It Wasn't A Python In His Pants...

...no matter what he thought about his masculinity.

A man in South Carolina was recently arrested for indecent exposure after he reportedly got naked on the side of a road in plain view of motorists. Allegedly, he claimed to police that snakes in his pants had been biting him. Who woulda thunk it but police supposedly believed he was intoxicated at the time and said there were no evident snakebites! More at the source.

Thankfully, I have never been that smashed.

All the best,
Glenn B

Hitler Reincarnate In Jerusalem

Yes that title refers to President Donald Trump, about whom a commentator at CNN reportedly said:

“This man is even worse than the Nazis,”

...and who reportedly said:

 “President Trump is literally—and I say this without any exaggeration or embellishment—he is literally Adolf Hitler reincarnated.” (source)

Funny isn't it how the reason for President Trump being in Israel is to open the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. A Nazi, the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, I think not.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

Great Advice To Survive A Knife Attack

This really is some good advice on how to survive a knife attack if you actually have the opportunity to do it. Of course, if you are armed, you could always draw your weapon while fleeing - just in case the other guy starts to catch up on you.

A hat tip an my thanks to Mike G for that one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Is It Allergy Season Yet

All the best,
Glenn B

One Never Can Be Certain How One Will React...

...to any given situation but I hope I would react this way in such a situation:

All the best,
Glenn B

On Which Side Are You

 

God help us.

 

All the best,

Glenn B

Surprisingly There Were Two Good & Honest Answers

Usually when you see college students being interviewed about anyone with a conservative viewpoint versus someone with a liberal view, you get answers like most of those in the below video - all leaning far to the left. Surprisingly though, two students  - who seem to be obvious liberals - gave answers that readily admitted they could not fathom why Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize and one even thought Trump may as well get one too.

All the best,
Glenn B

From A Useless Mother F'er...

...as our president - to a man who doesn't let other countries screw with America.

All the best,
Glenn B

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Some flowers for all you mothers out there, enjoy your special day.

All the best,
Glenn B

Whatever Happened To Steve's Pages

Every now and then, when I was in dire need of a firearms manual and could not find one just about anywhere, I would look to Steve's Pages and very often there was exactly what I had been seeking. Should have gone there first I guess. Well, I recently tried to look up a manual or two on Steve's Page 7B. First off I was unable to open any of the files once there. Kept getting some error message indicating that the owner of the site was possibly blocking traffic to it (that turned out to be correct). Secondly, I learned that Steve had passed away. Sadly, we in the firearms community have lost a good man. Damn, based on a copyright notice on the page saying that the info was copyrighted by Chris Hayes in 2015, I am guessing Steve either passed around then or became incapacitated in someway to be unable to run the site and passed later but that is guesswork on my part.

What to do? I contacted Chris Hayes and he sent me a fairly long email about why he site was down. He has that info posted on the main page here. Then he went on to say he might turn it into a members only site. He also said he may start charging an annual membership fee of $10-$20. I could live with that. It seems that some progress may have been made in that now when I try to enter any of the pages, I get a pop up asking for a user name and password, I also get informed that is not secure. I looked around as much as I could on the site but see no way to register for it. I a guessing that is coming soon since the added pop up asking for user info is there now.

I wish Chris Hayes all the luck in the world with getting the site going again, it is an invaluable resource to us all.

All the best,
Glenn B

Foxy Lady

A woman in China reportedly went to a pet shop to buy a pet dog Japanese Spitz. After months of caring for it, somethings about its appearance started to change as it grew and its behavior seemed odd to her. Turned out she had purchased a white fox! She is donating it to a local zoo. More at the source.

All the best,
Glenn B

I've Been A Bit Lax...

...when it comes to firearms maintenance. I cleaned a handful of my handguns this afternoon and realized that three of them had not been cleaned after their last trip to the range with me. Then tonight, or should I say last night into early this morning,  I cleaned another several of them. A few of them also had not been cleaned since their last range trip and I could not remember when I last shot a couple of them. Egads that is terrible. My guess, in my defense, is that I last shot at least a few of them, on the weekends, when I was essentially working full time this winter for three months. While I should have cleaned them right after the range, I must have figured then that I had better things to do with what little time I had on my weekends and neglected them. No excuse is a good one when it comes to not cleaning them after shooting them. Let's face it - a happy gun is a clean gun and I want to keep my guns happy.

