10/2/13

So, Sunday morning I get up and wait to hear from Larry.  Since I've changed phones, I didn’t have his number yet and couldn’t make contact on my own.  Eventually he did call and said he was ready to head to the credit onion so we could go to the gun show.  I decided at the very last minute to take the lever action shotgun to see if it would sell.  I arrived at the credit onion and went to the ATM to check my balance… yeah, I was broke.  I managed to scrape $20.00 out of the account so I could at least get in the show and buy myself lunch.  Larry arrived and I transferred the Terminator to his truck.  We headed to the show.  I had the cop tie off the gun and we went inside.  We debated which direction to start and I said, “I have better luck selling guns when we start this way,” and pointed to the right.  We went right.  Halfway down the first aisle I sold the gun.  I was asking an optimistic $300.00 for it and took the $225.00 the guy offered.  I don’t think I lost too much money on the deal.  So, flush with cash, and having a vacant “long gun” spot in the gun cabinet, I went shopping.  Did I tell y'all about shooting the .45-70 gun at Winchester a few weeks ago?  Well, thing is, I've been looking at this break-action .45-70 rifle for some time but haven’t “pulled the trigger” so to speak on it.  When I was sighting in the Trijicon optics on the 7.62x39 Saiga a dude came in with one.  He let me shoot it and I liked it.  So I was on the lookout for a break-action .45-70 rifle.  I saw a few but wasn’t quite ready to do it.  I wound up buying two magazines for the Sarsilmaz SAR K2 .45 pistol I'd bought at the last show.  Then I bought some 7.62x39 ammo at another table.  Those were the two things I'd said I was looking for when I left the house and should have stopped there… this I did not do.  Eventually, on the very last row in fact, I saw a break-action rifle with a scope base already mounted.  I stopped to grok it.  I looked at the price tag without my glasses and could make out $300.00 but not the caliber.  I asked and when he told me, “Forty five seventy,” I groaned.  He asked what caliber I was looking for and I said, “Forty five seventy.”  I looked it over real good and said I'd have to talk to “The Bank” before I could make a decision.  “The Bank” was Larry by the way.  The dude said he’d take $280.00 for it but I still wanted to think it over.  Larry said he’d loan me the money but I said I still wanted to think about it.  We went back to look at some of the guns he wanted to see again and I thought about it.  Finally I said, “Ok, here’s what we’ll do.  We’ll go to some of these scope places and get a price for a scope.  If it looks like a scope can be had for a reasonable price, I'll borrow the money and buy the gun.”  The first scope place had a few I didn’t hate.  The second place had a few more I kind of liked.  The third place had some really nice ones and offered to mount the thing for me if I brought them the gun and bought from them.  Sold!  I asked Larry for $200.00 and went back to buy “Thumper.”  I took it straight to the scope guy and picked out a 4-16 x 40 scope with a neat range finder and bullet drop compensator feature in the reticle.  No, I do not know how to use all of that cool shit, thankyouforasking.  He tried to mount it but the main tube was too short.  He found another with all the same stuff but a longer tube and got it all mounted up.  Me rikee rots!  We took the gun to the truck and went back in to finish looking at stuff… re-looking at stuff I should say.  I found a table with some Honady LeveRevolution ballistic tipped hollow point ammo in .45-70 and bought two boxes at $40.00 per 20 rounds… yes, $2.00 per trigger pull.  Of course I found the exact same ammo at another table for $36.00 later but decided to not kick myself about it.  Of course, now that I think about it, it might not have been the same ammo.  What I bought was 250 grain bullets and I found 350 grain Hornady at Bloodbath & Beyond for $34.00 a box Monday.  Anyhoo, I'm going to assume the lighter bullets cost more for some reason and call it a learning experience.  While Larry waffled about some CZ pistols, I went shopping for a leather butt-cuff ammo holder.  My leather guy said he just sold his .45 butt-cuff but he would have one at the November show.  I'll buy one then.  Eventually we called it a show… mainly because they were throwing us out.  On the way home, I stopped at Academy and bought an ammo box and a nylon butt-cuff ammo holder thingy.  At home I fingered out how I could make the thing fit in the gun cabinet and called it a day.  Monday, mom and I went to lunch and after that I went to Whiskey Flats to sight in “Thumper.”  Oh, since .45-70 hits with such a wallop, I figured this thing will be my long-range… well, Thumper!  On the range I popped off a round.  It was low and to the right.  The guy asked for another.  It was also low and to the right.  He did some calculations and told me how many “clicks” to turn the adjusters.  I did and we sent another downrange.  It was moving in the right direction.  A few more “clicks” and we had it hitting almost exactly halfway between the point of aim and the calculated 100 yard zero point.  Never mind, suffices to say it was close enough for me.  I asked if he minded if I burned the five rounds of junk ammo which came with the gun.  He looked at it and said, “That’s not going to hit in the same spot.”  I told him I knew but I didn’t want it hanging around.  He shrugged and said, “Send it.”  They were quite louder and more flashy than the Hornady ammo and shot way high and to the left.  It was then that I noticed the scope was beginning to flop about a bit.  We called it a day and I went home.  There I took the scope off and discovered that the base was held on with only one screw.  I went online and bought another mounting kit and now I'm waiting for it to arrive.  Well, I've been called to do some actual work so I guess I'll call it a rant.  Have a day.