Invasive Deer Sika A First Attempt.

You can see just how much use the Peli Air has had, it arrived about two weeks before the first lockdown.

40% lighter and easily swallows two guns, or a bow and a gun. Been collecting dust ever since.

Here's one I wrote a while back 

Heading North of the Wall SBW?

Are you going to tell us about an enthusiastic stalker who wasn’t allowed out?
No. That would be too predictable
Did you manage to take on some Sisyphean task, in the name of so-called “bargain” transportation?
No. Nearly but it bounced off the bar.
Are you going to tell us about Scotland’s apex predator? 

Did you have trouble leaving the house? 

Will you blame ‘work, that curse of the stalking class’ ?

You know me so well. 

SBW: We’re on our way!

Ahab: What are you talking about you cancelled!

SBW: No I told you one dropped out. We’re literally on our way, like in the van, almost in Scotland 

Ahab: I'll ring my missus and call you back!

A quick primmer, Sika: where they are seen and how to say it.
Cervus Nippon aka Sika a medium sized deer, from Manchuria, and more famously Japan. Hence the name. 
There are released populations as far afield as Ukraine and New Zealand, Eire, and the USofA’s Chesapeake Bay. Travel to Ukraine being somewhat curtailed, NZ being a multi week commitment, so I'm going with Scotland. I’ve never shot or eaten a Sika, so when I ran into Captain Ahab online and he told me he was guiding in the highlands I booked a slot in the un-pressured opening days of the stag season. Most people don’t want to shoot deer still in velvet, and will wait until September or October , I have a pressing reason to, but that we’ll come to later.

Its been said that Sean Connery [wife beater formerly of this parish] had a Scottish accent, but not one any other Scottish person ever had. it’s easily learned as whole chapters of Irvine Welsh’s social commentary Trainspotting are narrated in the inner dialogue of one of the characters Simon aka Sickboy, as an imaginary conversation between himself and Sean Connery - 'precisely Simon' becomes “Pershishley Shimon”. Circuitous route I know, but now we've gained a fair facsimile of the correct Japanese pronunciation 'Pershishly, it'sh pronounshed “Sheeka”'. 

All I need now is that second most powerful hunting talisman, a newbie. 

I've had great results with taking new people, they see deer but never get a round off, I see three and shoot two. The Sika trip also represents my first chance in a while to add a Red Stag to the menagerie of deer I’ve shot. That’s going to need some powerful ju-ju, an absolute beginner…..

Super Plumber seems like the perfect candidate 

I've actually managed to take someone more angsty and superstitious than myself, a man who sees imminent downfall in every puddle, and fundamentally believes it always rains on him. 

The first stalking clothes. Always a hard choice for the newbie stalker: your boots are too short, and your walking clothes are more park than hill. In Scotland there are all four seasons, if not every hour, then certainly every other hour, and to make matters worse the only shop still open in Inverness is a hardware store which only stocks the noisiest waterproofs yet devised. 

Super Plumber is one of those friends you’ve  had for years, talk with on the phone, but rarely actually hang out with. So the 8 hour drive represents a good chance to catch up and do some shopping for  junk food, a car, ammunition and a rifle. 

With our meet up now hastily arranged we drive though the charismatic Scottish countryside, staying in radio contact. After a while a heavily laden estate car hooves into view. Ahab pulls into a lay-by and enthusiastically jumps out, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. The car's hand [parking] brake isn't engaged, as he strides towards us the car rolls away, as it rolls over a bump it's now steering itself back into the road. A look of blind panic crosses his face, and he dives, somewhat heroically, through the door of the car and overts disaster. needless to say Super Plumber are in stitches 

After my own bloody baptism, where the first time I fired a centre fire rifle it was at a living being, I hope to do a bit better for others. 

I’m from the “buy an air rifle and shoot it” school of shooting advice, but there’s a strange anomaly to living on this island, I can own a sub 12flbs air rifle and lend it to anyone over eighteen. But I can’t take it to Scotland where it’s a licensable firearm. It would need a licence I don't have . Fortunately I’ve got a reasonable hoard of 22lr Super Plumber  can practice on until he’s comfortable. 

My posh 22lr doesn’t have any glass and it was either the trip or the glass so it stayed at home, the trick 10/22 will have to do. Who amongst us didn’t start out with a 10/22? I've received a bit of coaching and watched much much more. There’s one central piece of advice thats the only piece of the puzzle worth starting with. Natural Point of Aim, by the time I’d heard of it I’d already developed the bad habits that have marred my accuracy all these years. 

