...another, what was it, four long guns cleaned tonight. I did the New England Fireams Pardner, single barreled, 12 gauge shotgun - the Mossberg M44 bolt action 22 rimfire (marked U.S. Property) - my Ruger 10/22 (as opposed to my son's) and the Remington 513T Matchmaster. The Remington and the NEF Pardner were, in essence, clean and just needed a maintenance cleaning. The Mossberg M44 was a little bit fouled, I guess I must have shot it a bit and put it away dirty.
On the other hand, the Ruger 10/22 looked as if I had put away in the midst of trying to figure out exactly how many rounds I could fire through it, without cleaning it, before it jammed. It was a dirty, filthy, fouled, unwholesome disgrace. I am willing to bet it would have functioned, if not flawlessly in that state, then at least excellently. I cleaned it regardless. I must say, it was a pain in the arse. Why it is that Old Man Ruger put out a few to several firearms that are a pain in the posterior to disassemble for proper cleaning, and then to reassemble to ever shoot again, is way beyond me. Maybe Old Man Ruger was a wee bit of a Sadist. He sure had a captive audience in Ruger fans.
Luckily for me, I had the manual for the Ruger 10/22. No, let me correct that: I had the manual and consulted it but it didn't help one fucking iota. My real luck was that I remembered how to do it, sort of, and remembered that even when I had been doing it on a pretty regular basis, it was a pain in the ass. So, I kept at it, knowing I would get it right sooner or later. The problem was not getting it apart but getting it back together. Aligning the recoil spring, recoil spring guide rod and bolt handle - so as to get the bolt back in place over them - is a tediously painful procedure (not forgetting to get the ejector in the right position). I must have tried at least 10 times before I got the bolt seated properly. It did not help that the pins, holding things in place, kept falling out (they are loose as greased pig shit in an over stretched gay pigs ass) but are held in place by the stock once the rifle is completely assembled. Nor did it help that I had done this probably hundreds of times before. Since I had not done it in what I am guessing had to have been at least a year, maybe and probably more than two years (pre-cancer), I was out of practice and one sure needs lots of recent practice, or one heck of a foolproof memory (and we know that ain't mine) to get it done right when it comes to certain Ruger firearms. Of course, maybe it was not Old Man Ruger who was to blame but his predeceased partner Sturm although I think they both played a part. Either way, who can fault them all that much since they manufactured some of the most affordable and fun guns to shoot in all of the universe, throughout all of time to date - the Ruger 10/22 being just one of them. For guns like it, and the Ruger MKI and MKII, I can put up with a lot of pain in the behind shit taking them apart and putting them back together if only because I had fun with them before needing to take them apart and because I know the end result is going to be one hell of a good time all over again. A wise man, Supervisory Borer Patrol Agent F.J. Danforth (I'll be damned if I can remember his first name or initials for sure), once told me that every time I shoot a gun, I need to take it down and clean it, then test fire it. (Do you understand what I just said, what he told me, the subtle implication of it? It makes for lots and lots of shooting fun.) God bless Sturm and Ruger and God bless the younger Ruger who took over after both Sturm and his old man passed on and God bless F.J. Danforth (who I am sure most likely has passed on by now).
I still have more to clean, I am still a little surprised at how many. Of course, I also have to re-clean those that my son took upstate this weekend. They would be a Mosin Nagant 91/30, Mosin Nagant M44 and the Winchester model 37 shotgun. I was hoping he would have cleaned them but he got home just as I started to write this blog post. He put two gun cases on the floor and then left for an overnighter at work (not at his regular job but where he used to work in the kennel). Go figure, he doesn't have time to clean the guns tonight (which, since he is working, I can understand) nor does he have the time off to go to the Sixth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot with me next week. He told me he had asked off for this weekend months ago and his boss gave him off. I only told him about the Bloggershoot a couple of weeks ago, and he has not been able to get next weekend off when it takes place, I guess because he got this weekend off and he usually has split weekdays off. Still though, those guns that he had upstate this weekend need to be cleaned so I can shoot em next weekend! I bet I get stuck cleaning em but if I have even a little bit of luck, he will volunteer to do it. Oh well, no use complaining if he does not, I just won't let him borrow them again and judging by how much fun he said he and Haylie (his girlfriend) had shooting the Mosin Nagant 91/30, MN M44 and the Winchester Model 37, I am willing to bet he gets the job done if I make future use of them conditional on it.
I just realized, I need to get more shooting, more gun cleaning, more gun fiddling and more gun anything done; I haven't been doing as much as I used to and now that I have been catching up - it sure has been a lot of fun.
All the best,
Glenn B
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Have You Ever Forgotten You Owned A Gun?
