Greetings and Salutations!
I really thank you for all the compliments on the SMLE… I worked really hard on making sure that I did it “right” because as I said, I’ve always wanted one… for like years and years… I just never had the gumption to drop ‘real money’ on one, especially when they went full retard sometime in the 90s when World War ‘X’ rifles -suddenly- became like cray-cray expensive.
I mean growing up there was a General Store in Seabrook NH run by ‘Monkey’ Merrill… that store had been around since the 1790s? early 1800s? I mean the place was so old, it was, ALL at the same time a Federally Recognized Post Office, General/Feed Store as well as a Gun Store. It was his store that we’d see milsurp rifles in those BIG 55 gallon cardboard barrels for like $50-$75 a throw… Monkey had them priced by Country, with the “Eye-Tal-Yin Garbage” (Carcanos and what) and “Them Jap-a-he-no rifles” being the cheapest. Looking back however, I think it was intentional… which only makes me realize that beneath that veneer of “NH Bumpkin” there was a shrewd biddnessman in there…
Meaning that yeah, he’s selling Japanese Arisakas and Italian Carcanos for short-short bux…. However He ALSO was selling the ammo with a stiff markup! 7.7 Jap and 6.5 Carcano was some pricey stuff, and Monkey use to bemoan how hard it was to find, which is why he was “…selling them at a loss!” And IF and WHEN he -did- manage to score some of that rare and hard-to-find ammo, he sold it at a premium…
Which I’m now thinking the Ole Boy probably had cases and cases, if not a Connex full of that shit hidden away some where… His US Rifles he was fair about, as he also was with the ‘regularly selling hunting rounds’ which back then in NH was 30-30 Winchester and 30-06. .308 wasn’t a thing yet, and ARs were just beginning to be discovered… I mean case in point:
That’s an ad I found to show Gretchen, ‘cos she did NOT believe me when I told her that A) You could order guns through the mail and B) They be cheaper than dirt.
ANOTHER thing the Boomers had to their advantage.
Dammit.
This ad was from 1961 according to the pager I found it on… MY Enfield is second from the bottom, left side.
$9.95
Oh my aching ass.
Talk about unfair.
I even found ads selling Boy’s Anti-Tank .55cal Antitank rifles:
The Boy’s was a British Anti-Armor .55cal single shot bolt action rifle of hysterical recoil. It was meant to take on First Generation tanks, and was quickly outmatched by tank development of the time…
Notably, the Marine Raiders tried them out, and they were used on the Makin Island Raid in 1942. In fact there’s a strong possibility that the Boys accounted for maybe one if not two Japanese Seaplane shoot-downs. Per the Wiki (and other sources): “At 13:30, 12 Japanese planes, including two flying boats, arrived over Makin. The flying boats, carrying reinforcements for the Japanese garrison, attempted to land in the lagoon but were met with machine gun, rifle and Boys anti-tank rifle fire from the Raiders. One plane crashed, and the other burst into flames. The remaining planes bombed and strafed but inflicted no American casualties.” In fact in WEB Griffin’s series “The Corps” the shoot-down is described and attributed to the baby brother of the central character, Ken McCoy.
Yeah…
Gen X and ALL generations after the Boomers got utterly fucked in our ability to procure weapons… ANOTHER ad:
STG-44 for $39.99
Wow…
Crazy that right?
Never mind the Browning .303 Aircraft Weapon for $75.00 shown on the lower right… because below that they have listed the Browning M1917 with Tripod. For $150.00 That’d be this:
Who was who said “We wuz robbed!”
No joke.
So besides me whining about how we got utterly fucked out of our inheritance (i.e. a plethora of easily gotten fully automatic machineguns) I got two things to discuss. One is a show and tell, and the other is another upcoming project.
The Show and Tell is in response to my inquiring about the Duracoat rifle ‘stuff’… is it a paint? Is it a ‘coating?’ Tough call. But either way, I got sent some pix of Berglander’s own experience with using it. He had a Czechoslovakian VZ24 which was a Czech derivative of the German Gewehr 98 Mauser, which was the German’s standard bolt action rifle. They made them from 1924 until 1942. It fired, depending on the year of manufacture, the 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, 7.65×53mm Argentine respectively.
He did his restoration, and used the SOCOM Blue color… which was recommended to him… he thought, as I did as well, that the name sounded gay AF. However he used it, and these are his results:
Yeah, like I told him “That’s Purty!!!”
