Want to buy a gun company?

Friend of mine is looking to get a CNC mill for his shop, so out of curosity I looked for used ones of craigslist and I found this gem.

https://tampa.craigslist.org/psc/bfs/d/odessa-for-sale-firearms-manufacturing/6868415422.html

For a mere quarter million you could own a gun company. As far as I can tell these guys made .50 BMG uppers for the AR lower.

Last year, I was reading that the ATF was going to classify bolt action and other non standard AR uppers as firearms in them selves. That would mean a company making them would need different permitting, taxes, etc. And they would not be able to mail an upper to your door step. I don’t know if this happened or not, and I am reading mixed messages about that. That might be why it is for sale.

It doesn’t seem like a bad setup. If any of you feel like buying me an early Christmas present I’d settle for this.

The Innovative Glock in 1991

Today’s post was written by Miami_JBT from ARFCOM. He was kind enough to let me share it here.

Shooters coming of age today don’t understand how good they have it.

In 1991, the gun industry was to a degree a stagnant, faltering, lethargic beast that it couldn’t innovate its way out of a wet paper bag. Designs were moving forward on a snail’s pace. Yes, there was the jump from Revolvers to Semiautomatics but the layout and designs were still cemented in old ideas.

Metal Framed, DA/SA, Hammer Fired Guns. Sig Sauer, Beretta, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, CZ, etc all mirrored each other when it came to 9mm platforms. Make a gun that is basically a Hi-Power in size, with similar capacity, and make it double action capable. Even HK at the time was still pushing their amazingly expensive P7 series.

GLOCK was the outlier. We all know the story by know and why. Lightweight, Polymer Framed, Striker Fired, extremely High Capacity compared to the competitors at the time, etc, etc, etc.

Well, why did I mention 1991? Because in 1991, the .45 ACP was still a popular duty round and a number of agencies wanted it even though .40 S&W was released a year before. But the problem with .45 ACP was capacity. Always was an issue and that is one reason why .40 S&W did so well. Anyways, back to the main topic at hand. .45 ACP prior to 1991 was mostly relegated to single stack guns with 7rd or 8rd capacities. They were big, heavy beasts too.

But in 1991 two guns were released. One that clearly shows you the old mindset and one that showed you the innovation GLOCK had and was.

The Ruger P90 was released in 1991 and was a fine representation of how outdated a number of companies were. Here you have a gun as complicated as a 1911, as large as a 1911, with a 7rd capacity and a weight of 34oz. Yes, the P90 was a reliable gun but it was a beast of a gun. The ergos were shit and the gun was covered in sharp edges. But the most glaring issue is 7rd capacity in 1991. Trigger pull was average for the era, 9lbs to 10lbs in DA and 3lbs to 4lbs in SA.

By 1991, the market was screaming for higher capacity. It was the era of the Cocaine and Crack Epidemic, a rise in perceived violent crime, and a perception that cops were being outgunned by bad guys (which to a degree, they were). And what Ruger released for the .45 ACP duty makret was a 7rd, DA/SA, 1911 sized and weighted gun to compete with the other outdated designs like the S&W 4506, Sig Sauger P220, and of course the 1911 itself.

Amazingly, GLOCK released the G21 the same year.

Here, you have a .45 ACP chambered automatic that held 13rds of ammunition, and weighed 26.0oz. That’s almost a 1/2 pound lighter in weight than the P90. And it basically held twice the amount of ammunition. The gun was smooth for the most part. Not rough or sharp edges. A simplistic constant trigger pull that weighed in at 5.5lbs.

The overall design was simple, reduced in complexity, and worked extremely well. The G21 invalidated every .45 ACP on the market. The S&W 4506, Sig P220, Ruger P90, and especially the 1911 was dinosaur waiting to be killed off by the fallout from the asteroid strike. To put things in perspective, the G21 weighed less than a Beretta 92FS, Sig Sauer P226, S&W 5903, and all of it contemporaries Wonder Nine era guns.

It was that radically different.

Shooters coming of age today have no grasp or understanding how revolutionary this was. Honestly, the arrival of GLOCK in the 80s and early 90s completely changed the design layout and mindset of the handgun industry. New shooters today complain about a G21 being big or heavy. It they only knew…. and I say this as a fan of the DA/SA Wonder Nines and Boat Anchor DA/SA Single Stack .45 ACP guns. They’re all outdated and GLOCK is the reason why.

Whether you like or dislike GLOCK, the market wouldn’t be what it is today without them.

Teaser: GRSC 1-10X

The day before I got this in, I realized I don’t own any 35mm rings.

Expect a review in a couple of weeks, the rings I ordered were sent the extra slow way.

This scope comes in a nice box with a few accessories.

It comes with a sun shade, a honeycomb kill flash, a lens cleaning cloth and an additional CR2032 battery. Sony brand battery, not some unknown brand. The scope also comes with lens caps. Nice little additions.

It comes with a generic manual that appears to be translated from Chinese. Here are a few lines from it:

  • Do not attempt any work until the bun has been cleared and determined to be safe.
  • … and a round is mot in the chamber.
  • Maintain the meatal surface. . .

Over all the generic instructions are not too bad. Shawn and I are going to offer who ever wrote them a position as LooseRounds.com editor as they clearly can write better than us.

The main draw to this scope it its reticle and unfortunately the instruction do not cover that at all. Fred from GRSC recommends you to look at his website for further instruction.

A Throwback Colt Friday

This old cover of SWAT caught my eye the other day. The gun on the cover is what Colt refers to as the R6400 as their factory model number. The keen eye will notice A2 furniture but an A1 rear sight. That’s because it uses the upper and lower of the older SP-1s but was upgraded with A2 fore arms, grip, buttstock, delta ring and the new A2 government profile barrel. Also a A2 flas hider and a front sight. The barrel of course uses the 1/7 twist t use the then new “SS109”, AKA, M855 green tip. Very new at the time. Cover date shows 1984 so this was even before the Army adopted the M16A2 rifle.

The roll mark on the lower was AR15A2 SP-II. As the older uppers ran out, Colt then sold the R6401 which was the same gun but with the actual A1 upper with a forward assist. Next came the R6500 which was same gun with the C7 upper. That was the A1 upper with forward assist but with a case deflector as used by the Canadian rifle.

Finally Colt would use up all those uppers and sell the R6550 which uses the true A2 upper to go with the rest of the upgrades. The lowers would continue to be the older slick side SP1 no fence A1 profiled lowers for a while before being changed over to the current A2 lowers.

During this time, Colt stilled used the “large hole” upper and lowers for the front pivot pin. Contrary to internet experts this wasn’t done because colt hates you but was something the federal gov ( read ATF) made them do so as to be able to sell semi auto Ar15s to the public. This was foisted on them all the from the start of the SP1 civilian sales. Other changes were the semi auto carrier and a few other things. But that’s an article for another time.

There are offset pins to let you mate a large hole upper or lower to a modern or “small hole” or “milspec” upper and lower and it works pretty nifty even though you will need a screw drive to separate the upper and lower. Eventually the gov relaxed these crazy requirements and the ever law suit adverse Colt stopped all modifications to civilian guns and now sells the with standard pin holes, trigger groups and with M16 BCGs. Just as God intended.