Gaston Glock has passed away at 94. TFB. NYT (gift link, should work for others). Glock website.
Tom Smothers, of the Smothers Brothers. THR.
Lee Sun-kyun, Korean actor (“Parasite”).
Obit watch: December 27, 2023.
December 27th, 2023Merry Christmas, everyone!
December 25th, 2023All of my readers this year have been good. So I’m not going to post any of the accordion versions of “I Saw Three Ships” I found on YouTube.
A short one from AvE:
May 2024 be better for everyone than 2023.
“Thank’ee,” said Scrooge. “I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty times. Bless you!”
Christmas Eve gun crankery.
December 24th, 2023A short one for you. My book buddy in the Association sent me scans from a 1928 Smith and Wesson catalog, along with a scan of a letter from the great Walter Roper. This was a very nice Christmas present, and one I can’t thank him enough for.
You will find each of our arms fully described in the catalog we are enclosing but we want you to ask any questions you may wish about either guns or ammunition, as it will be a real pleasure to help you select a revolver.
The past was another country.
I don’t want to reproduce the whole thing, as I’m not sure about the copyright status and I don’t want to make my book buddy mad. However, I thought people might find this one page interesting, and I think it qualifies as fair use. Keep in mind, this is 1928 data.
Endorsed.
December 23rd, 2023I would not have expected to find a swell Christmas story on the Revolver Guy blog.
It was the gun book post before Christmas…
December 22nd, 2023How do you feel about gunstocks?
Not gun stocks, but gunstocks. The kind made out of wood, back in the day before synthetics became common.
After the jump, some more Samworths for those of you who still like wood.
Obit watch: December 22, 2023.
December 22nd, 2023For the historical record: NYT obit for Bob Pardo (archived). Previously.
No disrespect to Dr. Solow, but: he did not win a Nobel in economic sciences. The prize he won is The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It is not one of the five prizes established by Alfred Nobel: it was established in 1968 and first awarded in 1969. It is not a Nobel prize, and again with all due respect to Dr. Solow and his accomplishments, it should not be referred to as a Nobel prize.
I’m sorry, but this is one of my many pet peeves. You would not believe how much it costs to keep my pet peeves in Purina Peeve Chow.
Puppies!
December 21st, 2023Over the weekend, we got into a discussion: why are bullpup rifles called “bullpups”?
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! (Random gun crankery.)
December 21st, 2023This is going to be a shorter than usual gun crankery post, since it touches on a lot of things I’ve written about before.
For example, I’ve written a lot about .45 ACP revolvers with moon clips. As I noted in that post, the first one I shot was a S&W 625 JM at the late Smith and Wesson Shooting Sports Center.
I’ve also written a lot about Jerry Miculek. You remember Jerry Miculek, don’t you?
He used a 625 to set the 12 shots with a reload in 2.99 seconds record. I don’t think it was a 625-8 JM, as I believe that was introduced after he set the record. (The Standard Catalog says the 625-8 was introduced in 2001, as an engineering change that added the lock. It also says the 625 JM was introduced at SHOT in 2005.) But it was a 625, it was almost certainly modified by the Performance Center to his specifications, and he almost certainly had input into the design of the 625-8 JM.
Even though it is a stainless steel revolver, the sort-of dull (I think “bead blasted”) finish isn’t obnoxious to me. So when one of these showed up used at my official arms dealer…
Rockin’ the signed JM hat there.
Unfortunately, it does have the internal lock (or as some call it, “the Hillary hole”).
I didn’t get keys for the lock. (I did get moon clips, and a moon clip tool.) It came unlocked, and I’m not sure I’m ever going to use the lock. But here’s a fun fact for you. Do you know where you can get keys for the internal lock on a S&W revolver? Amazon, that’s where.
I think that “gold bead” (which is probably not an actual “gold bead”, but I can’t think of a better description) sight is very nice. I’d love to take this out and shoot a bowling pin match or something similar with this one. This also wouldn’t be a bad barbecue gun, with a nice holster and maybe some tasteful engraving.
