it out of my general area. But this hunt, in 2004, I decided to just sit...or "stand" hunt. Yeah, "still hunt" you walk, and "stand hunt" you sit; that's hunter logic I guess.

The business end.

I remember getting in the woods above a drained fishpond early one afternoon with my loaded and primed muzzleloader...and promptly falling asleep in the warm fall sunshine. When I awoke, for whatever reason, I rose slowly and deliberately without making too much noise, and there, feeding on the fresh green grass growing in the dried pond bed, was a fork and horn buck--not quite a four point, but much bigger and older than a simple little "spike". Bad genetics? Who cared? This was going to be my first deer!

I lifted the rifle up and propped it onto the folding stool I had brought to sit on, and using the stool as a bipod of sorts, I put the crosshairs on his sweet spot and freaked out. This was it. When you can hear blood coursing through your veins, you're freaking out. When you have to force your self to breath normally, slowly, you're freaking out. It's called "buck fever" though even the sight of a doe will also cause palpitations like that. And if you ever lose that feeling, you should probably quit hunting, but for me, this was the first time I absolutely knew, I was going to get this deer.

He wasn't a white tail bouncing away in my scope--an impossible shot--no, he was right there and so was I. I put the crosshairs on his sweet spot and squoze the trigger! BOOM! And then nothing but a white wall of smoke before me hid everything from view! All the shooting at the bench in an open rifle range had not prepared me for the effect of shooting a muzzle loading rifle in the woods. I couldn't see a thing. I didn't know what had happened...had I hit the deer? Did it run off? 

I used this time to reload, and by the time I had stuffed another load into the rifle, the smoke had cleared enough to see something white, super white compared to the green and brown grass in the pond bed, laying on the ground. I had no idea deer were so white. This was the first deer I had killed in the woods. By now it was getting dark so I stood up and walked over to the buck where he lay and was instantly sad and glad at the same time.

I knelt beside him and stroked his coat...looked into to the still vivid eyes and felt sorry I had killed him. But at the same time I felt an exuberance I cannot explain. Years of trying and failing, years of practice and reloading and more practice had just culminated into this gorgeous deer's fate. I patted his neck and said my "sorry's" and thanked him all in the same silent "prayer"--something I still do to this day for just about every animal I kill.  It sounds cliche, but if you don't feel a little bad about killing something, there might be something missing from your heart.

Anyway...that Model 700ML is the killingest rifle in my safe. I buy and trade and sell many rifles every year looking for something new (to me) to hunt with, to work up a load for, but with the muzzle loader, I've found out what works and have stuck with it. Tuning a new muzzleloader at the bench is a huge pain in the ass and shoulder--too much work in my mind to have to start over every fall. No, I'll just keep this rifle the same way it's been set up for 11 years and 10 deer.

If I see you first, Mr, or Mrs. Deer.

There's not alot* of pictures of me and this rifle afield. I don't know why. Perhaps because to me, this rifle is old hat, nothing new under the sun since I've spent more time with it in the field than most other rifles I own. A workhorse like this gets taken for granted, like your wife! And the pictures I have taken that were stored on social media are tough to find.

Hunting "old school" like this does limit you somewhat. There's the range limitation; you're not gonna be blasting deer much past 100 yards if you're serious about taking deer ethically. And you're sometimes handicapped by the amount of stuff you have to carry around to shoot and maintain your rifle. There is a thing called a Possibles Bag, but I know a man-purse when I see one and so opted for a regular old tool box. But the good news is, the whole thing cleans up with hot, hot soapy water.

I missing some parts out of this, namely the preloaded containers that aid
in reloading after a first shot, but I'll dig them up.

Well, bow season starts in these parts next week, and that means, since I haven't started using one yet, that I'll be dusting the ol' ML off and taking to the club to check for zero. Last year, I hit a deer pretty high on the shoulder which may mean that somewhere along the line the set up has been jostled and knocked out of true. Got to practice to take deer cleanly, and I'd hope that's how we'd all do it. You shouldn't pick up a rifle that's been leaning up in the safe all year and go hunting without popping a few rounds off.

A Gun a Week: Remington Model 788, .308 Winchester

Remington Model 788 in .308 Winchester. 

