I had the new Enfield 650 up on Glendora Ridge Road this week and I thought I’d share a few photos with you. Not a lot of words this time, folks, other than to say I’m still breaking in the bike and I’m taking it easy. And the bike is pretty enough that it doesn’t need a lot of explanation. I’ll offer a little, though, and with that in mind, here we go.
To me, the Enfield is the closest thing ever to the original Triumph Bonneville, more so even than the modern Triumph Bonneville (in my story on the Royal Enfield in Motorcycle Classics magazine, I said that Enfield out-Triumphed Triumph). And that’s a good thing, because to me a ’60s Triumph Bonneville is the yardstick by which I measure all motorcycles. Edward Turner and the folks in Coventry got it right, and late ’60s Triumphs were the ultimate in style, performance, and cool. I spent major portions of my youth dreaming about Triumph Bonnevilles (and maybe a little bit about Raquel Welch). The 650 Enfield has that old Triumph Bonneville look and feel, and that’s the highest compliment I can give a motorcycle. But’s it not old Triumph quirky. Think original Triumph mystique, but with Honda fit and finish, and you’ll pretty much have an idea of what this motorcycle is like.
That’s enough wordsmithing for now.
More photos, you say? Coming right up!
It was a glorious day up in the San Gabriels. Glendora Ridge Road is always a great ride.
The new Enfield photographs well, I think. There are several colors available in this new model. I like the metalflake gold. It’s the same color as the test bike I rode in Baja and it makes for great photography.
This next photo could be a magazine cover. There aren’t too many magazines out there any more. It’s nearly all online now, as Gresh and I know all too well. That’s a topic for another time. Back to my point: This next shot would make a hell of a magazine cover.
And finally, one more photo…my signature selfie. This one is yours truly in the Enfield’s starboard muffler.
Glendora Ridge Road is a great road and a great place for breaking in a new motorcycle. A road with 234 curves in 12 miles…just what the doctor ordered for keeping the revs down and the shifts up. Click on that link above and you’ll learn more about GRR, and please do follow the ExNotes blog to learn more about the Enfield. I’ll be posting a lot on this bike. And I’ll still be posting stories about my CSC TT 250 and RX3, too. The right tool for the right job. They’re all great machines.
I may head over to Douglas Motorcycles later today; they’re having an Enfield open house and if I go I’ll grab a few more photos to share with you. There are other Enfield colors (they’re all beautiful), and they need me and my Nikon. The 24-120 lens and I hear them calling.
Hey, there are other Enfield owners out there. Let’s hear from you! Please add your comments to the blog. Folks want to hear what you have to say!
The year was 1971 and I was 20 years old. Those were the good old days. Movies were wildly entertaining, it was real easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys, movie stars kept their political opinions to themselves, and being politically correct hadn’t been invented yet. And the movies were better for it. To me, there’s one movie in particular that stands out: Dirty Harry.
Dirty Harry was an exceptional movie for its time and it was an iconic role for Eastwood: Inspector Harry Callahan of the San Francisco Police Department. Eastwood went on to make several Dirty Harry movies. The Callahan role propelled Eastwood’s career enormously. But Callahan was only one of two stars in Dirty Harry. The other was Smith and Wesson’s Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver. Much as I like Clint Eastwood, I liked the Model 29 better, and yep, I bought a Model 29 after seeing Dirty Harry. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Susie and I were flipping through movies on Netflix a few nights ago and Dirty Harry was on the menu. “Put it on,” Sue said, with some resignation. “You know you want to watch it.” She was right. I did. Before I get into the Model 29 and all that, watch the video clip below. It’s a classic bit of tough guyism, and it’s a scene a lot of guys like me burned into our mental firmware.
So…back to the Model 29. Before Dirty Harry, Smith and Wesson didn’t quite know what to do with their Model 29. The police didn’t want it (the .44 Magnum is wildly overpowered as a police cartridge), nearly everyone who tried the cartridge back then took a pass, and the gun just kind of languished at the dealers. Oh, I know you read Elmer Keith and you’re a keyboard commando and all that, but let me tell you…in the ’50s (when the .44 Magnum was introduced) and on into the ’60s, nobody was buying them. The guns retailed in the mid-$150 range in those early years, but they just weren’t moving. Then Dirty Harry hit the big screen, and everything changed. Whaddaya know, everyone wanted a Model 29. I know. I was one of them. I was there.
You couldn’t find a Model 29 anywhere after Dirty Harry. It was product placement before anyone knew what product placement was, and all those N-frame Smiths gathering dust in dealer showcases vanished. In 1971 the MSRP for a new Model 29 was $183, but all that changed after Dirty Harry. They were going for $500 when you could find one on the used gun market, and that wasn’t very often. Everyone wanted to be Dirty Harry Callahan, including me. But I had an “in.” I had people. My father was an Olympic-class competitive trap shooter and he had contacts in the gun world. Dad put the word out and one of his buddies (a firearms wholesaler in south Jersey) had a brand new Model 29 (if I wanted it, he said) at the discounted price of $150. If I wanted it. Like I could say no. It’s good to know people, and I was in. Inspector Callahan, move over.
My Model 29. It’s a beautiful handgun and it’s a good shooter. I bought the custom grips at a gun show in Dallas back in the 1970s.
I shot the hell out of that Model 29 in New Jersey and then in Texas when I went in the Army, until it loosened up so much I didn’t want to shoot it any more. I put a notice up on a bulletin board at Fort Bliss and the next day an artillery captain bought it from me for, you guessed it, $500. I no longer owned a Model 29, but that was only a temporary situation. I reached out to my peeps back in New Jersey (it was my home of record and I was still a legal resident) and a week later I had another new Model 29. It’s the one I have today and the one you see in these photos.
The early Model 29s were of impeccable quality. Note the rollmarking and how it is free of any distortion or metal upset around the letters. Check out the deep blue. These are amazing handguns.
So when Sue and I watched Dirty Harry the other night, I realized it had been more than a few years since I shot my Model 29. I checked the ammo locker and I had some .44 Magnum ammo I had reloaded back in 2012. I dug the Model 29 out of the safe that evening, and the next day I was on the range. You know what? I still do a pretty good Dirty Harry. Inspector Callahan has nothing on me.
Five-shot groups at 50 feet on an Alco target. I shot the upper left target first and scored a decent group that was high right. The rear sight was way to the right, so I centered it and shot a second group at the same target. I moved over to the target on the right, then down to the left target on the bottom row. Ah, one went high on that one, but I was getting familiar with the Model 29 again. My last group was the lower right target, and that’s how you do it. The load was the 240-grain Speer swaged semi-wadcutter over 5.6 grains of Bullseye (light for a .44 Magnum, but still enough to get your attention). Even Dirty Harry didn’t shoot full-bore .44 Magnum loads!
