Builders,
My neighbor Ryan called and simply said “It is here.” There was 15 minutes of daylight left, and we went out to my backyard range to experience an American masterpiece, a Freedom Arms Model 83, chambered for the mighty .454 Casull cartridge.
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Freedom Arms is company from Freedom Wyoming, and they make some of the finest revolvers in the world. The finish, fit and function on the 83 is unreal. I have been around firearms my whole life, and have not put my hands on better. The cylinder gap is less than .002″. For people who pathologically believe that everything imported, including their Prius, is ‘better’ than American made products, this is 3 pounds of evidence they are delusional.
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The accuracy and handing on it showed themselves right away. The fact this isn’t a target gun and it has more power than most rifles made its quality that much more impressive. I asked Ryan what he spent, and with a smile he said “I just went by the two months salary rule, because if you are really in love…”
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While it is a valid consideration that buying an American made firearm is an ethically superior decision to sending thousands of dollars to the DeBeers family so they can dig compressed carbon out of the ground in Africa with labor being paid slightly above slave wages, we can examine that at another time. My aviation connection is simple: We are surrounded by incredibly high quality mechanical products made right here by our fellow countrymen, and this includes a wide variety of aviation products, including good old Corvairs.
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Besides, ask anyone who spent two months salary buying a diamond for someone they are no longer married to, if they would have rather purchased a Model 83, and I suspect the answer would be near unanimous.
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Wewjr.
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Shooting the 454 is a real treat. I like a revolver that can push you back a step when fired.
I have gone to other end of “Made in America”! My pocket carry is the Provo, UT made, tiny North American Arms 5-shot revolver in 22 WMR. In a pocket holster this thing is never noticed. Hard to hit anything more than 10′ away from the 1-1/8″ barrel , but up close the 22 WMR carries a lot of punch, and the *extreme* report will scare anyone!
Andy
Andy, Your pocket pistol is also a Dick Casull design, Freedom Arms made them and later sold the design to North American. They are of the same DNA.
A really high pressure round this. After reading about the .454 in G&A ages ago i tried his load of compressed Bullseye/Unique/2400 in 45 Colt cases. Was nice shooting for a while until one round took off the top of my custom 5-shot cylinder. And the top strap on the reworked Super Blackhawk. Too soft cases which proves again that all components must match!