Greetings and Salutations! What would another holiday gone by here at The Casa without ALL of us being bedridden and sick? Seems every year, Sapper has to go out to a boat/barge/whatever and interacts with the crew(s) from various nations, and comes home with the ‘latest case of ‘x’
In this case, it was just a head cold To start with. Then it got bronchial and full on flu-ish.
Two days after it went bronchial -I- started with the slight head cold, and ended up going down hard right after the gift exchanges on Christmas Eve. ALL of us were down hard. Gretchen as well.
This AM Sapper seems to have recovered quite a bit, so much as he was able to go into . I too am feeling slightly better, but one issue that was sort of related, but not cold related per se, was at one point during a coughing fit, I managed to torque my sciatic nerve…
So now I’m gimping, and while no longer hacking up a lung, I still feel shitty, but better than I was 24 hours ago. I also managed to get in a HOT shower and let the massage head pummel the nerve plexus, and that’s relieved quite a bit of the ouch. That was a niiiice relaxing shower too…
So, I hope everyone had a great lil break from the normal. Unfortunately for me I’m two full Christmas Meals behind, ours and Gretchen’s Parents. A LOT of cooking I need to get done, lest the ingredients go bad, as I’m not sure if you can safely re-freeze a Butterball? Some say yes, some say no. These were defrosted about a week and a half ago, and have been in the fridge since.
I’m sure if I cook ’em up in the next two days, we’ll be fine. The ham(s) are the pre-cooked, and only need to be heated and glazed (sort of like your Mom! >drum riff< ) But besides juvenile humor, I really haven’t been following the news…
The only thing that’s been popping up is the usual bullshit. I.E. the Ministries of Lies and Propaganda pushing whatever ‘the latest thing’ is.
You’ll notice that “Drones” and “Nukes” as well as alllll the other “shiny-shiny Oh Look Squirrel” stuff that they’d been pushing like cheap heroin on a junkie.
Right now, there’s like a ‘pause on propaganda’
Not sure what to make of it, but I don’t trust the bastards not one whit, and nor should you.
So, I’m off back to bed… I’m still a wee bit laggard and I’m still not fully over whatever this bug is. Thankfully it -seems- to be minor… just another one of those unexpected unpleasantries that comes along, and almost always at the most inopportune moments, i.e. time off from People’s Glorious Tractor Factory.
So hope you all Ate Drank and Made Merry More Later Big Country
Merry Christmas Everyone! Don’t forget what it’s all truly about:
Here Casa de Camposino Grande we had a nice laid-back evening. We just got done doing a small gift exchange between the three of us, after which poor Sapper had to go in to handle a boat…
Everyone was very pleased with their gifties. Sapper got Gretchen a gift card for Bath and Bodyworks, and I got her a bunch on sleepwear (nice nighties and whatnot), which she got me some DXL shirts and jeans. Two of which a replacements for a shirt that she bought me almost 7 years ago when we first got together. It’s on it’s last legs, but man if it isn’t my most comfy and favorite Tee. She also got both of us (Sapper and myself) what I’m calling the “Bag O’Diabeetus” as it was filled with dollar store candy.
A great selection, but OMG Break out the emergency Insulin for everyone! She also got him a set of Playmobile “Star Trek” Original Series figures…
He’s got a BIG collection of Sci-Fi ships/action figures and the like. Much like my Museum of Mayhem, his room is the Sci-Fi Museum. From me? I got him a Colonial Viper that is purely the shit. 3D Printed but OMG you can’t tell, and the attention to detail makes it that much cooler:
Cool AF IMO
I also got him a squad-sized Water Filtration set. BIG bag. Can be hung from a tree when he goes camping. He too got the “Bag O’Diabeetus” from Gretchen.
Soooo on that note, I’ll leave it there. I’ll be back whenever… probably tomorrow as Sapper brought a flu-bug home from the port last week that only kicked in last night. Nothing too bad, just a light coughing flu and general feeling of shitfulness. This means unfortunately I can’t risk going up to Mom and Dad’s tomorrow, as I don’t want to kill either of them, as their immune system is pretty weak as it gets with the Oldsters.
So I’ll be here. Blogging and playing Mass Effect and/or Fallout London more than likely.
We did get this today from the BabyDad.
Addy looks great. We’re doing a video chat probably tomorrow. She’s the typical 5 year old, wired for Sound and Santa, and loving every minute of it. Gran#1 is getting better, so hopefully she’ll be here before the New Year if everything comes together…
Cowboy took a pic of us (we didn’t know) at the bar on Saturday
I’d say most appropriate for this time of year
Hug and Love those closest to you, and enjoy this holiday, and remember what it means.
Merry Christmas you Filthy Animals!!! Big Country Expat
Greetings and Salutations! Man, another full night yesterday, as well as a day today. I completely forgot just how bloody busy the Holly-Daze can be! After yesterday’s rootin’-tootin’-shewtin’ of the Lee Enfield, I went home and post teardown and cleaning, I then scrubbed myself up, and Gretchen and I went to join up with Cowboy at a local bar called O’Brien’s.
He and Gretchen had worked this out previously to ‘meet up’ with him and his current squeeze to see the Soul Circus Cowboys… that’s the band that shot the video(s) out at his ranch, and that -someone- in their retinue gave me the heebie-jeebies at his Wife Kim’s Memorial Service.
Now, -I- personally wasn’t thrilled with going. Not on Cowboy per se, but because of that ‘bad vibe’ I got from -someone- who was “with the band” and the fact that it IS Prime Time for the Fuzz to nab folks for anything they can, and ‘serve and protect the fuck out of us’ whether we like it or not, on a Saturday night, I’m disinclined to leave the safety of Ye Olde Casa Del Grande Campesino.
BUT
Gretchen and I hardly ever go out, never mind with another couple, and since she wanted to meet his new squeeze, we went.
What’s very interesting is this time there was no “negative vibe”… of note was unlike the Memorial Service, the “Band-Gang” was bare-bones and I noticed quite a few of the ‘hangers-on’ were not there, so I’m thinking whatever eeee-vil shytte my internal Radar ‘pinged’ off of there, that particular individual/demon/whatever wasn’t present last night. Much to my relief to say the least.
Mind you Cowboy’s new chick is part of the reason he’s slowly becoming unfucked. Of course I’m worried though that he’s going to get attached too fast, but Hell… he is a grown assed man.
We had a pretty good night. I was the (shockingly!) the Designated Driver Gretchen actually had TWO Sex-on-the-Beach drinks And this place makes them stiff so she spent the majority of the day today in bed, hung over as she normally never boozes.
