Proudly Pinoy-made

If you are a gun enthusiast, i.e., a collector or a sports shooter, chances are you’ve heard of Armscor’s Rock Island Armory  which is based in the United States.  It is now a respected name among gun enthusiasts across the globe for its reliability in the manufacture of firearms and ammunition and, in fact, has landed on the cover of some of the most popular gun magazines in the United States.

Rock Island Armory was established by Martin Tuason, son of Bolo who successfully reigned over the mother company Armscor for decades until he passed the baton to son Martin just two or three years ago.

I maintain regular subscriptions to gun magazines, relishing my monthly rations as my bed time reading. Guns & Ammo is one of my bed time magazines and I was pleasantly surprised to read something that caught my eye.  The author wrote a comparative study of the performance of some ammo which he tested on the range, 26 of them actually, many of which I have never even heard of.  This just goes to show you that I am no expert in the field, just a plain enthusiast who is still eager to learn.

In the January 2017 edition of G & A, the author Tom Beckstrand meticulously tested some ammo brands, one of which is the load for the Armscor 22 long rifle which I am reprinting here verbatim:

“This ammunition is made in the Philippines, so I was pretty excited to test it. The American and European makers are well-known and come with a certain set of expectations, but this was my first brush with Philippine rimfire ammo, and I had no idea what to expect.

Results?  It printed great!  Accuracy was much better than expected, with groups hovering between .11 inch and .3 inch.  We were so shocked to see a 36-grain copper-plated hollow point group so well.

The chronograph wasn’t nearly as kind.  This load had the highest extreme spread of any round tested (62 fps) and a standard deviation of 23.2.  While the accuracy was surprisingly good, those small groups will likely only hold up at closer distances.”

The review, while stating some negatives as well, also came with a comparative chart with all 26 loads.The average velocity of the tested Armscor 36-gr lead JHP was a high 1,306, and of the 26 loads, only the Federal Champion 40-grain lead RN (1,309), the Winchester Super-X Superspeed 40-gr RN (1,307), the CCI Mini-Mag 40-gr Copper plated lead RN (1,350), the CCI Velociter 40-gr Copper Plated lead HP ((1,446) and the  CCI Copper-22 21-gr Copper/Polymer HP (1,827) were in the same league or bested Armscor. For best grouping (in inches), Armscor likewise registered an impressive .11 along with three others, bested only by the Wolf March 40-gr Lead RN with a best grouping of .07. 

Armscor had the best average grouping shared with three other loads and was bested only by two out of the 26. Some of the more recognizable (for us Filipinos at least) and well-respected brands in the chart included Winchester, Remington and Browning, but then again, the experts out there will be more familiar with the other makers.

That is pretty impressive for a Philippine-made ammunition, and with a young and bright Martin at the helm, there is much in store for this proudly Filipino brand which is slowly making a name in the global arms market that used to be dominated by European, American, Turkish and Israeli manufacturers. 

Kudos!!!

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My daughter gifted me with a turntable and a couple of vinyl records to go with it.  For this old deejay, it was a blast from a glorious past and it gave me immense pleasure. With a lot of help from a techie poker mate, Archt./Coach Rey Madrid, the turntable was set up in no time and now we have endless nostalgic music from my era during our weekly forays with the group over the round table.

Of course, the quality of the music is so much better now than back then when we as deejays were spinning stacks of them on a daily basis. How technology has managed to resurrect something from an all but forgotten era and improved tremendously on it is still beyond me, but I am sure many in my generation are enjoying this resurrection. I was also pleasantly surprised to come across this store which just opened its new branch at the UP Center. 

The roving staff of Business & Leisure’s news segment for leisure seekers, Lifestyle Chronicles (LC) chanced upon the Satchmi Store when they covered its opening for LC. The store sells turntables and scores of vinyl records, old films and working vintage cameras that go with them, all in excellent working condition. As the group behind Satchmi claims, “we are a group of meticulous curators” and they sell lifestyle items for old world enthusiasts. Interesting stuff indeed, and they have created their own niche and filled a need for collectors, music lovers and baby boomers like me. One can even enjoy coffee and grab a bite while browsing in the store.

Mabuhay!!!  Be proud to be a Filipino.

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