Billed at introduction as "the ideal weapon for geologists, pilots, hunters, and home protection," the forgotten J&R M68 is a seriously interesting early pistol-caliber carbine.
According to company lore, California go-kart maker Ray Wilkinson came up with the idea for the blow-back-action 9mm and took it to his neighbor, Bob "Tanker Garand" Penney of Alpine/National Ordnance fame, and the rest was history.
The M68 and its side-charging polymer-stocked M80 brother had a big impact on pop culture in their time. Elvis had one blinged out with his customary TCB lightning bolt and a gold "EP" that he passed on to a favorite karate coach. A J&R 9mm carbine made a cameo in a bizarre Cincinnati TV station takeover. The distinctive carbines appeared on the big screen in the hands of Roy Scheider and Rudy Ray "Dolemite" Moore, as well as on the small screen with Jack Lord and James MacArthur.
In the end, it was gun control that put a crimp in the small business that was J&R.
As detailed by Wilkinson Arms, which still makes the descendants of the J&R guns today:
Orders for the carbine were instantly strong, and J&R knew they had developed a good product. At this time, mail orders for firearms were legal, and this constituted the bulk of the sales. These orders were killed with the advent of the Gun Control Act of 1968. Not long after, J&R ceased operations. The remaining parts were assembled into carbines and sold under the name PJK by Bob and his son Jim. In addition to the M-68, the M-80 had been developed, which moved the charging handle from the top to the left side.
Ray Wilkinson believed in his carbine and felt there was a market for it. He went back to the drawing board to resolve a few issues present, namely with extraction and took the opportunity to also update the hammer, feed ramp, receiver, barrel, and other parts.
The new carbine would be named Terry after Ray's daughter. Later, a pistol version would be produced and named Linda. In addition to these two models, Wilkinson would also produce Diane, a .25 ACP pistol, and Sherry, a .22 LR pistol.
As for those M68s and M80s still floating around, Wilkinson sells parts to keep them going, as does Numrich. We found our sample from the "Mad Men" era to be reliable and easy-recoiling in a short round of range testing, showing the concept still holds up.
