Author: BigCountryExpat

Greetings and Salutations!
So yeah…
The Battle to Hydrodip the 1911 is over.

For now.

My patience has run out, primarily as the 1911 has been deadlined for so long. I’d like to keep trying, but honestly, I need the 1911 as my EDC. And yes, being as large/fat as I am, I can easily conceal a large frame automatic without too much effort. Before I got the 1911, I was running my Smith and Wesson 669 which is truly my absolute favorite handgun out of my collection… in fact it is point-blank period full-stop my favorite handgun ever.

So far.

For those unfamiliar, this is it:

This was the first 9mm semiauto I ever fired.

The one I fired, it belonged to my “Uncle” Fred, one of my ‘rents BFF back in the day. It was made from 1985 until 1988 and was essentially a weird mid-frame chopped version of the more famous Model 59.

This particular one is the second one I’ve owned, with the first one suffering the results of that ugly police encounter some years ago where due to the circumstance at the time, I lost ALL my firepower. After that incident, one night I was bemoaning the loss of the first one, as it was my absolute favorite of ALL my weapons. The discussion was with my bros, and Gretchen was listening. This happened while we were dating in our first year. In fact I was still on the “Thou Shalt Not Possess Any Firepower” prohibited list. Gretchen being Gretchen however, found this particular one on Gunbroker from an estate sale. It’d been a safe-queen, and pretty much like new. In fact like new-new.

She bought it under her name and her parents Addy so it was all nice and legal so to speak. Any wonder why I married this chick?

Like I said, she got a new-new piece. Any and all wear on it is from me. For a broad, she knew what she was doing… I’m still pretty impressed…

It -was- my daily carry until I got the derringer and then the 1911. The reason I don’t want to carry it anymore is mainly that they’re getting hard to find in pristine condition, and I would purely hate to have to use it in a self-defense scenario, and lose it to the fuzz as well. It’s a ’emotionally significant’ weapon now, not that I wouldn’t hesitate to use it if needed. It’s my immediate ‘bug-out-bag’ pistol, and when I travel, it goes as the ‘backup-to-the-backup’ piece.

That and it’s a cool fucking weapon.

Movie and TV famous.

It was Sonny Crockett’s ‘backup pistol’ on Miami Vice, and it was also in like ALL the ‘movies from the 80’s’ like Beverly Cops II, Last Action Hero, and Superbad. In fact there’s a bunch of articles out there that talk about the “Guns of the 80s” and this’s usually mentioned frequently as an Iconic Pistol.

So yeah, I need to get the 1911 back up to speed.

The final pics of how the dip went are as such:

Yeah
It could have gone better.

I still have no idea how I kept having it go wrong. The plan now is to just strip it, and refinish it in a plain Olive Drab Duracoat for now. I’m not giving up on the Hydrodipping however. I’ve got more than enough ‘stuff’ to keep practicing and experimenting, so I’ll do that, until I get what it takes to do the .45 on a first-time go. Maybe try using a $9.99 Faux-Yeti and ‘do the dip’ that way? Something… either way I’m not giving up per se… just ‘refocusing the efforts’ because as I said, I need to have the 1911 FMC i.e. fully mission capable.

I mean for real… even looking as bad as that does right now, you can tell that IF or I should say WHEN I pull it off, it’s going to look Pimp As Fuck as the youngin’s say. With all black accents? Meaning the slide lock, safety etc? Oh yeah. Even in Olive Drab I think it’ll look the shit. Y’all will see sooner rather than later as I’m going to start the strip-dip tonight.

So that’s the latest here.
I’ll have some ‘other news’ later as I did do a purchase today (on the DL from Gretchen who’s forbidden me from any more toy purchases… keep that under yer hats mmn’k?) that may-or-may not be affected by the Tariffs in the immediate future. I’m not sure if the item in particular will be, as Turkey is looking at a minimum 10% tariff on Turkish firearm imports.

