Back in the 1980s, myself and a Cockney were roommates while studying in Liverpool. The BBC broadcast a drama set in Glasgow (where I was born, but I donāt have a specific accent) and various people complained that they couldnāt understand a word of āTuttiFruttiā.
Neither myself, nor my roommate had any trouble with the accents we heard.
I have had some Americans claim that they canāt understand my accent, but that seems odd to me. (My accent is a mix of various bits but is not geographically specific. Most people canāt place me, including some people from former colonies.)
No. Both will hit you with equal precision and accuracy. But on the US rifle, you canāt help but noticing the forend wood thatās touching the barrel that shouldnāt be touching there, or the huge-ass gap left to avoid that unwanted interference where a European gunsmith would have strived to leave 0.05 mm to 0.1 mm, or the too-light break-action, or the lack of reserve on the locking lever, or the coarse engraving (Americans marvel at any old engraving, even if theyāre particularly poorly made or even machine-made, for reasons that completely elude me), or the gritty trigger, etc etcā¦ Little things that separate a good rifle from a great one.
I canāt separate form and function. Thereās gotta be art and craftsmanship in a rifle. Thatās an integral part of of the hunt: looking at a beautiful piece, marveling at its balance, taking pleasure at aiming and firing it.
European gunsmiths very often blue and engrave internal parts that the user never sees, and take care to line up the screws, just out of pride when another gunsmith removes the locks for maintenance. I like that. Not many products are built like that in this day and age.
Yes but a properly done hand-made flame blue for Prussian blued parts, and a traditional acid+campeche wood solution rubbing and steel wool done properly over 3 days on the barrels look so much better. The colors are deeper and richer. They donāt last as long if youāre not careful, thatās for sure.
We could just agree that we donāt go for the same things in our firearms
The saddest thing I never saw was one of customers from some former USSR republic who brought us some tired old nondescript Soviel falling block for customization. The poor thing wouldnāt have fetched $30 at the flea market on a good day, but the customer said he had some kind of personal attachment to it, and wanted to āhonorā it or something (we strongly suspected he and his gun had seen actual action in some warzone somewhere ). He ordered 20 grand worth of restoration, custom stock and engraving work on it. That gun was something: stunning and yet completely and utterly ugly
And the best job we did was for a US customer who had lost his arm but couldnāt get used to aiming with his non-dominant eye. We made him a cross-stock, he tried it in our shooting tunnel and actually cried thanking us. What a beautiful moment that was.
To me (and my kind of heathen) a good firearm is a hammer, itās not pretty because of how it looks, itās pretty and loved because of how it handles
I shoot as much as I can both eyes open, and train left and right handedā¦ but Iām still a dominant right/right
The idea of loosing either my eye or hand, and having to restart decades of muscle memory is a terrifying thought that crosses my mind occasionally
Thatās kind of how I feel to a much lesser extent when I lose the use of one of my implants, the door locks donāt work anymore and I have to fish for my keys again - just to cleverly steer back on topic.
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& threadā:thread: hijackingā:gun: threadā:thread: interrobang