I have, at least as of tonight. I decided to continue with my gun cleaning this evening, well after my one and only beer that I had with dinner hours before. So, I was not under he influence, nor was I feeling tired, or out of it, or confused, nor was I under any stress or anxiety - I just plumb forgot all about a gun I owned and was rather surprised, just a bit, when I reached into my gun vault and pulled it out. You see, I had just gone over, in my mind, all the guns I still had that needed cleaning and it was definitely not one that came to mind in that mental inventory. Even when I had it in hand, I did a bit of a double take, giving it another look and then for the briefest of moments wondered to myself: "Is that mine! " Virtually as soon as I had that thought, memory of it, how long I have had it, where and when I got it, flooded my neural pathways with what I can only call a refreshing spate of remembering. It was then and only then that I remembered yet another one I had not thought about in my minds accounting of the guns that yet needed to be cleaned. It is not as much that I absent mindedly forgot about owning the other one, it is more that it was one that was not worth much more than forgetting because it is pretty much a basket case. Funny coincidence, they are both shotguns. The first is a single barrel, single shot, New England Firearms 12 gauge Pardner - still a fairly decent and very useful gun. The second, the almost useless one (except maybe as a club or anchor) an Iver Johnson, Hercules grade, side by side shotgun. That one is probably better forgotten about, it is a piece of junk, most likely the product of some one's lack of proper maintenance and subsequent inept fiddling at trying to get it back to working condition.
I can easily understand how I would rather forget that second one and the mistake I made when I bought it. I bid on it at an auction. Shame on me, I thought it was another lot on which I was making the bid (or at lest thought this one was in better shape). Well, I bid on it, had the high bid and wound up paying for it and regretting it. As for the first one, that I forgot I owned, that New England Firearms 12 gauge Pardner, I got that at an auction too, run by the same auction house. It was not a bad deal. It was not what I thought I was bidding on, I got it confused, as I recall, with another of the same model and bid on the wrong lot.As it turned out, the one for which I had the winning bid was somewhat rusted on the barrel but otherwise was in good shape. I got it at a good price and cannot complain; so how in Hades did I forget I owned that one. I am guessing it was just a brain fart and nothing like Al Z. Heimer visiting me. he has not been around since several months after my chemo therapy back in 2011.
Okay, here I am writing about memory and about guns, listening to music on Pandora.com, and what song comes on but one of my all time favorites, by a sex goddess of my youth, Bang Bang (my baby Shot me Down) by Nancy Sinatra. I feel better, that song, her voice, me hearing it now in 2013, evoked memories of two sex goddesses of my youth. The first: Nancy Sinatra who sang that song in 1966 and of course it reminded me of Cher, another sex goddess of my youth (I was 10 or 11 depending on what time of the year that song was released) who first sang that song after it was written by her then husband Sony. Fuck Al Z. Heimer, he ain't got me yet even if I forgot, only momentarily, about two of my most recently purchased shotguns that I bought and shoved into the darkness of the my gun vault and the deeper recesses of my memory.
All the best,
Glenn B
I can easily understand how I would rather forget that second one and the mistake I made when I bought it. I bid on it at an auction. Shame on me, I thought it was another lot on which I was making the bid (or at lest thought this one was in better shape). Well, I bid on it, had the high bid and wound up paying for it and regretting it. As for the first one, that I forgot I owned, that New England Firearms 12 gauge Pardner, I got that at an auction too, run by the same auction house. It was not a bad deal. It was not what I thought I was bidding on, I got it confused, as I recall, with another of the same model and bid on the wrong lot.As it turned out, the one for which I had the winning bid was somewhat rusted on the barrel but otherwise was in good shape. I got it at a good price and cannot complain; so how in Hades did I forget I owned that one. I am guessing it was just a brain fart and nothing like Al Z. Heimer visiting me. he has not been around since several months after my chemo therapy back in 2011.
Okay, here I am writing about memory and about guns, listening to music on Pandora.com, and what song comes on but one of my all time favorites, by a sex goddess of my youth, Bang Bang (my baby Shot me Down) by Nancy Sinatra. I feel better, that song, her voice, me hearing it now in 2013, evoked memories of two sex goddesses of my youth. The first: Nancy Sinatra who sang that song in 1966 and of course it reminded me of Cher, another sex goddess of my youth (I was 10 or 11 depending on what time of the year that song was released) who first sang that song after it was written by her then husband Sony. Fuck Al Z. Heimer, he ain't got me yet even if I forgot, only momentarily, about two of my most recently purchased shotguns that I bought and shoved into the darkness of the my gun vault and the deeper recesses of my memory.