Buy ’em while they’re cheap gang.
Jes’ Sayin’

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Almost Friday thank God.
Again for whatever reason, this’s been a slow week and it -feels- like Thursday. As in tomorrow is Friday and I’m done. But alas, it’s not. It’s been a good day to a point… just tired in general. I think I’m fighting off a bug as Cowboy talked to Gretchen today, and it seems he was sick on Saturday when I tested the 2A1 at his place, and he’s now like sick-sick.

On Saturday he was feeling run down, but he attributed it to the “usual shit”… I mean he does run a ranch and that’s some labor intensive ‘stuff’ right there. So he figured it was just the above average tired, when in reality he’s now got the flu.

So I popped the last of my Ivermectin and boosted the Vitamins to max dose, and hopefully I’ll be good. Speaking of which: My source for the Ivermectin tabs? The website I got mine from is gone. Anyone got a point of contact? I need to reup, the sooner, the better. Throw me a link in the comments or DM me if you would.

Another bonus was that the cases of MREs showed up today:

The mailman gave me the “Poo-Face” for having to offload them. Can’t blame him to a certain degree. Overall they’re in great shape. Not battered to hell and gone like some of the previous MREs I’ve ordered in the past.

The dates on them are good as well:

The ‘check date’ being June of 2025.
That MRE date code “2173-1” indicates the MRE was packed on the 173rd day of the year 2021. This corresponds to June 22, 2021. So about 4 years ago.

Also, it was a perfect order in that the two ‘sets’ came as One of Case A and one of Case B. Respectively Case A being Menus 1-12, and the B Case being Menus 13-24.
Those Menus being as follows for the 2021 Manufacture Date:
Case A:

01 – Chili with Beans 02 – Shredded Beef in Barbecue Sauce 03 – Chicken, Egg Noodles, and Vegetables in Sauce 04 – Spaghetti with Beef and Sauce 05 – Chicken Chunks 06 – Beef Taco Filling

07 – Beef Strips in Tomato Sauce 08 – Meatballs in Marinara Sauce 09 – Beef Stew 10 – Chili and Macaroni 11 – Cheese Pizza Slice 12 – Elbow Macaroni

Then, Case B:

13 – Cheese Tortellini 14 – Mexican Rice and Bean Bowl 15 – Mexican Style Chicken Stew 16 – Chicken Burrito Bowl 17 – Maple Pork Sausage Patty 18 – Beef Ravioli

19 – Jalapeno Pepper Jack Beef Patty 20 – Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions 21 – Lemon Pepper Tuna 22 – Beef Goulash 23 – Pepperoni Pizza Slice 24 – Southwest Style Beef and Black Beans

So that was money well spent.
Now I’ve had all of them over the years… there’s a few I miss, like the Omelet with Ham, for which I have been accused of being utterly and completely insane but hey, it was my fave back in the day. Because of that it also always meant I got one as it seemed NO ONE could eat that one.

The other I liked was the Buffalo Chicken.
Granted it practically glowed in the dark with the artificial orange color, but it was tasty IMO. Out of these cases however, the current faves are Number(s) 17, the ‘breakfast’ MRE, then Number, 19, 8 and 20, in that order.

Payday is this weekend so I might have to see if I can budget another case or 4. Gretchen’ll kill me, but hey, -I’m- the one who eats them on the regular.

The other thing I’ve been doing is working on SMLE #2 or Rifle #5. I took the Aussie barrel as I previously showed:

And plunked it into my rust-removal paint removal bath overnight. I pulled it after work today, and well the results show that it’s cleaning up nicely:

I then took a steel brush, followed by a brass brush and scrubbed the hell out of it to remove any and all leftover gunk that was on it. It took ALL the scaled rust off, and then showed me how bad the deep scarring is:

It’s not that bad as it originally appeared.
The pitting on the exterior of the chamber is only about .03mm deep according to my micrometer, so no worries there. The same was for the barrel pitting:

I figure some heavy sanding/grinding and maybe a fill if needed? Thing of it is, none of this pitting will be visible when the rifle gets finished. It’ll all be under the wood and out of sight, out of mind. It’s just ugly. I’d love to know just HOW this pitting came about as the rest of the barrel is pretty much pristine. A wee bit odd thing there Aye?

