Showing posts with label Gimme some guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gimme some guns. Show all posts

Aug 25, 2013

Achtung! Part Two

The Luger was a vast disappointment, ground and polished. Still someone, neither of us, decided it was worth about $800.The others:



P-38 (AC44 code) 9MM-Nazi proofed

Rough wartime product, honest and not badly used. $400.


P-38 BYF/44 Code 9MM Nazi proofed

A  Mauser gun,  a little nicer than the Walther above, $450


DWM LUGER-7.65MM Nazi Commercial  Eagle proofed

(sob) 



Mauser Broomhandle MDL.1896 .7.63 (circa 1931)

Personally urinated upon by Himmler and left out in the weather for several years.. $900.



Mauser Broomhandle MDL..1896 -7.63 (circa 1928) 

Only a little worse than the other one. $600.



Achtung!

We're off to Rembrandt this Sunday morning to commune with others lusting for WW2-ish Teutonic blastenscheutzens.

Five of them, to be exact.


P-38 (AC44 code) 9MM-Nazi proofed
P-38 BYF/44 Code 9MM Nazi proofed
DWM LUGER-7.65MM Nazi Commercial  Eagle proofed
Mauser Broomhandle MDL.1896 .7.63 (circa 1931)
Mauser Broomhandle MDL..1896 -7.63 (circa 1928)


My partner in crime wants to bring home the Luger.

Probably because  Mom used to read "The Ugly Duckling" to me,  I've always always had a soft spot for P-38s. I suspect the prices will be prohibitive, but we'll see.

Lots of other shooty stuff being sold, most of it boring. I'll try to record and post hammer prices of the better items.




Aug 4, 2013

Open Carry

Being an After-Action Report on the Sioux City loophole where, uncharacteristically, I open carried.
















I carried it in a wrong holster, a fine old piece of Bianchi basket-stamped leather built for and home to a Ruger RST4. The pony barrel  stuck out a couple of inches, and the high sight made drawing a two-handed comedy. I was no candidate for a Badass-of-the-Show award.

It was the only handy sheath that came close to accommodating the Colt. I used it because we planned to be there for a couple of hours, and I needed both hands free to coon-finger vendor guns while seeking what I really wanted.

(Maybe I was also dreaming of tangible sympathy, the kindness of stangers.  Some Christian soul would notice the empty magazine well, empathize with my anguish, and offer me one for a song, of which I have two available,  Kumbayah and Wabash Cannon Ball.)  

Finding a proper 1st Series Match Target clipazine was the objective. Finding one that would simply work was the fallback aim.  Any of you who have performed the drill (Hey, you gotta magazine to fit my old {name-that-gun}?)  know it's crucial to have the gun at hand. The vendor's word, even if he's dead honest and dead sure, is not to be taken literally.

The Colt search was fruitless, but I nodded reverently toward the final resting place of John M. Browning for his decision to make the same bullet holder fit both High Standard HDs and his pre-war Colts. A hobby dealer had one and one-half of them.  Mister Complete fed eight fast ones faultlessly upon testing last evening. Miss Half needs a follower -- already roughed out from a scrap of steel -- and a spring.

Back to the open-carry theme. Unless I'm in the field it always make me feel a little silly,  as though I'm trying to announce that my junk is more impressive than yours.

But not as silly as one portly young fellow should have felt as he strode the aisles with camo leg holster, leather combatish shooting vest, and a tactical quick-open stabber clipped to a pocket of his black cargo pants.  The empty holster marred the image. We figured he had spent all his money on tactical accessories and was still saving up for an actual pistol.






Jul 29, 2013

The Hayseed Gun Market: Yep, another country auction

I didn't go for the firearms; nothing there I cared to own.  My goal was to steal* a power washer. I failed.

Nevertheless, I stuck around and recorded hammer prices for those of you keeping track.

--Thunder Hawk black powder rifle (straight line; plastic stock) $60

--Another one $75

--Hawes SA .22/.22mag, vg/exc $240

--Browning Buck Mark .22  as NIB  $400

--Ruger 77, .308 Winchester - laminated wood stock, as new, $440

--Howa 1500  .270 Winchester, fancy laminated stock, cheap scope, as new $525

--Ruger GP 100, .357, scope, as new, $610

--Ruger Super BH, .44 mag., stainless, straight optical scope.  as new, $700

--Another one, identical but with magic battery driven Buck Rogers scope, $700

Two 26.5 mm flare pistols (ComBlock? Didn't look closely) @$100

---

I did leave a very few dollars with the clerk, biting on four nice new chairs for the commandant's conference table. The old ones were becoming matted with chocolate lab hair beyond the capacity of any vacuum cleaner. The new ones are, OEM,  in a better color, about like chocolate lab hair. Besides they're slightly smaller and on better casters and lend my headquarters a gracile, elegant, air,  not to mention smelling much less like a wet chocolate lab.

