5/30/12

Ok, Sunday morning I waited for Larry to call so we could go to the gun show.  While waiting, I made a sign advertising my Taurus PT29 for sale.  I never shoot the thing anymore, nor do I carry it, so it was kind of superfluous.  I met him at the Credit Onion and we headed into the show.  I had just enough cash to get in the event.  I fingered I'd take out $75.00 or so to eat lunch and maybe get a 30-round Saiga magazine or two.  While waiting inside the door for Larry to come from the bathroom, a dude asked to see my gun.  I was apparently asking too little because he bought it on the spot.  Woo hoo!  Now I was flush with cash.  We walked the first row and found our magazine guy.  He had four 30-round Saiga magazines for $34.95 each.  I bought them.  While Larry was looking at Saiga 12 gauge magazines, I picked out a set of Hogue grips for Monty and bought them.  We walked on looking at stuff and things and stuff.  I found a few more 30-round magazines at another booth for the same price but decided to wait until the next show before buying the last two I “needed.”  Eventually, on the last row, I found some for $29.95 each… and he had six.  Damnit!  We finished the show and went to Dairy Queen for lunch.  Back in the show, I took out the $75.00 I threatened to do earlier and bought the last two magazines I “needed.”  We walked back to look at some other things and I found a forward pistol grip with a covered cubby-hole in it I thought might work for the tactical 7.62x39.  I bought it as well.  We went back to the AK-47 guy and I “borrowed” an SKS cleaning rod which I thought might work on one or the other Saigas.  I say “borrowed” because he said I could bring it back or pay him at the next show if it either did or didn’t work for me.  Turns out, it didn’t, but that’s a story for later.  Eventually we had enough and left.  Larry dropped me off at the Credit Onion and I went home.  I loaded the three dummy 7.62x39 rounds into each of the new magazines and tried them out.  They seem to feed fine.  Next I tried the forward grip.  Yeah, it fouls the magazine and won't work.  I mounted it on the 12 gauge but didn’t really like it on there that much so I took it off again.  I figured out a way to mount a cleaning rod on both the tactical 7.62x39 and the 12 gauge Saigas but forewent trying to mount one on Woody.  I figure with the “hunting” rifle I won't be in a “bug out” situation where I'd need the cleaning kit and rod mounted to the weapon like I might with the tactical 7.62x39 or the 12 gauge.  Sort of thing.  On the 12 gauge, I just threaded the rod off to the side of the fore end grip between the grip and barrel.  With the tactical 7.62x39 I needed to drill into the fore end to make a path for the rod.  Of course the rods which came with the weapons were way too long to mount thusly.  I figured I'd cut them down on Monday at the shop.  I also figured I would try trimming the back end of the forward pistol grip I'd bought and see if it could be made to work on the tactical 7.62x39.  See, what I have now is the cleaning kit loaded into the pistol grip of the skeleton stock but it requires a screwdriver to access it.  If I could use the forward grip, it has a sliding door on the bottom to close off the cubby-hole.  Oh, I remember another thing I bought at the show: a castle-nut wrench for the 12 gauge’s AR style butt stock.  I had one before but it was really big.  I wanted one I could put in behind the rubber butt pad on the stock.  The one I bought I thought might do that.  It needed a trim.  It wouldn’t fit behind the pad as it was too long.  So, I had a plan for Monday at the shop but I also needed to see if I could fix the sprinkler system.  Oh right, I haven’t mentioned the sprinkler system.  See, Saturday morning when I was leaving for the shop, I saw one of our sprinkler heads shooting water straight up into the sky.  I blew it off thinking I'd tell mom about it when I got home.  Well, a neighbor called her and she turned the system off.  I said I'd take a look at it thinking that we’d just wind up calling to have it fixed if I couldn’t finger it out quickly.  But that is a story for tomorrow.  Sort of thing.