Colt Trooper III Range Report

I have been looking for a quality full size double action .22 caliber revolver for some time. My mind has been set on a K-22, but at a recent gun show, I found a Colt Trooper III in .22 Long Rifle. For $365, I could not resist it. The Colt Trooper III is a finely polished, well fitted piece of ordnance. There is nothing second rate about it. The Trooper III also came in .22 magnum and .357 magnum. My particular gun is a blued example with a four inch barrel. It sports an Eliason adjustable rear sight, and a pinned ramp on the front of a matte black sight rib. This revolver is heavy. It is every bit a .357 magnum gun chambered for .22 LR. Nothing has been done to lighten it up. Everything has been done to retain the Colt level of quality. The blue finish is luscious. The cylinder closes with a thunk and locks up like a pit bull with tetanus.

I took the revolver to the range with a 550 count box of Federal ammo. Cheap Wal-Mart stuff, but not as cheap as Remington Golden whatever in the green bulk pack. I shot the revolver until twilight started to fall, and suddenly realized I had to take a photo with targets. The Trooper III is a pleasure to shoot in .22 LR. Recoil is negligible. The trigger pull was excellent, a little heavy for my taste, but consistent throughout the stroke. There was no perceptible stacking. The revolver was accurate. I could not do this gun justice. Perhaps with some trigger time I can live up to it's potential.

After approximately 19-20 cylinders full of ammo, I began to experience a sticky trigger, and finally a malfunction. The gun locked up. I diagnosed the problem as a tight cylinder gap, and theorized the dirty .22 ammo soot build up was causing the problem. Wiping the front of the cylinder off with an oily patch confirmed this, as the gun was instantly back to normal for another 100-150 rounds. I later measured the cylinder gap and found it to be .002 inches. I might have to open that up just a bit to resolve the issue for good.

This gun was a good buy. Being able to shoot a beautiful, heavy full sized revolver for a penny a shot is fantastic. Did the Trooper disolve my desire to find a K-22? No, like an appetizer, it only whetted the desire for more.

Trooper III Report on GunBlast

Colt Army Special Range Report

Back on January 9, 2006, I was in Bossier City hitting pawn shops, and I happened into Clark's Gun and Safety. There, I found this Colt Army Special for a mere $275. I had considered a Colt Army Special previously at a pawn shop, but it was priced at $299 and not in near as good condition. I let that one slip past me, and it bothered me that I had. Thus, when this Army Special popped up at Clark's in much better shape, for less money, I jumped all over it. However, the Colt wheelgun fell second fiddle to another pistol I found, and I have been remiss in taking it to the range.

Today, I made up for my remission. The way you check a Colt's lock-up is to drop the hammer and continue holding the trigger back. Then you try to turn the cylinder. This gun's lock-up was tighter than Tammy Faye Baker at a biker party. The fixed sights were very easy to pick up. I think this Colt might have a tad wider notch for a rear sight than a Smith does. The workmanship on the Colt was superb. A handbuilt handgun like this would sell for $2000+ on today's market. I shot 130 grain Winchester White Box (the Super Match box is just a prop). Shooting double action, the Colt's trigger was smooth as greased glass, with a hint of stacking at the end. The revolver handled easily. It had no failures in 200 rounds fired. The pictured target is my best at 30 feet, single action. This gun is accurate, so accurate that I have no excuse with it. Judging from the wear and the rifling, it probably now has twice as many rounds through it as it previously had. The wear on this revolver is all shelf wear. This hand fitted Colt, made in 1917, was $275 very well spent.

Whitney Wolverine Range Report

When I first saw a picture of one, it became my Holy Grail Gun. As Modern as Tomorrow it was billed. Sadly, when tomorrow came in 1957, the Whitney Wolverine disappeared. It was on the retail shelves for a scant one year. Only 14,000 were manufactured. Still, this little aluminum pistol captured the imaginations of so many people it could not be forgotten.

