Range day, Martini Model 6 (see end)

Went to the range last night, and aside from some pistol practice, put about thirty rounds through one of my favorite rifles. This is a Birmingham Small Arms Martini Model 6 in the wonderful .22LR cartridge:














Mentioned something about the history of these little rifles before, but being too lazy to hunt through my archives for it, I'll repeat: a man named Peabody designed a single-shot breechloading rifle with an exposed hammer, called (who'd have guessed?) the Peabody. Few years later a Swiss named Martini decided he could improve it and did some redesign. Got rid of the external hammer and used an internal striker powered by a coil spring was the big change; he both simplified the action and made it stronger. When the Brits were looking for their first manufactured breechloader(the Snider being a modification of their Enfield rifle musket and intended only as a stopgap), the Martini action was one tested, and it won. Coupled with a barrel with Henry-style rifling it became the Martini-Henry. It served as a military rifle in both the original .577/.450 and the .303, and the action was also used to make everything from shotguns to match and hunting rifles. It became justly famous for strength and reliability, and they kept making them, in large and small actions, until the 1950's(much more history here).

There were a number of different small-action rifles made, and deciding what model one actually is ain't easy; BSA did NOT mark the model on them, there were no serial number breaks between models, etc. Sometimes the width of the action tells you, other times the combination of action size and barrel, etc. From what I've found, this one is an 8.

The action is a 'tilting block'. To load, pull the lever down,














(take note of that screw on the receiver and the round piece above it; we'll get to them later)
and the breechblock tilts down















to expose the chamber


















That groove in the top of the block guides the round into the chamber. In the shot above, notice a piece between the block & chamber? That's the extractor. It's an eccentric 'L' shape; when the block rotates down, it pushes down on the lower arm which pivots the top arm back. As it's cut to hold the rim of the cartridge, it pulls the case back. Ease the lever down and it eases the case back; give it a smart pull, and it'll kick the empty out.

This rifle has the original open rear sight base and ladder on the barrel, but the elevator piece is missing, very common on these because with the match sight down low for close range it got in the way. Speaking of sights, this one has Parker-Hale match sights, an aperture rear and tube front. The rear is fully adjustable for windage and elevation, out to a long damn ways out. The eyepiece is separate from the sight itself, and you find everything from different apertures that individually screw in to adjustable like this Hadley. It's got a wide dish for the body, with a wheel that rotates to let you choose among six different size holes depending on conditions.


















That bump midway along the breechblock? Cocking indicator; up means cocked, gone means uncocked.
Very handy, especially since most of them had no safety.

The front sight is a tube(or tunnel) sight. There's a threaded insert that fits in from the back, and a slot at the top about midway. Back the insert out a bit, and there are a number of different inserts that drop into the slot. Tighten the threaded piece back up to lock your choice in. They made/make rings, posts, and crosshairs in different diameters/thickness. The old ones tended to be quite thick in outline and mostly post or rings on a post. This is a newer insert, a thin-edged circle held in place by crosshairs.


















Remember that screw I told you to take note of? Day is done and you want to give it a thorough cleaning, unscrew the threaded section and pull the pin, and the entire works rotates down and out of the receiver:


















And yes, that IS the entire works. Frame, lever, block, extractor, trigger, tumbler. Push out three pins, one each, and the lever, block and extractor come out. A screw/pin holds the trigger and is the pivot for it. There's a screw that holds the trigger spring, and the only other spring is for the striker inside the block. A threaded piece holds the spring and striker in place and the spring under tension, and a screw locks the threaded insert in place. And you can clean the barrel from the breech; in the picture of the sight two shots above you'll see a slot below the eyepiece. It matches up with a hole through the back of the receiver. Earliest models didn't have this, but this mod was made a long time ago.

Remember the piece above the action screw? Not all had this. Look on the left side and you'll see another screw


















This one is a tapered pin for takedown models. Pull the pin, open the action(otherwise the extractor won't let the barrel turn), and the barrel unscrews


















Makes it very handy for travel. Reassembly is screw the barrel back in and line it up by eye, then insert the pin and tighten it down; the barrel notch and far side hole in the receiver were reamed on the taper so the pin both aligns them exactly and locks them in place.
(See that box on the stock about halfway back? It's brass, and unscrews from the base, and holds inserts for the front sight)

There are a lot of these old rifles in various models out there, used for hunting and target shooting, from short, light ones like this to heavy models intended for prone competition.

How's it shoot? Wonderfully. I've tried this one with a number of different ammo brands/types, and it seems to like two best: Federal Lightning(now Champion) and Eley Sport. Shoots better with these than the match ammo I've tried. 'Shoots better' meaning I've shot half-inch groups at 50 yards with them, the match brands at best equaled that. And since they cost $.69/box and $1.25/box respectively... The trigger is light and clean, couldn't ask for better. For a rifle built- best I can tell- in the 1920's that's had a hard life, very nice indeed.

