The Gun Room: Episode 15

07/02/21 • 67 min

Join me this week as we sit down with Grace Callahan, professional woman’s sporting clays shooter and coach. Grace has been shooting clays from the early age of 10 and with the support of her family and some friendly folks along the way has risen to become one of the top clays shooters in the country. Grace currently shoots for Caesar Guerini and Syren. She has made a name for herself on the NSCA circuit, frequently ranking in the open divisions. We discuss the details of what it takes to go pro, target setting, clays shooting games, and more on this episode of The Gun Room.

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The Gun Room: Episode 14

Episode 14: Sporterized Rifles

If you caught our previous episode, number 13, and our discussion with the Gunsmiths at Griffin and Howe, you will no doubt have a base knowledge of our topic of discussion today. If you missed #13, dont worry- we will lay the groundwork for that episode right now. The United States is a nation of marksman shooters. From winning our freedom, to westward expansion, homesteading and forging new frontiers, rifles have been an integral part of our history. But when it’s time to turn swords to plowshares, what happens to all those military rifles. This is 10 Minutes on Sporterized Rifles.

Sporterized rifles are essentially a byproduct of massive wartime production, resulting in surplus goods filling a market niche in peacetime. I would argue that rifles were not the only thing repurposed after a war. Take for example the fact that the ridiculously shelf-stable powdered cheese which the military developed and used in great volume during WWII, was purchased by an enterprising individual who watched someone ‘puff’ corn dough as byproduct of cattle feed production. The man in question simply bought surplus powder cheese and added it to a puffed corn doodle and the rest is history (to the tune of over a billion in sales in 2017)

I digress. A sporterized rife, or sporter rifle as it is sometimes shortened, by definition is a disassembled, chopped up, modified version of its military counterpart. Generally, these rifles have been modified to suit the purposes of their peacetime stewards. For Americans, this generally meant modifications for hunting. Not to mention the fact that military guns are 100% utility, where most sporter rifles take aesthetics into account as well

It is worth a brief discussion of the anatomy of a military gun, or at least some of the common features found on the bulk of them. It was common practice for military guns to have long barrels, enshrouded by full-length stocks. The majority of these rifles share this characteristic which was employed because of the expected heat generated by shooting many shots in succession.

Another common characteristic is bayonet lugs; essentially a stud or hook that allowed a bayonet to be fixed to the muzzle end. And speaking on the muzzle end, sights tended to be large. Heavy, durable front sights and rear ladder sights were common on military guns. Remember, these guns were produced rapidly and in great numbers and intended to face combat conditions. Fine sights that could be bent in the line of duty wouldn’t pass muster. Neither would a gun that jammed up if it got wet or muddy. It is these features that made the guns reliable but also typically made them bulky, heavy, and not necessarily comfortable to shoot.

Some military weapons came home with soldiers, others were captured in the course of combat, but the biggest source of guns was actually back home, on US Soil.

The idea of civilians purchasing military surplus began after the Civil War, and arguably the father of the sporterized rifle, if by circuitous logic, was Frank Bannerman. The complete Bannerman’s story is one of American grit and entrepreneurship. Frank was left to help the family business at age 10, when his father went off to fight in the Civil War. Fast forward to the end of the war, and Frank was successfully running a junk business and buying military surplus from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He quickly realized that there was more money in weapons than in scrap and the company took off.

By 20, Bannerman was buying mil-surp goods and bringing them back to NYC to sell to the highest bidder. They started a brisk catalog business that included many Military Rifles; essentially any military arm from the Civil War forward could be had through the mail via Bannermans. You could also buy any number of other surplus goods like uniforms, cannons, historical arms and martial relics from around the world.

Bannermans would operate through to the 50’s selling all variety of military arms. They saw the major wars of the modern era and each time secured excess weapons after. Sure, there was controversy, intrigue, an island in the Hudson and a Scottish Castle/Armory involved in the story, but that is one for another podcast. (If there is a Bannerman’s expert listening please - look me up!)

The real benefit was the access to inexpensive guns that many returning soldiers knew and trusted their lives with. Remember, these were the same guns carried into battle, which could be had for pennies on the dollar. Literally, Bannermans at one point sold Civil War Carbines to a store that was RESELLING them for 69 cents each.