For her this was a bit of a Celebration to find out she still does NOT have cancer. ALWAYS a bonus there amiright?
And Cowboy and I looked pretty damned good as well:
Gretchen kept trying to get him in closer and egging him on to “…put your tongue in his ear!” and fucked up shytte like that. (Shit like that is why I hate when a broad drinks… they get stupid…) I told him if he did so, I’d break him into itty-bitty Cowboy Pieces/Parts. Needless to say, his distance from me in the pic shows that he’s a smart man.
Either way, the show was great.
I also found Phil from Bustednuckles… He said that he was down for the count getting surgery
Granted I’m busting Phil’s balls, but DAMN if the bassist didn’t look just like his ass. In all seriousness, from what I know, Phil is recovering nicely, and the surgery(s) he’s been getting have extended his lifespan and warranty a little bit, so this a great thing.
But like I said… Damned if that guy ain’t his doppleganger.
Guess I’ll have to reach out to CederQ and get the real story
Any other person but Phil, and I’d figure dude was out doing gigs behind his ole Lady’s back, what with groupies and all.
In all seriousness though I did call Phil tonight, and he sounds great considering the work they did on him… the words “surgery” “incision” and “groin” are words that should never be uttered together IMO. He fortunately/unfortunately had all three, and it makes me shudder at the thought…
So anywho… last night?
A good time was had by all.
Then, today, Borepatch stopped by with a Christmas Gift for me:
96+/- Rounds of .303 Brit! (Many Thanks Bro! Our best to the QOTW!!!)
Also pictured are the ammo-gift from Sailor Steve, who was awesome enough to send me a box as well… funny thing is, I got two boxes on the same day… Identical, but shipped from, what I can tell TWO different warehouses. I’ve had this happen before in that if they have more than one warehouse, and Warehouse #1 fills it, but doesn’t mark the order as ‘filled’ at the same time as Warehouse #2 is doing/does the same thing, then TWO items get shipped. USUALLY they ‘eat it’ so I told Steve to check his credit card receipt, and it seems they only charged him for one!!! Mad Bonus and Thanks to Steve!
I also was finally able to give Borepatch back two hardcover book he recommended and let me borrow. Always a chancy thing loaning out books, and I consider it a honor he let me borrow them, as it shows the trust a bibliophile has in the borrower. I also had a gift for him, which was a set of Jack Lawson’s ‘Civil Defense Manual(s)’ Part One and Two. I felt it appropriate that a book-gift for Christmas is always a good thing. Especially to a friend who gives me ammunition!
It’s been like over a year and a half since our last Face-to-Face because ‘life and sheee-it’. It was great seeing him and he looked great. The Queen of the World was unfortunately working, but it worked out b/c Gretchen as I said was pretty much in bed hungover the duration of his stop-by. It meant a mano y mano visit essentially.
One of the subjects that came up, and that we did discuss was the possibility of setting up another Blogshoot here in Florida.
There are logistical issues to be dealt with, but we both agreed it’s been waaaay too long since our last meetup as a BIG assed Blog-Group. The last one was right before Miguel of “GunFreeZone” moved up to Tennessee. I can’t link his blog anymore as he nuked it due to ‘issues’ that happened that I’m not going to cover. Suffice it to say it’d be cool if he (Miguel) could come down for a visit for this as he was at the last one, but I’m not expecting it.
We’re going to reach out to some respective people (DiveMedic being one) and a few others, and see what the consensus is. Orlando is a possibility as there’s a LOT more folks on that side of the state, but like I said, we’ll be following up with each other, and let y’all know if and when said-potential event might happen.
So otherwise, I’m off to revisit an older game I downloaded the other night, “Mass Effect” which was, besides “Fallout New Vegas” one of my main games in Iraq. That and M.E.2.
Greetings and Salutations! Last nights absence was due to Gretchen’s last second realization that today we were supposed to be getting the Nookular-Redhead for the pre-Christmas/Early Christmas here at the Casa. That involves her being here until late on Christmas Eve, and then back to the other Grans.
It also means we normally decorate the tree, do the cookie baking thing, and do OUR Christmas with her. The realization was that we hadn’t done ANYTHING in preparation for this!
The tree was still buried in the garage, as was ALL the decorations. NONE of the lights had been tested and on and on and on.
Guess who ended up at Walmart, as well as CVS AND Home Depot chasing new strings of lights?
Then home to start getting everything put together to some semblance of Christmas Cheer.
Only to gat a call around 10/10:30 P.M. that Red has a case of Influenza A and is sick-sick. So no Red until maybe after Christmas? Total Bummer man.
BUT This did give me a chance to move up my timeframe. Namely to Test Fire the Lee Enfield
Sapper and I went out to Cowboy’s place as it’s the only place we could do this, outside of an hour-and-a-half ride to another good outdoor rifle range. Indoor ranges around here are relatively plentiful, however they tend to be a bit overly-stifling regarding saaaaaafety and whatnot. I mean I appreciate good safety habits, but at Shoot Straight (a bunch of fucking thieves IMO) they make you LITERALLY case your rifle/pistol/shotgun whenever you move it on and off the actual firing line. As in WTF? A totally unnecessarypain in the ass.
So anyways… the test?
And here’s a close-up of the rig:
As you can see in the vidya, the kick pushed back pretty hard and knocked the cinderblock over. That was shot #2, as we did 3 Bench Test Shots, and then I figured “What The Hell?” and each one of us threw one round each.
Now the first test shot looked like an 1860’s Springfield Musket going off. HUUUGE cloud of smoke, as there was still an impressive amount of Cosmo built up that I just could NOT get scrubbed out. That shot appeared to have ‘blown out’ the majority of the crap. Now it DID have a minor affect, in that the ass end of the brass showed a wee bit of swelling, which I attributed to the overpressure from the Cosmo.
But then, I looked at all six rounds and ALL of them have the same funky color change:
So this was a wee bit worrisome. Not sure if it was headspace (even though it passed the gauging) or what? SO I measured -everything- and found that in fact No, this is -not- a bulging. In fact at the discoloration line? They’re ALL 11.62mm according to my two calipers. Yeah I use two to make sure that I’m getting accurate measurements.
I then check the specifications, and OK… the shoulder spec for the .303 Brit is 11.68. And this is PPU ammo, which according to the various Lee Enfield boards I’ve been cross referencing, the PPU brass is a teeny bit smaller than the standard ‘stuff’ out there, as every country has minor variations.
