So Linda has procured a fine pair of mouse-guns for my birthday (don’t worry, full report on each inbound!) and we were discussing this the other week. At one point she got a thoughtful look on her face and said, “I want to see you make the smallest gun you can.”

Regular readers are probably aware that I’ve made single-shot pistols before, so this was definitely in my wheelehouse. We negotiated the terms. I insisted it be in a real caliber- no 2.7mm pinfire or any of that nonsense- and it must be at least arguably useful. ‘Arguably Useful’ in this case meaning large enough to be easily operated, and to be at least potentially lethal.

Challenge accepted.

The sensible thing to do would have been to draw up a plan, make some templates to cut out the parts, organize the materials I needed and make sure everything was five by five. Naturally I didn’t do that.

For reasons I have never been able to grasp people seem to be in the habit of buying a new Ruger 10/22 rifle and immediately replacing the perfectly good factory barrel. I don’t know why; maybe they think they can shoot better than the factory barrel, and maybe a tiny percentage of them can. I think it’s the Lego factor myself. It’s easy to change, and by changing it it’s personalized (better!) Whatever the reason it means there are a lot of stock 10/22 barrels on the aftermarket, and it’s pretty easy to pick them up cheap if you look around a little. This is a Good Thing.

This is a good thing because not only are these perfectly good barrels, they are seriously stout. I am about 99% sure you could re-chamber these for 5.56mm and it would be just fine. This means there is a lot of material to work with. I cut a short section of barrel (about 1-3/8″) and squared it off on the belt grinder, with the bore off-center towards the top. I had a vague plan to make this a swing-barrel (opening to the side) and wanted to leave room for the screw that would secure it to the frame. I used a .22 chamber reamer on one end, mounting it in a T-handle and carefully reaming by hand until the chamber would accept a .22 Short cartridge.

I need to apologize, and now is as good a time as any. Usually doing a build like this I take copious photographs and walk you through the process step by step. I didn’t this time. I was caught up in the challenge and it simply didn’t occur to me until it was too late. I started writing this as a tutorial anyway, but it’s just to complicated, long, and hard to understand without reference photos. Basically I followed the same steps as in the .22 magnum build, only without drawing up plans. You can read about that here if you like:

https://tinkertalksguns.com/2016/11/09/22-magnum-pistol-build-part-1/

https://tinkertalksguns.com/2016/11/11/22-magnum-pistol-build-part-2/

Without proper plans to work from I just built this by TLAR (That Looks About Right.) There was significant trial-and-error involved too; it was a trail, and mostly in error. But in the end, four hammers, two triggers and six springs later, it was done.

So, without further ado… the pictures!

While the gun is quite stout enough to handle .22 LR, I chose to make it a .22 Short. Tradition, I guess, since the original guns of this type fired this cartridge. Of course then it was just called .22 Rim Fire, because it was the only .22 there was.

I’m using CCI .22 CB Short Low Noise ammunition. This propels a 29gr. bullet at 710fps. from a rifle, so it pretty much duplicates the performance of the original black powder load. I’ll tell you this, though- it is very much not ‘low noise’ from a 1-3/8″ barrel!

I was actually quite surprised by this ammo’s performance. My first test-shot in my shop (where I discovered the whole ‘not quiet’ thing) was fired into a pressure treated 4×4 at a distance of about 5 feet. I didn’t expect much, but the base of the bullet was just over 1-1/2″ deep in the wood! If I’d had any thoughts that this was a toy they would have vanished right then.

Not that this is a good, or even adequate gun for self-defense. It might, under just the right (seriously unlikely) circumstances, prove useful in the role. Fortunately that’s not the point of this gun; the point was the challenge which, even Linda was quick to admit, was met.

So, I’ll iron out the wrinkles, and once I am happy that it’s all right and proper I’ll rust blue it, and maybe replace the ‘randomwood’ grips with something nice and make it a clever little wooden box to live in. But one thing is certain… I will be shooting it and trying to improve.

After all… I do like a challenge.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 13 June 2020

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Yesterday I went shooting for the first time since early March. Linda is High-risk for COVID19, so we went into social isolation quite early. Champion Arms, my local indoor range, has been closed much of that time anyway, as has the outdoor range I am a member of.

The range has closed every other lane, so they are running at half capacity, and they are insisting on people wearing masks. Being basically cool people they also offered members an added month to their membership to help offset the time they were closed. Once on the range I lowered my mask; the air-evac system blows from behind the shooter and straight downrange, so at that point infection just isn’t much of an issue.

After basically three months I had a lot of things to test, some loads and even a new gun… but you’ll need to wait on hearing about that one. It’s getting it’s own post.

I started off with the Detonics Mk.1 CombatMaster .45. Sometime back I was perusing Pinto’s and came across two unopened boxes of Speers’ legendary 200gr. ‘Flying Ashtray’ hollowpoint bullets. Developed in the 1980s, these were the first hollowpoints that expanded reliably at .45 ACP velocities. I loaded these over a charge of Unique that propels them from the Detonics 3-1/2″ barrel at 900 fps.

