There I was browsing through GunBroker.com, for a magazine for my High Standard Duramatic M-101, when I came across the web address for serial number information for said pistol. I visited the linked page and found out that my Duramatic was most likely manufactured in 1961; I also discovered that the first year of production was 1955 or the same year that I plopped out into the world on a Wednesday afternoon in the fall. I chopped off the last couple of parts of the web address to see if I could find the home page for the site because there was no link back to it from the serial number page. it worked and I arrived at the site at this link:
A look through the site scored me a copy of the Duramatic M-101 parts price list that was updated in march 1962. I looked it over and doubt any of the parts are different than those for my pistol which was a 1961 production gun. I am happy I now have it because the earlier version I had was from August 1954 and was for the Duramatic Model M (lacking any numeric indicator after the M). It was obviously different than mine in at least one regard because there was no Barrel Nut Lockwasher in the earlier model but there sure is in mine. It's good to have info available like that for out of production guns one may own but sometimes it is next to impossible to find. Finding this made me a happy camper. To show my gratitude I fired off an email to the person who compiled all that info and created that site, it was the least I could do to show my appreciation for what I was able to find thank to him.
If you own a High Standard pistol, revolver, derringer, rifle or shotgun and need information, I recommend this site as a place to check but mind you, I am not vouching for the info contained therein.
I have been going to the annual NE Bloggershoot for a few years now, I guess the fifth annual one was my first if I remember right. Brendan came to the fifth and the seventh with me (he missed the sixth in 2013) and we also attended a different one together down in West By God Virginia last fall. Before each Bloggershoot, it's been a chore deciding on which guns to bring. We don't have a pickup truck nor an SUV not even big cars. I drive Toyota Corolla and him a Hyundai Elantra Touring Wagon; there is not much room in either for guns but we fit a fair number in whichever car we decide to drive. I prefer the Toyota because it has a closed off trunk, something the Elantra Touring does not have but this year the CD player in the Toyota is dead leaving us with yet another decision on which car to take. If all other things were to be considered equal, it will probably be the Hyundai for the CD player.
Anyway, we have yet to choose which guns and calibers of ammo to lug along. We almost certainly will bring along my Remington R1 1911, the Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro (both 45s) and my Glock 26 (my primary carry on most days). I am also fairly sure that we'll bring the Savage Axis in 308 and the Stevens 320 12 gauge especially since Brendan has not yet shot either. After that - who knows but that does leave room for at least a couple to few more pistols and maybe another long gun or two. As to pistols, maybe we can bring one of the Beretta 92 series pistols of the three I own, or the Ortgies 32, or one of my pistols in 22LR (I most definitely have enough ammo for them). Thinking about rifles, the Marlin 336 comes to mind as does the Marlin 25MN and the Yugo SKS but space is tight for additional long arms beyond one more than the two already mentioned. Decisions, decisions, decisions...
It's less than a month away from the date, August 8th, of the 8th Annual Northeast Bloggershoot and so far there are only about 15 confirmed attendees and 4 maybes, plus our two hosts. I am hopeful that some of you who have attended past Bloggershoots, and those of you who may be new to it, will see this post and contact us to let us know whether or not you can attend.
Here is some additional information:
Who? Any and all bloggers, commenters, readers, lurkers, etc. in the Northeast area, or those passing through, or anyone crazy enough to show up.
When? Saturday, August 8nd, from 10am until ????
Where? Why, Doubletrouble's sooper seekrit range, of course!
Why? Shootin' stuff is fun? Trying out new hardware is fun? Getting together with a couple dozen of your tribe, combined with guns and reactive targets, is a recipe for a good time!
And, the standard caveat:
As with every year, this is a "pack-in, pack-out" shoot - if you want to bring a 1:1 scale papier mache model of the Lunar Rover to shoot the hell out of, go right ahead. Just be prepared to drag the bullet-riddled carcass out with you. We can call the sub shop for lunch, but someone should step up to take care of the lunch order so Mrs. Doubletrouble doesn't have to deal with that again...
You can visit the Facebook page to express your interest in attending: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blogshoot/ or if that does not work, send me an email or leave a comment to this post.
Anyone else notice the coincidence of this being the 8th Annual Northeast Bloggershot and that it is being held in the eighth month on the eighth day of a year the numbers of which add up to eight? Maybe I'll have to bring 8 guns and 888 rounds of ammo!