In fact one of the posters on the board said specifically “(a bit of swelling) …is fairly normal in Enfields as the chamber shape does not follow the factory case shape. This was done on purpose to be able to chamber ammunition from different sources that was slightly out of spec.”
So, good. NOT a headspacing issue per se, more of a ‘sloppy chamber’ that I’ve been reading a LOT about on these boards. Either way, no head separation (both MINE nor the shell casing) and it’s uniform all around.
There’s also the other thing I discovered here back at the house. When I got home, I of course tore it down as far as I felt it needed for an inspection. The first this I did was recheck the chamber and bore (all good!) and well… the barrel itself?
I’ll try to get a picture. It’s hard to get the camera to focus down the length of it. The rifling is pristine. Crisp and HIGHLY clean lands and grooves! My own opinion is that if this thing even had 50 rounds through it since it was made in 1939, I’ll eat my hat. I mean it’s like brand new. Sooooooo… very impressed with it, especially on how lucky I was to get what I did get, as it was a $99 special…
And as far as being at Cowboys?
He’s doing a lot better As you can see, he seemed to really dig the Enfield, and as you can see, I have a reproduction 1907 Model Pigsticker for it, which maaaan… it adds about 18in in overall length and the blade, while dull AF, is still one serious stabby-mcstabby tool.
So yeah, not a bad day Would have liked to have the gran over to kickstart Christmas, but it is what it is. Let me know what you think in the comments More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutations! Gah… Allergies. I hate allergies… ZERO Idea as to what’s been in the air for the past 48 hours… some mold, weirdness… whatever. I know I was miserable with allergies for the past 48. So the question was: Meds and/or No Meds? I went with meds and missed yesterdays blogging by being out cold early in the evening.
Like a corpse pretty much. Barely operational.
Thankfully Ye Olde People’s Tractor Factory has slowed down in production due to the bourgeois Holiday of Christmas that’s rapidly approaching. It means I’ve got a fair amount of fuck-off time.
Now, as to recent events. Notice how the “Drone Wars” thing was first and foremost like on-stop 24-7 continually and on and on and on? And now?
A big fat nothing
Like it got mighty quiet out there really -sudden-like- didnit?
The only thing of ‘recent note’ was that it’s come out that everyone from the fucking janitors to the doormen that the still current Pretender to the Glorious and Harmonious P&PBUH (Plus 10%) Orifice of The (p)Resident, The Dementor-in-Chief, Emperor Poopypants the First, Chief Executive of the Kidsmeller Pursuivant, Good Ole Slo Xi-Den was in fact, fully non compos mentis.
I.E. utterly and irretrievably incapable of ‘running the Big Show’ as the (p)Resident. That the elevator didn’t go -anywehere- near the top floor, that he was more than a few fries short of a Happy Meal, or whatever your choice of wording is.
EVERYONE knew it And stayed quite about it. Last time I looked I think that fits the terminology and definition of “treason”. In that “Treason” as defined by the Constitution of The United States is, under Article 3, Section 3 that treason is defined as
“Section 3 bars Congress from changing or modifying Federal law on treason by simple majority statute. This section also defines treason as “An overt act of in levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”. Accusations must be corroborated by at least two witnesses. Congress is a political body, and political disagreements routinely encountered should never be considered as treason. This allows for nonviolent resistance to the government because opposition is not a life or death proposition. However, Congress does provide for other lesser subversive crimes, such as conspiracy.”
Wikipedia
Now, for the most part, and this’s where it gets -sticky- is that each individual state has it’s own laws regarding treason, and the treatment that thereof. The reason the Constitution is so vague, as to pretty much being defined as essentially
A) An overt act of in levying War against the United States and B) Adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
The reason for the vagueness is that one has to remember, Pre-Lincoln (cursed be his name >SPIT!<) the POWER resided in the States individually. The FedGov was supposed to the arbiter between the States. NOT the all-seeing-all-encompassing Leviathan that was borne from the War of Northern Oppression and Aggression.
In fact the District of Columbia doesn’t have any treason statutes on it’s books that I know of? Maybe someone better educated can chime in?
But to roll with my theory… Under Poopypants, to a certain degree, the whole ‘giving aid and comfort’ to our enemies? OMG that’s been a daily thing, between the illegal invasion, the dismantling of the borders and the bullshit in the Krain, never mind the whole “supporting Israel in crimes against Humanity”?
I mean there’s no way any of this is going anywhere of course. BUT I just wanted to point out MY POV.
There has to be however somewhere in that festering pile of soulless scumbaggery that they know that we know and are aware as to the criminality of the ENTIRITY of the Demon-Spawned DemoncRatic Party at this point… “The Party of Unlimited Power” would be a better name at this point…
No idea how it plays out… If it’s business as usual, well, It is what it is.
Yep. Fact of it is, there’s a LOT of RUMINT out there. Too much. The propaganda on the drone side, the just-now admitting what everyone already knew about the Joetato… it gets old so quickly. Even for a guy like me who did this professionally, and now more as a hobby, I find myself overwhelmed by the almost Schizophrenic Nature of all of this shit…
I mean the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing is pretty common in 80% of the bureaucratic world… however, this’s on a whole new level that I’ve never witnessed before. The Action/Reaction from the current (mal)Administration at best can be defined just as I said: Schizophrenic.
Like not only does on hand not know what the other is doing, the hands are actively impeding or fighting with each other. Never mind the feet and the rest of the metaphoric carcass… I mean the whole “Team A” versus “Team B” and no one seems to know what’s happening, hence my burnout factor.
All I want to do is work on weapons man…
In fact, Sapper who works at the Port of Tampa just gave me an interesting info nugget. Now when he spots something out of the ordinary, he lets me know, we watch ‘things’ and the usual is that it may have been a one off. Unless there’s any follow up ‘action’ to the one off, we dismiss it.
In this case now, it seems he’s on Day #2 of observing -something- going on. In this case, Day #1 was two Coastie Seahawk birds doing looooong and lazy sweeps at low level alllll around the bay itself. He thinks it was a grid pattern, but it’s hard to say. He did note it was a long time that they were doing this, and his guessing at the pattern was the back-and-forth and such… a lot of overlaps and just tracking like nonstop, but is a very identifiable way.
Day #2 (today) had a similar event. In this case, this time is was two Blackhawk UH-60s (not the SpecOps MH variant, he knows the difference) with an OH-58 Kiowa Scout bird flying the same exact pattern that the Coasties had flown the day before. Low, slow and lazy, but with a repeated search grid pattern.
