Practical and Impractical Handguns: Part 2

 

So, this is it; a Walther PPQ Q4/M1. I just bought one this week. My intention was to wait and pick one up later, but I found it on an auction site at a low price, so I went ahead and followed it thinking that it would certainly go up in price over the point which I was willing to pay, which is about the high $500s or possibly low $600s. 

These things are generally $699 as you can see, but the real issue isn't the price, it's the fact that they are difficult to find as the M1 or "Classic" version at any price. With the Covid/political issues this last year or so has made them even more difficult to find, but has inflated the price quite a bit (eg. typically in the $800-900 range). 

Back to the auction: when I came across it, there was almost a week left, and to make things worse, it was ending at a time when I would be tied up working and unable to bid! 

This is where friends come into play. I have a long-time friend who lives in another town and has had quite a bit of experience in dealing with auctions. So I contacted him, told him the situation and asked for help. I gave him my account info and he agree to bid for me. He made one offer to test the system, then placed an offer close to my max the day before. It was in the low $400s at that time and I thought; "there's no way it stays down that low". But as it got close to the time the auction was set to expire, it was still in the $400s. We texted back and forth excitedly, one of which had him saying that maybe it would stay under $500, to which I answered, that "I can't even bring myself to think that".

He turned out to be right! The auction completed at $499! It's like the one of the left, the M1 vs. the M2 on the right. Plus, since it's an older one instead of new, it comes with 3 RDS adapter plates in the box instead of having to contact Walther to get 1. I'm just a bit excited today waiting for it to arrive at my FFL. If all goes right, I should be able to pick it up, put my RDS on it and shoot it this weekend! 

Practical and Impractical Handguns: A Case for Both

So, I've reached that stage in life where eyesight is becoming an increasing issue. For reading, computer work and such, I have taken to keeping a pair of glasses that are my reading prescription only at my desk. They are way more comfortable to use in that type of work compared to trying to use the reading portion of a pair of bifocals. 

However, they don't help with this; trying to get a good "sight picture" while shooting my handguns! Last year, I installed a pair of higher profile tritium embedded "night-sights" and they help some, but by no means improve the fuzzy image my aging eyes give me. Therefore, I've been looking at using an "RDS" (Red Dot Sight) on my regular handgun (Walther PPQ). That's all fine and good (other than the cost of course), but you might be aware, that for us non-Glock users, there aren't a ton of options. For PPQ, users like me, those are as follows:

• Send your slide off to one of 2 companies that will do a "slide cut" on a Walther and buy a special plate to mount the RDS. That'll run around $300 when all is said-and-done, and that's not including buying the red dot, so we'll say $500 total.
• Or buy a PPQ Q4, which already has it's slide cut for an optic, comes with adapter plate(s) and have another handgun for around $600 plus the RDS.

I'm going to say that I was leaning toward the second option, and then this....... 

happened! If you haven't seen one of these before, it's a Brugger & Thomet (B&T) Universal Service Weapon (USW). Well, actually, it's a adapter chassis for a PPQ that transforms the Walther into the rough equivalent of the actual USW which is a Sphinx that's been modified to be like the above but actually sleeker since it's not a "chassis" that you have to put a handgun into. Never-the-less, I love the concept (which I'll get to later) and snapped it up as soon as I found it on a random website of a gun shop in North Carolina called Tar Heel Firearms. It was expensive (more than I originally paid for my PPQ), but is a precision Swiss made product machined out of aluminum. So, what is it and why did it cause me to engage in this bout of lunacy? 

The above images are only 2 of probably 10-15 different versions of the same concept generically known as "Carbine Conversion" kits. Basically the idea is to extend the range of a common pistol (Glock, S&W, Sig etc), out to 100 yards give or take. And they are generally effective in achieving this goal. But I'm certain that you've detected some issues here, right?

• They're kind of big and clunky making them no easier to conceal and carry than a short carbine.
• You're still saddled with the original pistol caliber with it's inherent limitations in range and effectiveness. 
• They are often expensive ranging from the $300s to the $500s and more when you add BUIS (back up iron sights), RDS (red dot sight), weapon lights and more.
• So are difficult and require tools to install the handgun.
• Limitations of models that they are designed to fit.

So, what am I doing talking about, and looking into them? Here's the thing: I'm not going to rationalize that it's a logical decision on my part. I will blame a number of factors that impact my personal weirdness that made me the way I am!