Designed by engineer Robert Hillberg, the .22 rimfire Wolverine pistol was cast from aluminum with a sandwiched steel tube holding the barrel and breech block. It's futuristic styling put it right in the same league as Buck Rogers' blaster. The Whitney Wolverine went into production in 1956 and was an immediate hit with customers. It's radical 'space age' design was ergonomic to the hand, and pointed naturally for most shooters. It was endorsed as "The most reliable, best shooting, best pointing little .22 pistol ever handled" by none other than Rex Applegate.

Wolverine was the pistol's original name, but this had to be changed, due to a trademark infringement with another company. Later pistols were stamped with the name "Whitney Autoloader". The Whitney Wolverine pistol then went out of production because of distribution problems. To make matters worse a rival pistol was introduced, selling for just a few dollars less than the Wolverine (remember 1956 dollars....not 2006 dollars). How do you spell Ruger? The Whitney Wolverine's fate was sealed. Robert Hillberg eventually went on to work for High Standard, and the Whitney company was sold to avoid bankruptcy.

Recently, two companies, Olympic Arms and Samson Manufacturing have attempted to revive the Wolverine. Like all great designs it just refuses to die. The Olympic Arms Whitney Wolverine is built with a high-strength polymer frame and entered production in 2004. It is priced at $279.50. The Samson Wolverine will be manufactured from original Whitney molds and dies. These will be aluminum framed. Samson is in possession of a huge inventory of original parts from the 50's. The Samson pistols will have consecutive serial numbers starting form the last 1957 production model. As soon as the ATF red tape clears, Samson production will begin.

Still, I wanted an original pistol, not a reproduction. I have seen the Wolverine on Gunbroker and Auction Arms with bids in the $500 range. For that money, the Wolverine seemed doomed to remain my Holy grail gun, a quest that I would never acomplish. Then, on a visit to Clark Custom of all places, I found my Wolverine. Because I could buy a reproduction for $300, I set my limit at that mark for an original. Jim Clark sold me my Art Deco plinker for $295 out the door.

Once home, I disassembled the pistol to inspect and lube it prior to shooting. It looked easy enough, just unscrew this dealie on the muzzle, pull the innards out, and hell.......what was that little bastard that just dropped out, bounced across my crotch and hid under the table. Olympic Arms has a manual online. God bless them. It was the barrel key that popped out. I have a disassembly box for this kind of thing........I should have used it. After a bit of looking around with a magnet, I found the key. Never again....... I got everything back together, but could not get the trigger to drop the hammer. It was maddening. I looked at the online schematic again, trying to isolate the problem. I could find nothing missing, nothing wrong. Crap. I screwed the pooch. I inserted the magazine, intending to put the pistol away. Wait a minute.......I squeezed the trigger. The hammer dropped. It had a magazine disconnect safety. I said a Hail Mary, and stuffed the pistol in my bag for the following afternoon.

I took the Wolverine to the range with a box of Federal bulk pack ammo after work today. I immediately found there is a trick to loading the magazine. You have to hold your tongue just right. A .22 round slips neatly into a hole in the follower to lower it and assist with loading. If you get a round reversed in the magazine though, you are screwed for a while.

The Wolverine thumb safety operates opposite of the 1911's function. To engage the safety, you thumb the lever down. To release the safety, you thumb it up. Or, if you are like me, you ignore the safety and just shoot the pistol. This is not a gun I would carry around loaded.

The Whitney Wolverine is an incredibly fast shooter. It has a slight muzzle flip, but it comes back to sights before you can pull the trigger again. It was a very nice gun to shoot. The rear sight is a thin spring affair. The sights were set dead on. The trigger was light and consistent. It had no creep, and very little take-up. I am not sure if a Wolverine can be dry fired safely. I am guessing it cannot be. The pistol had no feeding extraction or ejection issues. It did, however, develop a light strike problem after 100 rounds or so. I began getting a light strike or two with every magazine. I was not certain if it was gun or ammo, so I saved the lightly struck rounds, loaded them into my Woodsman and fired every one of them. I suppose my next job will be tearing down the Wolverine's bolt to clean up the firing pin.