Once is coincidence Twice is a pattern The Third Time? In this case expect Enemy Action.
NOT fear mongering. Just being aware that IF tomorrow the same ‘stuff’ is going on? My rationale for this is he’s not the only one to have noticed something. My observations (which Sapper confirmed that he too had noticed this) is that we’ve seen in the past two-three days a LOT of F-18s doing overflights from McDill. Like normally we see/hear F18s once in a while.
NOT three days in a row, NOT flying low level and NOT armed like these are. There’s something on the wings that normally isn’t. WHAT exactly? No idea but my weird shit-o-meter pinged when I saw them yesterday while walking the doggos.
So they’re boosting the security of Tampa Bay.
Lots of territory Now… ONE of the RUMINT Intel-Bits I got was something devastating is supposed to happen. Granted we get the scaremongering on a 24-7-365 basis to the point we’re damned near inured to it.
However… my line of thought is to ask “WHY” are they boosting the security of McDill now? I’ve lived here since 2005, and during the twenty or so plus years of Da Glo-Bull War of Teh Stoopid did they ever start ramping up Bay patrols. In fact the last time in recent memory was the day before OrangeManBad flew in for some shindig at McDill itself… Then they were doing all the security hullabaloo. In fact cool note: I saw Air Force One fly like right overhead on approach that day at work when I was in the smoking area at the job as a Call Center guy… it was a damned cool sight I have to say…
My thinking is that while there are a LOT of ‘secondary bases’ that the DotMil/FedGov and all them jokers can run and hide at, the main base, on a peninsula IN Tampa Bay, which also just so happens to be the Command Centers for CENTCOM as well as SOCOM? If -I- were ‘on the run/looking for a secure area’ to keep things going post MAJOR disruptive event? McDill is a pretty good pick.
Of course all of that is negated on just who or what happens… I’m just spitballin’ here. What’s your thoughts? Let me know in the comments
Greetings and Salutations! Great discussions on the drone thing. On all parts. Just keep it civil is my only request. Beyond that, not much else seems to be going on, except that radical psycho 15 year old female who shot up another Christian School and killed a few folks, and then self terminated.
That took the drone story off the front page rather quickly didn’t it? Like how convenient for The Leviathan that just as people started realizing that the stories coming out of the current (mal)Administration was making zero fucking sense.
And started asking questions That “all of a sudden” a ‘new wind-up toy comes out and whacks a bunch of kids at a Christian Church.
The head of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, (a member of the tribe BTW) stated that “They (Homeland) didn’t have the authority to shoot down these drones!”
Uhhhh… say whut?
If the Department of Homeland Securitylacks the authority to defend the Homeland then what the fuck are we paying you assholes for??? Why does this bloated, worthless and ineffectual bureaucracy even exist except to line their own pockets at taxpayer expense, and be a “jobs/works program” for those who’re too stupid and incapable of working for anyone other than a Federal or State Government???? DEI hires galore!
I mean why the Hell do you think DMVs nation wide suck so badly? They’re NOT hiring the best people for the job… nope.. a blind, mentally deficient 1/2 Native American gets hired OVER EVERYONE… especially the ‘normie’ White College Graduate. Nope… they’re hiring the worthless, weak and mentally challenged.
Remember when they started advertising for BLIND Air Traffic Controllers? The fucking mind boggles, and then boggles again! Same for the TSA… I’ve related my own personal experience with the TSA Hires… One example is HERE.
Either way… So besides the whole bullshit-MK/Ultra Wind-Up Toy and the now-slooowly vanishing Drone Story? Well, I got other things to deal with/work on.
Genuinely IMPORTANT things Namely the crack in the Enfield’s stock:
Nothing too dramatic. For an 85 year old rifle with its original major wooden stock parts, the condition of the stock(s) are great. However:
That one -might- have potential in the future to be querulous. A close up shows that it’s pretty long, and yeah, it goes down about 3/4 of an inch, as I measured it with a shim gauge… I put a .05 gauge down and into it, and then measured the depth that it went in.
Now, one of you Awesome Deplorables in the Studio Viewing Audience (namely one of you Clowns in the Comments) told me how to fix this as it was ‘traditionally done’ by the Brits, i.e. utilizing a brass pin. I went online and maaaan
The prices were insane for some of the repair parts, and those that weren’t? Well I don’t need 25/40 of the brass pins. I also couldn’t find a thin enough brass screw that could go the 2in or so across that made me happy. I’m being particularly anal retentive on this one regarding the faithfulness to the repairs, so there is that too…hence why I wasn’t too hot to duracoat it. So I did a deep dive on “What was in a British Enfield Armorers Repair Kit to repair stocks?” or something to that line of thought…
Sarco had them for $3 a throw.
It’s 2 1/2 inch by 3/32in Brass pin with screw thread on it. It’s designed to be put into a drilled hole and then screwed into the hole, pulling the two sides of the wood together. It also reinforces it, so it won’t crack further. Mind you before you screw in the brass pin, you put epoxy in to fill the crack, as well as firm it all up. My plan is to do the drill hole here:
I marked it with a sharpie, which practically disappears on the wood as it’s got too many stains and dings already. The circle is where I plan on tapping it, and then, put the hole through like this:
So I’ll transverse the stock, and then, once the pin is fully inserted, I’ll take a Dremel and cut it off at the wood. Then I’ll point-grind the ends of the pin into the wood a wee bit and leave it at that. To insure the filler maintains its color, I actually have some furniture repair ‘stuff’ that I got like forever ago in my past life to get rid of scratches and gouges that the spawn had inflicted on the furniture back then. It has some liquid that is designed to be mixed into the epoxy/glue, and that as they say should be that.
Even just leaving the pin in alone with a minute amount of filler, it should be fine.
“Sound as a Pound Eh Wot?” So More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutations Regarding the NJ Drones:
I kind of agree…
I really don’t believe anything the Ministries of Lies and Propaganda tells us, under any circumstances. Why anyone would take them seriously at this point is beyond me. Add on the ‘hyping’ that damned near every. single. expert. on Drones/Nukes/DotMil/Security coming out of the fucking woodwork?
My God… Hence my staying out of it. I only know what I learned back in 2008 with my/our Company’s interaction with the Drone Company that supplied some of the Heavy Observation drones to the DotMil kids. And these weren’t ‘heavy-heavy’ but like BIG quadcopter drones… Looking back, and looking at the commercial stuff out there, the closest thing I can come to (looking like that is) are some of those Agriculture Quad Drones:
I believe that it’s these ‘types’ of AG drones that are the basis of the Krainian “Babayaga” drone. This particular model carries 10 liters of sprayable fluid for crops, be it pesticide/herbicide -whatever-. You get the idea. It’s a commercial drone which means that 10 liters translates to a payload of 22 POUNDS worth of cargo. It’s also made in India, and the price in the ad runs about $4000 USD.