• I've always been a pistol guy, not completely certain why. I just like them way more than long guns, always have. The fact that I'm a cross-eyed dominant, meaning that I'm right-handed but see way better with my left eye, so that hampers my effectiveness with a rifle.
• I should have grown up with transformers, but I didn't. However, I still LOVE things that can be transformed from one application into another.
• I like the unusual. Like Volvo station wagons, mechanical cameras, and airplanes like the A10 Warthog and P38 Lightning.

So, when the original B&T USW-A1 came out, it was love at first sight! The only problem(s)? It's $2500, not including the NFA Form 1 tax stamp for it being a "short barreled rifle". Also, I'm kind of wedded to the Walther ecosystem and didn't want to buy into something that takes the CZ magazine etc. Why are we talking then? Well.... look at it! It's so "cool", and it offers the ability to extend the usable range beyond the normal handgun while still keeping it in a form that's NOT the size of a carbine. How does this affect my situation? 

My current PPQ is being turned into an SBR by eFiling a Form 1 with the ATF, so it can go into the USW chassis. But since I really don't want to take it in and out of the chassis, I'm going to bite the bullet and save up for a PPQ Q4/M1 that'll serve as my regular handgun. I'll mount a RDS to it's adapter plate and all will be well!

 

 

Single-Minded Gun Guy

  

Maybe it's the old Boy Scout in me. Maybe it's survivalism or maybe it's just the freeing simplicity of the concept where a person is reduced to a few simple tools and his/her wits getting by in the great outdoors. A few years ago, I started watching Dave Canterbury's videos on bushcraft and loved them! One of the things that he supports is the idea of having a single "do everything" firearm using the Harrington and Richardson single shot that's been produced for many years under many model names, such as Topper, 148, Pardner..... the list goes on. As much as I love modern semi-automatics such as ARs, I really enjoy the concept of these simply, little to go wrong designs.

While in the process of scouring pawnshops for a H&R, I came across and became interested in the $99 Hatfield shotgun sold at Walmart, due in part to the amazing price, but also because of what one Youtuber that goes by "Booligan" was able to do with it!

It's an old formula pioneered over 100 years ago by American gun companies, but one of the mods that this Turkish manufacturer was able to come up with was to move the hinge slightly thus allowing for the gun to fold back under itself creating a folding 16" firearm that can easily be carried in a backpack. While contemplating getting one of these, I stumbled across this...

Apparently, the manufacturer for the "Hatfield", either contracted it with another company or decided to bring a lightly modified version in themselves and sell it under the name of Fedarm SS12. They can often be found on Gunbroker, the online auction seller for $50 to $70. Got mine for about $65. I bought a 9mm Luger 5" chamber adapter/barrel for it and started using it to test my 9mm hand loads. VERY convenient not having to chase brass around! So, much so that I traded for.... this.....

A Rossi R223HB, meaning a Brazilian manufactured version of the same concept chambered in .223 Remington so I can test my .223 hand loads that same way! It basically cost me nothing because I refurbished a laptop I was given and exchanged it for the gun. Unlike the SS12 above and any of the H&Rs this is no lighweight; it's equipped with a "heavy barrel" and is quite accurate. I'd really like to have a 9mm Luger barrel for it as well so I don't have to use a chamber adapter. So, I started looking for a cheap Rossi barrel that I can use as a "stubb" (explain later), or maybe another .223 barrel (which is close enough in case diameter that I could marry a 9mm barrel to it. In the process, I found this:

 

It's called a "Trifecta" for obvious reasons and mine came with a 7mm08 barrel, a 20ga barrel, and a 22LR barrel. Despite Rossi claiming that barrels require a trip back to the factory to "fit" them to a particular frame, mine fit the R223 just fine and visa-versa. I don't have any need for a 7mm08 barrel, but what can it hurt! However, I sure like having the 20ga and the 22LR barrels. Plus, I got it for a song at $175 off of Texas Gun Trader from a guy who had run out of room in his gun safe! All of a sudden, I'm the owner of 3 single shot long guns, in 2 shot gauges, and 3 rifle calibers with the capability to shoot a 4th!

Now I still need to find another barrel to make into a 9mm! In the meantime, while I was researching, I found that Rossi made a couple of interesting items for a short time. 