That coating came out rather well… enough so that I’d use it no problem. In fact depending on how the current coat(s) on the Lee Enfield work out, needless to say I’m going to positively have to go with that Duracoat stuff…
Pic #2 looking down onto the top of the bolt and receiver is particularly beautiful. The only thing about the coating is IMO is it lacks the individuality that the bluing acquires… the wear marks of long service. Not sure that if over time that wears like the bluing can, but if it does, then even better and yeah, what the Hell…
So Kudos to you Bro. Well done.
Which then brings me to the upcoming project. Now this is a new project. I’m still doing the Hydro-Dip of the 1911. That’s for my own learning curve, as well as yours, as not many people know HOW to do it, and I haven’t myself, so it’ll be a steep learning curve for us all, and why not? You get to learn and be entertained by my retarded attempts at gunsmithing, and I get to try out new techniques and processes.
Anywho. The new project is courtesy of ScouterGreg. He’s a regular commenter here, as well as at MANY of the other Dissident Blogosphere. I’ve actually met with and dined with him and his lovely Frau, and he’s a great guy and major supporter of this place, as well as a good shoulder to ‘bitch on’ during our occasional calls, as I generally do not cry LOL.
Well I got a call this A.M. whilst lazing in the rack… Seems he’s got a rifle he wants me to look at, refurb and do to it what I did to the Lee Enfield. His Dad and he bought this thing Eons Ago, when Dinosaurs still roamed the Earth (hence the need for such a cannon that I’m about to reveal) and they only fired it once where it, and Greg experienced a chamber head and case separation and blowout.
Nothing catastrophic as far as he knows.
A quick history lesson follows
See, a lot of these older rifles?
They were designed and built in the ‘in-between times’ during the transition from brass-cased Black Powder to Smokeless ‘modern’ Powder. The US DotMil stopped using Black Powder around the turn of the century. The US Army first adopted smokeless powder when they started using the 30–40 Krag Rifle in 1892.
The Krag itself had this weird side-feed mag, but we’ll go into that sometime maybe in another post… moving on…
Black powder rifles continued in use through the Spanish American War in 1898, and stopped using it around 1903, when the Springfield M1903 was introduced. The thing is, smokeless rifle powder is waaay stronger than the old black powder. So rifles tended during this timeframe to be OVER Engineered or else!
And as a “just in case” a LOT of the older/earliest rifles had Receiver Holes put into them. This was to allow the gas to vent out rather than allow the chamber to blow the fuck up. A video here provides an EXCELLENT overview:
My own Lee Enfield, as I said has these holes:
When I first saw them, I freaked.
I thought they were ‘demil’ (demilitarization) holes. A little research disabused me of that (Thank God!)
So, the unviel:
It’s a Spanish Model 1893 Mauser.
The first rifle in the world with a built-in 5 round internal box magazine, and designed by Paul Mauser himself. It’s been around a long minute. LOTS of wars… it’s the Great-Great Granddaddy of the Gewehr 98 and Kar98 of German World War 2 fame.
He isn’t sure of ‘the why’ of what happened… just that the cartridge case ruptured completely and ALL the gasses blew out of the hole. He said he got a bad burn/scorch mark on his left supporting arm, and a face full of fumes, smoke and heat. I suppose if that happened to me at 14 or to MY spawn at 14, I’d have done what they did, which is oil it up, throw it in the back of the safe and fuggetaboutit.
He told me over the years that he thinks it’s a headspace issue. I told him I’ll work my Voodoo Gunsmithing Magic and see what we got, while also restoring it and doing a “follow the bouncing ball” set of posts… I did NOT expect him to tell me to keep it when I’m done.
I’m honored by the generosity.
And Hell, I’ve had at least two to three people email me telling me they want me to do a SMLE for them, I’ll say this: I just might. My response is to say “let me check the laws again on this” just so’s I do not run afoul of the fucking ATF. I’m pretty sure I can do ALL the gunsmithing I want All. Day. Long.
It’s when I have to BUY the serial numbered item that I might run into trouble. Like I said, I’m not saying -no- but let me look into it. I’m also looking into doing a C&R License either way… that would eliminate a LOT of hassle, especially since I seem to be leaning into the Pre-and Post War C&R Rifle restoration game.
So let me know your thoughts.