And it’s one of the smaller ones.
Glen Filthie over at his place keeps going on and on about how “This is impossible!” regarding the drones being utilized against Tanks and Troops… “I’ve seen Russian (and Ukrainian) psyop vids where the drones supposedly fly out 10 km or more, carrying high explosives, and then fly down an open hatch, or through an open window – and flatten buildings and blow up tanks.” The link to the latest is HERE. The problem is he states implicitly “…As a shit house multirotor guy… I’m now farting about with an autonomous hobby drone equipped with modern flight controllers and GPS modules that can go out and loiter over a designated waypoint and return autonomously.”
THAT right there…
That’s his problem. I’ll call it his ‘normalcy bias’ meaning what he knows, he knows… I’m not going to doubt his ability or knowledge vis-a-vis hobby drones and/or aircraft. Lord knows I love reading his adventures at Stubfart Field and his gang of tards… Thing of it is, as far as MY experiences? I do have a -bit- of exposure to drones in my overseas adventures. By far I have NO amount of intel like he does… I was in Iraq when the US DotMil was just starting out utilizing SMOL drones. And the drones in question, mind you in 2008, were pretty much used for “Sneaking and Peeking”. NOT in an offensive manner. And truthfully, some of them were small, i.e. NOT big UAVs like the CIA toys and whatnot, but about the size of that ‘Hindu Hovermobile’ I pictured above… some were bigger.
That was 16 years ago.
And my company? We supplied the satellite dishes… the 1.2 meter man portable Secret Internet Protocol Router (SIPR) and Non-secure Internet Protocol Router (NIPR) Access Point (SNAP) Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Satellite Systems to them. Meaning THIS was the way they were communicating. Filthie at one point talks about “dime store dipole antennas and 2200 mAh batteries”
My Dude… If we had OUR guys using VSATs to ‘talk’ to our Recon Drones in 2008, I’m pretty sure that Ivan and the Krains are MOAR than capable of coming up with a smaller-ish drone that’s capable of blowing up a tank at a distance and communicating via other means… Considering that WE (the US) have been “Sitting on our Laurels” military developmentally speaking since the Late 80s/Early 90s, and we appear to have completely dropped the ball on offensive drone capabilities outside of the “Reaper” drone series? (That we know of… gotta put that in there ‘cos there might be shit we have ZERO clue about) And add on that even then, the fucking Houthis have been eating our lunch in that they, so far as having been officially acknowledged, have shot down two MQ-9 Reaper drones so far that we know of.
Each Reaper costs $30 million each.
And then there’s the other ten Drones of various unknown ‘flavors’ that got shot down… To me it tells me that when Ragged Assed Hajis have successfully shot down a dozen of your “Best Drones” that the defensive capabilities of said-drones are probably not so good… The Reaper first started flying in 2001… 23 years ago. Old much? Yeah. These days that’s exceptionally old tech. Shit probably has solid-state stuff in it… if not tubes…
So yeah.
No idea for certain, only what I do know is these “Car Sized Drones” over Joisey and the whole Area of Operations? Personally I have no idea… not one fucking clue. Never claimed to be a drone expert, nor can I even play one on TV…
BUT
I will put this infonugget out there, make of it what you will: ALLLLLL these jokers who’ve been saying that these “Drones over Jersey/NY/MD” are possibly looking for the “…stolen/confiscated Krainian Nukes from the 1990s” are absolutely clueless as to the maintenance of nuclear weapons. A quick background to lay THIS fallacy to rest:
When the Krain gained it’s independence back in 1991, over 1,700 Soviet nuclear weapons were left behind. Ivan just packed up, said “Lots of Luck” and bailed back to the Motherland. This made a lot of folks extremely nervous as the Krain was known as to be one of (and still is)the MOST CORRUPT Former Soviet Republics EVER.
In 1994, the Krains officially ‘got rid of’ their Nukes, along with Belarus, and Kazakhstan in exchange for ‘security guarantees’ from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. The last Canned Sunshine Weapon left by June of 1996.
Now, thing of it is, nuclear weapons need a lot of maintenance. Depending on the ‘flavor’ of the warhead, i.e. Plutonium/Hydrogen Bomb(s) or ‘regular Nukes’, they need a lot of servicing. The radioactive cores of ALL nukes give off a LOT of radioactivity, most of which is shielded from the outside by internal shielding and dampeners. That keeps the rads INSIDE the casing.
HOWEVER: The fiddly-bits and pieces parts that ARE on the inside tend to get bombarded and break down, no matter how reinforced over time, requiring the aforementioned maintenance to keep the thing able to go and do that “Earth Shattering Kaboom!” when people want/need it to. In fact that was huge problem with Ivan trying to use robots to clean up Chernobyl or the Japs at Fukashima… the rads cooked the robots really fucking quickly from the outside in. In the case of a nook-bomb, that’s cooking from the inside out.
Our own Air Force have an entire MOS (military occupational specialty) that performs these duties on the regular, and in some cases have been the cause of some of the accidents we used to hear bout in the old missile silos… in one where a guy dropped a wrench that caused an explosion (non-nuclear) but killed him, his crew AND destroyed the silo as well as the missile itself…
As Commander Matt Bracken said:
I added to the conversation that I had recalled that during the Obamamessiah’s Rule, there had been a moment that one of the regular items that needed to be replaced/serviced? They had forgotten how to make it!!!
It turned out to be an aerogel named ‘Fogbank’ (link HERE and H/T to Don Shift) Per the Wiki: “The process to create Fogbank was lost by 2000” and it cost the taxpayers almost 92 MILLION dollars and 8 years to reverse engineer this ‘stuff’… and it was because the “institutional memory” to make it had either retired or died off so to speak, meaning the older white engineers who knew how to make it literally keeled over or were so far retired, they no longer gave a shit.
So as Bracken said, 30+ year old Krainian Nooks?
Nope. Not buying it.
I mean as DC Draino said “What are they distracting us from?” Good Question.
Greetings and Salutations! I really thank you for all the compliments on the SMLE… I worked really hard on making sure that I did it “right” because as I said, I’ve always wanted one… for like years and years… I just never had the gumption to drop ‘real money’ on one, especially when they went full retard sometime in the 90s when World War ‘X’ rifles -suddenly- became like cray-cray expensive.
