Object of Desire

TIL that back in the Before Times, they made #Lomography cameras that you could focus! pic.twitter.com/bf7FUGWszn
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) December 15, 2014

Much like the Luger I got recently, I am just compelled to paw this thing. Last time I was behind a camera store counter, this was an unachievable object of desire. The body alone cost more than the used car I was driving at the time.

Tomorrow I'll go get some film and batteries.
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Hummingbird Guns!

A Kolibri pistol and the perfect brace of double-barrel fowling pieces to go with it! Linky.
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Can't win if you don't play...

Despite never winning so much as a door prize in any drawing ever in my life, this 75th Anniversary contest from Brownells is tempting to me, because a Wilson Wombat CQB is a no-kiddin' nice pistol.
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Oh, do want.

Matte black sex in the Oregon sun. (Click to make EXTREMELY huge.)

The big story in this picture is supposed to be the "Soon-To-Be-Released" Colt Competition .308 on the right, but really, I need a .308 self-loader like a hen needs a flag.

No, what threw me into paroxysms of avarice was that Colt Competition "Pro 18" on the left. With the eighteen-inch barrel and rifle-length gas tube and Geissele trigger, the thing shot like it was thought-controlled. Combined with the can it was wearing, it hardly moved under recoil. After running a couple mags through it, I had the wantsies so bad that I was a little dazed, else they would have needed a crowbar to get it out of my fingers.

Dear Santa: I have been very, very, very good this year...

(Also: First time I've used one of those 45° offset mini red dots combined with a low-power scope to shift back and forth between closer and farther targets. That's a pretty trick little feature.)

Do want.

So I'm over at Days of our Trailers, reading the NRA Convention recap, and he mentions an ATI StG-44 copy in .22LR. How had I missed this?

Now, I've been pretty good about divesting myself of everything other than working guns and the investment stuff in my collection, and this manifestly falls into neither category, but I have a completely irrational wantsies for it. And I mean badly. I couldn't want it any harder unless it had a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.

Clearing tabs...

• Old NFO's new rifle is causing me some pretty serious Tenth Commandment issues.


• If crackpot Nazi secret weapons are your thing, then you'll like Target: America: Hitler's Plan to Attack the United States. As an added bonus, various Italian schemes are covered, too, like the idea of transporting a few of the Tenth Flotilla's manned torpedoes to the entrance of New York harbor slung under CANT Z.511 fuselages. I did not know that.
  


• If you only read one blog post today...


• Commenga Easymag in A-stan. (Part 1 of a series.)
  

Future is now!

My Mateba revolver came with an hilariously-translated owner's manual which read like Italian stereo instructions, complete with the slogan "Future Is Now!"

For some reason, I think of that phrase every time I see a "retro custom" 1911. I can't deny that I'm not completely immune to the Old School Look; after all, when I had my '66 Colt painted, I went with a black slide and gunmetal-colored frame as a sort of homage to those early '80s customs, which sported a hard-chromed or matte nickeled frame practically as a matter of course.

Anyhow, the retro custom 1911, best epitomized by these from Ted Yost, is very much the "flavor of the month" right now.

If you look carefully, you'll note that the hammer is bobbed to prevent bite and the sights are huge (and therefore actually usable) compared to GI units.

Once upon a time, beavertails and extended safeties and Novaks looked "custom" because regular 1911's looked GI. Now that every Filipino slag gun on the market comes with a ski jump, how are you gonna differentiate your multi-kilobuck custom from the herd?

The retro trend started back in the early 'Aughties, and will peak as soon as a factory house starts making them. My bet is Kimber. Then the fashionistas will be looking for something else, I guess.

...and a pony!

Og lays out his Firearms Wish List.

I've never really given mine any organized thought. As a collector, there are certain guns I would buy on reflex if I found them and I could afford them, but it's not like there's any real method to the madness.

There are a few that don't fit the pattern, however, that I still lust after. For example, at some point, I'm going to buy a Remington Model 8. And not a minty one, either, but an honest shooter, preferably in .35 Remington.

I'll own another Ruger No.1 RSI someday, too, but this one will be in 7x57mm instead of .243 Win. like the last one was.

Strange cravings, Part II

I did something the other day that I haven't done in too long a while...

I was doing some straightening up in the basement, and while I was down there I pulled out my FN-49.

It's an Egyptian contract gun in 8mm Mauser. You may have seen it, since its picture is on Wikipedia; I got it from my friend Oleg.

