5/8/12

So I was going to tell y'all the tale of the gun show.  And I will, right after I finish this sentence.  Sunday morning I slept in.  I wound up feeding the cat at 0600 h instead of 0530 h.  She’s none the worse for wear.  I've had two people ask if she’s pregnant.  I probably otter quit spoiling her so much.  But I digress.  I piddle around on them intergoogles until Larry calls to say he’s ready to go.  Oh, I had disassembled the Neos pistol the night before and reassembled it with the “worst” action, the 4” barrel and one of the pistol grips.  Both appeared identical so it was a tossup as to which one I was going to keep.  I packed the now 4” pistol in the blue Beretta case and set it aside for the gun show.  Ok, while I'm on this rabbit-track, I'll go ahead and tell y'all a little more about what I did with the 6” Neos barrel.  I had an “extra” red-dot sight lying around so I installed it on there.  I then disassembled the carbine and assembled the 6” pistol to have a look-see.  I think I'll like it.  I reassembled the carbine and put all of that away in the gun cabinet.  So, back to Sunday, once Larry called I headed out to meet him.  I took my time but still beat him to the credit onion.  We took off in his truck for the show.  Once inside, I made a sign for the gun I was selling and we took off down the rows.  The first table interested in my gun already had two and didn’t want another.  The second table looked up the value and told me my price, $225.00, was 100% value and they couldn’t give that much.  I asked what they would give and was told $150.00.  I was already tired of carrying it and my price was just pulled from my ass anyway, I took the money.  So now I'm flush with cash, to the tune of $430.00 or so.  It was time to shop.  Yes, I know I'm dumb.  Within a few rows, I saw a 7.62x39 Saiga rifle for $375.00.  I made a note of it and we moved on.  All the other Saiga 7.62x39 rifles we saw were in the $450.00 range.  There was a .308 Saiga rifle, the other caliber I was considering as a “hunting” Saiga, but it was over $500.00 I believe.  I decided I didn’t need to a) spend THAT much money and 2) get into another caliber.  I passed on it and kept the $375.00 guy in mind.  After we walked half the show, ate some “meh” barbecue, and walked the last half of the show, I went back to the $375.00 7.62x39 Saiga.  On the way I had second thoughts.  Once there looking at it, I had third thoughts.  I walked away.  Then I thought, “That isn’t a bad price.  You’re never going to find one at that price again.  You have that wood furniture for it to turn it into a ‘hunting’ Saiga.  What ELSE are you going to waste that money on?”  I went back.  I bought it.  I immediately had buyer’s remorse.  While walking away with it, I kept berating myself for being such an idiot.  Larry bought some ammo while I went to the AK-47 guy we always see and bought a Tapco trigger group and Kreb’s Custom retainer plate for the gun.  I don’t need the trigger group for 922r compliance because I'm not going to have a pistol grip or muzzle device on the gun.  The only “non-sporting” device I COULD use on there are the thirty round magazines.  Ok, I guess it is time to discuss 922r compliance.  To paraphrase the law, “It is unlawful to manufacture a weapon, which is unsuitable for sporting purposes, with more than ten foreign made parts.”  Ok, so what does that mean?  Well, they are allowed to import the Saigas as hunting rifles because they don’t have the three “Evil Assault Weapon” features; those features being, a muzzle device (flash hider or muzzle brake sort of thing), pistol grip, and “high capacity” magazines.  Any one of those things added to a Saiga makes it “unsporting” and therefore subject to the law.  To get around… er, I mean to comply with the law, Juan must “manufacture” a weapon with sufficient US made parts, or more accurately, fewer than ten foreign made parts.  There is a list of seventeen parts to choose from.  They are: receiver, barrel, front trunnion, rear trunnion, muzzle device, bolt, bolt carrier, gas piston, trigger, hammer, disconnector, butt stock, forearm, pistol grip, magazine body, magazine follower, and magazine floor plate.  A Saiga rifle doesn’t have a rear trunnion, muzzle device, or pistol grip leaving Juan with only fourteen parts to play with.  Swapping the trigger group USUALLY means replacing three parts: trigger, hammer, and disconnector.  I'll be using the factory remote trigger to actuate the replacement part which usually counts as a trigger, so I'm only calling it two parts on my Saiga.  It’s confusing and a grey area so I'm going to lean to the safe side.  I'm not sure where the wood furniture, butt stock and forearm in my case, were made so I'm going to consider it foreign to be safe.  So, as my gun sits, I have up to fourteen foreign parts but NO “Evil Assault Weapon” bits.  I'm legal.  When I do the trigger job, I'll have up to twelve foreign parts and still NO “EAW” parts.  I'll still be legal.  Fortunately, a magazine counts as three parts so the ONLY “EAW” part I have for either of my guns, being US made, gets me under the parts count limit!  That was why I said “up to…” back there.  Without a magazine, my new gun now has eleven foreign parts but will only have nine once I do the trigger job.  By the way, my “old” Saiga has the trigger group replaced as well as the gas piston, butt stock and forearm; it’s sitting at six foreign parts without a magazine and only nine with a foreign magazine.  It also doesn’t technically have a pistol grip.  The butt stock is, technically, a “thumbhole stock” and therefore NOT an “EAW” part.  I'm not going to argue it with the BATFE since the gun is legal either way though.  So, to make a short story long, I sold two .22s and bought another 7.62x39.  So much for cutting down the collection.  Oh well, what are you going to do?