Buisness

[Ron Caliburn]

Well folks, thought I’d just like to pass along an update on how things are going down here.

Business has been pretty good at the shop. In part because I replaced my ugly mug behind the front counter with something much easier on the eyes. Sam is now working up front. She’s probably the most knowledgeable woman I’ve met when it comes to firearms, and she quickly mastered all the demo models at the range. I still deal with my corporate clients of course, but she is definitely turning the occasionals into regulars.

Having someone up front to help with the customers means I get to spend some more time tinkering in the workshop. I’ve been upgrading my carry items of course, but if any of y‘all are interested in a custom piece that won’t break any laws where you live, let me know.

One piece I’m pretty proud of is a 12 gauge muzzle launched spike driver. Basically, it allows any 12 gauge shotgun with the choke removed to launch a nice six inch long piece of wood or metal at a reasonable velocity. It won’t reach as far as a slug, but it has better penetration. Down side is that it’s pretty slow to load. The spike will load from the muzzle while a propellant cartridge is loaded the normal way. I’m trying to speed this up with an all-in one loading, but so far the result is too long to fit into any sort of magazine fed shotgun without substantial modification. However, it is ready for field tests in break-open models.

I’m also working on my exposed silver penetrating core rounds, trying to improve the performance for the next time I run into some nasties as well as working on improving my delivery systems for holy water and garlic oil. If you think you might be able to (legally) field test some of this stuff for me and want to give it a try, drop me a line.

[Holister]

When I finish up here in Portland we need to talk Ronny Boy.

[Ron Caliburn]

You know how to reach me.

[Holister]

Be seein' ya then.

[Logan]

Well, outta the can and back into the old line of work. Damned bureacrats can't never make up their goddamned minds.

I'll be by in the middle of next week, I'll be bringin all the right paperwork for you to be able to show me some of your limited availability stock, no explosives though, appearantly the bosses want me to stop by a military base so's I pick up an expert with em.

By the way, think you can rig up a 20mm auto as something semi-feasable for one man use?

[Ron Caliburn]

You mean your masters aren't going to supply you with tools directly?

If you are looking for full automatic one man full powered 20 mm, you're out of luck. The only man-portable weapons firing full blown 20 mm are anti-material rifles and those are single shot weapons designed to be broken down for carry by a two man team.

There are a few weapons that use reduced powered 20 mm loads, but those would function more like a grenade launcher and are currently semi-automatic. If you wanted one in full-auto, you'll have to accept that you're only going to be able to accurately fire it from a bipod or tripod, and you'll have performance that doesn't match up to a full fledge 20 mm cannon (and is at best broadly equivalent to a 40 mm grenade launcher).

Depending on the targets you are looking to engage you'd be better off with either a 40 mm MGL, a 7.62 automatic weapon or a .50 rifle.

[Logan]

Pencil pushers give out what they want you to have, not what you need.

As for the 20MM, I saw one of the underslung air-burst grenade launchers, and hoped for an assault rifle variation do to the wide range of warheads the 20MM is able to deliver.

If something in 20MM won't work, just make me a repeat of the last custom you made for me - she never let me down, not a single jam in 6K rounds of feild abuse.

Lemme try a pallet or 2 of your new ammo in 7.62, 5.56, 9mm, .45 acp, .45 colt, and .410.

And Caliburn, don't forget your machining costs and time this time around, I'm getting re-imbursed for the expense.

Oh yea, and my neice is looking for a home defense peice and ammo that minimizes the risk to her neighbors on the off chance she misses the perp. She's not so good with heavy recoil either, complains about a 1911 firing hotloads at the range.

[Ron Caliburn]

The advanced electronics in those air burst weapons are a little beyond my scope of knowledge and the suppliers on those things aren't taking dealership orders.

I do still have the drawings for the pieces I put together for you, should be able to work on those for you. I've actually improved a bit on the compact .410 design after having a look at the Taurus Judge - it uses very shallow rifling allowing .45 Long and Slug rounds to grip and spin. It also produces an okay dispersion pattern with shotshell - though the pattern is kinda ring shaped, so you won't get a very dense mass in the middle of the pattern.

The ammo I'm talking about is still being hand made by yours truly, so probably won't be able to get you pallets of that stuff yet, though pallets of regular ammo with a box or two of the special stuff is probably doable.

As for your niece, big question is - are you worried about random break ins or about folks who might have body armour?

[Logan]

Just the petty crooks, I know there's no way to talk her into anything that would penetrate body armor, she's more concerned about hurting the neighbors on accident than getting hurt.