I have several more that need cleaning and once I am done with them it will be time to start on the long guns, both rifles and shotguns. That may take me until midweek to complete, if not longer. I am in the groove though when it comes to getting this job done if only because the aroma of hopes has infused my house and I am loving it.

All the best,
Glenn B 

Hey Leftist Lib Loons - Riddle Me This

A man I know very well (don't know any better than I know this man) - an Endowment Life Member of the National Rifle Association, a member of at least two other pro-gun organizations, has a hunting license and has killed animals for their meat and trophies, owns scores of guns, including a so called semi-automatic assault rifle, has thousands of rounds of ammunition, owns a crossbow and a couple of compound bows (all with arrows) has all sorts of firearms accessories, owns camo clothing and other related gun and hunting gear, has taught his children and others to shoot - hasn't gone out and shot up a no-gun zone. He has never shot any innocent person nor has he ever illegally shot a bad guy in self-defense. As a matter of fact he has not: robbed a bank, mugged anyone, knifed anyone, committed arson, nor committed any other violent crime.

I just do not understand how a person with all that so called evil firepower around him, and the ever so evil influence of the NRA in his life, has not lost it and gone berserk like the lib whackos who have shot up schools, churches, nightclubs, an outdoor concert and the like. Is it because, unlike them, he is supporter of the Constitution and a responsible rights loving citizen with a libertarian & conservative lean and belongs an organization that espouses responsible firearms ownership! 

There are millions out there just like the man I just mentioned and mind you - not one single mass murderer has been like that patriotic, rights loving, responsible, NRA member of a gun owner - not a single one. So tell me - why is it that he has not committed a mass murder or other heinous crimes and why is it you hate us - the NRA & its members and gun owners in general - so much!

All the best,
Glenn B

Grandfather Arrested For Playing Good Guys and Bad Guys With Grandson

No not really, no granddads were arrested yet for that as far as I know but just recently an autistic 5th grader was arrested for reportedly "firing" an imaginary rifle in the classroom. Supposedly his teacher felt threatened and reported it. Police responded, handcuffed the child, and held him in custody for hours. The county attorney thinks criminal charges can be avoided. More at the source. He also reportedly said this:

"We want to get them turned around and on the right path,"

I wonder what path is that - the one to being subservient to a tyrannical government is my bet. I seem to remember playing with imaginary and toy guns as a child - learning to soot real guns at summer camp and growing up to be just fine, at least as far as being responsible with guns goes. So too my daughter and my son. If that had been my child, locked up like that for playing with an imaginary gun in class, I am fairly certain that a civil suit, against the teacher, the school, the police and the county attorney could not be avoided.

Now back to the old granddad getting busted. I am wondering when it will happen but I am expecting that someday in the not too distant future - maybe in six months or at most a year or two from now - I will be arrested and my grandson will be placed in protective custody because some snowflake (used to call them pussies) will make a complaint that they will have seen us playing cops & robbers or cowboys & aliens (more commonly call cowboys & Indians back in the day) with toy guns or because we are having a water gun fight or maybe for merely pointing our fingers at one another and saying bang-bang. It is coming believe me - it may not be me and my grandson - but some poor old granddad will be arrested for something along those lines - mark my words!

It may even get so bad that singing this in school gets your child locked up:



Such is the current version of the Bizarro World in which we live!

All the best,
Glenn B

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

 

Senator John McCain - Former Hero and Current...

...unmitigated piece of shit in my opinion. As a matter of fact, everything I am about to say in this piece (except for those things with a given source) are my opinion.

