7/16/10

Well, Blood Bath & Beyond does not do FFL transfers any more. They did have a Saiga 7.62x39 carbine (16” barrel) though. It was $369.99 which surprised the sales dude when he handed it to me. I told him about Mississippi Auto Arms sale, $299.00 for the same gun, and he said, “Oh, never mind then.” I went on to say that with shipping and the tactical butt stock and stuff, more on that in a bit, it came out a little more actually. And that is before the FFL transfer fee. So I shopped a little more, I found the scope mount thingy for considerably less than Mississippi Auto Arms had it, and then left. From BB&B I went to Panther City Firearms over by mom’s church because I'd seen a .308 caliber Saiga there before. They did not have a 7.62x39 Saiga in stock but could get me one. Their best price was... well, less than BB&B but still more than MAA’s sale price. It was however still less than MAA’s price with the collapsible butt stock and 30 round magazine. Then there is shipping and the FFL fee. Oh, they would do an FFL transfer for me for $40.00 though. So, I can get the gun with all the tactical stuff from MAA for about what it would cost to just buy one locally and add the tactical junk. I think I'm leaning towards buying local. I think I'll call Panther City in a little while and see what she needs to order one for me. OK, so here’s the poop on the tactical stuff. It is illegal to “assemble” an “assault weapon” (a fabricated term to lump all “scary” guns into a controllable group) with more than a certain number of foreign parts and fewer than another number of US made parts. The Saiga gets around that by having the Monte Carlo stock and no more than ten round (five for shotguns) capacity in their magazines. A pistol grip stock and/or higher capacity magazine turns it into an “Assault Weapon.” Turns out I had an illegal gun when I put those fifteen round mags in my .410! Fortunately, by adding the US made collapsible butt stock and pistol grip I'm over the mandated quantity of US made parts. So, in order to use higher capacity magazines in the 7.62x39 Saiga, I'll also have to buy the collapsible stock and pistol grip kit. Aw, shucks. Of course I think I'll probably run with the Monte Carlo stock and 10 round magazines for a while, especially if I'm considering this my “deer rifle.” Yes, there are much better hunting rifles. Yes, I probably should be thinking along those lines instead of another Saiga. Yes, there are lots of arguments against this gun. But I keep coming back to the fact that, except for .22 LR, 7.62x39 ammo is the cheapest there is. OK, I just called Panther City. Alls I gots to do is come in and pay for it then they’ll order it. If I get there early enough today, they can get it by Tuesday. Crap, my instant gratification gene is kicking me and saying, “But if you waltz into Blood Bath & Beyond, you can walk out with one today.” Crap crap crapity crap crap! I really wanted to support the little guy. “Sigh” I guess... I don't know... It is a conundrum. I think I need to cipher and figger on this some more. I'll let y'all know on Monday how it all turned out.