Sphagnum moss, used as field dressing during WW1, twice as absorptive as cotton, can hold up to 22 times its own weight in liquid.

Which also means you're never more than a stride away from disappearing up to your knee, hip, or even neck in icy water. You may get your boot back. 

Mistaking myself for a version of myself from 20 years ago I hop nimbly, or so I thought at the time, over a ditch. My landing foot plunges into the muck, my ankle bends, my calf stretches beyond its tearing point and I plummet backwards into the ditch, which has been generously appointed with sharp sticks and cold water. Can’t say it would have been my first choice of landing spot. 

The pain and cold water that's gone down my neck provide a powerful incentive and I spring out of the ditch like a champ. gaining a sudden anatomical understanding, I could tell exactly what I'd torn. To my great surprise the money pit’s barrel wasn’t knotted like a pretzal and the whole rifle was bone dry. 

It's a long,  slow, and indeed agonising walk back across the clear-fell. `fortunately as im within shouting distance of the road I see Ahab's car crawling down the logging road. he and Super plumber hear me and I'm rescued.  


I confine myself the high seats for the rest of the trip. Sika are heard, but not seen or shot 

Super Plumber nails a Red and sanguine we make our way home. 

More sonn

your pal SBW

Review: Oceania Defence - The 3D Printed Suppressor

The only item that makes the amount of noise it does, that you can legally; sell, or use, without a silencer. is a gun.

In 1884 Hiram Maxim invents the machine gun, very quickly losing his hearing. Around 1902 his son Hiram Percy Maxim invents and starts selling the first commercially successful firearm silencer, receiving a patent on March 30, 1909. A hundred and something years later they still work in the same way. A series of baffles slow the flow of the rapidly expanding gasses. Despite many different advances in baffle design. Volume is still the name of the game, the bigger the space available to contain the gases, the greater the effect.


If you ever wondered about the intelligence and foresight of your elected representatives, the silencer is the perfect proof of what you should have suspected all along. Even the most dazzling intellects amongst them are quite happy to spend your money, acting against your interest, based on what they saw on TV or at the movies. Let's take where I live as an example. 20 years ago Police forces, ever fond of inventing powers they haven't been given by government, were extremely resistant to issuing licences for sound moderators. Until the Forestry Commission's legal department realised gunshots in the workplace were endangering the hearing of their deer managers and asked who was accepting liability. In Northern Europe they're a safety feature, with demands to legislate their use as protection for your dog's hearing. In Southern Europe the tool of an assassin, with no legitimate use.

Over the last ten years moderators/silencers/suppressors have followed the exact opposite trajectory to your pal SBW, getting lighter, and quieter. I've owned a few. So far the choice has been: very heavy and durable, or pretty light and basically disposable. Sealed, or strippable, out front, or both out front and behind the muzzle. Steel, titanium, or aluminium baffles in a tube of the same materials or even carbon fibre. All have their fans. The heavy ones are great for the range. the stalking designs get lighter.Just like bipods, something that was once quite crude and inexpensive can now be the cost of a new rifle. Yep both have crossed the $/£/E 1,000 price point. Yikes.

“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.” William Gibson

A few years ago there appeared a new technology, but at three to four times the price its adoption hasn't been that widespread. I was keen to find out more. Bert Wilson, owner of Oceania Defence in NZ patented a process for 3D printing moderators and partnered with Ram3D. At 190g they are much lighter than anything we've seen before. His UK sales team sold a few to the NRA(uk) who unfortunately for them, and fortunately for me, blew one up. When the rest hit the auction, James at Jagersporting was quick off the mark snapping them up. He sold them off to his customers at a massive discount on the list price.

I spoke to the NRA armourer who told me he knew two people who were using Oceania Defence moderators for deerstalking and I should be totally unconcerned. The current advice is clean in an ultrasonic every 500 rounds.

My totally subjective and unscientific opinion. They are amazing! 190g feels like nothing! Those big steel mods of a few years ago are like banging rocks together while OD have rocked up in a space shuttle.