We all like recycling right? Want to save the planet and stuff. And lately we all like bad-mouthing cops too. So what if we could do both at the same time and get a rifle out of the deal? That's kind of what I did when I bought this Model 788 Remington back in 2006 or so...I really should've kept better records on purchase dates.

Back in those days, when the "Jack-Booted Government Thugs" kicked in your door to serve a warrant on you, and you possessed firearms even if you weren't allowed to, or if the warrant was a felony warrant, the cops would keep them! One of the things gun owners have to worry about in order to enjoy the privilege of buying and owning firearms legally is adhering to the law. It can be tricky--thus far I've managed to do so by not, you know, selling drugs, beating my wife, or killing people...etc. Stupid cops, right? Crazy that they'd take a firearm out of an alleged criminal's domicile. 

Hard plastic butt plate means you can't just lean it up
in a corner--it'll slide right down.

Anyway, somewhere along the line, someone's battered old Remington 788 was seized in a raid, or taken in as evidence in a criminal case, and held onto by "the government" for a while and then, in a burst of common sense, was sold to a firearms distributor/wholesaler to gain back monies for the courts, police departments, and other government entities. Seized firearms are essentially recycled for cash instead of being chopped up and destroyed. To me, it makes perfect sense to recoup some of the money spent on law enforcement by selling the possessions of lawbreakers to law abiders like me with a rifle addiction.

You see? Over-zealous cop bashing and recycling! Two for one in this week's blog.

And that brings us to my Model 788. Back then there was a store in Greensboro, NC called Southern Firearms--today it's called Dana Safety Supply operating as Southern Public Safety Equipment & Southern Firearms, but it's still there. Also back then, my "go-to" gunstore's owner heard from the guy running Southern Firearms at the time about some evidence guns that were for sale. And knowing my love of just about everything Remington--hair straighteners and nose hair trimmers notwithstanding--the manager, Ken Something-something, let it be known to me that he had a deal on a little rifle in .308 Winchester.

Everything Remington I always say.

The Model 788 was introduced in 1967 as a more affordable model than the Remington flagship, the Model 700. I can't imagine how it would be less expensive to make as it shares several qualities with the M700, but that's how it was marketed until about 1984. Mine was made in 1974 according to internet sources. The rifles are machined out of a piece of tubular steel, like the M700, but have rear locking lugs instead of the front locking lugs on the M700. The receiver "bridge" of the M788 is super long to accommodate these lugs, which might limit one from mounting a shorter, more compact scope, but they do allow for a shorter bolt throw which may or may not make working the bolt and reloading easier and faster--I have no opinion on that.

The 788's bolt is in front. Note the nine rear locking lugs as opposed to
the other two bolts, a Winchester and a Remington top to bottom, that sport
the age-old front-located, dual opposing locking lugs.

They might've saved money on the trigger assembly, since there's no adjustment screws on it. They just slapped them together and pinned them in and what you get is what you get. A M700's trigger can be adjusted by the owner though no one recommends that you do so--and yes, we all do so. And there's no visual cocking indicator that lets you see if the rifle is cocked and locked when you're afield but that's no big deal since the safety cannot be engaged if the rifle's not cocked. So if you got a second, and you can't remember if you loaded your rifle after you climbed up into your stand, try the safety? Though, if you can't remember, maybe you shouldn't be in a tree stand with a rifle at all.

The rear locking lugs and the big plastic safety at home in the action.

My Model 788 came with a bent scope attached--legend was it was used as a bludgeon in a murder so the nickname it got in that very small circle of friends (more like a triangle really) was "the murder weapon". 788's are magazine fed affairs too, but guess what was missing from mine? I've yet to get a good deal on a vintage rifle that comes with the magazine it was born with. It's always an Ebay or gun show crawl to get one of those pesky magazines that always seem to disappear. I can tell you, like the aforementioned Model 760 Gamemaster, the old magazines are pretty pricey...just as well. 

The manager, Ken, had an eye on a pistol I owned at the time, so getting the rifle I wanted was a simple affair of "you buy my Ruger Super Blackhawk (in .357 Mag/9mm Luger) at Greensboro Gunworks, and I'll jaunt down to your store and buy the scope-bent, mag-missing murder weapon". We had to do it like that because of all the paperwork and commissions and such, and I think in the end I got the rifle for $250.00 plus tax...fricking tax. They tax us when we make the money, and tax us when we spend it? Both ends! And we're fine with it I guess...but I digress.