So back to that opening Dirty Harry scene…you know, the “Do you feel lucky, punk?” bit. It is classic Hollywood tough guy babble, but I had no idea of its reach until we had a bunch of Chinese guys come over from Zongshen to ride across the United States (you can and should read about that in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM). We had a couple of days to kill before starting our epic journey, and when we asked the Chinese what they wanted to do, their answer was immediate: We want to shoot a gun. You know. ‘Murica, and all that. Hey, I was only too happy to oblige and we were off to the gun club. After sending a lot of lead downrange with a Ruger Mini 14, our Chinese guests then wanted to visit a gun store (the full American experience, you know), so we rolled over to Bass Pro.
I was a little nervous because the Chinese like to take pictures (and guys like me don’t like anyone, especially foreigners, taking our pictures in gun stores). Our Chinese guests were cool when I told them to put their cameras away, but I need not have worried. The Bass Pro folks were intrigued by all of this when we walked in. They invited our Chinese guests to take all the photos they wanted, and then they allowed them to handle the guns. That was really cool. One of the Bass Pro sales dudes gave Hugo, the young Zongshen rep, a monstrous .500 Smith and Wesson revolver. The Chinese guys had their cameras on Hugo in a heartbeat as he handled that massive hand cannon. Hugo knew what to do. With a slight Chinese accent (but otherwise perfect English) he was transformed. Hugo became Dirty Harry:
I know what you guys are thinking. Did I fire six shots, or only five? Tell the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track myself. What you need to ask yourself is: Do I feel lucky?
Well, do ya, punk?
Hugo was amazing and we all (me, the Chinese guys, and the Bass Pro staff) had a good laugh. Hugo was born on the other side of the world a good 30 years afterDirty Harry hit the big screen, but he knew that line perfectly. And he knew it was part of the whole Smith and Wesson schtick. I guess it’s no small wonder. It was both the opening and closing scenes of Dirty Harry. Take a look:
Me? I still have my Model 29, and I can still hit the target with it. I still feel lucky, too.
So you’ve probably noticed I haven’t been riding too much lately. You know how it goes…it gets cold, you have other things going on in your life, you want to send some lead downrange, and on and on it goes.
I needed to break that pattern, and there’s no better way to do that than to buy a motorcycle. Yeah, I know…I already have two motorcycles (what has to be the world’s most well-traveled RX3, and a pristine, low miles TT 250). I like CSC motorcycles. But you may recall that Uncle Joe Gresh and I road tested two Enfields last year and I fell in love with the 650 Interceptor.
Down Mexico way…dinner at the San Remedio in Guerrero Negro. Life is good, folks.
I was primed to buy a Royal Enfield when I returned from Mexico, but the Enfield dealer in Glendale had done a God-awful job prepping the Bullet (I wouldn’t buy squat from those guys now), and the Enfield dealer in Brea was doing the normal bend-you-over-a-barrel, here-comes-the-setup-and-freight-charges routine. Folks, I’ve worked in the industry, and I know what setup and freight costs actually are. Trust me on this…they ain’t $1500. So I didn’t buy an Enfield.
Then an amazing thing happened. One of the few dealerships I trust picked up the Enfield line last week. It’s Art Guilfoil’s Douglas Motorcycles in San Bernardino. I asked Art what he could do for me on a new Enfield, I was shocked at how low the number was (don’t ask, because I won’t tell), and, well…
I think this is No. 42 or No. 43 or something. I’ve owned a lot of motorcycles. This is the latest. Sue is cool with it, too!
I’m picking up my new 650 Royal Enfield on Thursday, and to say I’m excited would be an understatement of immense proportions. It was a tough call for me between the Enfield and the new CSC RX4, but truth be told, I love my RX3 and it checks all the boxes for what I want in an adventure touring motorcycle. Arguably, the RX3 is the finest adventure touring motorcycle in the world if you’re going places other than the corner burger joint (for all the reasons I explained in my piece titled Why a 250?). I know. I’ve been to places other than the corner burger joint, and I’ve made most of those trips on an RX3.
So with my new Royal Enfield coming in, it begged the question: What should I do with my RX3 and TT 250? My first thought was that I’d sell them. Then I got to thinking about the RX3. I’ve done some miles on that thing, folks, and we’ve bonded. Nope, I’m going to hang on to it. Baja beckons, and all that. The RX3 is perfect for poking around the peninsula. And next, month, that’s where I’m headed. Susie’s going with me, and we’ll share a Tequila or two with Baja John. You can read about it here.
That leaves the TT 250. Hey, I was involved in bringing the TT 250 to America, and it all started when I eyeballed the 150cc version on display in Zongshen headquarters. It was a bit of an uphill struggle…you know, getting Zongshen to make a 250cc version, and then selling the idea in Azusa. I got the powers that be to go along and then I was out of town when the prototypes arrived in California. A couple of the CSC underlings didn’t like the bike, and I had to sell it in Azusa all over again. But it worked out, and the TT 250 is one of CSC’s best selling motorcycles ever. It should be…it is a hell of a bike for a stunningly low price.
My TT 250 on the road at La Rumarosa in Baja.
With the Enfield coming in, I thought I would sell my TT 250. Hell, it’s pristine, but because I don’t ride it too much, the carb gummed up on me. I thought maybe I’d bring it to CSC and have them make it perfect again, and then another serendipitous thing occurred. A few days ago, a post popped up on Facebook (why do I spend so much time on that moronic site?) from Revzilla, and what do you know, it was about doing your own maintenance on a CSC motorcycle. In this case, it was the San Gabriel (a wonderful name for a motorcycle if ever there was one), and the guys from Revzilla said the CSC shop manuals were wonderful. I thought that was great for a lot of different reasons, including the fact that, along with help from Gerry Edwards and the guys in the shop, I wrote many of the CSC manuals. Then I realized…hey, I wrote the TT 250 manual. I can fix my own carburetor. I looked up the carb stuff and this afternoon I took mine apart, I cleaned the low and high speed jets, and now my TT 250 is running great. There’s something uniquely satisfying about fixing your own motorcycle, and the Revzilla boys were right: Those CSC manuals are amazing. So are the motorcycles. And so is the 650 Enfield. I know, because I took one on what had to be the longest demo ride ever…all the way to Baja and back!
More good times coming up, folks, on the Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor!
I noticed my good buddy and Facebook friend John’s post about his decision to purchase the RX3 instead of the new RX4 on the Facebook CSC page and I thought it was well done. Both the RX3 and the RX4 are great motorcycles and I enjoyed reading John’s analysis, so I wrote to John and asked if I could post it here on ExNotes. John said yes (thanks much, Amigo), so here it is.