The rust/paint remover also took the rear sight:

And did this to it:

I really do enjoy doing this I swear…

The only issue with the rear sight is I’m going to have to bore out that screw. I tried penetrating oil, blowtorch heat… the works. That screw is in there like a sumbitch, so I plan on removing it by drilling it out from the bottom-up, and then punching out the remains.

But yep.
It progresses. Slowly but surely.
The next step is some more sanding/grinding on those pits, and then I’ll debate on the fill, IF I even go that route. Like I said, it’s cosmetic for the most part, and won’t be visible when the rifle is finished. Decisions, Decisions.

So that’s it for tonight.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Sorry that tonight is going to be a short one. My nugget is throbbing like a bass-box in the back of a wannabe rapper’s ride. I’ve had a couple or three things that’ve come up and have me irrationally pissed off and the stress has my skull screaming.

Thank God for Xanax
Or I should say “Gretchen’s Xanax”
One of the docs she has hooked her up during the Cancer Scare so plenty of anti-anxieties around. Hopefully it mellows me out. I mean I just did have a minor issue coming back from the store.

I literally just had this happened so I’m a bit amped.

I went to the store to get some beer and energy drinks, as well as a thing/box/bag of Reese’s Pieces for Gretchen as she had a craving. Everything was fine until I tried to cross the street to get home. The main drag here in town is two-lanes, each way, with a crossover in an island. Pretty standard stuff.

Now I had a car in front of me.
Usually no issue.
Tonight?
Well traffic on BOTH sides of the road are clear AF.
ZERO traffic.
The clown in front of me pulls out, gets into the middle crossing section of the island, and just stops

No one coming.
Not for a few.
Either direction.

This asshole stops for whatever reason.
Not sure if he was checking his fon or WTF???

Since I was on his tail, I’m stuck with the ass end of my car ‘hanging out’ in the far left lane that I just tried to cross, as the middle section isn’t wide enough for two vehicles, and there’s cars coming up… if this fucker doesn’t move, I might get creamed by an unobservant retard.

Not for nothing, I don’t worry about laying on the horn.
So I do.
GTFO of my way you fucktard!

So he pulls out, then hard brakes, and cuts in, and aggressively gets behind me as I’m gunning around. This was a bad idea on his part. Not sure if I bruised his ego or what? but man… wrong night for some asshole to pull this shit. He hits his hi-beams and starts following me back to the Casa. Like riding my ass like a bumper sticker. When I took the turn to go onto my street, he was still there, so I hammered the brakes, threw it in park, and jumped out.

No idea what this individual was expecting, but it was obviously NOT a 330 pound pissed off gorilla who’s off his meds and been in a seriously bad mood all day.

I didn’t get to see who was behind the wheel because of the hi-beams, but maaan. Male OR Female or “whatever” realized their mistake, and jumped on their brakes and dialed around so fucking quickly they were squealing the tires to get the fuck out of dodge. Like smoked them skins to go… they got back on the main drag and fled.

Mind you I was NOT holding any traditional weapon.
Just what I call my “John Wick” pencil.
Sapper got it for me a few years back as a stocking stuffer:

It’s a synthetic material that’s hard AF

It doesn’t write and theoretically can’t be detected by backscatter or xrays like at the airport. It is OMFG pointy, theoretically unbreakable, and hence why I call it my “John Wick Pencil” as yeah, I could jam this fucker in an ocular cavity, nasal passage… hell I think it’d punch through the occipital bone/temple without too much effort.

I carry it in my tri-fold wallet
Last ditch weapon amiright?

But either way, I think the vision of a 6’4/330lb Angry ANGRY (and possibly grinning like a fool) Man holding what appeared to be just a Number Two Pencil warned he/she/it off completely.

