12/12/13

Holy crap!  Where do I start?  It has been almost three weeks since I have posted anything and so much has happened.  I think I'll break it down into sections rather than try to make a timeline narrative… mainly because I don’t really remember exactly how everything went down.  Lettuce start with… oh, what the hell, guns.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that I went to the last gun show alone because Larry was sick… but it does sound familiar.  Ok, I just went and had a look and see that I did mention it.  In the last entry, I said I would take the Kel-Tec Sub 2000 out for a shoot and this I did.  It is very nice, I like it a lot.  One of the 33 round magazines and the 50 round drum had a few misfeeds, but all in all I like the thing quite a bit.  I mounted a sling swivel on the fore end and made the single point sling I had work.  I also bought a few more 33 round magazines for it.  While I was at Academy looking at mags, I saw a Taurus model 85 Ultra-Light in .38 Special for less than $300.00… not a lot less, mind you.  I was a good boy and didn’t buy it… then.  Later in the week, perhaps even the next day, I went to another Academy and looked for it.  They didn’t have the matt-stainless Ultra-Light and the blued steel regular-weight was the same price.  I went back to the original store and bought the UL.  I bought a set of Hogue grips for it but shot it before I had a chance to install them.  I really like this gun!  I bought a holster and carried it for a few days before going back to the 9mm S&W due to (tee hee, I said "doo doo!") its higher capacity.  I'll still carry the .38 from time to time, I'm sure.  In fact, on Thanksgiving at my sister’s, I showed it to my brother-in-law who gave me fifty rounds of #9 birdshot and 80 rounds of .38 Spl +P ammo to feed the thing.  While out running around on the east side of town, I made the mistake of going into Military Gun Supply.  They had lots of cool stuff but only one thing caught my eye: a used “Snake Charmer” .410 shotgun.  I have wanted one of those since the 1980s.  It was cheap enough, but I was a good boy and didn’t buy it… then.  A couple days later, when I was on that side of town again, I did stop in and bought it.  I asked if the price marked was the best they could do and got him to “waive” the tax… so I basically got an 8.25% discount.  It isn’t much, but hey, whattayagonnado?  I found a spot for it in my gun cabinet and grokked the rest of my arsenal… I'd like to grok HER arse and all!  Anyhoo, after looking at all my guns, I went on line and did a little shopping.  I found a site in my “favorites” folder I hadn’t been to in a while and clicked the link to see what I'd been considering.  It was a site selling a Bullpup stock for SKS rifles.  They said they had them in stock and ready to ship… and the price wasn’t too bad.  I bought one.  When it arrived I pulled the SKS out and installed the Bullpup kit.  Pain. In. The. Ass.  the Kushnapup kit for the Saiga was so much easier to install… but this does appear to be a bit better.  I don’t know.  The kit for the SKS is more like the Hebrew Hammer, whereas the Kushnapup is more like a Steyer AUG.  Since I have an Hebrew Hammer to go along with the SKS Bullpup, I suppose I need an AUG to go along with the two K-pups!  No, I do not need an AUG… yet.  We’ll see.  While grokking the SKS in its new configuration, I noticed that the front sight was pretty much useless.  I took a few measurements and saw that if the barrel were cut off just behind the big-assed sight-tower/bayonet-lug/cleaning-rod-guide cast thingy, the whole shebang would still be over 27” long… well over the 26” minimum overall length for a rifle.  I took it to the gunsmith at Winchester the next day.  I fingered he would say, “Ok, we’ll have it done in a couple days.”  No, three to four weeks was the estimate.  I left it anyway.  Oh, I had a look at mounting the 3x scope I had on the gun before the conversion but the eye relief was way too long for that optic.  I need it much closer to my eye.  I had a look at swapping that scope to the Marlin .22 and putting that rifle’s scope on the SKS but the eye relief was too long on there as well.  “On my way” to Winchester, I stopped in at Bloodbath & Beyond to buy another set of flip up “iron” sights for it but found a cantilever mount for the scope.  I think it will work too… but I won't know until I get the gun back.  I made a couple trips to Bloodbath & Beyond during the time I was off and on one of the visits bought another nine magazines for the Hebrew Hammer and a shit load of 5.56x45 ammo for it.  I have enough “loose” ammo to fill all 22 magazines, 660 rounds, and an additional 480 rounds loaded on stripper clips for quick reloading.  This supplements the 200 “loose” and 1,659 rounds of 7.62x39 ammo loaded in stripper clips for the SKS and 7.62x39 Saiga… but I digress.  So, I think that just about wraps up all the gun news.  Oh, no it doesn’t.  When my sister heard I had a new pistol, she wanted to know about my .380 Diamondback.  She stopped by the house one evening and I showed it to her.  She liked it and asked if she could “borrow” it.  She wanted it because it is smaller than her SCCY and will be easier to carry.  I had to agree and let her take it.  I do not expect to get that one back.  I need to give her the rest of the 200 rounds of ammo I have on hand since I don’t have a gun to shoot it now.  We’ll see.  Ok, that has to be all the gun news.  Tomorrow, hopefully, I will tell shop tales and get y'all caught up on the progress there.  Toodles.