...the one about Huck's Defeat. When I tried to publish it, I received a notice saying something like: 'this blog has been trashed and will not be visible until made public'. I can see it but am wondering if others can view it.
In the sixth year of the revolt against England (numerically not actually time wise), the war was not going as well for the American Colonists as one among them might have hoped. The American Army in South Carolina had been defeated and captured by the British. The Americans needed something to boost morale, something to show that they had in them what was needed to kick the Brits arses and on July 12, 1860, in York County SC, they got it.
On July 11th, a detachment of British Legion, NY Loyalist Volunteers and SC Loyalist militia forces, under the command of Captain Christian Huck, raided the farm of Patriot commander Captain John McClure. McClure's brother and brother-in-law were arrested for having freshly made bullets and were sentenced to hang at sunrise the next day. Huck, was a German who had lost property when the Brits fled Philadelphia; he then joined the English army in New York. He was assigned a command in SC. Once so assigned, his hatred of the Whigs (Patriots) was apparent. He commenced a ruthless vendetta against them during which his forces killed at least one child as he read a bible, manhandled women, and stole or destroyed what they could including carrying out the destruction of the home of a minister and an ironworks. Huck had so enraged the colonists that one was quoted as having said: "I have come home determined to take my gun and when I lay it down, I lay down my life with it" (source).
After raiding McClure's farm, the Brits then moved on to the farm of William Bratton, another Patriot leader. Bratton was then out on raids against Tories. Once at Bratton's home, Huck's men terrorized Bratton's wife in a failed attempt to get her to divulge the whereabouts of Patriot forces. She did not give any information to them. The Loyalists then moved to neighboring farms and arrested three more patriots, including Bratton's elderly brother. They too were to be executed the morning of July 12th at sunrise. Sometime while all this was happening, a man named Watt notified Bratton of the events taking place. It is notable that Watt was one of Bratton's slaves.
Units of militiamen rushed to engage Huck's forces. During the night and dark early hours of July 11th and 12th, about 150 South Carolina Militiamen under the command of William Bratton, surrounded the British / Loyalist force of about 130 under Huck's command, at Williamson's Plantation near Bratton's own land. At dawn, on the morning of July 12th, they launched a surprise attack. They soundly defeated Huck's forces with only one rebel life lost and only a handful of the English who were not either dead or wounded. The five Whig prisoners were all rescued. The tyrannical Huck was delivered a fatal shot to his head, by John Carroll, as Huck attempted to rally his troops from horseback.
The victory of these Patriot militiamen was but a small one in numbers but was huge in that it had a resounding effect. Patriots enthusiastically joined the militia once they had seen that the militia could defeat British forces even where the American army had failed. It was the first such victory in SC in 1780 with many Patriot militia victories to follow that year and the next. America finally had a victory it sorely needed in the south. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huck%27s_Defeat.
...for how well or not you shot with it. A perfect example was given during my armed guard qualification today. I shot with two semi-automatic pistols. For the first qual, I shot my Glock 26. While I scored a perfect score my shooting with the Glock was far from perfect. My shots were either centered or just left of center and the group was not very tight at all in my opinion. I'd estimate that, after firing 50 rounds through paper, the group was about 8 inches across. I had thought that maybe I had too much finger on the trigger and that was causing me to shoot to the left some, so I adjusted and indeed did shoot a bit more toward the center but my group's center was at least 2-3" to the left of center - even close in.
For my second qaul, I shot one of my Beretta 92FS pistols. This one probably has less than 750 rounds through it, certainly less than a thousand. I own two and shoot the other much more often. Anyway, I could see a vast difference as soon as I started shooting with the Beretta. My shots were dead center of the targets inner and only ring which was about 4x4". I only have NY SAFE Act legal 10 rounds magazines for my Beretta here in NY. That meant that I would be reloading at times other than those if using 15 round magazines that the instructor handed out for folks with Glocks; he di not have any Beretta mags. (I used my own 15 round mags for the Glock and they are legal as opposed to 15 round mags for the Beretta but that is a long convoluted story based on me being a retired LEO and the SAFE Act.)
I just operated on the hot line principle and reloaded as needed; sadly some of the other guys qualifying with me would not have a clue if it came to not being told exactly when to reload but what can I say. Without further straying from the subject, as I was saying, I saw a big difference once I started shooting the Beretta. The shots were right on center. After firing all 50 rounds for the qualification course, I noted that there were 4 fliers that were not part of the group formed by the other 46 rounds. That one hole group was at most 2.5" across and the fliers spread the group to widest point at about 4.5-5 inches, they were just outside the inner ring.