Too bad.
I’m needing an serious outlet.
Think I’m going to punch out early tomorrow and go shoot.
I need to vent some anger.

I mean it wasn’t an all bad day.
Just exceptionally frustrating and anger inducing.

I mean the dinner I made for everyone fucking rocked.

That’s homemade Texas Toast Fried French Toast Sticks, with Xtra Thikk Cut Bacon, Pork Sausage and scrambled eggs made out of the French Toast ‘batter’ that wasn’t used up. Smothered and covered in a generous amount of real Vermont Maple Syrup.

Breakfast: It makes one Hell of a Dinner.

I won’t need to eat until 13:00 in the afternoon I’d wager.
Sapper and Gretchen are in the same boat.
So that was my shitty day.

How was yours?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh BIG sigh of relief.
Everyone made it home safe from their travels and travails.
I picked up Gretchen last night, hence my absence there and got Sapper back this afternoon. Both traveled via Airbus 320s, which made me feel better about the whole commercial air travel thing so to speak.

That and I understand that the pilots were all men.

Good thing that Aye?

Yep.
Some folks have been letting it now slip that in the unit, she was known as a ball-busters ball buster… i.e. ain’t no man going to tell her nothin’ no how no way. Got a hunch that the Spec4 Mafia felt it was safe to speak out now that the New Fuckin’ Yawk Slimes blew the whistle.

Thank God I got out of the service before the split tails were allowed to become so empowered. I’d have probably been freeze-dried and buried under Leavenworth for Equal Opportunity violations. Hell… even back in 1994 my roommate Tucker (RIP Bro…) got hemmed up by some female LT who claimed he was ‘ogling her’ on the rifle range…

Which was utterly stupid.
He was in the back of a deuce driving past the range she was on, and was on bench, at the rear, and as he said “I wasn’t staring at any bitch! I was just you know zoned out ‘cos it’d been a long day man… bitches be crazy!” This beeeatcha tried to claim my dude was ‘ogling’ her as they drove by…. How fucked is that?

Even so knowing it was a retarded witch hunt, they (the Battalion) had to do a BIG investigation and man, it was a shit show… I mean my man had to get a fucking JAG Defense Lawyer!!! In the end he got cleared but the lesson taken VERY seriously by ALL of us grunts. That made the rule crystal clear:

Do not interact nor even look at the
Fucking Splits while ON duty.

Off duty?
Welllll that was a whole different thing
I mean a guy needs to get laid right?

That being said, anytime a female, especially an officer-type female came around or tried to interact with me? I shut down and went into extreme full-on military courtesy…
Robot mode.
Speak when spoken to.
Contribute nothing to any conversation.
And look to get the fuck out of whatever area of operations they were inhabiting. E&E the fuck out, and get back into the bush to my safe, ugly All-Male Infantry Review so to speak.

Alas however, it seems even the splits have invaded that fucking space (the Infantry Branch) and let me tell you… it’s going to end beyond poorly. I say this as a ten year grunt who got broken in the process… Bitches can not be Infantrymen.

I mean are there outliers?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
I knew an E-5 MP who had bigger biceps than me and could have bench pressed my ass. Repeatedly. Without breaking a sweat. This chick had a higher body count than me even… and I’m not meaning sexually. She stacked Hajjis like a bricklayer building a wall I swear. Lived to swim in the blood of her enemies… Drank like a fish too. Even said she’d prefer to be a Grunt/Infantry as she purely hated being around the other broads in her unit as “Them whores are only lookin’ to cause drama!”

And yeah. MAD gay.
Had a cute ‘wife’ waiting back home supposedly…
Never bothered me but hey… to each their own.

So yeah…
OF COURSE the crash was caused by a broad ignoring a dude.
‘Cos “men = bad” Mmmnnk?
Killing 70+ in the process…
FFS.

In other news:
I found out the Ex-Demon-in-Law cashed in at the end of March. I happened on the news while sneaking a FB peek at the former fam webpages. I like to keep abreast of stuff like this.
And for definition? The XDIL? That’d be the ex-mother-in-law.