Last time I looked list was £680 + another £100 for the titanium adapter. pretty chronic if you have to have more than one, almost bearable if you're swapping it between several rifles. [Word to the wise never ever use a mod that's been on a rimfire even for one shot on a centre fire, unburned powder init] 

The one thing I'd do differently is the 'out front' designs can't overcome the fact that the over barrel designs have more volume and anything that moves the balance of a stalking  rifle to the mag well is a good thing . There's already another 3D printed over-barrel design by Roedale in Germany but it's 1100+ euro and almost double the weight. Double yikes! For readers in the USofA  the comparison seems to be the  Banish 30 Gold-V2 which Silencer Central  have for $1300. also about double the weight 

Considering the weight penalty and price hike I'd still go for the Oceania Defence. 

More soon

your pal

SBW

  

Special Farces. Shooting To One Mile At Orion UK

"it’s gonna happen, happen, it’s happens all the time" The Undertones. 

I've never been in the Special Forces, but I have been in a few Special Farces. How I have laughed at others, now not so much. 

Orion Shooting Ground  I’ve made this trip before, I’d come back from Madrid just before the first lockdown, but the trip had been booked and I wanted the opportunity to test my Tiktac at longer ranges.  We’d driven from the south coast, it took hours   

The british army have their Infantry Battle School at Brecon on the border between England and Wales on any given lane or hillside you’ll see squaddies being beasted along by their PT instructors.  There’s a saying in the Brecon beacons, “if it ain’t raining it ain’t training” After sighting in at 200m we’d taken a few pops at the 840m gong, the weather closed in and the 840 target disappeared, it rained and rained,  other targets disappeared,  eventually the 200m disappeared. 

The blogger known as The Bambi Basher gained a leg up in his military career one night in the brecon beacons, too tired to unpack, he lay panting on the ground, at that exact moment the inspector arrived and as he was the only one with his kit neatly stowed, was bumped up a rank.  

Preparation, it’s all about preparation. it's drummed into us as school boys.  

Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Errr yes about that.

I’ve seen people make it half a mile to the highseat without their rifle's bolt, I’ve seen people make it 80 miles to the stalking permission no ammo. 60 miles to Bisley without their bolt.  How I’ve laughed.

Now I've joined their ranks.   

My bolt is decocked. Can I cock it? Do I have a cocking tool? Do I have a set of grips? 

That would be no, no, and er no  

Fortunately I’ve bought my Lee Enfield with me. I kind of own an Enfield because I've got an English passport. I take one to a couple of events a year. It quite nice.  On a whim one afternoon  I'd swapped its predecessor, a No.4 two groove Lend/Lease Savage for it. In the mid 1940's it had been hand picked then 'regulated' by Alex Martin of Glasgow as a target rifle.  Sadly, along the way, some goon has coated it in polyurethane varnish, but with all matching numbers, [for the time being], it’s quietened the OCD that the last enfield with its mismatched numbers aggravated. Might get one by Fultons to keep it company. 

Orion is a great facility, the firing point is undercover in shipping containers and the first berm is covered in clays and gongs of all sizes. beyond that there's a one ended valley so wind calls can be challenging, its Wales so the only predictable thing about the weather is its unpredictability. The other 'its Wales so' element is sheep wandering about in the field of fire. Plenty of them. After the pissing rain of the last visit this time its blazing sunshine. 

Subject of which. Terry our instructor teaches long range in a way I'd not seen before. He no longer uses D.O.P.E Data on previous engagements, but instead once Dope is established moves on to D.A.T.T.  Data At This Time.

As for once it hadn't rained in weeks there was dust where we'd usually only see mud. Much like, or exactly like tracking, everything you can see is a record of something that went before it. The glacier made the landscape, the wind polishes the landscape, the landscape swages the wind. The air cools the ground, the ground slows, speeds up, or negates the thermals. One mile is a bastard long way. 

The Target on a hillside, not far from the intersection of two valleys, one blocking the other, causing the wind to double back on itself. A cloud rocks up, and hovers, shading the ground, dust clouds that were rising now don't have the thermal lift so move along at ankle height.  

Since you're wondering. First one hit the big plate fair and square, the spotter said the second one hit the small plate, but I couldn't be sure.

Epic day out, would recommend contact details here 

more soon

Your pal

SBW

  

 

Review: Kalix CR1 Cheek Riser

The shotgun people have a lot to teach us about gun-fit. No clay-buster who takes their sport even semi seriously shoots from a stock without an adjustable cheek riser.