I did not do anything differently in how I held or fired each pistol. It was all the same as usual, except for the fact I changed my trigger finger placement a bit on the Glock early on. While that minor change helped some little bit, I still was firing to the left with the Glock. So, without a doubt, I can blame my shooting to the left on the Glock. All to often, being off like that is due to shooter error but yes, you can sometimes blame the gun and this was one of them. A little sight adjustment might be in order although it is nothing I really need be concerned about for close in pistol shooting out to 25 yards.
Shooting two different guns, or even two of the same model can sometimes tell you if the sights are off for you. Shooting a single gun, like my Glock, and adjusting the sights because you were shooting to the left or the right might not be actually addressing what is causing your shots to be off. Before adjusting the sights, I try to assure that I am doing the basics just right. I did that with the Glock and still fired to the left. Then, I saw that I had been doing it right, at least after my adjustment, because of how well I shot with the Beretta. So I am confident that it is the sights on the Glock that could use a bit of tweaking and not my shooting style.
It always is well worth considering whether or not it is you or your gun that needs correction when your shots are off like that. Another way of doing so would be to ask (where legal and its not in NY) someone else to try a few to several shots with the pistol in question. If they were shooting dead center with their gun, then shoot off center with yours, chances are the sights on your pistol need adjusting. If however, they shoot dead center with your gun - chances are you need the adjusting. As I said sometimes you really can blame the gun; yet, in truth, most times you have to blame the shooter.
Added As An Afterthought: It sure feels good to see that, now and then, I still can shoot as good as I did today. That is all.
Finally got around to doing a fairly decent detailed strip of my Remington 241 Speedmaster after only owning it for just over 9 years. (If you want to know the detailed reason as why that took so long, read the long story in the post directly before this one.)
In brief, the reason it took almost a decade was that I did not know how to do it until today. I found a YouTube video about taking down and reassembling the Browning SA22, which is close enough to the Remington 241, to give me the knowledge and confidence to try it. While there were notable differences relative to the takedown method and to bolt removal, the innards were similar enough to have everything go the same for the disassembly to the point he did it in the video. Reassembly was a breeze, just as he showed it, with the only pain being getting the recoil spring back into place. Really, that was fairly easy too once I gave it about 5 seconds of thought and maybe because unlike the guy who made the video, I had wiped the oil off of my fingers. before dong it.
You have heard here before, that yours truly is The Great Procrastinator. I imagine one of the reasons for that is my father was never around to show me how to do anything when I was a kid and I never gained the confidence to do things because of the extreme lack of both coaching and know how passed on from him to me. Now, that does not mean I won't do anything but it sure limits what kind of projects I readily and happily take on. Things I will do are thing for which I have received expert training, like work on my Glock since I am a certified Glock armorer. I am also a pretty decent firearms instructor and while I do not work at that any more, I am always willing to give free instructions because I have the confidence, built of years of training and experience, to know I am getting it done right. Forget things like plumbing or electrical work; painting I can do but I such at plastering and when it comes to other handiwork around the house I am a putz (and yes I do know the meaning of what I just said).
One of the quasi-mechanical things I will do is to maintain and even make small repairs on some of my firearms. I am not always that great about getting it done though. Sometimes I forget to clean them for months and rust is usually the result but I usually take decent care of them. When it comes to my guns, I am more on the willing side to attempt something I've never done before, like detail strip (disassemble virtually completely) and then reassemble one or a minor repair of an internal part like replacing a firing pin or some springs. Still though, while I am willing to try it, I try to avoid attempting it without detailed instructions and right there is not only that lack of confidence thing again but also something more important being revealed about me. At some point in time, somewhere along the journey from the first rifle I ever held an fired up through this very day, I have developed a bit of wisdom when it comes to taking guns apart and putting them back together. Almost without exception, it takes a father of sorts or a mentor, an instructor, a good detailed set of instructions with diagrams, a guru on a mountain top, or a good YouTube video of a knowledgeable person doing the same thing to get me to the point where I will attempt to take apart one of my guns and put it back together.