For several years now I have marveled at how it is that the people of the state of Arizona kept on reelecting this bum. Let's face it, he is a super- RINO among RINOs. He is essentially a supporter of illegal aliens (criminals breaking our immigration laws) and thus supports (directly or indirectly) what essentially amounts to the invasion of our nation by illegal aliens that has been ongoing for decades. Recently he told Joseph Biden that he should not drop out of politics (source) - foul mothed blabber mouth ultra progressive Joe Biden being told to stay in politics by a man claiming to be a Republican! Imagine Joe Biden running for the presidency in our next presidential election and winning - our country, our constitution and our rights would be doomed. McCain reportedly has also recently stated, in his book, that he is sorry he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate over Joseph Lieberman (same source as above). Palin a fairly staunch conservative and what the republican party and the nation need and the other an unapologetic hawkish progressive.

Now, I do not care for a moment tat McCain does not want President Trump at his funeral (source). I can understand why he is snubbing him. President Trump is a blabbermouth himself and never should have said what he said about John McCain being less of a hero because of having been a prisoner of war. What Trump said was not only disgraceful but was offensive to all of our military who have suffered, especially those who were POWs. That is not the issue though today. What is the issue is that McCain is a RINO - he seemingly does not espouse any of the conservative ideals that once were the pillars of the Republican party and he has supported criminals invading our great nation by way of illegal border crossings, in my understanding. He is also off the wall when it comes to vindictive retaliation as I see it.

For example, John McCain seemingly colluded (is that the right word to describe it or would conspiring be better) with former agents of a foreign government:

"Christopher Steele instructed Sir Andrew Wood – a former British ambassador to Russia – to approach McCain about the existence of the dossier while Wood and McCain were both attending a security conference in Canada.

McCain later received hard copies of the dossier from Fusion GPS, and relayed a copy to the FBI, Fox News reported."

He says he would do it again too even though he has admitted that he had no clue as to whether or not any of the allegations in the Steele dossier were true before he gave them to James Comey, then director of the FBI. More at the source. To me it sounds merely like he was seeking revenge on Trump and thus was the perfect patsy onto which our enemies could unload that seemingly bogus and unsubstantiated dossier. 

So, in essence, what he did was passed along unsubstantiated 
allegations that he apparently got via colluding (is that the right word to describe it or would conspiring be better) to try to bring down Donald Trump. I think that besides being a RINO and a progressive one at that, the man is a vindictive piece of shit who would stoop to noting to bring down someone he dislikes.

So, what is at issue here is that Americans need to wake up, at least those who are not committed to any political party and those who are either libertarians or conservatives and not ever again vote in turncoats like John McCain. And note, I do not and would not ever do what Trump did by belittling McCain's was service especially his experience as a POW. I can only honor him for that. The thing is though, I cannot honor him for running as a Republican and then becoming a dyed in the wool turncoat RINO who is supportive of an unmitigated progressive like Joseph Biden remaining in politics nor can I honor him for making such disparaging remarks about a true patriot such as Sarah Palin, nor for how he handled the Steele dossier, nor for his support of illegal aliens.

I suppose now that I have said all of this, I can - as John McCain reportedly put it - go to hell (source). Well Senator McCain, chances are you will be there before me but if I somehow get there before you, I'll reserve a nice hot spot for you. 

All the best,
Glenn B

If All Goes Well Today...

...I should have a new boomer in my possession by late this afternoon. Any delays and I probably will have it tomorrow. I am hoping though I can meet the seller at 130 this afternoon, get the FFL & NICS stuff done quickly, get back to my county PD to get a purchase document and then make it back to the gun store to pick it up before they close at 7PM. I'd like to have it to shoot at the range either tomorrow or on Saturday or Sunday.

I suppose this means I have to sell another gun or three - maybe even 4 or 5 of them - from my collection to make up for this one and the last three I purchased. Oh well, such is how  the cylinder 
revolves (even though the one today is a semi-auto). More on the gun later.

All the best,
Glenn B

It's A Nice Day For Gardening & Bird Watching...

...around here and if I had a neighbor worth watching I'd be outside gardening. Actually, I did get some gardening done today and put birdseed in the feeders too.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Last Cast Remembered



Have you ever actually caught a fish on what you said would be your very last cast at any fishing spot? It certainly does not happen very often. What is more likely to happen is you decide to cast a few more times and make them your last casts, then do it again and again until you give up in frustration. Getting you away from that spot is akin to pulling hen's teeth, or to catching  a world record, but sooner or later you call it quits.