The first (which is practically, although NOT easily attainable) is the P4102211 Matched Pair Pistol. Basically the same frame/receiver but fitted with a pistol grip and short barrels in either 45LC/410ga or 22LR. I'd love to have one of these. Although they aren't terribly expensive (about $200-250), but they are hard to find because they weren't in production for very long. The other though....

First of all; they were only sold in Canada and to add a level of complexity, it's legal there since our Canuck friends, while having generally more restrictive firearms laws, have some less so, regarding short barreled shotguns! So yeah, it's be difficult if not impossible to import! Now, it would be possible to buy a regular 12 gauge single shot, then file a Form 1 with the BATF along with the $200 fee and wait, and wait, and wait..... Then at some point in the future when you're old like me, and it's been approved, you can make your own Canadian Rossi Shotgun Pistol! Am I going to build one of these? No, I don't think so. If I were to invest $200 in a BATF "tax stamp", I think I'd want to create a modern "Howdah" (or Houdah). What's that you say?

During the time of the British Raj, hunters, both Victorian and local potentates, would go afield carried by elephants in the "Houdah" (platform). The "pistol" (and I use the term loosely) was carried as a "defense of last resort" when hunting dangerous game like Tigers and Lions... oh my! They originally began as flintlock, then cap & ball, but appears to have reached the pinnacle of development in the break-open form chambered in large-bore calibers such as .577 Martini. I've become slightly obsessed, but them, but they (like the Pedersoli above) tend to run into the thousands depending on whether you get the kit or finished form. Can anyone say sawed-off Coach Gun!?!

 

From Bad to Worse: The Guns & Ammo Situation 2020

 

For a lot of people, this is what it feels like right now. And this thing with the West Coast fires is just the latest. It breaks my heart! I've actually driven around in that area just enjoying the trees. For a guy who grew up on the treeless plain of the Texas Panhandle, it was amazing! Ironically, that was the year of the never-ending rains which caused all manner of havoc with mud-slides! It seems like a lifetime ago....

And then you have this.... 

After this......

With mayors in various places literally ordering police to NOT "police".......hmmmm So, what's the upshot? Well, you have lots of nervous folks. And nervous folks buy up all the guns and ammo they can lay their hands on.

So, philosophically and realistically, here's where I think we are: although many of us adhere to the belief that we are ultimately responsible for defending ourselves from the miscreants of society, we thought we lived in an advanced nation with functioning policing. Then the craziness started. We all know what those are, starting with the pandemic and currently sitting in hurricane season and watching wildfires on TV that probably are the result of us stopping forest fires and may or may not be worsened by global warming!!! From a rational non-extremist standpoint, what should we be doing right now instead of just watching in horror every evening on the news?

Here's what I'm doing..... the NON-doomsday version of prepping and my rationale behind it.

• 1st of all, I don't believe there's going to be a societal collapse SHTF situation. I'm not going to go into why I believe this right now, but I just don't!
• 2nd. I do believe that they'll be chances of some societal unrest in the next few month/years? Yes, I do, but with the proviso that it will vary quite a lot from region to region and certainly being in big cities of "blue states" would be the iffy-est situations. 
• 3rd. I absolutely believe that all these uncertainties will create a continuation of the 2020 situation with disruptions and shortages. Because, nervous people will hoard. I lived in New Orleans (pre-Katrina) and Chicago. Every time there was something on the horizon, weather-wise, people freaked out.

Now with the rationale out of the way; what have I done and am I proposing to do for myself and my family?