Ex-FIL died right after he got Clot-Shot #2? 3?
Back in January of 2021.
Died of a massive amount of micro-strokes due to clotting.
That started in his pancreas of all things…
Patterns anyone?

In the case of XDIL?
My understanding was it was Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer.
Seems there’s a lot of that going around after oh so many clotshots it seems…

I feel badly for my Ex to a point, as well as my Spawn.
I know they were close, so I’ll leave it alone.

Then…
Well of course I can’t leave well enough alone. I got a Lee Enfield Barrel for a Mk3 (SMLE) with great rifling.

I debated on getting the barrel swapped off of the first Brit rifle I did as that poor thing keyholes damned near all the shots. It groups nicely, but it’ll never be a sniper rifle per se.

It also has some pretty bad surface scaling and some deep rust points:

I might have to break out my TIG welder and fill those holes.

Leastways I -think- it’s a TIG welder.

I got the welder as part of a trade back when I was building ARs for the DotMil Guard and Reservists when I was working as the state Armorer. And no I never used ANY pieces parts from my stocks… they kept a pretty damned close eyeball on me and the other Armorers to insure that there wasn’t any ‘spillage’ so to speak. A guy couldn’t afford the cash upfront for an AR build, so he traded me the welder and some really nice and top end cleaning kits as well as some Surefires that ‘fell off the back of the deuce’ apparently.

I came out ahead, but never learn’t how to use the thing… I might have to hit Dio up for some advice/guidance. He’s a Metalbender by trade. I’ve seen a fill done with a welder, but never actually attempted it myself. Guess I’ll figure it out shortly.

So back to the basics. The problem that I have/had is that I didn’t have a proper barrel wrench for a Lee Enfield.

Mind you had being the key operative terminology.

I looked up local gunsmiths to see if they have the right equipment, and came up dry. So I bit the bullet and dropped the $180 for the vice and wrench. The LE requires a very specific set of tooling to remove/install a barrel without fucking up either the receiver or the barrel. So since this seems to be becoming a serious fixation, as opposed to a hobby, I figured that I may as well add this to the tool collection that I already possess, and in the same view, become the local Lee Enfield go-to guy for barrel fixes.

Add on that the rear sight on this thing is almost pristine:

And yeah, that ‘hooded’ rear sight blade is an Aussie affectation. The slider works quite well right now as it is, so no major restoration is needed, other than the usual deep cleaning and polishing/painting/bluing as needed.

So since I now find myself becoming “The Man” regarding doing what I describe as “Depot Level Restorations”, I found a receiver for $100 for a SMLE. It’s an Ishapore/RFI receiver, so I’m at a loss as to how to define it…

Ishastralian?
Aussipore?
You tell me.

Dammit.
Add on that considering how many extra fiddly bits and pieces/parts I’ve accrued doing all of these restorations? Plus one of you thugs in the comments pointed out that J&G has DP ‘donor rifles’ available for $99?

Good Lord I’m screwed so to speak

<Vigorously taps vein>
“I need mah fix dammit!”

So keep your eyes on the page. The next LE is up on deck.

So that’s me for tonight.
After I do a ‘printing’ of the current 2A1, I’ll post the pics of how it shot at 50 then 100 yards, and do the raffle from there. I’m thinking $25 per entry, and every $100 gets an extra entry for 5 in total. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

And Remember
Every dollar spent goes towards rescuing and restoring another lonely and abandoned World War One or Two Veteran Rifle…

Every day, poor lost and lonely rifles like these are found… abandoned, unloved…

They eventually end up in Police Buybacks, to suffer an ignominious fate after all their brave service, being destroyed at the whims of lunatic anti-gun leftists.

Please, think of them if you want to enter the raffle.
Won’t you please help?

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Oh maaaaan
I done did good!!!
The RFI Ishapore 2A1 is finally completed and test fired.

I was having issues as I -think- I previously mentioned with the bolt seating/recocking and had ordered a bunch of NOS pieces/parts and fiddly bits to resolve it.