It was the easy access and dirt cheap prices that would drive many men back home to convert their military rifle to something viewed as more practical for their use. Typically, full-length stocks were removed and cut down, slimmed, and made more aesthetically pleasing. Large military si...

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The Gun Room: Episode 16

Episode 16: Weatherby Mark V Rifle

Necessity is the mother of invention. For Roy Weatherby, wounding an animal on a hunt, sparked a flame of innovation that would revolutionize the world of fast-moving rifle rounds. His story is one of wild cat cartridge development, that pushed the envelope of what was thought possible at the time. His rifles had a ‘California in the 50’s’ flare with high gloss finish and distinct stock lines. His quest to build the strongest rifle action ever produced would give rise to one of America's iconic rifles. This is 10 Minutes on Roy Weatherby and the Weatherby Mark V.

The Weatherby story is actually a fitting follow-up to our focus on Sporterized rifles last week, but we will get to that. The story begins with the opening of a sporting goods store in South Gate, California. Roy’s resignation from his ‘regular job’ was a result of his love for shooting and desire to own and operate a high-end sporting goods store. He took the plunge in September of 1945, opening Weatherby Sporting Goods.

The original store housed sporting goods, but had a section devoted to his love of firearms manufacturing. In the early days, Weatherby’s became known in Los Angeles for having a gunsmith on staff. This early claim to fame and Roy’s involvement in the industry helped the Weatherby name grow. You see, Roy had been experimenting with firearms and dove headfirst into the fray in the early days, writing articles about his feelings on high velocity cartridges. During a hunting trip Roy had wounded a deer and the experience forever changed the course of his life. He began developing cartridges that would move bullets faster, believing that faster moving bullets would increase the shock and killing power of the round.

Roy spent considerable resources building the firearms side of his business, including advertising on a National Scale, and slowly begin to grow. Early on barrel and stock manufacturing were part of the Weatherby business, upgrading rifles to shoot the wildcat rounds he was developing. The early years were not easy, but Roy’s tenacity and business acumen kept the company moving forward. Not to mention that their proximity to Hollywood would lend itself to Roy making friends with a who’s who list of celebrities, dignitaries, generals, and politicians. During the early years period, Weatherby was making custom rifles, (Sporterizing if you will) and like other gunmakers in the US, he was utilizing the actions that were available to him. During the first 10 years or so of Weatherby rifle production, guns were built on Winchester Model 70, Remington 700 and Springfield actions. Weatherby was buying barrels from Ackley and Buhmiller and assembling his guns in his store. When supplies of those actions dwindled, Weatherby turned to Fabrique National(FN) of Belgium to produce suitable rifle actions, which were imported to be finished by Weatherby employees.

Costs were tremendous because the process could not be streamlined, and Weatherby was a businessman. He began early on to look for a production facility that could produce a complete rifle at a reduced cost. During a 1954 trip to Europe, Roy searched at length for a manufacturer that could make his vision possible. He visited Husqvarna in Sweden, BSA in Birmingham, Shultz and Larsen in Denmark, and Sako in Finland. It was during this trip that he commissioned Sako to build a number of his FN-Weatherby rifles. In addition, Shultz and Larsen was commissioned to build a number of .378 Weatherby rifles, for which Roy had already taken orders.His next trip in 56 was met with disappointment, delays, and added costs that only served to push his pet project at home. Roy had been working on his own rifle action during this time. He was convinced that he needed an action that would be the absolute strongest possible. Roy and other wildcatters were hand loading and creating their own rounds, playing with pressures above what the standard rifles calibers of the day produced. Roy believed he needed a rifle that would far exceed the 70,000 CUP (copper units of pressure) that was accepted for other actions. It was during these years that he produced several iterations of his own rifle action. Roy reached out to a number of key people during this time, finally obtaining the help of an engineer, Fred Jennie, and subsequently produced the fifth and final iteration of his rifle. With a bit of naming help from his friend Elgin Gates, the gun was named the Mark V.

Early tests of the Mark V action proved out Roy’s theories. Though America doesn't have any standard proofing process, Weatherby conducted pressure tests in excess of 100,000 psi. Additionally, Weatherby lodged bullets in the bore of the rifle, and shot rounds down the barrels behind these stuck rounds. This is essentially the most dangerous scenario of backing up a round with another round. The Weatherby rifles passed all tests with flying colors.

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