Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
Again, a quick poast as again I’ve been hard at work since I got done with People’s Glorious Tractor Factory for the day. WSork has been a -bit- stressful as of late, but I attempt to keep both my temper, and thereby my job, as I suffer the “slings and arrows of extreme fucktardation”

As y’all are aware, I have an exceptionally low tolerance for fucktardery. Especially from any of the Politburo Members who thing juuuuust because they’re Politburo Members, that they’re smarter than I am, and know all/see all.

Much like the majority of our Bureaucratic Mandarin/Oligarch Class. Any wonder why the majority of ‘normal folks’ are so sick and tired of the bullshit? Yep. You know it.

So as I put in the title, the Fiddly Bits are done:

Now, with the exception of some of the smol-pins, I did as suggested and did a light heated-cold blooing, utilizing my Flammenwerfer’s ignition system. I figured the out-of-sight pins are good-to-go, as long as they get a regular loob. The sheen on the pieces-parts is from the Birchwood-Casey ‘Barricade’ post-bloo coating, which is supposed to ‘seal’ the parts after 12+/- hours (overnight) of being put on there.

I’m pleased so far.

I also did the ‘hidden’ length of the barrel:

…just to see how it looked after the fact. That’s the part that lives under the wood. And yeah, two of the sling swivels are not taken down, as someone in the Mists of Time had drilled out the screw(s), then sank a punch into the hole, ‘staking’ the screw. So unless I drill them out, they’re in permanently.

And at like $20-40 per swivel?

Yeah, I’m good with it.

Also as this’s going to be a ‘working field rifle’ as opposed to a ‘Fully Refurbished Safe-Queen’, I mean why not? Besides, if you are able to tell by the time I’m done? Then you got better eyes than 99.999% of folks who like weapons.

And lastly tonight, I decided to put the Brass Plaque on the butt. I realized I actually want it to be ‘shiny and new’ and allow it to ‘age gracefully and naturally’ as it shows that -I- rebuilt her from the ground up, one Fiddly-Bit at a time:

And I’ve gotten a few questions on the exact website/store where I purchased it. That’d be Royal Tiger Imports, located on the East Coast of Florida. They have the “C” grade in stock again (last time I poasted about it, they had already sold out) and in fact they now have “B” grade boltless rifles for $149.00. The “C” grade was $99 which was within the ‘reasonable budget’ Gretchen allowed… The link to the “C” grade is HERE and the “B” grade (also no bolt) is HERE

Also for those so inclined, they have “B” grade complete Mod.1 MK3s for $299.00, which is a fucking steal IMO. They did not have those at the time I got the one I’m working on now… otherwise I might have been able to finagle Gretchen into letting me get one of those…

I did havew to go out and get moar Carb Cleaner from the Autozione after Jeopardy, as I use that to do a quicky degrease before the quicky bloo. What’s hilarious is I bought the 2nd can, again at about 8pm, which because I had gotten one like two or three days before, the two yoofs working there were curious about trip #2. Can’t say I blame them, as being at an Auto Parts store at 8pm positively has to be boring AF amiright? Both under 21 that I can tell, one black kid, one white.

So I told them, and opened by saying that “Well I’m restoring a WW1 Rifle… y’all probably don’t know about such things…” which got both of them highly animated.

I had full on Pikachu Face!

Turns out they both are made Firearms Enthusiasts, and the really surprising one was that the black kid? He knew exactly what a SMLE was… he even knew the difference between the MK3 and the later made MK4!!!! His buddy had a vague idea, but ‘got it’ when we both told him that the rifles the two dudes in the movie ‘1917’ were carrying the exact rifle I was restoring.

Again, never assume Aye?

So as I was leaving, I told them I’ll make sure to have my phone with me (I didn’t at the time) and I’d show them the progress I’d made naxt time, as I knew I’d need more CC. When I went in tonight, the white kid was a different one, but the black kid? First thing out of his mouth was “Hey you’re getting more cleaner… you got them pix with you???”

I ended up having like a 10-15 minute discussion with him…
I found out in the process he builds his own ARs, is at the top of his class, is in the Air Force JROTC at the High School, and is trying to go to the Air Force Academy.

Got to say (and I did to him) that he currently has an edge… I hope he gets in. A genuinely nice and intelligent guy. And he really knows his weapons, both modern and historical.

OK… so lastly… I did alllll that after Dinner.
I had to at one point actually go to the VA in Tampa to pick up one of my ‘can’t be mailed’ scripts at the Outpatient Pharmacy. A few weeks back, I had discovered that there was a sort-of-kind-of Turkish/Arabic/German street food shop on the way to and from. The food in question?

Doner Kebab!!!!!
WHOOOOOOHOOOOO!
Almost everyone who’s ever been stationed in Germany has had this delicious, semi-divine (especially when hammer-assed drunk AF) sammich. A freshly heated (fried in some cases) thicc pita bread cut in half, and positively stuffed with Beef Kebab meat and veggies, plus a great Garlic Sauce. It’s a Turkish Import that positively detonated in the late 70s early 80s and are now a major street food not only in Germany, but ALLLL over the EU as well as, well Hell, it’s everywhere now.

Döner kebab, which takes its name from the Turkish words meaning “rotating meat”. Think “Turkish Gyro”.

It’s now on the must-go every time I have to go the the VA. I actually blame The Critical Drinker as a few videos back, he just had to mention ‘sketchy Doner Kebabs’ which kicked in fond taste bud memories, as I practically lived on the Kebabs outside of the “Green Goose” in Nurnberg back in the day… on the way home from another visit to Gretchen’s parents place, I googled “Doner Kebab near me” and found this place that I went to… Gretchen as well now as Sapper are hooked too.

Well done to the Goolag.
So, it’s late. Got to get to bed.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Busy bluing the internals.
Busy-Busy tonight.
Only thing of note was I ‘punched’ the barrel today. OMFG was that nasty!!! The ‘bleech’ that came out was a solidified pile of melted Cosmo and rust. Made a BIG stain on the garage floor (just to add one on there… why not?) even after I -tried- to mop it up.

The gas worked like a charm. I went through 3 bore brushes though. Not even going to try and recover them, not when I can get 20 for $6.

Then!!!
The Critical Party Challenge
Ran a check on the bore… the rifling was even better than I expected. Like NRA G-VG, leaning more towards VG. The Bore is pristine.

So of course I scoped it. Still got a lot of built up crud, but that’ll be gone when I’m done. I figure two-three rounds will blow out the ‘crap’ post-haste.

Oh yeah… I gauged it.
It’s perfect.
It even feels right. The bolt has that nice ‘crisp and brisk’ closing and opening with the gauge in the chamber, and cycles nicley. Sapper was highly impressed himself when he got home and tried out the action… He was like “Dayyyyyum! That’s exactly how a good action on a bolt-gun should feel!”