Believe me on that, it is wise a wise gun guy / gal who gets some good instructions on how to do it before trying t delve into the mechanical innards of a shotgun, rifle, pistol or revolver. I remember the first pistol I took apart. it was a RG25 Auto (and yes RG does stand for rotten gun as far as I am concerned). All I did was field stripped it and then when I tried to put it back together, I kinked the recoil spring. I brought it back to where I purchased it and they replaced the darned thing saying it was faulty (I guess they had more experience with RG being junk than with goofballs like me screwing them up) and they did it for free. Early on in my career, when I was one of the Mean Green, I took apart my issued revolver. it was a Colt Border Patrol 357 magnum. It was pretty easy to take apart and as I remember it sure seemed fairly easy to reassemble too. The thing was when I tried dry firing it, to do a function test, I heard a loud crunch that wound up being one of the springs being destroyed by one of the moving parts. It took me a long time to live down that one but at least I learned you that Colts were not user friendly for such maintenance as were S&W revolvers; you in essence had to be a certified Colt armorer to get anything done with them!
Years went by after that and for the most part all I ever did to any of my gun was to field strip them for basic maintenance. I got into doing a bit more, taking don some to their basic components once I became a firearms instructor in the Customs Service. While those were only collateral duties, I gained a lot more exposure to permanent range personnel and learned a good deal from them. I started doing more thorough maintenance on some of my guns and one that stands out as probably the first was my Remington 870 shotgun. It became a ritual for me to detail strip it at least once or twice a year for a good cleaning and inspection. I was also able to change parts that did not require a gunsmith to accomplish ( for instance Remington recommended only a gunsmith change the ejector in the 870, or at least they did back then). Anyway, as time moved on, the next thing I knew I was taking a Glock Armorer's course on 9/11 - yes that 9/11. Once we heard the news, my cousin who was in the class with me (he was a retired Nassau County Police officer and got a job as a permanent range officer for Customs) headed back to the city to see what we could do to help and I was left in limbo and not certified by Glock as an armorer. I don't recall how long after that it was but sooner or later (probably later knowing me) I attended a Glock Armorer's course on my own time and my own dime.
I guess that armorer's course and my firearms instructor experience and all gave me some needed confidence. After that, I just started tinkering with some of my other guns to maintain them and even make minor repairs. I have not and will not do gunsmith work on any of my guns. I am not about to polish a feed ramp, well I might on a 22 rifle that I use as a plinker but I certainly would not do something like that on a self defense pistol on which my life depends. I have seen too many all knowing gun gurus do it themselves only to wind up with guns that went click instead of bang. Wow, did I just say I might do it on a 22 plinker, my confidence certainly has grown over the years and that is mostly due to training - to instruction - of one sort or another. An example of such training, nothing formal mind you, was a video I watched on YouTube today.
I 've owned a Remington Model 241, The Speedmaster (not a Speedmaster as most, even I, usually call it) for 9 years, 2 months and 8 days today. over all those years, I have taken it down for cleaning often but only by way of a field strip (partial disassembly to do basic maintenance). I had searched high and low for an instruction sheet or a video on how to disassemble it for a detailed strip but never found any. Today, while I was giving it a cleaning, I decided to look one more time for those instructions and something dawned on me like the proverbial light bulb turning on inside my brain. The Remington 241 is pretty much a copy of a similar Browning. Why I had not thought of this before, while searching for those instructions is a mystery to me but I done thunk of it today. So, I searched for instructions on how to detail strip the Browning and there they were in the first video that came up when I typed in the right keywords. Granted, the model of the Browning shown in the video was much newer than my Remington 241 and there were definitely some differences between them but by watching that video I was given not only the knowledge I needed. I guess the video and my past experience gave me the confidence to tackle the job even though there was a notable difference on how to remove the bolt being that the Remington has a pin in the bolt operating handle that must be depressed and held in place while removing the bolt.
Somehow though, I was confident I could get it done right and that I could disassemble and reassemble the 241 after seeing that video. Here is where something else, built on experience (and confidence) comes into the picture. I was absolutely certain, or should I say 100% confident, after watching the video that the guy who made it was sure of what he was doing and had done it several times before successfully. Thus I was also sure I could get it done with the Remington even though some parts and operations were plainly different. Luckily for me, those external differences were readily apparent to me and easy to overcome and luckily, the major things he did internally were virtually the same for his Browning as they wound up being for my Remington. So finally, after having owned it for over 9 years, the little tube fed, semi-auto, shooter has been detail stripped, cleaned and oiled and reassembled - and based on my function check it seems to work too. In fact, it operates now better than it did before I took it apart. While I know there was 9 year plus of shooting grime in it, my guess would be there had to have been at least 40 years or more accumulated gunk and grime built up in there. It's gone now and the 241 bolt is running much smoother than before.