RX3 versus RX4
By John Franklin
I recently bought a new RX3, and yes the RX4 was available at the time. I have gotten more than one pm asking me why I didn’t go with the RX4. It’s a very valid question. My last ride was a 2016 KLR650, so the RX4 is much closer in power. While that is true, it’s only part of the picture. I paid $5700 for my KLR, the close to another $3500 for givi luggage, panniers, crash bars, skid plate, tires, USB power, heated grips, progressive front suspension, better seat, folding gearshift, handguards, GPS and on and on. Yes I rode it; I spent more time off road than on road. I did several two week long adventures. Then I had back surgery.
There’s good riding in John’s neck of the woods (photo by John Franklin).
In considering a new bike, post back surgery, I was really looking at what I could do without hurting myself, and what I really needed, as well as what I could spend. I was out of work for a year, and kinda tight on funds. My list was fairly firm on what I had to have. I wanted a lighter bike to start with. I needed luggage, hard panniers and a top box big enough for my helmet. Crash bars, skid plate, and real hand guards were also a non-negotiable must. Heated grips were also high up there.
A shot of John’s RX3 in it’s natural surroundings (photo by John Franklin).
With that firmly established, I started looking. I found used bikes and older bikes. A random link in a article I was reading led me to the RX3. I ignored it; then I began to see more and more mentions of the RX3. So I really dug in. The chinariders forum was a great resource. I have ridden bikes all over the world and ridden all kinds of makes, so I was not initially put off by the non USA mainstream brand.
Once I decided that it was a valid option and I started looking, here is how it broke down.
The 2019 RX3 with heated grips, handguards, taller top box, Wolfman tank bag, USB power outlet, led headlight upgrade and extra oil filters was $4602.95. That’s what I paid CSC. I had to pay SC sales tax, SC property tax and the registration fee. Grand total was $5100.63. That is what it cost me for everything. All fees, taxes and bribes.
A RX4 starts at $4995, add the $400 shipping fee, handguards $109, luggage $490, tank bag $90, heated grips $109, skid plate $160, crash bars not available for RX4 and oil filters $50 we are at $6403. SC sales tax, property tax and tag fee would put it right at $7200. A difference of $2100. And at the $7000 range I could find a good used BMW 650GS, on which I could get out of the sales tax and not being new, the property tax would be a joke. Plus I would have to create a set of crash bars (which was actually a plus, because I love fun stuff like that).
Go ahead…what’s the worst that could happen? (Photo by John Franklin.)
I admit, I have put more than a little into the RX3 after deciding I like it. Bar risers, better tires, better chain, 13T front sprocket, folding shift lever, GPS mount… You get the idea. But I would have done the same to anything I decided to keep and ride. It honestly came down to two things for me. Value of the purchase (not price in and of itself), and weight.
CSC has been great, and it is a wonderful company, even if the service guy hates replying to emails, but he reads them and will talk for hours on the phone. I don’t regret it. Hopefully in a couple of years I will be able to ride a larger, taller bike again, but this thing was a good purchase.
If you’d like to see more on the RX4, and comparisons of the RX4 to the RX3 and the KLR 650, please check out our ExNotes RX4 page! And if you’d like to know more about the RX3 and the RX4, mosey on over to the CSC Motorcycles page. Hey, one more thing…if you’d like to read about real world adventures on the RX3 (I’m talking good stuff here, folks, like riding across China, Colombia, the US, and Mexico), you should buy any or all of the books listed below!
The Davidson’s Circassian walnut Ruger Mini 14. It was a limited production item offered for sale about 10 years ago.
My Mini 14 quest for accuracy is over. I have the answer and an honest-to-God 1.5 MOA Mini 14. With open sights. At 100 yards. Yippeeee!
It’s been an interesting journey.
Davidson’s Circassian Mini 14
I like rifles with fine walnut, and about a decade ago when Davidson’s (a large Ruger distributor) offered a limited quantity of Mini 14 rifles with Circasssian walnut stocks, I had to have one. Most of the Circassian Mini 14 rifles had very plain wood, but when I saw the one you see here, I pulled the Buy Now trigger. That’s a light trigger, I’ve learned. If it’s for a rifle with highly-figured walnut, in my case you might even say it’s a hair trigger.
Another shot of the Circassian walnut on the Davidson’s Mini 14. That’s a Springfield Armory M1A in the background. I like fancy walnut.
The problem I had is that Davidson’s Circassian Mini 14 wasn’t legal in California because of its two 30-round magazines and flash suppressor. Here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia (Gavinland, if you will), we can’t have mags that hold more than 10 rounds, and semi-auto rifles with flash suppressors are verboten. So I had the rifle shipped with no magazines to an outfit with a Class III license, and they replaced the flash suppressor with a muzzle brake. Then I had to wait my state-mandated 10-day cooling off period. After I had chilled sufficiently, the rifle was mine.
The muzzle brake on my Mini 14. It may seem silly to have a muzzle brake on a .223 rifle, but if you fire this rifle and then a Mini 14 without a muzzle brake, there is a perceptible difference in recoil.
I think the muzzle brake looks better than the flash suppressor, and I don’t need a 30-round magazine. I hated the idea of leaving those 30-round mags with the guy I bought the rifle from (they were worth about $80), but hey, our mush-minded legislators think they made the Golden State safer and that’s what matters.
My rifle has a 16-inch barrel (most Mini 14 rifles have 18-inch barrels), which looks cool but it is not conducive to great accuracy. There’s nothing inherent to the shorter barrel in and of itself that hurts accuracy, but what that shorter barrel does is reduce the sight radius. A longer sight radius offers an accuracy advantage, a shorter one can work against accuracy.
The bottom line? The rifle is beautiful. I shoot it a lot, and whenever I’m on the range with it, folks are taken with it. It draws a crowd. You just don’t see Mini 14 rifles with wood like mine. But it wasn’t terribly accurate. I was going to change that. And I did.
The First Accuracy Mod: Tech-Sights
I did not like the standard rear sight on my Mini 14. To adjust elevation, you had to loosen the windage adjustment and then rotate the entire rear aperture, and to adjust windage you had to loosen both Allen screws at the base of the sight and move it. There was not indexing for windage, so where you ended up was only repeatable with a repeated fire, check the point of impact, loosen the sight, adjust, tighten the sight, fire again, and repeat until you were happy. I also didn’t like the range of elevation adjustment on the stock sight; it seemed liked the aperture had to be way too high to bring my shots to the point of aim.
The Tech-Sights rear sight on a Mini 14. It’s a first class product, and it is much better than the stock Mini 14 rear sight.
The hot setup is a replacement rear sight from Tech-Sights. It was about $70, but it was well worth it. The Tech-Sights rear sight is click adjustable for both windage and elevation, and it is repeatable when I make adjustments. It’s a much better mousetrap.
