6/26/12

So yesterday I alluded to being dumb on Sunday.  Well, I was.  Here’s the tale.  I texted Gregg at about 0830 h to see if he were still planning to meet me and Larry at the credit onion to go with us to the gun show.  I got ready and waited to hear from Larry and/or Gregg.  When mom left for church I made a sign offering up my Beretta CX-4 Storm carbine for sale and listed all of the bits included with it which made my $700.00 asking price reasonable.  When Larry called I sent Gregg one more text saying I was leaving for the credit onion.  When I arrived I read his reply that he’d have to pass.  I'm kind of glad too since it is like herding cats when there are more than two people in the group at the gun show.  But I digress.  We got in the show, after I had the gun tied off by the cops at the door, and walked the first half.  We started on the “Craft” side rather than the “Gun” side.  If you haven’t been to a gun show in a while… feh, I'm not going to try and ‘splain it.  Anyhoo, the reason starting on the “Craft” side is important to the tale is to say that I got no takers on the gun in the first half of the room.  When we made it to the middle row, we discussed lunch.  We decided on Benito’s.  There we had Queso Flameado and our usual entrees.  I managed to limit myself to one taco and wasn’t miserable when we left.  Larry?  Not so much.  He had two enchiladas and WAS miserable.  Tee hee.  We got back to the show and I decided I wasn’t going to tote the Beretta on the sling this time.  I carried the whole shebang in its case with the sign hanging out the end.  This time we started at the “Gun” end rather than continuing on at the center row.  I had a few looky-loos ask about the gun but no offers.  Well, one guy offered me $550.00 for it and I probably should have taken it then and there since that WAS my bottom dollar number.  We kept walking.  Eventually we found an SKS with the aftermarket Dragunov stock, exactly how I would set up an SKS, for sale.  I asked about it and he asked about my gun.  Turns out the SKS belonged to his cousin and he tried calling him.  When he didn’t get an answer we walked on.  A few rows later, the cousin caught up to me and we went back.  We haggled and I wound up bending over and taking a lower deal than I probably should have.  But I now have an SKS already set up the way I want it… sort of.  I'll ‘splain that later.  We took the gun to the truck and locked it up then shopped some more.  When we had walked all the rows, we went back to look at some stuff which had caught our eyes.  I passed on the leather holster for the Mare’s Leg because it was stained red rather than brown like I want.  I did buy an automatic gas regulator and two ten-round drum magazines for the Saiga 12, some 7.62x39 ammo from my reloader guy, and… hmm, what else?  Oh right!  “The Boomstick!”  Ok, so at one of the tables earlier in the show, I noticed tucked away in the corner a little 29” long, 18” barrel, break open, single shot 12 gauge.  I asked about it and was told, “Make me an offer.”  Larry and I discussed it and it was his opinion that I shouldn’t offer more than $50.00 for it.  We walked away for a bit.  After buying all the other stuff I “needed,” I went back to look at it again.  The guy I had been talking to wasn’t there buy another guy said, “Ninety five bucks.”  I looked at Larry and he frowned disapproval.  I pulled out a hunski and handed it over.  He gave me a fiver back and we shook on the deal.  Now I have a little Boomstick too.  When the show was over we went back to the credit onion where I hopped in Fiona and went home.  There I disassembled the SKS, cleaned and inspected it.  The rifling looks good and I think it is going to be an acceptable gun.  I loaded the dummy rounds in a stripper clip and tried it out.  It works.  I loaded some actual 7.62x39 ammo in a stripper clip and tried it out.  It takes some work but it does actually feed ten rounds into the internal magazine in one clikedy-clack push.  T’is very cool.  After unloading and messing with the SKS a little more, I picked up the Boomstick.  I looked everywhere on it for a serial number.  There isn’t one.  After doing a little research on them intergooglewebs, I found out it is a Winchester Model 37.  They were made from 1936 to 1963 and NONE of them have serial numbers.  When I told Larry that he reassessed his opinion and feels the gun is definitely worth more than the Benjamin I paid for it.  While “playing with” it I loaded a dummy round in to see if I could hear the firing pin strike the tingy (it goes “TING” when hit by the pin) faux primer.  It did.  When I opened the action, the extractor spit the shell out over my shoulder and across the room!  Me rikee rots!  I put everything away in the gun cabinet, after rearranging some stuff, and goofed off the rest of the evening.  I said I would ‘splain why the SKS is sort of set up the way I want it… but I'll save that for tomorrow.