There's nothing new going on here, but Kalix have changed the expectation. At an unbelievable price, I still can't believe I bought one. But......

Wooden stocks aren't selling, most plastic stocks are a bit or a lot horrible. Tikka probably being the worst offender. Lots of companies are asking an unreasonable premium for their unprepossessing adjustable model. Yes Tikka I mean you.  Most of the carbon stock makers do a lower cost version non-adjustable for half the price of their flagship. 

Kalix have a solution.

Plenty of brands make a mechanism, but it not only involves a big curved cut in your stock, which is tricky to do with home tools, it also needs lots of patching and filling.  Before you get to the bit where you need to make the two sections line up. 

Kalix. Stick template to stock, drill four holes. Ya done.

  

Kalix also make a rather elegant solution for wooden and solid stocks. More about that another time.

 

More soon

Your pal 

SBW

The Sako L-579 Forester - An Introduction

Founded in 1927 as Suojeluskuntain Ase- ja Konepaja Osakeyhtiö, later abbreviated to Sako, the company has been at the centre of Finnish arms manufacture ever since. .By 1958 advances in precision casting let Eino Mäkinen design the L579 action, with tapered dove tailed bases and a forged one piece bolt.

Opinion is sharply divided between a vocal minority "modern rifles are much better" and team  'made to a standard the bean-counters have all but eradicated'. 

 I first met this rifle about ten years ago, its belonged to two friends of mine.  It accompanied us on our trip to Scotland, returned un-fired, and since then it's sat in the gunroom.  Made in 1974 [probably in April/May when the serial numbers beginning 300 start] it's become mine, and for sentimental reasons I'm going to do a Resto-Mod and take it up on the hill. By Resto-Mod I mean I'm keeping the action. 

The lovely McMillan stock is way too heavy for a stalking rifle, but fortunately worth about half of the price of its replacement. It's going to be carried in the highlands, and if I ever recover from the ignominy of the last outing, on skis too.  My original plan to give it a nice Walnut stock is either going to have to be an example of radical lightening cuts or I need to learn the art a science of the carbon rifle stock. Maybe more Mod than Resto. 

The fluted .308 barrel will have to go too. I'm abandoning .223 and 22-250 as hunting rounds, going one down for Hare .17 Hornet, and one up for Roebucks and Beaver. I want to be somewhere between the Scottish minimum of 80gr and the wind-cheating 115gr specified by Mr Tubb. The 6mm contenders de jour are 6XC and 6mm Creedmoor. With the Creed being a nominal 200fps faster, and the XC having a nominal extra 500 rounds of barrel life. The thing that's tipping the scales in favour of the XC is airlines are becoming more and more sniffy about hand-loads. Fortunately Norma are supporting the cartridge, so its got greater availability of factory ammunition.  It doesn't hurt that I won't have to sacrifice any of my treasured Creedmoor cases. 

More in part 2

your pal

SBW

 

Review: Steve Rinella' s American Buffalo

There is a Venn diagram with Hunting at the centre,  and many overlapping subjects; 

Weapons [not limited to rifles, shotguns, bows, spears, knives, how to make 'em, how to use 'em,]

History [ of animals, hunting, cooking, in prehistory, the last century, and the one before that] 

Biology [of prey, of their prey, of their parasites, and symbiotic fellow travellers ]

And many, many more

You started off wanting to shoot a deer so you could live up to your moral concerns about the industrialised food chain. Before you know it you've got a room full of firearms and camping equipment, there's no room in your kitchen cupboards because you own every means of food preservation 2000 BC to last week.  You're dressed in Tweed, taking the day off to accompany your friend who dresses like a viking blacksmith and only shoots rifles that were made in the century before he was born, to a symposium on restoring Pliocene habitat to Elizabethan mining sites, as chance would have it you're both reading the same book about parasitic infestations in non-native species. All you actually wanted was a venison burger. 

Steve Rinella is one of us.

When the hunting and fishing lifestyle meets the writing and filmmaking lifestyle, it's what Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones described as 'Five years of drumming, twenty five years of hanging about'. Steve Rinella has spent most of his hanging about reading about Buffalo. This is the voracious appetite of the polymath. Find a decayed buffalo skull, take it home with you, contact every expert on your continent to find out more, when you exhausted the first one, fly to another continent, commission DNA testing. read every known account of hunting, processing, and selling every part of the animal by every culture that lived along side them.