I should mention that while I have been calling it a detailed strip that I did on the 241, it technically was not one. It was probably more like a 75-80% strip. I did not fully disassemble the bolt although I removed the bolt, recoil spring, the firing pin and its spring. I did not remove the extractor as mine had two retaining pins near it instead of one (the guy who did the video did not remove his either but explained how to do it). I also did nor remove the sights or anything to do with the internal parts of the receiver that guide the rounds to the camber from the tubular magazine. Yes, of course, I removed the magazine and cleaned it, but the receiver contains what is obviously a cartridge guide that appears to be held in place with a screw and I saw absolutely no benefit to removing or even trying to remove it so I left it in place and cleaned it and around it as best I could. I may try that next time and may disassemble the bolt too but want more instruction on that. This time around, I was so happy about finally getting the rest of it done right that I figured I had best not tempt fate or Mr. Murphy.
I left a comment, probably too long of one as is this post, for the guy who made that video, to thank him. I love it when one of us is willing to help the rest of us by sharing his or her knowledge about firearms and am always thankful to they who do so. It is one of the things that keeps the shooting community strong.
As I noted in a recent post, I finally fired my Polish WZ-48 trainer in 22LR a couple of nights ago. It was about time after owning it for more than 4 years and 8 months. In all that time, I have searched many times for a manual for it and would have settled for an exploded parts diagram of it but never found either. Despite not having them, I decided to do a detailed strip of it this evening to give it a long overdue complete cleaning.
Manual or no manual, it needed to be fully taken down and cleaned and I pretty much got to everything. I must say this is one of the most simple rifles, as far as number of parts - disassembly and assembly go, that I own. The only things I did not take apart were the sights and the bolt. While I did remove the firing pin from the bolt, I could not figure out how to take apart the rest of the bolt and figured why chance breaking it especially since parts would be hard if not impossible to find. As for the firing pin removal, that was easy, it is held in place by a screw. If though, any of my readers are knowledgeable of how to disassemble the bolt, please do let me know and I'll get to that pronto.
Putting it back together was almost as easy as taking it apart. Had I paid a bit more attention to how it came apart I would have been certain as to how to put it back together instead of just almost sure. Anyway, I got it right except for a washer that fell out of the stock when I took out the rear bolt that holds the wood to the metal. When I tried reassembly without realizing it was missing, the bolt would not slide back into place. After about 8 - 10 tries of doing this and that, I figured out where it was catching and that it had to be that screw. So, either I had mixed up the front and rear screws that hold the metal to the wood (and they sure looked to be the same length) or there was a missing washer. A look at the screw in front showed one was there, so I started looking around on the carpet and there was the one for the rear screw right at my feet. Once I put that in place and reassembled everything, the bolt went into place like greased lighting.
Once reassembled completely, I function checked it and everything worked fine. Because it would be easy to reverse the firing pin, I also ran a couple of 22 blanks through it to assure I had gotten it right. Went bang each time.
Note that I would have made a video of this if I had a camera that shot decent video. That camera went belly up some time back and a new one is on the wish list. When I finally get one, I may just have to do a video of the disassembly and reassembly of the WZ-48 because I have never seen one anywhere. As for the WZ-48 remaining in my collection, I have been thinking of selling it lately, still am, but I am not as enthused about getting rid of it as I was before I stripped it and got it back together with nary a real problem. Still though, it is a single shot and as I said in my previous post about shooting it, it is tedious to load. I'll have to debate whether or not I want to sell it. For now though, I think a second trip to the range with it is in my near future.
...because of his association with an alleged child pornographer or is he possibly actually involved in criminal activity. I would hope not either way.
While I am not a great fan of Subway, I do eat there now and then both because my son used to love it and because Jared Fogle was, to me, truly an impressive spokesman. His tremendous weight loss, achieved by him restricting his diet to Subway sandwiches of turkey and veggies, gave hope to others that they could control their own appetites and lose weight too. More on him, and the search of his home by authorities, here.
Pardon me while I go look for something to help end my sudden cravings for an Italian BMT smothered in pickles, onions and jalapeno peppers!
...hired an apparently disrespectful narcissist (my layman's term not a professional mental health provider's opinion) to be their spokeswoman? More here.
...I suppose I should post a photo of another target at which not only would I have sworn I took only three shots but am absolutely certain at which I fired only three times. See anything a bit unusual about it?