A vintage rifle deserves a vintage scope--especially if the rifle has a very long
receiver bridge that doesn't accommodate modern, compact scopes.

The gun's first trip to the range was as a single shot but it proved to be a shooter. The grubby barrel it peered down at the store didn't look any better after i cleaned it prior to shooting and that worried me a bit, but it still shoots well. All that neglect after murdering someone didn't seem to affect accuracy much, but I often wonder if it would shoot much better had the barrel stayed pristine. It shoots well enough that I wouldn't rebarrel it now--it'll last longer than I will.

As a handloader, the rifle's never had store-bought ammunition through it. Everything I've blasted out of it was hand-rolled by me, and the favorite load it seems is the one built around Nosler's 125 gr Ballistic Tip bullet. And it the powder Winchester made for the .308 Win. round since they started loading the round: Win 748. The two just came together in "the murder weapon" and shot just fine. Fine enough even to be used on a quick, after-work hunt with a buddy of mine up in Stoneville, NC.

A tweak of scope adjustment, and this dog will hunt.

A hay field partly surrounded by a band of trees was the setting where the garden-poaching herd of deer would appear at just about the same day everyday, and one day, J.B. and I were there fixing to get ready for them. At one point, the surrounding band of trees are nearly all pine trees which means for quiet stalking instead of crunching through hardwoods' leaves. And that was the plan of attack in the last few minutes of legal shooting light. We walked couched over on our knees in the pine needles to within 40 or 50 yards of a group of emboldened deer who had rarely been shot at in those days. J.B., a lefty, was on my left and we whispered we'd shoot at the same time, him shooting a deer on the left, and I shooting a deer on the right.

At the time I had mounted on the rifle a Leupold Vari-X III, 1.5-5x scope which is a fine and dandy choice for bright sunny days (and hard kicking rifles), but we were under a bower of pines nearly thirty minutes after sunset and I was straining to see a smallish doe through the little 20mm objective in the dusk. We were counting down and I was bobbing around trying to find the cross hairs to put on the shoulder of one of the deer. And we were counting down. Finally, I settled in and squeezed off the shot and my little doe disappeared. Turns out, since the deer were so close, I had hit her very high on the shoulder through the spine and she died instantly where she had stood.

Older scopes tend to be longer for their power, so I stuck this old Redfield on the 788.

That was the first deer I shot with that rifle and the last, though I have hunted with it and shot it many times since. It just hasn't happened for the rifle again, but I'll keep trying. So from the belly of a government recycling plan, for good or bad, I reclaimed "the murder weapon" for hunting and shooting. It's chambered in one of the best all-round cartridges ever developed so it was a no-brainer at the time. 

In the ironic world of guntardness, these days many 788s will garner a higher price on the used market than the old Remington standby M700 which the 788 was developed to be cheaper than. Find an old 788 in 30-30 Winchester or 44 Remington Magnum, and you better dig deep into your pockets to buy it. I owned another 788 Carbine in .243 Winchester but I sold it off to make room in the safe for other projects. No, I think owning only one of these old bolt guns is enough to get a taste of how shooters and hunters from the last century went around hunting and losing their magazines in the woods so I'll just hang onto mine for a while longer. But if you see it for sale any time soon at Southern Firearms, I'll probably be in jail!

Worth its weight in gold if you have a 788 without one. They don't make 'em
like this anymore.

A Gun a Week: Remington Model 760 Gamemaster, .35 Remington

Remington Model 760 gamemaster, .35 remington.

If you ever been to a pawn shop, and a rifle catches your eye, you know that horrible feeling you get when the guy behind the counter flips the tag for you (you always have to ask--no gun store is smart enough to display hang tags with the prices facing out) and you see how much they think their rifle is worth. You know and I know and the guy behind the counter knows that the shop has paid someone around fifty cents on the dollar for that rifle, so why do they always ask for exorbitant amounts on rifles that they've pretty much stolen from someone who needed quick cash? I'm not real sure, greed I reckon.