The Whitney Wolverine was adequately accurate. The real pleasure was just in shooting it though. This pistol is not a target gun, but it is one of the most enjoyable plinkers I have fired. Compared to a 37 ounce Ruger MKII, the total 23 ounces the Wolverine weighs is noticeably lighter. The lighter weight should make for a less controllable pistol. The ergonomics of the Whitney prevent that however. The Whitney is one of the easiest to shoot pistols I have ever fired. It is difficult NOT to hit what you point it at. It is also fun to dump a magazine of ammo down range. With the Wolverine, it is difficult to slow down, take deliberate aim and squeeze off a single shot with precise aim. The pistol can do it if needed, it's just that the shooter will likely not want to. This pistol is designed to exterminate rampaging tin cans with multiple shots fired in rapid sucession.

Parts for this gun might be hard to come by. Numrich still has magazines for $39.40, but that is all. Samson Manufacturing is supposed to have a huge quantity of original parts, but whether they will give parts support is uncertain. The Whitney Wolverine is also C&R eligible.

Tonight, I will rectify the light strike problem. I plan to look over the manual this time!

Marlin 99M1 Range Report

The Marlin Model 99M1 is a short carbine with the same tubular magazine and action as the Marlin 99 and 99U. The main difference is the 99M1 has a wooden hand guard and an 18-inch barrel to make it look more like a US military M1 Carbine. Marlin introduced the 99M1 in 1964, in hopes that the resemblance to the US M1 carbine would appeal to the thousands of WW II veterans who had trained with and carried into combat the larger caliber US M1. The 99M1 was a success and over 160,000 were sold before production was discontinued in 1978.

I acquired my Marlin 99M1 from a pawnshop. It had a $79 price tag, but I traded another .22 rifle for it. I spent an hour or so that night disassembling it, and cleaning years of grey gloop out of the action. The only redeeming value of that gloop is it may have helped hone the action. That night, I noted that Simpson Ltd. was selling a Marlin 99M1 for $250. If mine shot, I got a deal.

When disassembling a Marlin 60 or 99 action, the trigger group itself should never be taken apart unless it contains a broken part. Probably due to it's era of manufacture, my 99M1 had screws holding the trigger group in place instead of plastic pins. I cleaned everything with Gumout carburetor cleaner (I had it handy and it works) lubricated it with Breakfree a bit, inspected it, and reassembled everything.

I took my Marlin 99M1 to the range for a first shoot today. It came from the pawnshop with a Simmons 3-9X40 scope. The furniture of the upper handguard had to be massaged a little to accept this objective, but the job was very well done, almost imperceptible. The scope mounted on a rail molded into the Marlin reciever. If I like the rifle, I might smooth things out to accept a Weaver style rail.

The first nice surprise about the 99M1 was the trigger. I was expecing the mushy creepy trigger of a Model 60, but this one was better. It had some creep, but not nearly as much mush. I have to wonder if the plastic pins holding the Model 60 trigger group versus the metal screws holding this 99M1's trigger group makes the difference in feel.

The Marlin is accurate. I expected that. At 25 yards on sandbags, it shot half inch to 3/4 inch groups consistently, with cheap Federal bulk pack ammo. My 99M1 lost it's iron sights sometime in it's past. Numrich has the front sight for $17. I understand the rear peep sight assembly is next to impossible to find. I suppose my rifle will always have a scope.

I did have several failures to eject, one every 50 or so rounds. As I continued to shoot, the problem exacerbated. That is unacceptable in my opinion. I will tear the rifle down again to see if I can diagnose the cause. The inner magazine tube wanted to stick while sliding it back into the outer tube after loading. I will address that issue as well.

Overall, I am very happy with this little shooter. It is very accurate for a .22 rifle with a stock chamber. Once the ejection issues are cleared up, I am certain it will become one of my favorite shooters. Maybe I can find a proper WWII era sling at the upcoming gunshow.