Cleaning Supplies

We disposed of all the gun cleaning chemicals (CLP, Hoppes #9, Stainless Steel Lube) before we moved.  It also appears that the rest (Gun Snakes, bore brushes, half my bore patches) went with the liquids. I needed to start over today, which simplifies my collection. Two gun snakes, a collection of bore brushes to go with the cleaning rods that escaped the purge, Hoppes #9, and CLP. I may need to order stainless steel lube.

I went shooting at lunch time at Shooter's Source, an indoor pistol range and gun store in Kingsport.  Nice range.

I have not shot my Government Model in several years. It has a 4 1/2 pound trigger, which more than compensates for the intrinsic slop of the 1911's intentional slide to frame tolerances. At 7 yards, firing one round a second,  is good enough for most shots center of mass. 

The Walther works great. Again, one shot per second puts all the shots in the center of mass. 'The inadequate gun you carry is better than the major caliber you do not carry because of weight or bulkiness "

I have not fired or cleaned the Government Model in several years and I found myself saying, "How does this reassemble?" The Browning Hi-Power is different in several ways.  It took a while but I finally figured it out.

Price Changes: 1986-2026

 Widener's has an interesting discussion of how prices for guns and ammo have changed since 1986. Guns have roughly followed inflation. Ammunition has often not risen as fast:

The Biggest Surprise: 9mm Got Much Cheaper

In 1986, a box of 9mm cost $22.50, or about $0.45 per round.

In 2026, it averages $10.00 per box, or $0.20 per round.

Even without adjusting for inflation, that’s a dramatic decrease. When adjusted for inflation, 9mm is significantly cheaper today than it was in the 1980s.

The Walther PPK

As we finished loading our car for our trip, I suddenly realized that I had unloaded all the guns to conform to FOPA (1986); and i will be crossing one state that does allow constitutional carry or recognize my Idaho or Oregon carry licenses: Illinois. I could not immediately find the PPK/S's loaded magazine. I had forgotten to unload my wife's American Arms PX-22 (a licensed PPK clone):

It has one substantial advantage over the PPK/S: it fits silently into my front trousers pocket. No printing, no more drag than my usual cluster of keys and food. The genuine Walther is definitely more accurate but at typical armed robbery or "mass murderer comes to you next" range, it is good enough.

So does anyone still make the PPK in America? No.S&W have made it. Walther made them until 2015. The European-made ones are hideously priced.

UPDATE: Of course, my longstanding criticism of pocket carry applies: do not carry with a round chambered. Even with the safety on, it seems unwise to risk something else in your pocket taking it off safe and something else pulling the trigger. Not likely that both could happen but there was that incident shortly after Idaho legalized concealed carry where an ISU chemistry shot himself in the leg during class.

You are unlikely going to need to draw and fire within fractions of a second. There are usually enough indications that you are at risk to draw and it is time to rack the slide. Also, the PPK DA trigger is monstrously heavy; you do not want to fire DA if you can avoid it. 

The PPK is also so tiny that an aggressor may not see it in your hand in the dark until too late. Unlike the Browning Hi-Power, racking the PPK takes little muscle strength.

Of course,  .22LR is not a .45 or 9mm; it is not even a .380. If used defensively, you need to focus on hitting a vital part rather than relying hydrodynamic shock as it passes near a vital organ. At 6-7 feet it should be hard to miss the head or heart. As with many defensive incidents, the simple drawing of a gun may cause an aggressor to remember an urgent appointment elsewhere.

CRAMER'S RULE: The underpowered pistol you have with you is more effective than the pistol whose weight and bulk caused you to not carry it.

UPDATE 2: It turns Illinois law allows nonresidents with licenses from their home state to carry concealed within their car. Just do not leave your car with the gun concealed, and if leaving the car, the gun must be locked up. This is not ideal, but when passing through, it means you do not need to unload and be completely defenseless.

A reader tells me the Bersa Thunder is pretty much a PPK clone. Available in .380 as well.

Have Any of You Shipped Guns Through the Post Office Recently?

 I am still several months out from moving. Theoretically, you can mail long guns to yourself, even c/o X, as long as X does not open the gun and hands it over to you when you get there. The handgun mailing ban repeal is in the public comment stage but should be complete by the time that I move.

I Went Shooting With my Son-in-Law Today

It is so nice having an entire range to ourselves. We were using one of those diagnostic targets that show you your likely error if you are hitting left or right down or up. Very helpful. 

