Category: All About Guns
Nickel 2″ Model 12 (top gun) had square-butt Herrett stocks
and Mag-na-porting when Mas found it.
Blued square-butt 2″ Model 12: The original stocks are gone
but Pachmayrs fit suitably to cover “frame gap.”
Introduced in 1953 as the Military & Police Airweight, renamed the Model 12 in 1957, the lightweight version of Smith & Wesson’s super-popular six-shot .38 Special service revolver went through its siblings’ “dash-X” modifications up through Model 12-4 before lack of sales finally caused its discontinuance in 1986.
Born in the mid-20th Century USAF search for an ultra-light revolver for pilots that first gave us aluminum-framed revolvers — the Colt Cobra of 1950 and S&W’s subsequent Airweight series — the Model 12 was the black sheep of the K-Frame family. Slightly larger and a few ounces heavier than Colt’s Cobra holding the same six rounds and roughly a quarter-pound heavier and distinctly larger than S&W’s own J-Frame five-shot Airweight, it was just a tad too big for pocket carry even with its original and definitely most popular barrel length — two inches. I just never saw the need for a Model 12 back when I could order one new for a reasonable price at the gun shop. I guess most others felt the same.
The more fools, we.
The grail gun: 4″ Model 12-3, “minty.”
The Model 12 with its chapter in Tim Mullins’ excellent book, The K-Frame Revolver.
Awakening
One day in the 1980s, I was in one of the great American gun shops of all time, Riley’s in Hooksett, NH, when I spotted a 2″ round-butt Model 12 in the used handgun showcase. On a whim, I asked to see it. The bonding was like what happens when you meet the right puppy at the ASPCA. I “rescued” it and brought it home. I liked the way it shot and the way it felt in my hand — no revolver has ever fitted me better than a K-Frame Smith — and I shot +P FBI loads in it against S&W’s recommendation, with a set of Pachmayr Compacs to cushion the recoil.
When one of my sisters-in-law needed a gun, I lent it to her. I had been carrying it because it felt so sinfully comfortable and being a guy who advocated packing more serious firepower, I felt a tinge of hypocrisy wearing a snub as primary. I went back to carrying service autos. When I finally got it back, it was missing its cylinder latch and I had mislaid its original stocks, a mistake since until the dash-4 model, S&W made these guns with thinner frames and regular K-Frame stocks didn’t fit right. My friend Tom Givens, another Model 12 fan, later helped me out with a pair of original stocks. Thanks, Tom.
Along the way, I had read old friend Roy Huntington’s paean to the Model 12 in American Handgunner and it reminded me of how much I liked the gun, perhaps irrationally. I picked up a 2″ square-butt blued one at Welch’s Gun Shop in Lebanon, NH, and a Mag-na-ported nickel duplicate with Herrett stocks at a gun shop in Louisiana. Neither, unfortunately, shot quite to the sights. I confess to envying Roy on this count, because his specimens shoot to point of aim/point of impact.
I even picked up one of the rare, short-lived Model 315 Nightguards, which shot great but because it had Scandium in it for +P durability, weighed 24 oz. instead of the original Model 12 snubby’s 18 oz. This put the 315 about halfway between the original 18-oz., 2″ Model 12 and the chunky 2″ all-steel Model 10.
Mag-na-porting helped tame muzzle jump on the lightweight .38 Special.
Grail Gun
I got the urge for a 4″ Model 12. The slight added weight is compensated for by two more inches of barrel that significantly improve sight radius and lever the gun butt into the body for better concealment in a belt holster — counterintuitive, but true. My primary day job is that of instructor and I’ve found even in an auto pistol world, a double-action revolver lets you demonstrate trigger control better than anything else. As the instructor works the trigger, the students can see the even, uninterrupted rise and fall of the hammer and turn of the cylinder, as well as watching the long pull of the index finger on the trigger. I figured it would make a good teaching gun, and being old with sciatica, which interrupted my life-long comfort with a heavy pistol on my hip, a decent carry gun as well. With a six-shooter, a full-length ejector rod as on the 4″ model is desirable, too.
OMG — try to find an affordable 4″ Model 12, at a reasonable price, in the 2020s.