Well, if you want balistics tests on your new ammo, I can swing some range time with some associates and assorted target materials for helping feild test em. Gonna have to range test the custom peice for em anyway, they insist on seeing me qualify with any personal arms before they'll clear it for feild use, as if I'd carry something I couldn't controll.

Oh, and if you can put out a version of mine with a more robust recoil controll system, I'll have my bosses bick up a set of five for the other boys, the last team loved my last one, other than the punishment on their wrists.

[Joe Smith]

Check out that judges rifling Ron, it also has a rounded profile and slower twist. If you are a Taurus dealer (I'm not) I have heard you can buy the specialized cutters for that rifling directly from them.

I have never tried a judge for accuracy. Anyone here try it? I am kind of curious to see how well it works.

[Ron Caliburn]

Do you think that she will practice enough and stay calm enough to reliably put bullets into a worthwhile part of the target? If so, something fairly low powered, like a .32 or a .380 may be more than enough.

[Logan]

Well lets just say that her first shot is going to be within around 4 inches of center mass, and following shots will get better. She doesn't exactly do great on the "stay calm, breathe, aim, then pull", but she has put in enough range time that her "scream, draw, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze" plants more or less center mass. I keep tellin her to forget the neighbors and just go with a heavy enough round that one in center mass put's the perp on his ass if not in the morgue.

[Ron Caliburn]

Well given what you've said about her, I'd suspect that she is the type of shooter who has the potential to be afraid of her gun. The large recoil from a heavy round or the super sonic crack of a 9mm could potentially trigger a flinch and make her hesitate when she should shoot.

In this case I recommend a small, light easy to carry gun that is going to produce little noise or recoil - such as a .380. The .380 with an expanding round is lethal enough to produce one shot stops at the ranges typically used for home and personal defence. The lighter recoil will allow for faster and more accurate follow up shots, dropping an assailant's odds of survival considerably. For example, with the right round, three rounds to the centre mass area should bring down an assailant around 95% of the time. The remaining 5% he's not going to be in any condition to do anything aggressive.

Another good point of the lighter recoil is that if she finds the heavier weapons you recommend uncomfortable, she'll probably be quite enthusiastic about such a light, easy to shoot weapon, which will encourage her to practice more, improving her accuracy.

There are a wide variety of .380 pistols on the market and most of them are extremely compact, allowing for easy or concealed carry. Here are some examples

Bersa Thunder 380

Beretta 85FS Cheetah

Glock 25 and 28

Kel-Tec P-3AT

Magnum Research Micro-Desert Eagle

Ruger LCP

Sig-Sauer P238

Walther PPK or PPK/S or PK380

I have the Ruger and Sig-Sauer in stock and I'm actually expecting a couple of the Walther PK380s soon. The rest I can order, though it is sometimes tricky to get the Bersas and the Glocks due to import restrictions.

[Slayer]

I am wondering if you would be able to get something in for me Ron. I am hoping to acquire an AR-15 with the appropriate mods done to make it into a Beowulf.

[Logan]

Thanks, Caliburn. I'll get her the PPK, enough clips to hold a hundred rounds, and the rounds to fill em. I'll also need whatever accessories are needed to keep it at the bed without an accident - I doubt my trick of sleeping in my harness would apeal to her.

Normally I wouldn't even think about such light arms, but she's my neice and needs something for her neighborhood. It's not the noise by the way, she's just that she freaks out first and then calms down an hour or 2 later, which is too late to keep her out of the morgue if some of her neighbors come callin.


Normally, I'd step back and say "it's just another civilian affair", but it's my neice, and as much of a dumb, panicy, sheep as she is, I do what I do so that her and folk like her can sleep without the nightmares.

By the way, if you don't mind loosing 5% off of any sales you have to pick up through him, I can put you in contact with a fellow who operates a little shop similar to yours in the St. Louis area. Due to the nature of his clients and business, his imports are rarely held up by paperwork or customs for long. If you don't like the ship times times from FN, Glock, Baretta, or H&K he might be able to help out. By the way, if you do call him, make sure you got your paperwork handy - he'll actually insist on whatever makes you a legal shop, or you'll get to add the legal waiting periods and background checks before selling squat.

[Ron Caliburn]

I am wondering if you would be able to get something in for me Ron. I am hoping to acquire an AR-15 with the appropriate mods done to make it into a Beowulf.

Alexander Arms is a pretty frequent sale of mine. Some of the bodyguards of the local VIPs like a rapid fire vehicle stopper.

Logan, I'll make sure we get that set up. Most of the companies you mentioned do have American affiliates, but those don't always carry the whole product line, so being able to process orders on some of the other stuff would be handy.

[Slayer]

Do you ship Ron, or would I have to come and pick it up? Also I would need a couple hundred rounds of ammo, a cleaning kit, a Red Dot sight as well as a good optical scope for longer ranges and a few drum magazines.