I concur.
So, for tonight’s job is to start the many pieces-parts and fiddly-bits of the internals. I figure probably by mid-next week I’ll be done. It depends on the receiver and the bloo-job that I get done on it. I’m going with the Birchwood-Casey “Super Blue 2x” which is supposedly better than the regular Perma-blue I’ve been playing with.

And if it looks shitty, I’ll get the chemicals to do a hot blooing, as I got the recibe from a forum about SMLEs I’ve been reading for refurbishment tips.

And so for y’all I took a pic of a ‘mock up’ of it…. sort of what it’ll theoretically look like when completed:

Mind you, nothing screwed together, just things clamped that could be, bolt racked, and parts set to give you an idea of what I done dood. That’s MUCH improved from it’s original condition when I got it:

Got a ways to go…
Ain’t no rush.
Nothing else going on. More to follow as we go, in particular the news as we’ve been hearing. ALLLLLL my focus is on this project right now, as you can imagine.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Not ignoring y’all. Just been busy-busy again. Sunday I didn’t get home until 10pm, and crashed out, just caved in. I didn’t even really get to do any work on the rifle.

Still haven’t really.

When last I poasted, I had gotten it out of the rust bath, and needed to start figuring out how to strip off that funky 1940/1950’s plastic from the guage:

Saturday Night before bed, I loaded it into a small bottle of 89 octane. I appreciate everyone’s suggestions in the comments, but I wanted to see how the gas was going to do, just mainly b/c I get over-eager, and I also knew that ‘back in the day’ gas is a solvent I figured the Brits would have been using.

I pulled it and cleaned off the ‘crap’ that’d congealed at the bottom of the container, and as the Brits would say, “Bob’s yer Uncle!”:

Quite an improvement, without having to get too ‘complicated’ in the cleaning.
Seems it was manufactured in 1956:

I had to clean out the hollow part and the firing pin hole, but other than that, it’s mint.

The other thing I did was to the barreled receiver. After I poasted, I ran a borepatch down the interior.

It came out Blacker than The Devil’s Heart itself man…
Black-Black. NO rust mind you… OLD Cosmo-nasty black. VERY thick. I ran another patch down it, and it happened again. I quickly realized I could be doing this for days, as it seems that the barrels interior was all Cosmo, as there was like NO rust coming out, and I wasn’t sure how the rust remover would affect the grease.

So, I took a brass bore brush and put it down and through. Always pulling fromt he chamber mind you, and out the muzzle. I have like 4? or 5 of the really good issue DotMil Otis cleaning kits that I’ve acquired over the years.

Thank God I have spare bore brushes.
The one that came out is pretty much unsalvageable. It was already pretty worn, and I do have scads of extras. I took my lil bore-flashlight and cheap-o scope, and checked and lo and behold, the interior shows really good rifling all the way down.

Like almost pristine.

The patches and brush pulls tore up the Cosmoline, and left it all flaky looking the entire length. So, next step: MOAR GASOLINE!!!

I took one of my spare earplugs from ‘back in the day’…
‘Member these?:

And stuffed it into the muzzle of the barrel.

A little trick one of my OLD squad leaders who’d been in the Army since Christ was a Corporal, and a Road Guard at the Parting of the Red Sea… He showed us newbs in 1990s that the orange ear plug could be used as a water barrier on an M-60 by using a cleaning rod to push it in to keep water out if you were doing water crossings… The orange ones were good for 7.62 while the smaller green ones could be used on the M-16.

Old-Old School Old Old Army NCO Wisdom and Tricks…

Shit that I suppose is lost to the ages now…
The rubber is petroleum proof, and made a perfect seal. It’s now going on 2 days since I topped off the barrel with 89 octane, and zero leaks. I had to add a bit of gas to deal with evaporation, but hey, it works.

I also have a .44/.45cal Nylon Bore Brush I’m planning on hitting down the bore in the next few days. Bigger = Tighter (that’s what she said) and tomorrow I’ll pour out the gas that’s in there, and refresh it with new. I want to see if the gas changed color, which will tell me if I’m ont he right track. Friday or more likely Saturday, I’m going to drain it, and run the nylon 44 brush down it, but not on the flexible pull-cord, but the original G.I. cleaning rod.

THEN I’m going to attach the rod to my cordless drill and s-l-o-w-l-y “roto-rooter” that sucker a few dozen times and see what level of funk I get out. I may have to redo the gas after, just because from what I can see, the barrel is chockablock packed with Cosmo, which is a great thing as I’m thinking that this particular barrel –might be– in somewhat new-ish condition?

Fingers crossed.

As far as the news goes, I’m not buying the story about “The Adjuster”.

IQ of 130, mad education… had everything going for him
The very fact they caught him in PA, with all that shit still on him positively SCREAMS wind-up toy.

I read in two sources that months ago he ‘vanished’ from where he was working and living in Hawaii. His friends AND fam were worried, and already THAT info-nugget is being memory holed. I think he got “Kaczynskied”… AKA whatever the IC kids are calling it now… MK-Ultra… Monarch Programming… whatever…

They’re also broadcasting what they plan on doing as he’s in a suicide vest, one of them thick ‘can’t be torn up to hang yourself’ blanket jobber they put you in in jail now in the latest jail pics:

I’m beginning to think there might have been something to the theory of the CEO getting whacked over the whole Tech-Healthcare Inside Trading Investigation.

The Gin Hag herself was being looked at.

If the CEO was negotiating to spill the beans?
Yeah, bring out a John “Batman” Holmes Style Wind-Up Toy and have him deal with it. Add on, they showed his weapon:

A Glock 3-D Printer Variant of the G-19.
And that mag?
Glock 17. Way longer than the grip/magwell.
Threaded Barrel.
Suppressor height iron sights.
It is NOT a Poly80 however. Zooming in you can see the ‘threading’ and stippling on the grips that one gets from a 3-D Printer. Also, it lacks the lower front rail of a Poly80:

Plus, Poly80 went out of business almost a year ago.
Ain’t many (if any) at all out there left around.

It also might have a Brownell’s slide as stated by some Gunfolks on the Twatter:

However, the front slide cuts, while similar to Browness, the pic shows the cuts are almost at the very front of the slide whereas the Brownell slide has about 1/2in to 3/4 of an inch of smooth steel before the cuts come into play:

In fact, on second inspection, those cuts on the Adjuster’s weapon are right ON the front sight post, whereas the 19? They’re behind the post site.

Well… either way, a MAJOR gift that keeps on giving to Leviathan AND the Controllers.
A 3-D Weapon AND a Suppressor used in a high profile crime?
Watch the ban hammer come out like a Pure-Dee motherfucker now. Just as Suppressors were looking at going ‘mainsteam(er)’ this shit happens?

I mean why did he even use one?
Unless it was all part of the Grand Plan
Gunshots on the street of NYFC are a daily occurrence.
And considering the way this was done?
Pure Theater.