Mini 14 Accuracy Loads
I tried different reloading recipes until the cows come home, and over the last decade, I’ve converged on two that gave the best results in my Mini 14. Both use inexpensive Hornady full metal jacket boat tail bullets. The first is the 55-grain Hornady FMJBT with 26.2 grains of IMR 4320 propellant, a Winchester small rifle primer, and a cartridge overall length of 2.255 inches. That’s a near max load, and the only reason I don’t run it up to the max load is the 26.2 grains damn near fill the .223 case. The second favored load is the Hornady 62-grain FMJBT bullet with 23.2 grains of ARComp propellant. I use the same primer and overall cartridge length as the first load.
Hornady 55-grain full metal jacket boat tail bullets. The boat tail reduces aerodynamic drag and allows a flatter trajectory, or so the theory goes. These are accurate bullets with the right load.
Either bullet (Hornady’s 55-grain or 62-grain FMJBT) can usually be purchased for something between $7.50 and $8.00 per hundred when they are on sale. I probably get 10 emails a day from the different reloading houses advertising their sales, and when they throw free shipping into the mix, I’m in. You usually have to order above $100 in stuff to get the free shipping, and that’s why I have 1400 of the 62-grain Hornady bullets inbound. I’ll burn through those in 6 months or so. Yeah, I shoot my Mini 14 a lot.
I don’t crimp the bullets in either of the above loads, and I’ve found that what kind of brass I use doesn’t make a difference in group size. Using brass from different manufacturers does move the group around, though, so when I load, I do so using only one kind of brass for each lot of ammo. For me, that is usually either Remington or military brass. I have a good supply of both.
Factory versus Reloaded Ammo in the Mini 14
There may be good factory ammo out there that groups well in the Mini 14, but I haven’t found it. I buy bulk factory only to get the brass (believe it or not, when loaded bulk ammo goes on sale, I can actually buy it for less than what unprimed brass costs). When I shoot the bulk factory ammo, the accuracy is truly abysmal. At 100 yards from a bench rest, a 20-shot Remington bulk ammo group spans about 12 inches. For all you keyboard commandos out there…I know, you can do better. One guy keeps commenting that he can shoot the lock off a Cadillac with his Mini 14. Whatever. I’m reporting my results, and with factory ammo, they’re terrible.
With either of the two reloading recipes described above, I can get the group size down to about the size of the 9-ring on a 100-yard target. That’s a big improvement from factory ammo and the other loads I’ve tried. The problem, though, was the rifle wasn’t consistent. I could get a good group, but then the next one would open up. Then I’d get another good group, but it would shift on the target from the last group.
Bedding the Mini 14 Action
Past accuracy quests with bolt action rifle always included bedding the action. What that means is creating a glass-fiber-impregnated epoxy bed for the barreled action in the stock. It’s a lot trickier on a Garand-style rifle (which the Mini 14 is) than a bolt action, because the Garand-type action doesn’t have a conventional recoil lug or action screws. On the Mini 14, two tabs on the receiver fit into sheet metal inserts in the stock, and the trigger group’s trigger guard pivots to lock the whole mess (barreled action, stock, and trigger group) together. On my rifle, I could detect a minor amount of play between the stock and the barreled action, both fore-and-aft and left-to-right.
The jeweled bolt on my Mini 14. This photo doesn’t really add to the story and the bolt jeweling does nothing to improve accuracy, but I love the look. The jeweling was done by my good buddy TJ at TJ’s Custom Gunworks. I locked the bolt to the rear for the next photo so you could see the glass bedding.That brown stuff is the glass bedding below the action, between the receiver and the stock. Bedding a Mini 14 is a bit tricky, but it worked out well for me.You can just barely see that there is Acraglas bedding beneath the receiver, between it and the stock. The reason you can barely see it is because I did it well.
I used Brownell’s Acraglas as the bedding compound, and after reading and watching everything I could on the Internet about glass bedding a Mini 14, I did so with mine. It turned out well, I think. There is zero play between the barreled action and the stock now.
ASI’s Mini 14 Gas Port Kit
I wrote about this before in a previous blog. The Mini 14 throws brass into the next county, and that’s a real pain in the ass. I’ve actually dented cars behind the firing line with brass ejected from my Mini 14. The reason the Mini’s ejection is so violent is that Ruger overdesigned the ejection approach to make the rifle reliable. Ruger uses a gas port with an approximate 0.085-inch-diameter opening to port propellant gas to the op rod, and that pretty much guarantees that no matter what type of ammo you’re shooting, the rifle will function. It’s way more gas pressure than the op rod needs, though, and the ejection is so energetic that the barreled action doesn’t stay in the same place after each round. That hurts accuracy.
Mini 14 gas ports. The three on the left are ASI’s 0.035, 0.040, and 0.045-inch diameter ports. The fourth port in the kit (a 0.050-inch diameter port) is currently in my rifle. The port on the right is the stock Mini 14 gas port. You can see its ID is huge.There are four Allen bolts securing the upper and lower Mini 14 gas blocks. You have to remove the barreled action from the stock and unscrew these four bolts to replace the gas port.As delivered by Ruger, the gas block Allen bolts are staked in place. Getting them out (and back in again) takes some muscle.
As an aside, the Mini 14 is kind of like the AK 47 with regard to its ejection energy. Both rifles have excess margin in the extraction and ejection gas porting design to make sure they always work.
The ASI gas port kit includes four bushings with different diameter ports, and the idea is you try each one to find the bushing that gives you reliable function. You want to use the smallest one possible consistent with reliable operation. I’ve tried all four and I’m now at the 0.050-inch port (the largest one in the ASI kit), and it is usually reliable, but not always. I still get an occasional failure to extract. I may take the smallest one (with its 0.035-inch bore) and have it opened up to 0.060 inch, but that will come later. I’m not going into combat with my Mini 14, so I can tolerate the occasional failure to extract. I like to think of my Mini 14 as a SHTF rifle, but truth be told, I’m more concerned about shooting tiny groups than I am about doomsday scenarios. Your mileage may vary.
I think the reason the largest of the ASI ports still sometimes fails to extract is because my rifle has that short 16-inch barrel, which imparts a little less of a gun gas pressure pulse to the op rod than would a rifle with an 18-inch barrel. It may be another disadvantage of the shorter barrel.
ASI Gas Ports and Glass Bedding
My last Mini 14 blog was on the effects of both the glass bedding and the ASI gas port. Both of these upgrades made a difference, but the rifle still wasn’t where I wanted it to be from an accuracy perspective. Interestingly, the dispersion got smaller top to bottom, but it was still about the same left to right as it had been with my preferred 62-grain bullet load.
Better, but still no cigar on a 100-yard target. Glass bedding and the 0.050-inch ASI gas port reduced vertical dispersion to about 3 inches and brought the lateral dispersion down to about the size of the bullseye, but I still wasn’t where I wanted to be.
