Muttly like stripper clips, and has a shoebox full of them for his 8x57 98K's.
Oh yes, I've been meaning to ask you...what is your opinion of the .30 Luger...and getting a barrel/slide for one of my "always with me" HP's, for general ranch chores, small game...perhaps coyote terminating at longer range than my 124's may reach with authority. I had read it penetrated really, really well, shot flat..but was a miserable manstopper. Your thoughts ?
I actually carried a 7,65mm Luger as my personal handgun while working in Italy for a couple of months a few years back; the law there treated pistols of .32 and smaller calibers as essentially indoor target weapons, those larger offerings in 9mm and above were considered *military weapons* and required tons of paperwork and permits; 9mm Colt Commanders and P.35 Browning GPs in the 7,65 chambering were therefore more popular and widely distributed there than in most other places; I understand that their laws were revised with the coming of the European Alliance and Euro to eliminate that loophole.
The 7,65 Luger was the Finnish handgun cartridge before the 9mm Luger, which is just a 7,65 case with the bottlenech straightened out to 9mm, came along. It's thought to be a bit weak in the full-jacketed bullet configuration, but there are some things that can be done with Sierra JHC or Hornady XTP bullets [including those for the .311 .32 S&W magnum, which are often unwanted and available cheap!] to get okay results. It's usually pretty easy to convert a 9mm gun to use .30, including submachineguns, though since cheap surplus 9mm is around, there's rarely real good cause to do so. But those 9x19mm weapons offering feeding problems can sometimes be cured with the use of the bottleneck .30 Luger round, which feeds a little better; I had a pal with an MP 40 so arranged, and old .30 Springfield barrels removed for sporter projects were a nice source of near-free barrel blanks, as were .30 Browning MG barrels.
I never had the opportunity to try my .30 Luger on another person, though a couple of times it came close, but there was one territorial doggie who thought the muzzle end was a bone and chomped down on it when I put it between him and me. I fired, and he has since refrained from that or any other behavior. Didn't hurt the gun a bit.
A similar quirk in the law makes a C96 my fairly common companion now here in Memphis. Though I have a modest but useful selection of handguins available for carry and the CCH permit that authorizes it, the law here requires rifles and shotguns in a vehicle to be caried unloaded and cased. Accordingly a Garand with ammo in clips in a behind-the-pickup-seat case is about the best option so available to me, and a shotgun would be nice [I've considered a Kalishnikov magazine-fed shotgun].
But the C96, legally and technically for the purposes of the state law, is a *pistol* and remains so even with the broomie stock-holster attached. [Good thing: I have to take the accessory 20-round extension magazine off to put the handgun in the *holster*] so it mostly sits beneath the seat with the buttstock afixxed and a puuch with two extra 10-shot broomie clips taped on the starboard side, giving me 40 rounds before resorting to other assorted containers and pouches.
Funny story: another quirk here is that if you qualify with a revolver you're *revolver certified* but using a semiauto covers *all weapons* and I happened to be wearing and using a nice S&W M37 Brazilian .45 revolver reworked to .357 magnum when I went down to shoot when I was told of that interesting limitation. *Why I just happen to have a semiauto in the truck* says I, *perhaps I should use it instead....*
I asked to make sure there was no caliber limitation, and was told that even a .22 would have been okay. Figures. THe silhouette target at 15 feet or so was not much of a match for the broomie, and after my target had been scored, I asked if it'd be okay if I emptied off the rest of the magazine [having fired two groups of six and six] I think they figured there was one or two shots left.
Well, I had the slide locked open anyway, and had those two strippers handy, so popped one in for a top-up that wasn't noticed. I had eight left out of the original load, and had added ten more. And the lights downrange [indoors] kickedc on. bangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangitybang.
I had shot out the center ring of the scoring rings in the chest area before, so I went for the face with those following eighteen. Had the target been an unsociable character he would have required extensive dental work after our noisy encounter....
Archy like stripper clips too, but usually calls them *chargers* unless around those who don't know better. TFA is working on getting the state law on carry of loaded shotguns/rifles by CCH permit holders legalized.
-archy-/-