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Mosin Nagant’s still a good deal
It was honestly the best time of my life. We were pretty much broke, and med school kept me sinfully busy. However, the kids were young, and life was pure. The children are all grown now, and I do miss them so. But I cherish memories of shooting a rimfire single action revolver together.
The Colt Frontier Scout Rimfire Single Action Revolver
My son was maybe 10, and he had a little money saved up from birthdays and Christmas. I had a Ruger Single Six pistol I could live without. The Single Six was a great shooter, but with its adjustable sights and convertible cylinder, it didn’t exactly look the part of the classic Western sixgun. Thusly equipped, my son and I struck out for the local gun show looking for trouble.
The Colt Frontier Scout was well-used but equally well-cared for. It sat among dozens of other pre-owned handguns on a table helmed by a local gun nerd. My son and I studied it closely and retired to the corner of the show to scheme.
Once we had an accord, we approached the gent about doing a deal. At the end of the day, my Ruger and a little bit of my son’s cash made the nifty little Colt ours. Back at the house, we pawed over it. The next free weekend, we took it out to the rural farm for a test drive. The end result was some of the finest memories a guy could ever want.
The Origins
Sam Colt was the only show in town for the first few years of the 19th Century revolver revolution. His radical designs were patented, and he defended those patents with near-religious zeal. While Colonel Sam was the consummate marketer and a comparably adroit showman, he was also a bit conceited.
When one of his machinists named Rollin White approached him about equipping a Colt revolver with a bored-through cylinder to accept metallic cartridges, Old Sam sent him on his way with remonstrations. He believed the Colt revolver was perfect and in no need of an upgrade.
White took a pair of Colt cap and ball cylinders that had been rejected from the production line, cut off the ends, and welded them together. The shooting version took a bit more effort, but the spark of genius was clearly there.
After Colonel Colt gave White his walking papers, the young man took his idea to Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. Sam Colt’s narcissism set his revolver production back more than a decade.
Finally, in 1869, the Rollin White patent expired, and Colt was free to maneuver. Sam put his two most accomplished gun designers, Charles Brinckerhoff and William Mason, to work designing a new cartridge-fed revolver for the Army pistol trials of 1872.
The first production gun rolled off the line in 1873 as the “New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol.”
Serial number 1 was thought lost forever until it turned up in a barn in Nashua, New Hampshire, soon after the turn of the century.
The M1873 – Colt Single Action Army
The gun was called the M1873 or the Colt Single Action Army revolver. However, in 1874 a Colt distributor named Benjamin Kittridge in Cincinnati coined the term “Peacemaker” as a marketing ploy. The end result became an integral part of Americana. The Peacemaker went on sale to American civilians two months after the revolver trials.
Those first Peacemakers were chambered for the .45 Long Colt cartridge. This straight-walled, rimmed round was immensely powerful by the standards of the day. Pushing a 255-grain hard lead bullet atop a charge of 40 grains of finely-ground black powder, the .45 LC became a recognized manstopper.
The Single Action Army handily took the Army revolver trials and served until 1892, when it was supplanted by the .38-caliber Colt M1892.
Architecture
The Single Action Army revolver was available with barrel lengths ranging from 4.75 through 7.5 inches in at least five major chamberings. However, there’s something weird about the basic Colt revolver design. That graceful arching grip has no finger grooves or stippling yet still seems to fit the human form better than any Information Age plastic pistol.
The massive hammer looks like it would catch on absolutely everything, yet it doesn’t. Thumbing the hammer back manually on the draw is a natural exercise. If you do this slowly, you can discern four distinct clicks. The inimitable sound it makes when done quickly has launched many a Hollywood career.
The hammer includes the firing pin as an integral component. While it was likely safe to carry the gun with the hammer down over a loaded chamber, most sensible gunmen didn’t. You could keep a handy dollar bill rolled tightly and stuffed into the cylinder or just leave it empty. If the tactical situation allowed, the astute shootist could drop one last round in place before stepping out into the street for a showdown.