5.56 NATO versus .223 Ammunition
Ah, here’s where things start to get both technical, and to ballistics geeks like me and you, extremely interesting. You might be wondering why this blog is suddenly going tangential into a discussion of 5.56 NATO ammunition and the .223 Remington commercial cartridge. Bear with me and it will all come together.
As we proceed, keep this in mind: Even though the Ruger Mini 14 is marked as a caliber .223 rifle, it has a 5.56mm NATO chamber.
For starters, there is a difference between the two cartridges (they are loaded to different pressure levels, with the 5.56mm NATO cartridge loaded to higher pressure than the .223 Remington cartridge), but the 5.56mm NATO and commercial .223 Remington share identical exterior dimensions. Military (i.e., NATO) ammo has thicker case walls, which means the interior volume decreases slightly, but on the outside, the dimensions are the same.
Okay, the above addresses the two cartridges. Now, let’s consider the two chambers (the part of the rifle that surrounds the cartridge). There are lots of differences between the chambers in a 5.56 NATO rifle versus a rifle chambered for the .223 Remington cartridge. The first is the leade (the distance between the case mouth and where the rifling begins in the barrel). Rifles chambered for the 5.56 NATO round have approximately twice the leade as do rifles chambered for the .223 Remington cartridge. That’s what allows the 5.56 NATO round to be loaded hotter than .223 Remington cartridge (it’s exactly the same thing you see in a Weatherby rifle; they are cut with longer leades to allow loading the cartridges hotter for more velocity). Because longer leades allow loading a cartridge hotter (the bullet is free to move a little more before the rifling resists it), the longer leade allows higher muzzle velocities. But longer leades may allow the bullet to tilt a bit before it hits the rifling, so rifles with longer leades tend to be less accurate. In a bolt action or single shot rifle, you could account for this by seating the bullet out further in the cartridge case to get it closer to the rifling, but you can’t do that in the Mini 14. If you seat the bullet out further, the cartridges won’t fit in the magazine.
All that business above about the 5.56mm NATO chamber’s longer leade is interesting, but it’s not the primary concern here. The bigger concern as it pertains to the Mini 14 (and its 5.56mm NATO chamber) is that the 5.56 NATO chamber is slightly larger than is a chamber for the .223 Remington cartridge. That’s to meet the military’s combat reliability requirements (a rifle with more clearance between the chamber and the cartridge is less likely to jam). The difference in the two cartridges’ chamber dimensi0ns is shown in the chart below.
In particular, note Dimensions C, D, F, and L, which govern the length, neck location, and diameter of the chamber. As you can see above, they are all larger for the 5.56mm NATO chambered rifle, and like I said above, the Mini 14 has a 5.56mm NATO chamber. The cartridge has a lot more clearance between the case and chamber walls in the Mini 14 than it would in a rifle with a .223 Remington chamber. The cartridge can move around in the Mini 14’s chamber, and that hurts accuracy. Big time, as it turns out.
With one exception in the Mini 14 family (that was the Mini 14 Target, which was kind of a commercial flop), the Mini 14 has a 5.56mm NATO chamber, because Ruger designed the rifle to work with either 5.56mm NATO ammunition or .223 Remington commercial ammunition. What that means to us is that the rifle is not optimized for accuracy. There’s a greater bullet jump from the cartridge case to the rifling, and there’s more clearance around the cartridge due to the slightly larger chamber. Both work against optimal accuracy.
Neck Sizing Mini 14 Brass
Well, that chamber issue sure had my attention as a potential significant contributor to the Mini 14’s accuracy woes. It made me wonder: Would neck sizing the brass (rather than full length resizing) make a difference? Maybe the Ruger’s chamber is just too loose to be accurate, I thought.
So what is neck sizing? There are two approaches to resizing brass during the reloading process. The first is that you full length resize the brass, which brings it back to factory specification. The entire case is resized, including its diameter along the full length of the cartridge case, the case neck diameter, and the location and angle of the case shoulder (you know, where it necks down to the part of the case that holds the bullet). The other approach is to neck size only, and the idea here is you leave most of the case (in its post-fired condition) alone and only resize the part of the case that holds the bullet. The concept is that the case has formed (we call it fireforming) to the exact dimensions of the chamber in which it was fired, and resizing only the neck assures a near perfect fit of the reloaded cartridge in the rifle that previously fired it. It should be a near perfect fit around the case diameter and from the case shoulder to the bolt face. It should theoretically improve accuracy because the cartridge and its bullet are in exactly the same position for each shot.
I know you usually would not ordinarily neck size brass for ammo to be fired in a semi-auto rifle, as it could degrade reliability. But my thinking was maybe the Ruger’s chamber is so big it would work. As a first step, I tried an empty case that had been fired in the Mini to see if it chambered and extracted easily. It did.
.223 cartridge cases that have been neck sized only. Only the area between the arrows has been resized. The rest of the case is left in its fireformed condition. It will more closely match the dimensions of the Mini 14 chamber in which it was fired.
There are two approaches to neck sizing brass. One is that you can use the full length resizing die, but you don’t screw it into the press all the way. The intent is that it resizes the case neck but not the case body. The problem with this approach is that it is hard to get most of the case neck without the full length resizing die contacting the cartridge case body. I tried this as a first approach, though, and the results on the target were dramatic. Using the last of my 62-grain Hornady FMJBT bullets and 23.2 grains of ARComp propellant, I was now reliably getting groups I could mostly keep in the black at 100 yards. Yowzers!
Progress at 100 yards! Neck sizing the .223 cases using a full length resizing die got the group sizes down to the size of the bullseye. Things were moving in the right direction.
I ordered the RCBS neck size only .223 die on Amazon and when it arrived the next day, I loaded ammo with what had been my best load with the 55-grain Hornady FMJBT bullet (and that was 26.2 grains of IMR 4320 propellant). How did it work? Read on, my friends.
My new RCBS .223 neck size die. It cost just over $30.
The Sweet Feel of an Accurate Mini 14
Ah, the sweet feel of success. I was out of my 62-grain Hornady bullets (more are on the way as I write this blog), so like I said above I used my other favorite load with Hornady’s 55-grain bullets. That load worked even better, and surprisingly, it required no sight adjustment from the 62-grain bullet load.
Good times with an iron-sighted Mini 14 at 100 yards. That group on the right looks like it could have been fired with a scoped rifle, but it wasn’t.
I had two targets set up at the 100-yard line (the two you see above), and I first shot the target on the left. I could see the holes with my 20X spotting scope, and it felt mighty good to see them all plunk right into the bullseye. Then I fired on the target on the right, and when I checked it in the spotting scope, I thought I had done well, but I wasn’t sure. The way the light was hitting the target I couldn’t count five holes through the spotting scope. At the next line break, my buddy Greg and I walked down to the targets and at first, I was disappointed. I could see only four holes in the target on the right, and I thought I had missed altogether with my fifth shot. I mentioned that to Greg, and then he pointed to the fifth hole. It was hiding right alongside the X.