My son once begged me for five more casts, and that was only after having already cast his last five casts before the five new last casts for which he asked that final time. I was getting antsy wanting to get on the road because we had a long drive ahead of us. So, when his pole bent, and he leaned back so it bent to just about the breaking point, I swore he was caught on a rock. The pole was not bouncing up and down at all like if there was a fish on the other end of the line and I was convinced but he insisted he had a fish. I took the pole from him expecting to have to break the line and telling him he was stuck on a rock. I was ready to break the line and lose the lure but he again swore it was a fish as he was handing the rod to me. Suddenly, the reel screamed as line ran out just after I had grabbed hold of the rod and given it a little tug. Damn, it was a fish and on his last cast!

I was amazed and I handed him back the pole quickly. A few minutes later - after a fierce but determined battle - not only did he have the fish, a nice sized brown trout, he also had a big smile on his face and he was standing tall and proud. The trout went right back into the water and swam away looking okay. At first Brendan seemed dismayed to be letting it go but as I told him then - we were letting it go so we or someone else could catch it again another day. He agreed that was exactly what we should do and that day a true a sportsman was born. I wonder to this day if someone else ever had the same thrill of catching that very same trout. Maybe someday, Brendan and his son will catch a lunker there.

Thank goodness I had remembered I had a Kodak disposable camera (no camera phones then) in my pocket before we let that nice brown trout go, especially since it was his first. I wish I had taken some shots of him wading out into that cold water. When I had asked where he learned to fish like that, he said from watching fishing shows on television. Brendan was about 10 or 11 as best I can recall although it could have been a bit earlier in his years than that. 

Many years before that day, my uncle took me there and introduced me to that secret fishing hole, a pool under a waterfall in upstate NY. He told me we would catch a big brown trout there with a certain spinner - a Panther Martin yellow spinner with red spots it was. Sadly he no longer remembers doing so but such is the cost of living into your 80s.

Anyway, it probably was back when I was 15 or so that he took me there but me and my uncle never caught anything there. Over all the years in-between me being about 15 through 46 or so, I never fished there by myself and I never had much luck with that kind of lure either. Somehow though, the memory of that special fishing hole kept its place in the depths of my psyche as did my habit of buying that same lure over and over again despite not catching much with it. Somehow too, the dream of catching a nice trout at that exact fishing hole with that exact lure never faded away either.

Sometime along the way the Fates must have smiled upon us and reserved that day for us - me and my son. They also evidently reserved that fish for Brendan and his smile for me so I could feel the joy Brendan was feeling at that precise moment. And yes, we used a new lure but it was the exact same kind as it had been so many years before. Wish my uncle had been there with us then but damn I was lucky to be with my son.

Brendan has moved out of state and while we still fish together, it is not often but just now and then when we get a chance. When I was down in Arkansas visiting Brendan in March of this year, we canoed and fished the Caddo river together with two of his buddies. Once again, only one of us (us meaning me & Brendan) caught a fish, a single smallmouth bass. Yep, it was on the very same kind of lure and this time it was me who caught it. It too went right back in the water.

Life does not get much better unless of course you are both catching fish but isn't that why they call it fishing instead of catching. Brendan will be up this way in June and I am hoping he will spare the time for us to go out on the ocean on a party boat to fish for whatever is running at the time. That would be excellent whether or not we catch anything but I hope to see that smile on his face again when he reels in a big one.

All the best,
Glenn B

All You Media Types - Think About It

All the best,
Glenn B

Wear Your Rain Coat In 7-Eleven - Possible Golden Showers Today

7-Eleven microwaves are not pee warmers, at least they were never meant to be used to heat up urine. Regardless, a young lady from Denver reportedly visited the 7-Eleven in Aurora, CO and proceeded to place her urine into one of the store's microwave ovens to warm it. It exploded and I imagine caused quite the mess at least inside the oven as well as on the floor after she allegedly wiped it out onto the floor. She supposedly had been on her way to a urine screening for potential employment but wound up being issued a summons, by police, a short while later. More at the source.