Every year he enters a lottery to hunt a truly wild buffalo in Alaska. When his number comes up, he has a lifetime of preparation under his belt, and thousands of hours of reading to set the adventure in contexts; historical, biological and anthropological. He's the ultimate Buffalo buff. 

More soon

Your pal

SBW

Unboxing Review The Shultz & Larsen Victory 7mm08

I've always wanted a Shultz & Larsen but they don't turn up secondhand at the prices I'm prepared to pay that often. The only time I was going to buy a new one the importer didn’t get back to me so I bought the money pit and took a moody Spanish chick on holiday with the change. To be fair there have been opportunities, but I'm an obscurest; I’m not after the comfortable logic of a .308 and I wouldn't be likely to  buy another secondhand .243, so it’s taken a while. The ACL bought a mint 6.5 x 55  at the lesser end of grade two for a considerable saving, I was more convinced than ever there was an S&L shaped hole in my gun cabinet, the itch was upon me.  At the range, one of the wealthier Who?'s from my club rocked up with a 308 in grade three. Southside D took one look at it and opined "that's a bit of you init" the itch got a little worse.  

I tracked down a 7x64 in the highlands, [cracking round], but it had one of the  crazy long barrels they like up there, its septuagenarian owner had used to shoot 'jackass prone' off the bonnet of a Landrover.  

I found  a 7mm08 in Yorkshire which hadn't really floated the boat of the young lad I spoke to over the phone, he was all about a black rifle that was the uk legal version of one he'd used to prop up the military industrial complex in a game he plays online. Ever the optimist I paid a deposit on the 7mm08, sent off my paperwork, and promptly forgot all about it. 

Empire's rose and fell, teenagers became grandparents, glass dripped from its frame, and the bureaucracy coughed up a variation to my licence. 

When I called the gun shop it had been so long the work experience lad I'd first spoken to was about to retire, but made a charming pretence of remembering me. 

He put me in touch with the rifle's owner, who told a much more compelling story of;  

'proper nice bit of timber that', 'wife wants takin' to Spain', 'cops want me to have less stalking rifles, had a pin though my wrist so I'm keeping the light one'.  

He mentioned he'd sent it off for the two-stage trigger upgrade. 

On one of our trips to Scotland I would be passing through Yorkshire so I popped in to take a look and either retrieve my deposit or ....

S&L do a range of mini rifles called Legacy in the 223 and 7.62x39 case families (there's a 6x45 and a Grendel, I know!) a working rifle called the Classic , The Victory - for the stalking gentleman who has to have a job, and the Ambassador for Oligarchs.  All come with really nice features: 

Three lug bolt; I've got a Tikka that'll shoot the lights out of almost anything, its only got two lugs, but if a three lug bolt doesn't stir something in your soul you don't like rifles, and probably haven't  got a soul. 

Takedown; that most beguiling of features, I've got two, never take either of them apart, but it's nice to know I could.  

Cut rifling: Another thing its possible to wax lyrical about, I refer you to my Tikka now wearing a button rifled tube. 

Magazine fed: The dual latches on this thing are really really nice. You don't care? Buy a Tikka and lots of ammo, you'll be happier. You have no soul. 

Sexy timber: Sometimes I just sit and stare at it, within its blotches, and swirls you can see the birth of the universe. I never take it out in the rain, or anywhere likely to be muddy. It makes me feel slightly unworthy. 

Pillars and bedding as standard: there nothing more to spend, just a lovely accurate rifle straight out of the box  

Shultz and Larsen have both long since gone to the happy hunting ground, but their spirit of Danish high end design, woodworking, and engineering live on. The company lacks the marketing punch of their German, Finnish, and Swiss rivals, but by making a really great product at the price of a mass produced rifle. They have a fan base who aren't about to dessert them any time soon. It's a different kind of offering.

These days what's commonly described as a 'custom rifle' is actually a rifle assembled from bought in bits, its pretty amazing that you can, for the same or less, have one from a company where the barrels arrived as bars, and the stocks arrived as planks. A lot like John Rigby Rifle Makers, but with almost ten large knocked off Rigby's price tag.  

More soon

Your Pal

SBW

Shotgun Shenanigans Pt.1

This: I was bouncing down a farm track in a pickup with some deer managers, you know what these guys are like, they are always trying to sell you something, or some form of sporting endeavour where they can leave you in a field with the meter running and go for a nap in the truck .

