The Boresight Tapes

No less an authority than General George S. Patton call the M-1 Garand  “the finest battlefield implement ever devised.”  American factories produced over six million of them and American GIs and Marines used them to win the Second World War.  They came out of the Springfield Armory.  So … not bad for government work.

 It was carried by the Doughboys in France.  Back home, after the war, it was converted into a sporting rifle. It was chambered for the 30-06 for which, in this case, the word “iconic” is justified.

What do J. Edgar Hoover, Winston Churchill, John Dillinger, and Sean Connery have in common?  They were all photographed holding a Thompson sub-machine gun, aka “the Chicago typewriter.”  

Over a century ago, John Moses Browning designed an auto-loader and a slide-action (aka “pump”) shotgun, the descendants of which are still with us today.  Remington has made over 11 million of its Minodel 870.  And it sometimes seems like a million of them made it to the movies.  For the unmistakable “snick–snick” sound, of course.

Some Americans made double guns that could be had from Montgomery Ward for less than twenty dollars.  And, then, there were Parkers and other American doubles that were elegant and expensive.   And then, there was a Winchester double that you could use to "jack up the barn in the morning and then shoot ducks with it all afternoon.  Is this a great country, or what?

The English – to include Henry VIII – were first with shotguns.  They created a culture around "bespoke guns," and the great shooting parties, and they still make some of the finest doubles in the world.  But be warned.  They ain't cheap.

This week we are joined by Anthony Imperato to discuss the Henry Rifle and the Henry Company. 

The U.S. Army adopted this John Moses Browning design just in time for World War I. It remained in service until 1985 and some in the American military may have shed a secret tear for “old Sabsides” when it was replaced by the Beretta M9 in 1985.

Without this gun, the American Revolution might have turned out differently. The colonists could make them and they could shoot them. Accurately and at ranges that seemed impossible at the time. And there may never have been a more aesthetically beautiful firearm.