Accuracy was fine, but these loads were a little hot for the fast-cycling gun, and some of the brass got crunched. Nonetheless it was reliable out of the six-shot Detonics mags. The 8-shot full-length Shooting Star magazines were a less happy tale. These have always worked perfectly with milder loads, but on average they malfunctioned once per mag with the hot loads. Not a tragedy; I have plenty of the Detonics mags. I think I’m going to back these loads down a bit; they really don’t need to be this stout to do the job.

I also wanted to shoot a new load in .32 S&W Long- another hot load, this one an 85gr. XTP Hollow Point, and it’s stepping right out, at over 1000 fps. from the two-inch barreled Colt. This is not a load I recommend; while it is comparable to some of the load data from the 1930s, it is definitely not range ammo, and I plan to load it as a defensive load and shoot it very, very little.

Despite the power this load has relatively little recoil, and the Detective Special, as always, was a joy to shoot. I did shoot some precision targets, and the round is more accurate than I am at 10 and 25 yards, so good enough.

People talk about not wanting to blow up old guns with hot loads, but in a good quality gun that’s not really an issue. What you do need to worry about is loosening them up or screwing up their timing, which is a pain to repair and sometimes can’t be done.

Speaking of loosening up old guns, I am not eager to induce a case of Wobbly Webley Syndrome in my Mk.1. It’s near as dammit 135 years old, so I think a little TLC is in order. Like most of the .455s imported after WW2 this gun had the cylinder shaved to accept .45 ACP using moon clips. Since .45 ACP is loaded around half-again the pressure of .455 this was a terrible idea, but importers thought it would be easier to sell the guns in a common US caliber, and I am sure they were correct. But if you want your gun to survive and prosper, you load it down to .455 specs.

I’m practically swimming in ACP brass, so to avoid confusion I shortened a bunch of it to the length of .450 Adams for use in the Webley. That way there’s no chance of inadvertently loading full-power ammo in the old gun. I call the result .450 Rimless, and load it like .450 Adams. I took a bunch of loaded clips to the range and went to town on some targets.

As an experiment I had tried some of these rounds to see if the would feed in the Detonics, and they did, so I loaded up a magazine and gave it a try. In most semi-automatic guns the case head spaces on the lip of the cartridge in the inside of the chamber, and in theory a 1911-based gun does too… but in reality they effectively headspace on the extractor, which is fixed in the slide. When the cartridge is stripped from the magazine it slides up and under the extractor, rather than having a hinged extractor snapping over the rim when the gun comes into battery. This meant, in practice, the short casings might work fine.

Guess what? They do, and are in fact pleasantly mellow out of the Detonics. Accuracy is fine as well.

I don’t see any real utility in running the shorter cartridge through the Combat Master, but it’s nice to know I can. I think.

Lastly I had .41 Special loads to run through the Taurus model 415 .41 Magnum. Both used a 210gr. copper-washed Kieth bullet over a charge of 6.0 or 6.5gr of Unique with a CCI large pistol primer. The 6.0gr. load makes 875 fps. and 357 ft./lbs. from the 2.75″ barreled Taurus, and the 6.5gr load makes 919 fps and 394 ft./lbs.

The 6.0gr loads had some pop, but were rather nice to shoot. The 6.5gr. loads had notable more recoil, but still not unpleasant. Not anywhere near as intense as shooting .41 magnum loads, but of course that’s why we load .41 Special.

Not sure what I’m going to do about these sights, but some sort of adjustment is needed, it’s just a question of how to do that. I’ll have to see how the front sight is attached.

I didn’t get to shoot as long as I wanted to since I screwed up my back earlier this week and it was starting to get fussy after an hour or so, but Lord it was nice to be back on the range!

I’ll cover the last bit of this trip in the next post, when I tell you about the new gun…

Take care and stay safe.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 11 June 2020

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As a rule I only talk about politics as it relates to gun control, and seldom even then. But today I am going to write about a sensitive subject that does touch on politics, but it’s really about how we in the gun community want to be seen. We’ll start with a question: Do we, as gun owners, want to be known as rational, reasonable people? Or would we prefer to be known as reactionary assholes who use paranoid fantasies to justify our crimes? Cowardly bullies that terrorize innocent people? As a bunch of cowardly, jack-booted thugs?

On the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state there is a town called Sequim (usually pronounced ‘skwim’ by non-natives.) Nearby is a small town called Forks, made famous in fiction for being the home of a sparkly undead child molester and his teenage victim. These are, for the most part, nice little towns. On June 3 there was a protest in support of BLM in Sequim. Whatever you think of Black Lives Matter, the protest was peaceful, and there were no shenanigans. The local police had this to say:

‘A peaceful protest with approximately 200 participants is in progress mid-day in Sequim on June 3rd. A portion of the protesters broke off from the corner of Sequim Avenue and washington street and marched on the sidewalk west to the roundabout. Sequim Police are monitoring the situation and there has been no criminal activity.

please disregard rumors that members of Antifa are being bused to Sequim from out of town. There is no police intelligence to support this rumor. Police Intelligence indicates the protesters are local people and Police officers are looking for potential signs of agitation.’