Personal history on this: several years ago a friend and I went to the range, and he had this interesting little rifle he'd just got to try out. Exterior looked pretty bad- hadn't been cleaned up yet, all he'd done was wipe out the bore so he could shoot it. He got it sighted in a 50, and said "give it a try". And I was hooked. He was using Aguila subsonic ammo, and we were breaking a clay pigeon, then breaking the pieces. So I went looking, and found first a model 12/15(post to come later). Then, about a year after that, the same guy he'd bought his from had another one that looked identical. He promised the bore was pristine and the action tight, so I gave him my credit card number and transfer info. A week later, it was mine. In those with a similar history, you'll find similar appearance; lots of pitting on the exterior, especially on the barrel along the edge of the forearm, and the action was horribly cruddy with old oil and grease and fouling. But the bore was indeed lovely, not a spot on it. It had been lined at some point, which was common; Parker Hale advertised their liners and installation and promised a rifle relined by them would be at least as accurate as the original bore, and I believe them.

In the case of my and my friend's rifles, their hard use came at a school. The same school, as it happens. Both have the school's name and location and their number in the rack stamped into the right side of the stock. And you bet your ass I was very careful cleaning and refinishing the wood. Degreasing, sanding with steel wool only and then rubbing in multiple coats of TruOil brought out the grain of a lovely piece of walnut and made the markings easier to read.

This is one of those I look on as my responsibility to care for until it's passed on. Besides the general history, there's this: my friend managed to get hold of the school, and wrote back & forth with the guy who had last managed the range; according to him, the government regulations for storage, use, and the range finally got so bad that the school closed the range and sold the equipment. Which led to these rifles winding up across the Atlantic and now in our hands. I don't doubt there are a lot of these out there that spent years training kids to shoot; and after long, useful lives there they were sent away due to government BS(in this case) and socialist jackass headmasters who hated guns and closed the ranges(other cases I've heard of). They're now here in the Land of the Free(still, despite the actions of various clowns), and doing what they were designed for; delivering accurate fire on targets from paper to cans to small game.

Some have been relined or rebarreled for everything from .17M2 to .357 Magnum, most still in .22 or .310 Cadet(depending on model); but the keep working. You get a chance to try one out, do so; I think you'll like it.


Added 8/14/10 Originally I thought this was a Model 8; some further checking since has me thinking it's a 6. Whichever, I still like it.

Well, crap, all at once?!?

I just looked at Books a Million and found that David Drake has four new books either out or coming out. Dammit, and it's tax time and I'm already short... grumble, grumble.

The Geek speaks truth

In this case, about that idiot 'study' that said people who carry guns are more prone to road rage. Money quote: "While they repeatedly claim that "that riding with a firearm in the vehicle appears to be a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behavior.", they also admit that "we do not know whether there was a gun in the vehicle at the time the road rage incident(s) occurred.", and that "Our study had only two measures of road rage – making obscene gestures and aggressively following – and these have not been validated." Got that? As I recall from my science classes back in the dark ages, this is a fancy way of saying "We don't actually know crap, but this suits our political views so we say it anyway". But this is what passes for 'research'.

The Geek has a very good story about a science teacher he once had and 'studies' that aren't what they're made out to be. Which fits in with something I've been thinking about for a while. Namely, the HIV/AIDS equation.

Sometime last year I was looking through Dean Esmay's site and found a piece he did on the subject that basically said "Can anyone tell me of a study that actually shows that HIV causes AIDS?" Lots of responses, but nobody could answer the question 'yes'. Looked through some other stuff he'd posted on it, and it got real interesting. So I started doing some other reading, including the book Inventing the AIDS Virus by Peter Duesberg. And it's both scary and disgusting. Scary that lots of scientists and doctors just fall into line behind the 'approved' theory, and disgusting that a lot of people were/are being a: scared to death without reason, b: medicated without reason and being given medications that literally will kill you. And let's not skip the fact that a bleepload of money and resources and time have been, in many cases, flat wasted so as to keep in the 'approved' pathway of research and treatment. That is NOT how science is supposed to work. But it so often does, and if you criticize it even people who doubt the mess you're doubting will pile onto you. Especially if you're not a doctor and/or researcher yourself; after all, you're not of the priesthood so how dare you criticize them?

And that, when it comes out, makes people less trusting of the sciences in general, because if you find out they've lied about something this important just to CYA and protect the priesthood, why should you believe them about other things? The medical profession has been whacked by this repeatedly, in that all too often it's been seen covering for incompetent doctors instead of throwing them out of the profession, which helps lead to "You should get a lawyer and sue because otherwise nothing'll be done" which leads to BS suits as well as good ones, and we're in the mess that causes now. Clowns like John Edwards get rich, and good doctors leave the profession because they're tired of being sued for any and everything.