So I have to crash.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK… so last night at about 8pm I put the disassembled rifle into the flower pot/trough thingy. The solvent is a water-based (how does that even work?) thing that the jug that told me that the solvent, when poured into a gallon of warm (92 degree) water, makes a gallon of really good rust remover.

As we all saw in the first round of pix yesterday, there was a fair amount of rust in and on and all around that puppy. The chamber and receiver I was sort of worried about to be perfectly honest, as using ‘the usual suspects’ i.e. the Birchwood-Casey Blue and Rust remover… well, it did -so-so- TBH.

Hence my figuring what the Hell and let’s soak that sucker overnight. Now, mind you I’ve been exceptionally patient on this project. As some of you stated, haste will only lead to shitty outcomes.

After it took ‘the bath’ for the evening, I still had two parts I could work on. The barrel and receiver, as well as ALL the fiddley bits went in the trough. HOWEVER: I did it ‘smarter/not harder’ I put the pieces parts for the trigger, mag release, safety and other receiver internals in ONE ceramic bowl. I didn’t want to use Tupperware as I dunno if the rust-remove would leach into it, and Gretchen’d kill me if I waste any Tupperware, as we’re running low currently from bringing Mom and Dad a T-Day meal… We really don’t have any truly disposable stuff like that currently… Anyway, the OTHER ceramic bowl held the sling loops, stacking pieces, and the ‘rest’ of the bits. My remaining parts that I figured I could fuck around with and find out was the mag, and the nose piece. I did a cold-blue job on both after stripping them.

This is the stripped and clean post rust and bloo remooval:

Now, BEFORE I bloo’d it, I blasted the ever loving fuck out of it with a STRONK carburetor cleaner. which got rid of A) all the grease and moisture and B) the remaining bits of Cosmo.
Then I hit it.
Mind you, never thought of doing the heat on it… I -should have- as when I browned the musket, I heated that fucker up like a mother before I applied the chemistry… I think I got a lil ‘buck fever’ in just wanted to try it… that being said, the result?

There’s a few spots that show in the pic for whatever reason, as they’re hard to see unless you look really closely but honestly, I’m pleased. For only one coat, I’m happy w/it. I might re-hit it just for shits and grins, and heat it up in the process.

The mag I failed to get a ‘before’ pic of.
Dumbass Me.
However, as you can see:

I really screwed up by not getting the ‘before pic’
To give you an idea of how it was and y’all can go look them up at BRP Guns dot com. Seems they’re out of stock as mine was graded a ‘low grade w/dents’, which it seems is out of stock now…

Mine showed up surprisingly w/out dents. It WAS covered on Cosmo and/or some funky grease, and still had some rust (hence the post-blooing discoloration IMO) but it DID turn out pretty well either way. And like the nose piece, I’ll probably re-hit it as well.

I mean I am just having some fun…
I WISH I had a bead blaster tho… y’all mentioned it, and I used to use one at a gun store I worked at a few back when I was doing Cerakote jobs… uber fine granular silica based sand… took EVERYTHING off of a weapon while being prepped… my issue is shekels per usual. Maybe some day.

But for now, I’ll keep utilizing the ‘poors’ ways of doing things. They just tend to be more labor intensive. In this case, a steel brush mounted on my Dremel.

Now, 24 hours later, I went out and grabbed the ‘stuff’ out of the trough. At the beginning of the process, the removal agent was clear as day. I mean it was just water and the solvent, which was clear as well.

24 hours makes a difference man:

I put the bowl back in so’s you could see just how much rust came off. I also couldn’t get pix because as I removed the barreled receiver, the rust and gunk literally slimed off on my hands… I had to yell for Sapper to assist ‘cos I had no prior experience like this before… I mean literally, the rust was ‘goopafied’ by the solvent. It was all gross and slimey, and in my rush to do this, of course I failed to wear PPE (gloves)… wasn’t any way to get pix at that point w/out utterly destroying my fon. There was no way in Hell to get pix at that moment. The rust had liquified and was just nasty and all over the place. I think I ruined my shirt and shorts as it spattered everywhere when I pulled it out to drain…

Again, Double Dumbass.
So you have to settle.
After I rinsed it off:

That’s some raw-assed metal right there
and the receiver turned out like this:

It still has a wee bit of funk n’gunk, in there, but tomorrow’s mission is to hit it ALLLLL over with a steel wheel/brush. THEN I’ll be ready for prime time. For shits n’grins, I tried the bolt:

Like a glove baby… s-m-o-o-o-o-o-t-h as silk.
Before when I tried it, it got stuck like Chuck… so badly I had to gently hammer it out of battery.

Also, here’s a close up of the Makers Mark:

Compared to when I first got it:

Cleaned up nicely IMO
And thats all before I hit it with the (in order) steel brush, steel wool, and if needed 1000-3000 grit as needed. As well as any heavier spot removal that I determine as needed.

The nice thing about this particular weapon that came to me while prepping it is, well, TBH…

Ye Olde Enfield Model One, Mark Three has a LOT of ‘wood coverage’ on it:

Meaning that IF (and the odds of that are pretty slim) that I completely bollux up the blooing job on the barrel, I really only have to be concerned with the trigger guard, the barrel sights, the barrel bandings, the front nose piece, the sling loops, and the receiver. Oh yeah, and the mag too… which as far as I’m concerned is well in hand…

Everything else is just mint.

The barrel is under sooooo much wood, Acres of wood in my eyes and whelp, if I fuck it up, I fuck it up. It is what it is. Either way I can try to hide it (if needed) LOL.

Now, the critical question:
THE BORE AND RIFLING
Now I do NOT have a quality borescope. Budget Amazon all the way. HOWEVER. The initial scope showed and incredible buildup of Cosmoline. To the point the lands and grooves of the rifling were indistinct. Thing of it was, the barrel looked smooth allll the way down with those “barely there” rifling grooves. The bore showed ZERO signs of ever being fired for that fact…

Because of the smoothness however, I started thinking I might have gotten a for-shit blown out weapon as for $99 and who the fuck was I kidding?

AFTER the rust removal bath?

Well… I ran both a bore brush (.30 cal) as well as numerous swabs… like 5 of them… each time the brush came back with what looks like petrified Cosmo, and the patches as well. In fact the patches were fucking black as my heart, and I’m debating on using them to age the top-wood, as it’s a little too pristine IMO. When I rescoped it AFTER all of that, the barrel lands and grooves are coming into focus, and the Cosmo is starting to lump up, get granulated and beginning to break free.

THAT tells me that I THINK I might have a pristine Barrel.

The next step is going to be ‘corking’ the end of the barrel with a gas-proof cork, and then filling the barrel with 89 octane, and leaving it in the garage for a week. THAT should eat away at the Cosmo (IF that in fact is the problem) and IF it was the problem, I have a hunch, that provided the headspace of the bolt is good, well then Oh Holy Shit, for once Ye Olde Luckage of Big Country has broken his/my way…. which then leads me to tonights Final Jeopardy Question:

NOW:
Question for you other gunnies out there.