The PPK/S is so accurate that I can fire at the 25 yard silhouette target as fast as my finger works and make every shot hit. The Browning Hi-Power not quite so much.

The PPK/S performed flawlessly with PMC hollow points.  The American Eagle kept failing to fire (perhaps 20% of the time). These will become range ammo only so that I can practice failure modes.

If you carry a pistol for self-defense (why else would you do so?) you should plan on shooting at least a box or two a month to stay proficient. 

You do not want to shoot at a bad guy and hit an innocent bystander. This both bad press for gun owners, and a civil suit looking for a target. To my surprise, analyzing antigun propaganda, they seldom find licensees doing this. I suspect most licensees know when to leave and when to shoot.

Unlike a rifle, handguns are intrinsically not easy to shoot accurately, except at conversational distances, where most of the need exists. Shoot the ammo you carry, at least to verify you are hitting to point of aim and that you are confident that your spectacularly expanding JHPs will reliably feed and extract. If your practice rounds are the same weight and manufacturer, hitting point of aim with FMJs should not be a problem.

I am a member of Homedale Rod & Gun Club. If you live in the Boise area, I strongly recommend that you consider membership. It is not expensive and often completely empty during the week. We have metal plate targets on the rifle range to 500 yards. The only downside compared to an indoor range is pit toilets, and as bad as you can imagine.

While cleaning the PPK/S, I accidentally pulled the trigger while attempting to get the slide back on the receiver. This creates a serious difficulty. SuperGrok told me something should have been obvious: put a cleaning rod down the barrel to force the hammer back and then the slide unjams.

Nigerian 7.62 NATO Soft Point?

A couple decades ago, I bought a case of military surplus 7.62mm NATO in the odd configuration of 150 gr. Soft Point.  This is one those weird crates that once open you get four handles that rip open a thin metal case that is presumably air and water tight.  Inside were 50 boxes of 20 rounds each.  I have never seen Nigerian ammo before so I should probably run a box through one of my rifles before making assumptions about it 

Have any of you ever run into Nigerian ammo before?

GunBroker.com

 Have any of you used GunBroker.com or similar services to sell guns?  I have several guns in my safe that it I think I should sell before moving to Tennessee.  These are guns for which I do not see any particular utility (the S&W 629 .44 Magnum was bought for camping in grizzly bear country).  

Moving will require me to ship them.  I will not be driving  there, and UBox and PODS both prohibit shipping guns in their containers.  I could ship them to my new home but that requires me to have a new home address before we leave Idaho.  It is just barely possible (and my preference) we might sell our Idaho house first, stay in an AirBnb for a few weeks while buying a new house.  I could ship to an FFL in Tennessee, but if I do not need them at the far end, liberating the capital and decluttering my gun safe would be good.

I could sell them here but I would prefer some confidence that they were not going to prohibited persons.  An auction site is likely to get a better price as well.

The guns that want good homes are 

1. A S&W 629 .44 Magnum stainless steel.  I have fired less than 50 rounds through it all shortly after I bought it in the 1990s.  It has the original box.

2 A Remington 870 12 gauge riot gun (18" barrel).  This has the three round magazine extension.  Shortly after I bought this, Remington started dimpling the 5 round magazine so these magazine extensions would not work.  This has been fired less than 40 times.  I have not fired it in at least 15 years.

3. A Ruger 10/22 with a 3x-9x scope and a sling.  I have no idea how old it is.  I bought it used in 1990 just before California banned private firearms transfers.  It functions perfectly.  I have a dozen or so 25 round magazines for it.

4. A Remington Model 7 bolt action in .308 Winchester with a 4x-12x 40mm scope.  I have no idea how old it is.  I bought it used in 1990.  It functions perfectly.  

5. NIB Browning Hi-Power.  I am not sure if this is dark blued or Parkerized.

Dry Fire Training Systems

Do any of you have experience with dry fire pistol training tools?  Strikeman makes one that seems well-regarded.  Being able to get immediate feedback about why you are off and being to able to practice at home is attractive. 

Guns More Fun to Shoot Than Clean

Okay, I know there are literally no guns more fun to clean than shoot but there are guns that are not bad to clean.  Walther PP/PPK, all Browning semiautomatic pistols in my experience, AR15. 