The last one here for the night BTW:
I’ve already bought a HUGE amount of ammo from SG Ammunition. One does NOT acquire such vast personal stocks of 5.56mm nor 7.62 both 51 and 39 without having them bookmarked. My problem is that I didn’t want to pay for shipping ONLY 20 rounds of ammunition to the Casa. I’m nowhere ready to buy ‘in bulk’ until I know for certain that the Lee Enfield isn’t going to ‘grenade’ on me. Gauging and all, I still have to make absolutely sure that this thing doesn’t have a ‘hidden defect’ that I didn’t detect.
So in this case and after a lot of Ammoseek checks, the cheapest was a $17 box of Privi Partizan 180gn FMJ. Shipping was a flat rate of $12. From AEAmmo dot com. One of y’all even told me about it. Even then, part of me, and from my research from the LE Boards is that I want to modify the ammo right off the bat.
One of the guys on there said the best way to test these rifles is to start with a 1/2 to 3/4 charge of powder. The rationale being that even today, OUR smokeless powder is WAY stronger than the stuff they were making and running in the 1920s and 1930s. The nitrocellulose these days is crazy-strong. So the idea being (if you don’t necessarily want to destroy your rifle right off the bat) is to take some brand new rounds, pull the bullet, pour out the powder, and remeasure and reload.
Work your way up…
Make sure as you go, you watch the Receiver Holes for excessive smoke… if you start seeing it, then you know you’re on the ‘ragged edge’ and should make note. If you manage to work your way up to ‘untouched factory rounds’ with no issues, then congrats, you’ve got a fully operational rifle.
My rifle is a bit of an oddball manufacturing time-wise.
Great Britain was broke as a joke Post WW1. ZERO money. Like NOTHING for defense or the DotMil. This is why there’s an utter paucity of Lee Enfields made after 1918/1919 up until 1939… which is when MINE was made. MINE has a very low serial number, matching numbers (outside of the missing bolt) and the same. exact. armorer’s. cartouche on it, which tells me mine might have been one of the earlier 1939 made rifles. Post ’39? THAT is when they rolled them out by the bushel…
My Wild Ass Guess?
This one was made, and racked in a deep storage depot, and then forgotten about until it was checked on a regular basis. I’ve tried to find out that timeframe, but to no avail. I know for certain that here in the states, each DotMil unit needs to have the weapons in the arms room gauge certified annually. AR 750-1, Army Material Maintenance Policy states this implicitly.
Got me a hunch, considering how pristine the barrel, bore and bore throat appear to be, this was in storage until someone shipped it off to the Wastes of Ethernopia, where it sat, rusting and forgotten until I got it.
So yeah, I love a Happy Ending to a Good Rifle Story
More Later
Big Country
You could also get Solothurn and Lahti 20 mm anti tank rifles for about $150 if I recall correctly. Knew a guy who had one, in his storage unit along with a lot of other stuff he’d collected from a lifetime of kicking around the scruffier parts of the world, starting with Vietnam. I’m pretty sure whoever cleaned that storage unit out after he passed got more than a few surprises.
As well as some headaches
Yup. One or the other was used as a safe-cracker in the old Eastwood/Bridges movie “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”.
Modern ammo manufacturing is afraid if it’s own shadow as far as safety goes. Wear safety glasses and gloves, fire a factory round and check for bolt stickyness and primer flow or case cracking. The Enfield will probably be fine. The Spanish mauser is in my experience probably heavily fouled with lead from slowpoke hand loads and can be rehabilitated with some preemptively applied copper removing solvent and a couple of evenings wearing out bore brushes. Best of luck brother!
I’m very interested if you start doing this as a side gig. I had plans to do two of mine but with the way yours turned out, I doubt I could do better.
Sounds like a good way to make a few bucks too as I’m sure there’s no shortage of fine rust and termites out there that could use a good rehab. I’d normally not mess around too much reconditioning milsurps but stuff that spent years stored the way Africans store weapons are kind of beyond “preserving history”. I mean it’s not like it picked up that corrosion defending Stalingrad or something.
Anyhow, yeah I would love to see you start doing this on the regular. Shit, you could even start a YouTube channel and document how a normal dude can do this stuff in his kitchen or whatever.
Used to have a C&R myself but I let it lapse as I found stuff started following me home that I didn’t really want or need. Dropped a lot of coin on things just because I could.
Looks great, BC. Love your blog man.