At first, even though I was virtually certain I had fired only three times, I thought maybe I had screwed up and fired four shots at it but then I realized I only had put three rounds on the bench before loading. Then I thought maybe one of the bullets was faulty and partitioned and made two holes but I figure that to be pretty far fetched. As I was cleaning up, it suddenly dawned on me that something else may have happened. A man and who I am assuming was his young daughter were on the point next to me to my left. They were firing a 22 rifle. my guess is it was one of their shots; although, I suppose I'll never know for sure. For all I know maybe I fired it but as I said, I would have sworn, and still would swear, I only fired three rounds at that target. Then again, that is a group of the Federal Value Pack ammo that I was firing consistently to the right like that, so perhaps I should not be trying to blame a kid who may well shoot better than me.
...showing how I did with my first shots from my Savage Axis in 308WIN and my Polish WZ-48 in 22LR. As I described in my previous post about my range trip, I was shooting sets of two shots with the Axis. I know it is usual to fire sets of three shots when sighting in a rifle but I figured if I was not getting any really errant flyers, why bother wasting a third shot. Doing it this way, I was able to zero in pretty quickly and I saved seven rounds I would otherwise have fired. With ammo at its current prices, I am okay with that.
Note there was a flyer on the fourth set, the one that hit dead center.
The fifth and sixth sets were getting there.
Since the last two sets were so close, I adjusted the scope a bit more,
flipped a target over and aimed at what I thought was dead center.
I prefer shooting at the blank side because I have not met a prey
animal or dirtbag yet that was wearing a bullseye to shoot and in
fact the two shots were pretty much dead center in the bullseye.
All in all, despite the horrendous trigger on the Savage Axis, I am happy with the accuracy that can be achieved even if I was only shooting at 30 yards. Sooner or later I will fire it at 50 yards and then sight it in for 100 or maybe even 200 yards. As for the Polish WZ-48, I fired several groups of three shots at it (22 ammo being much cheaper than 308, I did not mind firing three each set). I fired it at 25 yards throughout after the first three shots at 50 feet. I only had a couple of brands of ammo with me and each of those made a difference in the accuracy department. I fired Remington Target 22LR standard velocity and Federal Value Pack High Velocity copper washed ammo from the WZ-48.
This target was typical of several I shot while firing three round
sets of the Remington Target Standard velocity 22LR ammo.
This target was typical of several I shot while firing three round
sets of the Federal Value Pack High Velocity 22LR ammo.
Nothing special on those targets that I'd write home to mom about (unless I was a kid again back in summer camp and then I be darned proud) but it certainly shows the WZ-48 is more than good enough for a plinker or squirrel slayer. Perhaps I should fire a lot more brands and types of 22LR through it to see how well it does; I imagine if one took the time to match it with an ammo it really likes and then threw a scope on it, it would be balls on accurate out to at least 50 yards if not to 75. Too bad it is not a repeater fed by a box magazine or even a tube, this single shot stuff can be tedious but even then it was fun. by the way, I suppose I should mention, there was zero (as in absolutely none) felt recoil with this 22 rifle. All in all, I would recommend both of these guns, based for now only on my preliminary shoot of each of them, as good decent guns for the shooter on a tight budget. Putting it another way, they certainly are not excellent by any means but are none too shabby either. More, at least on the Axis, after I test it at more distant ranges. All the best, Glenn B
...the keyword there was "almost". I set up a meeting with someone who was interested in my Winchester Model 37 shotgun. We agreed to meet at a range local to me. He said he would be there in an hour and would call before he got there. I waited and waited and then just headed to the range arriving about an hour and a half after we spoke to one another. I sat there awhile, then went inside to assure we could use the range for him to look at the gun. I had done it there before but it had been sometime since the last time. The range person told me we could not use the range for that purpose unless he paid $22 as a nonresident and I paid $10 as a resident. Back to the parking lot and I called my local FFL who said sure the buyer could look at it at his shop - no problem.
Shortly after that, the buyer called and said he was lost. He was less than a 1/8 of a mile from the range and I told him so and he said he would try to find it. About 15 minutes later he called again and told me he was in a parking lot at a certain location because he still could not find the range. I drove there only because I know that GPS devices often lead the people looking for the range to the first location he had mentioned and because the other parking lot he was then in was a very public location and very close to the range. That lot was literally directly across the road from the range entrance, I could not figure how he had missed it.
