"Ya feel lucky punk?" Selling testosterone guns

Shooting Industry, May, 1999 by Massad Ayoob

Some guns sell just because they appeal, in a harmless way, to the customer's sense of machismo. You know who I'm talking about, because you know your buyers. You know them better than anyone.

There's the pragmatist who won't buy a firearm from you until he's taken that model from the rental counter and shot it on the indoor range.

There's the engineer who won't make a purchase until he's read about it in both American Handgunner and Gun Tests, and then polled five previous owners of the model and polygraphed them just to be sure.

Then there's the impulse buyer. He'll say simply, "I like this gun," or "I always wanted one of these." A subset of this kind of buyer is the natural candidate for what I call a "testosterone gun."

The type of guns I'm talking about are the big, heavy, loud boomers that kick the crap out of whomever is shooting them. There is a certain sense of masculine accomplishment in touching them off. It's the kind of gun that makes a customer - after picking up the gun at your shop - stop at the T-shirt store down the street, where he custom orders one that says "Dirty Harry Was A Wimp."

Think about it: How many people who've bought .375 Magnum or larger rifles from you are actually going to Alaska or Africa to use them? It's estimated that for every such rifle that is ever aimed at the creatures it was intended for, several more will get no farther than the local shooting range. Kind of the plinker's version of Monster Trucks.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with this. I think Ross Seyfried may have been the first to note that these guns have tremendous deterrent value. Since he owned his first one, he noted. no elephant has dared show its trunk in his community.

I find it good to know that the very presence of my Ruger 77 rifles in .416 Rigby and .458 Magnum have kept predatory pachyderms from stomping my neighbors' Volvos and Minivans flat. Do they appreciate it? Noooo!

But the customer who owns one appreciates the ownership of an instrument that powerful, one whose recoil challenges him to master the gun. For those not up to the elephant rifles, the .45/70 is extremely popular. It actually makes sense as a woods rifle for deer and bear, it's not as abusive as the .458 class guns, and it has the cachet of being a "buffalo rifle."

Shotguns? It's a rare hunter who actually needs a 10-gauge magnum, and there's no category for one in trap, skeet, or sporting clays. Yet a shotgun that throws twice a full 12-gauge Express load with a single press of the trigger commands respect, and challenges the shooter. Think about it, 12-gauge 00 buckshot consists of nine .33 caliber pellets. A 10-gauge Magnum throws 18 of them. The 12-bore Express load dumps 27 of its approximately .25 caliber pellets, while the 10-gauge equivalent spits 54 of the same.

Yee-haw! Buckets of buckshot! The 2-ounce slug of the Big Ten is not to be sneezed at, either.

Handguns? Where do we begin? For starters, the bigger handgun calibers actually make sense in this country. Consider the .454 Casull, a splendid handgun hunting round.

The exquisite Freedom Arms single action revolver rolls up in the shooter's hand upon recoil, and is not unpleasant to fire. The different grip shape of the double-action Taurus Raging Bull sends more kick back into my hand even with the cushy grips and the integral compensator, and only a few rounds of Winchester's fine new .454 ammo will satisfy my daily recoil requirements. I expect the same to be true of the new Ruger Super Redhawk double action in the same caliber.

The Desert Eagle in .44 Magnum and even the potent .50 Action Express is not unpleasant to shoot, since this semi-auto's mechanism soaks up a lot of the recoil, as does its significant weight.

More practical in my own hand for ergonomic reasons is the L.A.R. Grizzly in .45 Winchester Magnum or .50 AE. My .45 Magnum Griz was fitted with a JetComp recoil compensator by D.R. Middlebrooks (7366 Colonial Trail E, Surry, VA 23883-2208). So equipped, the gun is not at all unpleasant to shoot. I use it at "pins from hell" matches where rough tables and/or old pins full of lead conspire to keep the targets from going off the table with a single hit from a regular .45.

The .44 Magnum remains popular. The American Derringer two-shooter in that caliber will definitely "make your day" if you're a recoil masochist.

S&W's light Mountain Gun .44 Magnum has a reputation for vicious recoil, but you can tame that for your customer with a little secret. Slap on a pair of Pachmayr Compac K-frame round butt grips. They'll fit, and they distribute the recoil much better than the grips that come from the factory, especially if you choose Pachmayr's Decelerator version. A Mountain .44 so fitted is one of my favorite and most-used revolvers, using full power .44 Magnum ammo some 90 percent of the time.

You can get .45/70 pistols, of course. Thompson/Center's Contender and Encore guns are natural for this potent old rifle round. Even better is the custom Hand Cannon version of the T/C done by JD Jones at SSK. There's no finer hunting handgun than one of these in the proprietary .375 JDJ caliber. Mine has done 1.5-inch groups at 200 yards - sniper-rifle accuracy. I limit myself to 10 shots at a time to keep from flinching, but the accurately-delivered power at the other end is worth it.