The search lasted for a couple of years and ended at Christmas of 2021, when my lovely bride found one on Gunbroker.com and put it under the tree for me. There it sat in its original box, pristine, practically needing a microscope to find a hint of a turn line on the cylinder …
… and I experienced a cognitive dissonance attack. Or maybe it was multiple personality disorder. My shooter self said, “Let’s take this baby out and shoot it, now! That’s why we have a range on our property!” But the ghost of my Scottish maternal grandfather seemed to say, “Nae, laddie, dinnae shoot it! Ye’ll ruin its collector value!”
Which is why it’s still in the safe, as yet unfired — and why I’m looking for a seasoned, “shooter-grade” 4″ Model 12, preferably with a round butt.
If you’re a gun enthusiast, I know you’ll understand.
That may very well be the case when it comes to the man accused of murdering Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Isaac Cordero last week. William Shae McKay had a criminal history dating back more than 20 years; including a 2021 conviction on charges of false imprisonment, receiving stolen property and evading police officers. Unbelievably, McKay was still allowed to post bail and leave jail after that conviction in November of 2021; a decision that local law enforcement believe had a direct link to Cordero’s murder a little more than a year later.
He was facing a third-strike sentence of 25 years to life in prison, but his attorneys asked for a new trial and that one of his strikes be dismissed.
McKay’s bail was reduced from $950,000 to $500,000 while his case was pending, and he was released on bail in March. In October, a warrant was issued for his arrest when McKay failed to make a court appearance. The trial judge in his case was Cara D. Hutson.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said the justice system had failed Deputy Cordero.
In a news release, Anderson noted his office opposed the bail reduction as well as the motion to dismiss a prior strike.
“Our office upheld our oath of pursuing justice by prosecuting convicted felon McKay in November of 2021, however a failure in the process to separate McKay from society and hold him accountable for his crimes has resulted in the tragic loss of a law enforcement deputy,” Anderson said.
Cordero’s uncle, Carlos Padilla, echoed his own frustration with the system and Judge Hutson.
“The law that he swore to uphold took his life,” Padilla said. “They said ‘You’re being dropped in the battlefield,’ and then they abandoned him. It’s so heart-wrenching that the same people we allow to be in office can do something like this.”
Hutson, a Democrat, was appointed to the San Bernardino County Superior Court bench in 2007 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Before that, she worked as a deputy district attorney from 1994 until her appointment. She was last elected in June 2022 when she ran unopposed.
Serious crimes that could have resulted in decades behind bars, but thanks to the judge’s largesse, McKay was able to post bail post-conviction and stroll out of custody free as a bird.
California lawmakers are set to resume their attacks on legal gun owners in just a few short days, with restricting the right to carry one of their top priorities for the new year. Ensuring that violent offenders like McKay stay behind bars, on the other hand, isn’t much of a concern for the politicians intent on carving up our Second Amendment rights into a never-ending series of non-violent possessory crimes. In the twisted worldview of the anti-gun left, guys like McKay are always deserving of another chance, while peaceable gun owners are considered a threat until or unless they’re disarmed.
Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced legislation Wednesday that would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after they enacted a rule that would make pistol stabilizing braces illegal for anyone without a certain license.
The legislation, titled the “Abolish the ATF Act,” would totally eliminate the ATF immediately after the bill is enacted. Gaetz introduced the bill after the ATF announced they would make gun owners face the possibility of being charged with a felony if they do not register their firearms with the stabilizing braces.
Gaetz said that the House GOP has the ATF in their “crosshairs.”
“House Republicans have the ATF in our crosshairs. The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on their repeated actions to convert law-abiding citizens into felons. They must be stopped. My bill today would abolish the ATF once and for all,” Gaetz said in a statement.
READ THE LEGISLATION HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
In June of 2021, Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also introduced legislation that would abolish ATF if signed into law, which Gaetz was a co-sponsor of. The Daily Caller first obtained that legislation, titled the “Brian A. Terry Memorial Eliminate the ATF Act.” The bill was named after Marine and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in a gunfight after a group of armed men attempted to rob smugglers who were transporting drugs from Mexico to the U.S. (EXCLUSIVE: Marjorie Taylor Greene To Introduce Legislation That Would Abolish The ATF)
The Caller also broke the news of legislation introduced by Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall in the Senate that would protect Americans’ second amendment rights from the ATF-proposed registry for firearms with stabilizing braces. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Roger Marshall Introduces Legislation Pushing Back On ATF Attacks On 2nd Amendment)
Democrats have been focused on passing legislation that would stop gun trafficking, ban the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of high-capacity magazines, raise the purchase age for certain rifles from 18 to 21 and promote safer storage of guns.
