Welcome to Saturday Shootaround, your home for all things 2A and shooting related. This edition of Shootaround will be a little abbreviated, there isn’t a whole lot of legal news to cover this week.
As usual, we start with a poem. This week’s selection is The War in the Air by Howard Nemerov. Nemerov was a pilot in the US Army Air Corps during WWII and eventual Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress.
For a saving grace, we didn’t see our dead,
Who rarely bothered coming home to die
But simply stayed away out there
In the clean war, the war in the air.Seldom the ghosts come back bearing their tales
Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea,
But stayed up there in the relative wind,
Shades fading in the mind,Who had no graves but only epitaphs
Where never so many spoke for never so few:
Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars,
Per aspera, to the stars.That was the good war, the war we won
As if there was no death, for goodness’s sake.
With the help of the losers we left out there
In the air, in the empty air.
Sig Sauer has announced a new rifle – the MCX Regulator. It mates their MCX piston driven upper with a traditionally stocked lower.
Here’s what Sig has to say about it:
Introducing the MCX-REGULATOR, using the heart and soul of the legendary MCX platform combined with a proprietary lower design, all built around shooter ergonomics comes a whole new level of MCX modularity. Never before has a ranch rifle possessed the DNA of a rifle used by elite Special Forces operators around the world.
The MCX-REGULATOR is an aluminum frame rifle with a gas-piston operating system, a Magpul™ SGA Mossberg 500/590 traditional stock combined with a redesigned lower receiver compatible with all MCX upper receivers. It has a fully ambidextrous magazine release, safety selector, and bolt catch. The MCX-REGULATOR ships with a two-stage match trigger, a cold hammer-forged carbon steel barrel, a SIG-designed muzzle brake, and is available in 7.62×39 and 5.56 calibers. The MCX-REGULATOR offers a built in Arca Rail for easy tripod mounting and ships with a 10-round magazine.
MCX-REGULATOR FEATURES:
- Reduced Weapons Visual-IR Signature GEN II NiR FDE
Cerakote- Magpul™ SGA Stock – Mossberg 500/590/590A1
- Fully Ambidextrous Mag Release, Safety Selector, and Bolt
Catch- SIG-Designed Compensating Muzzle Brake
- Receiver Integrated ARCA Rail
- Lower Receiver Compatible with All MCX Upper Receivers
- 3 MOA ROMEO2 Red Dot Installed on RX2 model
It’s an interesting rifle if you live in a state with restrictions like NY or CA. Sig can be cagey about MSRP, and this is no different. I’d expect this rifle to land in the $2500-$3000 range. That’s quite a bit more than other rifles in that particular segment like the FightLite SCR, but unlike that gun, you’ll probably see this one in the racks at your local.
Uberti, the Italian repro gun maker, has a new gun out. The 1873 short rifle Hunter is a modern-ish take on the Winchester 73.
It’s available in .45 Colt and .44 Remington magnum. Both models have a 20″ barrel and 10 round capacity. Uberti has this to say about it:
With straight-wall cartridges becoming a popular choice in formerly shotgun-only states, Uberti is proud to introduce a line specifically dedicated to this form of big-game hunting. Available in .45 Colt and .44 Magnum, the 1873 Hunter Rifle and 1873 Hunter Revolver offer the ability to shoot today’s most cutting edge hunting loads safely and effectively. Both rifle and revolver come with standard open sights, but included in the box is an easily-mounted Picatinny rail for those desiring a scope or a red dot sight.
The 1873 Hunter Rifle comes with a rubber butt-pad, an ergonomic pistol-grip stock, and a 10+1 round capacity tubular magazine. Moreover, the extra-tough all-black action is designed to withstand .44 Magnum pressures (.44 Magnum only. Standard pressure loads are recommended for .45 LC model).
While I’m not sure about the pistol grip, it was an option on the original 73. I should also point out that the Picatinny rail does not come pre-mounted. It does come in the box and requires removal of the rear buckhorn sight for installation.
Gun Porn
This week’s Gun Porn is a very nice Eddystone made Model of 1917 Enfield rifle.
I suppose a little history is in order for this one. Prior to WWI, the Brits had designed a new infantry rifle to replace the venerable SMLE MKII. Called the P-13, it was chambered in a new round, the high pressure .276 Enfield cartridge. When WWI broke out, the Brits needed rifles, badly, and contracted with several US companies to produce the new rifle, but without the new chambering. This rifle, now chambered in .303, was called the P-14.
Fast forward a few years, and the US is about to enter the war and required a lot of new rifles. Instead of retooling to manufacture the Springfield 1903, the War department decided it would be better if the factories building P-14 rifles, Eddystone Arsenal, Winchester and Remington, simply rechambered them to .30-06. By the end of the war, more than three quarters of the AEF was equipped with the Model of 1917 Enfield. One highly notable user of the 1917 was none other than Alvin C. York. He used one during the action that netted him the Medal of Honor. History lesson over.
The seller’s description is short to the point of curtness. Here it is:
US Eddystone Model Of 1917 chambered in .30-06 and dated 1918
This rifle is in very good condition, the bore is bright and shiny with strong rifling. The metal has traces of the original bluing, the wood is in very nice shape, the name “A.Tate” is carved in it next to the ejection port. C&R OK
High bid at the time of writing is $872. If I didn’t already have a couple of examples of this rifle in my collection already, I’d think about dropping a bid on it.
Update: The auction for this gun closed and it sold for $1027 plus fees and taxes.