A New Blessing - Farm Update

 

We are pregnant! The Lord above (not the guy in the picture) has chosen to allow our 3rd embryo transfer to be successful which will be our second baby. We had tried at the end of 2025 but the embryo didn't take which was hard but we are very grateful this one did. We are grateful for all of them.

As for farm work, we are experimenting with poppies; not the drug kind. I would have sowed bread poppies for the seeds but but I'm pretty sure we can't actually grow that here because bread seed poppies and drug poppies are the same plant. I'm not trying to catch legal troubles just for wanting to grow poppy seeds for baking.

We picked up a cheap walk-behind tiller as finding a tractor tiller that isn't in the $1000+ is hard. Thankfully, we were able to till and sow before the last freeze and it's rained a few times since. They are in fact, growing.

Also, the pear and peach trees are blooming! I thought we had lost at least one of the peach trees but they are blooming. 

At the house, we rebuilt 2 raised beds and what I like to call the potato corral. We have a small variety of stuff planted along with a russet potato I hope gives us a few pounds. Asparagus is growing nicely along with beans and strawberries. There are a few other things growing.

The elderberry plants I put in 2 years ago are huge and likely going to be transplanted from the house to the farm as they are most likely going to cause issues.

Other things are coming up this year so I fully expect that I won't have much time for many projects. I do want to finish testing the batch of .357 Mag I made for the handgun hunting experiment from last year and getting the Marlin re-zeroed. I have a write up for the next phase of the Marlin CST. I also filed a Form 1 for a .22 LR rifle that I'm doing things with that was approved in 50-something days. I'm excited for that.

Finally, I have started a new job that has a different schedule so there will be an adjustment period in trying to balance everything out.

Pear trees

Peach Trees

Short Barrel Rifles and the New $0 Stamp - My Ruger American Rimfire is Getting SBRed Part 1

I think it's finally time to build an SBR or Short Barrel Rifle. For about 12 years, I've had a Ruger American Rimfire, or what I have referred to as the RAR, that has a 22 inch barrel. It mostly got used for bench shooting but got setup for small game hunting a few years ago. The barrel was threaded not long after and since then, nothing else happened. Then 2026 rolled in and the $0 stamps went into effect. 

I don't remember what restarted the bug I caught but I started looking up 10/22 SBRs again and integrally suppressed .22s. I saw some pretty nice 10/22s and even a CZ 457 but I remembered that I have the RAR. I don't want to register my 10/22 or the CZ 457 Scout as they have very functional setups and registering them adds complexity and cost to their specific use-cases. The RAR doesn't need iron sights added back and isn't intended for kid use. It's a perfect candidate for this project as it's inexpensive and in a good place for it. Admittedly, if the stamps had still been $200, I wouldn't have done this.

The plan simple: the RAR is getting registered as an SBR then chopped to 12 inches and threaded 1/2x28 to make a compact small game and varmint rifle.

The Plan

I would like to make good on my statements that the performance of a 22 LR with a shorter barrel isn't severely lost. In this case, I want a short rifle with a suppressor that could be quiet. As a result of the process, I will end up with a functional rifle that's much easier to carry around.

This chart from BBTI shows the velocity of the Remington 36 grain Golden Bullet load doesn't increase past 11 inches. The exception is the node at 13 inches with a slightly lower velocity.

Since the stamp is now $0, all I had to do is submit the Form 1 via the portal but after that, I still need to find a shop that can engrave the trust information on the receiver before you cut the barrel down then thread 1/2x28. Thankfully, Chad from Iraqveteran8888 has his own shop in Locus Grove, GA called Argos Ordinance that can handle the engraving requirements and the chop. At least that's the current process. 

As of April, a new ATF director has been sworn in and he is making a bunch of good changes. One of those Rule changes involves engraving and serial numbers. I would like to clarify if I will still need to engrave trust information. If no additional information needs to be engraved and I am able to use the existing markings then it saves time and money. It will take a while before the Rule goes into effect.

That works out fine for me as I am in no rush to complete this but also, it would save me $50 since that's Mr. Chad's cost for the service.

An ATF announcement can be found here  The Rule in question is under 17P. I haven't found the Proposed Rule on the Federal Register yet. I will post that once, available. Update: The posted Rule is RIN 1140-AA70 found here. It DOES remove the requirement to add additional markings to an already serialized firearm as in my case.

Linked from the ATF website.

Form 1 Approved

I followed the Form 1 process with Silencer Shop. They took a while to review my form, the certification process was completed quickly. I don't remember when I submitted the initial documents and image to Silencer Shop but it was right around SHOT Show 2026. I didn't hear anything until 02 FEB when I got the email that Silencer Shop had reviewed everything. Not long after, the Form 1 was ready for submitting. 

I had to go through a process to submit the form which I completed on my phone. The certification was a little clumsy but it went by quick enough. It probably only took about 15 minutes. 