• Basic Defense- On average, if you live in an urban or suburban location it takes 7 minutes for for police to get to you. If you're rural, it'll probably be longer. If you have a hopped up meth-head or home-invasion gone wrong..... any number of minutes is a loooong time. So, one of the first guns I bought was a 12 gauge pump shotgun and I have quite a bit of buckshot. We have a defense plan for our house and everyone in it know what it is. I also have a number of 9mm handguns, one of which is in the nightstand. It will go into the hands of my wife or son as my backup. It's part of the plan. I have over a 1000 rounds of 9mm, so I don't need to buy any for some time.
• Widespread Societal Disruptions- What I mean by this is, if things get so bad, I'll need to get home and hunker down with my family and go nowhere for some time.
• Have or Prepare to Store from 1 to 3 months of food. I'd say that we keep roughly about a months worth of essentials in our house right now, ranging from food, to other items, like alternative cooking equipment such as propane stoves/fuel just in case there's a power disruption. We also have batteries as well as portable light and power for short term disruptions. This also includes enough potable water, or water that's near potable enough to drink if it come to that.
• Defense- when we talk about defense as related to this scenario, is if absolutely "next-level" stuff. Now you're talking about the possibility of defending against marauders or desperate folks (read unprepared) looking to take what you have. Besides the 9mm handguns that I have, my actual primary defensive arms are AR platform carbines/pistols. They range from the run-of-the-mill 5.56/.223 to .300 Blackout and my current build of a 6.5 Grendel which will give me the ability to keep a "stand-off" distance of over 300 yards plus (limited by eyesight). There's a system here and I will explain in a future post. If my troubles are too much for this setup, then I guess I'm screwed!

• Comms- If "services" get disrupted, there's a good chance that cellphone/telephone service will go out along with possibly radio/tv. Which leaves ham/shortwave. I have 3 of the cheapo Baofeng radios. They're cheap, but they work. My plan is to study for and pass the ham licensing test this coming year. I also have a couple of the FRS radios and have those channels programmed into the Baofengs as well. I don't intend for the Baofeng radios to do heavy lifting as far as long distance shortwave communications is concerned, but they are what I can afford and way better than nothing. They can be used for comms in a pinch. I'll get something better when I pass my exam!

• The last part of this level of my plan is power. Nope, I don't have solar panels, a power-wall or a windmill yet, but don't think I haven't thought about it! What I do have is flashlights and lanterns for every person and situation, along with batteries stored up for them all. I also recently bought a power station that has a portable solar charging panel. It should be able to power/charge up emergency items such as phone, flashlights and radios and charge itself up every day that there's sunlight. 

So, as you can see, at this stage of the game, it's a short-term setup. Something along the lines of a month or so. Would I like to be more prepared, absolutely! I'm working on it though...

 

Loe..... It Has Come To Pass.... Ammo Is Gone

  

Not surprisingly, folks are a bit nervous these days. The reasons are many, and this post isn't really about politics or even about folks being just plain foolish.

But, the fact is; the 1st is just as important as the 2nd Amendment. That being said, all this "stuff" in combination with Covid-19, and everything else has created a run on gun stores the likes of which hasn't been seen for quite some time. 

Remember, these are "new" gun owners, meaning they don't have any ammo. It's not like me buying another 9mm with quite a lot of it put up. You combine all that with today's consumer going to Youtube for information and what you get is a bunch of new to the gun-world people watching videos telling them they should have at least a thousand rounds of ammunition for every caliber or every gun and there you go! Did I mention that it's also an election year with the results being very iffy regardless of which side you're on.

To give you an idea how bad it is out there; here's a little story. First, in case you haven't heard; nobody has ammo (other than pure hunting stuff like .243 Winchester). The big retailers are all out. The only places that have any are the small "mom & pop" gun stores like the one in my town. I was in there the other day, and sure enough, he had a case that he'd broken open and selling by the box instead of the whole 1000 rounds. A guy came in and wanted 2 boxes. THEY WERE $45 EACH!!! These were the normal 50 round boxes....

So, what do I do? More correctly; what did I do? The last 3 years after President Trump was elected, the firearms industry has experienced an epic slump. Everything from ARs,handguns, to ammunition was cheap. AR's between $400 and 500, $200 9mm semi-autos and 100 round boxes of 9mm at Walmart for less than $17. 

I filled up a 50 Cal ammo can with 14 boxes of this stuff, bought one or two at a time from 2017 to 2019 at about $17 per box, making it 17 cents per round. Over this same period, I bought close to 1500 rounds of .223/5.56 ammo at about 25 cents per round. The same goes for .22LR, 12 gauge shot shells of various types and some 300 Blackout as well. This is just the stuff that's sealed up in ammo cans waiting for a rainy day.

Just as, if not more importantly, I picked up several pounds of powders for each of my main calibers, several thousand primers and over a thousand projectiles. 

I'm not telling you all this to brag. What I'm saying is that I can still shoot because of the preparation work I did when times were good. I can shoot reloads because I have the supplies and equipment to make them. I have 22LR versions of my main guns (AR and Walther PPQ), so I can shoot that as well. I'm betting that, this too shall pass and prices will once again drop, but it's going to be awhile and I'll keep on shooting till then! 

