Welcome to Saturday Shootaround, your weekly source for all things 2A and shooting related. In lieu of a verse, this week I’m featuring some quotes.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
William S Burroughs
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.
Dalai Lama
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Thomas Jefferson
Garland v Cargill was argued in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. For those who aren’t inveterate court followers like me, that’s the bump-stock case. The entire case hinges on a relatively basic technical question. Under section 5845(b) of the National Firearms Act of 1934 machine guns are defined as any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The question before the court is whether or not a bump-stock meets that criteria. If it does not, the ATF does not have the authority to restrict them. This case wound up in front of SCOTUS after the 5th Circuit ruled in favor of Cargill and declared the ban void.
Based on what I’ve read and heard of the arguments, the ban is likely going away. Other than the usual stupidity about guns – No Justice Jackson, a bump-stock does not shoot 800 rounds per second – the Justices seemed skeptical about the ATF’s ability to regulate them.
Your editor had the opportunity to play with a newish gun recently, the Springfield 2020 Waypoint. While I did shoot this rifle, I didn’t shoot it enough to do an actual review, so here are my thoughts. For a retail of about $2k, you get a very well sorted, lightweight bolt gun. The model I shot had a carbon fiber wrapped stainless barrel and a carbon fiber stock with adjustable cheek piece.
A very nice TriggerTech trigger is standard, as is a Picatinny rail and 5 QD mounting points. Accuracy was better than expected with the random factory ammo that was used for break-in. My best group was right around .6 MOA at 100m.
2,440,730 firearm background checks were initiated with the FBI last month, bringing the total for 2024 so far to 4,678,226 according to official stats.
Keep in mind, that number is not a 1:1 correlation with guns sold. Not all checks result in a transfer and not all transfers are for single firearms.
Gun Porn
This week’s gun porn comes to us from a manufacturer that used to be local to this editor.
It’s a Baker Gun Company Drilling. Here’s what the listing has to say:
Note: Those who have been following our auctions know that over the last year we’ve been selling on consignment a collection of guns from a Montana museum that is liquidating part of its collection. We’re going to continue selling these off and on over the course of 2024! These guns have been on display for decades, and most were donated by local residents and have never been for sale on the secondary market. This is a chance to buy some interesting historical firearms, many with a Montana connection including several Sharps rifles and Trapdoor Springfields. This gun is from that collection…unfortunatly record keeping in small museums during the 1960s and 1970s wasn’t always what you would see today, and the story behind items on display was often lost…which is the case here. The only thing we can say with certainty is that it was in their collection for a long time.
This gun qualfies as an ANTIQUE, and can be shipped directly any customer where it is legal to do so without going through an FFL.
Our Take:While the name L.C. Smith will be familiar to anyone with an interest in vintage shotguns, the name “Baker” probably isn’t…but these guns played an important role in the early years for L.C. Smith. In September 1877 Lyman Cornelius Smith partnered with gunmaker W.H. Baker to form W.H. Baker & Co. in Syracuse, NY. Baker held a number of patents for the double barrel shotguns, and the “three barrel gun”. Baker left the company in 1880 and with several other partners formed the famous Ithaca Gun Company, which continued to produce shotguns…while hardly a household name today like Colt or Browning, Baker was there for the genesis of two of the most famous shotgun makers in the world. With Bakers’ departure from the company, it was renamed the L.C. Smith Shotgun Company, but continued to produce the Baker designed guns…thus these being marked “L. C. SMITH MAKER OF BAKER GUN” on the top rib. In 1886 Smith produced their most successful hammerless shotgun, and in 1889 sold the rights to the gun to the Hunter Arms Company. It’s definitely an interesting footnote in the developement of fine American shotguns.