Anyway, such was the case back in 2006 when I spied this Remington Model 760 Gamemaster on the rack among all the Mossberg pump shotguns. I think at the time they wanted $399.99 dollars for it...as if anyone'd be fooled by the missing penny. I recoiled in horror and amusement. The 760 was obviously old as dirt and was missing its magazine which meant right away, if someone bought it, he or she'd be on an epic quest to find a vintage magazine to fit it.

These rifles were made on the same frame as Remington's 28 gauge Wingmaster shotgun, so the feel of the stock and the weight and the position of the safety and trigger were very familiar to me. There wasn't much bright bluing left on that receiver, but there wasn't much more than faint surface rust either and just a few scratches. The old original sights were still intact, though I knew I'd scope the thing--as old as it was, it was drilled and tapped for a scope mount for sure.

Same frame as a 28 gauge Wingmaster so all the controls are very similar.

I asked to fondle it which means I was really interested to see it. These days I'm at a point in my life where I don't need to fondle guns to shop for them. I mean, you fondle one Model 700 or Model 70 or Glock pistol, you've fondled them all. No, just tell me how much you want for it. But at the time, I wanted a closer look for sure. I wanted to see what chambering it was, and seeing that it was chambered in 35 Remington made me really want it. 

You see these pumps, the "Yankee Lever guns" all the time in plain-Jane, boring old 30-06. And you see those rifles all the time for sale around the $350.00 mark. So dull in fact that a guntard like me wouldn't even want one of the old ones in 30-06. No, all the cool ones are in old-school numbers like 300 Savage, 257 Roberts, 244 Remington and, naturally, 35 Remington. I've seen one since I bought mine in 270 Winchester, which is also pretty neat, again, giving that it isn't in that ol' has-been 30 caliber. 

Old timers trick to reverse the rear sight for scope mounting...that way you you'll not lose it.

So I made an offer of $250.00 and was laughed at by The Man...that was 2006.

It's a pawnshop in Kernersville, NC and I used to stop by every quarter or so to check things out. I lived in Stokesdale, NC and it was on the way to Target, Walmart and BoJangles--pretty much everything you need to survive, so it was as easy as pie to stop in and see what else they had. Once I stopped in, and the normal guy behind the counter was gone, replaced by another guy. I asked him about the rifle again, and he handed it to me unprompted. By now they had stuck a magazine, or tried to, from a different model Remington, a 742 Woodsmaster! It was literally jammed in and since it was designed for a semi-automatic version of this same rifle more or less, it didn't allow the function of the slide at all.

I told the guy it wasn't the correct magazine and looked at the price tag. It was holding fast at $399.99 so I made an offer of $250.00 to the "new guy" and was laughed at...that was 2007. In fact, I think I did walk out of there with a Model 700 in .243 Winchester which, by some crazy misalignment of the universe was being offered at a reasonable price!

The model 760 was introduced in 1952 and ran until 1981. Only about 1.03 million were made! I knew this gun was an early one by the rather plain forearm and hard metal butt plate. I think they call it a corncob fore end because it sports simple cuts to allow a good pumping grip and it resembles a cob of some kind. I had shot a former customer's (in 300 Savage--very high cool factor) and his was around the same age and so they were very similar in appearance and wear. And since I had coveted his granddad's rifle then, it only made me want the pawn shop's even more.

Corncob fore arm says "old school".

I stopped in again several months later and asked about the rifle. The "new guy" was still there and so was the rifle. Only now the pump-o-matic had lost the mismatched magazine for the empty hole again. If anything, this was actually better. Imagine buying it and getting to the range and finding out it wouldn't work; caveat emptor I reckon.

I don't remember the price at that time, but I offered him $250.00 and was laughed at by him and the owner....that was 2008. I did find a nice Western Auto version of a Marlin 336 in 30-30 Winchester which, because it didn't say Marlin on the barrel, was offered for a very reasonable price--$250.00 as I recall.

As you know, 2008 brought a grinding halt to everything alot* of us knew about building houses and making money. It was like waking up with amnesia--overnight everything had changed and I had to learn many hard lessons. The one lesson I always repeat is, "I'll never take money or work for granted again."

Aluminum (I think) butt plate. In 30-06, that'd be brutal on your shoulder.