All the best,
Glenn B

Shopping Amazon & Amazon Prime

I won a $20 Amazon gift card last Wednesday. I immediately decided I would buy something I needed and knew right away that my purchase would be Southern Bloomer Shotgun cleaning patches. Yesterday, I went to Amazon an they had them in stock and ready to ship by Amazon instead of a third party vendor. I thought great. Then I saw the price and I thought EXCELLENT since they were only $12.06 per bag of 500 patches. They usually sell for around $23 to $27 per bag. The thing was, there was no icon to add them to my cart. Then I saw it said they were an exclusive offer for Amazon Prime members; nice way to sucker someone into joining Prime. What the heck, I got suckered and I joined under a "free" 30 day trial. I was so happy with the price that I ordered two bags; I go through them quickly and use them to clean all of my guns (I cut them to size as needed). They came with free shipping and are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Wow, thought I, ordered them on a Saturday and should receive them on Monday. I have an Amazon rewards credit card. Amazon gave me the option of using points along with the gift card for my purchase. I had on a handful of points since I used most of them recently but figured what the heck. I think I paid .57 cents out of pocket for the patches.

Today, I decided to look for some items I have been needing and or wanting. Along the way, while searching firearms related items, I virtually stumbled across The Gun Digest Book of Rimfire Rifles Assembly/Disassembly: Step-by-Step Photos for 74 Models & 228 Variables by Kevin Muramat. I was thinking of ordering it but it sure looked familiar an sure enough I have one on my bookshelf. Could not recall if I had kept that or given it to Brendan. Anyway, Amazon notified me I had already ordered one back in 2016 - nice touch. I have not done much shopping on Amazon in the past, just a bit of gun stuff now and then like the Standard Catalog of Firearms Values and some items for Brendan and I mostly used points for those purchases. Before moving on to look for other items though, I noticed one thing about that Gun Digest Rimfire Assembly/Disassembly book - the price. Man oh man, it certainly seemed expensive, they were asking $35.99. So I checked my order from back in 2016 (another nice touch that prior order info apparently goes back at least a few years). On my order, the total with shipping was $20.28, it came from an outside vendor who advertised on Amazon. The thing I noticed about Amazon's current offering of this book was that they clearly sated on their site that it had recently gone up in price. They said it this way:

"We updated this item to the best offer currently available at Amazon. The price increased by $19.70."

Then they included this under cover of a link:

"We found a new seller for this item because it’s no longer available from the selected seller. Price increased by $19.70 (from $16.29 to $35.99)."

That is a stupendous price increase in a mere two years from the price at which I bought it, which was the same price as their most recent previous price. By the way, that is for the 3rd edition, the latest edition is the 4th edition. You can get the 4th edition from the Gun Digest Store here for $22.99 with $9.46 added for 2nd day shipping @ total of $32.45 as compared to the Amazon price of $35.99 for the same. Hmm, Amazon may not be the greatest thing since the first profession as most folks seem to think. As usual, you have to shop around to get the best price. While a $3.54 cents savings may not seem like much, such savings add up over several purchases. For example, if I saved that much each time on 10 orders, I would have saved $35.40 or enough for a bottle of Kirshwasser - damned fine spirits.

Now something like that is not going to deter me from using Amazon when they have the best price or very close to it with free 2 day shipping, for instance like the purchase I made of the cleaning patches under my free 30 day Amazon prime membership. The thing about that is, I will have to try to figure out if continuing that membership will be worth the $99 Amazon charges for it annually. I tend to think it would be worth it just for the free shipping but would definitely have to order more often from them than I have since 2014 when I placed my first order with them. In the time since then, I've only placed a total of  11 orders for a total of 18 items. Right now though, if they have what I need and want, I am going to use Amazon Prime to my advantage over the next 29 days and only then decide to either cancel or keep it, I have a few things in my cart right now. I may even watch a movie or three and listen to some tunes since they include all that in the membership.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Little Bit Of Tung

This past week, I stripped down the stock of my KDF Voere Model 2005 (KDF being the U.S. based importer's name, Voere being the German manufacturer's name, 2005 being the model number). I picked this rifle up at the Hessney Auction back in October of last year. This is a photo of the rifle  as it appeared in the online catalog for the auction:

It sure looked like a nice rifle, even though I do not necessarily like dark finishes like this one has on the wood. Yet, had I bid on it online, instead of being there in person to bid, I would have been furious if I had had the high bid on it. Because I was there in person, I realized that if you had taken a look at the other side of it - you would have seen this:

Not very nice and there was more of that further back on the stock. The reason I would have been furious, if I had wound up with the high bid via online bidding, is that the catalog only showed one photograph of it and as you saw above that picture was not of the damaged side. That is one of the reasons I normally do not bid online at the Hessney auctions. Mind you, I am not saying they are trying to screw anyone and my bet is they would have given a refund if they received a complaint from and online bidder or might have won it had I not had the high bid but what I am saying though is I do not like such surprises - no one does and they have a habitof often showing photos of only one side of a gun in their catalog. As I said though, because I was there in person, I saw it before bidding and I was still more than happy to bid on it. My thought then was I would refinish it.

Well, it took me until this week to get around to it. I spent about 2 days removing the finish and did that between other chores. I find I get more done if I do a little of this, do a little of that, get back to whatever I had been doing before getting to doing a little of that and then doing something else before getting back to a little of this. It breaks up the tedium. Yesterday, also between chores, I sanded it with three grades of sandpaper from medium to fine to extra fine and then went over it with three grades of steel wool. There were some dark lines that I had at first thought were old finish but they would not come off after several applications of very strong 
stripper nor with even the medium grit sandpaper - so, I am fairly confident they were naturally occurring dark areas in the grain of the otherwise pretty light colored and beautifully grained wood.

I have no clue what type of wood it is from which the stock is made (would guess yellow pine but that's just a guess) but overall it has some spectacular grain. I think it was a sin for the manufacturer to have hidden it under the horrendous coat of varnish and dark stain that they used. Today, I changed that when I applied new stain to it. I rubbed in a coat of oil based Minwax finish, using their Cherry color. It came out pretty nice. After that dried, I applied a top coat of Formby's Tung Oil. I was wondering whether or not the can of it that I had in my basement would be any good. It's got a date on it and the year shown is 2001 (evidently the date of manufacture)! That is probably about right date-wise because it was about 15 years or so ago, by my best guestimate, that I refinished my Remington 870's stock with that same can of tung oil. As far as I can tell, that tung oil is as good as the day I purchased it. Right now, the stock is hanging to dry and this is what it looks like:



I think that is much improved but that is just my taste.

 

If I have to say it myself, I think it looks a lot better than it did before but I note it is not done yet. Later on tonight or maybe tomorrow (if it does not rain all day - I prefer doing this when not raining because it takes much longer to dry when the air is very humid), I plan to apply a second coat of the tung oil. I am guessing I will apply at least another two or three coats of it to make sure the stock has the protection it needs from the elements.

This 22 rimfire rifle is a bit unusual because it fires from an open bolt. It was unusual enough that the BATFE allegedly banned further importation of it some years ago because it fires from an open bolt. It's not banned from possession if it was imported prior to the importation ban - at least not yet. I am not too sure why they banned further importation of it but am guessing that they believe because it fires from an open bolt it would be easy to convert to full auto (and I have no real clue to that, just thinking along those lines because many sub machineguns fire from an open bolt). It is also unique, at least in my experience with rimfire rifles in that the firing pin is pretty much as wide as the back of a 22LR shell casing and thus it strikes from one side of the rim, through the center, all the way to the other side of the rim or in other words - right across the entire diameter of the shell casing.

When it is completely refinished and reassembled, I plan t take it to the range and have some fun with it. About the only thing I regret about this rifle is that I do not have a spare magazine for it and those supposedly available are damned expensive. I said supposedly available because the ones I have seen do not look much like the one that came with my rifle. I'll have to take good care of the one I have.

All the best,
Glenn B

In Honor Of It Being Cinco De Ported Day...

...I may just have to rack open a bottle of tequila and have some salsa and tortilla chips while hoping Trump eliminates, what in my opinion is, the illegal DACA program and that he deports or removes every last illegal alien from within the country.

Then again, it is also World Naked Gardening Day and if I drink enough tequila, you never know....

All the best,
Glenn B