DM: Do you do much pigeon shooting SBW?

SBW: There'd be little point

DM [ears up sniffing the wind, not the expected answer]: Why's that ?

SBW: I'm a total Chump with a shot gun. 

I have form you see, the day I met my culinary hero in a pigeon blind in Fife I launched a whole box of carts/shells at birds swooping in to the decoys, and hit exactly none. 

From this inauspicious start it's been up hill all the way.

In the UK shotguns are licensed in a similar way to rifles; the criteria are less stringent, but the process is the same. You can save a few quid by getting your certificates to run contemporaneously. I got my first shotgun because not that I expected to be able to do much with it, but because, like a historic rifle, you have to have one. 

A friend with a massive collection of firearms was out of work, so on a whim I asked if he had one he'd want to sell. No surprise he did, I collected the most unpleasant semi-auto anyone has ever seen from him and gave him £100 for it and some 1022 magazines. I came to think of them as expensive second hand magazines and a free shotgun. I was traveling home by train with the gun in the worst gunship I've ever seen. Another 'freeby'. It was a nice-ish afternoon, I sat on the station platform, two Polish chicks came to sit on the next bench, the train pulled into the station, I hopped up and was making the ten step journey to the doors of the train when the slip disintegrated, the zip gave up the coast and the little leather strap parted company. The shotgun clattered to the floor. The Polish chicks looked over and totally unconcerned got on to the train and continued with their day.

I scooped up the gun and got on too. In the toilet I had to quickly work out how to dismantle a semi, so I could wrap it in what was left of the gunslip.  It was a long nerve-wracking journey back to London as I awaited the intervention of the armed response unit. 

Shooter [who you'll know from other adventures] invited me to shoot geese with him for my birthday, I tried to make excuses, 'my gun is a disgrace, I'm slightly worse' but he would have none of it. "Everyone should own a semi-auto, you can clean it with Fanta and WD40 they are a perfect thing, you just need to practice".  We drove up north in perfect goose weather; blowing a hoodie, iced water flying horizontally into our faces. It was a spectacular piece of goose-ground. We walked out onto a strip of land with a fish farm on one side and a nature reserve on the other. a skien flew over at not far off head height, I missed the first one, manly through shock, downed the next two, added a shell and popped a third. The gun was now a proven slayer. 

Based on its record so far I can neither call it solely an unlucky gun, or lucky gun, but it certainly attracted attention. Not just from the goddess of the hunt. 

I took it clay shooting a few times with Foxy, the ACL, and SouthsideD. It's ability to hit things had largely deserted it by this point, but in fairness we did always say we were going 'for a laugh' and it provided those in abundance. 

The slide release is on the opposite side to the port, so reloading is counter-intuitive on its best days. I have never cleaned it, so it has some mud left over from the goose shooting, some blood from the same trip and a few comedy feathers travel in the same slip, now held together with more than one brand of packing tape. Strangers laugh at it. The ACL was unrelenting in his mockery. 

After a while I bought my Browning; in an equally undiscerning purchase, that by dumb luck turned out to be both a bargain, with nice timber, and a bargain that breaks clays.  

I was short of space in the cabinet and I'd been trying to encourage Super Plumber to take up a hobby so he'd not be driven mad. I gave him a cabinet I found in a client's garden, and filled out the forms with him. He'd gotten his ticket back from the cops, but was still making excuses about buying a shotgun. The same sort of excuses made by tool-fetishists everywhere "I only want the XYZ and I don't have the 2-3-4-or 5 grand they cost'. total bullshit of course. You should always buy the worst rifle or shot gun you can find [pretty sure I achieved that] as it will quickly teach you more about about what you actually want than any amount of reading other people's opinions on the internet. Then you'll enjoy the ecstasy of 'new gun X never see than piece junk again'. 

To give him his due, while it took Super Plumber a while to engage with the sport of clay-busting he's certainly been 'all guns' since he has. 

He'd been roundly mocked by the first person he'd shown his gifted Semi Auto to, undeterred he thought he'd buy himself something cheap and cheerful at the auction. Cheerful maybe.

If you're used to buying stuff on Ebay you have a wildly over-favourable view of the auction experience.  He'd bid on some piece of junk he could buy for the price of a couple of rounds of G&T's. Not receiving a 'you won it' notification, he shrugged his shoulders and tired again, didn't get a notification, bid on an inexpensive pair of Spanish guns,  still nothing. Assuming that he'd been too Yorkshire [tightfisted]  he waded in the next time. Nothing.  