I got a gauge for this thing.
It’s a field headspace gauge.
It’s actually one of the pricey-er pieces of gear I needed to get because one does not fuck around with headspacing a bolt on a 1939 bolt rifle that’s been stuffed in a corner in Ethernopia for God-Knows-How-Long:

Now… the problem.
Seems it’s sealed in some sort of heavy duty 1940s plastic. Almost shrink wrapped in it.

Like I’ve never even seen anything like this before.
The label on the INSIDE after I peeled off the outer covering said “Sealed In Plastic for Added Protection”

Now, I posit this to y’all:
I can not simply ‘carve off the plastic’ as it’s a gauge.
Gauges are very sensitive items in regards to tolerances and whatnot. The gauge set(s) we had back at the AMSA (Army Material Support Element where I was the Depot level Armorer for quite a spell… best job I ever had) were unbelievably expensive and when it came time for the annual re-cert for the gauges? OMFG.

There’s only like ONE lab that can recertify Armorer gauges. Not sure as the memory is damaged by too many-beers-too-many-years but I think it was Laurence-Livermore. Point is, we had a total of 5 sets of gauges for the ENTIRE AMSA. Two to three were ALWAYS at L.L. awaiting recertification. The two others we had, ONE was in constant use, with the other as our ‘go to shit/break in case of war/emergency set’

Because that lab was the only authorized Lab that could do recertification EVERY SINGLE Unit in the US DotMil needed to have their shit recertified annually.

Because civilian gauges were NOT authorized.
BY LAW from my understanding

So yeah, I do NOT want to fuck up a nearly $50 piece of critical equipment via scraping it clean. Bore Cleaner, Easy Off and Carb Cleaner, so far? The fucking Gauge Laughed at them all.

I’m thinking drastic measures like a full one couple-of-day soaking in 89 octane. Gas is like the absolute solvent when it comes to plastics… Hell, it does great on Cosmo, but it’s dangerous to a point when you’re mixing up pieces-parts. One spark by banging metal together and >FOOSH!<

BUT

With JUST that gauge?
It juuust might work?
I’ll hold out ’til you disreputable mo’fos chime in, especially if you’ve had to deal with this particular conundrum. I mean this plastic is thick AF… to the point I began thinking they sent me the wrong gauge….

Either way.
Haven’t been, nor will be (for the present time) watching the poly-ticks nor news. Unless it’s about the current status of who is now being called “The Claims Adjuster” and his probable escape… I’m too busy with the rifle and other issues…

GOD I love that title… I can’t go into it, but trust me, that’s a perfect handle to hang on the shooter.

May He Live Long, and Prosper.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
LOTS of great commentary (outside of the Fed-Douchecanoe who ran back to watch his wife get gangbanged by a bunch of bucks) over the past few days.

Now, back to tonight’s “Happy-Dance/Smiley Face”

Back on the 27th, Gretchen’s birthday gift to me showed up. It was a Royal Tiger Imports Model One, Mark Three Short Magazine Lee Enfield. It was $99 as it didn’t come with a bolt, was positively soaked in Cosmoline, and had a LOT of surface scaling.

The top two pieces of wood, one was missing, the other cracked and broken AF. It was manufactured in 1939 as you can see:

Now… I haven’t been lazy…
No No… in fact between work at Glorious People’s Tractor Factory #601, and all of the medical stuff, I’ve been busy in many respects on working on it… namely the disassembly and inspection of the fiddly-bits. I also ordered what I could budget allowing.

Now a lot of people ask me why I have such an affinity for this particular long arm… Truth be told, to use a BritSpeak, I bloody well don’t know mate. I just really love the damned thing. The lines, the front nose piece (which I’ve completely stripped and is ready for bluing when the rest of the parts are done marinating in the rust remover):

Got ALL the rust and old bluing off, and now I only have to re-degrease it, then do a cold bluing. As you can see, there was still some cosmo in the nooks and crannies, but that’s been resolved since. Thank God for a set of dental picks.

Part of it makes me wonder if it’s that Charlie Brown Poster:

Sure looks like he’s toting a SMLE.

Either way, I worked on getting the main body into the flower bed thing… I’m using this as a soaking tray to let the rust remover do it’s job overnight:

As you can see, I worked on the receiver itself using the Birchwood-Casey “Blue and Rust Remover” which worked pretty damned well for the most part:

Like I said, there was a fair amount of heavy rust, as it’d been stored w/out a bolt.

Now, the worst of the scaling I had to use my Dremel and a small wire brush attachment. THAT did the trick. Blew the scaling off pretty damned well. And now the whole of the main barrel and receiver are ‘marinating’ overnight, along with ALLLLLL the fiddly-bits in 4 inches of concentrated rust remover. That ought to handle the majority of problems. I’ll be hitting it after with MOAR degreaser (carb cleaner in this case) and then re-hitting the WHOLE thing with a brass brush where needed, and Dremel whatever needs to be Dremeled.

I also got the bolt in… that was the most expensive part I needed. $89.00 from a guy on gunbroker. Complete bolt, new/old stock.

Now the plus on this is even after my minimal rust removal, the bolt, with some lube and encouragement actually slid home and locked successfully!

Yay me!

BUT… as we all know I can never have a “first time go at this station”. Nope. I totally forgot to get pix, which kind of pisses me off, but let me embed the video:

11 minutes, and very useful for me.
What I did not realize was MY bolt? The firing pin was ‘recessed’ in the bolt… turns out when you remove the bolt, and the bolt isn’t cocked, that the firing pin ‘sticks out’ of the face of the bolt.

I found out why after I tore it down.
I got the firing pin disassembly tool for like $10 at Sarco? Or maybe Numrich… Can’t remember off the top of my head, but it was cheap. The firing pins on these apparently are notorious for breaking, as a 6.6in long, thin firing pin, I can see why.

What I did find out though, and what my problem was is the firing pin, back where it screws into the cocking device (that’s the rectangular finned lever at the ass end of the bolt) MY firing pin had a slight bend in it. Like call it 8 degrees… bent about 3/4 of an inch from the rear of the firing pin itself, but NOT on the screw threading. Visually very hard to see until I started screwing it into the cocking piece on it’s own. THEN you could very obviously see the ‘wobble-wobble’ which is why the pin, once cocked, wasn’t coming back out.

Took a soft gunsmith hammer and a punch pin to get the firing pin out… at first I thought it was all the crusted up cosmo… but nope… a bad firing pin.