---

*Since Eric Holder reads my stuff, looking for a way to jail me, by "steal" I mean "get it cheaply."  It's like, y'know, Eric, a figure of speech.


May 31, 2013

Dutch gun porn alert

If you're passing through northwest Iowa Sunday and have a few hours to spare, you can swing by Rembrandt for a largish gun auction.

I won't be there because I consider the auctioneer a jerk.  Besides, there's nothing on the bill that interests me. I note the event simply for the record.

The burg is, in fact, full of Dutch people, but it's not named for the painter. That honor belongs to the two Rembrandt brothers, early settlers who perfected the art of creating copper wire while fighting over a penny.

It's also quite a righteous place where preachers still rail against their  lascivious countryman.























May 24, 2013

May 21, 2013

The hayseed gun market

No theme ran through the small collection auctioned off in a little Iowa town last night. Just an assortment owned by a fellow who, in a casual way,  liked guns. This is what the crowd decided weapons are worth:



--Mossberg 16 ga. bolt action, okay condition .... $110

--Carcano 38 (7.35 cal.) heavily bubbaed .... $110

--Spanish copy of Browning "vest pocket"  .25ACP  rough, no mag. .... $90

--Rossi .38 Spc. revolver (Pythonish) as NIB -- $200

--First series Colt Match Target  .22  (1940 mfg.) VG-Exc but no mag .... $530 (!)*

--Star Elbar, SS Colt Commander copy, VG ....  $375

--Spectra HC 9mm semi-auto, as NIB with several hi-cap mags ... $725**

--Winchester 101ish Pigeon Grade XTR (12 ga OU)  in presentation case .... $725

-0-

*Only a fool would have left without owning her at that price.

**An assaultish looking pistoloid which I've seen, if ever, only fired sideways in movin' picture shows about ninjas still subject to acne attacks










May 19, 2013

Otherwise at the gun show:

This was a middlin'-size loophole, somewhere around a couple hundred tables. At the usual busiest time, mid-day Saturday, traffic was brisk but not jammed to the extent we've been seeing since November. You could get to the tables and coon finger the stuff. Observations:

--I've rarely seen so much U.S. military webbing and other field gear from the WW2/Korea era. The market hasn't  decided on values.  For instance, similar  .45 magazine pouches carried askings from $10 to $25.  One entrenching tool was offered at $15, a near twin at $50. And so forth.

--Everyday M1 Carbines seem to have settled to an arguing range centered on $800. (I saw only Inlands.)

--Plenty of 5.56x45 (.223 McNamara Stalemate) was on the tables at $.80-$-1 per round. Heavier popular rifle calibers were at $1 and higher.

--Components continued scarce and expensive. I saw no powder. Primers were tagged at $5 and $6 per hundred. I did see what I considered a bargain by recent standards, .223MS brass polished, sized, and primed at 20 cents.

--Everyone wanted .22LR. Only a little offered, but I saw nothing sell at the prevailing asks of  $60 to $90.

--The dealers I know well enough to chat with reported gun sales slow to non-existent.





May 18, 2013

Is there a .govbot in the house?

Three patriots understood that one can not make America a better place to live by hanging around a tea party. Even personal debt reduction must yield to to the need for action now.

Thus they sortied to a loophole, that is, a gun show, at 0804 this date, all in search of enhanced firepower. One of them was particularly enthusiastic about bringing a battlefield weapon to the mean streets of Smugleye-on-Lake.





Designed in part to resist enemy assaults, the (semi) automatic rifle with quick-change detachable bullet clips, was also intended to permit American freedom fighters, both professional and militia, to participate in  assaults.




This one came from a federally licensed dealer, so the armed American exploited  the gun show loophole by providing identification, a state permit in lieu of an NICS check, and filling out what has become a four-page form 4473.

---

She's been rebarrelled (sharp, shiny rifling) but otherwise appears about original. The condition is somewhere near the high end of average, and I expect her to shoot rather well for a dowager born on the high river bluff of Springfield in March, 1943.

Even if she doesn't, I'm glad she's here, especially for a bride price well below the usual 1,000 FRC asking.