The following afternoon he received a gloating email from the auctioneer 

Dear Super Plumber, we're delighted to tell you your bids were successful you're now the proud owner of six [shit] shotguns and you owe us £475 and 30% + delivery.

Needless to say, he's now on first name terms with his local gunsmith, and on the waiting list for a new gun that costs more than my car. 

More shotgun shenanigans to follow 

Your pal

SBW

 

 

 

Pimp My CZ 527. The Parts List Part 1

You could spend all kinds of money on a lightweight mountain rifle, or you could buy a 2.66kg [5.87lbs ] mini Mauser and spend the change actually shooting it. It comes with a highly adjustable single set trigger at 3 lbs and 1.5 lbs but adjustable to a lot lower, an idiosyncratic 'backwards' two position safety. It's also offered configured for the left handed. The legend that is the CZ527.

Petite and pointable, [no not her, that's petite and surly] available in some wonderfully cheap-to-keep calibers it's the mini Mauser with a cult following. Introduced in '89, it's an update of the Brno Fox, which in turn is a modest evolution of the ZKW465 from the 40’s. Available in the.17 Remington, .17 and 22 Hornet, .204 Ruger, .221 Fireball, .222 and 223 Remington, 6.5mm Grendel, .300 AAC Blackout and 7.62×39mm. The 527 is a really nice starting point for a custom rifle, loads have been made and there are secondhand options at all price points. There's at least one gunsmith selling a custom 6mmPPC. I've always wondered, as the later .223's are 1/9 twist , perhaps a .223AI would be a good idea?

There have been quite a few factory stock offerings over the years: Full stock, Laminate, Lux, American, Carbine, Night Sky, the stunning Ebony, a particularly nasty Synthetic, a swoopy Target stock by Bell and Carlson, a Kevlar by HS Precision, and a 'Marmite' MTR Target/Varmint stock that looks to virtually double the weight of the rife, but would make a wonderful war-club/canoe paddle.

CZ themselves seemed to know they needed to do something with the 527 range , but seemed at a loss as to what to do. So they stopped making them. The aftermarket has taken the rifle in lots of different directions, for both hunting and competition.

The 527's traditional lines are part of its charm, but at the same time they're its greatest limitation. Famously, the bolt throw, clearly intended for shooting with open sights, limits the rifle to medium and high rings, so an aftermarket cheek riser is a good idea. There are a couple of aftermarket bolt handles and an improved design can be sourced from the factory. The factory new bolt handle's part number appears to be 5270-0631-08ND if you can find one. 

Glade Armoury do at least three different bolt handles, personally I like the Anschutz style swept ball 

James Calhoon is a gunsmith who has made a specialty of the 527, he does his own bolt handle with better scope clearance, his own very low rings and bases, a single shot sled, and his own wildcat the mental .19 Calhoon. Don't worry if you can't get his site to load, it does exist he's just hosting on the world's slowest server.

Richly deserving of a mention are RVB Precision who will, for a modest fee, machine your bottom metal to give you the svelt flush look that the factory only got around to with the Ebony.

The now discontinued factory three round conversion 

JNP Gunsprings claim to significantly reduce your locktime with their custom wound spring and make a set of Weaver adapters for those of you who want a more traditional looking mount 

For those of you adverse to a set trigger there are two options by Rifle Basix and Timney [listed for the 550] 

Form make a version of their Cromwell for the CZ527, not sure who made the trigger guard 

also by Form 

GRS very chunky, but probably the best ergonomics 

Boyds 

Klinsky also from the Czech Republic do target stocks, 

and something more sporting 

Bell & Carlson

And then there are the customs...