100 yards, iron sights, and a Ruger Mini 14. I have this rifle dialed in now.
As I said at the beginning of this admittedly long blog, this has been an interesting journey. I think everything I did to this rifle helped to improve its accuracy, but the major contributors have been finding the right load, glass bedding, and neck sizing. Your mileage may vary (every rifle is different). I’ve found what works for me.
See Our Other Mini 14 Blogs
I mentioned several earlier Mini 14 blogs. Here are links to our Mini 14 posts:
I received a cool press release from our good buddies at Janus Motorcycles this morning and I want to share it with you.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 17, 2020
Janus Motorcycles featured on Jay Leno’s Garage
Goshen, Indiana – On Sunday, February 16th, 2020, an extended feature on Janus Motorcycles was published on Jay Leno’s popular YouTube channel, “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
Janus co-founders Richard Worsham and Devin Biek were invited to visit Mr. Leno’s garage and film studio in Burbank, California in December 2019. Mr. Leno interviewed Biek and Worsham, filmed each of their three motorcycle models, and took an extended ride on their most popular model, the Halcyon 250.
Beyond his fame as a late-night TV show host, Mr. Leno is known for his extensive classic car and motorcycle collection and his knowledge of automobiles. His YouTube channel, “Jay Leno’s Garage”, has nearly 3 million subscribers and his show airs weekly on CNBC.
“Jay is an authority on classic motorcycles, so being featured by Jay Leno’s Garage has long been a dream of ours at Janus,” said Worsham.
Co-founder Biek was very pleased: “Jay’s collection was amazing to visit, and Mr. Leno asked great questions and seemed genuinely interested in our story and motorcycles. The entire experience was incredible.”
The segment is titled “Janus Motorcycles – Jay Leno’s Garage” and may be viewed on Jay Leno’s YouTube channel.
ABOUT JANUS MOTORCYCLES: Founded by Devin Biek and Richard Worsham in 2011, Janus Motorcycles builds made-to-order production motorcycles out of their Goshen, Indiana headquarters. Their classic designs have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fox News, the Discovery Channel, and in multiple industry publications. Their motorcycles are designed to be enjoyed by riders of all experience levels.
Drawing on the rich pool of manufacturing and fabrication shops in northern Indiana, their three models of lightweight 229cc motorcycles feature hand-formed tanks, locally welded components such as frames, hand-bent stainless handlebars, hand-painted trim, and a proprietary anti-dive suspension developed by the Janus team.
They are fully registrable in all fifty states with EPA and California ARB certification. All three models start at $6995. They plan to produce 250 units out of their Goshen facility this year.
Janus makes cool motorcycles. I know because I’ve ridden and written about their bikes, and I rode a Janus (along with good buddies Devin and Jordan) through Baja. That’s the topic of another YouTube video that the Janus guys put together.
One more thing, and that’s the Jay Leno video referenced above.
As many of you know, good buddy and motojournalist extraordinaire Kevin Duke is now a Brand Manager with CSC Motorcycles, which is good for CSC and good for Kevin. Kevin and CSC recently released this video on the new 450cc RX4 motorcycle, and it’s the best one to ever come out of CSC (the video and the motorcycle). But don’t take my word for it…check it out yourself!
If you’d like to see more about how the RX4 compares to the RX3 (and to the KLR 650) please check out our RX4 pages.
If you follow the ExNotes blog, you know I’m still chasing accuracy improvements for my Mini 14. The latest upgrades include glass bedding the receiver and installing a smaller gas port. They helped, as will be described here. What’s next? Read on.
The Accuracy Systems International Gas Port Kit
I bought a new set of Mini 14 gas ports from Accuracy Systems International, an outfit that specializes in Mini 14 accuracy upgrades. The gas port is essentially an orifice that restricts the flow of combustion gas to the rifle’s op rod. The stock Ruger gas port orifice is huge (it’s probably something like 0.090 inches in diameter). That is because Ruger wants the rifle to function with any kind of ammo, but the huge stock gas port throws spent brass into the next county and it slams the barreled action around in the stock (that hurts accuracy, as the receiver may not be sitting in the same spot after each round). The ASI gas port kit costs $30, but it’s more like $40 after including the shipping and handling charge. That’s a rip because the thing fits in a business envelope, but hey, it is what it is.
Glass Bedding the Mini 14
I bought an Acraglas bedding kit from Brownells and glass bedded the receiver in the stock. I’ve glass bedded bolt action rifles before, but I had never done a Garand-type action. There’s no recoil lug like a bolt action rifle has, so the glass bedding involved delicately laying in the epoxy on the interior sides of the stock and the area above the stock that mates with the receiver. This was something new for me, and I don’t mind telling you that I was plenty nervous about getting the barreled action out of the stock after the epoxy cured. I need not have worried; the release agent worked like it was supposed to and the bedding job turned out well. There is zero movement between the receiver and the Mini 14’s Circassian walnut stock now, and that’s what I wanted.
Tuning The Mini 14 Gas Port
After the bedding job, it was time to start playing with the different gas port orifices. The Accuracy Systems International kit includes four gas ports (0.035, 0.040, 0.045, and 0.050 inches), and the drill is to find the smallest one that works. The stock Ruger gas plug orifice is huge (as mentioned above), and ejection from a stock Mini 14 can only be described as violent. I tried the 0.040 and then the 0.045, but both would occasionally fail to fully cycle. With the 0.050 orifice, the rifle didn’t have any failures. I noticed that sometimes the last round out of a magazine just lays the brass on top of the follower after being extracted. That’s no big deal. My Mini 14 now throws the brass about 20 feet to the right (maybe less, because the brass was landing on concrete and rolling around a bit). It’s a substantial improvement.
100 Yards From The Bench
I first fired at a 100 yard target from a bench rest. Surprisingly, the bedding and the new orifice only shifted the group a little. The rifle now shoots a bit high, but the group size (absent a couple of flyers, one high and one low, most likely due to me) is about the size of the 9-ring on a 100-yard target (and that’s an improvement). Most of the dispersion is lateral, and that’s a change from what the rifle used to do. If I practiced a bit more, I’d do better. If I drop the rear sight a couple of clicks I should be right on the money. This was my 100-yard target from the bench:
The accuracy wasn’t the greatest I’ve ever achieved with an iron-sight rifle (my 80-year-old Mosin-Nagant will consistently keep its hits in the 10-ring), but it was an improvement over what the Mini 14 had done prior to the bedding job and the smaller gas port orifice. Things are moving in the right direction.
