By Jerry Ahern, Photos By Sharon AhernNot very long ago, my son-in-law, Danny Akers,
and I worked together on transforming an ordinaryblued Ruger 10/22 into a slick-looking practical look-alike for an assault rifle using the Archangel (promag-industries.com) ARS Advanced Rimfire System stockreplacement kit. For looks, iteven comes with a bayonet (aplastic one, for display only).Bayonet aside, the kit gives the10/22 a totally different lookand actually adds some versatil-ity the 10/22, as originally con-figured, did not have.
The 10/22 is one of Ameri-ca’s favorite rimfire sporters, ofcourse, and has been fordecades and likely will remainso for years and years tocome. It’s one of those riflesthat has become an Americanclassic. The Archangel ARSconsists of a forend extension,forend with upper and lowerPicatinny Rails, receiver topstrap, new magazine releasecatch, pistol grip receiver case(which nests the actual 10/22receiver) and six positionretractable buttstock. Thisretractable buttstock allowsthe weapon to be fired with perfect comfort how-ever the collapsible stock might be set.
Iron sights can be installed – the Ruger’s frontsight must be removed from the barrel – or you canmount optics.
Danny and I undertook the project and complet-ed it over the course of about three hours, workingat a leisurely pace. A deluxe version of the kitincludes AR-15 style flip sights from Pro-Mag. Thesego on and off relatively easily. We added a largecapacity magazine we already had. With the bluedrifle and the black furniture and high-cap magazine,the rifle had a great look to it.
Over the course of several weeks, Danny and Iboth had opportunities to fire the Archangel ARSmodified 10/22. After Danny did a little tweakinghere and there following his first shooting sessions,accuracy at a wide variety of distances was as goodas the rifle had performed before the conversion –quite satisfactory – and functioning with several dif-ferent available .22 Long Rifle rounds, some ofthese rather on the old side, was flawless.
The bayonet thing? I don’t know. But, theArchangel ARS Advanced Rimfire System conver-
sion for the Ruger 10/22 just made a great little riflethat much more versatile.
Sometimes an idea, a basic concept, even onethat has been around for a comparatively long time,can be looked at from a different perspective, ofcourse, resulting in something totally new. Such is
the case with the Benchmade(benchmade.com) Model 51Bali-Song, a different kind ofButterfly knife from the peoplewho built their initial reputa-tion for uncompromising qual-ity on their original Bali-Songsdecades ago.
In our series TheSurvivalist, “Natalia,” thebeautiful Russian agent withthe heart of gold, used a Wee-hawk Blade Bali-Song. Thesame knife was used by “JoshCulhane” in The Takers. Theknife in question – it’s actuallymine – has a blade Les andRoberta deAsis offered thatwas actually made by the lateJody Sampson, the legendarycustom knife maker who cre-ated the sword used by ArnoldSchwarzenegger as “Conan.”
This new Bali-Song fromBenchmade is quite a bit dif-
ferent looking, but the differences are more thanlooks. The Model 51 Bali-Song has a spring latch.With a typical Bali-Song, you pop the latch andthe inertia given to it by your thumb or the tip ofyour third finger (depending on the type of open-ing you wish to do) flips the latch clear of thehandles. With the Model 51, the latch is actuallyspring loaded. Once it is pushed out of the lock-ing notch, it flips away on its own. The handlehalves are G10 with blue anodized Titaniuminserts. The blade style is described as a “crownmodified spear point” which is as good a name asany for a single-edge knife with beveling on theupper portion of the blade and the upper portionof the point. The blade material is D2 tool steeland the hardness is 60 to 62 on the Rockwell CScale. Blade length is 4-1/4”, while thickness is1/10”. Weight is a barely noticeable 3.3 ounces.A blue anodized titanium pocket clip correctlypositioned on the leading handle half is standard.This is a lightweight and extremely pleasant tooperate version of this classic knife which, so thestory goes, was brought to the Philippines by anAmerican seaman well over a century ago, adopt-
20 Ahern Under the Gun: Archangel ARS, Benchmade Bali-Song, Blackhawk Base-Layer
Above: The Archangel ARS modification of the Ruger 10/22 showing the collapsiblestock, the rail on the upper portion of thereceiver along with the sights, the barrel
shroud and the rear sight. Below: In this sequence, (1) Ahern preparesto pop the latch with the third finger of his
hand, pops it (2) and starts to perform a verybasic opening sequence (3-6). By the time (8) is in frame, Ahern is closing the knife,
securing the latch in (10) and holding the knife in (11).
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
June 10 Blue Press Section 1 4/13/10 7:39 AM Page 20