Anyway, I went to the lot and met him, then explained about the range wanting to charge so much to use their facility for 5 minutes at most. I suggested he follow me to my FFL less than 10 minutes away. I gave him the name (which had also been in my ad) and was about to give him the address when he said we should go to far corner or out of the way less busy area of the parking lot and do the deal there! That was not about to happen and I immediatelty told him so. I reminded him of my requirement that the buyer pass a NICS check at my local FFL. He literally waved me off and said he doesn't have to have a NICS check because he is an FFL licensee. He indicated he had his FFL, then went to his vehicle, pulled out an envelope and took a paper out of it and handed it to me. It was apparently a photocopy of a NY State Dealer in firearms license and was not an FFL and I really did not do more than glance at it when I saw that. I simply and politely told him I would only sell the gun to someone who passed a NICS check and he said forget it and got back into his vehicle.
At that point I said goodbye and drove away. I don't know about where you live but I can tell you that there is no way under the sun (or under the moon or the dark of the darkest night) that I am about to sell someone a firearm, out of my car's trunk, in a parking lot, in NY State. This isn't AZ or KY or even NH and it sure as hell is not KS so there is no way I am about to do anything that even hints of impropriety or illegality with firearms here in feudal kingdom of Cuomoistan. Even if there was absolutely nothing legally wrong with such a sale (and mind you handling an uncased shotgun in a public parking lot in Nassau County, NY would be considered illegal by any passing cop) there was just too much wrong with this scenario.
Things that prickled the hairs on my neck were those such as: him being unable to find the place immediately across the road from where he was parked, his showing me a NY State Dealer in Firearms License copy instead of an FFL, him not having informed me beforehand that he was an FFL holder but yet asked me if I was a dealer while we made arrangements over the phone earlier, his insistence that we move to a more out of the way area in the parking lot in a location he chose instead of meeting at our previously agreed upon and easily found meeting place, his refusal to go to the dealer's shop and him wanting to buy it from me out of the trunk of my car, all without him going through a NICS check. (Yeah, I know dealers are not required to pass a NICS check by law but it was one of my requirements plainly mentioned in my ad.)
I am very happy I did not invite this person to my home to view the gun here. For all I know he is as honest as the day is long but all that stuff gave me the creeps, especially the bit about wanting to do a firearms transaction in a more out of the way place within the parking lot. It merely could have been he was a legitimate FFL holder and wanted to do a deal without the additional hassle of a drive to my local FFL and thus was willing to try to get me to do it in the parking lot, or could have been that he was working with or was part of law enforcement and trying to set me up for an arrest on some sort of weapon sales charges if I did something stupid and illegal, or that he was with someone else and hoping to rip me off in that other more out of the way corner of the parking lot. Whichever, I was not about to find out because I was not about to complete a sale other than under my terms that had been announced in my ad.
...and had some first time fun shooting both of them. While that may seem like it's a contradiction in terms, it's not at all since I never before shot the new one or the old one.
The new one was the Savage Axis, in .308 WIN, that I picked up at the Hessney Auction last month. In brief, the trigger was absolutely horrendous, my bet would be that it broke at about 12-15 pounds and it had a terribly long creep and crunch until it went click and allowed the firing pin to fly forward. Other than that it felt good in the hand, rested nicely on my shoulder and the bolt operated pretty smoothly regardless of the fact that this is a bargain basement rifle. Something I thought would be a problem, that turned out to be one, were the cheap magazines that Savage chose for this rifle. They are steel but with a polymer sleeve the front of which acts as the magazine catch and release (by bending it). The mags, I have three of them (the gun came with only one and I bought two extras last week) are sometimes difficult to snap into place, it takes some getting used to. They can also be a bit difficult to remove. They hold four (4) rounds each but when loaded to capacity, I could not get the rifle to feed a round out of them and into the chamber reliably every time on the first round. I will have to work on that. With three rounds in each, they worked fine.
As for whether or not it is a shooter, I have to say that I only fired it at about 30 yards. I was at an indoor range and that was only 30 yards maximum (or 28 yards as a range officer claimed as opposed to what the website for the range says). Anyway, I decided to try a few shots using the scope that came pre-attached to the gun and fired two shots, then two more. They were all fairly close to one another and then I started fiddling with the adjustments for windage and elevation took a few more shots and was in the black but high. Did it a bit more and was in there good enough to head to the outdoor range with it next time out and sight it in at 50 and then probably at 100 yards. If it shoots as well at the 50 and 100 yard points, resting on sandbags, as it shot today with me holding it in a two hand hold, in a bent over standing position with my elbows resting on the bench, I will be quite happy with it's accuracy. That's because after shooting the earlier shots at the bullseye, I turned a target around and fired at what I thought was the center of the target. The first shot was pretty much in the center and the second shot went through the first. Even if only at 30 yards (or 28), I was impressed.
