Friday, May 11, 2018

The Voere Stock Is Finally Refinished

As I posted on May 5th here, I started to strip the stock of my Voere 22 rifle on or about May 2nd. It took two days to get off as much of the old finish as I could remove. On the third day I sanded it to glassy smoothness. Then on the fourth day, I stained it and applied the first coat of Formby's Tung Oil. Since then I have applied 5 more coats of Tung Oil - only one oat per day because they recommend waiting 12 hours before applying the next coat. I think it came out pretty nice and is a big improvement over what it originally looked like.

Here is how it looked when I got it:

Looks pretty nice but looks can be deceiving especially
when you get to see only one side of any given thing.

Flipping to the other side of the coin, so to speak, gave you this ghastly view.

I bought it at auction and did not mind that it had the finish damage.  I figured that the stock was plain and uncheckered so refinishing it would be easy. The metal finish was and remains in virtually pristine condition. What really was the attraction to me of this rifle was that I was almost certain it fired from an open bolt; turned out I was right. That apparently is also an attraction to many others who would likely be willing to pay quite a bit more for it than what I bid on it. Not selling it though, at least not right now, especially now that it looks as nice as it does today.

Here is what the stock looked like this evening, after it had about 6 coats of Formby's Tung Oil over the MinWax cherry stain I applied.

It may actually be a little lighter than that but not by much. The slightly
bluish-gray highlighted areas on the stock are the reflection of the evening sky.

Tonight, I put it back together. Praise the guys and gals on Mt. Olympus - none of them played any tricks on me by hiding any of the parts; although, the Ziploc bag they were in somehow got a hole in it! This is what it looks like put back together.


I wish I had better indoor lighting for these shots but this was the best I could
do with what I have available. The shots of just the stock were taken outside.

Now, while it may not be a professional quality job, I think I did pretty good for an amateur. I need to get it to the range, the next time the Long Island Gun Club meets, to show it off and to shoot it some more. In between now and then, and afterwards, it is going into a gun sock to help assure it does not get scratched.

By the way, I had thought this was a Voere Model 2005 but am not so sure now. It is my understanding that the model 2005 was so marked with that model number. This one does not show 2005 nor any model number anywhere that I have found. Yet, it certainly looks exactly like the Model 2005s I have seen in photographs. Not many of them were imported into this country before importation of them was banned by ATF because they fired from an open bolt; they were, to the best of my knowledge only imported in 1986. Supposedly, almost all of those imported were converted to full auto before the 1986 ban on newly manufactured and or converted full auto guns. I have read that: it has been estimated only about 300-500 of them, in unconverted semi-automatic condition, are thought to exist. This could be one of them! It was a nice find with very little interest at the auction and I got it for a pretty low bid; I have seen NEF Pardner shotguns sell for more. Am I a happy firearms aficionado - who owns a Voere - yes I  most certainly am.

All the best,
Glenn B

As One Boomer Departs Another Joins My Collection

I just took a pistol off of my license a few days ago because I donated it to a local gun club for a raffle. That was my Taurus PT140 G2 Millennium; the pistol Taurus sent to me to replace my recalled Taurus PT145 Millennium Pro. They gave a convoluted story as to why it would be illegal to send me a pistol in 45 caliber and thus as to why they sent me that piece of unmitigated crap in 40 caliber. I had sent in my PT145 three years ago this coming August. I only got the replacement PT140 in February or March 2016 even though my local dealer received it in January from Taurus (and therein is another story).

When I realized it was a pistol in 40 S&W and not 45 ACP, I was in disbelief. Several letters and or emails and phone calls back and forth to Taurus and I was furious. They gave me every convoluted reason under the sun as to why they replaced a pistol in 45 ACP with one in 40 S&W. and I think the final one was something about the 45 being illegal in NY State because it came with both 10 & 12 round mags; they refused to remove the 12 round mag from the box and just send the 10 round mag!

As it turned out, I put it in the safe and there it has sat except for me to take picture when I tried to sell it. I had decided to sell the PT-140 (I do not like the 40 S&W caliber) and never even consider purchasing another Taurus for as long as I live - screw Taurus. well, the PT140 has sat in he gun safe since I got it -  unfired, as new, in the box withal accessories and papers. I have tried to sell it at least a few if not several times but no one wanted a compact pistol in 40 S&W- especially not a Taurus. When I realized I could not sell it, even for about $50 to $75 less than its retail value, I decided to give it away for the raffle.

Did you notice, I removed the serial numbers - please, no one tell BATFE!
Just in case you don't get sarcasm, I only smudged them off with Photoshop.
 
Yesterday, I got a new to me pistol in 45 ACP. It's a Glock 21- Gen 4 only slightly used. The seller said only 50 rounds had been fired through it and after looking it over I have no reason to doubt him; it looks pristine. It came with 2 magazines, all other accessories and papers. Add to that: the seller was a fine old gentleman, his aide (the seller was quite elderly and needed some help getting around) very pleasant, and the gun store staff very courteous and very professional, and the deal could not have been smoother.

Even though I had to drive four one way trips of 40 miles each  and an additional 2 mile roundtrip - 40 miles in heavy traffic to meet the seller and have his local dealer do the FFL transaction; 40 miles return to home to drop off the Glock 26 I was wearing; 1 mile to county PD to get a purchase document; 1 mile back home to pick up and strap on my Glock 26 (no, you cannot bring a pistol into my county police department's headquarters); another 40 miles back to the FFL, through super heavy rush hour traffic, to give him the purchase document and go through the NICS check and pick up the pistol (thank goodness there was not a delay on the NICS check); and finally another 40 miles to get home again - I am happy with it so far for the price at which I got it.

As for the Glock 21, I will need to strip it down completely to examine it and give it a cleaning and then head to the range with it either tomorrow or Sunday.

I'll let you know what more I think of it once I shoot it.

All the best,
Glenn B