The sights consist of a generous front blade that corresponds to a groove cut into the top strap. There is a loading gate on the right side of the gun. To load or unload the weapon, you place the hammer at half cock, open the gate and cycle the cylinder by hand.
The manual ejector is spring-loaded and rides underneath the barrel. Running the gun seems a bit tedious by modern standards. However, it was lightyears ahead of the same exercise undertaken with a cap-and-ball revolver back in the day.
A Manageable Round
Recoil in .45 Long Colt is present without being unpleasant, and every copy I have ever fired shot straight and true. On several occasions, I had my kids’ college buddies out to shoot machine guns.
Invariably at the end of the day, the stutterguns would fall silent while the kids would burn through whatever .45 LC ammo I had handy for my Italian Uberti Peacemaker replica.
Even if you load your own, .45 LC is a big, heavy cartridge that is component intensive. Factory ammo cost a fortune even before the recent ammo drought. Back in 1957, Colt found the answer to mitigate the costs of running the gun.
Frontier Scout
Ruger introduced the .22-caliber Single-Six in 1953. With Western movies occupying every theater in the country, Colt realized that a rimfire version of the classic Peacemaker would reach an untapped market. In 1957, they launched the Colt Frontier Scout with a price of $49.50. That’s about $456 in today’s money.
Those early Frontier Scouts featured a lightweight aluminum die-cast frame with a one-piece backstrap and triggerguard. The remainder of the pistol was blued steel. Colt called the combination their “duo-tone finish.” The grips were black synthetic. The barrels were cut on the same machinery used on the venerable Python, so performance was outstanding.
Unlike the original centerfire Colt Peacemaker, the Frontier Scout used a transfer bar action for added safety. Various combinations of finishes, grips, and frame materials came and went until 1986, when production was discontinued. Commemorative versions included two-cylinder .22 Magnum variants as well as a 9.5-inch barrel Buntline pistol.
Our Frontier Scout rolled off the lines in 1968 and features a blued finish and walnut stocks. When appreciated alongside my recent production Colt Peacemaker in .45 LC, the family resemblance is obvious. The 1968-era workmanship is flawless, and the gun offers the same inimitable aura in a package that is much cheaper to run.
Trigger Time
While I have myself never tried heroin, I suspect it is just a little bit like this. You can retire to your favorite shooting spot with the Colt Frontier Scout and a brick of .22 bullets and shoot stuff until hunger draws you home.
In fact, it is simply breathtaking to appreciate the pile of empty cases that remain after an afternoon at the range with this thing. Recoil is non-existent, and the gun shoots unnaturally straight. Additionally, it rides in the same holster rig that typically carries my centerfire version. In short, it offers most all of the cool at a fraction of the price.
My son and I whiled away countless hours ventilating disused beverage cans with our jointly owned Frontier Scout. Now nearly two decades after its acquisition, the gun is waiting on my son to settle someplace long enough to take it home.
I am a bit better financed these days and may scrounge up another copy for myself. It is a tangible connection to some simply delightful times.
Ruger Wrangler
The Colt Frontier Scout has been out of production for some thirty-five years. Vintage copies can be found at places like GunBroker, but they are typically fairly tired. With guns that are in decent shape prices seem to range from $600 to around a grand.
Up until recently, the American shooter looking for a top-flight rimfire Peacemaker at a good price was just out of luck. However, in April 2019, Ruger offered up the solution.
The Ruger Wrangler is a current-production facsimile of the classic Colt Peacemaker offered at a very reasonable price. Ruger makes extensive use of zinc and aluminum castings for the Wrangler to help keep costs low.
The gun features a 4.6-inch barrel and comes in 12 different colors. They include—I’m not making this up—one that is called “Crushed Orchid.” The MSRP is a paltry $250. I found mine on special via an online venue NIB at substantially less than that.
The Wrangler uses a transfer bar ignition system and some metal injection-molded internal parts. However, given the piddly recoil impulse of the .22 rimfire cartridge, the gun should still outlive your grandchildren.