Great Greeeeasy Bohunk! (Hope you get the reference, if not, watch “16 Candles” and let me know what you think about ‘The Donger’)
Yeah man, even MomUnit shockingly today endorsed that idea of me doing this after seeing what I did with this one “the regular”…
For the record, she’s a staunch Blue-Voating Democrat since she could first Voat, born and raised in the People’s Socialist’s Republic of Taxachussetts, and purely hates firearms.
That being said, she loves me, and shytte that makes me happy, makes her happy LOL.
That and I’ve framed ALL my restoration jobs from the historical POV, as she was a history/social studies teacher for like 40? years? Using that frame, and explaining the value of said-rifle (whatever I’m, working on) and then showing her the before, during and after pic? Usually she blows me off as like I said, she hates guns. Today however, I sent her the pix, and explained what I had done, and the intricacies of the WW1 versus WW2 rifles, and how this was a rare one that I’m not getting rid of anytime soon…
I really enjoyed that she seemed to genuinely dig what I was saying, and complimented me on my work, stating that “You’re doing what most people don’t know how to do anymore!” nConsidering how stoic she is, this was MAD high praise, and I’ve been smiling all day b/c of it… it’s rare that the MomUnit compliments me on my art….
I’ve seen it but it’s been many years and didn’t get the reference. I was 6 or so when it came out so it didn’t have the cultural significance for me like it did for my older siblings.
Speaking of unapproving mothers…..that’s where my screen name came from. We being a family descended from Iowa farmers via Czechoslovakia, and because I couldn’t stomach sauerkraut as a kid, I earned my mother’s ire….”what the hell kind of bohunk are you, you can’t eat sauerkraut?!?”
It was a term of sarcastic endearment.
I think 😆
I have two Mosins I picked up back in the day for about 30 bucks each. Have to put in perspective the difference in the worth of the dollar from back then compared to now. The money was flat out worth more. We had silver coinage still and you didn’t get paid more than 12 bucks a day because you could buy much more with less. Gas was like 40 cents a gal. Sounds incredibly cheap compared to now but we didn’t make the kind of money that people do now either. And old antique war surplus wasn’t really desired by many people. My WW2 vet dad didn’t want one. He wanted a shiny new Marlin .30.30 lever action for deer hunting. Spending 90 bucks back then was like spending a grand these days. Inflation raised both prices and wages to what they are now. I tell people that the actual worth of things, such as gas, food, gold and such hasn’t actually changed. It’s that the money is worth so much less that causes prices to be what they are. My fastback Mustang cost me 600 bucks when I got back to the world. If I still had that car today I could almost pay for a year of collage with it.
Gas was 25 cents/gal in the 1960’s,(full serve too) it went to .28 when I started to drive in ’69.
https://great-american-adventures.com/how-much-did-a-68-mustang-cost-in-1968/
Biggy, your rifle turned out well, like one of the better jobs I’ve seen. Your attention to detail is noted.
Dirk
A Youtube channel is a great idea. There are guys on there making bank just fixing old cars and motorcycles. When you get a large enough following, sponsors take notice and pay your bills. We can help in that effort. Fixing things is a lost art in our disposable, throw away society. Everything is a fucking BIC lighter anymore.
(Youtube hates top tier gun build/restoration channels–they will immediately demonetize you)
(Ask Mark Novak on Anvil [which everyone here interested in C&R should watch] or Ian on Forgotten Weapons)
What was the Czech VZ24 Brno (Czech K98) rifle you got pictured above chambered in?
I know a bunch of ‘sporterized’ versions of them are floating around North America chambered in 7.62×51. These are the Israeli variants. I guess back in the 50’s, the Israelis imported a bunch of them from the Czechs and Yugos and refurbished them, re-chambering them to 7.62 NATO.
It’s actually a very good rifle, if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on one.
It’s a 7.92×57-like God intended.
I bought one of those Vz24’s for my Dad for Christmas right before he died. He never got to shoot it. I’ve often weighed the idea of restoring it, or leaving it the way it was when Dad had it.
I had a new old stock Yugo M24 in 8mm that I picked up at a gun show for $140 in the 90’s. It had never been fired. Taking it out into the desert in the Southern Arizona heat to try out, it was positively dripping Cosmoline. That was a pristine rifle – even had the cleaning rod. Lost it in the divorce along with my old 1st gen Colt Cobra.
Interesting. I would have thought the 7.92×57, or even the 7.92 kurz, would be quite obscure. Turns out that’s not the case at all, after doing a bit of a deep dive into it. I had no idea it was commonly used in hunting medium to large game in North America.