Here is another interesting fact: Smith and Wesson claims to offer Performance Center gunsmithing services. The “Outdoor Package Large Frame – N” looks particularly interesting. I’ve measured the trigger pull on this one, and it comes in right at 11 pounds. That’s probably not out of line, but I wouldn’t mind shaving some off of that. As long as it goes “bang” when I pull the trigger.
Sometime after Christmas, I plan to give them a call and see what the backlog for those services is. I know I’m not the only person wondering, and I also get the feeling that S&W (like everyone else) is being pinched by the gunsmith shortage.
Review of the 625 JM from The Firearm Blog.
Coming up: two more followup teaser posts, plus another post about a gun I’ve written about previously. I’m hoping to get at least one of those up before Christmas.
It’s beginning to look a lot like gun books…
December 20th, 2023…everywhere you go. At least, here on this blog.
Last Friday was my last day at work until January 8th. Some of this is me burning PTO before year-end, some of this is corporate holidays, and some of it is mandatory corporate shutdowns.
I’m planning to do more gun book posts and random gun crankery during my vacation, including a few things you’ve seen teasers for. So strap in, my people. It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks.
Why don’t we start out with a slice of history? After the jump…
TMQ Watch: December 19, 2023.
December 19th, 2023TMQ: It’s money time in the NFL
What does that even mean? And why does TMQ feel compelled to start off with horse racing metaphors?
After the jump, this week’s TMQ (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…
Filibusted.
December 18th, 2023D.J. Smith fired as coach of the Ottawa Senators. Also out: assistant coach Davis Payne.
Five seasons as coach. I don’t have a full record, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs at all under Smith “…with their strongest finish coming last season when they went 39-35-8 but finished six points behind the Florida Panthers for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.”
The other problem is that the team is completely screwed up. “restricted free agent forward” Shane Pinto is sitting out a 41-game suspension for gambling on sports.
Obit watch: December 18, 2023.
December 18th, 2023Lieutenant Colonel John Robert Pardo (USAF – ret.) passed away on December 5th, at the age of 89.
Captain (at the time) Pardo was a principal in of the most unusual flying stories to come out of the Vietnam war. On March 10, 1967, he was flying a bombing mission over Vietnam in an F4-C Phantom. Also flying with Cpn. Pardo and his weapons officer (1st Lt. Steve Wayne) was another Phantom flown by Capt. Earl Aman and 1st Lt. Robert Houghton. They were bombing a heavily defended North Vietnamese steel mill.
Both planes were hit by ground fire during the bombing run. Capt. Aman’s plane was the most seriously hit of the two. It lost a lot of fuel. So much fuel that there was no way Capt. Aman’s plane could make it out of enemy territory.
In a selfless act to save his fellow airmen, Pardo pushed Aman’s jet using the nose of his aircraft against Aman’s tailhook — a retractable hook on the underside of the plane used to assist with landing.
Pardo helped Aman’s Phantom decrease altitude by 1,500 feet per minute and guided the plane back into friendly territory.
Both aircrews then safely ejected over the Laotian border and were rescued by friendly forces.
This maneuver became famous as the “Pardo Push”.
Though it would seem his command would be greatly pleased with his selfishness, Lt. Gen. William Wallace ‘Spike’ Momyer, commander of the 7th Air Force in Vietnam, would reprimand him for sacrificing his multimillion-dollar jet in a rescue.
Facing a court-martial, Pardo was saved from punitive actions by his wing commander, Col. Robin Olds, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Ltc. Pardo was awarded the Silver Star for his actions, but it was awarded twenty years later. Why, I do not know.
And he was a good Texas boy. Born in Herne, died in College Station.
Here are two videos from the ‘Tube. One short:
One a bit longer:
San Antonio Express News (archived), which provides a few interesting details:
…
But Pardo unknowingly had put himself on a collision course with an Air Force general who had earlier gained notoriety for criticizing the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of pioneering Black aviators who served with distinction during World War II.
Reports circulated that Lt. Gen. William Wallace “Spike” Momyer, commander of the 7th Air Force in Vietnam, wanted Pardo court-martialed for the risky maneuver.
Pardo was not court-martialed, but Momyer told Col. Robin Olds, Pardo’s wing commander, not to decorate him. That didn’t bother Pardo.
“I didn’t do it to get a medal,” he said.