All the best,
Glenn B
Yet More Gun Cleaning...
...with another 5 guns cleaned and out of the way. I cleaned up the old rust rod, my Steven's Model 66-B 22 rimfire rifle. Yes, it is in only fair looking shape on the outside, had a good amount of surface rust (at least not pitted like my Winchester Model 37 shotgun) and still has a fair amount of rust but its bore is still shiny with strong lands and grooves and it is a tack driver.
I was going to clean more rifles after that but for some reason, that I have not figured out, I grabbed a few pistols instead. I cleaned my second Beretta 92FS, the Beretta 92SB (the gun responsible for my Ballseye moniker) and the Beretta 70S. I gave them all good cleaning although most were clean already. Regular maintenance is a good way to prevent rust. After cleaning them, I debated on cleaning my Ortgies pocket pistol, High Standard Duramatic and Ruger MKII but decided against them and just finished up with my Glock 26. It too was pretty clean but since it is my primary carry pistol, it gets regular cleanings after firing and about once every month if it needs it or not.
I have those other three pistols and several rifles still to go but right now I have to get outside to fire up the grill and throw some Hebrew National dogs on it. A nice icy cold beer or three does not sound bad either. Now that I am done handling the firearms the alcohol is okay to go. Remember - don't handle firearms when you have imbibed alcohol or have taken any mind altering drugs. It is a sure shot way to shoot yourself, someone else whom, or something else that, you did not intend to shoot. Alcohol and mind altering drugs do not mix with gunpowder!
All the best,
Glenn B
 |
| Three of my favorite pistols, all have fired more rounds than I can remember. The Beretta 92SB, topmost, is the gun that gave me the Ballseye moniker. |
I have those other three pistols and several rifles still to go but right now I have to get outside to fire up the grill and throw some Hebrew National dogs on it. A nice icy cold beer or three does not sound bad either. Now that I am done handling the firearms the alcohol is okay to go. Remember - don't handle firearms when you have imbibed alcohol or have taken any mind altering drugs. It is a sure shot way to shoot yourself, someone else whom, or something else that, you did not intend to shoot. Alcohol and mind altering drugs do not mix with gunpowder!
All the best,
Glenn B
Cleaning, Cleaning and More Cleaning...
...but its not so bad, even sort of fun. Got home from a full day at work yesterday, sat down went online for a short while, watched a little TV too. There really wasn't anything worthwhile on to watch so I decided to start cleaning my guns; I picked up where I left off last week. I started around 2330 last night and probably got done around 0200. What can I say, I was enjoying myself. In that time though, I only managed to clean one pistol and three rifles.
The pistol took me the longest of all four to complete. I will admit, I as negligent in that I had not cleaned it after the last time I shot it; which was too long ago - I've got to get to the range soon. The pistol in question is my Remington R1 1911. I am none to familiar with cleaning it yet, I still have to use the manual to do it. I maybe could figure it out without the directions but I prefer using them for now instead of possibly screwing something up and not being able to use the pistol when I want to shoot it - which for sure will be next weekend at the Sixth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot, if not sooner at a local range. So, it took me a good hour to get it done. Not only because I had to follow the directions but more so because it was just that fouled from when I shot it last.
Next, I cleaned up the Marlin 25MN in .22 WMR. That one also looked like it had not been cleaned since it was last shot. I'll have to talk to my son about that since he was the one who shot it most recently; I don't want him to develop my bad habits of shooting a gun and putting it away dirty (not that I usually do that but I do it all too often in recent years). That was an easy and pretty quick clean and lubrication, even though it was fouled a bit, it was not that bad.
I pulled out the Yugoslavian 24/47 Mauser after the Marlin and gave it a good going over. That one was just about clean as a whistle, no rust from storage either. The desiccant packs I put in with the guns go a long way to prevent rust on the metal and mold on the wood - both of which can be a problem is areas with moderate to high humidity - especially in the warmer months as here in NY. I have to give some strong consideration to bringing this one with me to the Bloggershoot. I have more than enough milsurp ammo to burn through to have a very good time with it and to let others have fun shooting it too.
Then I fished around in the gun vault and came up with the Yugo SKS. I thought for sure there would be some rust on it or that the barrel would be fouled because I had forgotten to clean it after shooting it or that my son maybe shot I and conveniently forgot to clean it. I was pretty surprised to look down the bore and see only shiny chrome goodness. (I think the bore is chromed but if not it sure shines like it is when you illuminate it with a bore light.) Same for that one as with the Mauser, it was clean, but I gave it a quick once over anyway. I guess I did some regular maintenance on the rifles not all that long ago since these were so clean but not after my son took that Marlin to shoot at his girlfriend's place upstate a couple of months ago. Anyway, me having cleaned them before putting them away last time just made last night's work all that much easier for me.
