5/17/10

Woo hoo! That was a decent weekend. Saturday morning, after giving up on hearing from John, I agreed to go with mom to Granbury for the Indian Harbor Volunteer Fire Department Fish Fry at the club house of my sister’s “gated community,” Indian Harbor. I was told to bring my shotgun because the Hood County Boys and Girls Club Skeet Shoot, which was scheduled for Friday, had been rescheduled. I loaded the Saiga and all the plastic shelled birdshot shells I had, as well as the two magazines full of Golden Bear buckshot shells, into the car thinking, “There’s no way they are going to let me shoot this.” We ate at the fish fry and then headed out to the field where the skeet shoot was set up. There were just a hand full of us shooting so they went ahead and let me use the Saiga. Of course they were all agog about the thing, as Juan would expect. I loaded up a mag of birdshot and stepped up to the line. “Pull!” I yelled and proceeded to completely miss the hell out of the clay. We all laughed and I tried again. This time I did a follow up shot when the first missed. Yeah, the second missed as well. I did like the way the thing shot though. It is quite fun. I did manage to hit a few clays as the day progressed, impressing me more than anyone else I have to believe. I let a few of them try it out and they seemed to like it. No one could understand the purpose of it, and all I could say was, “Look at it!” Everyone shrugged and agreed that it was pretty awesome looking. Eventually I ran out of birdshot shells and decided to try out a few Golden Bear buckshots. No luck. The first round fired fine but the second, consistently, “stove piped.” I messed with the gas port and tried again. Nope, same thing. I put it away and decided I was through for the day until one of the guys handed me his 12 gauge. I got the hang of it and blew up a few clays. Me rikee rots. When everyone was done, we packed up and headed back to town. I noticed that my arms and legs were “blistered” all over where last week’s sunburn had been. I figured out later, after being hot yet not sweaty at the shop out of the sun, that they were not blisters but sweat “water ballooning” under the yet-to-peel skin of the sunburn. Yes, equally gross but much less worrisome on my part. As we were unloading the gear at the B&G Club, I spoke to my sister and brother-in-law about some other guns. Turns out, my sister had saved our grandfather’s FN Herstal Browning 12 gauge and the 7mm Mauser rifle when dad died. They were “giving” them to me. OK, there is some contention on the shotgun, but I think I can claim the hell out of the 7mm. I took them both home with me. After doing a little research on the interwebs, I think the 7mm is a Sporterized Spanish military rifle dating from before 1898. The “Monte Carlo” stock is definitely not 100 years old, but the action could well be. Apparently, it was very common to convert, or “sporterize,” old surplus military rifles and sell them as hunting guns back in the fifties and sixties. I'd place the stock in the mid to late fifties range of age. The reason I think the action is pre-1898 is that there was an upgrade made that year which my gun doesn't appear to have. I could be dead wrong though. So, with that gun in hand, I don't think I'm going to be buying a Druganov after all. I'm definitely not buying a Mosin Nagant! I have a bid on a cheap scope and some stripper-clips for it on e-Bay right now. Oh, during the “sporterization,” scope mounts were added as well. Sunday I promised Nadine I'd come to the shop and have a look at her. I farted around the house until mom got home from church and then we went to Red Hot & Blue for barbecue. After that I took a quick nap then headed to the shop. I picked up all the big pieces of trash from the cockpit and began to run the vacuum. You know how people say, “I vacuumed a bunch of crap out of my car...”? Well, I literally was vacuuming up crap. There were cat sized turds in there. Not like the size cats leave behind, TURDS THE SIZE OF CATS!!!!!! OK, not really. But they were the size cats drop. In fact, that is probably exactly what they were. Anyhoo, with the driver’s floor and seat frame cleaned up, I could see that the seat was, in fact, on slider rails. Of course the shell is so rusty that it has to go. I did find a significant rust hole behind the driver’s seat as well. I moved on to the passenger side after dumping the shop vac. That floor was in a little better shape, both turd-wise and rust-wise. The car looks a whole lot better now. I moved on to the under-bonnet area and sucked out the rat’s nest there. That looks a lot better as well. I'm not looking forward to swapping out wiring harnesses, but it has to be done. When I was satisfied that I'd done enough work on Nadine, I took a look at the DCOE and header for Lil' Wiggly. Yeah, now that I've seen what I have, an L-18 engine swap is looking better. I cleaned up and left. From the shop I went to Blood Bath & Beyond to see if they had any 7x57 ammo for the Mauser. They did! I bought a box of twenty, twenty more rounds of 2.5” 000 buckshot (for the Judge), twenty five rounds of what I thought were 3” #4 birdshot (for the Saiga), and five rounds of 3” ¼ oz slug rounds. I was going to reload the Saiga’s mags with the 3” shells so it would be usable for home defense again, you see. Oh, when I found out the Saiga doesn't like the Golden Bear ammo, I reloaded the Mossberg pump with five round of that and shuffled the gun case so it is right in front. Until I buy a 3” chambered Judge, the Golden Bear will be my Mossberg ammo, I guess. Back at the house, I tried out loading the 7x57 ammo in the Mauser. Fits like a glove. It was then that I discovered I'd bought the 2.5” birdshot shells instead of 3”. I'll go back and trade them for the right sized ammo, if they’ll take it. Hmm, hadn't thought of that. I might be stuck with it. Poop. OK, so I'll just go buy the right stuff and hang on to the 2.5” birdshot for the hell of it. Well, that brings y'all up to speed. I gotta go pee so I think I'm going to call it a rant. Toodles.