OK, that’s the view of the police. Here’s what the city had to say:

OK, all good, and well done. People had their say and everyone went home without incident. Well, the police did run one fellow off… a fellow named Seth, who runs Fred’s Guns in Sequim. You might find the Yelp reviews of his store informative. Seth went to the protest and live-streamed, claiming to see 400+ protesters, and that Antifa members in black were being brought in by the busload. Very, very stealthy Antifa members; no one else, protesters, bystanders or police, saw them. You can still see the videos on his facebook page if you really want, but I am not inclined to post a link to this trash.

A couple from out of town came through in their camper- a converted school bus. Now the real fun begins. They stopped at a store in Forks, the small town near Sequim. Upon leaving the store they were confronted and asked if they were ‘Antifa.’ Apparently the locals were too stupid to recognize that the bus was converted to a camper and that it wasn’t full of people. I won’t even speculate as to whether the fact that they were a bi-racial couple had anything to do with the events that followed.

The couple left, and were reportedly followed by several cars full of armed men. Local witnesses have verified this. A local said the police escorted the couple out of town for their own safety.

But the incident, and the social media posting, wasn’t over. The couple left and found a camping spot, but hearing chainsaws and nearby gunshots decided to err on the side of caution and leave… but they couldn’t. Here’s why, and bear in mind this was after the couple had left town, not as they were trying to enter.

It is actually a crime to fell trees across a road. One wonders how Seth got this picture. One doesn’t wonder why he misrepresented this as preventing them from entering town. It seems very much like the sort of thing a lying, cowardly asshole might do to puff himself up.

The couple was able to leave when some young folk came along with a chainsaw and cleared the road. I don’t know who these kids were, but apparently wandering around with a chainsaw isn’t that unusual in a rural area where a lot of folks heat with wood.

I have this account from another local. They don’t mind being quoted by name, but the kind of cowards that harassed this couple cannot be trusted to leave them alone if they see this, so I choose not to name them. I will tell you this person is a gun owner and dedicated to our 2nd Amendment rights.

“First I’ll refer you to the page ‘Fred’s Guns 2.0’. He deleted the worst of his videos, but his live videos are what started all of this & some of them are still up for you to view. It all started with a BLM protest in Sequim (also on the Olympic peninsula) which then morphed into Seth (owner of Fred’s Guns) telling the ‘patriots’ of our town to come guard the community. Keep in mind this is a very small area and the entire protest was organized by mothers of young children & high schoolers. There was absolutely zero violence & the police were involved from the planning stages. Seth went down, posted a video saying that he saw 400+ people, a bus loads of people dressed in all black here from the city to riot for ANTIFA. None of this was true, and he was told to leave. He proceeded to post pictures of busses (including the one the family was driving) saying these were ANTIFA members. Then…people believed him & chased the bus down.”

Other locals have been in touch have verified the account above, and other details I have provided. They know me because they too are gun owners I am acquainted with.

Whatever our opinions of BLM, Antifa and their actions, they weren’t actually involved. The protesters were orderly, no busloads of Antifa were present, no damage was done by the protesters. Just a gun store owner spreading lies, and a bunch of bullies getting hysterical and harassing innocent people. What a grand victory for Truth, Justice and The American Way!

Is this how we want to be known? Because in the eyes of a lot of people these jackasses represent the gun community. I know full well that most of us are decent, thoughtful and law abiding people. The kind of people that pull crap like this aren’t, but since scum floats this is what people see, and what informs their opinion of us. This fact doesn’t thrill me.

I’m sure that the stupid jerks that perpetrated this shit are busy all over their social media of choice, letting us all know what big, bad, manly dudes they are, making up excuses for their behavior and spreading more lies to justify themselves. I’m sure there are plenty of people who will believe them. This kind of behavior is bad for gun owners, and in these dark, uncertain times this sort of crap, and the publicity that will come from it, is the last thing we need.

Local Law Enforcement is investigating, and charges may yet be filed. I’ll be watching with interest.

I encourage you to verify what I have written here; I understand that I am pretty much asking you to take my word for things, and you are free to disbelieve me… but why would I lie? I’m all for people working together, exercising their 2nd Amendment rights and defending their town and neighbors, but that’s plainly not what happened here. These people should be ashamed of themselves, and we should be ashamed that people like this count themselves as part of our community.

I fully expect a lot of negative kickback for this post, and maybe I’ll even lose some readers. I’m OK with that, because this sort of crap is bad for all of us and if we don’t police ourselves someone will… and I doubt we’ll enjoy that.

Take care and stay safe.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 6 June, 2020