$15 to replace.
Seeing’s I’m on a budget, and I’m “that guy” for better or for worse, Me? I broke out the fucking blowtorch, and heated that fucker up. Put it in my vice’all have seen in the various background shots of ye olde workbench… Got it niiiiiice and red hot, and a couple of gentle whacks with a brass hammer, to where my Mark One Mod One eyeball said “Good enuff for DotGov work” and then quenched it in oil/CLP.

I mean why not right?

So, long story getting longer, it worked like a charm. The pin now slides in and out, smooth as glass and functions perfectly. Next payday I’ll order me like two spares, as ‘one is none’ Aye?

God I’m having soooooo much fun doing this, no joke.
I purely LOVE doing weapons restoration.

So, ALL metal is now soaking in the rust remover. That’s a 24 hour operation. The only thing I had left was to start degreasing and checking out the wood.

And man, I can tell this thing has been through a hard life of being banged around. No idea if it actually saw combat… being manufactured in 1939, I have questions:

but still… the wood is well worn, dinged to fuck-all and back, and like I said, the top pieces-parts were either missing or broken. I stared by (against instructions and advice) by spraying it down with the carb cleaner. I know, I know… but the crust of cosmo wasn’t being handled by ANY other means. No worries tho, I as you will see, made sure everything was copacetic after…

After degreasing multiple times, and scrubbing the fuck out of it with a nylon brush, THIS is what I ended up with after doing ONE coat of boiled linseed oil

Whooooa Momma!
That is one sexxxxy BritRifle.
I put the nose-cap on to help keep everything in place for the pic… There’s only two concerns I have to deal with. ONE is a crack in that lower forearm:

Not a ‘fatal crack’… I think a fill/sand/stain/oil should take care of it. The OTHER issue I have is on the buttstock:

See that circle carved into the back part?
That’s where the “Makers Mark”, a lil brass disk should be. In fact, the buttplate itself, as it was a pre-war SMLE, is brass as well.

My problem is that I found one.
The disk that is.
My issue is this, Here’s a comparative pic of the original buttplate, and the new disk (which BTW came also with the appropriate brass screw):

SERIOUS differences in the patina and presentation.
That disk will stand out like a whore in church.

Granted, I’m rebluing the whole thing, de-scaling it, doing a full on refurb, to include guaging, test firing (when it’s ready, and whatnot, but maaaaan… that disk is just so overwhelmingly shiny AF.

Sapper suggested I find a way to ‘quick patina/fake age’ it…. What say y’all? Either way I’m forced to hit it with a bit of filing to make it fit into the socket juuuust right but I’m not sure about aging it… let me know in the comments.

Other than that, I’m fucking exhausted.
At Lunchtime today, (one hour whereas I normally take 30 minutes) Sapper and I did the brakes on the Hyundai. I started getting the very start of the metal-to rotor grind. Turns out that Hyundai’s, or at least the Tucson I have has a leeway where the pad starts doing a wee bit of grinding as a warning so to speak “Hey asshole, you need to change the brake pads!”

Between the two of us, and the YouTube video, we got it done in 45 minutes. Both front sets of pads… the rotors (of course) were pristine despite the dire warnings of Ye Olde Mechanics Shppes herebouts… who ALL wanted at a minimum $400 for just the front pads and (possibly) the rotors.

Considering these were the SAME brake pads that came with the car? and I’ve got 99,000 miles on it? Color me impressed. The good OEM pads cost me $40, and Sapper and I got it done in an hour.

Fuck you Pep Boys.

BUT because of this, I’m sore as all get out. Too much bending at weird angles for my compressed and disintegrating spinal column. Ah well… it is what it is.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
LOTS of folks chiming in out there on the shooter.
Even got some morons in the newspapers saying that the perp used the VP-9 which is a new, redone version of the WW2 Welrod. Problem there is the “Welrod Repro” is like almost $3k!!! I might do a poast on that fun toy sometime in the future… Remind me…
Anyways
My two cents:

Lot of talk about how the shooter had to re-rack the slide after each and every shot. The size of the weapon also caught my eye, but before we go there, lets discuss the suppressor NOT a fucking ‘silencer’ PLEASE!!!

Now, a suppressor was the invention of Hiram Maxim waaay back in the day. This being Hiram Junior, son of the guy who invented the Maxim Machine Gun. Dear Old Dad went deaf due to his Machine gun, so his son, being a good boy, came up with a tool to hush a weapon. He is credited with inventing the first commercially successful firearm silencer in 1902. His patent was issued on March 30, 1909.  Ole Hiram named it after himself, trademarking it as the “Maxim Silencer”.  As we’re all familiar with, a suppressor is designed to reduce noise and muzzle flash, and to reduce the risk of hearing damage.

For some strange reason the Assholes at the ATF made them NFA subject items, so they tend to be a bit pricey, and require some DotGov hoops to jump through to legally have one. Hiram Jr., interestingly enough, also invented car mufflers, which he developed in tandem with his suppressor and used some of the same noise-canceling techniques.

Guess he liked ‘stuff’ to be quiet Aye?

So a suppressor is essentially a ‘gas trap’ that screws onto the end of a weapon. One of the original ads shows a cutaway view:

The ‘can’ which is also the body, holds as you can see items called ‘baffles’. The baffles redirects the caught gas from the firing of a cartridge. This in turn ‘quiets down’ the explosion generated during firing.

Per the wiki:

“A suppressor, also called a silencer, works by trapping and slowing down the high-pressure gases expelled from a firearm’s muzzle when it fires, allowing them to expand and cool gradually, thus significantly reducing the loud noise of the gunshot by dispersing the energy over a longer period of time; essentially acting like a muffler for a gun, with internal baffles that redirect and contain the expanding gases as they exit the barrel”

Easy-Peasy right?

OK… so to the point.
The reason that The Shooter kept cycling the weapon was not due to incompetence nor malfunctions. Maybe a ‘lack of education’ would be a better term of art. Specifically, certain types of weapons don’t like suppressors and the weight they have.

Namely browning designed handguns, NON-RECIPROCATING weapons, specifically like Glocks, some Smith and Wesson M&P models, H&K… you know the types…. The handguns that have tilting barrels specifically. A pistol having a vertically tilting barrel, means it rotates slightly upwards to lock into the slide during firing, but does not move back and forth with the slide like a reciprocating barrel would.

Because they don’t like the extra weight of the can being on the end of the barrel, you need a “Booster” or the fancy-pants name “Linear Inertial Decoupler” to assist in getting the weapon to fire. (H/T to ‘RA Bear’ for the link) One can be seen on the Gemtech site HERE
For a quick peek:

NOT having a booster causes the weapon to fire (quietly still mind you) but it will not cycle the slide which becomes apparent in that The Shooter had to manually cycle the handgun manually for each shot.