This very well executed AI clone is a one off, seen on some UK forums 

An even more ambitious build is this 6.5 Grendel from NZ, a full description of the build is HERE

Paul Green of Thames Valley Guns has written up the journey of developing his CZ527 into a 6.5 Grendel tack driver. you can read about it HERE

Last but not least. My absolute favourite 527 project is this stunning full-stock by Mike Connor

CZ Model 527-FS Full Stocked Rifle .223 Rem.
20" tapered round barrel with ramp front sight, barrel-band tie-down, and standing blade rear sight on integral island base. Custom stocked to the muzzle by Mike Connor with fully figured walnut, steel forend cap, borderless wrap-around fleur-de-lys checking, steel pistol grip cap, beaded left-hand pancake cheekpiece, European sling swivels, and Biesen checkered steel buttplate. Marked .22 Hornet but chambered for .223 Rem. Right-handed, controlled-feed action with detachable box magazine for .223.
Swarovski Z3 3-9x36 scope with 4A duplex reticle on CZ rings fitting directly to receiver dovetailed double square bridges without separate bases. Pull: 13 3/4". Weight: 7lbs, 8oz.
Details from Hallowell Co 

If you see any more parts, or custom builds please let me know 

your pal 

SBW 

https://riflebasix.com/product/ceska-zbrojovka-527-550-trigger-cz-527/

There's a Piccatinny rail by Britannia 
LSS-XL Gen2 Chassis System

https://www.burrisoptics.com/mounting-systems/rings/cz-style-rings
bisley
sport match
warne

CZ BRNO ZH202 - Cold War Combination Gun

12 bore CZ BRNO ZH202 over and under, 26 ins ported barrels, solid rib, 2¾ ins chambers, 14½ ins stock 

The ZH Series was introduced in 1958. It’s probably fair to call the design unconventional.

The ZH's were hand made. With that 'hewn from a sold lump' feel Mercedes used to have. Like many BRNO/CZ guns of the period, when compared with the Italians, the finish was a bit ‘wrong side of the iron curtain’, but they have a certain rugged charm. The only plastic is the butt plate, everything else is steel and walnut.  

The skeet barrels are 26" with the muzzle ends "flared" into a muzzle brake that looks a bit like the ventilated "cage" on the Cutts Compensator Skeet chokes of the 40’s and 50’s.  

The barrels are joined at the cage and the breech, with space between them for the rest of their length. and have fixed skeet chokes, made to cover a 30" circle at 20 yards with a nice, even pattern using most target loads.

There are other shotgun versions; fixed chokes, usually tight and barrels in either 28" or 30" and combination offerings. Durability is an understatement with these guns. The action is made to handle everything from 22 Hornet, and 5.6x52 [I know me neither] to 7mmx57R, and 7x65R. Typically over a 12g, although 16g were also available. The stock came drilled for recoil weights. 

A sliding breech block is pushed forward by springs when it is closed, and cams back when opened.

The barrels pivot on trunnions that project out of the sides of the barrel set and engage with slots in the receiver. The fore end is screwed to the barrel set and doesn't get removed during take down.

The two triggers are an interesting set up. Front trigger fires the top barrel only, the back trigger has two functions; 1st pull fires the bottom barrel, 2nd pull fires the top. This is for when you’re using a rifle/shotgun set up, the top barrel being the rifle. The auto safety is in the front of the trigger guard, like a U.S. M1, and set by two independent systems.

The lockup is very strong, the breech system was intended to allow other barrel sets to be matched to the gun with minimum fitting effort by your gunsmith. They are not truly interchangeable but required less fitting when installing a barrel set, than from many contemporary brands. 

This one slams shut with a bank-vault clunk and feels ready to do the next 50 years of service. 

More peculiarities as time and cash permit

your pal 

SBW

TV Chefs & Foodies: Adam Richman

L

et’s take a moment to big up Adam Richman Eats Britain on the Food Network .

The researchers have found him some charismatic cooks and foods that are eaten all over the world and take their names from the towns and villages where they were first made. He’s taken full advantage of the costume budget, tools around in a Mini and manages to see fagotts being cooked with a straight face. 

If the rhymes aren’t to your taste: 

Clotted Cream, your cardiologist’s dream. 

The recipes will be:

At a boozer on the edge of Windsor Great Park they knock up some Venison Bon-Bon’s which are basically a béchamel free croquetta. 

Method: poach trim, ribs etc in veal and chicken stock - 4 hours should do it  

Cool. 

Fork over so it’s shredded 

Roll into balls

Dip: egg, flour, egg, panko, egg

Deep fry. 

Serve with homemade mustard mayo. 

Adam has an excellent grasp of English culture.  On helping his host cut up some onion’s

“I’m crying like it’s the end of Blackadder”

He is big, and he is clever.  It doesn’t matter if he is seeing mylene klass, the fact that the gossip pages say he is, is enough to give hope to fat boys everywhere 

More soon 

Your pal

SBW