Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Independence Day gun purchases? Here's mine.

That's quite a haul....grin

Been waiting two or three years to transfer them out of inventory into my grubby fingers.

Smith & Wesson X-frame, 500 S&W, 4" barrel per S&W (actually 3" of barrel, plus an inch of shroud for compensator and front sight).

That sounds like quite the hand cannon. Probably serious bear defense in your locale.

My big handguns stop at 44 Magnum and Ruger 45 Colt. I don't even like shooting too many of either with full house loads.

Owning it just confirmed what I had thought since its introduction. It is, in my opinion, to bulky to carry as a companion handgun. I did carry it this weekend several hours while busting brush, deadfalls, wading through tall grass and a dash of muskeg bog, in our record heat. Only because I wanted to shoot it, and not carry another and leave it on 4-wheeler during the walk-about.

Due to its weight and possibly the porting the recoil with 440 grain hard cast at an advertised 1500 fps, seems less than a 475 Linbaugh with a 420 grain at 1300 or so.
Of course the S&W can go considerably higher fps and weight wise. But, I shot what I could find.

I had and still have no intention of carrying this behemoth on a regular basis. The bulk of this dwarfs a 44, 629, 4". I consider it a modern horse-pistol or Howdah revolver. A Super RedHawk with a 5" barrel is as large as I care to carry. And cartridge wise, I am happy to top out with a 475 Linebaugh and as happy with 480 Ruger.

Impressive! Somebody's collection or one at a time?

I bought the stainless steel version of that barrel.

kwg

I suspect this is a result of Initiative 1639 which, as of July 1, 2019, makes any semi-automatic rifle an "Assault Weapon" in WA state, and changes the rules for buying semi-automatic pistols to a mandatory waiting period.

I have a buddy with a gun shop and he deals in tactical stuff, almost exclusively. He said when they closed on June 30, he had four (that's right four!) semi-auto rifles and ten pistols still in stock while he had almost a hundred+ of each three weeks before.

BA seems to get good reviews for accuracy. When I bought the barrel above, I had never heard of the company, but wanted a 16" middy, and that was all I could find, so I rolled the dice. Turns out to be a good choice. Mine has the SBN/melonite finish.

The target above was at 100 yards. I had initially zero'd at 50 for the 50/200 zero. Then I wanted to confirm about 2" high at 100, so I shot this using a 6 o'clock hold. It grouped right where it should be.

Exactly right, I am an FFL and have had these in my inventory for some time now- I-1639 was the impetus behind the transfer. As I had already paid for the guns, I figured they might as well be mine. Additionally, its less inventory management and storage on the business side.

Just out of curiosity, when you transfer to yourself as an individual, do you have to do additional background checks on yourself?

Yes, I have to treat myself the same as a customer, i.e. the LLC is selling the firearm(s) to a private party. I ended up with 19 firearms on one 4473 form and 7 handguns on a 3310.4 form. I also had to fill out 7 separate WA Pistol Transfer Applications and send them to my local PD.

It is not really a cost efficient way to buy guns, but you can add to your collection by snagging those guns which enter the shop on consignment or auction, etc.

The problem is that lots of guns start to look desirable just because I don't have one!

Geez. Glad I live in Florida.

My Independence Day Celebration purchase was a pair of BCM uppers.

Sale on blems, unassembled but includes all forward assist and dust cover assembly

https://www.bravocompanyusa.com/BCM...o-p/flat%20top%20-upper%20-m4%20demo.htm

Looks lie a good deal on uppers.

The M4 SOCOM upper came in today, I slapped it together with stuff on hand. Shoots great, love the overall feel of it. I think it will have an extended floater, probably one of those two-piece quad rail type, from Midwest Industries.

Anyways, here's a couple pics. This is with a UTG Pro (non floating) handguard. It puts the bipod too far back for best accuracy testing. I zero'd at 50, then slammed a couple quick 10-round groups at 100 yards, with weather coming in. I shot each group in under 60 seconds.






After the paper, I went to a 24" rock at 680 yards, and nailed it 5 for 5, using the ACSS reticle, and M855 ammo.

This might be my new favorite AR.

Nothing wrong with that deal!

Nice!!!

Socom barrel gonna be on my horizon for my next one I put together.

Like that smacking stuff at 680 with 855 for sure!!!

My pistol came in about 3 hrs ago.
Cleaned and oiled it up.
Light and barber brushed oil make grips look lighter colored than what it actually is
Shoot it tommorow
If it is as accurate as the thunder plus I had from 15 to 25 yards . It will be gtg. Baseball to softball sized groups is what I'm expecting with 2 hand grip.

Now that's a solid looking 380. I'll be looking forward to hearing how it shoots for you.

I need to start another thread on the 14.5" SOCOM barreled carbine. I'll share and compare accuracy with some other uppers.

15 yds
200 rds
No malfunctions

I have always shot dead on hold in all my handguns.
On the bersa thunder plus I had I filed the front combat dot into half moon used my normal dead on hold and solved the issue of shooting 6 inches low
Same issue with the combat plus.
Was kinda hoping with new low profile slide on the combat plus
It wouldnt be an issue , but it is .. too me anyways.
Shot 100 rds intially on dots.
Seen the issue again.
Whether dead on hold or cover target completely with front sight dot
6 inches low.
I dont like dot covering target for accuracy.
Never have
And having entire front sight post and front of the slide obcsuring complete sight picture on target in my mind is not a positive in how I have always shot a handgun.

Might look for a lower front sight or just say fugg it and file into half moon again like the thunder plus I had.
But I'm gonna try 3 or 4 more different brands of ammo before I do that.

Am eagle shoots windage correct had some flyers ( probably me)
Fiocchi shot right and i compensated for that after seeing the 1st few. But it shot tight also.

Sorry for the sideways pic between my phone and the image gallery.