Late last night, me being the impatient bugger that I am, I went a tore the bolt down again, and closely re-examined said parts. I realized I had missed a huge amount of impacted carbon? cosmo? or whatever in the notches on the cocking piece, which were preventing smooth operation.

So I broke out the donated “Coelacanth Dental Tools” (much appreciated good sir!) and started chiseling out the crap. I also for good measure hit the running rail with a brass brush to remove any possible fouling.

And man… around 1 a.m. I put it back together and realized I had me a functional piece. I had spoken to Cowboy earlier that day, and somewhat being a wee bit presumptuous that I’d figure it out, had asked him if I could come out to do a test fire. I do belong to a rifle club here now, however…

I personally think it’d be in poor taste to test a new rifle and have it ‘grenade’ while on line with all the other shooters there. Because of the need to avoid a social faux pas like that, I abuse Cowboy’s generosity at his place, and also… well he gets to be the second person to test fire the new toys if I’m successful in my endeavors, so at least I’m bribing him decently.

So off this a.m. to the ranch.
We set up the usual table/stand/sandbag and string test:

The chosen test rounds were ones donated a waaaays back by one of you deplorables… forgive me for forgetting which one of you who did, but it was a battlepack of 1981 manufactured South African R1M1 140 grain ball that showed up in the mail a few years back.

Since it didn’t blow up, we felt comfortable doing a cheek-weld shoot:

I used the one I took of Cowboy as I’m fat and unphotogenic AF.

Needless to say it works
Magnificently in my opinion. We did two ‘string test shots’ to make sure it wasn’t going to blow da fuq up, and then we both took one shot each. Felt recoil, as compared to the .303 Brit, was unremarkable. In fact almost gentle. Crisp, clean… I mean OMG it’s a nice weapon. I’d have no problem using it as an “End Of The World” rifle if I had to.

The main reason we stopped so soon was it was getting hot-hot out… like 90+ hot. Unpleasantly so…

The ten round mag takes ten rounds as described:

…with the only issue being is that mag needs to be seated perfectly in order to feed. It’s got very tight tolerances, and does NOT want to ‘grab’ the round unless it (the mag) is hard in the well. I found giving a hard hit on it once it’s loaded does just fine.

The shell casings had zero deformation on extraction:

and the firing pin made a good hard hit on the primer(s):

Slightly off center, but hey, at least they’re uniform.
I’ll take it as long as it goes ka-boom when I pull the trigger.

So yep. I’m pleased as punch.
Considering how it started:

To where it ended:

Yeah man…
I’m really happy on how it turned out
I might even go and ‘print’ it for accuracy at my formal range early tomorrow, as the rifling on this thing is sick (i.e. perfect). Then?

THIS one is raffle fodder IF y’all are interested.

Mainly as it’s a 7.62x51mm
Which means it’s not going to require the now-oddball .303 Brit. Less costly per round and means you don’t have to drop bank on the dies and such like I had to for mine.

And there’s also another MK3 on deck…
That’s the barrel above in the pictures.
I’m waiting on a receiver to match it up, and then again, off to the restoration races I guess.

This hobby is more addictive than drugs man…
So your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Not much going on here at Ye Olde Casa.
Work, eat/drink/sleep mode.
Oh.. and clean up the dog poo that Chili seems to enjoy bedeviling me with. She knows ‘out’ but is so distracted 90% of the time that she doesn’t do her business, and I end up playing ‘clean the poo’ off the floor.

At least she’s consistent in pooping where she started off her pad-training when she was a wee pupper. She’s been with us almost a year now! Time flies!

Gretchen is still oot and aboot
Getting some down time.
Sapper is out on walkaboot as well, leaving me to take care of the biddness of the Casa on my own. It’s really quiet around here w/out the two of them. The only thing I’ve been doing is my working on the guns when I’m not ‘chasing widgets’ for People’s Glorious Tractor Factory. I need to get out more and do -something- I swear.