There are guns where a full field strip is a real pain, such as an M1A if you get down to disassembling the bolt.

And the subject of this cri de couer: the Marlin Camp Carbine.   If you are younger than me, you may not be aware of it. It was short-lived, coming into existence just before the assault weapons panic of the 1990s made detachable magazine semiautomatic firearms inherently evil.

I used to recommend it as an appropriate home defense gun for those who lived in states where buying a handgun was difficult.   It was short and thus handy for inside house movement against an intruder.  It was chambered in either 9mm Parabellum or .45 ACP.  The .45 uses M1911 magazines which were cheap and everywhere.  But I only only once saw a 15 round M1911 magazine. The 9mm used S&W double stack magazines.   I over the years purchased some 17 and 25 round magazines for that pistol. 

Additionally, the use of pistol magazines meant that if you carried the corresponding pistol in your car, the carbine simplified keeping a ready reserve of magazines for both.  I had a folding stock for it that made it a very compact trunk gun on my commute to my Bend, Oregon job some years ago.

I took it to the range Saturday to see if some tragically unreliable Russian-made Brown Bear ammo would work in it.  It seemed to do so but it started refusing to reliably feed.   Then the bolt locked back and no manipulation of controls would release it.

When I got home, I remembered that the last I fired it, the prospect of field stripping was so upsetting that I had settled for spraying out the receiver and bolt assembly instead of removing the bolt.  Accumulated crap probably explained the jam.

After removing the roll pins that hold lower assembly to bolt and receiver, i was able to remove the bolt by lightly tapping the operating handle with a small mallet.  The bolt left the receiver with enthusiasm. 

After a thorough cleaning, the hard part came.  After getting the bolt and operating handle back in the receiver, it seemed impossible to get the roll pins back in place. Eventually, I found that pulling back on the bolt, putting the lower assembly in position and inserting the roll pin at the rear allowed  me to press the front of the lower assembly into position for the front pin to secure everything.   It really is not that hard.  I suppose if I did this regularly enough I would remember and it would not be such a pain.

UPDATE: There are two at first glance identical machine screws that hold receiver in stock.  One is 1/4" shorter.  It goes in the hole in front of the magazine well.  Would it have been thst much harder to make the stock 1/4" thicker and use the same dimension of screw?

Not Only is Ma Deuce Still in Service....

But there is new production.   10/8/25 Business Insider:

"

• Demand for machine guns such as the M2 has doubled since the war in Ukraine began, FN Browning says.
• The Belgian armsmaker said its ammo production has also quadrupled in the same timeframe.
• Guns like the M2 have re-entered the spotlight as Ukraine uses them to destroy Russian drones."
• If only John Browning knew.

20 Million Frames Per Second

Bullets leaving barrel.

My Son-in-Law Bought His First Handgun

 What seems to be a new, unfired Glock 17 for $350 on one of the gun auction sites.  We went to the range today and blasted a few hundred rounds through it to break it in.  During that we had two stovepipes.  The last few magazines were trouble-free.

I had forgotten how much I like the Glock.  It is very accurate and the plastic frame absorbs a lot of the recoil.

Naked Gun Cleaning?

I cleaned my AR-15 today.  This was the first in many months.   I was often having to remember to sequence.   Fortunately,  it is all very obvious if you think about it a little.

Oh, the title.  My wife gets frustrated thar I almost always get some CLP on my clothes.   Lately. I have started wearing an apron.  This still does not quite do the job.  Do you have similar issues?  Because I clean in summer on the back porch the subject line is not a very practical solution. 

Check Caliber Before Going to Range

My staple gun ran dry.  I thought I had another box of staples in my range bag.  I did but 3/8".  I needed 9/16".  The 3/8" chamber okay but never clear the muzzle.

Tighten Screws

I took another friend from church ahooting today.  (He is slso thrilled with Home Gun Club and going to join.)  The AR-15 was reliably hitting the 200 yard plate last time.   This time always missing.   Why?  As I became discouraged and starting packing up, I removed the scope mount and discovered the screw was very loose.  The mount was quite freely up and down.  You do not need to be a shooter to immediately recognize why this would affect accuracy. 

Gun Cleaning

I am really enamored of the Bore Snake way of cleaning barrels.  Compared to running brushes and patches through until the patches come out clean,  BoreSnake is fast and minimizes tool needs.

