"The Rifleman" Remake

Appropriately, the early 60's was a time for TV Westerns featuring a rifle toting lawman or bounty hunter. 1963 gave us "The Rifleman" starring Chuck Connors.....

And earlier, 1961 had given us "Wanted: Dead or Alive" with a young Steve McQueen. Of course, in reality, those shows didn't feature "rifles" per se, "The Rifleman" probably should have been called "The Carbine-man", but I'll have to say that it does lack the ring of the official title. And in the case of the McQueen show, that heavily modified Winchester can barely even be called a carbine. 

The "Mare's Legs" as guns of that type has come to be called have more in common with today's AR "pistols".  I was born in 1960 (and in Hong Kong), and not having moved to the United States until I was 7, in 1968. Never-the-less, like most boys of the era, loved Westerns and all things associated there-of. 

So, appropriately, and probably to no one's surprise, I've fallen hard for the Kel-Tec Sub 2000! Previously, I talked about how it was the missing "pistol-caliber carbine" that I'd been searching for, but that was on a conceptual basis.... Now that I've shot it, well.... I'd have to say that I'm completely smitten! Let me go through the reasons:

• ITts small, light, AND it even folds up to be even smaller. Really, 16" is ridiculous!
• It shoots like a dream! I put about 200 rounds through it without a hiccup. This included 4 different types of ammo, 2 of which were my own hand-loads.
• It was dead accurate out to 25 yards (the max  at the indoor range), and that was with the hard-on-old-eyes peep sights which I'm going to replace with a notch sight. When a red dot was mounted on it....., it was "too easy". 
• The previous owner had already upgraded the charge handle, trigger and trigger guard among other things and it felt awesome. 
• It was dead reliable while using 4 different types of magazines, including Beretta OEM, Mec-Gar (pretty much OEM), Beretta 35 round extended, and USGI M9 mags.

 

 

The previous owner had also put on the very common upgrade of the Magpul AFG on the lower rail. I ended up removing it because it felt awkward and I felt like it made the gun feel bulky which was contrary to the spirit of the design. 

In it's place, I put on the Magpul XTM hand-stop, which I love! It does the same thing, but is much smaller and lighter! 

And on the inch and a half of rail left, I mounted a Truglo MicroTac laser. It's the perfect size and weight for this carbine's intended purpose of a ready for anything carry-carbine.