I did remark to a loophole companion that the M1 was not especially fun to shoot and that I never found it handy.

 "So why did you buy it?"

Because an American should own a Garand.

.


'

Apr 20, 2013

The Fun Resumes, or Loopholing in Lutfiskia

It's Worthington again this weekend, one of those small country shows I enjoy.

The only urgent want is a No. 4 shell holder for the Lee Auto Prime, but I'll be in Condition Red for primers and powder. Given our experience at loopholes since the election, I am not optimistic.

I'm still looking for an interesting piece to shoot all that .38 Special cluttering up the place. The snubbie in residence will set it off, but since when is any Taurus interesting?  Again, not cheery, and here we enter the realm of legality against the recent  (if DOA) congressional discussion of allowing interstate sales of handguns, at least to  concealed-carry holders.

As you know, Mr. FFL can sell you an assaulty looking rifle with a zillion-bullet clip anywhere you travel. But he is forbidden to transfer an Old Model Ruger Black Hawk to you unless you reside in his state.  (Capacity five bullets plus $20 buryin' money rolled in the chamber under the hammer.)  Your CCW makes no difference.

The practical effect of that is that buying one at Worthington would create two felons, me and the dealer,  whereas if the show happened just 11 miles south, a foot over the state line, we would instead be a pair of exemplary citizens.

It would be nice to kill that illogicality, but in the current climate I doubt it will even go kof-kof for attention.

In fact, post-Boston, I don't see how we can avoid another defensive stand on at least a couple of fronts. Congressthings will find teevee time and perhaps votes by demanding trackers in in our IMR 3031. They'll also covet background checks and registration every time we need a fresh pound of Unique.

In an evil way I'm looking forward to the first drive to take black powder off the market. Someone like Senator Feinstein will announce that if we ban it there will be no more. That should give one of us a chance to work up the shortest riposte of the year: Bat shit.  




Apr 15, 2013

Tip-up porn

I'd have to be more careful with shot placement if I ever had to use one in a serious minx-up, but this little Beretta has always given me a mildly serious case of want. I couldn't begin to articulate why, maybe just an unhealthy fixation on oddballs.



















I think it was Matt Helm who once found himself in one of those interminable arguments about "What caliber for (whatever)?" He brushed it off with, "You can kill an elephant with a .22 Short if you're willing to wait for the poor thing to bleed to death." Only metaphorically true, of course, but it makes a point.

Mar 23, 2013

Saturday Suckage: Remington 31 Surgery?

It would be elective because:






Not  all that bad. She is what it is, used, moderately well cared for over most of her 65 years, tight and working fine. However:


This can be explained. The owner wanted a selection of chokes. This Lyman add-on was popular in the 1940s when this 31 left Ilion.
This defies logic and even a pretty good imaginative stab. Dropped on a spinning stone? An angle grinder gone postal? Pure malice? 


So, despite her classic status, her collectiblity is long gone, victim of  accessorizing mutilation and some unspeakable workshop atrocity. 

 Does she go on the rack as simply a spare for a hunter who arrives empty-handed? No, not necessary. She would be about a fourth spare, and I don't know that many people likely to come for shooting and forget to bring a gun. (Ammo-free visitation is quite another matter.)

Take her to another loophole and try again to get  something like 150 Federal Reserve Cartoons?  It didn't work last weekend. In fact, I don't think anyone even fondled her. Economics: She commanded a bride price  of either $85 or $60, depending on how my CPA decides to allocate the $25 profit from a J.C. Higgins bolt action 12 gauge which accompanied her. So I'm not in over my financial head on this one, The decision is aesthetic, not monetary.

A makeover is possible. Chop her down to the legal limit, smear some JB on the gouge, smooth everything out with files and emery, then bring her to tactical glory with some of that nice black spray 'n' bake stuff from Brownells.

I suppose that would be okay. At least she'd look acceptably tactical if I decided to pose in my GI combat pants, M1951 field jacket, and the beret, if I can find it. I could put it on the internet and be cool.

But it seems like a cruel fate for a dowager who, however time-ravaged, still retains the grace of, errr, well, say, Princess Grace in her time. 

Sometimes a guy just doesn't know what the Hell to do.

.



  










Mar 13, 2013

Reloading side bar; on self-induced gun lust

I don't know if William Strunk deemed  throwaway lines bad writing, but I do know they can be expensive if you treat them stupidly. Some  silly thing pops into your head. Okay. Write it down, hope someone smiles, then forget it.

