Category: All About Guns
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5 Weird British Tanks
The load Tank used in Africa. Simple formula with a long history.
Deciding what guns to bring for an African hunt was a tough decision. Tim Sundles, and his wife Kim, graciously invited me to the Buffalo Bore Game Preserve in South Africa for a cull hunt. Species would range from massive Cape Buffalo to impala, and everything in between. I had some decisions to make. Here’s the trio I picked making for a most interesting and enjoyable hunt.
Lever Loony
I’ve dreamed of taking a Cape Buffalo with a Marlin lever gun in .45-70 for over two decades and wasn’t having much luck seeing any here in the states, no matter how hard I looked. Ruger’s newly released SBL Marlin fitted with a Skinner Sights extended Peep Rail and “bear Buster front sight would be perfect for the tas
All-Around Bolt
A Ruger African rifle chambered in .375 Ruger purchased 16 years ago got the nod for my utilitarian piece, performing wonderfully on the 15,000 acres preserve. Lastly, I wanted/needed a handgun … because hunting/shooting with one keeps things interesting. Besides, they’re handy too, as you will see.
Tank’s Custom Shop BFR from Magnum Research at its first range outing.
Magnum Research Custom BFR
A year before the hunt, I was kicking around the idea of having a custom handgun built with Brett Pikula, the head honcho of the Magnum Research Custom Shop. The .45 Colt is my favorite handgun caliber, but we turbo charged it a bit, going with the .454 Casull.
I love stainless steels rust resistant properties, but much prefer the warm looks of blued steel. Thanks to Brett, I got both. He informed me he could nitride the gun after a robust hand polishing. Afterwards, he went over the gun to give it a “used” look. Brett knocked the ball out of the stadium! The gun looks beautiful!
Using classy, high-grade Turkish walnut stocks, he expertly fit them to the Bisley grip frame. The grip frame provides plenty of room from the trigger guard for large, fisted shooters. A low setting, wide spur hammer makes cocking comfortable, while adding elegance to the gun’s profile.
The fit and finish is as one would expect from Magnum Research’s Custom Shop — pure perfection. The final stamp of approval is the script BP Maker’s Mark on the end of the frame, custom shop manager Brett Pikula’s initials.
Tank used his handloads while shooting steel in Raton,
New Mexico at the NRA Whittington Center.
Buffalo Bore uses cast bullets from Rim Rock Bullets in Montana.
The last group shot by Tank before his hunt at 50 yards.
That’s a 2” target with 6 o’clock hold
Ammunition
Buffalo Bore’s catalog item 7C, was my choice of ammunition for the wheelgun. It features a 360- grain flat-nosed, gas checked bullet from Rim Rock bullets of Montana. Velocity is advertised at 1,425 FPS but was nearing 1,500 FPS from my 9” barreled BFR.
For sight-in I had to file the front sight down to correspond with point of impact/point of aim. Once dialed in, sub-2” groups are the norm at 50 yards. This says a lot about both the ammunition and gun.
Here’s the rig riding in style on top of the Land Cruiser.
Three aces for a perfect hunting combo!
Leather
Mi amigo, Doc Barranti of Barranti Leather surprised me with a custom shoulder holster featuring a hand carved Cape Buffalo skull and hammered background. The rig also came with an ammo pouch capable of holding five rounds of ammo. It’s a beautiful rig and one I’m extremely proud to wear.
Tank’s wildebeest knocked down with the .45-70 and finished with the .454 Casull.
First Blood
It was towards the end of the first day and it was pouring rain. From a distance, Tim and I saw what we believed to be blue wildebeest. Checking with our binoculars, we still weren’t sure. “Nah, they’re bushes …wait a minute, did one move?” We got about 140 yards away and sure enough, they were wildebeest.
Using the peep sighted Marlin 45-70, I took aim at the largest one and shot. The telltale “SMACK” of the 380-grain monolithic solid hitting his shoulder sounded like a baseball bat hitting concrete and the wildebeest dropped. Approaching him, he was still alive. A coup de grace shot from the BFR ended things instantly, as it should.
A heavy horned impala taken with the BFR.
Impala
A few days later we spotted a heavy horned impala. He was unaware of us and about 75 yards away. Aiming tightly behind his shoulder, the gun fired. He mule kicked into a death run and was recovered a short distance away. Later the same day, a cull water buck was taken the same way. Nothing dramatic, the gun and load just worked.
A blesbok shot stern to stem with the BFR.
Blesbok
Hunting blesbok and black wildebeest on top of the mountain was spectacular. I really got to stretch the legs of my .375 Ruger. There were blesbok and black wildebeest everywhere. But they were anywhere from 300-400 yards away. One of the first blesboks I shot dropped straight down in high grass, disappearing. Believing he’s done, we continued our hunt for black wildebeest.