I bet I didn't step foot in that pawnshop for two years; why would I? I didn't have any money to spend. I'd drive by and think about it but never got out of the truck. But when things started looking a little better, I thought about stepping in again. And when I did, there was the little rifle waiting for me. I flipped the tag to check the price: $299.99! They were getting closer!

I smiled and made my offer to the owner himself--I guess they had to get rid of some people on account of the depression. I offered $250.00 and was laughed at by the owner....that was 2011.

In the meantime, I had dropped deer with the .243 I bought there. I had dropped deer and even taken my buddy Bill on his first deer hunt with the Western Auto 30-30 I bought there. So when Christmas was coming up the next year, I knew I had to get myself something to ease the pain of buying everyone else I know and love something they wanted.

And when I walked in the pawnshop that last time, I explained myself to the plucky "new kid" behind the counter. I knew that the gun had been there for six years and told him. I knew a new magazine for it was going to be a fifty dollar ordeal and I told him. I laid it all out for him, and he took my case to the owner. When the owner looked at the back of the tag and saw it was a six-year-old pawn, I knew I had him. I offered him $250.00 and he took it...that was 2012!

Sure they got me for tax, of course they did, but in principle, I got that fricking rifle for $250.00! And it only took six years. As soon as I got it home and got a Leupold 4x M8 scope on it, there was a photo-op in the bathroom--nothing pervy, that room just had the best bank of bulbs in the house.

Facebook photo op shortly after i bought it. Note missing magazine.

That weekend it was taken to the range to get zeroed in. Around this same time, I had some of Hornady's Leverevolution ammo left over from previous hunts with a Marlin 336CS in the same chambering, so it was a no brainer to use it. Obviously, the 760 is vertically fed from its magazine (which I was missing when I zeroed it--think, single shot rifle) so I didn't have to shoot ammo designed for a tubular magazine fed rifle like the Marlin, and some day I might just whip some ammunition up from the bench with good old fashioned spitzer bullets, but I did for that hunting season. That ammo is really good stuff for any rifle in 35 Remington. They also make it for 30-30's as well, and I can't say enough good things about those two offerings.

The next weekend, after buying a modern magazine for the 760's progeny, the 7600, the rifle and I were in a tree stand. The newer magazine was very difficult to install and extract, but it would have to do for the first hunt. The cartridges fed flawlessly from the magazine even though it was a true pain in the fingers to get the thing in or out of the receiver. Sadly, I have three modern mags for the rifle which I probably never use again. Later I found a dusty old vendor at a gun show and he had a dusty old magazine that fit my rifle perfectly for, you guessed it, fifty dollars...turns out my gun was $299.99, but I digress.

And when the gang of does stepped out of the thick woods to graze and cross the logging road I was perched above on the farm in Eden, I picked the biggest one, the one staring intently and knowingly at me, and took her down instantly and humanely with a neck shot. She was inside 100 yards, but further than fifty away which is the perfect range for any rifle chambered in 35 Remington. When I walked up to her I took a picture of her with the rifle not to gloat, but to document what she looked like before I killed her, to document when and where I was and with which rifle I had killed her. I think it's important to remember you killed something, to "make a mark" that you'll always have, and thanks to the internet, I will.

The evening light makes phone photography tough.
It was good to get the old gun into the woods again.

I did in fact take a copy of that picture back to the pawn shop to show the guys what I had done with "their" rifle. I wanted them to know I wasn't some crackpot guntard that wanted the rifle for a low-ball price just to tuck it away in a vault forever. I wanted them to know I took an old hunter hunting again. A quick Google search had told me my gun was made in 1954, and I was happy I got it off the rack and back out into the woods to do what it was designed for.

Nature-made tree stand.

I hunted with it again the next year down on federal game lands--I could tell you where, but then I'd have to kill you--and watched a dopey young six-pointer mosey right by me from the top of a busted down tree. It was a natural deer stand, and from atop it, I watched that buck the whole time he was in 35 Remington range through the scope as he ambled by but never shot him. Maybe I was just enjoying sitting in the woods watching the first big, black squirrels I had ever seen in the wild dig around in the leaves, or maybe it was that old realization that the fun's over as soon as the smoke clears, and the truck was parked a long long way away to drag a deer.

