David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. LVI

[Otony]

David, thank Google for an immediate response. Saves me the typing!

www.bullseyepistol.com/askins.htm

Pretty hilarious, as usual for Charlie. He may have been a crazy in many respects, but he was certainly not dumb!

There is more to the story, as I'm pretty sure this incident was in no small part related to Askins leaving the Border Patrol. Let me dig out my copy of Unrepentant Sinner to refresh my memories on those details.

[jayhawker]

According to Charlie, he shot it with the BP top brass watching, walked off the line and resigned from the BP. The gun ended up in Col. Applegates collection. As I recall, Charlie bought all the Velo Dog ammo in the US so that no one else could duplicate.

[bradshaw]

Otony and Jayhawker.... thanks & keep the fire stoked, boys. Unrepentant Sinner is a great title, one ole Charles Askins could claim with a straight face. Missed my chance to buy the book when it came out, and haven't read it. Doubt diplomacy was big on the Askins agenda.

Now headed out to throw lead,
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

Otony.... just read the Askins letter to Rex Applegate. Thanks for posting the link. Notice photo of Askins' converted Colt with the micro sight on backwards. Certainly Askins did not win on gun alone, and to make reloaded rimfire slugs shoot straight must have been quite a feat. While at Camp Perry we never had any gun work done at a tire changing shop in Port Clinton. Shooters went there to eat someplace else beside the mess hall and to drink beer. We----being young and innocent and with fine armorers at Perry to service our National Match M1's should some problem arise which was most rare indeed----drove into port Clinton to buy and not drink Carling Black Label @ $2 a case. We brought the beer past the guard house and traded straight across to the thirsty ammo boys case-for-case, a case of beer for a case of Frankford Arsenal [i]National Match[/i] .30-06 173 grain FMJBT[/b]. We didn't have much money but we could afford that.
David Bradshaw

[AxeHandle]

So, it isn't a 1911... It is a 1911A1. You old guys can be so confusing. FWIW Hallock's agrees with the 1930 production year for that serial number range. It pictures a commercial 1911A1 with a slide with the same patent dates. Nice to see Vern Juenke's name here. I've got a 300VJR and a 17 Mach IV Contender that came out of his shop. Seems like it was The Accuracy Den in Reno, Nevada. I've never taken the barrels off mine but I understand that Vern used a tapered hinge pin that eliminates any barrel swapping. The 300VJR is based on the 30 Federal case. This is literally a 30-30 case with a small primer pocket.

[bradshaw]

Axehandle.... perhaps you know otherwise, but it was 1961 heard NM '06 cost citizens 25 cents a shot, a fearsome price. We were happy to burn it, happier after hearing that. Although, let it be known, National Match 173 grain FMJ barely made a difference out to 300 yards; started writing poetry at 600. One of my instructors, Robert "Doc" Carroll, lay down on the 1,000 yard line with his National Match M1 and NM 173 grain FMJ to stitch 99x100 in the Leech Cup.
David Bradshaw

[AxeHandle]

Once upon a time, before I fully realized that rifle shooters spent half their lives in the pits, I wanted to be double distinguished. Was even issued a USAF built match grade M1 to play with. All the Lake City match 30-06 I wanted too.. The Lake City match ammo was loaded with a 150 grain bullet. The old high master shooters I ran with told me that while the heavier bullet was fine in the M14 and the civilian M1A the heavier bullets would quickly beat the M1 gas system to death. The M14 and M1A match rifles shot the 173 grain match 308 ball ammo well. The heavy barrel M14 or M1A did not like the issue .308 match ammo. They preferred the stuff we called Mexican match. We pulled the 173 BTFMJ and seated the Sierra 167 grain HPBT Match King for the heavy barrel M14/M1A. The 173 grain bullet was a .309 diameter bullet. The Sierra match bullets were .308s.

[bradshaw]

Axehandle.... the discovery that durability did not require gas bleed way out at the muzzle of the M1 lead to a major improvement of the M14.

Today, someone buying a "Springfield Armory" repro of the Garand might as well order in .308, as the gas system will stay in tune longer, ammo supply is better, and the .308 rates higher intrinsic accuracy.

While I was cautioned by my coaches to not shoot AP ammo in the National Match M1, some of these WW II boys said they specifically loaded their M1's with Armor Piercing. Rifleman Martin Hull, who spent a second career with Sierra, claimed great accuracy from AP in the M1. My coaches called AP a barrel burner, and I mostly shot it in bolt guns. AP generates heat, and .30-06 generates more barrel heat than .308.

The M1----for that matter, the M14----may be an antique, but I'd take either over any commercial semi-auto in griz country. (Don't have to, probably won't.)
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

Axehandle.... take it the Vern Juenke T/C in your top photo, the Contender with polished flanks and Williams sight, was built for IHMSA Unlimited competition. Always questioned the repeatability of the Williams Foolproof with target knobs. Micro and Bo-Mar set the standard, with movement the finer Bo-Mar @ .002" per click. While we're at it, what caliber them pistols?
David Bradshaw

[AxeHandle]

The shiney one is a 300 VJR. The other is a 17 Mach IV.

[bradshaw]

Trapr.... the Jim Clark 1911 .38 Special bullseye gun pictured is, as I recall, unfired after the maker’s test. Owned by the world’s foremost authority on black bears, Ben Kilham, of Lyme, New Hampshire. This pistol wears Clatk’s cat’s claw stippling, which, once you grip it, can’t shake loose. A modification for tournament guns, not carry.
David Bradshaw