I mean growing up there was a General Store in Seabrook NH run by ‘Monkey’ Merrill… that store had been around since the 1790s? early 1800s? I mean the place was so old, it was, ALL at the same time a Federally Recognized Post Office, General/Feed Store as well as a Gun Store. It was his store that we’d see milsurp rifles in those BIG 55 gallon cardboard barrels for like $50-$75 a throw… Monkey had them priced by Country, with the “Eye-Tal-Yin Garbage” (Carcanos and what) and “Them Jap-a-he-no rifles” being the cheapest. Looking back however, I think it was intentional… which only makes me realize that beneath that veneer of “NH Bumpkin” there was a shrewd biddnessman in there…
Meaning that yeah, he’s selling Japanese Arisakas and Italian Carcanos for short-short bux…. However He ALSO was selling the ammo with a stiff markup! 7.7 Jap and 6.5 Carcano was some pricey stuff, and Monkey use to bemoan how hard it was to find, which is why he was “…selling them at a loss!” And IF and WHEN he -did- manage to score some of that rare and hard-to-find ammo, he sold it at a premium…
Which I’m now thinking the Ole Boy probably had cases and cases, if not a Connex full of that shit hidden away some where… His US Rifles he was fair about, as he also was with the ‘regularly selling hunting rounds’ which back then in NH was 30-30 Winchester and 30-06. .308 wasn’t a thing yet, and ARs were just beginning to be discovered… I mean case in point:
That’s an ad I found to show Gretchen, ‘cos she did NOT believe me when I told her that A) You could order guns through the mail and B) They be cheaper than dirt.
ANOTHER thing the Boomers had to their advantage. Dammit. This ad was from 1961 according to the pager I found it on… MY Enfield is second from the bottom, left side.
$9.95
Oh my aching ass. Talk about unfair. I even found ads selling Boy’s Anti-Tank .55cal Antitank rifles:
The Boy’s was a British Anti-Armor .55cal single shot bolt action rifle of hysterical recoil. It was meant to take on First Generation tanks, and was quickly outmatched by tank development of the time…
Notably, the Marine Raiders tried them out, and they were used on the Makin Island Raid in 1942. In fact there’s a strong possibility that the Boys accounted for maybe one if not two Japanese Seaplane shoot-downs. Per the Wiki (and other sources): “At 13:30, 12 Japanese planes, including two flying boats, arrived over Makin. The flying boats, carrying reinforcements for the Japanese garrison, attempted to land in the lagoon but were met with machine gun, rifle and Boys anti-tank rifle fire from the Raiders. One plane crashed, and the other burst into flames. The remaining planes bombed and strafed but inflicted no American casualties.” In fact in WEB Griffin’s series “The Corps” the shoot-down is described and attributed to the baby brother of the central character, Ken McCoy.
Yeah… Gen X and ALL generations after the Boomers got utterly fucked in our ability to procure weapons… ANOTHER ad:
STG-44 for $39.99 Wow… Crazy that right? Never mind the Browning .303 Aircraft Weapon for $75.00 shown on the lower right… because below that they have listed the Browning M1917 with Tripod. For $150.00 That’d be this:
Who was who said “We wuz robbed!” No joke.
So besides me whining about how we got utterly fucked out of our inheritance (i.e. a plethora of easily gotten fully automatic machineguns) I got two things to discuss. One is a show and tell, and the other is another upcoming project.
The Show and Tell is in response to my inquiring about the Duracoat rifle ‘stuff’… is it a paint? Is it a ‘coating?’ Tough call. But either way, I got sent some pix of Berglander’s own experience with using it. He had a Czechoslovakian VZ24 which was a Czech derivative of the German Gewehr 98 Mauser, which was the German’s standard bolt action rifle. They made them from 1924 until 1942. It fired, depending on the year of manufacture, the 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, 7.65×53mm Argentine respectively.
He did his restoration, and used the SOCOM Blue color… which was recommended to him… he thought, as I did as well, that the name sounded gay AF. However he used it, and these are his results:
Yeah, like I told him “That’s Purty!!!” That coating came out rather well… enough so that I’d use it no problem. In fact depending on how the current coat(s) on the Lee Enfield work out, needless to say I’m going to positively have to go with that Duracoat stuff…
Pic #2 looking down onto the top of the bolt and receiver is particularly beautiful. The only thing about the coating is IMO is it lacks the individuality that the bluing acquires… the wear marks of long service. Not sure that if over time that wears like the bluing can, but if it does, then even better and yeah, what the Hell…
So Kudos to you Bro. Well done.
Which then brings me to the upcoming project. Now this is a new project. I’m still doing the Hydro-Dip of the 1911. That’s for my own learning curve, as well as yours, as not many people know HOW to do it, and I haven’t myself, so it’ll be a steep learning curve for us all, and why not? You get to learn and be entertained by my retarded attempts at gunsmithing, and I get to try out new techniques and processes.
Anywho. The new project is courtesy of ScouterGreg. He’s a regular commenter here, as well as at MANY of the other Dissident Blogosphere. I’ve actually met with and dined with him and his lovely Frau, and he’s a great guy and major supporter of this place, as well as a good shoulder to ‘bitch on’ during our occasional calls, as I generally do not cry LOL.
Well I got a call this A.M. whilst lazing in the rack… Seems he’s got a rifle he wants me to look at, refurb and do to it what I did to the Lee Enfield. His Dad and he bought this thing Eons Ago, when Dinosaurs still roamed the Earth (hence the need for such a cannon that I’m about to reveal) and they only fired it once where it, and Greg experienced a chamber head and case separation and blowout.
Nothing catastrophic as far as he knows. A quick history lesson follows
See, a lot of these older rifles? They were designed and built in the ‘in-between times’ during the transition from brass-cased Black Powder to Smokeless ‘modern’ Powder. The US DotMil stopped using Black Powder around the turn of the century. The US Army first adopted smokeless powder when they started using the 30–40 Krag Rifle in 1892.
The Krag itself had this weird side-feed mag, but we’ll go into that sometime maybe in another post… moving on…
Black powder rifles continued in use through the Spanish American War in 1898, and stopped using it around 1903, when the Springfield M1903 was introduced. The thing is, smokeless rifle powder is waaay stronger than the old black powder. So rifles tended during this timeframe to be OVER Engineered or else!