Anyway, many thanks.
My VZ was Cerakoted, not Duracoated. My dad’s basement flooded and it was covered in surface rust, so that’s what prompted the refurb of it.
yeah check atf carefully. they change their minds a lot. at one time you needed a class2? to do any repair or even refinishing beyond cleaning. idk what their “rule” is now….i bought a no.5 jungle carbine around ’85 for 39 bucks. still have it, wish i’d bought his twin on the rack but i was a broke college boy at the time. three digit serial number 🙂
Hey buddy good to see you!
I did the C&R about 20 years ago. My first application went out two months post 9-11. Took a while to get approved, natch. My way of doing the dirty bird head space check: tie the rifle to the concrete shooting benche at the range, pointed at the backstop (when the range was empty, just me). Run a string from the trigger guard to the back of the truck. With one round, LOAD!, pick the string up off the ground, and tug gently. After the kaboom, release the beast and do the feel test on bolt movement and extraction. With a small turned down portion of a paper clip (long L shape), slide it from the head of the fired case to the shoulder, feeling for incipient head separation. Look for external signs of pressure, or stretch. check the case mouth and primer and bolt face. I had no issues with that method.
Also for 7.92mm guns, Turk 8mm from the 30’s makes a good proof round if the case neck doesn’t crumble. What a fireball.
What I wonder is these weapons were so plentiful 50+ years ago and WWII vets owned a lot of them.
Well they have all passed on so where are ALL of these weapons right now ?
I know that some people have bought them from estate auctions like I did with my WWII M1 carbine.
The vet returned from Europe and the 82nd Airborne, put his trusty M1 carbine on the shelf in his basement storage closet and it sat there until he died in 1995 when they had an estate auction and yours truly bought it and restored it.
I’m just wondering where they are ?? Could their Boomer sons have many of them ? I’m just hoping some of these come on the market eventually, I would LOVE to have an M1 Garand.
Many were bought just for the action to make something else out of. Crummy black bore was a plus as it drove the price down during the negotiations. I my self have built ’06, 270, 25-06, 35 whelen on 98 actions. None better for custom rifle in my opinion.
FYI, 1.) ALL of my “modern” bolt rifles have the gas port in the receiver, (post 70’s ish). we use the gas port to measure the scope reticle distance from the bore for rifle DOPE.
2.) yootoob will IMMEDIATELY demonetize your shit whilst “modifying” ANY firearm. Such as, bolting a scope to your stuff. Do Rumble instead.
So a $10 rifle in 1961, paid for with silver dollars, is a $300 rifle today (with the spot SLV price at $30). Yes, absolutely cheap to us even at that price, but at the time they were just old beater surplus war guns, and not brand new Winchesters or whatnot.
BC, a bit late in getting to this, but just wanted to say that rifle resto turned out sweet. Nicely done, man. As as guy who has refurbished some antique tools (of little monetary value, I just wanted them to look nice for display) I can appreciate the work that goes into a project like this.
Wondering if you have anything to say about the drone bullshittery up Jersey way.
Gun sales:
Tweren’t the boomers buying guns from magazines in 1961 – the oldest of them were only in their early teens. Now the WWII generation? They had it good – after the war. Some of them weren’t even 30 by 1961. IIRC, by-mail gun sales were restricted in 1968. Wonder if that had anything to do with ongoing adventures in the jungle and peaceful protests? LBJ f*ed us up as much as Buck Ofama … but LBJ was competent. Evil nonetheless. (FJB has no equal. Well one – but she didn’t get elected)
Even into the 70s, maybe 80s – one could go into a KMart or some such and buy a gun the same way one bought anything else.
Re: Model 93/95
Bought my first M93 in the mid 90’s to tinker with from Sarco for $59. Our procurement officer
called it a ‘wallhanger’ since no rifling was visible but after many soakings and bore brushes later
I was finally able to see the original 4 groove bore well preserved under the old cupro-nickel boolits
used at that time. The objective for this escapade was to build something similar to Cooper’s Mexican
scout rifle to hunt with after an all day hunt carrying a 9lb. Ruger. Since then have accrued several
more small ring and large ring Mausers, but passed on the SMLE’s during the gun of the month buys
due to another frickken caliber to load for.
More Later Big Guy…
I’ve got a crap load of smelly strippers up here. If I can find the can that has them, I’ll send you some.