Scope caps up, this dog will hunt.

A Gun a Week: Remington Model Seven, 7mm-08 Remington

Remington Model Seven, 7mm-08 Remington

Quickly after becoming a guntard, or rather, an enthusiast, you quickly get sucked into a certain school of thought after you realize that you can't hunt or shoot with just any over-the-counter, store-bought rifle. And I bought into this for a while, for sure.

First is the realization that you can't kill deer with any of the common cartridges sold in Walmarts all over America. No, a 30-06, .243, 30-30, or a .308 just won't do anymore. You need a custom-chambered rifle for your hunting needs in some ancient cartridge that preceded them all. You need a rifle chambered in a cartridge like 7x57mm Mauser that was developed in 1890-something to beat out all the other guys with their cookie-cutter rifles at the hunting-shooting game. 

Here's Emily in 2006 behind the scenes at The Gunsmith's with another "custom" rifle...
I guess we were trying to goad him to finish it by pestering him.

To do this though, first you need to buy an old beater rifle...that's at least 400 bucks. Then you need to buy a new barrel for the thing, and that's another 400 bucks. Then you need to pay a guy to put the two together...that's another 300 bucks...you see what I'm getting at? If you read anything I've written about a "custom" rifle I own, this is what I had to do. It's an expensive process, but slow, so the costs get spread out. But it's something I've done to the tune of a bunch of dollars. Sigh. 

And so it was, several years ago when I wanted a rifle chambered in that old, grandfatherly cartridge, 7x57mm Mauser, in stainless steel so I wouldn't have to wait a year for the gunsmith to get around to bluing it, that I had the mother of all epiphanies: what if I just bought one ready to go? 

Another realization you come to as a guntard is that your nine-pound rifle is way too heavy to tote all the way from your truck to the deerstand. Think of all the other stuff you have to carry: your binoculars, cell phone, and...well, that's about it, but that's alot* when you're bundled up in winter wear. No, you need a svelte little carbine that comes in under seven pounds of course. And they make and sell those for sure. Kimber Mfg. makes them and sells them at such a premium, think MFSR $1,768.00 (from the pages of this month's Rifleman), that gun-nerds will hand it right over to keep from straining their backs. I can't do it, well, not all at once; I got kids...and dogs. 

This is why I type out Model Seven every time. It's just how it's done!

And that brings us back to the afore-mentioned cookie-cutter rifle. Turns out Remington makes exactly that for less than half of the cost of a Kimber. The Model Seven. The only compromise I had to make was getting one in a modern cartridge. You see, the old 7x57mm Mauser cartridge won't fit in a modern short action, but the ballistically identical 7mm-08 Remington will. Introduced in 1980, it's a pretty old design...not as cool and as old as the Mauser round, but it'll do.

The real selling point on the cartridge is this little rifle. Its action is a quarter inch shorter than a regular old Remington model 700 and I guess that little bit helps it shed some weight, and they come with a shorter, thinner barrel too, which also helps keep the weight down. The one I bought, brand new (the last rifle I ever bought brand new eight years ago or so) also has a super-slim plastic stock that makes the thing feel almost toy-like in my grip. If ever a rifle was made for carrying around unnoticed on your shoulder for less than the cost of a used car on Craig's List, this is it.

The barrel is 20 inches long with only about 19 1/4 inches sticking out of the action. It's pencil thin at the end, which you'd think would hurt accuracy but this is not the case! The handload I manufactured for it back in 2007 comes in under an inch at 100 yards and amazingly, at 200 yards as well--shocking to say the least for any rifle let alone a little hunting carbine.

Reloaders save the good, the bad, and the ugly. We need the data so we don't
repeat bad recipes and do replicate the good loads. This is a good load.

Heck, the whole rifle is only 38 3/4 inches long. Mine weighs 8 pounds with the scope, sling and four cartridges in the holder strapped around the stock which means it's a pound lighter than most rifles are nekkid. Admittedly, I didn't do a very scientific weight check by doing the old weigh myself with the gun and then without, but I think it's close enough for the ten people who read this blog...on a side note, I'm back on the Atkins Diet for the next two weeks.

A meter of rifle!