I examined the intricate forgings and wondered what history had been soaked into the steel and walnut. I dusted it off and oiled down all the exposed metal. I worked the action a few times and threw it to my shoulder, peering through the sights at a spot on the brick wall of the basement...

I really want another one. There's nothing wrong with 8x57, but one from Belgium or Luxembourg in .30-'06 would be sweet. A Venezuelan contract gun in 7x57 would be sweetest 'cause, you know, a gas-operated autochucker in .275 Rigby with receiver-mounted aperture sights and a ten-round mag would be the berries.

Do want...

This tee-shirt is made of twenty different kinds of geeky awesome. Too bad it doesn't come in a gray unisex tee, 'cause the whole pink babydoll tee thing is just so not my speed.

Heisenberg came up with his famous uncertainty principle while house sitting for Schroedinger, who would call on the phone to check on things and ask "Where is my cat, Werner? And how fast is it going?"

People will pay crazy money for anything if you put a pony on it.

El Capitan at Baboon Pirates happened to notice a Colt Paterson for sale at Collector's Firearms in Houston.

Not just any Paterson either. I mean, even the most common Paterson is a rare bird and the most wretched rustbucket of an example will sell for a nice new car price, and a Texas Paterson will bring the cost of a small house, but this was a Texas Paterson with a 9" tube, of which there were probably less than 200.

It was listed as "P.O.R." at a store which cheerfully hangs price tags on $100k+ firearms, so no telling what the asking price was. Whatever it was, someone thought it was worth it, though, because it seems to have sold already.

Lilies gilded; reasonable rates...

Xavier shows off his S&W Model 649, freshly back from a makeover at Clark Custom Guns.

Yeah, I'm just a little jealous...

Object Of Desire.

I got my first closeup look at Lakeside Manufacturing's latest iteration of the belt-fed rimfire, the Razorback upper for the AR-15.

Oh. My. God. I haven't had a case of the Wants this bad in a long time...

Is Envy venial or mortal?

'Cause whichever it is, I am doing it right now.

That is one schweet double rifle.

(I had an order in on one of those vaporware .45-70 Baikals that Og mentions as far back as Summer of '05, too. I even had a couple co-workers and customers wanting one. None ever showed up.)

Speaking of Galco...

...I'm a big fan of their catalogs. They've won awards before for their great photography and clean layout, but the best part for me is the guns. I mean, sure, there's a representative sampling of SIGs, Glocks, Berettas, and J-frames, but the holsters that have 1911s in them... well, let's just say that there is some seriously cool iron in there. In the latest one I've positively identified a Springfield Armory Professional Operator, what looks to be a Yost-era Gunsite pistol, A Series I Kimber Custom Classic LE, a CCO with some convincingly ivoroid grips, and more.

For you fans of overseas guns, most of the SIGs have the old-school checkered grips that mean the gun's frame says "Made in W. Germany".

Bespoke.

There's just something about a pistol that was built just for you...

As my bro Marko (who is even geekier than I, if such a thing can be imagined) puts it: "It's like having a Jedi light saber."

Speaking of gun pr0n...

Og shows us what 109,129 pounds of pennies will buy these days.

Drooooool.

Sexy, sexy antique Winchester pr0n.

Sexy Stuff I Saw at the Show, Part 1: Lights

Leupold's new modular MX flashlights: Leupold quality, and Leupold (ouch!) price. Do Want.

Streamlight has a neat-o new interpretation of the old GI angle head clip-on, but with LEDs, and small, and light, and with a pivoting head. Neat. And reasonably priced. Also Do Want.

Gun Lust.

ColtCCO is selling his Remington 600-based .308 Scout Rifle built by the oft-referenced-here-at-VFTP Gunsmith Bob.

I have handled this rifle. I have lusted over this rifle. The only reason ColtCCO even has this rifle is because I didn't know Gunsmith Bob was selling it, and by the time I was aware that it was on the block, the sale was a fait accompli. I have offered the lad serious bucks for the rifle in the past and been turned down.

It is now up for sale. The asking price is less than I had offered in the past, back in the day when I was defecating in high cotton. The person who has the money and does not buy this rifle is a fool. I would climb over a pile of factory Steyr Scouts to get at this thing. I am putting my Bimmer on the block as soon as I can get it washed and pictures taken and if this rifle remains unsold when I have the ducats in hand, I will buy it.

I was an idjit once. Do not be an idjit like me. Do not let this rifle go past without buying it.