10/1/2012

I can't finger out how to start today.  I guess we’ll go with that.  Well, the weekend was somewhat productive.  Friday afternoon I got a call that there is a problem in the Heritage conference room in the TOB.  I said I'd take a look at it but the room was in use until 1700 h.  I went over and was told to just look at it Monday morning.  I shrugged and took off to get the trailer from the shop.  I got the trailer and parked it in the driveway then mom and I went to dinner.  Saturday morning John arrived and we pushed Lil' Wiggly on and strapped it down.  Before he arrived, I got it “running” and backed it about ten feet into the yard.  Once he was there I shut it down and we pushed.  At the shop we dropped the car off and I parked the trailer while John dug the Chickenhawk's Z-20 out of the paint booth.  We wrestled it onto the tailgate of Fifi and I moved it to the main bay.  There, John messed with that engine while I worked on mounting the 289 on the engine stand.  Once it was hanging, we started disassembly thereof.  We got it stripped to the long block before calling it a day.  Those damned heads weigh a ton, as does the intake manifold.  I'd really like to replace them with aluminum units.  But I digress.  The crank and pistons move freely while the cam and lifters seemed to be doing what they are supposed to.  I think we might have a decent starting point here.  As I said, we then called it a day and went to lunch… at Wasabi Sushi, of course.  We discussed stuff and things and junk and then I took him back to his car at my house.  After a nap I began to shop on the Summit Racing website.  I found a neat “Top End Power Package” by Edelbrock for a mere $1,495.00 consisting of a pair of aluminum heads, an aluminum intake manifold, some hot rod cam, lifters, a timing set, and all the gaskets.  I almost bought it until I checked the credit limit on my card.  I was just a tad shy of being able to make that purchase… and considerably short of the total when I'd added in some other parts I “needed.”  Yeah, with the HEI distributor, timing cover, bottom end rebuild kit, water pump, and valve covers, I was looking at $2,500.00 or so.  We’ll source the rebuild kit and have the iron heads and bottom end freshened up locally.  That bummed me out, so I wasted the rest of the evening.  Sunday morning I rounded up all of my lever-action guns and took a picture of them.  I made a sign which said something to the effect of: “Cowboy Action Starter Kit…” and went on to describe the weapons being offered for sale.  I said I'd take $350.00 for the .45 Colt Rossi lever-action carbine, because I don’t really want to sell that one, $250.00 for the .45 Colt Rossi “Mare’s Leg” lever-action “pistol,” and $250.00 for the Norinco lever-action 12 gauge shotgun, or $800.00 for the lot.  I packed the guns and met Larry at the credit onion and we went to the gun show.  One guy asked about the sign on my back.  No one bought my guns.  Oh well, I wasn’t holding out much hope for it anyway.  Now, here’s where I admit to being dumb… like monumentally dumb… fucking retarded dumb even.  Before Larry arrived at the credit onion, I took $260.00 out of the ATM.  That amount SHOULDN’T have been sufficient to buy another gun but SHOULD have gotten me some little things.  Unfortunately, rather than buy the little things as I found them, I thought, “I’ll come back after we walk all the aisles just in case I find a gun I can afford.”  As we neared the end of the next to last row, I found a 12 gauge pump shotgun for $199.00.  I was done for.  I knew I was going home with another 12 gauge.  I held off so we could walk the last row and a half.  Three tables later, there was another 12 gauge pump for $219.00 which I liked even more.  I continued to hold off… until we got to the table with the TriStar Cobra Tactical 12 gauge.  It had an extended magazine (or so I thought, but I'll get to that in a bit).  I picked it up.  It was really light.  I cycled the action, as much as the zip tie would allow, and noticed that the pump was spring loaded.  All you had to do was rack it back and it closed on its own under spring tension.  I looked at the price tag.  It was $239.00 so I set it down and looked in my wallet to see if lunch had ruined my chances of owning it.  With the money I had before the ATM, I had $250.00 left after lunch and admission.  I bought the damned thing… and berated myself for being a dumbass until we left the show half an hour later.  At home I took it apart, as Juan does with a new gun, and discovered another feature I really liked.  The action and bolt come out “with” the barrel, unlike all of my other shotguns.  I began to be pleased with the purchase.  I also discovered that it could be de-cocked like an AK by sliding the bolt back to the hammer and releasing it with the trigger then slowly letting it come to rest.  I'm never comfortable “dry firing” a gun to de-cock it as I have to do with the Auto-5, the Beretta .22, the SKS, and the Mossberg Bullpup shotgun.  In fact, I leave a dummy round in the SKS's chamber just so I can “dry fire” it to settle the hammer.  I guess I could do the same with the two shotguns, now that I think about it, since I do have dummy 12 gauge shells.  I think I'll start doing just that.  The .22 is a conundrum though.  I'll probably just keep “dry firing” it.  So, back to the new gun which I think will be called Pumpenstein.  Ok, so I'm now happy with the purchase… until I try to load the thing.  Now, if you remember, it has the “extended magazine” so it should hold seven rounds… yeah, it only holds five.  I did some forensic work and it appears to me that when they rolled/cut the threads for the barrel-retention nut, it closed off the interior of the magazine and blocks the follower.  I read online that it is limited to five since it is an imported gun, but I think that might be justification for a design flaw.  Anyhoo, I'm going to see if I can remove the magazine, it unscrews, and try to open up the obstruction.  Hopefully I can get it to hold a full tube of seven rounds.  I'll keep you posted on that.  So, to wrap up this long-winded rant, I'm happy with the gun but pissed at myself for spending money I didn’t need to spend.  I'll tell y'all about today’s adventures tomorrow.