Back during the Clinton administration there was a study released that said "if you have a gun you're 46 times more likely to shoot a relative or friend than a crook". That number was challenged, and the guy revised the number down. Drastically. That number was challenged also, and he revised it downward again. People were arguing that number when it turned out that this clown was giving lectures on this 'study' and using whichever number he thought would go over better with the audience. Turned out the Centers for Disease Control had paid either 1 or 200,000 dollars to do this study(can't remember which offhand). First, what the hell were they doing paying money for such as this? Second, considering they were screaming and crying that they didn't have enough money to study and fight emerging bugs, where did this pile come from? Which brought up that they were apparently willing to use money to push political purposes when they should have been studying microorganisms, which feeds into a whole lot of other BS.

As the Geek says, I have great respect for the scientific method; damn little for the clowns abusing it in the name of money and/or politics.

As Tim Blair puts it,

"As more European newspapers reprinted the cartoons, what started off as a row between Denmark’s press and its Muslim population has grown into a full-blown “clash of
civilisations”.
No; that would require two civilisations. "

Oh, God, I've GOT to get over here more often!

AK vs. AR, with a little MN thrown in

Julian Bond is a friggin' idiot, AND a fool

And a number of other things, but I'm trying to be polite, here.

I first heard about this on radio today, Sean Hannity came on and mentioned it, then had as a guest some clown("Civil Rights Activist") defending Bond. Hannity did something that makes up for some of the ways he irritates me; he asked the clown if HE thinks Bush is a Nazi, and kept after him until he actually answered the question.

Which took a while. This idiot kept going off on "Bush lied", "Bush this", etc., but after telling everyone how Bond is a wonderful man, "I've known him for years, we're losing what we've worked for because of Bush" and so forth, Hannity hit him about seven times with the same question and demanded an answer, and he finally said "Yes, Bush is a Nazi". This was after having accused him of some crime(kind of busy, didn't hear all of it) and when Hannity asked for proof clown says "I'll show the proof when I need to". Which means "I have no proof of ANYTHING, but I'll make these charges anyway because I'm used to getting away with crap like this and how DARE you make me answer?!?"

Wankers.

And the Carnival is up!

Considering the crap happing around the world, just in time, too. Right here.

To be serious about this,

Look at the damn things. Just basic cartoons. No anvils falling on heads or whatever.

























Then look here. Calls for death and destruction, calls for atrocity, over the bloody cartoons.

In one book of The General series, Raj Whitehall looks at what some people he's fighting have done and says something like "A bunch of f#(*@!@)! vandals that have never grown up!". I think that about covers it. Their holy book says they should be ruling the planet, no worship other than that of their deity should be allowed, and they should kill anyone who they think doesn't fall on their face fast enough. And they believe it. Put any PC "that's just a few radicals, they don't really mean it" crap out of your mind. They do mean it. They can't stand the idea that their way hasn't swept all before it, and lots and lots of them would be happy to kill you and your family and your little dog, too, if they thought it would help them bring their "House of Peace" to rule the world.

Few days ago I found this over at American Digest about the way a lot of people seem to want us to lose the Terrorist War. I know these people are out there, but I might as well try to understand the thoughts of a bug on a rosebush as to try to understand that state of mind. Do these people not realize that they'll only have the three options, convert, dhimmi or death? Is it that they just cannot believe it? Or do they hate themselves and western culture so badly that they're willing to suicide?

We're in this, people, and those three options are the only ones the other side will give us. Either we win, or we get to pick one. That's assuming they allow a choice, of course; looking at some of the history I've been reading, I doubt they will.

Update:
Everyone else is stealing this showing this from Boortz, so,

"Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some lowlights:

• Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
• A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
• Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
• Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
• Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
• Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose."

Ok, is anyone surprised CNN has no balls?

Or NBC?

Anyone?

I didn't think so.

Unless you suffer a permanent overdose of estrogen,

I can't imagine most women finding this crap a surprise. But then I have a hard time believing the amount of 'advice columns' like this.

Ladies, do you actually need some columnist to point out that telling your lover his equipment doesn't measure up will piss him off? Or that he doesn't give a rat's ass what Nick and Jessica or whoever the hell are up to? Good God, do YOU really care?

Found this through Rob; go check out his take on the matter.

Ok, here's mine

Various people have been posting on M1 rifles lately, and Publicola had his Carnaval de la Garand- along with the other neat M1 stuff he puts up- so I thought I'd put up another shot of mine.


















Yeah, it's not a real good shot; I'm going to take it outside one day so I'll have more even light. In any case, it's a Springfield made rifle, the serial number says late December 1943 for the receiver. The stock may or may not be the original, it's got the 'P' proof mark on the underside of the grip, but no other cartouche remaining, it's been refinished at least once in the past. When I got it, it had a 1950-something barrel that was salt & pepper pitted. Still shot pretty well, but...

