Had a pretty good meal last night at Orlando's in Taos — shrimp burrito smothered in hot green chili sauce, along with a Negro Medolo. Tolday will be art galleries and shops in Taos; then on to Santa Fe, O'Farrell Hats and the Luchasse Boot store.
I don't know — this relax thing has me confused. What am I supposed to be doing? SIGH...when did I start working so much?
My pal Mark came up to babysit the house and Alf the Wonder Dog, plus use my range to get in some shooting with his own guns. I left him out the S&W M21 to continue wringing out.
In assorted other news:
• The illustrious gunwriter Patrick Sweeney is being coaxed by Yours Truly to do a magazine article on the bizarre resurrection of the .38/40 cartridge (I've even offered him my upcoming Bowen .38/40 N-Frame S&W to test, but god help him if he scratches it!). I believe the .38/40 is the New .44 Special, a quirky obsolete cartridge that is developing a following for no particular reason. I've even been thinking of a cowboy set-up in .38/40...there are a bunch of rifles lying around, from the European limited edition Winchester 92 that's now in the discount markets at a reasonable price and all the Italian clones. Ruger did a VERY short run of .38/40 Vaqueros (I believe), and there's the occasional .38/40 Blackhawk around from a special run for a distributor a few years back. Obviously, there's a flood of Italian clones. My best, but priciest, bet would be the Turnbull U.S. Firearms Single Action Armies, but at more than a grand a pop it makes me sweat. Larry Crow has offered to rechamber a couple of .357 Rugers on the grounds that most .38/40s' chambers aren't quite up to par. His main Guild Gun, the gun he built to be admitted to the prestigious Pistolsmiths' Guild, was an 7-inch octagonal-barreled .38/40 that shoots as well or better than any revolver I've ever handled. It is, indeed, a masterpiece. HMMMMMM...two Ruger New Vaqueros in .38/40...where is that credit card??????
ALSO...a belated apology on my email situation. I'm getting a staggering amount og email every day, and I can't seem to catch up. So if you've sent me an email and I haven't answered, I'm getting there, honest!
ALSO ALSO...the new SHOOTING GALLERY website/blog community is ALMOST operational! I hope to be able to coax people like the illustrious Sweeney, gunwriter Walt Rauch and a whole host of other whackos you've seen on SG to contribute their own blogposts in the SG community. I believe this will be YET ANOTHER groundbreaking contribution to the World of Guns (of course, I have no ego issues, either!).
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4 comments:
ABout the .38-40...
One reason it is a temting proposition to me is that it's the same bore diameter as a .40 S&W (Don't let the .38 fool ya) In fact someone I saw advertising on teh back of a Shotgun News a while back had runs of dual cylinder Vaqueros (if I recall - it might not have been the Vaquero). One cylinder was in .38-40 & the other was in .40 S&W.
Course it's a quaint notion to use a single action revolver for self defense, but I'm in favor of quaint & effective so it's not a big leap for me. :P
"along with a Negro Medolo"
I think you mean to say "African-American Modelo" ;)
Will all due respect, Mike, I think you're either spending too much time in thin air or too much time with the disconnected elite of the shooting world. The .38-40, with its bottle neck and delicate brass, is no more set for any kind of significant, mainstream resurgence than, say, .32 H&R Magnum or .357 Maximum. Sure, a few shooters -- mainly those that play cowboy -- will be interested, but don't expect to see Winchester white box bulk packs or S&Ws in .38-40 in the production line.
No no no...nor a "real" resurgance, but a resurrection to "cult" status for the .38/40. A cult cartridge is one like the .44 Special or the .32/20, or, realistically, the .45/70 — one that a very small majority of the gun-buying public is fascinated with for various and sundry largely inexplicable reasons. Think of it as a "tinkering" cartridge.
Cowboy action shooting is, for all intents and purposes, a tinkering sort of sport, which lends itslef well to such cartridges.
And, yes, it's dimensionally the same as a .40 S&W, which is why it's so easy to find all sorts of bullets for handloading it.
Negro...M-o-d-e-l-o...
mb
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