Which is VERY TELLING ON ITS OWN when you realize that he knew that this was the drill. There doesn’t seem to be any “Pikachu Face/Oh Shit!” moments when the weapon fails to cycle. He just calmly showed that he knew what to expect, as he’s not fumbling around per se… he shoots, racks the slide, reacquires, shoots… wash rinse and repeat…

Which means he probably practiced but didn’t know/understand the reasoning for the problem. I.E. a lack of education… IF he was a ‘realio-dealio’ assassins i.e. some of the Organs of the Ministries of Lies and Propaganda could shut the fuck up for a minute or two, and left the adults like myself guide the conversation, that’d be great. BUT, alas, tis not to be… so the bad reporting continues…

And the weapon?
I’ll call it (due to it’s very small size in the videos out there) that it’s a Smith and Wesson Springfield Armory (corrected via a Douchecanoe in the comments… sorry, I’m usually better than that…) possibly the 9mm Hellcat Pro. Threaded non-reciprocating barrel, 9mm (duh!) and very Compact. I’ve heard great things from DiveMedic about his…

Now it maybe a Glock, but… like I said, the grainy nature of the vid, and the lack of real intel, I have to go with my hunch. If you haven’t seen the video, The Tactical Hermit has a good copy at his house HERE

And y’all have had some great commentary.
Some of it being off the wall (per usual for this particular crew) but TBH, I love the interplay and interactions. BTW, We broke 10k successfully poasted comments today just as an FYI. I stopped counting the daily hits when I hit like 4 million… Love Y’all, no Homo…

Now as far as motive, FedBro (who’s still not talking to me) DID tell MomUnit (who passed on his intel-nugget) that his Cop-Antenna said that it was the wife who set this up. Told her that her statements, the living conditions and all the bullshit have him convinced that she’s involved…

Myself?

I dunno man.
MY personal bias and animosity to the Medical Insurance Cartels has me absolutely livid that -I- didn’t think of this first… -I- think that we’re never going to truly know UNLESS the plan is that this guy wants to be caught so he can get on the Stand at Trial, and start slinging MAD mud at the Healthcare Abomination Publically… become a Martyr to the Cause, and encourage some Righteous Rage and motivate some folks to start applying “They too, Have Names and Addresses, and are not sufficiently guarded.”

In fact because of that, he’ll be ‘killed while being taken into custody’… can’t even remotely chance that he may even be semi-literate and get a Soap Box to get things rolling so to speak… they’ll deep six him “pour encourager les autres” and stand down, lest Leviathan get moar people getting ‘badthink ideas’…. They have to kill him in custody before it’s allowed to get out of hand…

So yep.
My thoughts for tonight. Hope you enjoyed.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
I know, mad shocker.

Two updates within a 24 hour period.

I do seriously apologize for this, but as of late, when my stress levels peak out, I’m utterly incapable of writing. Most fellow bloggers can relate I’m sure. I mean it’s not an excuse, more of a “pardon moi, I’m currently overwhelmed by my life” sort of thing.

Either way, the short but sweet update, and y’alls comments were greatly appreciated again by myself and Gretchen. She’s been a trooper through all of this, and adding on the self-inflicted stoopid of DumbC, she’s managing very well TBH.

Me?

I’ve made my ‘red lines’ clearer and harder than VodkaManBads.

Cross those lines at your fucking peril.

THAT is what a .45ACP is for.

Why, you may ask, a .45ACP?

Well, because they don’t make a .46 or .47.

So anywho…
Back to the CEO of UnitedHealth.

Word is now leaking out (like the blood from his CEO corpse, slowly, but surely) that there were ‘messages’ engraved on the shell casings that the shooter left behind… What they are, at this time, are unknown to this Intrepid Reporter. HOWEVER, the very fact that the shooter felt the need to insure that “the message was sent” tells me that there was a message…

Now the reason I bring this up?

Whelp, as “Fire Marshal Bill” would say:

Seems shortly after I poasted the update to Gretchen’s (and mine) current ‘medical adventures’ she/we got a letter from UnitedHealthCare in tonight’s mail…

Hold on, as this’s gonna be a doozy…

Per United:
“We received a request to cover health care services recently…. After the review of the information submitted…
…it was determined that this service was not medically necessary.”… blah-fucking-blah…

The “…” spaces cover the ‘other legalese’ language…

Despite a Medical Code of: “K62.5 Hemorrhage of anus and rectum” (with Doctors notes stating this was severe AF) they fucking are denying her three day stay in the hospital and ALL the costs associated to and with it. Which means We’re (for now) on the hook for about 20k in medical bills.

You know what I have to say to this?

Ho.
Ho.
Ho.

Yep.
I can -get- a machinegun if needed.
Friends in Low/DotGov places doncha know…
That and a flammenwerfer….

Jes’ Sayin’

And you can be sure AF when I call the appeal line tomorrow that I’m going to be very pointedly asking them if they want to be added to the “…should be shot on sight” list that the rest of ‘Murica seems to be drawing up.

See…

TBH, I’ve been feeling something that has me worried, but also rather? jubilant? I dunno but it seems in my opinion, that there’s a vast amount of based Americans that are coming out of their collective shells… The folks with the guns…

Meaning that the “Original Spirit of 1776” is still alive, and possibly thriving in the background… The Spirit that drove us to shoot the motherfuckers who ‘taxed our tea’ too much… the Spirit that drove us to kill anyone who stood before us, to include the Native Americans who were stupid enough to resist the inevitable…

Am I saying it’s right?
Fuck no.
HOWEVER
I am saying that I’m seeing a baseline rebirth…

All it’s going to take for me to cement these beliefs that shit has had a major change is a few moar assholes being killed out of hand for being ‘members of the Corporate-Globo-Homo-Judeo-Oligarchic Control Group’. A couple moar CEO brains “splattered and scattered”, and a few moar family homes burned to the ground… some tar-and-featherings plus general shunning… Hell, let’s cut NYFC off.

No moar food.
If you’re a farmer, stop selling the product.
If you know someone who is selling their product, reason with them at first, and then go to slightly moar drastic measures as needed. I gar-ron-damned-tee that NYFC would go full on nigra-cannibal within a week or two…

We might even get to watch Whoopi Goldberg eat that Jewess Joy Behar live onscreen…

But Like I said? After getting that notice?

Yeah, I’ll profusely apologize to the first line “Customer Service Rep” as I’ve both been one, and managed them. My own experience was working a healthcare Call Center as a Manager for the VA… you want to talk about abusive???? Yeah, me and mine: BT-DT.

My personal IRE is going to be saved for whatever level of fucktardery that I can get to… and I’m pretty good as far as ‘climbing the ladder’ on the phone with these folks… between being sympathetic and empathetic to the ‘front line’ folks who usually take the most shit from the callers, I let them know that I -know- it’s NOT their fault, and that IF they pass me on, and stay connected, they can hear me burn an asshole (usually their boss) a new asshole…

They tend to ‘pass me on’ when I tell them that.

EVERYONE likes to hear the boss take a verbal asswhuppin’

Even my people when we (on that rare occasion were responsible for a fuckup) positively loved to hear me get my anus et the fuck oot by someone for aforementioned fuck up….