I suspect that it is inferior to the traditional practice.  Any thoughts?

I also found removing the bolt from a Remington 660 very hard.  On the left side at the rear,  in between the bolt and the stock is a button you depress with a very small screwdriver,  releasing the bolt. It several pages and videos to discover this.

I Went to the Range Today

I took a new shooter with me from church.   He has never field stripped his S&W M&P 2.0.

I had two goals:

1. Verify the bore sighters got the M1A and a bolt action. 308 zeroed.  Both were able to ring the 200 yard plate.  The boI t action not as frequently but I think I need to work on hold.  It has no bipod.

The M1A had no problem with the 500 yard plate.   I was not prepared to battle the .bolt action without a sandbag. 

2.  The first 100 rounds through the PPK has some feed and eject failure.  I took Armacor, PMC and American Eagle high velocity hollow points.   All fired reliably.  It just needed breaking in.

When i first fired that bolt-action rifle, the recoil was severe enough that I found myself wondering,  "Was this a mistake?"  I put a recoil pad on it and found it better. Perhaps I am getting tougher but the recoil was quite acceptable today. 

I Went Shooting Today

Or at least, I tried.  I am a member of Homedale Gun Club which is a very nice private facility.   For some reason it rejected my card today.   I have gone shooting there this calendar year so I know I must have paid my annual dues.  

Instead, a friend from church and I went to public range at Pickle Butte.  It is free and it is about the condition you can expect of something open to everyone with no supervision.   No metal plate targets, no target holder frames, lots of broken bottles and cans, stuffed (and now terribly perforated) stuff animals.

I had no easy way to verify that I have the M1A properly zeroed but the 2x4s out at 98 yards looked like they had suffered 7.62 NATO chew marks.   

The only thing we could do with pistols involved shooting cans and even shotgun shells.  This is only useful for getting the experience of recoil and sight picture.  The Walther is so much fun and so cheap to shoot that I do not see it as a complete waste of time.   I also got to know Chey a little better.

The Walther is picky about ammunition.   This is typical for .22 pistols.  The American Eagle brand jammed several times over a box or so. Had I been a bit more organized, I would have looked through my range bag.  I had some Armscor and Federal in there as well.   One of these has functioned well in it before. 

UPDATE: No, I did not pay my 2025 dues but they give a couple months grace.  That is how I gained access in February. 

The Downside of Tiny Batteries

There is really no alternative when you need to fit in the dimensions of a cartridge case.  But when taking the batteries out of this chamber bore sighter, they went flying and only two deigned to be found.  They are round so they have great rolling power.

CV Life Bore Sighter Review

Widener's sent me a bore sighter for review, along with some premium .223 and .308.  (Thanks.)   It appears to be identical to many similar units of Amazon.  Same factory, different product names, of course.  

The laser has little adapters for different calibers. You screw the adapter into the laser and slide it in the end of the barrel, turn on the laser, and adjust your sights to coincide with the bright dot on the far wall.  Simple, right?  

I did not seem to have enough adjustment range my scope.  Or in my iron sights, which are not far off.  My son is not an experienced shooter and he was able to hit the 100 yard plate with iron sights st the range.

It works fine in my Remington Model 660, and the scope is adequately aligned.  My M1A, no.  The flash hider is too long for the adapter to reach the muzzle.  

I considered removing the flash hider but that requires a castle nut wrench.  I have lots of weird tools (a huge die wrench, 4' long tweezers) but not one of those.

It is a clever design that accommodates 32 different calibers.  The laser is bright.   I do not know if it would useful outdoors, but inside my house it is adequate. 

I have ordered a chamber bore sighter, the kind that goes in the chamber.  Reviews on Amazon are generally positive.   It has no on,/off switch so get your coarse alignment done quickly.

I may machine an extension to allow the adapter to reach the barrel.   This is not so hard to do.  Maybe.  It needs a screw that goes into the laser extension and a way to attach the adapter which uses a tiny little screw.  The extension on which the adapter sits is continuous with the laser so it is going to need to be a tight fit to be useful.

UPDATE: I was putting rifle back in safe, a .308 chamber bore sighter fell out!

UPDATE 2: Once I figured out battery direction,  it was painless.  Whatever fiddling I did on the scope while discovering the CV Life bore sighter was loose in the muzzle, I was fractions of an inch from the red dot. I should be close enough to hit paper at 100 yards.