I was shooting 180 grain Remington Premier Core-Lokt Ultra Bonded PSP rounds (they sure make it sound groovy, don't they baby). I have a wide selection of different brands of .308WIN ammo split between bullet weights of 150 and 180 grains. I want to see how I do with each and am figuring that if the 180 grain bullets all perform well in the accuracy departments, I am going to stock up mostly on them since I'll be using the Savage Axis for hunting in pretty thick cover. Of course, I'll keep some 150 grain stuff on hand too.
I don't plan on doing anything to customize the Axis although, I am certain many would recommend a trigger job if they have ever felt the one in this gun. I don't like to fiddle with manufacturer specs. I will check those though, the specs, and then may have the trigger weight checked because I find it hard to believe it is going to match whatever they claim in the specs - it is that bad. If it is way off from what the say it should be set at, it may need a trip to their factory for a bit of work. I truly find it hard to fathom that a firearms manufacturer as big as Savage would set the trigger weight as high as I believe it must have been when I fired it this evening. Then again, I am a wuss, so who knows.
Regardless of the trigger and the mags, I was otherwise almost impressed with it. Next time I bid at the auction though, I think it will no be on bargain basement stuff like what I bid on this time. I'd much prefer a Remington 700 or even a different Savage model, one with an Accu-Trigger. I hear they are excellent triggers ad that Savage puts them on very good to excellent shooting rifles. As for the Remington 700s, nothing needs to b said about their legendary inherent accuracy.
Before I forget, I guess I should make mention of the other gun I shot. That was my Polish WZ-48 Trainer in 22LR. It's a single shot, military training rifle. It has the weirdest extractor I have ever seen and in order to load it I found it easiest to push the extractor forward a bit so it was close to the chamber face so it wouldn't get in the way as I tried to load each round. You have to see it and how it operates to understand. So, it was a bit tedious reloading this thing but I had fun shooting it regardless. I shot it at 50 feet first, then moved the target out to 25 yards and did the rest of my shooting with it at that distance. The bolt operated smooth enough for a single shot although it needed a bit more push near the end of its forward travel to seat the round. The sights were pretty skimpy, at least for my older eyes. The rear notch is a bit small for my liking height and width wise as is the front sight but I was able to maintain good focus on the front sight post keeping both the rear sight and target just a bit blurry (which is what you want). I held at a lollypop position on the bullseye at 25 yards and was satisfied wit how I shot using the Remington Target standard velocity 22LR ammo I had along. When I switched to Federal Value Pack high velocity ammo, the groups were off to the right and somewhat bigger than with the Remington standard velocity stuff. As with any ammo/gun combination, for a firearm chambered in 22LR, I'll need to soot a bunch of different brands and loads of ammo through this rifle to see which rounds it likes best. In all, I figure if I had to hit a squirrel at 25 yards, with it just as is, I could make fur fly on at least 4 out of 5 shots. That's it for now, for the range report, maybe I'll post a couple of pics of my targets in this post, or in another tomorrow.
As a closing note, I said that it was the first time I fired each of these guns and that is correct. As I have mentioned before, I am The Great Procrastinator. While I just bought the Savage Axis (and fired it in near record time for me), I bought the Polish WZ-48 in October 1911 during utter misery my cancer treatments. It arrived at my house on Halloween 2011. It was sort of a belated birthday present for myself that even though at the time I truly believed I may never get the chance to shoot, I wanted to get because it was manufactured in the same year I was born. I figured even if I did not make it through my treatments to fire it, my son would have something from me that was as old as me. Anyway, here I am and I have had it since then and only fired it for the first time today - 4 years, 8 months and 7 days (bearing in mind I am
counting day one and today) - since it arrived at my house. Did I mention that I am The Great Procrastinator. All the best, Glenn B
...would be carried out on dirtbags who commit offenses like the alleged ones linked to below, at least we could rest assured that those found guilty of such offenses could never again commit another similar crime or, in fact, any other one. Boy Beaten Until In Critical Condition For Eating Cake
What in hell is wrong with America when things like this have become excusable? There is no excuse and there should only be one outcome if the accused are found guilty - a swift execution.
