Ruger 10/22 Facts Retrospective

 Back in 2016 I started dedicating the month of March to the Ruger 10/22 rifle, why March? Because it was on March 25th 1964 that Bill Ruger wrote to Jack O'Conner and other gun writers letting them know about his new rifle. Which seems like a birth announcement, it wasn't until then that a working prototype existed, and Ruger felt comfortable enough to share it with the World.

The 1st 10/22, serial #1

I began collecting factoids, tidbits, random trivia and quotes about the 10/22 and posted them every March for 10 years. I am pretty sure I covered everything there is to know about Ruger's first rimfire rifle, but as always if I missed anything, share in the comments section below. Below are the links to the last ten years:

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

Best of Theme Guns: Texas

 Happy Texas Independence Day!

Ironically the most independent minded state has lived under the flags of six countries and only one was their own.

TINCANBANDIT visits the Palace Saloon

 This post is a follow up to my post on my visit to Tombstone Arizona (see that post here). We also planned a trip to Prescott and part of that included touring Whiskey Row.

In the middle of Whiskey Row is the "Oldest and Most Historic Saloon/Restaurant in Arizona" known as the Palace Saloon. Wyatt and Virgil Earp were known to frequent this bar as was Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate.

Virgil & Allie arrived in Prescott in October of 1877 by the summer of 1878 Virgil was appointed Prescott's "Night Watchman", then in November of 1878 he was elected as the Constable. Virgil was sworn in at the County Courthouse across Montezuma Ave from the Palace Saloon.

In the summer of 1879 Virgil wrote to his brother Wyatt to tell him about the opportunities in the silver boom town of Tombstone.

In September of 1879 Wyatt and Mattie along with his younger brother James met with Doc and Kate in Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory and then traveled to Prescott to meet with Virgil. It was there that the plans were laid to move to Tombstone and seek their fortunes. Who knows the plans may have been made at the Palace itself?

After learning that Virgil would be leaving for Tombstone, U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake swore in Virgil as the "US Deputy Marshal for Pima County, Tombstone Territory", the date was November 27th, 1879. (side note: this was before Cochise County was carved out of Pima County). His orders were to straighten out the issues with cattle rustling and stagecoach robberies in the area.

They loaded up their bags and boarded the train for Tucson.

The 72 miles between Tucson and Tombstone was traveled via covered wagon and probably took 3-4 days.

This is the same bar that Wyatt, Virgil, James and Doc drank at.

On July 14th, 1900, a fire broke out on Whiskey Row and the entire block was leveled. Some patrons did manage to save the bar and some barrels of beer and watched the fire from the lawn of the courthouse across Montezuma Avenue while drinking the salvaged suds.

Here is what it looked like after the fire.

The following year, the Palace and many of the other saloons were rebuilt and still stand today.

Interesting Firearm Photos #95

 

a pinned and recessed S&W model 29, one of the most beautiful revolvers ever made.

Buy Your Girl a Gun Day

 We all know that St. Valentines Day is a made-up holiday, (at least the way it is celebrated today) designed to sell greeting cards, chocolates, jewelry and flowers, so we gun owners made up our own holiday, National Buy Your Girl a Gun Day.

Now I am not suggesting you go out and make a straw purchase or choose a gun for your girl. I am suggesting you pay for the gun that they pick out and sign for.

Rather than buy flowers that will die, chocolate that will make her fat or jewelry that will make elites rich....buy your girl a gun....it is an investment in her safety.

To assist with those who don't understand, I leave you the following:

Why the Gun Is Civilization

Marko Kloos

March 23, 2007

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

Firearm Factory of the Month: Professional Ordnance

The story of Professional Ordnance starts with the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

The law was passed by the Democrat controlled House and Senate and signed by Democrat President Bill Clinton.

The ban targeted civilian sales of rifles and handguns with specific features.

Two years after its passage a man by the name of Larry Carpenter started a company to make an AR based pistol that would skirt the provisions of the AWB.

This led them to create a rifle version as well, even though it would be restricted to law enforcement and military sales only during the ban.

What was unique about these guns was the use of "carbon reinforced polymer", resulting in a rifle that weighs just 4 lbs (unloaded).

In 1997 the company was moved 4 hours east to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, a much more gun friendly state than California.

Unfortunately, warranty and design problems plagued the guns to the point the company had to close its doors, in 2003, within a year of the ending of the Assault Weapons Ban.

What Remains:

The designs and Carbon-15 name were purchased by Bushmaster and continue to be produced (although much of it was redesigned).

The end of Professional Ordnance was not the end; a new company was created from the ashes: Extar Firearms USA, continues to advance their polymer design. See their website here.

The building in Ontario at 1457 E. Philadelphia Street is still there

Professional Ordnance's former home and Extar's current home in Lake Havasu City is at 1070 Metric Drive