Do not ponder what your fingers typed, especially some idiocy about a hole in your arsenal. Excuse me. Veritable arsenal.

It's true. I own no non-assaulty rifle in .223 Remington. Therefore, when using real guns,  I'm limited to launching fast projectiles only in diameters of .244, .257, .264, and .308.

Suddenly, my soul is troubled.

Tales from the reloading shack

I finally said to Hell with it. The Catholics could probably pick a new Pope without my counsel, so I switched off the idiotic cable channels and hit the reloading room.

Turns out I was right about the Pope, of course. A Pope from the Pampas. First Jesuit ever, and I suspect that will be interesting. I had a great grad school buddy, a Jesuit priest who -- true to type -- liked to fool around with Aristotelian logic, a discipline overdue for renewed respect here in the image-mad 21st Century, and I -- as a backslid Methodist --  can find no reason whatsoever why my Catholic friends should not lead us out of the of darkness of reasoning via sound bites and photo ops.

But I digress. Worse, I intrude on arcane and complex theological matters, a field best left to such experts such as Tammy Faye, Jerry Wright,  and Jimmy Swaggert.

---

It  began as a .30-06 afternoon for no better reason that these noble dies were in the press. Production was just one box, 20 rounds, carrying a 125-grain SP,  Sierras (I think) at a book speed of just under 3,000. It's a little heavy for gophers, somewhat under powered for woolly mammoths, but usable for either. (Obligatorily: "If I do my part.")

Besides, it's fun to reload, hefty enough for a big-handed guy to handle without tweezers and pretty forgiving from any reasonable safety stand point.

But not that forgiving, and I took a spiritual break during the process to thank Whomever that I am such a frightened old woman when in the vicinity of high combustibles. The partial green box of bullets was plainly marked 125 grain SP. Something doesn't feel quite right. So weigh one. 150 grains. Weigh them all. 150 grains each. Recall that I buy a lot of components at auctions and loophole shows, and some sellers are just not trustworthy. Dig out the actual 125 grainers and proceed as planned, then on to the real chore that's been nagging at my conscience.

A few hundred unprocessed 5.56x45 mm cases (also known as the .223 McNamara Stalemate)  have been kicking around the shack since about 2006. It isn't that there's a shortage of ready rounds at hand. It's more like a spiritual obligation. Any empty cartridge case calls to Heaven. "I feel so empty. Help me, please. So lonely. Prime me. Fulfill me."

Compassionate to even the most inadequate, I yielded to the little devils. I yielded for quite a while, enough to get about half of them ready for primers. Then even my patience ran out. Perhaps tomorrow.

But seriously, folks, I have nothing other than my assaultish looking rifle in which to shoot these things, and I do understand that they can be supremely accurate in an actual gun. If I organize those facts into a rationale for buying yet another bolt-action rifle, I do so hope you will be understanding.





Mar 11, 2013

School non-shootings

I like to think of the big school in Wells, Minnesota, as the best disciplined one in the country. For at least one day a year it is as thousands of gun freaks crowd the halls. Probably the rest of the year, too. Politeness is contagious.

We made our annual pilgrimage Saturday and came home happy even if not significantly more lethal -- except for our youngest loopholer, 10. He loopholed a tactical sharp thing. It has so many "features" I refuse to honor it with the term "knife," but it made him smile and that's the general idea.

I settled for about 300 pages of hilarity, an excellent hardback copy of the 1960 "Professional Guides Manual" by Minnesota's own George L. Herter.

(Sample: "If a bull moose will not give you a good sidewise look and you have to judge his rack from the front, look carefully at his ears. If his ears are real long, you can be sure he has a trophy rack.")

Plus an almost unused 1950-ish powder measure and stand, also from Mr. Herter. I've set it up and it  works as expected.  How could a measure weighing something like 20 pounds be less than perfect?

---

Next week is our little local loophole. Y'all come.  I'll be the guy with the interesting useless crap on his table, waving Federal Reserve Cartoons, begging you to sell me something made of steel and walnut.

Mar 3, 2013

Brother Can You Spare $28,999?

Plus S and H. Plus NFA fees.

What red-blooded American boy can endure life without a Colt 1928/21 Thompson submachine gun as used by the United States Navy?

Why, I remember when MM1/C Homan and I carried them on missions off the San Pablo and threw terror into the hearts of Yangtze River bandits and warlords alike.

I'd have to spend more time in the loading shack, but I can live with that.

---
Link fixed


Feb 9, 2013

Another loophole, another snow...

(Sorry about the title. I'm still a sucker for old show tunes.)

