The Hardest Season

April means spring down below, but up here at the Secret Hidden Bunker, it's the most brutal month of winter. The wind is relentless...last night we had gusts of 70 mph and one of our big pines went down. Luckily, it wasn't near the Bunker! I need to fish out the pickaxe and start slamming away on the Driveway Drift, which will last into June (last frost date is mid-June).

The USFA Forum has pixs of this really funky single-action .45/.410...of course it's April 1, but you never know. Of course it's April 1, so you never really know, but I say, what the heck? I like the poster who suggested the new gun be called The Judge Roy Bean...nudge nudge wink wink say no more!

On another shot pistols issue, at SHOT I reported that sources told me — apparently erroneously — that the Taurus Raging Judge 28-gauge DA revolver and the Taurus Rossi Trail Judge .410 mares leg-style lever action pistol had run afoul of the BATFE, taking a few days off from their primary job of smuggling guns into Mexico, and would not come to market. Well, despite all the buzz immediately after SHOT, there still seems to be some question as to whether those guns will see the light of day. My friend Richard over at Guns, Holsters & Gear has been keeping up with the mixed signals on the Raging Judge (which, hell, I will buy on the spot if it ever makes it to the market!). At least one blogger (Gun Nation Podcast) says the 28-gauge behemoth is dead, but Taurus Big Guy Bob Morrison (who regularly reads this blog, so please chime in, Bob!) talking to Tom Gresham says Taurus is still working with the tech guys at BATFE to get the gun to market and it will eventually arrive.

The Rossi Trail Judge .410 (another gun I'd buy on the spot, BTW) apparently is not going to be produced. Last week Marshal Halloway at DRTV talked to a highly placed Rossi rep who said the gun would not be produced because there wasn't sufficient interest in the gun at SHOT. Other Internet sources have gotten similar responses from Rossi Customer Service. Of course Rossi already makes a line of superb Winchester 1892 clones...one of my all-time favorite lever guns is a Rossi 24-inch octagonal-barreled stainless .38/.357 '92, to which I've added a Marble's Tang Peep Sight. It is crazy accurate with whatever .357 loads you can stuff into it.

Let me throw an additional big caveat here...gun companies will find a way to make what the public demands, and Taurus is a master at filling market niches. Both of these guns may eventually make it to market...or they may not.

Speaking of mare's legs, I see that Henry Repeating Arms is also producing 2 versions — a brass-framed, octagonal barreled .45 Colt and a sweeeeeeet 10-shot .22LR blued version. The .45 Colt is a pricey $950, but the .22 is clocking in at $360 MSRP. Go ahead, you know you want one! Henry is an interesting company...innovative, willing to try different things and really committed to the youth market (with guns young people can afford, too). I have a couple of their rifles, including a .22 Golden Boy that has been a training workhorse.