By the way what will all of this run me?

[Logan]

Caliburn, do you do concealment fabrications?

The peice you made for me is very nice for Tactical Response work, but I need to pick up a couple that stand out less.

Concealment is nice, but a couple that aren't recognizable as firearms would be nice.

Got the following needs (not all for 1 peice obviously)

At least one shot that will stop a 1969 charger without being as memorable as fireing an AT-4 downtown.

At least one fully automatic firing light rifle munitions, need at least 10 round clip, more is nicer.

3 items able to deliver at least 3 12 guage slugs each.



Now on to somethin personal. I'd like to pick up the walther for my neice in 9mm, along with it's twin for me. And for a custom jobber, do you think you could make an automatic pistol in 40MM (the 203, not the bofors or Mk-19)that would actually fire without falling apart? Lookin for all the pretty bullshit on that one, it's intended purpose is to sit on a wall ove a plaque that reads "The biggest god-damned pistol you'll ever see" and only ever fire to prove she can.

[Joe Smith]

I think the title of worlds biggest goddamn pistol has already been taken. Its a revolver that shoots .600 Nitro Express.

If Ron does't do fabrication, I probably can do it. Might take a bit though, I have a pretty big job I am working on right now.

[Logan]

Well Joe, I think a 40MM rifle launched grenade is a little bigger than a .600 nitro express, something about multiple inches VS 60% of an inch.

And, Joe, take a shot at the items off the "needs" list. As long as they are either readily concealable, or not recognizable as threatening objects they'll do. The items from the needs list is kinda important, so I'll go with both and pull a side by side comparison of future orders is needed. For delivery, think either of you can make an ABSOLUTE June 19'th deadline?

Oh yea, if either of you hears of a supply of DUC floating around in peoples "private stock" and "back rooms" I'd like to hear about it. Someone knocked over a trailer of some of our specialty ammo and got the whole damned trailer.

[Ron Caliburn]

Do you ship Ron, or would I have to come and pick it up? Also I would need a couple hundred rounds of ammo, a cleaning kit, a Red Dot sight as well as a good optical scope for longer ranges and a few drum magazines.

By the way what will all of this run me?

I can ship with the proper paperwork in order.

I will discus costs via PM.

There are currently no drum mags in .50 Beowulf, but I may be able to fabricate them.

[Ron Caliburn]

Caliburn, do you do concealment fabrications?

The peice you made for me is very nice for Tactical Response work, but I need to pick up a couple that stand out less.

Concealment is nice, but a couple that aren't recognizable as firearms would be nice.

Got the following needs (not all for 1 peice obviously)

At least one shot that will stop a 1969 charger without being as memorable as fireing an AT-4 downtown.

At least one fully automatic firing light rifle munitions, need at least 10 round clip, more is nicer.

3 items able to deliver at least 3 12 guage slugs each.



Now on to somethin personal. I'd like to pick up the walther for my neice in 9mm, along with it's twin for me. And for a custom jobber, do you think you could make an automatic pistol in 40MM (the 203, not the bofors or Mk-19)that would actually fire without falling apart? Lookin for all the pretty bullshit on that one, it's intended purpose is to sit on a wall ove a plaque that reads "The biggest god-damned pistol you'll ever see" and only ever fire to prove she can.

I can do concealment fabrication if the requisite paper work is in order.

For stopping a car, I might recommend either 10 gauge shotgun, or .50 Beowulf, either of those will definitely crack an engine block. Then again, a 7.62 of 5.56 NATO can do the same, I suspect you are after a bit more insurance. Of course, you're also talking 40 mm (will touch on that later) and that is definitely going to mangle any unarmoured vehicle.

If you want full auto and rifle munitions in what I believe you are describing as a compact package, with the appropriate paper work I could fully auto one of the pistol derivatives of the AR-15 family. Not the most practical weapon, but 5.56mm NATO from a gun small enough to fit in an attache case is a pretty good surprise.

In regards to the 12 gauge, are you looking at something with a manual action or semi automatic? Also, how stuck are you on 12 gauge, there's already a nice compact pump action in 20 with a 3 round capacity.

Walther's always good choice, will have two ready - preferred finish?

If you have the proper paperwork for destructive device, a 40 mm pistol is possible - but making it an automatic is simply not going to fly. As you can see from the image below, the 40 mm is too large to fitting any sort of repeating handgun. Heck, scaling down a single shot launcher to pistol size is going to be a major technical undertaking if you want the grenades to do enough revolutions before they hit the mark to actually arm the fuzes properly. So Single shot is the best that we can do at the moment.