Backing Up Back Up Power

The one thing that everyone is afraid of is........ the blackout! Not the Zombie Apocalypse, not a "Red Dawn" invasion, not an Ebola Outbreak, or even another Democrat in the White House. It's the lack of electricity. 

With today's increasing use of electricity for everything, we're all on the hook. Most states don't have their own self-sustaining grid. Amazingly, even California has to buy electricity from neighboring states and is often a a sum-deficit during the summer months. However, with the interconnected aspect of the whole system, we're all pretty much in the same boat to one extent or another. 

Every day there are more and more folks installing solar panels on their homes, but do you actually know how that works? During the day, when you make more than you use, your meter runs backwards as the electricity goes into the grid and your provider pays you in credits (at about 1/3 of what they charge you). Then at night or on the weekends, you're still using electricity as normal and they charge you. The fact is, we're still connected to the grid and beholden to it. But, is there a solution to this?

We'll yeah..... you can buy Tesla's Power Wall to store up your excess electricity, then use this storage capacity when you need it. As you can imagine, it's kind of pricey right now and won't pay for itself any time soon, but it's out there. 

There are of course, DIY solutions where folks are building their own, often using 18650 lithium-ion cells harvested from old laptop batteries, but that's quite a commitment requiring over 4000 cells to get started. 

Ideally, a person would do a hybrid system with both wind and solar input to have more possibility of being able to store power and I'd love to head off in that direction. When we move out of our large kid-driven house, we'll seriously look into it. Until then, all I can do is to prepare for emergencies.

In that direction, most people go for something like this and I'll probably do that as well at some point. But our teenage kids budget can't stand that level of emergency power right now, so I'm starting small......

This small. I recently bought a 230 watt-hour "Portable Power Station". It's not powerful enough to run a fridge, but it has pure sine-wave output so it'll do sensitive devices such as medical devices or computers. The various ports can power pretty much most modern devices and importantly, it's small enough to take camping! 

At some point before this summer, I'll also buy a portable solar panel as well. The way I look at it, a 60 watt panel should work out fine. These devices usually deliver about a quarter to a third of their rates power, so if my calculations are correct, anything around 20w per hour should be able to recharge the 230 Wah portable power station over the course of a day even if I pretty much discharge it. So, that this is, would be a small model of what I like to do one day with full-sized solar panels and a power wall at home. Until then, this rig will be an emergency stop-gap that can go camping as well!

"Catch-22"!

I'm a little different than most people...... I do things differently and my re-entry into the firearms world has followed that pattern.

Most people start out with something like this. A bolt action rifle/carbine chambered in the venerable .22 long rifle cartridge. They are accurate, slows the shooter down so they can master the fundamentals of shooting. However, I really started shooting by qualifying "small bore" while in ROTC at Texas A&M, so I really didn't need to go that route. 

So, the first thing I bought was a sell-defense/service weapon. Specifically the HK VP9 which got traded around till I got the Walther PPQ that I have now. So, the whole scenario progressed via the self/home-defense path going through, a 12ga pump shotgun, and the AR world until I finally got to where I am now...... which is just plain "fun-to-shoot", range/practice firearms.

So, I started with one of these, essentially a full-sized replica of my regular PPQ, except in .22LR vs. 9mm. This gives me the ability to spend a lot of trigger time at a few cents per round. Then came this.....

 

The Ruger 10//22 in Stainless Takedown version which I promptly put into a Magpul X22 "Backpacker" stock. It also got an inexpensive Bushnell TRS-25 reddot on the Magpul barrel mount. Let me just say, I'm HOOKED!

On Sunday afternoon, I spent an hour and a half at the range with 4 guns. My new to me, Magnum Research MR9 (long-slide version), and also new to me Just Right Carbine (Glock 9mm version), the Walther PPQ/22LR and Ruger 10/22 Takedown. I spent twice as much time shooting the 22s! There were some extenuating circumstances, but I was just having a ton of fun shooting those 22s! Most of that time, I spent with the 10/22. Both of these guns ate up both types of bulk ammo (Federal & Winchester) I used without issue. I'll leave you with this: I can completely see why people say that folks who buy one of them, end up with multiples.