The final MSRP is less than half that of the corresponding Single-Six, and the Wrangler is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. It is the Peacemaker simulator for the Information Age.
The five-member Okeechobee, Florida city council and Police Chief Donald Hagan may each be forced to pay $5,000 personally – without using taxpayer dollars – for violating Florida’s powerful preemption statute, which only allows the state legislature to regulate firearms.
As previously reported, the city adopted an illegal ordinance shortly before Hurricane Helene made landfall, which banned the sale of guns and ammunition and prohibited firearm possession in public by anyone other than law enforcement or members of the military.
After learning of the civil rights violation, Florida Carry, Inc. sent a demand letter titled Written Notice of Preemption Violation and Offer of Settlement, to the city council and Chief Hagan, warning the recipients they have violated Florida’s preemption statute.
The letter, which was written by Florida Carry, Inc. General Counsel Eric J. Friday, spelled out that the pro-gun group has sufficient standing to bring a lawsuit if the ordinance is not repealed within 30 days, and demanded the payment of $30,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to “resolve this matter prior to initiation of litigation.”
Okeechobee City Attorney John J. Fumero, in a response sent Wednesday, claimed that the city’s Second Amendment violation was merely an “inadvertent mistake in using an outdated emergency ordinance form that, legally and factually, did not apply to the circumstances at hand regarding Hurricane Helene.”
Besides. Fumero wrote, no one ever enforced the illegal ordinance.
“At no time did the City, or the Police Chief, contemplate, nor take any action, to prohibit, confiscate or otherwise regulate firearms or ammunition in any fashion or manner. This was never the intention of the City. This was never implemented by the City. Moreover, to ensure this never happens again, the City has developed and implemented a new emergency ordinance form and process,” the city attorney wrote.
Fumero’s boss, Okeechobee Mayor Dowling R. Watford, Jr. and police spokesman Detective Jarret Romanello, gave numerous interviews to local media claiming city officials were reviewing the entire incident to determine how the “mistake” occurred. Romanello also claimed he looked forward to “providing more answers as soon as the review is complete.”
In his response, Fumero also balked at Florida Carry’s monetary demand.
“We see no legal, factual or public policy basis for your organization demanding payment of taxpayer dollars to satisfy your assertion of ‘damages and attorneys’ fees. The City is a rural small town that fundamentally believes in gun rights and the Second Amendment. From any standpoint, for Florida Carry, Inc. to take legal action against the City, under the circumstances described herein, is patently inappropriate and unjustified,” he wrote.
In an email reply to Fumero, Friday advised the city attorney to re-read Florida statute Sec. 790.33, which does not require actual enforcement of a preemption violation, since enactment itself is enough to prove liability.
“Inadvertence and ignorance of the law by government is no more of an excuse for violating civil rights than when a citizen ‘inadvertently’ violates the law and is arrested and prosecuted,” Friday wrote. “I will begin drafting my Complaint seeking relief, including personal fines against the city officials under whose jurisdiction this knowing and willful enactment occurred. You may want to inform the relevant officials that they are not allowed to use tax dollars to defend themselves from such liability, and that any fine assessed will be personally payable by them, to alleviate your concerns about tax dollars.
Lee Williams is a board member of Florida Carry, Inc.
This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.
About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
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Ruger LC Carbine 10mm
I have spent the majority of my life—since age 11—measuring land and distances as a land surveyor, and always I have tried to correlate things to hunting. Whether it be a bow shot on the longer side of things (when I was an archer as a younger man) or a rifle shot across the hay lots and orchards of the Hudson Valley, my mind always wandering to hunting deer. Our Topcon total station offered accurate measurements down to 1/16-inch but we would always play the “how far do you think that is” game. More often than not, we were grossly in error.
The first—and very crude—handheld rangefinder I ever used relied on differing focal points to establish distances, but it wasn’t very reliable, and while trying to check it, we found it wasn’t very accurate. It was good enough to measure the widths of streams and creeks which were impossible to ford, but which were required to be shown on a boundary map, but it surely wasn’t the kind of thing which I would say could help make a rifle shot at 400 yards.