These drillings, or 3 barrel guns were produced from 1880 to 1884 in several grades ranging from a “Quality 1” priced at $75 to $80, all the way up to the fully engraved “Quality 5” priced at $200. This was a fairly expensive gun at the time–gold was only $15 an ounce! A cowboy in 1880 was making roughly a dollar a day, so even the base gun would have been quite a luxury. The company pitched the third barrel in their advertisements as being a way to shoot bigger game when the opportunity presented itself…say you’re bird hunting and come across a deer–well, now you can bag that too! These were cataloged as coming in 10 or 12 gauge over .44-40. While .44-40 might not be considered an ideal big game cartridge today, fired from a rifle at “brush gun” ranges it was probably effective if you had decent shot placement. Certainly better than firing bird shot at them anyway. While they only listed .44-40, other calibers have been found on existing examples…bore on this one measured roughly .404″, so it could very well be something that was custom ordered. The shotgun barrels are 12 gauge. While the exact number of guns produced is unknown, based on accounting records from the company it’s estimated that 1186 guns were made in total. While the advantages of having a gun that can essentially peform the duty of two guns might seem obvious, it’s at the cost of a gun that weighs a lot (it’s almost 10 pounds unloaded), handles slow for a shotgun, and only has one shot as a rifle. They’re also expensive…it’s a concept that just never really caught on, and they were discontinued after only a few years. Fascinating…but not super practical.
This particular piece is a Quality 1 piece, and so it features a black walnut stock, 30″ English stub twist shot barrels (unknown choke), and the original owner opted to pay an extra $5 for the pistol grip. Overall she’s in nice clean condition, particuarly considering she’s at least 140 years old. Cosmetically the metal finish shows hints of case coloring on the receiver, with an even gray patina. Barrels have a nice brown patina. Wood has that nice smooth polished look that comes from many years of use, with the handling marks you’d expect on a field gun. Wrist has a crack near the tang, and there’s a chip missing by the receiver, but it’s obviously been that way for decades. These originally came with a tang sight for the rifle, but this doesn’t have one. The tang of the trigger guard looks like it was probably repaired. It’s a nice clean example of a historic gun that obviously saw a lot of field use, but was also obviously well cared for.
Mechanically, everything appears to work as it should…all three firing pins work as intended. The action is still nice and tight and has just a hair of play in it. The action is opened by pushing the front trigger forward (something that isn’t obvious just looking at it). To fire the rifle barrel, the left hammer is cocked and the “switch” in front of the triggers is pushed forward…the rear trigger will then fire the rifle barrel. Both shotgun barrels have the typical “black powder bore”…it’s pretty typical to find pitting in the barrels of guns from the black powder era–black powder is corrosive and if you don’t clean them relatively soon after shooting, they’re going to pit. On the bright side, they still have some shine to them, so there’s that. The rifle barrel on the other hand is still shiny…looks like it could maybe use a cleaning, but otherwise looks pretty good with no pitting I can see. Honestly it probably wasn’t used much…these were typically just used as a heavy and somewhat unwieldy shotgun. Might be something that could be fired with sub caliber adapters, but shooting modern smokeless 12 ga rounds in these twist barrels is probaby not a good idea. Rifle looks like it would shoot fine, though as with any gun this age you’d want to have it inspected by a gunsmith before trying to do so. Would certainly be a conversation starter at a Cowboy Action shoot!
While it’s not surprising that this piece ended up out west in a museum in Montana, the exact story of how it got out here is unfortunatly lost to history…records of who owned it and how it came into the collection were either not made or have been lost.
This is an interesting piece of history that would be a great addition to any collection! For payment we accept USPS money order, bank or cashiers check, and credit cards at 2.9%. Shipping will be UPS Ground. All our auctions begin and end on Sunday afternoons so people have time to bid when they’re not work/church/etc. Feel free to ask questions!Make:
L.C. Smith/W.H. Baker
Model: Baker Drilling
Serial Number: 762
Year of Manufacture: Circa 1880
Caliber: 12 gauge over .44-40?
Action Type: Drilling
Barrel Length: 30 Inch
Sights / Optics: Front blade
Stock/Grip Configuration & Condition: Factory walnut stock in fair condition
Type of Finish: Patina
Overall Condition: Overall Fair to Good condition
Mechanics: Everything appears to work as intended.
Current bid on this piece of history is $1199.