And as a “just in case” a LOT of the older/earliest rifles had Receiver Holes put into them. This was to allow the gas to vent out rather than allow the chamber to blow the fuck up. A video here provides an EXCELLENT overview:
My own Lee Enfield, as I said has these holes:
When I first saw them, I freaked. I thought they were ‘demil’ (demilitarization) holes. A little research disabused me of that (Thank God!)
So, the unviel:
It’s a Spanish Model 1893 Mauser. The first rifle in the world with a built-in 5 round internal box magazine, and designed by Paul Mauser himself. It’s been around a long minute. LOTS of wars… it’s the Great-Great Granddaddy of the Gewehr 98 and Kar98 of German World War 2 fame.
He isn’t sure of ‘the why’ of what happened… just that the cartridge case ruptured completely and ALL the gasses blew out of the hole. He said he got a bad burn/scorch mark on his left supporting arm, and a face full of fumes, smoke and heat. I suppose if that happened to me at 14 or to MY spawn at 14, I’d have done what they did, which is oil it up, throw it in the back of the safe and fuggetaboutit.
He told me over the years that he thinks it’s a headspace issue. I told him I’ll work my Voodoo Gunsmithing Magic and see what we got, while also restoring it and doing a “follow the bouncing ball” set of posts… I did NOT expect him to tell me to keep it when I’m done.
I’m honored by the generosity.
And Hell, I’ve had at least two to three people email me telling me they want me to do a SMLE for them, I’ll say this: I just might. My response is to say “let me check the laws again on this” just so’s I do not run afoul of the fucking ATF. I’m pretty sure I can do ALL the gunsmithing I want All. Day. Long.
It’s when I have to BUY the serial numbered item that I might run into trouble. Like I said, I’m not saying -no- but let me look into it. I’m also looking into doing a C&R License either way… that would eliminate a LOT of hassle, especially since I seem to be leaning into the Pre-and Post War C&R Rifle restoration game.
So let me know your thoughts. The last one here for the night BTW: I’ve already bought a HUGE amount of ammo from SG Ammunition. One does NOT acquire such vast personal stocks of 5.56mm nor 7.62 both 51 and 39 without having them bookmarked. My problem is that I didn’t want to pay for shipping ONLY 20 rounds of ammunition to the Casa. I’m nowhere ready to buy ‘in bulk’ until I know for certain that the Lee Enfield isn’t going to ‘grenade’ on me. Gauging and all, I still have to make absolutely sure that this thing doesn’t have a ‘hidden defect’ that I didn’t detect.
So in this case and after a lot of Ammoseek checks, the cheapest was a $17 box of Privi Partizan 180gn FMJ. Shipping was a flat rate of $12. From AEAmmo dot com. One of y’all even told me about it. Even then, part of me, and from my research from the LE Boards is that I want to modify the ammo right off the bat.
One of the guys on there said the best way to test these rifles is to start with a 1/2 to 3/4 charge of powder. The rationale being that even today, OUR smokeless powder is WAY stronger than the stuff they were making and running in the 1920s and 1930s. The nitrocellulose these days is crazy-strong. So the idea being (if you don’t necessarily want to destroy your rifle right off the bat) is to take some brand new rounds, pull the bullet, pour out the powder, and remeasure and reload.
Work your way up… Make sure as you go, you watch the Receiver Holes for excessive smoke… if you start seeing it, then you know you’re on the ‘ragged edge’ and should make note. If you manage to work your way up to ‘untouched factory rounds’ with no issues, then congrats, you’ve got a fully operational rifle.
My rifle is a bit of an oddball manufacturing time-wise. Great Britain was broke as a joke Post WW1. ZERO money. Like NOTHING for defense or the DotMil. This is why there’s an utter paucity of Lee Enfields made after 1918/1919 up until 1939… which is when MINE was made. MINE has a very low serial number, matching numbers (outside of the missing bolt) and the same. exact. armorer’s. cartouche on it, which tells me mine might have been one of the earlier 1939 made rifles. Post ’39? THAT is when they rolled them out by the bushel…
My Wild Ass Guess? This one was made, and racked in a deep storage depot, and then forgotten about until it was checked on a regular basis. I’ve tried to find out that timeframe, but to no avail. I know for certain that here in the states, each DotMil unit needs to have the weapons in the arms room gauge certified annually. AR 750-1, Army Material Maintenance Policy states this implicitly.
Got me a hunch, considering how pristine the barrel, bore and bore throat appear to be, this was in storage until someone shipped it off to the Wastes of Ethernopia, where it sat, rusting and forgotten until I got it.
So yeah, I love a Happy Ending to a Good Rifle Story More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutations! Tell you what, my hands and fingertips hurt. I mean I’m already arthritic from life in general, but the marathon job I did sanding last night, on the pre-blooing to finish up the SMLE? Yeah, the sanding and constant pressure made the entirety of both arms from my elbows to my fingertips sore-sore-sore.
BUT: I do have this to show for it:
That was as I was getting ready to do the deed today. Hence why I was in the kitchen, as I was doing it over the sink so I could do the immediate rinse off as the Birchwood-Casey Super Bloo that I was using said that you needed to rinse ASAP with cold water.
I will say it went quickly… I only did the receiver and barrel, to include the rear sight. Personally, I think it came out rather well:
That’s a very nice deep blue IMO. 2x coats. I might do more, but we’ll see how it wears. I soaked it in the Barricade Oil, which it’s recommended to be soaked in overnight. Seeing that hey, I can still have it cure while I do other things I firgured what the Hell?
I’ve never been one for patience when everything is just sitting there, waiting on me right?
I present to you, The Finished 1939 Short Magazine, Lee Enfield:
From Left to Right:
(I have the armorers chalk on-hand, and it really made the engraving ‘pop’ IMO)
And then back again:
A fully restored and ready for the range SMLE… God I loved doing that. I swear, I quit a few years ago, but right now? I feel like I could like up a smoke ya know what I mean? It’s like a post-nut glow feeling… Mission Accomplished and all that jazz…
Sapper was blown away. Gretchen was impressed… didn’t even bat an eye when I told her “I want to do another one!“ My new immediate Commissar, who happens to be a British Expat who married an American Chick and just ‘got off the boat’ so to speak, is utterly fascinated and impressed. The Operations Commissar (formerly the IT Commissar) and I are planning on introducing him to the American Lifestyle of shooting large caliber weapons, and having fun with it. He’s genuinely curious and eager to learn, as his NewWife is a Florida Raised ‘Gun Girl’ and his FIL is an Air Force retired pilot who shoots a lot… so I guess he’ll get to fire this eventually…
Which IF I can find a box of .303 Brit around this A.O.
