10/28/14

Pat, Tony, and I went to the swap meet at Lone Star Park Saturday, as I said we would.  As usual for a Saturday appointment, my waterfowl were misaligned and I was running late.  When I finally arrived at the Whataburger we ate some breakfast then headed to the meet.  Tony informed me that my right side tailpipe was bouncing as if the hanger had broken, which would ‘splain the loud clunking noise I had been attributing to something in the trunk.  I need to look at that some time.  We walked the rows and didn’t find anything I wanted bad enough and could afford at the same time.  Eventually we left and had lunch at El Fenix on 183 in Irving.  I missed being able to stop at Steve-John’s muffler shop by bout an hour so I didn’t have the tailpipe looked at at that time.  At home I crashed out for a while and rested up since I knew I was going to walk an equal amount on Sunday at the gun show.  As for said gun show, I made a shopping list before retiring for the evening.  I wanted a replacement barrel for the 870 bullpup, one with a breacher choke to add just a tad more length.  I wanted… um, other stuff as well, but I don’t remember what right now.  The main other thing I wanted was a stainless steel 1911 because… well, to be honest, because I am an retard.  See, a few weeks back I was on the Hogue Grips website and saw that they had purple grips for a handful, pun intended, of guns.  I bought a set for the .38 revolver and the 1911.  They look really good on the .38 but didn’t show up on the blued 1911.  “Well,” said I, “I need a stainless 1911 for these grips!”  My plan was to buy a second 1911, because Juan can’t have too many 1911s, and run the “wraparound” Hogue on the blue gun and the purple grips on the stainless.  I priced the Taurus stainless 1911 online and found I could probably just about swing it… especially if I found an used one.  Then I had a moment of sanity and decided I COULD have too many 1911s and decided to take the blue gun and see about trading it in on a stainless one.  So I packed up the gun with one mag and some of the parts I had replaced and went to bed.  Sunday I met Larry at the credit onion and we went to the show.  He made a bee-line to this one table where he knew the guy had a certain gun bought especially for him.  I waited… and waited.  Eventually I walked off to start shopping.  A guy at a table asked about my gun and looked it over.  He liked what he saw and offered me $350.00 for it.  With the $400.00 in my wallet, I knew that I could afford a new stainless 1911.  I took the money.  Was it a loss?  Yes, a little.  But Juan is dreaming if he thinks he’s ever going to get back what he paid for a gun unless it is something very special… which this particular Rock Island 1911 certainly was NOT.  I went back to try and pry Larry away from the guy so we could walk the show.  Eventually I did and we headed out.  I was on the hunt for my new 1911.  I found several I couldn’t afford, of course, and a few I could.  I didn’t “pull the trigger” on any because I wanted to see the whole show before committing.  At the “Badass Shotgun” table, I asked about the 870 barrel and was shown the exact, or so I thought at the time, barrel.  It was about $40.00 more than I had seen it online but I wouldn’t have to pay shipping nor would I have to wait for it to arrive.  I didn’t buy it.  I wanted to wait until I had my stainless 1911 in hand just in case I had to blow all my money on that.  About ¼ of the way through the show I saw a beautiful full-size stainless 1911 sitting on a table with $350.00 on the tag.  I picked it up.  I looked it over.  I pretty much knew this was the gun I was taking home.  It was a Umarex Regent R200S, made in Turkey.  It looked sound and was exactly what I had taken for my gun… so I bought it.  I put it in my holster and we kept walking.  Several people asked what I had, because I tucked my shirt behind it to show it off, and the general consensus was I got a good deal.  I agreed.  I passed up a few other items I didn’t need but wound up buying a barrel bushing muzzle brake and extended slide release lever for the “new” 1911.  I also bought a bayonet for the Mosin Nagant and one of those “solvent trap” adapters, the thinking being I would weld them together so I could have a “solvent trap” for the Mosin Nagant.  A “solvent trap” is a device where Juan can thread an oil filter to the muzzle of a gun to collect cleaning solution poured through the barrel.  The “unfortunate” side effect, however, is that if Juan were to “accidentally” fire the weapon with the oil filter attached, the muzzle report is greatly reduced.  But it isn’t a silencer!  That would be illegal unless registered with the NFA.  It is for cleaning the weapon.  I want one for the Mosin Nagant because the really cheap ammo is corrosive and the barrel must be flushed with… um, ammonia? after shooting the stuff.  Yeah, that’s my story.  So, eventually I made it back to the Badass Shotgun guys and bought the barrel.  By now the show is trying to close so we left.  I went home and… will continue the story tomorrow.