As we know, all of that has changed, and modern rangefinders are utterly reliable; while not all rangefinders are created equal, today’s inexpensive models are more accurate and reliable than the top-of-the-line models of thirty years ago. The higher end models are impressive, and if you practice with one, you will be surprised how accurate they are. I’m still a surveyor, and use a rangefinder almost on a nearly basis, whether looking for a property line marker or locating the edge of crop fields. Checking the little handheld units against the precision equipment we use, I find that many are good within a yard or two. Some brands and models are bulkier or heavier than others, and some offer wonderful blend of features and prolonged battery life in a light and compact package. At the head of the latter group, you’ll find the new Leupold RX-1400i TBR/W Gen 2.
For the hunter, the need to know the distance to your quarry is paramount, especially for the bowhunter whose arrow needs to take a more drastically arched path, or for those using the slower cartridges, like the newer developments for the Midwestern states. A 350 Legend or 360 Buckhammer is surely an effective cartridge, but the difference in trajectory between 200 and 225 yards can be more than appreciable. The Leupold RX-1400i TBR/W Gen 2 is a simple, affordable and effective solution to the vast majority of hunting trajectory problems, no matter what you’ve got in hand. Loaded with the TBR/W (True Ballistic Range with Wind) ballistic compensation technology, the RX-1400i offers the same ballistic solutions that the first generation model did, with 25 trajectory curves which will surely match your chosen rifle load. The unit stays off until the top-mounted power button is pressed, and a second press of the button will range your target. It is powered by a single Lithium CR2 battery; which is provided with the unit.
While I have been an unabashed devotee of the RX-2800 TBR/W—which is amazing at ranging truly long distances—the RX-1400i is noticeably lighter and smaller, not to mention considerably more affordable. Weighing 5.1 ounces (compared to the RX-2800’s 7.9 ounces), and measuring 4 x 1.4 x 3 inches, the unit fits nicely in a short pocket, and isn’t a burden to carry at all. The archery crowd will be happy to see the bow mode, as it will display a horizontal bar at the arrow’s highest point of trajectory, so the user can quickly get a visual determination of any possible obstruction in the flight path. Handy tool, if you ask me.
Putting the unit into practical application, I took the 1400i into the August woods of Upstate New York, in thick terrain with the beeches, striped maples and other large-leafed trees in full regalia, and used my dear father as my “deer,” with the unit in Last Target mode, using only the last target reflected. We were actually roughly laying out a very old survey from the late 1800s, and I was using the 1400i to keep track of distances. I was extremely impressed how the unit measured to Deer Dad without catching the vegetation; in fact only twice during the course of nearly fifty measurements did I catch a branch or clump of leaves.
Using the side mounted Mode button to scroll through the options, you can easily switch between measuring in yards or meters, change the intensity of the red display (even the low setting was easily visible in bright sunlight), or even choose between one of three crosshairs. You may toggle between bow mode and rifle mode, or choose the innovative Last Target mode, which helps establish a proper reading in rain, snow or foggy conditions. You may choose between Line of Sight mode—measuring in a straight line without compensation for incline or decline—or allow the unit to make the adjustment for uphill/downhill shots. The 5x magnification is enough to ensure you’re ranging what you’re aiming at, yet not so high-powered as to pose an issue finding a deer or bear in thicker vegetation at closer ranges.
The RX-1400i Gen 2 will give accurate readings out to 1,400 yards on highly reflective objects such as road signs or buildings (knowing you’re more than the legal minimum distance from a dwelling is reassuring when hunting in more populated areas). On vegetation, such as trees to hedge rows, it’ll read out to 1,200 yards, and on deer and similar-sized game the unit will give readings out 900 yards, making it an absolutely perfect choice for the hunter. Oh, did I mention the price point of $199.99? For the price of a nice dinner out, you can range your deer in perfect confidence, with a unit packed with features, which is impervious to the elements. Good job, Leupold; you’ve got a winner here.
