Gunner Quinn
Mechanical Philosophy
When I was a newly minted Army aviator, we needed a new car. We actually needed a minivan or a four-door sedan, something sensible getting decent gas mileage and would hold us in good stead should God bless us with little ones. Screw that. What I got was a brand new 5.0-liter Mustang GT.
That thing got ghastly mileage and was actually faster than some of the combat aircraft I flew at the time. It didn’t have a great deal of cargo space and the back seat was designed for legless amputees. However, it was loud, and it was fast. That souped-up Mustang was the ultimate Army Aviation lieutenant-mobile.
In addition to the obligatory power seats and tricked-out interior, I needed to choose a transmission. While automotive technology had long since advanced to the point where an automatic transmission could be considered perfected, I nonetheless coveted a manual stick. This would make the car tougher to manage at a stoplight on an incline, but it offered a more visceral connection to the machine. The argument could be made all proper sports cars deserve a stick shift. When it comes to sexy, high-performance vehicles, it’s really the only way to drive.
On a certain primal level, the Hammerli Force B1 .22 Straight Pull Rifle resonates similarly. Ruger will sell you a simply spanking Ruger 10/22 that is the end result of half a century’s worth of mechanical refinement. The 10/22 is sleek, lightweight and fun. However, as the mechanical objective requires taking a certain amount of recoil energy and using it to cycle the action, there will always be a potential for failure. By contrast, the Hammerli Force B1 .22 Straight Pull Rifle is pure 100% human muscle.
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