Officially, the Form 1 was submitted to the ATF on 02 FEB around noon. There was a partial government shutdown at the time and I have no idea if the NFA stuff would have been impacted. I officially received the approved stamp on 30 MAR. That's 56 days per the Google search prompt.

The Silencer Shop process is simple and works well enough but the issue is they lock you into an ecosystem. You can submit Form 1's via the portal but you need the finger prints. To manually submit a e-form, you need to load a .eft file but Silencer Shop won't give you the one they have on file. 

There are services that will provide you with that file for you to upload.

Future

Once the Rule on markings is clarified, I will move forward. It takes around 90 days before a proposed Rule can go into effect. This works out fine since I'm not trying to put money into this at the moment.

There are a few changes that I would like to make to class-up this build. The first one that comes to mind is a Boyds wood stock. I very much want this to have a wood stock that's just pretty. Next, a lighter optic would be nice. The BSA Sweet 22 3-9x is a fine scope and all but it's chunky. I have a Simmons 2-7x sitting on a Marlin 60 that would be a good candidate but I was leaning toward Leupold's 2-7x as it's fairly light and could make for a good companion. Finally, I would like to dedicate a suppressor to the build like a Dead Air Mask or SiCo Sparrow. I do see that Silencer Shop has Resilient Suppressors' Jessie's Girl which is 3.1 oz and under $400. That could be a very nice add. I also found out about AAC Enterprise's new carbon fiber suppressor, the Pindrop XL. At $200, that would make for a great, dedicated suppressor. 

We shall see where this build goes!

Rock Island's Bolt Action 22 TCM is BACK but wasn't really gone

 If you aren't familiar with it, Rock Island Armory makes a bolt action rifle in a very obscure cartridge called .22 TCM. What makes the cartridge notable is that it's a .22 caliber projectile but in a bottlenecked case short enough to fit into a pistol magazine like the 1911. I won't go over performance metrics but it beats .22 Mag from a rifle by around 900 fps. That's not really the amazing part.

Many years ago, the smart guys at Special Interest Arms offered services to convert one of these rifles to 9mm Parabellum. By the time I had found out about them, I wasn't able to get them. It's partly why I wanted to get on the Rhineland Arms .45 ACP conversion kit for my Mauser 1893.

Anyway, the Armscor/RIA rifles are back. Sadly, SIA is gone and the supplies dried up in 2019 but someone could take up the mantle. That said, a good gunsmith should be able to figure it out.

If you're interested in a 9mm bolt action rifle for suppressed fun, make some noise because I would like to see the Novem return!

Henry's 2026 New Rimfire Releases

 At SHOT Show 2026, Henry teased a bunch of new SKUs for the classic lever action .22 rifle. In the email that went out, they have officially released 5 new versions. First, the naming/model conventions have changed for all models and the rimfire rifle is now the H1 instead of the H001. Of the 5 versions, two are in line with classic designs and 3 are suppressor ready models. All have wood stocks except 1 which uses X series type furniture.

First up are the Western and Western Frontier rifles. They are essentially the classic rifle versions but with a curved pistol grip stock instead of the straight wrist. The Frontier rifle maintains the longer barrel length at 20 inches and is still octagonal. The change in wrist design brings the rimfire offerings in line with the centerfire rifle stocks. 

The other 3 models are suppressor ready with picatinny mounts which are an X series rifle, the Bandit and the Sporter. The X series is the only one with open sights while the other two are optics only. They don't have open sights. All feature a pistol grip type stock but the Sporter and Bandit have a wood stock with a raised comb to bring the eyeline up for use with scopes or red dots. What separates the Sporter and Bandit are the length of pull. The Sporter is around 14 inch while the Bandit is 13 inch making it more of a youth rifle. The magazine tubes are pressed down a bit at the muzzle to make room for a suppressor up front if you were concerned about clearance.

They still aren't doing a wood stocked and threaded barrel version with open sights but you could swap furniture as desired. 

It needs to be said that we have finally entered a new norm where lever action .22 rifles are being offered with threaded barrels with Chiappa, Rossi and finally Henry offering realistic options. I still enjoy my Chiappa LA322 Takedown threaded though I wish I could get a wood stocked, threaded barrel with open sights. I will beat that horse until the day it finally happens. Maybe we can get Henry to offer a threaded version of the H1 Western Rifle. Still no news on the .22 Mag version of the Big Boy Revolver as mentioned in the manual.

Uberti is Teasing Bringing Back the Volcanic Pistol in 2027

 According to CapandBall on YouTube, Uberti is bringing back a Volcanic pistol that has been modified to shoot modern ammunition. If you can get through the Italian and Hungarian accents, they are talking about offering the pistol in .380 ACP while at the European Outdoor Show 2026. That's pretty cool!