Ever since I began my study of defensive handguns, I’ve been fascinated with pocket pistols. These are the smallest of the small semi-automatics designed to be discreetly concealed for up close-and-personal defensive situations. I believe my preoccupation with petite pocketables can be traced back to one gun in particular: the Baby Browning .25 ACP. Not only is it an exceptionally well-made example of the vest pocket size pistols of the mid-20th century, it’s also a little piece of family history as well.
The story begins with John Moses Browning, the famous inventor of the 1911 pistol. He designed the .25 ACP (6.35×16 mm SR) semi-rimmed pistol cartridge for what would become the M1905 Vest Pocket pistol. It was literally designed to fit in a business man’s vest pocket, the one usually reserved for coins. By 1931, Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre in Herstal, Belgium (FN) launched an even smaller .25 ACP pistol developed by the company’s chief designer, Dieudonné Saive.
The Baby Browning in .25 ACP.
It was dubbed the Baby Browning for the market cachet his name offered, even though Mr. Browning had passed away in 1926. It is a simpler and more refined pistol than the 1905 with features that included a magazine safety and a more intuitive external thumb safety lever, which was moved from the slide down behind the trigger guard. The Baby Browning finally made its way into the U.S. market when the Browning Arms Co. decided to carry it in 1954.
It was a popular seller for several years because of its small size, reliability and high quality of manufacture. However, when the Gun Control Act of 1968 kicked into gear, the Baby Browning was among those small defensive handguns banned from importation. FN continued to make it until 1979, including beautifully hand engraved Renaissance models and the Lightweight version with its 6061-T6-aluminum frame.
A closer look at the chamber markings on the Baby Browning.
My family’s history with the Belgian Baby Browning began in the fall of 1969 with the purchase of a blued steel model made in 1968, which made it into the country just ahead of the ban. My dad had moved the family to Texas in order to participate in a lucrative construction project. Within a few weeks, he noticed irregularities in the staff, work arrangements and inventory provided by the project’s partners.
Most of the supervisors had no construction background, whole truck loads of building materials mysteriously disappeared from secured work sites and so on. Some additional digging on his part revealed that what seemed like poor management on the partner’s part turned out to be company-wide corruption involving kick-backs, bribery and theft.
A size comparison of the Baby Browning to a hand.
Since he didn’t have the kind of hard evidence needed to prove the presence of the corruption he had uncovered, he used his authority as the General Superintendent to tackle the problems on his own. But he soon learned that he had kicked a hornet’s nest filled with con-men and fresh-from-prison felons working to establish a foot-hold in Texas for a well-known crime syndicate.
There was an ‘accident’ at a worksite that almost put him in the hospital, a mysterious dent that appeared on his car while driving that was about the same size and shape as a rifle bullet. And then there was a late-night meeting that would have gone quite differently for my dad if not for a few ex-military members of his work crew that tagged along, just in case.
The Baby Browning disassembled.
After that meeting, Dad decided he wasn’t going to continue with the construction project unless he was armed. Driving to a gun shop on the other side of town, he looked over the pistols they had in stock. A large, powerful handgun capable of medium- or long-range shots would not fit his needs. He wanted something he could always have on-hand in case of an up-close, short-range encounter. A small, lightweight pistol that could ride in the pocket of the sport coats he wore to work and church would have to do.
The pocket pistol options in the shop were limited. Snub-nosed .38 Spl. revolvers produced a noticeable bulge. A Walther PPK was the right size and thickness for his pocket, but the weight of it caused a tell-tale sag. He kept looking until he found the Belgian Baby Browning . He wanted a quality gun with a name he could trust, and Browning was hard to beat. He paid around $50 for it, or about $350 in today’s dollars.
The Baby Browning on a pistol rest at the range.
