A Nurse with a Gun

Friday, November 10, 2006

Pawn Shop Circuit: Brownings and Lorcins

I went by Dave's pawn shop after work. Dave had a nice selection, including a Browning Auto 22 on his rifle rack. I looked over the little Browning, and remembered the first time I ever held one. The Browning bottom chucking rimfire rifle looks kind of funny, but it feels fantastic. Dave was wanting $249 for his, and it was in great shape. I thought about it, then decided to hand it back to him. It had a Tasco scope on it, and someone had removed the rear sight to mount the cheapo scope. I decided to stick with my Ruger 10/22s. I may end up regretting handing that rifle back. Dave also had a Llama .45 and a Wesson .44 magnum with a scope on it. Neither handgun really interested me.

At Kenny's shop I found a couple of junk guns, both priced under $100. Kenny didn't have anything else. He said the Jennings and Lorcins tend to sell pretty quickly. I asked him how much he loans on them. He replied 10-20 dollars. Just enough to buy a rock. Interesting. I have occasionally pondered buying one of these cheap guns just to learn about them. Then again, I might just buy a spritz bottle of Tabasco sauce and squirt my eyeballs.

I left Kenny's and drove over to Neil's place. Neil had nothing new, so I paid another Franklin and a half on my nickel Commander. I guess that's what I should have done to start with.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

As for lorcins and other guns of dubious quality, there is a new forum for them and I haven't seen no one reporting seeing them blowing up into someone's face yet :) And many of them report those guns as suiting their purpose :)

http://bryco-jennings-jimenezarms.com/forum/index.php

herrmannek

6:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Xav,

I bought a Jennings J-22 earlier this year ostensibly to save it from an ignominious smelting at the hands of the Boston gun buy-back program {spit}.

I've taken it to the range twice so far. Both times I've been pleasantly surprised. It won't strip the very last round out of either magazine, but with CCI Mini-Mag ammo it's quite reliable and even fairly accurate (minute of breadbasket at least).

For a last-ditch, better-than-a-pointed-stick gun, one could do worse...

10:16 PM  
Blogger Dr. StrangeGun said...

The ring of fire guns don't "blow up". that's the realm of the old WG alloy revolvers.

What they *do*, is what they don't do... feed, fire, extract, etc.

It's mostly quality control issues, at that, though you'll run into design issues several hundred rounds in (springs breaking, frame battering, edge and surface peening, galling, etc.)

8:27 AM  
Blogger Porta's Cat said...

I had a Davis .380 that gave perfect service for many years til I screwed it up out of my own lack of cranial attention.

It wasn't something you would want to get into a gunfight with (low cap in .380), but it was plenty reliable enough to get you from the door, through the parking lot, and to your truck.

5:54 PM  

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