The B-21 Department of Corrections Target
Next up was the California Department of Corrections B-21 target my CDC buddy told me about. The California CDC uses the Mini 14 as an issue weapon, and the B-21 is their periodic qualification target. I bought some of these targets at Alco last week and I wanted to see how I would to. My CDC friend told me that CDC officers qualify with their Mini 14 rifles at 50 and 100 yards, from both the standing and kneeling position.
I put my target out at 100 yards and tried shooting from the kneeling position. It felt very awkward to me and I was terrible. Oh, I put rounds on the target, but this kneeling position is not my cup of tea. I used to be able to do it when I was in the Army, but I weighed 50 lbs less and I bent a lot easier in those days. I’m not even sure what knee is supposed to be on the ground. Maybe I need Colin Kaepernick to tutor me.
Then I went to the standing position, shooting offhand, and I found I could keep my shots in the bottle (as my CDC buddy described the target). I might be able to qualify as a CDC officer if I could get on top of this kneeling position business. The little .223 holes on the target below are a hard to see (my apologies for the cell phone photography), but trust me, they’re on there. All the ones that are outside the bottle were from the kneeling position.
You know, when I first saw that B-21 target, I was amused at how big it is (it’s literally life-sized). Try shooting it offhand from the standing position with iron sights, though, and the old B-21 suddenly gets a lot smaller. At 100 yards, I couldn’t see any of the lines on the target. It was just a big black mass, and I tried to hold in the center of it as I fired. It was swimming in the sights, but I was able to connect. Mind you, I had not shot offhand like this in years. The rifle seems to be grouping a little high shooting offhand (as it did from the bench). But it is, as the saying goes, close enough for government work.
What do you think? Would I be able to run with the big dogs in the CDC? My CDC buddy told me I’d qualify expert. Maybe he was just being nice.
Future Mini 14 Accuracy Improvement Thoughts
I am thinking about what else might make a difference in accuracy on the Mini 14. The action is bedded and I’ve experimented with different loads until the cows came home (for your information, my best load is with a max ARComp charge and the Hornady 162 grain full metal jacket bullet). I sort and trim the brass I reload (and that makes a difference). I’ve found the gas port that works best (it’s the 0.050-inch orifice). So what’s left?
I’m wondering about the fit of the .223 cartridge in the chamber. The Mini 14 has a loose chamber to make sure everything feeds reliably, so I’m wondering if it’s too loose for optimal accuracy. My thought is to try neck sizing only. That’s when you only size the cartridge neck down (to hold the bullet in place) but leave the rest of the brass case enlarged, as it came from the rifle after the last firing. I know you usually would not do that in a semi-auto rifle, but I’m guessing there’s plenty of room in that chamber. I’m thinking I’ll load 20 rounds with neck sizing only and see how that goes. I guess I could try chambering an empty case previously fired in the Mini 14 and see if it chambers and extracts easily. If it does, neck-sized-only loaded rounds probably will, too.
Sometimes you can seat the bullets out further in the case to improve accuracy. You can’t mess around with bullet eating depth on a Mini 14, though. If you seat the bullets out any further, the cartridges won’t fit in the magazine, so that’s out as a potential accuracy improvement.
Next up is the muzzle brake. This thing has a gigondo muzzle brake (see the photo above) that I had installed to replace the stock flash suppressor. I had to do that to bring the rifle into the People’s Republik of Kalifornia (a flash suppressor on a semi auto rifle is illegal in California, a stupid law if ever there was one). The muzzle brake does not make contact with the bullet on the way out of the barrel, but I’m wondering if it somehow disturbs the bullet’s flight as it exits the muzzle. I think I’ll Google “muzzle brake impact on accuracy” and see if there is anything out there on this. (Note: I did, and there’s evidence that this can happen.)
The other thing I’m wondering is if the guy who installed the brake damaged the muzzle when he installed it. I can’t see the muzzle in there. It’s not going to be easy to get it (the muzzle brake) off the barrel, but that may be the next step. The muzzle brake has to be affecting the barrel’s harmonics, too, because it is so massive. Maybe I’ll just take it off and see what that does.
The Mini 14’s bolt feels loose when the rifle is in battery, but my Garand is like that, too, as well as many of the bolt guns I have. I don’t know if that is playing an accuracy role. There’s nothing I can do about it, though, so that’s something that will remain a mystery.
I’m wondering about the front sight, too. It’s wide. At 100 yards, the width of the front sight blade is three or four times the diameter of the bullseye. My M1A has a much thinner blade for the front sight, and it seems to be a lot easier to shoot small groups with it. Looking at the 100-yard bullseye target shown above, most of the Mini 14’s dispersion is left and right; I’m thinking a thinner front sight might cut down on that lateral dispersion.
I’ve put a lot of lead downrange with my Mini 14, probably something well north of 10,000 rounds. Maybe the barrel is just worn out. Eyeballing it, though, it looks good, and accuracy keeps getting better with incorporation of some of the things I’ve done. But that’s a lot of shooting. It could be that a new barrel would make a difference.
Any other ideas? Hey, let’s hear your comments. I’ve shared what I know, and I could use your help.
See our other Tales of the Gun reports (including more on the mighty Mini 14) here.
This is going to be one of those rambling, topic-hopping blogs that flits like a butterfly in a bed of flowers. You know, touching lightly on a variety of topics and then flitting to the next one for a pollen fix.
First up: Do you have a favorite family restaurant? We’ve got two. One is Rancho Las Magueyes, a Mexican place right around the corner. I know everyone there by their first name, and they all know Susie and me. And my shooting buddies (we always have lunch there after a day on the range). The other is an Italian restaurant. It’s Di Pilla’s in Rosemead, and I’ve been going there for thirty years. Susie and I always get a small pizza and a pasta dish, we share some of both while we’re there, and we’ll bring the rest home (it’s good for another two meals for both of us). I was in Los Angeles last week to renew my passport and we stopped at Di Pilla’s for exactly what I described above (a small pizza with olives and mushrooms, and Dante’s angel hair pasta). It’s just wonderful…the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven without a one-way ticket. If you stop in there, tell Claudia Joe sent you.
Next topic…the Superbowl. I guess the game was okay. It used to be I would occasionally watch the Superbowl just for the halftime show and the commercials. I’m not much of a football fan (never have been), but the commercials and the halftime show used to make the 4-hour slog worthwhile. Not any more, though. At least not to me. I thought the halftime show was revolting, and if my kids were at home, I would have changed the channel. Is it me, or was it like going to a strip club? Maybe I’m just getting old. I don’t like twerking coming into my family room on a widescreen TV, and I didn’t understand a good 70% of the commercials. They weren’t clever or entertaining, and I wasn’t sure what most of them were advertising. The commercial would end and I’d wonder: What was the product? Ah, there’s no maybe about it…I am getting old. But hell, even old people still buy stuff. After four long hours of Superbowl LIV, there’s nothing I’m going to purchase as a result of watching any of those commercials. Color me cranky, but I thought the whole thing was a stupid waste of my time. That’s four hours I won’t get back. It won’t happen again.