Yeah
I know it’s in bad taste, but being told that some desk jockey accountant, at a company that had a $138 BILLION dollar profit last year has determined that my wife’s anal bleeding wasn’t enough to warrant a three day stay in the hospital?

Get me fucking names

Fuckers will learn what “personal responsibility to the people and or customers” means in short motherfucking order, I guaran-damned-tee it…

Yeah… I didn’t go into extreme detail but for the sake of this, the way it went down was this:

Gretchen called me into the bathroom after she pooped.

Now, she has gastro-issues.
THIS is a ‘regular thing’ so to speak.
She ONLY calls me if thing are really fucked up.

She interrupted my Fallout London Game by calling my on my cell phone. The house is large enough that while we don’t warrant an intercom, I’m so fucking deaf that if she yells, I can’t hear her. She called me on the cellie, and said “I have a problem….”

So I went back to see what was up with whut.

OK….

There’s bleeding.
Then there’s bleeding
Then there’s “Oh Holy Fuck” levels

In this particular instance?

I know, TMI, but this wasn’t a blown ‘rhoid, nor some light bleeding… this was a coating of arterial blood… ALLLLLL over the bowl… like the last time I saw this much bleeding, I put a tourniquet on dude’s leg in Iraq… No fucking joke. THIS was a “OH FUCK” moment where my initial reaction was, quite honestly, to stuff a QuikClot suppository up there… not that there’s such a thing, but I was doing the ‘out of the box’ thought mode, as there was that much fucking blood.

I even went as far as to make sure that this was a ‘thick coat’ via a Q-Tip…. I wanted to make sure we weren’t just dealing with a minor hemorrhoidal blowout… and when I ran the Q-Tip over the bowl (and mind you, it was COATING the bowl, a THICK blood coating, alllll the way up to the rim… she had had a full on O-Ring Integrity Blowout from what I could see….).

Fuck.

When I saw how thick the blood was, and how severe it was, adding on that she started almost immediately feeling light-headed (blood loss IMO) I threw her big Amazonian Ass in the car and rolled hot and heavy to the ER.

Now granted, in the end (pardon the pun) it apparently was tied into a previously (two days before) diagnosed UTI, as well as her general gut problems (PCOS, as well as a slew of ‘other’ stomach issues’) that it allllll culminated in her having an O-Ring Blowout in a literal bloody fashion. Seems her lower colon didn’t like the meds that the doc-in-the-box put her on for the UTI, and it showed via the blow-out.

BUT

For United to make a baseline call that this wasn’t necessary?

Oh Yeah…
I’m positively looking forward to my call with the appeals folks. They know not with whom they’ll be dealing with…

I have no problem asking/informing them that

“You know what? How would YOU like to be the next contestant on the “Healthcare Fuckers We Need Kil’t?” It can easily be arranged. YOU are not high enough on the corporate ‘food chain’ to warrant any sort of ‘protection’…. you AND your co-workers are easy fucking meat. You, as well as your families. Your CEO was ‘the easy meat’… and he’s waaay better protected in theory and higher on the food chain than you… Jes’ Sayin’ ”

No threats per se…
Just a reminder, as Caesar was told during his triumph:

“Remember thou art mortal.”

Rather prescient innit?

So, I look forward to seeing if they catch this guy.

Personally, I hope he gets away clean.

Considering it’s NFYC, my own persona bet (80-20) is they grab some random mook and lay the blame on him… not the real shooter mind you, but some ree-ree tardy kid they’ve had under observation for a while that’s an easy frame, who’ll make a good patsy so’s to make the NYFPD look good, and make the rest of the potentially targeted fucktards chill out… that’s how –I’d– be playing it if -I- were ‘large and in charge’

Have to see if THAT prediction comes true…
If it does, you heard it here first.

Lots of info drooling out (which is appropriate as the mass enemedia are nothing but if retarded) that the guy made a bunch of mistakes, but as of now? I say “Best of Luck Bro… you done did good!”

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK:

First off: Good News/Bad News

Bad News: The Martians have landed in Los Angeles.
Good News: They’re eating niggers and spic -only-, pissing hi-octane gasoline, and headed East.

>Drum Riff<
OK… seriously. Been so busy as to make one’s head spin. Good News/Bad News here vis-a-vis Gretchen’s ‘issues’:

Good News: NOTHING actually wrong with her.

Bad News: A fucking moron Radiologist who didn’t know how to read a post-operative Breast Cancer survivors scan(s) needs to be beaten to the tune of three-four days of lost vacation time, $1000.00 in hospital (out of pocket no insurance I had to pay) and about a Million FiatBux in stress and fear and aggravation. Plus travel time and expenses.

Gretchen has forbidden me from kneecapping the fucker.

I really would love to do an good ole ‘Irish Job’ on the fucker’s knees… he doesn’t need knees to read the scans… he can do it from a wheelchair amiright?

<Le Sigh>

No one ever lets me have any fun.

Got home today. Been beat. Been ‘out of it’ worried to death. Couldn’t blog… hard to do when the stress level is that high… We both appreciated ALL the kindness and thoughts and prayers tho… my most humble thanks again.

The only other interesting thing about this trip was that BIG funeral for the three cops killed in West Palm? It was right around the corner (starting point?) from the Doc’s office on Saturday. The office being located at the West Palm Beach State Fairground.

No joke or exaggeration: there must have been 2-3k cop cars/motorcycles and I have no idea how many fuzz from around the nation there. Never mind that OrangeManBad was there with his protective detail, the roads were highly fucked regarding flow of traffic and such. Never seen so many cops in one place at one time let me tell you.

Reminded me of a Cartel Funeral I saw on YouTube once…
Which sorta-kinda tells you something about the cops right?

Speaking of which, Chad Chronister, our Sherriff here in Hillsborough who had been nominated to run the DEA pulled out… seems that his arrest and persecution of a Christian Minister for holding services during the ‘Vid Lockdown didn’t play too well with OMB when he found out…

Don’t look at me man, I didn’t voat for the fucker.
Chronister is a POS IMO.
Some of his deputies (like the former Navy Chief who took control when DC “swatted me” and didn’t let me get arrested/shot) are cool. Other? Not so much.

Yeah… then the pardon?
If you were surprised, then shame on you.
We ALL know that we get no justice
That they always protect each other
Two Tiered indeed

That being said however, seems -someone- has a sense of justice/humor. The CEO of UnitedHealth (who fucked me/us over and was the reason I had to go OOP on this to maybe keep my wife, you know alive and all) was brutally and proficiently (from the looks of the video released) gunned down in NYFC this early AM.

I wholeheartedly applaud the hit.