HOWEVER
I do have one thing to share. Now as much as Reddit is a cesspool of mostly mentally ill Blue-Haired psychopaths, there ARE the occasional group(s) that I read, one being the “MRE” Board. It’s where I get leads on sales and obscure rations that I like to sample ‘cos who doesn’t like eating foreign DotMil field rations?

Well…
Heads up for anyone interested:

Link HERE
…and yeah, using that link gives me a ‘taste’ so to speak…

According to some of the poasters there, the DLA had a MASSIVE over-purchase of MREs and dumped over 7500 PALLETS of MREs on the open market, essentially crashing the price. A pallet of MREs from my understanding is 48 cases to MREs to a pallet, so thats a Shit-Ton of MREs out there.

For now.

I was late into the game as some of the sellers out there were selling them originally at $39.99 a case. The check dates are all within 2022-2025 supposedly. Thing is, I’ve had MREs that’re WAY past the check date, and the check date is just that… the check date not the expiration date.

And $46 a case?
FREE SHIPPING!?!
Yes fucking please, w/bells on.
I ordered 4 as that’s all the budget can afford this pay period. If there’s room for more later, I’ll go back and get more as well… that price is astonishingly good.
And I do like eating me some MREs

So that’s the hot tip for tonight.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Good News First
Gretchen: Not a tumor. Scar tissue and non-malignant fluid buildup apparently. So that’s a plus. She gets home on Sunday.

Then

Many Thanks to all of you who offered up the prayers and condolences for my man Nando. His wife greatly appreciated it all when I sent the link to her. She’s having a tough time as she was with him for a loooong minute. Unfortunately I can’t afford to fly out to the Memorial/Celebration of Life as it’s on May 2nd, and it’s in San Diego. Bit of a bummer but Nando would understand I’m sure.

Now
As far as what I’ve been up to? Well putting the finishing touches on the 2A1 of course. Working on the weapons is my Zen, so of course I went full retard and worked on it. Mind you I failed to document everything, as well… this wasn’t for show, but more for sanity.

I personally think it’s coming along nicely:

Like I said before, I went with the Parkerized finish, which is grey. As you can also see, the wood? Yeah, it’s magnificent. Considering what it was:

That’s a mighty leap from start to finish.
Here’s a close-up of the action before:

And after:

I did lose two small chips of wood out of the buttstock as you can see while doing the final fitting. Not bad considering how much carving I did… so hey… it is what it is.

The nosecap also started out crazy rough:

and I think, came out fantastically as well.

Of course it’s a different nosecap, as like I explained before, the Hindu 2A1 has ‘squared ears’ for the sight protector as opposed to the ’round ears’ but that’s the same wood on the top as is pictured on the bottom.

The only thing I have left is the bolt.
UN-fortunately, I found that the bolt handle and cocking piece are NOT happy being installed on the new receiver. Considering they were taken off the donor rifle which is a “DP” (drill purposes ONLY!) rifle, and all parts are marked as such, the general rule is that ANY parts off a “DP” rifle are essentially unserviceable under ANY circumstances. Leastways by the Brit Armorers rules.

Hence why the wood on the weapon in the ‘before’ pictures are all painted up like a mo’fo. In my case, I cheated so to speak. The bolt however, even with my various tests and checks, well… the bolt doesn’t want to ‘play nice’ so therefore I’m waiting on another couple of pieces/parts and fiddly-bits to complete this thing right.

The bolt head and extractor, having been donated by you kind readers and being brand new… or I should say “new-old-stock” are sufficiently safe, so I ordered a “NOS” bolt handle/cocking piece/and what the Hell… a new bolt mainspring. Once the parts get here? Well it’ll be a brand new bolt, and once it passes headspacing and test firing?

As the Brits say, Bob’s yer Uncle.

And after that?
Well… The next project besides the 1911 is rebarreling the SMLE. I was shocked to find a good condition Lithgow (Aussie) made NOS barrel. Leastways they said it was NOS… the rust and pitting tell me otherwise. That being said however is the rifling is OMG xtra-crisp compared to the current barrel on it.