[Doctor Boggs]

What do you think you could do with a .600 Nitro Mr Caliburn? Absolutely no rush, I'm just curious, PM me any details if you have ideas. Or should I just get rid of the stuff?

[Ron Caliburn]

In a handgun? Not much, like the 40 mm, I suspect you'd end up with a real wrist breaker without a properly weighted fore-end and stock.

The round isn't really suitable for a repeating action either, that's why the majority of weapons in it are double barrel break open designs. It might be possible to custom an action for it though, but unless your last name is Kent I wouldn't recommend firing it.

[Doctor Boggs]

Handgun? No I'm quite sure I'd need a cast after the first shot, although that would be an impressive handcannon. I was mostly curious, I wound up with boxes of the stuff and wondered if it might be any good, being massive and all. I never found the gun for them so just ignored them until now, thought I'd see if you had any thoughts. Wouldn't even have known what they were if the box wasn't marked.

I've got all the paperwork for them somewhere around here, you want them? Not gonna do me much good.

[Ron Caliburn]

Well the uses of a .600 Nitro and it's cousins are pretty well defined - bringing down the "Big 5" as it were.


The above is a .600 sitting between a .50 BMG and a .45 ACP

It's features are pretty simple, massive size and energy, but relatively low muzzle velocity. It's accurate at short ranges but not well suited to longer ranges because the hunters preferred to take their targets as close as they possibly could. Not only did this make for better retelling of the story, it allowed the hunters to accurately target the few weak points on the creature.

So, if you expect to find yourself face to face with something a 12 gauge magnum slug won't stop,I can probably source a weapon for you that will fire this. If not, I don't deal so much in sporting arms, but I know some guys who do that might be interested in the stock.

Incidentally, I was partially wrong about the handgun in .600 Nitro. There is one out there, but it weighs over 13 lbs and this reviewer suggests a stock and bi-pod might be necessary to properly control it. By comparison, a fully loaded M16 weights less than 9 lbs.

[Doctor Boggs]

Okay, that handgun is insane. None of that sounds practical for me though, I could never brace a gun like that. If you could forward me the contact info for a dealer who'd take this stuff off my hands I'd be grateful.

[Logan]

the 40mm isn't for feild work, in fact if it fires in the bench that's good enough. (I made a bet you could make it, not that I could shoot it)

I like 10 guage, the versatility is astounding. Can you rig the mini 5.56 as the attache case?

How feasable would a pair of 2 shot derringer style peices for .600 be? prolly tear up the prosthetic a little, or break a wrist on the other hand, but it looks like it would have the desired feet at muzzleburn ranges.

The 12 guages are to fit some specialised rounds the pencil pushers insist we try.

Oh and Caliburn, if you ever decide to expand, let me know - everyone of my associates who has seen your 1st custom for me wants one.

[Ron Caliburn]

5.56 in attache mount, okay. Will take a look.

Any size requirements, action requirements on the 12 gauges?

You looking for any particular configuration on the 10 gauge? Ithaca makes a decent semi-auto 10 gauge designed for use by police.

So the 40 mm is a show piece, interesting. Might be able to get away with a folding mono-pod to hep stabilize it, can be made up to look like it's a folding forward hand-grip (kind of like you see on the Berreta 93R) magazine would have to feed in from the front like an old broom-handle Mauser and would probably contain only 2 rounds anyway. Movement of the slide would be pretty wicked too, so don't expect accuracy. Worthless as a weapon, but you would at least have bragging rights.

I would stay that the 13 lb revolver is as light as you could make a .600 and still be almost controllable. The size of the rounds precludes making any sort of concealable handgun for them. The smallest you'd get would be roughly equivalent to a sawed off 12 gauge.

As for expanding, my front counter girl had to take a leave, and she was just sales. I don't have anybody working for me in the shop yet, might be a while before I do, I end up with some rather strange design considerations and I'm sure the label of "kook" has already been applied to me in the gun-smithing community.

[Logan]

For the 12 guage, smaller and less visible is better, other considerations are secondary as long as they are still good for regular use.

For the 10 guage, do you think you could pull that off in a 4 round pump?

That sounds great, and yea, it'll sit on the wall either above or below my punt gun. I can't fire that one by hand either, but it's still a great peice.

Questions are can you make a break action for a pair of that, that can stick up my sleeve? And if I shove it somethings eye socket or belly and pull the triger is the raw impact trauma going to have sufficient knockback to cause a target to drop what it's holding (probably me) and step back? If not just rig me a pair of zip guns for each sleeve that the tubes won't shatter if i stuff a 10 guage slug through them.

And Caliburn, you are also reliable and discrete, as well as properly papered - that and you don't look at a man like he's daft when he requests the less "typical" fare.