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Monday, September 26, 2005
Rama: The Sportsman
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage Five
FRIDAY, I learned that some good things do come in small packages.
It began with a message sent to my mobile phone by Royal Interarms’ Leila Pacardo that the pistol I ordered from them just about a month ago had arrived and was ready for pickup.
I had ordered that gun on pure impulse. A model had been on display at their showroom inside Borromeo Arcade along F. Ramos St., when a friend, who was out looking for a good 9mm, and I chanced by.
The Sportsman is an exact replica of the Colt Woodsman (1915-1977) pistol in .22 Long Rifle caliber.
Designated the m93, it is manufactured by the China North Industries Corp. (Norinco), a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that also manufactures, among a whole slew of other products, small arms noted for its low price and rugged dependability.
For the true-blue outdoorsman, the Woodsman is a gun that needs no introduction. It’s one of those guns that have the word legacy stamped on it. It’s one of those that get handed down from father to son as a right-of-passage of sorts and, for many, it is the gun that they first learned to shoot with.
I’ve been looking for one for years but none of those I know as owning one were willing to let go. A friend owns three and would soon take the vow of poverty rather than sell one.
Exuding the allure and touch of the original steel, the Sportsman became a must-have the moment I first laid eyes on it.
So I ordered one that same day, notwithstanding an office bonus that did not materialize, and paid for it in full, Friday, before taking home the little 8.5x11-inch cardboard box that it got packed in.
According to Royal Interarms’ records, the one I have is the first model sold in Cebu.
DEBUT. The first Woodsman appeared in the US on May 1915 as the Colt Caliber 22 Target Model. The name Woodsman was added only in 1927. It came in three variants.
The First Series, produced between 1914 and 1947, introduced the design that featured a square front sight and a magazine release notch at the butt of the grip.
The Second Series, produced between 1947 and 1955, featured a ramp front sight, a magazine safety, and a 1911-type magazine release button near the trigger guard.
The Third Series, produced between 1955 and 1977, meanwhile featured a larger trigger guard. Colt moved the magazine release back to the butt of the grip and did away with the magazine safety.
Each series, the noted Woodsman collector Robert Rayburn reports, had a Sport Model with a 4.5-inch round barrel, a Target Model with a six or 6.5-inch round barrel, and a Match Target Model with a heavy, flat sided barrel six inches long.
The first series also came in three variants and each is recognizable chiefly because of the profile of the barrel.
First was the pencil barrel, so called because its shoulder steps down from .500 inch just beyond the receiver to .475 inch at the muzzle. It was produced from 1915 to 1922.
Then came the medium barrel variants, made between 1922 and 1934, and so called because the step-down and the taper is less.
Then appeared the straight taper barrel, built between 1934 and 1947, so called because of the absence of a step-down and the taper limited to .600 inches at the receiver to .525 inches at the muzzle.
LIKENESS. The Sportsman features a 4.6-inch barrel with six grooves and a right-hand twist. It has an overall length of 8.6 inches and weights 26.1 ounces, handgun-only and is based on the Colt Woodsman First Series Sports Model.
The gun’s accompanying documentation states that although First Series Woodsman did not have a magazine safety, Norinco placed one on the Sportsman for user benefit.
Norinco took pains to preserve the Woodsman look from the ramped front sight to the wind adjustable rear sight. The barrel tapers to dimensions similar to the original model and the shoulders were meld in the very same way. The bluing of the steel is also exact.
Even the serrations on the slide and the grooved trigger and the checkered plastic grips (original First Series Sport Woodsman models used grips leftover from military-contract pistols) were duplicated to add to the thrill of the shooting.
RANGE TEST. I brought the Woodsman to the Kamagong Gun Club Firing Range, located inside the AFP Central Command Headquarters in Lahug, Cebu City, immediately after picking it up at the gun store just to assuage an itch.
It performed flawlessly despite having been shot bone-dry from the gun box that Norinco took pains to copy from the original Colt Woodsman carton.
Fed with Armscor standard velocity .22 LR, the gun made three-inch groups at 15 yards when shot free style.
Yesterday, the gun accompanied me to the Front Sight Gun Club Firing Range, in Tubod, Minglanilla, for some more plinking.
With all-steel .22s now going the way of the dinosaur in an age were plastic polymer is king, the Colt Woodsman is a treasure piece.
Thanks to Norinco, we may all share the experience of shooting a marvelously designed pistol for the years to come.
(knrama@sunstar.com.ph)
(September 26, 2005 issue)
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