After getting a few black wildebeest, we went to retrieve the blesbok. Pulling up in the Land Cruiser, we got out to throw him in the back of the truck. Exiting the vehicle, he jumped up and started hobbling away. Wearing my shoulder rig, I drew my BFR, shot him at the root of the tail and he collapsed.
My rifle shot was too low, hitting both front legs below his brisket. The .454 Casull 360-grain slug entered his rump and exited his nose for complete penetration. I told you it’s always good having a handgun handy.
A tickled Tank posing with his impala.
Conclusion
Bonding with the BFR .454 Casull and Barranti rig was a pleasure. It proved a handy, convenient combination. The Buffalo Bore ammo also performed flawlessly. The humble cast bullet is still a worthy and viable projectile when placed in the vitals of any game. Many thanks to Tim & Kim Sundles, Doc Barranti and Brett Pikula for making this hunt a special one indeed.
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My Mouse Guns
I had a fellow teacher at Sylmar JH who was with the 173rd. He was a great teacher & a good man to boot! Grumpy Rest easy Buddy!
The new Springfield Armory M1A Tanker melds the timeless power, utility and class of the traditional M1A rifle with the maneuverability and practicality of the shortened SOCOM 16. The end result offers Information Age function and design along with Old World parkerized steel and stained walnut. However, today’s M1A Tanker has some remarkably deep roots.
Origin Story
Bottom line up front, the “Tanker Garand” as we know it today has a bit of a convoluted history. There was indeed a two-pronged parallel development process during the war to produce a shortened version of the standard M1 rifle for use by paratroopers and jungle fighters, but the term “Tanker Garand” was actually coined in the post-World War II era. However, the same tactical exigencies that drove the genesis of this abbreviated Garand still make for a superlative compact rifle today.
Late in 1944, fortunes were turning against both the Japanese and the Nazis, but there yet remained a great deal of fight left in the snake. Around this time engineers began experimenting with a shortened Garand for use by airborne troops and the like.
That initial effort was marked M1E5 but classified as the M1A3. However, it fared poorly. This new gun incorporated a folding steel pantograph stock that was both unwieldy and uncomfortable. Additionally, the sluggish powders used in wartime .30-06 ammunition lit up the countryside unduly when fired after dark.
Meanwhile, one Colonel William Alexander served on the Pacific Warfare Board, a brain trust of sorts tasked with review of weapons systems in theater from a strategic perspective. He tasked the Ordnance Division of the 6th Army in the Philippines to bodge together some 15,000 shortened M1 rifles for use in confined environments. They eventually produced 150 handmade samples before running out of steam.
These guns ended up going in several different directions with at least one of them actually seeing combat with the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment. Two of these homebrewed weapons were shipped back to the United States for evaluation. This rejuvenated the previous project and catalyzed yet another updated prototype designated the T26.
The T26 had its barrel shortened from 24 to 18 inches and sported a pruned forearm to match. Soon this endeavor was overshadowed by such stuff as the island-hopping juggernaut and atomic bombing. As a result the T26 project got canned as well.
The military is hard on its toys, so most of those prototype rifles were ground up during testing. The sheer novelty of the things makes them unimaginably valuable to a dedicated Garand nerd.
After the war, the world was covered in a thin patina of small arms, and a lot of returning soldiers and Marines wanted a copy of their service weapon sitting in their closet back home. As a result, enterprising folk sold gobs of military surplus guns. To add some flair to their offerings, the shortened Garand project was resurrected and offered as the infamous “Tanker” Garand.
Information Age Treatment
I’ve spent some time working inside armored vehicles myself, and they are unimaginably cramped. Against all expectations, the M3 Grease Gun, a cheap stamped steel stuttergun that cost a paltry $18 apiece back during World War II, actually soldiered on until the 1990’s as an individual weapon for armor crewmen. The Army didn’t cling to its Grease Guns through the First Gulf War because they were awesome. We kept using the Grease Gun because it was small.
So clearly, compact size was an important feature. But, adapting an M1 Garand into a tanker’s personal defense weapon is about as practical as stuffing a housecat into a Pringles can. There are just better places to keep your cat. However, there yet remains a persistent need for a handier version of a full-sized .30-caliber rifle.
While the M1A Tanker might not be historically accurate in the purest sense, that doesn’t make it any less valuable to today’s shooter. Taking the short and handy concept of the “M1 Tanker” and applying it to the detachable box magazine-fed M1A gives you a rifle that combines “Garand’y” charm with the benefits of the M1A’s more modern updates. The result is a handy and compact .308 that looks the part of a World War II-era rumbler, but gives you a gun that isn’t a priceless prototype that you can actually shoot!