We have a wimpy blizzard in the forecast, but the Sioux Falls loophole is still on.  We think we can be back hearthside before the weather starts this evening. If not we'll just have to trot our our northern plains survival skills, shelter in a MacDonald's or something.

The get list is skimpy. Recent loopholes have my gun lust in reasonable check, so the only planned search is for some appropriate  .30-06 rifle powder and a couple of shell holders for my neighbor, the fresh-hatched reloader.

Naturally, I'll be alert for good deals on components for my stash, but I don't expect much. The buying panic has enveloped that supply too.

To take some .22s along or not? Last weekend I sold two boxes of Winchester Wildcats for $6 each. I got the equivalent of about $70 for a Federal 550 pack on the Speedmaster purchase. I pulled the rest,  mostly because something just felt wrong about taking that much profit.  And maybe  because the the buyers might have a better guess about the return of the bullet than I do.

AAR to follow, assuming our survival.

Feb 4, 2013

Loophole report in, mostly, .22 LR

Scads. Hordes. Gobs. That's a former reporter's finely-honed estimate of the Saturday morning crowd size at the 80-table loophole over in Estherville. You could imagine yourself at Phoenix or Las Vegas, trying to (politely) elbow your way to the tables.

We talked with a number of people who probably never would have acted on a vague urge to "get a gun someday" were it not for the antics of Feinstein, Biden, Schumer,  &  Obama, Inc. I wonder if those clowns really know what they have done?

The psychology may be quite simple. Tell an American citizen he can't do some perfectly innocuous thing and he will grin and do it -- if only to remind the government,  "Who the Hell is in charge around here, anyway?"

We didn't notice much traffic in assaultish-looking rifles Only a few  were there, and they met resistance at the $2,000-plus askings.

But my oh my was it a different story with the Glocks and other hi-cap 9mms made of coal tar and Gorilla Glue. They moved out as fast as dealers could fill out 4473s and call NICS. (Note to Diane: These forms and the calls are how we evade the law and loophole most of our guns.) 

At our three tables, we had no truck with the 21st Century.  Two were resplendent  with the work of Genius Jeff, the gunsmith, who displayed an assortment of Lazarused Marlin lever guns, Winchester .22 pumps, and, especially, Stevens single rifles. 

The third, mine, was resplendent with what the unkind might call junk, leftover (or never wanted in the first place) shooty stuff and other items for field and stream jocks. I often set up that way because (a) it generates interesting conversations and (b) it nearly always yields enough small-denomination Federal Reserve Cartoons to finance some pleasant acquisitions. To wit:



















The long drink of water is a hi-cap (16 rounds or  more) Remington Speedmaster, probably from the 60s. Didn't need it, but for an amazingly small amount of FRC "money" and a brick of .22s, I couldn't resist something so pretty.

Miss Short is, of course, a Browning Challenger, Belgian, an early piece but I don't know how early yet. Those waggish gnomes of Herstal like to get together, slurp pilsner to excess, and giggle at one another. "Hey! I'm bored. Let's make our serial numbering system even more obscure."

She joined my arsenal for a very modest dowry, but I'm afraid I stretched a sacred rule: "It is a mortal  sin to sell a gun."  I confess to  venal error. The Colt New Police  (.38 Colt /.38 SW) lives elsewhere. I rationalized the trade  --  I could shoot the Colt only by reloading for yet another caliber. Balderdash! Too many diameters already. The Browning will be shot and shot and shot.  I've coveted one for years.

Hmmm. Lots of .22s moved here lately. At least I'm ready for a gopher apocalypse.




Feb 2, 2013

Saturday Wish List

I don't think I'm a compulsive wisher, but sometimes I do get a yen for stuff.

--Like being the first guy at the garage sale to spot the old wood box containing a couple of disassembled GI Colt 1911s and most of an artillery Luger for about five bucks.

--Like having three or four fools linger at my loophole table this weekend -- guys who think that my stratospheric asking prices are really quite fair. And who, of course, are packing enough high-quality trading material to back their judgement. 

-- Like having the damned Super Bowl over. Also the post-game analyses and the extended video of the winner's homie thugs getting drunk, puking, and tipping over cars when the teevee lights go on.





Jan 21, 2013

Lifting hair at the gun shows

A mega-gun show happened in Phoenix this weekend, and my friend John of the GMA attended, noting prices with a glazed amazement.

John can reduce complexity to its essentials -- make six words worth 10,000 pictures.

"Somebody needs to get a grip."

.