Lately I have been using Gunzilla to clean all of my guns. I have got to give them a plug, the stuff works really well from what I can tell. For example, even though the Yugo SKS looked to be spotless with absolutely no fouling down the bore, a few quick passes with a patch soaked with Gunzilla had the patch come out slightly green. That means there was still some residual copper fouling in the bore. This stuff gets it out as opposed to my old standby Hoppes No. 9, which as far as I am aware did not remove copper fouling. I like Hoppe's products but have to say I cannot stand the odor of their copper solvent - Hoppe's Bench rest 9 Copper Cleaner. It works well enough but the odor is foul and the chemicals in it are harsher, I think, than those in Gunzilla. Of course, speaking of odors, their is nothing quite like the aroma of original Hoppe's No. 9, they even make an air freshener in that scent.
Once I finish up here, on the blog, I am going to pull out a few more and give them a cleaning too. Sooner or later I will get all of them done - probably tomorrow for the rifles anyway and who knows when for the pistols (which are probably all clean except maybe for the Ruger MKII). Oh well, no reason to fritter away the afternoon on the Internet - I have to get the lead out.
All the best,
Glenn B
The pistol took me the longest of all four to complete. I will admit, I as negligent in that I had not cleaned it after the last time I shot it; which was too long ago - I've got to get to the range soon. The pistol in question is my Remington R1 1911. I am none to familiar with cleaning it yet, I still have to use the manual to do it. I maybe could figure it out without the directions but I prefer using them for now instead of possibly screwing something up and not being able to use the pistol when I want to shoot it - which for sure will be next weekend at the Sixth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot, if not sooner at a local range. So, it took me a good hour to get it done. Not only because I had to follow the directions but more so because it was just that fouled from when I shot it last.
Next, I cleaned up the Marlin 25MN in .22 WMR. That one also looked like it had not been cleaned since it was last shot. I'll have to talk to my son about that since he was the one who shot it most recently; I don't want him to develop my bad habits of shooting a gun and putting it away dirty (not that I usually do that but I do it all too often in recent years). That was an easy and pretty quick clean and lubrication, even though it was fouled a bit, it was not that bad.
I pulled out the Yugoslavian 24/47 Mauser after the Marlin and gave it a good going over. That one was just about clean as a whistle, no rust from storage either. The desiccant packs I put in with the guns go a long way to prevent rust on the metal and mold on the wood - both of which can be a problem is areas with moderate to high humidity - especially in the warmer months as here in NY. I have to give some strong consideration to bringing this one with me to the Bloggershoot. I have more than enough milsurp ammo to burn through to have a very good time with it and to let others have fun shooting it too.
Then I fished around in the gun vault and came up with the Yugo SKS. I thought for sure there would be some rust on it or that the barrel would be fouled because I had forgotten to clean it after shooting it or that my son maybe shot I and conveniently forgot to clean it. I was pretty surprised to look down the bore and see only shiny chrome goodness. (I think the bore is chromed but if not it sure shines like it is when you illuminate it with a bore light.) Same for that one as with the Mauser, it was clean, but I gave it a quick once over anyway. I guess I did some regular maintenance on the rifles not all that long ago since these were so clean but not after my son took that Marlin to shoot at his girlfriend's place upstate a couple of months ago. Anyway, me having cleaned them before putting them away last time just made last night's work all that much easier for me.
Lately I have been using Gunzilla to clean all of my guns. I have got to give them a plug, the stuff works really well from what I can tell. For example, even though the Yugo SKS looked to be spotless with absolutely no fouling down the bore, a few quick passes with a patch soaked with Gunzilla had the patch come out slightly green. That means there was still some residual copper fouling in the bore. This stuff gets it out as opposed to my old standby Hoppes No. 9, which as far as I am aware did not remove copper fouling. I like Hoppe's products but have to say I cannot stand the odor of their copper solvent - Hoppe's Bench rest 9 Copper Cleaner. It works well enough but the odor is foul and the chemicals in it are harsher, I think, than those in Gunzilla. Of course, speaking of odors, their is nothing quite like the aroma of original Hoppe's No. 9, they even make an air freshener in that scent.
Once I finish up here, on the blog, I am going to pull out a few more and give them a cleaning too. Sooner or later I will get all of them done - probably tomorrow for the rifles anyway and who knows when for the pistols (which are probably all clean except maybe for the Ruger MKII). Oh well, no reason to fritter away the afternoon on the Internet - I have to get the lead out.
All the best,
Glenn B
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