If you look at pictures at an old Remington model XP-100, I think you can see the lineage of the Model Seven. They seem to sport the same action so if you get rid of the XP-100's weird dog-legged bolt, oddly-shaped safety, and "pistol" stock, and exchange it for the standard Model 700's controls, you've got the Model Seven. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to convert a Model Seven into a pistol...but why in the world...

Here's an old XP-100. 

Here's the Model Seven's controls...You can see the lineage I think.

The only bad thing I could ever say about my rifle is that the recoil pad went "sticky" like most of the Remingtons sold in those days. It's a Limbsaver Inc.'s problem that became a Remington problem, but it's easily fixed. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Such a pain to have to unglue it from the safe floor to get it out for hunting or fondling. And I might just take this opportunity to fix it once and for all for the photos.

Sticky pad problems. Look close and the cartridge headstamps are 308 WIN which
is the parent case for the 7mm-08--a run throught a sizing die does the conversion.

The first doe I shot with this rifle was a micro-deer at 125 yards. I had only been hunting for four years or so back then and sometimes had trouble judging deer sizes in waning light and through the 2-7X Leupold so I consider the fawn an "oops" moment--but! the small ones sure are tender and tasty and easy to manage I hafta say. Two more does in December 2011 and November 2013 until the latest doe in December 2013 which was an awful experience in the perils of neck shots.

A hundred yard, more or less, shot to the neck which dropped her in her tracks as usual, apparently didn't kill her right away and after hours and hours of tracking ever-shrinking blood drops, we finally gave up finding her. I had started using neck shots because it usually keeps the deer in sight for quick and clean kills which is what every hunter should want. I know I work pretty dang hard to keep my kills clean and humane as possible, but lousy shots happen for one reason or another. It sucks when you flub a shot and I think about them often, mostly to try to prevent them from happening again, but also as a type of self-flagellation I suppose.

It's important to not let bad shots from seasons past affect your confidence on the next shot opportunity for the worse. I always say killing an animal is an awful and terrific thing--terrible and thrilling all at the same time...and you don't need the spectre of the last dicked-up shot making you place yet another misplaced shot downrange. There's alot* going into the mental game of taking game. 

Anyway, this little rifle is a proven shooter and game-getter as long as I do my part. I can't think of anyway to improve it except to buy an even better scope for it. Trim little rifle need trim little scopes on top. And of course, I need to get around to fixing the sticky pad. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing. 

An extra pair of eyes never hurt.

Of course, all the while, I still keep an eye out for an old rifle chambered for an old cartridge like, say, 7x57mm Mauser. They're still out there.

Ilion's smallest high-powered rifle. The Model Seven.

A Gun a Week: Glock 27, .40 Smith & Wesson

The Glock 27, 40 Smith & Wesson (top) on the bathroom counter posing. The Beretta 92FS Centurion is below...
but that's another story.

This is really a confessional, a hat in hand, head held low kind of post that I never thought I have to write. When I started AGAW I chose to write about the firearms I own, and until several weeks ago today, I still owned this pistol. Obviously I didn't have time to take several posed pictures of it since it was taken, so all I have are photos pulled from Instagram and facebook posts.

But first: the pistol was a slam dunk. I saw it at The Gun Rack in Kernersville and joked with the owner that if it were still there on my next payday I'd buy it...and it was. The Glock 27 is the "mini" version of the polymer pistol that literally changed the gun-toting world when it came on the scene in the eighties. It is the plastic gun the media told us would be able to pass through metal detectors undetected (it won't and never could). And in the early days, people loved to gripe about them.

They didn't have an external safety. Well, I always said, so what? Neither do revolvers. And they actually do have a little lever in the trigger that won't let you pull the trigger unless it's pushed in.

Simple, in fact, Glock calls it, "Perfection," and they are close.

They had a plastic frame. Well so what. If you ever carried a full-sized Beretta 92 or 96 around on your hip all day, you'd understand how a dozen ounces less can feel so much better at the end of a day.

They had a boxy grip that just wasn't comfortable, but if you've ever shot one enough, you know that's not even an issue. I never missed a plate or target because the grip was boxy. My gun was bought altered, by the way, and you can tell by the picture, compared to factory Glocks, that the "backstrap" was reduced somehow while the texture was "customized" as well. I'm not sure it helped the pistol at all, but it certainly didn't hurt it. 