Carbines that use the same ammunition as a pistol are nothing new, even semiautomatic carbines.
The Marline Camp Carbine was introduced in 1985 and had a fair amount of success until in was discontinued in 1999. Two versions were available: the one chambered in .45 ACP used 1911 magazines and the 9mm version used Smith & Wesson Model 59 magazines. Of course Colt and other manufacturers offered 9mm carbines based on the AR-15 platform.
Several years ago there was a resurgence in the popularity of pistol caliber carbines. IDPA, ISPC and USPSA have all added a class of pistol caliber carbine courses of fire to their official matches.
Introduced in December 2017 the Ruger PC (pistol caliber) Carbine has proven to be one of the most popular.
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
The receiver is CNC-machined from a 7075-T6 aluminum billet, and has an integrated Picatinny-style rail and Type III hard-coat anodized. Like the Model A Ford, you can have it in any color you desire as long as it’s black. Camouflage and the flat dark earth model shown here are dealer exclusives although they are not hard to find.
The 16.12-inch barrel is cold hammer-forged chrome-moly steel with a 1:10 twist. While the barrel has a heavy contour, five flutes help reduce weight which translates into quick handling. The muzzle is threaded for muzzle devices (including suppressors). A thread protector cap is included.
The adjustable rear ghost ring sight, in combination with the protected blade front sight offers a fast and accurate sighting system.
The glass-filled nylon synthetic buttstock features a proprietary texture on the pistol grip area and the forend providing a sure grasp. Sling attachment points are on the rear of the stock and the forend.
The stock is capped with a soft rubber buttpad and has three 1/2-inch spacers to accommodate different statures, clothing, gear, etc.
Utilizing the proven 10/22 trigger components, the crisp trigger pull has minimal overtravel and positive reset.
Ruger PC Carbine as it arrives from the factory. Denny changed the charging handle to the left side.
Heavy contour barrel has flutes to help reduce weight for quick handling.
Adjustable rear ghost ring sight, offers a fast and accurate sighting system.
Glock magazine well with magazine inserted.
LOADED WITH FEATURES
The PC Carbine takes down for storage or transport simply by locking the bolt back, pushing a recessed lever in the forend, twisting the subassemblies and pulling them apart.
The PC Carbine uses Ruger SR-series or Security-9 magazines even though the SR-series releases from a notch in the front of the mag and the Security-9 releases from the side. Clever.
Going a step beyond, Ruger recognized that the most popular pistol is still the Glock and incudes a magazine well that will accommodate Glock magazines. Switching the mag wells can be accomplished easily in less than five minutes. Magazine wells for the Ruger American Pistol are available at ShopRuger.com.
Both the magazine release and charging handle are reversible. The carbine comes with the charging handle on the right side, but I change it to the left side so I can maintain a firing grip while charging the carbine.
The carbine comes with a manual, one SR-Series 17-round magazine, hex wrenches for rear sight adjustment, buttpad spacer adjustment and charging handle removal and the obligatory gun lock.
TEST FIRE
I went to my range with several of each of the following: SR-Series, Security-9, Glock 19 OEM, PMAG 15-round and PMAG 17-round magazines. To further gauge reliability, I took several different brands and types of 9mm Luger ammunition.
I fired the carbine with fully loaded magazines, mixing the different types of rounds between mags to see if any had a preference for a particular type. They didn’t.
Carbine will accept magazines from (left to right) Ruger SR9, Ruger Security-9, Glock and (not pictured) Ruger American Pistol.
Firing from 25 yards, tearing the center out of a B8 repair center was so routine it became monotonous. I tossed some previously-emptied adult beverage containers onto the berm and had great fun making them jump in the air only to repeat the process as soon as it landed. Sometimes—OK, twice—I was able to get a second hit before the can landed.
A friend who accompanied me, after seeing me empty several Ruger magazines remarked that it was too bad the carbine wouldn’t accept mags for his Glock. Hold my coffee!
After quickly changing the magazine wells I handed him the carbine and he inserted one of his G17 mags. After shooting the Ruger PC Carbine, and when he finally was able to stop grinning he remarked, “I’ve GOT to get me one of these!”
SUMMARY
If the above isn’t enough to make you sit up and takes notice, the PC Carbine represents a bargain at the suggested retail price of $649.00, and I’ve seen them on sale for as low as $550.
Reliable, accurate, modularity, loaded with features and a great price. What’s not to like?
SOURCE
STURM, RUGER & CO, INC.