I do buy stuff, though. Lots of it. In fact, my new goal as a senior citizen is to make sure my outgo equals my income (I keep telling the kids if there’s anything left after I’m gone, it’s strictly the result of an computational error). And to help me meet that goal, I think I’m buying a new motorcycle. One that has no fraud associated with freight and setup, as is typically encountered at most dealers. Maybe around the end of this month. Watch for more details. Before I do that, though, I want to get my TT250 running. I don’t ride as much as I should, and my TT250 carb gummed up from disuse. I’ll have to refer to my free CSC TT250 shop manual (why don’t all the manufacturers do that?) on how to clean the carburetor, but I’m not worried about the job. I hear the TT250 manual is pretty well written. I’m thinking I’ll get around to the TT250 this week or next.
More rambling, this time about Facebook and the endless supply of brainless memes that flow from its feed. I like Facebook and I like to keep up with my friends and my memories, like that photo above of good buddy Carl and me up on Glendora Ridge Road with the CSC 150 Baja Blaster I rode to Cabo and back. But the rest of the Facebook schtick…wow, it gets old fast. Is anyone else here tired of the mindless political ranting on Facebook? Look, who I vote for is a decision I’ll make without any help from CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, the Russians, or you. It’s my vote, and all the breathless exhortations by Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, and Sean Hannity will matter not one whit. It’s what happens in a free country. Mindlessly sharing memes on your Facebook feed (I know, there’s a lot of redundancy in that phrase) isn’t going to change a thing. Folks, get a life. Grow up. Vote, and then move on. It’s what we do in America.
On to a new topic…I’m afraid this coronavirus business is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I have good friends in China from my Chongqing and Riding China adventures. I recently wrote to one of them to see how things were going over there. In a word, it’s bad. Real bad. The streets are deserted in China, no one is going out, companies are shutting down, travel is severely restricted, and the market is plummeting. Their economy is tanking. Approximately 2000 people a day are getting infected (and that number is likely going to increase). I loved my time in China and I love the Chinese people. I respect their engineering and manufacturing prowess. I hope things get better for them soon.
A happier topic…I’ve been spending more time on the range. If you didn’t see the 9mm cast bullet comparo, you might want to take a look at it. I’m going to start shooting the 9mm jacketed bullet series in another week or two. Jacketed bullets are frequently more accurate than cast bullets, so I’m excited about how that’s going to go. I was tremendously impressed with the Sig Scorpion and how it handled cast bullets. We’ll see if it brings home the bacon with jacketed bullets.
One of my shooting buddies is a California Corrections Officer, and he told me about their qualification course with the Mini 14 (the California Department of Corrections uses the Ruger Mini 14, one of my favorite rifles, as an issue weapon). They qualify with the B-21 target, and when I was at the target manufacturing operation where I buy all my targets I asked if they stocked that one. The guy behind the counter was surprised, and he told me the only folks who ever want that target are CDC officers. But they had it, and then it was my turn to be surprised. The B-21 target is huge. I’m going to have to make a bigger target stand for it. I’m thinking maybe our next informal milsurp match will be with it. My objective is to shoot a higher score than my CDC buddy, and he’s real good.
And on that subject, we’re still toying with the idea of a postal match. You know, one where we specify the course of fire and the target design, you mail your targets to us, we score them, and there’s some kind of a prize for first, second, and third place. We’d make it for handguns only and spec the distance at 50 feet, and we’d make the prizes significant enough to bump up participation. Like maybe a Gear’d Hardware watch for first place, with a book and a T-shirt for second and third place. Let us know…if we did that, would you participate?
Last topic for today, folks: Baja. Yes, Baja beckons. I aim to get down there sometime soon and then again later this year. Maybe stop in to see Baja John in Bahia de Los Angeles. See the whales in Scammon’s Lagoon. I’ll be on my motorcycle, and of course, I’ll be insured with BajaBound. Gresh will be along, maybe even on Zed now that his Kawi 900 resurrection has resumed. Whaddaya think?
Colt’s ad for the new Python. I have high hopes for this gun.
The Colt Python was the king of the handgun world back in the ’60s and ’70s. It was the Rolls Royce of revolvers. I owned two of them at different times in the mid-’70s. I bought one while I was deployed overseas in Korea (we could actually order guns through the base exchange) and it was delivered to me in Korea. I paid something like $150 for it back then, and it was sleek…deep bluing (Colt called it Royal Blue), a 6-inch barrel, and then I had to worry about bringing it back to the US. I was told I would need a certificate signed by the Director of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau and I could only imagine how long that would take, but it didn’t take long at all. I submitted the request and three weeks later I had a hard copy (this was the 1970s) signed in ink by the actual top guy at the ATF. That gun came back to America with me in a duffel bag. I remember that 10 grains of Unique behind a 110-grain jacketed hollowpoint Hornady tore one ragged hole at 25 yards. It was phenomenally accurate.
I traded that Python for a new Ruger No. 1 in .30 06 and a couple of boxes of .30 06 ammo, and I still have that rifle. But back at Fort Bliss I missed the Python. Good buddy Roy told me I could order one through the Fort Bliss Rifle and Pistol Club, so I did (this time in nickel, but still a 6-incher). It was stunning, with flawless nickel plating and a absolutely jewel-like, luxurious look. The I sold that one when I moved to Fort Worth. It was not my brightest move ever. I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life. This was definitely one of them.
Colt quit making the Python several years ago, and prices went through the roof. An original Python goes for something around $3k, give or take a K or two (almost always to the north). Big bucks, and way more than I want to spend.
Pete’s Python. It’s one of the originals, and it is phenomenally accurate.
I sort of got the Python fever again a few months ago when good buddy Python Pete let me take a few shots with his vintage 8-inch barreled Python. It was the accuracy that got me excited. These were great revolvers. I wrote about that day here.
And then suddenly, just a few weeks ago, Colt announced that they were reintroducing the Python, and it would retail at $1500. That was a good thing, I thought. It’s still pricey, but a new Python would be great. Maybe when the supply exceeds the demand prices might drop, I thought.
I want the new Python to succeed. A frontline company like Colt (an iconic name if ever there was one) deserves nothing less.
I do buy stuff, though. Lots of it. In fact, my new goal as a senior citizen is to make sure my outgo equals my income (I keep telling the kids if there’s anything left after I’m gone, it’s strictly the result of an computational error). And to help me meet that goal, I think I’m buying a new motorcycle. One that has no fraud associated with freight and setup, as is typically encountered at most dealers. Maybe around the end of this month. Watch for more details. Before I do that, though, I want to get my TT250 running. I don’t ride as much as I should, and my TT250 carb gummed up from disuse. I’ll have to refer to my free 