The simplicity and features of the Baby Browning are surprisingly satisfying to modern defensive pistol sensibilities for a 90-year-old design. This blow-back operated semi-automatic is striker fired with a single-action trigger, a cocked striker indicator and a magazine safety. The tiny fixed sights are the smallest I’ve ever seen on a handgun but the top strap of the rounded slide is serrated to reduce glare, just in case you want to squint at them.
The trigger exhibits a short, clean trigger pull of 5 lbs., 1 oz. The 1960s-era nylon impregnated black polymer grip plates are checkered with the word “Browning” in a circle at the top. The single-stack magazine holds six rounds of ammunition and is secured by a heel-mounted magazine release.
The pistol’s clean lines are appealing, and it has the precision machining of a Swiss watch. It’s one of the few .25 ACPs that can be counted on to run reliably. However, this is not the easiest pistol to master. The Baby Browning’s slick, thin grip frame only provides enough room for a one-finger grip. Therefore it tends to buck and twist when it recoils.
The Baby Browning and Federal American Eagle 50-gr. FMJ ammunition used in the accuracy test.
The lack of a beaver tail above the grip frame exposes the shooter’s hand to the sharp edges of the recoiling slide. As a result, it will ‘bark the skin’ off the shooting-hand thumb knuckle if the operator is not paying attention (the inside joke in my family is that the Baby’s slide bite is nearly as lethal as the cartridge it fires).
It’s been some time since I shot this pistol, and I had yet to chronograph it. I rustled up a box of Federal American Eagle 50 grain FMJ cartridges and a LabRadar chronograph and headed to the range. This load generated a 10-shot average muzzle velocity of 787 f.p.s. for 69-ft. lbs. of muzzle energy. With the aid of a pistol rest, I was able to tap out a best single five-shot group of 2.29″ at 7 yards with a five-group average of 2.52″.
The Baby Browning compared with the Ruger LCP II and Kel-Tec P-32.
By today’s pocket-pistol standards, the Baby Browning is too small for a few reasons. Most folks have bigger pockets and more sophisticated holster systems, which allow for larger-caliber pistols to be carried. So the absolute smallest isn’t a requirement these days. The Baby’s slick one-finger grip, the vestigial sights and the very real risk of slide bite makes it a tough gun to work with, and that’s coming from someone who shoots handguns for a living.
Then there’s the .25 ACP cartridge itself. With performance comparable to a .22 LR pistol, small .25 ACPs are easily outclassed by similarly sized .32 ACP and .380 ACP pistols. In speaking with my dad, he agreed that if he had access to the slim, flat, light-weight polymer semi-automatics available today, such as the Kahr Arms CW 380 or Ruger LCP II, he definitely would have chosen a more powerful option. But as it was, the Baby Browning was the best fit for the job.
A view of both sides on the Baby Browning.
Thankfully, my father made it out of that situation without ever having to draw his little .25 ACP. Working with associates in law enforcement (who also watched his back), he gathered the evidence needed to launch an official investigation and then moved his family out of state. Although I’m not in a position to share more of this story here, I can say that I am alive, well and able to write this article today because, half a century ago, good guys with guns kept bad guys with guns from putting an abrupt end to my father’s life.
You see, I wasn’t born until a few years after these events took place. This piece of family history is just one of the reasons I take our 2nd Amendment rights personally. Let’s work together to ensure that, 50 years from now, we’ll have more stories to tell our grandchildren about how we took action to ensure that they, too, would have the means to protect their homes and families.
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre, 1931 to 1979
Model: Baby Browning
Action Type: blowback-operated, striker-fired, semi-automatic, centerfire pistol
Chambering: .25 ACP (6.35×16 mm SR)
Finish: blued
Stocks: textured black polymer
Sights: fixed
Trigger: single-action, 5-lb., 1-oz. pull
Barrel Length: 2.00″
Overall Length: 4″
Height: 2.75″
Width: 0.75″
Weight: 9.70 ozs.
Magazine: six-round detachable box
Rifle Grooves: 6
Collectors Pricing: $400-$1,200 Depending on Finish and Condition