Gun-a-Day 3: Savage 29B .22 caliber Pump action (22S/L/LR)

For a product of the Savage Arms firm, there’s an awful lot of sweet-shooting, pleasant-sounding beauty to be found in this sturdy, antique machine that has been around much longer than I have, but it still knows it’s work and does it very well. I don’t think the “(38)” on the barrel stands for 1938, but that may not be far off of its incept date.

It’s a hardy and hearty little pumper which joined the family as a “trade” a couple years ago during the summer that we moved my Mother-in-Law from Missouri. I helped a guy sell a few pieces from his collection, and after cleaning it and finding out that it was basically a long-range flyswatter, I claimed it as my commission on the other sales.

It’s not particularly valuable or collectible or historic or anything special like that, but it’s so doggone fun and satisfying and useful to shoot that it’s a “pry it from my cold, dead hands” keeper.

Observant and informed readers shouldn’t be overly concerned to see a big-ol’recoil pad on the back end. I wanted some extra length-of-pull for a solid placement and cheek weld. Recoil is negligible without it, too.

This is my quick-grab pest-control mechanism, and it’s reliable and easy. In an approximately-perfect world, I’ll someday have time for another full breakdown cleaning and fixes for the slight bend to the outer fill-tube and the accuracy-neutral barrel wobble where it seats into the receiver/action.

In the meantime, it’ll prob’ly still be shooting side-by-side holes in targets to the next year ’38 and beyond.

Shot(s) o’the Day: 2 of 5 shots at dusk, offhand from 25 yds.

Few who know me will be surprised by my admission of Pepsi-aholism. Even fewer, though, might know why my delivery system of choice is the 24-oz. plastic bottle. As it happens, the logo is almost exactly the size of an average-sized squirrel’s center mass, and the whole container is a great substitute for a squirrel’s body (not including the tail). Any hit on the bottle would work as a drop shot, and a hole in the logo approximates a game-over hit: one less nut-happy rodent trying to make a warm bed for its family in my attic insulation. These bottles are the perfect trainer targets for squirrel shooters.

What a cheapskate I am, huh?

“production note” — for what it’s worth: this blog text was originally posted with my iPhone 4 … couldn’t figure out the pics part, but I’ll keep trying ’til I get it right.

Gun-a-Day 2: Marlin Papoose 70P blue/wood .22LR

About 3 years back, I pawn-shop-traded a Llama .380 + 5 mags for this (complete with its red Marlin take-down carry bag and original tool kit). It was not a great deal book-value-wise for me at all, but, then again, trading for this rifle made it possible for me to start shooting regularly again by using the almost-silent (from a rifle-length barrel, at least) Aguila Super Colibri rounds.

The Micro-Max had been stowed away, unfired, in the range bag for many months. It was a great fit for my hand, and there was some sentimental attachment. I’d done some personal fitting work, and I liked the look of it quite a bit, but it also had stove-piping issues, so it wasn’t a reliable option for home defense or concealed carry.

Our house at the time was infested with a huge family of squirrels, and a .380 was no help for that problem (especially inside city limits!). I took my first squirrel (first several squirrels) with it, and the chatter-boxing, bushy-tailed tree rats learned to fear and flee when I had this Marlin in hand, and that’s a fact. It served me well for pest control and rekindled the target shooting bug I’ve always had and rarely taken time to indulge.

It also opened my world up to the Marlin rifle experience, and every Marlin rimfire I’ve ever come across makes the sweetest crack when a round goes downrange.  I’m a fan.

This model 70P is the reason I have the model 70PSS. After “ending up with” this one, I decided I really wanted the updated, fiber sighted, weather-tough version, so I traded it for an extra .223 Beta C-Mag gathered during an ill-advised spending spree in the days before a certain change of national governmental administration.

Overly expensive that way (since when have I ever come out well on a trade or hedge investment?), but pleasure and productivity are valuable right along with price, so it’s all okay.

Wasn’t sure this one was safe to fire when I found a very loose receiver mount screw while cleaning it up after the trade. Yes, it’s true: I often find out what I should have checked more carefully after I’ve put my money down.

Oh, well. Sad but true. Trying to do better this year. Really.

Anyway, a bit of hardware tightening and careful cleaning (and a cautious double-check with my local gunsmith of choice– three cheers for Dan!) made me confident it was safe. My 70P is just a cheap, simple, little plinker, but it’s blooded, so there is a place of pride in the gun cabinet for what has become a genuine family treasure (though it’s still just a non-precision, utility-tool rimfire– a very temperamental one, at that– in need of some maybe-more-than-gentle “micro-adjustment” the next time it comes out of the cabinet).
Shot o’the Day is really the shot that never happened at all. It’s a jammed and bent round that was mashed up on a spent case that didn’t eject. Oh, the things that might have been …

I don’t know if that was a rare quirk or if the extractor is becoming unreliable. That’s an issue which must be resolved … and that’s a good reason to get it out again this year from some more tinkering and plinkering.