GunGirl herself is currently out of stock… she did have a few a ways back, and I figured she’s STILL have it, as how many jokers are looking for .303 in my area? Plus I didn’t want to drop the shekels until I knew for certain that this wasn’t just going to end up a pricey wall hanging. So when I called her today, she told me that about two weeks after I had picked up the Enfield, someone came in, and bought out her on-hand stock.
Dammit.
And I’m not happy having to pay the damned near extortionist shipping and handling for ammunition… leastways not for only a box or two… I’m torn on that…
Guess I’ll have to suck it up, as not even the local Bass Pro has .303 Brit. I mean it -is- an older oddball caliber… I see myself needing to get some dies and Bee-Bees for it in the near future. Seems the round needs a .314 to .318 bullet, and unless I crimp the neck down, and also sacrifice the fuck out of some accuracy, the .308 I have won’t work.
As you can see, I’ve been practically living on the various Lee Enfield Boards since I started this project. It’s also where I found out that this particular one is rare-rare in that I have ALL matching serial numbers. The nose-piece, the barrel and receiver, the trigger guard, and the rear sight piece ALL match.
The only non-matching piece is the bolt body, as the original bolt was MIA when I bought it. That being said I -could- get a ‘blank’ bolt body, and stamp it correctly, as I do have the right style and size metal stamps. Not sure if I should or not…
Either way, what a day. What a few weeks even. Mentally I feel a bit better in that I’ve been avoiding the news as I’ve been too busy with this project. So much so that I also have another one I’m doing in the very near future.
That’s doing a Hydrodip on one of my Turkish made weapons… I’ve got and have had for a loooong while a Tisas 1911A1 I got off Palmetto State when they were like $299.99. I mean for three bills? A 1911A1 clone?
Lots of people have said they’re shit… Turkish weapons in general, but I’ve been running Turk-Guns for a LONG while and have NEVER had a bad experience. In fact I’m highly impressed with the quality and resiliency… My M-9 clone (made by Girsan) is a peach… and my Black Aces Tactical is a reinforced and rebuilt by BAT 12 Gauge Semiautomatic “People Slayer”… especially after I had gotten done modding THAT puppy up…
I mean I already tuned the 1911A1… Extended slide release as well as safety, Mag-Pul grips, custom comp trigger and hammer… and an oversized mag release button b/c I purely hate the itty-bitty standard button. It’s a bit of a mutant weapon, and it was cheap-cheap, so I’m playing with my mods on it.
I figured why not try doing a Hydrodip Job?
So watch for that later. Other than that, how do you think the Enfield turned out? Do another and do a raffle for it? What say you? More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutations! Any day working on restoring a classic World War One/Two British Rifle is an OUTSTANDING Day! It’s like oh my God my ‘Zen’ Happy-Place to be just sitting there, working my way over the metal, using various tools and grades of sandpaper…
Got the YouTube up and running, just playing my ‘usual stuff’ Demo Ranch, Brandon Herrera, Atozy, Drinker, Az, Nerdrotic… Throw in some historical ‘stuff’ and you pretty much have my regular watch list…
Spent about 4 hours just sanding the Hell out of the Lee Enfield.
The receiver is a stone bitch with allll the nooks and crannies, and the pitting was pretty bad on the interior as well, as it was a “stored without a bolt in the fucking deserts of Ethernopeia” which cause a fair about of full-on rust as opposed to ‘minor scaling’.
That Lil Bastard and his relatives should be flogged for that sort of infraction… Jes’ Sayin’… I’ll let the pix speak for themselves:
Front of the Barrel, 2x coatings. BOTH done with Perma-Bloo and the barrel in the area of the blooing was heated with Ye Olde Flammenwerfer Ignition Device to hot-not-hot-but-warm-enough. There’s some spots that it looks rough and patchy, and that’s because of the severe rusting that it had.
But since that part of the barrel is going to be ‘under the wood’ I figured to experiment, so I could see what the rest of the rifle, such as the mating point of the receiver/barrel mightlook like:
oplus_0
Now, I focused a LOT of the sanding and work on the rear sight. I did NOT tear it down ‘all the way’ as the screws are pretty worn, the pin that retains the ladder ramp for the sight is beat to Hell, so I figure ‘Fuck It’ and I’ll work around it. You can’t really tell as the lighting is bad (as it seems to always be in my pix) but that metal under ‘normal circumstances’ is damned near gleaming w/out any scaling or rust.
It does have a metric fuckton of pitting.
The pitting is so bad that I’m not even sure if bead-blasting would help… I mean it might but then I’d lose some of the personality of the Old Boy, never mind the Armorer’s marks under the chamber area of the barrel (pix to follow). There’s a LOT of those by the way… Every time His Royal Majesty’s Rifle was serviced, his Armorer stamped the rifle, usually around the chamber area of the barrel, with his Royal Armorer Cartouche.
Mine has about 10 of them… I don’t know what the frequency of a Depot Level Servicing was for a SMLE back then, but ALL of the cartouche marks are identical. This (to my eyes) tells me this particular rifle, as well as the pristine condition of the Bore and Rifling, that he spent his time is a Depot/Deep storage rather than ‘going off to war’.
The receiver, well here it is (bad lighting and all):
LOTS of ‘deep pitting’. BUT: I did get a great pic of what I found out is called the “Wrist” of the rifle, which is that rear section of the receiver where the buttstock screws into the receiver, and the markings tell who was in charge at the time, which Company made it, the year it was made, and the model and mark number.
‘GR’=Georgius Rex, i.e. King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s Da. ‘BSA Co‘=Birmingham Small Arms (the ‘C’ is poor) Made in 1939 ‘Sht. L.E.’=Short Magazine Lee Enfield (of course) III and a Star=Model 3, but I didn’t find out what the star means… any ideas?
So last thing to do is Bloo it… Because it’s soooo large and has a lot of nooks to do, I was wondering if any of you folks out there have any experience with Duracoat?
It was mentioned on one of the boards I was researching on… seems this company makes some -seriously tough- spray on/Paint on weapons coatings, and a LOT of folks out on various boards swear by it… It seems they make a spray-on parkerizing replication kit that’s been well received, both on their site (which IO immediately discount) but also on other boards and reviews… to include some YouTube/GunTubers who said it’s really good for a finish that I think I want…
Let me know. Should I bloo it with the Birchwood-Casey, of go with a chance and try this Duracoat stuff? I know Duracoat from truck bed liners, but had no idea they did weapons coatings… Otherwise, again another late night. More Later Big Country