I had part of an M1 parts kit, including what appeared to be a brand-now barrel, also 1950's. So it went to the gunsmith for replacement. Yeah, I'd rather have done it myself, but I have no action wrench or headspace gauges. That done and function tested, stock work.

Didn't want to remove a lot of wood, so I went through a real cleaning and degreasing of the wood, which took about a week. Then I just gave it a light sanding to take off the worst of the rough spots; this stock has had a lot of use, but it's sound, and once the old crud was off/out, it turned out to have a real pretty grain. All I've done as far as finishing has been to rub in a couple of light coats of Tru-Oil finish; I've been holding off on further. I found some interesting tips over at the Fulton Armory site,(I recommend you look it over, they've made a lot of good information and links on the M1 and M1A available), and I think I'll try it. They say a coat of Minwax Natural Stain to seal the surface, then Minwax Tung Oil Finish; it's supposed to give the appearance of the military finish while sealing and protecting the wood better. I get a chance I'll try it and see.

Wood cleaned up, I went to the trigger. Fulton has their Garand Information Place which links to 'How-To Guides for the M1 Garand', including a very good guide on smoothing out the trigger. Note I did not say 'lightening' the trigger; because of the design this system needs a minimum of a 4.5lb pull, lighter than that is not safe. Period. Not a big deal, as I've found the biggest problem with a trigger is not weight(unless it's real heavy) but a clean break, and the M1 trigger can do that very well. They also have the standard warnings about working on triggers, and I'd suggest you read them carefully. This is a remarkably strong system with a safety you'd have to work at real hard to make fail, and remarkably easy to smooth up, but if you try to make the trigger lighter than it should be, you ARE asking for trouble. That said, their instructions worked very well for me. The trigger had been a bit rough and had some creep; after the cleanup and lubing, it breaks right at 5lbs and clean, no roughness or creep. Much better.

The front sight/gas tube assembly did not fit tight on the barrel, and it only takes a tiny bit of play to mess with accuracy, so on recommendation from some folks who know the matter I tightened it up. The assembly slides onto the barrel from the front, and the barrel has three splines machined into it, splines inside the front ring of the assembly matching up. I took a punch and my 2 oz hammer(yes, that is 2 ounces; wouldn't trade it for anything) and very lightly peened both edges of the top spline, and the outside edges of the other two. I emphasize very lightly; you want it to need a bit of tapping into place with a mallet and wood block, but you don't want to have to beat it into place. I got it a bit too tight, so I took a riffler file(small, curved file, very handy things) and reduced the peened surfaces just a touch, which gave me a perfect fit.

These things definately improved accuracy(quite happy), but one other thing made the difference. With the M1 the stock is one unit, the receiver/barrel/forend/handguard is another, and the trigger group locks them together. Over time the wood where the floorplate bears can compress a bit, which means things aren't locked in place as well as they should be, which means things can shift just a fraction when you fire... You can glass-bed to get the fit of everything as perfect as possible, but not having some good illustrations of exactly where & how, I didn't want to mess with that right now. I've done it on bolt-actions, but I knew what I was doing there. Happily, easy way to see if this will help. You know those imitation credit cards you get in the mail with applications? I save them; good for mixing epoxy on, coasters, and spacer material. Carefully selecting a card in a tasteful blue color that seemed the right thickness, I cut two shims, stuck them on the stock(non-permanently) and assembled. Much tighter lockup, and the next trip to the range showed an improvement.

So this here's my Garand, and it's one of my favorite rifles to shoot. With it's weight and gas system recoil is no problem with standard ammo, and I've been getting quite good accuracy. I've got some tips on handloads, so when I can I plan to pick up some Sierra match bullets and IMR4895 powder and see how they work.

I have to point out one of the joys of shooting it: being around people who haven't seen one fired before. Since Band of Brothers not as many are surprised by it, but you do get comments after the empty clip ejects: "Hey, something came out of your gun!" Even better when the clip lands on your hat brim; extra points if you slowly reach up, grab it, look at it, shake your head and sadly say "I wish it'd stop doing that".

Add-on: I almost forgot to mention books. There are lots of books on the M1 out there, from history to accessories to shooting. One that covers the development and teething problems very well is Book of the Garand by Julian Hatcher. If you've got access to the tooling, it has very nice illustrations of how the Marine Rifle Team touched up the trigger on this beast.

More on 'Buy Danish'

Michelle Malkin has a bunch of links to Danish products to look for. Also tasteful photos of gentle, tolerant Islamist jerks burning flags and pictures of Bush because their feelings are hurt that they cannot command the world.

This should get interesting.