See the after-market texture that was added later? The trim backstrap?
Also note, as far as the BATFE is concerned, that's the pistol--the part with a serial number.

But after those early days, everybody wanted one. Law enforcement were the first devotees I'd say, and then the carrying public. And that's when I got mine, in the very late '90's. The 40 Smith & Wesson cartridge was developed in 1990 or so and quickly also became a darling of police forces and private citizens who wanted, as always, more punch in a smaller frame.

The .40 S&W is a powerhouse, high-pressure cartridge that is the shorter and handier fraternal twin of the 10mm Automatic. The 10mm Auto cartridge is long enough to require bigger frame pistols that not everyone can hang onto very well, but, the 40 S&W was shortened enough to fit in Glock's standard-sized frame that started with the Model 17 in 9mm Parabellum. In other words, any frame Glock could fit a 9mm Parabellum cartridge into, they could fit the 40 S&W as well. And offered in three sizes, mine fit at the bottom as a "Mini" or sub-compact model.

One sleepy night I accidentally put the little Glock down on my gum park.

And that small size and light weight means that not only is it a gun you can carry comfortably, but it's also a gun you will carry probably more often than not. I know I sure did. In fact, the stubby pistol was the first pistol I owned that I was actually able to conceal without a noticeable bulge in my waistband. And that meant that if I had my pants on, I was carrying a pistol.

Even playing around with a coal stove, the Glock was always easy to carry.
Does my Glock make me look fat?

I never had to unholster the gun on a person or to "defend" myself, and likely never will. That's just a fact. But I came very close to defending my toddler-sized daughter at The Last Minute Market in Stokesdale several years ago. The owner's two "pitbulls" both at once came shockingly quickly from around the counter right up to my daughter's face--they were all eye-level. It happened so fast that no one had time to think, I just reached down and grabbed her up with one arm and pushed the dogs away with a gentle knee. My right hand was on the Glock's grip, but no other action was required...just some raised eyebrows!

The little pistol has even taken two deer. Both deer, taken several seasons apart, were shot high on the shoulder and weren't dying painlessly, and rather than let them die slowly while suffering, the little Glock was used to dispatch them quickly. The last time I used it on a deer was last year in Vance County on a little buck on federal gamelands during muzzleloader season. 

I have even taken a squirrel with it on a whim headed back to a buddy's house after a morning of duck hunting. Short-barreled handguns can be accurate enough to take a tree rat at 15 or 20 yards in the right hands. Once, I even shot an empty .45 Auto case off a metal cable on a police practice range at 7 yards on a bet with some fellow shooters who happened to be cops too. But for the tree rat, it was a classic broadside.

The acorn wasn't placed there, the squirrel had clamped down on it.

So yeah, the poster boy for "lock your guns up" let his guard down and left a gun in a car over night. And at some point, early in the morning, someone lifted it after going through all our vehicles. I have all the excuses--we were gong to head out later again after seeing the boy and his date off to the prom, but got stuck on the couch--but it just boils down to being lazy. And for that the universe punished me. What's worse is the notion that the pistol could be used for something awful in the future by someone who obviously doesn't care about respecting other people. 

That's what's been so hard to take for me personally. That's why TGAW project was met with a grinding halt the Sunday the pistol was stolen...I haven't had the stomach for writing about my guns when I literally gave one away to a criminal. It's taken this long to "show my face" again. Sure, there's a slim chance I'll get it back--it could happen, but I won't hold my breath.

Naturally, I took to carrying the Beretta again (see photo at the top of blog) and kept my eye open for another Glock and found used one at a good price at Powers Firearms, Inc. in Greensboro I jumped on it. My first Glock back in 1995 was a Glock 21 in 45 Auto, and now, my latest Glock is a 36 in 45 Auto as well. It's a "mini" as well, and I haven't shot it very much, but I've shot it enough to know it will work, even with my handloads.

The little Glock 36, 45 Auto. New to me.

I hope to carry it at least as many years as I did that little 27. I know I'll be more careful and less lazy with it. It will always be near. I'm pretty sure I'll never need it, but I have fire extinguishers too.