To Hazard, Kentucky. Oh boy oh boy is it... Well, it's Hazard.
Found a gunshop on the side of the highway and I stopped by just to see what they had..
First time I had actually seen a Hi-Point. Now I know why I don't have one. >_> They're pretty ugly. And big. The .40cal was huge.
Saw an old bubba'd Kar98K, like I knew I would even before I left. It was rechambered in .270, according to the new barrel. Poor thing...
And then I saw them! Two Mosin Nagants. Picked one up... Felt strange. I couldn't quite tell what was wrong with it. The bluing looked like it had been redone, and it felt like someone had made a new stock for it or something... Quite strange.
The second was the coolest. It was OLD. I mean REALLY OLD. I forget the exact date it had on the reciever, but it was hex, and had the old Arshini sights. Wood was dinged up, bolt action was sticky due to having not been cleaned in 100 years... looked down the barrel. Eck. Might've cleaned out good, but I dunno. It was dark. $209. Not for me. Still, I'd never seen one like that before, so it was cool. :]
I had a good day.
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One AR-15...
Or ten Mosin Nagants...
Choices, choices...
Last edited by Ferroflame; 10-28-2009 at 10:10 PM.
Pre-1930ish. Yep, that's a heck of a lot older than me!
I've always wanted to drive down to Hazard, just to say I've been to Hazard, but, meh. It's three or four hours, and that's a long way to go just to say you've done it.
Pre-1930ish. Yep, that's a heck of a lot older than me!
I've always wanted to drive down to Hazard, just to say I've been to Hazard, but, meh. It's three or four hours, and that's a long way to go just to say you've done it.
It was around 2 hours for me. My dad was going, and he wanted me to go for that very reason: just to say that I've been there. They have a random Patton Tank downtown. Dunno how they got it there.. Haha
3 Hours and 21 Minutes, according to Google Maps. Maybe if I'm already heading down to Louisville, or Paintersville, or Valley Station... I may make the extra trip.
3 Hours and 21 Minutes, according to Google Maps. Maybe if I'm already heading down to Louisville, or Paintersville, or Valley Station... I may make the extra trip.
Try and get "Trading Post" in on the radio if you do! It's hilarious!
Well, you ought to check in to that rifle more. More details. Sounds like it could be an old M91. Or even an original Dragoon rifle. Too bad you don't have some pics. That is the reason I like to go in to gun stores, or pawn shops. Never know what resides if you've never been
I thought Patton did some training before he went overseas for WWII in KY and CA. I think there is a Patton museum somewhere in southern CA. Or maybe it was KY. Or maybe I'm just all wrong......
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Mosin Nagant evangelist on a mission to convert YOU!
The second was the coolest. It was OLD. I mean REALLY OLD. I forget the exact date it had on the receiver, but it was hex, and had the old Arshini sights. Wood was dinged up, bolt action was sticky due to having not been cleaned in 100 years... looked down the barrel. Eck. Might've cleaned out good, but I dunno. It was dark. $209. Not for me. Still, I'd never seen one like that before, so it was cool.
And you left it there? Without even trying to haggle the price down? The chances are you were looking at either an original M1891 or the later, so-called "Cossack rifles" or "Dragoons" that evolved into the M91/30. You don't see very many of those, much less find them in as decent shape as the one you describe.
Of COURSE it's a hex! They didn't change over to the round receivers until the Soviets started looking for ways to speed up production in the 1930s. That's just more proof it's a realie.
So the wood is dinged up. Big deal. You can raise dents and reduce gouges by steaming the dent/gouge with a damp rag and a steam iron. It helps get cosmoline out of the wood, too. I've taken Mosin stocks that looked like they went through the wars and brought them a long way back by doing this. Sure, it takes a few hours and repeated applications, but if you are stripping the shellac off stock to oil-finish it anyway, what's the big deal?
As far as the bore being dark, I have one word to say to you: GUNZILLA. Gunzilla is a product made by an outfit called Top Duck. It's a CLP made from organic oils, and there is nothing better for cleaning and lubricating your guns. Gunzilla is so good, it will clean out gunk you never even knew you had in a supposedly "clean" rifle. It loosens lead and copper deposits and removes them. (I will admit that if you have really bad copper fouling, you may need a specific to deal with that. Even Gunzilla has its limits.) You want to know how good Gunzilla is? It's the only lubricant in the world that will get an M-16 to perform the way Colt claims it does in the real world, without having to stop and clean the thing every two seconds. I was turned onto it by a buddy who spent a year in the Sandbox. His platoon sergeant spent his own money to buy a case of pint bottles of it for his boys, instead of the US GI CLP. If it's endorsed by a Marine gunny and a bunch of Marines for keeping their Jam-A-Matics running right, that's all the endorsement I need! That dark bore could have been dealt with.
The bolt's sticky? Chances are putting it in the oven in a disposable aluminum cake pan for an hour at 200 degrees F. would fix that, no muss, no fuss, no trouble. Heating the bolt to 200 degrees F. would melt the cosmoline and old lube right off it and out of it. Then after it cools you disassemble the bolt, soak it good in mineral spirits, clean, dry, lube and reassemble, and the problem is solved.
Bottom line: I think you made a real mistake leaving that one behind, assuming you could have afforded it after you argued the price down. Every MN I've got needed some TLC when I bought them. I think you let a potential gem slip through your fingers, Ferro.
First time I had actually seen a Hi-Point. Now I know why I don't have one. >_> They're pretty ugly. And big. The .40cal was huge.
Don't discount HP's on looks - the price is right and their blowback action and fixed barrels make them a lot more accurate than you might think. As far as how an effective firearm "looks" - who cares? FWIW - the .380 and 9mm are smaller.
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What makes you think you'll survive the Apocalypse? That's why it's called the Apocalypse.
Well, you ought to check in to that rifle more. More details. Sounds like it could be an old M91. Or even an original Dragoon rifle. Too bad you don't have some pics. That is the reason I like to go in to gun stores, or pawn shops. Never know what resides if you've never been
I thought Patton did some training before he went overseas for WWII in KY and CA. I think there is a Patton museum somewhere in southern CA. Or maybe it was KY. Or maybe I'm just all wrong......
Yes, he did, Colonel. The Desert Training Area (now part of Fort Irwin, I think) in California still bears the tread marks of Patton's tanks and it's possible to find bits of World War II vintage gear preserved in the desert there. As much or more of his training was in Louisiana, during the big maneuvers there in 1941. (My dad commented once that he joined the 60th Regiment of the 9th Division just in time to get run over by Patton and the Second Armored Division in those maneuvers.)
As far as I know, Patton never was stationed at Fort Knox. He certainly didn't command it, as W.E.B. Griffin implies in one of the Brotherhood of War books. When Knox was the Armor Center, the Patton Museum was built there. It's a museum of the history of armored warfare as well as having a wing devoted to the General. (I also don't know what is going to happen to the Patton Museum when the Armor Center completes its move from Fort Knox to Fort Benning - not one of the Army's brighter moves under the Base Realignment and Consolidation program.) Patton did command Fort Myer before World War II, but never Fort Knox.
i agree with jsmaye....i got a Hi-Point 9 sitting somewhere around here....if zombies ever come, i'll be doing more looking than shooting....i hate "spring" cleaning in the fall.