So I (of course) dropped some shekels to get the Lee Enfield Barrel Wrench. Once I get that, you’ll be seeing the pictures or maybe even video of that. And if I can pull that off properly, I may even look for a Mk4 barrel to get the Canuckistan Enfield redone, and then sell it or raffle it off. What say you gang? Recoup my expenditures via a raffle or sell it outright?

SO that’s been MY week so far.
I really look forward to April being over.
This month has purely sucked a fat dead donkey dick I swear.

So More Later
Big Country

Nando was ‘my older brother from another Mother’
We worked side-by-side for 22 months of grueling nightshift stupidity in Kuwait w/Stanley. He was a great guy, and we stayed in contact.

His wife Roxy texted me today giving me the news.

See you in a while Nando.
More Later
BCE

O.
M.
F.
G.
When it rains…
It pours…
DC is pregnant……………………

“Floridaman Goes Bananas, Thousands Dead, Film at 11!”

I am so over this shit…
More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Happy Easter!
Hope everyone had a relaxing day communing with The Lord in whatever way you feel most comfortable with. For me, well Gretchen came back and well…

She’s flying out tomorrow to get checked by Doc Samizdat.
There’s a significant lump in her right boobie that has me highly concerned. She’s headed back there and Doc has a slot scheduled for surgery IF it’s needed.

We’re hoping it’s a fluid buildup.
If not?
Well… I’ll just leave it all in The Lord’s hands and hopefully things will work out the way they need to His Will Be Done.

So yeah… this sort of news/stuff leaves me sort of just drained. Like I haven’t had enough horseshit to deal with on the regular. I will say I do grow weary of being a metaphysical shit-magnet for real. I mean quite literally I haven’t (as far as I know) done something Karmatically speaking that should be bringing this near-constant heat on to me.

It’s enough for me to chuck it all and decide that it’s time to go “Full Retard”… and if such a time does in fact come, y’all will hear it here first.

Now, the rest of the 2A1 is currently hanging on the drying rack. Like I said, because of the various metal impurities I discovered, and by deeper research, I found that a painted-on grey-ish Parkerized finish IS one of the ones that the Hindus used when building these out. It depended on when the particular rifle was converted from .303 Brit to 7.62/.308 NATO. The later variants were done in the grey, and as this one was made in 1966, then the grey it shall be.

Here endth that lersson.

What I did do however was start fitting the lower main stock piece to the receive and barrel. The ‘donor rifle’… that nasty DP .303 that I started with?

As you know I refinished the HELL out of it.
It still needs to be fitted to the ‘new’ .308 receiver and barrel that’s what tonight’s adventure has been all about.

Some time ago I picked up (I think at a Ren-Faire) a small wood carving kit. I think I wanted to start playing around with doing some projects like that or something… too many years/beers to properly remember. Either way, it’s a nice lil kit:

Very ‘Ren-Faire-ish’ in it’s presentation. However the tools themselves are fantastic:

10 Chisels of various sizes and angles.
VERY sharp.
So much so I only need a little bit of hand pressure to carve, and even then I have to go very lightly lest I take too large a chuck of wood out. Using these, I spent the better part of the night

c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y

carving out the areas on the lower stock that were too tight for the action/receiver to slide in:

I took my time…
Like a LOT of time.
A wee bit of carving at a time. Teeny bits of wood.
No rush. Just accuracy and care.

Too many people rush things.
THIS is a game of ‘slow walking’ to get the best result.
Two hours of labor later:

It fits like a glove.
And the next step will be to bed and float the barrel. That’s on the list, but if I can’t get to it, it is what it is.

So that’s it for tonight. Gretchen leaves tomorrow and Sapper is punching on a Recon Mission on Thursday, so as of Thursday, I’ll be an all Ugly One-Man Band.

Me, the two doggos and the fucking cats.
It should be cool.

I hope.
So More Later
Big Country