Well done. <slow golf clap>

Well planned, perfectly executed (pardon the pun), good E&E (escape and evade) and from the looks of it, the perp is going to just f-a-d-eeeee into the background and be forgotten… Not that I necessarily condone such actions, however as the Joker said:

Yep.
NOW what would be extraordinarily hilarious would be the next guy -whomever he is- who steps in and takes over, that he also gets blown the fuck away. As well as any other major CEO of these diseased and felonious corporate empires who’s sole purpose is to drain the cash from the working class… the very example of a parasitic corporate entity who make their INSANE profits off the misery of people.

Their deaths can’t come soon enough IMO.

AntiFa ‘claims’ to be ‘of the people’?
THEY can lead the charge IF they aren’t IRL controlled by the enemy. (Hint: they are) However, we all know what’s really happening. My question is that IS this the beginning of ‘something’?

MAJOR CEOs of a $138 billion dollar profit company generally don’t get whacked like that. I would think, and if it were me? I’d have -some form- of guard… at a bare minimum.

I mean shit…

If these clowns are that ‘touchable’ well Hell…

I look forward to the news of the next clown getting his shit ‘scattered and splattered’

Serves them right.
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Well, first off, my great appreciation and thanks to all of y’all who come by here to hear my whining and bitching. This’s my one refuge I have where I can do a mind-dump.

I’m thankful for so many things this year.

One is that despite the recent news, Gretchen survived and thrived after the first round of Cancer, (cursed be it’s name).
Two is that both grands are thriving in their respective ages and areas. I’m also happy that BabyDaddy seems to have finally gotten his head out of his 4th point of contact.
Three is I’m thankful for Sapper still having my back. Much appreciated man.
Four are the few friends I still have despite my obnoxious and rather toxic personality. I’m trying to improve, but being an utter bastard is sort of in the DNA. This includes a LOT of my fellow bloggers, like Wirecutter, Mike at Cold Fury and the Tactical Hermit, to name just a few… CA as well for his efforts especially in keeping the signal alive.
And lastly I’m thankful for the People’s Glorious Tractor Factory as I’ve now seen up close and personal how utterly shitty the job market is, and especially thankful for the Operations Commissar who at the time was IT Commissar before his promotion who got me in to begin with.

I mean this is ostensibly what this particular holiday is about.

Giving thanks to the Big Guy in The Sky, be it whatever name you prefer to label him. And yeah, I’m pretty sure its a male deity. Call me a sexist. This is where we’re luck enough to give Thanks to Him for the Blessing of us living here, and for all the bounty and wealth of friends and family we have. That and turkey with dressing.

So, may you ALL have a fantastic day, and I’ll be catching up tomorrow as I’ve been s-l-o-w-l-y starting work on the Enfield. I have her completely stripped down to pieces-parts, and have started the in-depth inspection and stripping of the finish. So far it looks great.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Saluatations
Where to begin?
So, last Thursday I find Gretchen bleeding out from ‘something;’ that was unexpected, nor welcome. This was from an area that I’d rather not get into, but no, t’wasn’t the lady bits.

To give you an idea, I’ve seen a bit of Hemorrhoidal bleeding before, and trust me, this wasn’t it. TBH perfectly honest, I haven’t seen anything like that out of some arterial bleeding that I had to put a tourniquet on said-guy when he took a hit to the leg in Iraq.

Yeah THAT fucking bad. Freaked my ass out.

So know you know the ‘where’ of it.

The problem?

The WHY of it.

Of course immediately after said literal bloody shit-show, I packed her off to the literal BRAND NEW hospital that’s within spitting distance of Ye Olde Casa. Because when I say new, I mean “new-new”… like only opened officially like a few weeks ago… a 13 million dollar full service hospital that, from what I can tell, no one realizes is in full-on operation. This is a thing of goodness as when we got there, the Emergency Room was literally empty, they triaged her, and immediately admitted her, and started working on her.

Hence my extended absence.

But wait, there’s MOAR!
This’s an aside:

During this entire fucking nightmare, I didn’t tell you guys, but DumbCunt is back… I got, if you will, “Machiavelli’d” to use it as a descriptive adjective. DC had been made homeless… I heard somewhere about it, however, her life means less to me than the Red Hot Chili-Pupper or Stella the Sausage Queen’s freshly deposited steaming loafs on the lawn in the AM.

Quite literally, I don’t give a fuck.

HOWEVER

The in-laws, on finding out that DC was again homeless/jobless/worthless saw this as a prime opportunity to stay out of the home, and sent her a bus ticket to get here. The idea being that she can become their caretaker, and try and redeem herself…

Lots of fucking luck there folks amiright?

Either way, it was ALL done behind my back
SO yeah… I’m over it.
Told ’em that when not if it all blows up I’m not fucking helping.

Part of the reason the in-laws did this (besides trying to stay out of the home, which at the time I was fully ready to commit to having them involuntarily committed so to speak… there’s been a ton of issues of which I have NOT spoken of to y’all) is that DC IS their only grand…

Soooooo…. literally while Gretchen is in Intensive Care, we got DC en-route Via Greyhound.

I sure picked a bad weekend to stop sniffin’ glue….

Long(er) story short is there is something potentially Cancer-Level shytte is happening with Gretchen. Doc Samizdat is on the case, as well as some other(s), however, Moffit here does not take her insurance, and we don’t have time to fuck around again. As they say in that flick: “…just when you though it was safe…”

Dammit.

Now… I got Gretchen back on Sunday… This was a good thing… it was early morning when I picked her up… to which she turns right around and bails. However, that was also my 55th Birfday. AND it turned out that was ALSO the day DC showed up to the Great State of Florida. Hence her bailing on me for the cunt.

As I am who I am, and since I was told “This’s the way it is” Gretchen went to get DC and deliver her to the in-laws Area of Operations…

And as you ALL know, nothing in my life could be that easy.

DC showed up with a temp of 103.9, sick AF and Gretchen had to take her to the hospital, where she’s currently in the intensive care ward as her homeless living left her ALLLLL sorts of fucked up.

I literally spent my entire 55th birfday by myself
Yay Me.
Meh… it’s only a day.
I did however get my birfday gift that I got myself, of which y’all WILL be seeing:

A Royal Tiger Imports Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mod1 Mark 3 or SMLE. It was $99 and is missing the bolt and mag, and in rough shape, but not so much as to be irretrievable. The bore and rifling are great that I can tell.

The wood, the top parts are broken and beaten on, but the stock and lower handguard are fine. It looks like I’ll be able to restore it, so I’m taking pics as I go. As an FYI, it was made in 1939:

Have to see what happens…

I have all the tools and solutions to clean it up. In fact I have it completely disassembled… it comes down to the “when I have enough time to do this on top of all my other shytte” and the balance of dealing with the wife’s “Oh my baby!” instincts which personally? I don’t buy.

Some instincts are better smothered in the crib.
Much like how DC should have been handled back in the day IMO
Fuck it… I have a rifle to work on amiright?

So More Later
Big Country