tark
Member
Sometimes I am so shocked by some of the stupid things I read in gun publications that I wonder if the writer has ever even touched the gun (s) that he is writing about. Just today I read a letter in A major (I will mention no names) publication asking if it was possible to convert a colt pocket pistol from .32 auto to .380. The reply was (again, no names) SURE! Just swap out the 32 barrel and mag and substitute the 380 parts and...... What is wrong with this picture?? A little something called the breech face cutout in the slide.... A .380 will not fit into the breech face cutout on a .32 slide. You would have to change the slide, also, not to mention the recoil spring..... At least an attempt to do as the writer suggested would result in a harmless failure to function.
I have seen an article on the Winchester 97 trench gun where the writer referred to the Left cartridge stop as the bolt release, and then stated that the easiest way to release/ unlock the bolt was to push forward on the slide handle, which would then unlock the action. Not on my 97 it doesn't!!
Some of the advice is downright dangerous, like saying it is ok to convert a Webley Mk IV to 45 ACP. A nice way to invite disaster. The ACP round operates above proof levels for the Webley.
Then there are the old myths that got started years ago, and they have been repeated so many times that everyone is sure they are true. "Why they must be, so and so said so and HE knows what he is talking about" Or "I've read that for years, repeated by so many experts ...why, it MUST be true." But if you ask some of those "experts" they will always give you the same answer....Well...I have read that for years..." Number one on this list, for me, is the myth that 7.62X25 Tok ammo is loaded to higher pressures than .30 Mauser ammo, and must NEVER be fired in a broomhandle Mauser, and if you do that the bolt will shear the bolt stop and come out the rear of the gun....and go through your head....and three trees, a stray dog and an aluminum bodied F-150 and finally bury itself in a block of granite.
Don't tell that to my broomhandle, it has eaten thousands of Tok rounds. The Russians copied the round exactly, there was no need to soup it up. There is no such thing as 7.62 by 25 sub-gun ammo. Ask JohnnyC.
Moving along in this vein, how many times have you heard that the 250-3000 A.K.A the 250 Savage, was the first commercially loaded round to exceed 3000 FPS?? You have read it all your life so it must be true...right?
Wrong. It was the 280 Ross, in 1907 145 grain bullet at 3145 FPS.
See what I mean? What examples of inaccuracy have you noticed?
I have seen an article on the Winchester 97 trench gun where the writer referred to the Left cartridge stop as the bolt release, and then stated that the easiest way to release/ unlock the bolt was to push forward on the slide handle, which would then unlock the action. Not on my 97 it doesn't!!
Some of the advice is downright dangerous, like saying it is ok to convert a Webley Mk IV to 45 ACP. A nice way to invite disaster. The ACP round operates above proof levels for the Webley.
Then there are the old myths that got started years ago, and they have been repeated so many times that everyone is sure they are true. "Why they must be, so and so said so and HE knows what he is talking about" Or "I've read that for years, repeated by so many experts ...why, it MUST be true." But if you ask some of those "experts" they will always give you the same answer....Well...I have read that for years..." Number one on this list, for me, is the myth that 7.62X25 Tok ammo is loaded to higher pressures than .30 Mauser ammo, and must NEVER be fired in a broomhandle Mauser, and if you do that the bolt will shear the bolt stop and come out the rear of the gun....and go through your head....and three trees, a stray dog and an aluminum bodied F-150 and finally bury itself in a block of granite.
Don't tell that to my broomhandle, it has eaten thousands of Tok rounds. The Russians copied the round exactly, there was no need to soup it up. There is no such thing as 7.62 by 25 sub-gun ammo. Ask JohnnyC.
Moving along in this vein, how many times have you heard that the 250-3000 A.K.A the 250 Savage, was the first commercially loaded round to exceed 3000 FPS?? You have read it all your life so it must be true...right?
Wrong. It was the 280 Ross, in 1907 145 grain bullet at 3145 FPS.
See what I mean? What examples of inaccuracy have you noticed?