I just picked up an ultrasonic cleaner from Hobo Fright, this afternoon. Wasn’t only $160 with their coupon. Might want to pick one up.
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-Liter-Ultrasonic-Parts-Cleaner-59430.html?event_id=183222
As someone who buys carb cleaner by the case, this should pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time. I figure that it would work on my Trap gun parts, as well as small engine carbs.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Your comment on modern powders shows your ignorance of reloading.
IMR 3031 powder is what was loaded for WW1 .303 ammo in the USA for shipment to England, the Lusitania was full of Winchester mfg .303 ammo for the British troops. The Brits used long string cordite, we used IMR 3031. I still reload with with IMR 3031 today, it’s the same exact powder as was made 108 yrs ago. Same goes for any of the old powders, they don’t suddenly change the recipe and make it 50% stronger. Whether you shoot 70 yr old cordite (I have some Radway Green 1951 .303 ammo in bandoleers) or modern S&B, it will shoot just fine, if your rifle is headspaced properly.
The best thing you could do is learn to reload, and find out how little you do know.
Still irritate that Pa Wilder didn’t buy dozens of all of those. *sigh*
Now imagine the future, your own soon looking at the PSA website on the Way Back Machine, and thinking “Why didn’t Daddy Wilder buy more rifles?”
The future belongs to you, my friend!
I have (at least) one of each caliber for my boys. Except for a spare .243. Just have the one.
.303 Brit
Bullet .311 dia Hornady SP 150gr
Powder IMR 3031 Min 30gr = 2200fps Max 38.1 gr =2600 fps
Case trim 2.210 to 2.212 MAX 2.222
Min OAL 2.995
Data averaged from Lee Custom, Hornady Reloading 8th edition, Lyman 50th edition, hodgdon Powder website, Modern Reloading 2nd edition.
Common sense says…. Double check the data. The gun is old…
There is more data available for other loads however, I stick with the 150 gr bullet and load to the low side on the powder. Max pressure on all the loads is in the 43,000 psi range; min pressure around 39,000 psi. I also resize all the bullets to .311 but I measured the bore of mine by pressing a lead slug through the barrel then used a micrometer to measure slug diameter. From what I have read, the .303 brit bore ranged from .310 to .317. but your research might vary…
The resizing die is about $100 and works with a regular press. if you also get a .308 sizing die, then if needed, you can resize the .311 to .308…
BC, check verry carefully thelaws, rules, regulations, and lunatic opinions of the ATF and the other Fedbois before you start taking in other peoples’ guns to repair.
You will probably need a Fla lawyer to sort it out.
From a few years ago when I lived there, I have a book on Fla gun law, which I would be happy to send to you.
Email me @ addy below, with an address. Thanks, John
35 yrs ago when I had a walk in gun shop, any weapon that remained overnight for repair had to be logged in, for that you need a FFL. Law is still the same today.
And a lot of tools like lathe, mill, grinders, finishing equipt, etc, etc. A bit more knowledge would be a plus too.
Isn’t that SA designator, Sacramento Armory? They have a warehouse here in Klamath Falls. It’s chocked full of all kinds of things.
I’ve not visited in a year, I was purchasing BM59 parts and M1 parts.
They’re selling under a different name now. If your interested get ahold of me, I’ll provide the address contact info. They’re pretty security minded.
Dirk
When I worked at KMart back in the late 60’s, we had numerious rifles at what we would now call fantastic prices. 7MM Mausers, $20.00; 8MM Mausers, $30.00. Italian Carcanos, $25.00 and M1 for $99.00, not the carbine but the rifle. We had “Saturday night specials” (22cal) for $9.99. We would get cases of them and take them to the car wash to clean them of the cosmolene. Most of them had pretty good rifling. Sometimes the stocks were battered. These all came from InterArmco, whose catalog was
unbelivable in what they had. “Those were the days, my friend. We thought they would never end.”
I seem to remember a story out from the midwest years ago where a utility company was finding their transformers atop telephone poles destroyed. Eventually it was determined a bunch of boys had procured a 20mm anti tank gun and ammunition that had been advertised in the back of a comic book, much like in your advertisement, about $100 plus extra for the ammo. The boys pooled their resources and had it delivered and the fun ensued. I believe the distances they shot from were about 1/2 mile as I recall. This all occurred way out in the countryside away from the population at large, it took about a week or two before the mystery was solved. The good ole daze.
The Lee Metford with ten round box magazine was introduced in 1888. Just saying.