Where is my rifle......

I called again today after waiting a few weeks. Last time I called, I was told it was back ordered.  Called again today. This time I get the story that an employee no longer with them, took orders for guns and never ordered them. Soooo, a month later, they check and their suppliers do not have any. I then did what I should have done a month ago. I ordered it online where I was going to get it from a month ago. I generally try to order things local to support the local businesses, but after this fiasco, that will probably change now. They have them in stock and should ship immediately. Looking forward to plinking with it. I already picked up a bore snake for it. I shot my buddies and enjoyed it, and Brigid gave it the thumbs up as well.

Neat little plinker

Went to the gunstore yesterday on the way home from work. They had a couple of Krags on display. They were advertised as carbines, but they are just cut down rifles. Still look pretty cool. Price was really cheap and it's in good shape. I need to find a hand guard for it. I can check the military store down the road. I know he has garrand and 03 stocks and accessories. If not, I will keep an eye on fleabay. Weather was lousy today. Woke up to a dusting of white stuff. I am ready for warm weather to stay. It is suppose to get back to 60ish by weeks end. Just caught up on some house cleaning and made some pork chops for dinner. Good weather to just lounge around. The slight drizzle and white stuff was enough to convince me I didn't need to go to the club today to work. I am going to try to locate some 30-40 krag brass and a set of dies.My brother has a Krag, but I never had an opportunity to try it out. I just think they are a unique looking gun.

Work weekend

Have to work tomorrow, but the weather is back to blah, so may as well make a few extra bucks. Talked to my kid today. He is suppose to come visit me in July. He is doing good. Got in at the Ford plant several months ago, and is getting ready to buy his first new car. Be the first time he gets to see my new house. He wants to go to the corvette museum in Bowling Green. I went a last year and it was a nice time. They have a used car lot right by the entrance that is all classic cars for sale. It is almost a museum in itself. This time I am going to get the tickets for the assembly line tour on line so we don't miss out. Last time, I missed the last tour by five minutes. Figure I can take him by the club to do a little shooting while he is down as well.

Finally

The rest of the wiring harness for the mustang finally got done touring the USA and arrived today. Looks pretty good. Only thing missing is the floor switch for the brights. I should be able to splice in the one from the old harness. It even has the radio plug which is unusual as they usually get hacked off for aftermarket radio installation. Winter temps are back for the time being. Hopefully the last hoora. I am ready for some steady sunshine and warmth. I cannot complain. It warmed up early down here, I am just not a winter person. I would rather have three seasons personally. Have to work this weekend, so hopefully next weekend will be back to nice weather. I am in the mood to start working on the mustang again.

Garage done

I got home and moved the mustang to the other side of the garage. Then for fun, I finished the painting up. After that, I installed the last of the ceiling lighting. Now you just about need sunglasses out there. Finished up just in time for the storm coming through. Suppose to go down to the 30's overnight. Big change from 80 degree temps we had today. I checked the tracking on my package. It went from seller in north Indiana, to Pennsylvania. Now it appears the post office figured it needed to see the state of Missouri before it reenters Indiana. No wonder the postal service is in trouble. I worked during my vacation, meanwhile my package gets the tour of the US. Sounds like winter is back for the next several days anyhow. At least I can mark the garage off my to do list.

Back to work

Back to work after a nice week off. Not a bad day. I got home and put up one of the lights in the garage. It brightened up the area really well. Tomorrow I will push the Mustang over to the other side so I can finnish the little area I couldn't paint, and then hang the light on that side. That should finish the garage. Then I can start working on the car. I checked the tracking number on the wiring harness I ordered for the dash. I bought it off a guy in north Indiana and I live in Southern Indiana. Three days after the guy mails it, it is now visiting Pennsylvania for reasons only known to the post office.

Finally got to the range

What a day. Weather was fantastic. Upper 70's and sunny. I went over to cowboy town and shot for a few hours. Finally got good with the schoefield. It has a weird front sight that took a while to get use to. The army opentop I always did well with, but the schoefield always gave me problems. I forgot my lever action, so I was just shooting the rifle targets with the pistols as well. They have an assortment of reactive targets in a wide variety of layouts. I also had time to go to the rifle range area and shoot the garand. What a difference it makes when you can see the target. I have a hard time with iron sights. The scope made a huge difference. Took a little while to get her dialed in, but once that was done, started getting some decent groups. Definitely like the new scope and mount. I also bumped into the guy from the club that runs the combat shoots. They just started having them last year. They set up part of the cowboy shoot area with their own targets I have yet to see. They start their shoots next Saturday, so if I don't have to work, I will swing by and check it out. They are also setting up leagues for clays, so I may check that out as well. Trying to get a little more involved with the club this year. Back to work tomorrow. Hard to believe the week is gone already.

Perfect day at the range

Went to the club to work the spotshoot. It was beautiful out. It hit the mid 70's and a nice little breeze. Everyone showed up. We did 41 regular shoots, several meat shoots and a couple high dollar prizes. The kiddies did good too at the .22 shoot they have set up for them. It ran a half hour over because nobody wanted to leave. Had to come home and put the feet up though. A lot of walking. I returned home to find the neighbor lady watching the pond. She gave the neighborhood cat an attitude adjustment when he wouldn't leave the ducks alone. The male duck wasn't too happy with the cat. Same cat that kept trying to get my koi. If it wasn't a kid's pet, I think it would have an accident, but I can't do that to a kid's cat. Just wish they would keep the fool thing in their house.

I picked up the lights for the garage on the way home. Two eight foot fluorescent fixtures. Just painting the garage white helped illuminate it well. Replacing the two light bulbs with the fixtures should really brighten things up. I should get them up tomorrow. I am going to head to the range in the morning. By the time the spot shoot was over, I was too tired to head break out the gear and shoot. I left the guns in their cases and threw them in the living room. Rest of gear I just left in truck.Should be a quick pack and go in the morning.
Tomorrow is the last day of vacation. Wish it could have lasted a little longer. Couple weeks until machine gun shoot. I may take a vacation day to head over there. May ask neighbor if she could take care of the dog so I can hit the Patton museum on the way there or the way home.

New residents

In the middle of painting the rest of the garage, and the neighbor came by to talk for a few. We look over, and the ducks from yesterday were walking from the woods back to my pond for a dip. Brave little suckers. They look up at us, cut over a couple feet and walk around us to go to the pond. They stick around for a couple hours and then head over towards the neighbor down the road who has a pretty nice size pond the kids like to fish at behind his house.

 Garage is just about done. I did all but a little of the ceiling over the mustang. I will pick out some lights and install the one on the Vette side. Then I can spin the Mustang around and push it to that side, and install the last bank of lights as well as paint the last little spot I couldn't reach. Tomorrow will start with going to the club to help out with the shoot they have going on. The Indy show fell through. Og had something going with the family, and my brother doesn't drive down to it on his own, so maybe next time. It will allow time to get some work hours in and finish up the garage, so all is well anyhow. The shoot doesn't start til 11:00 so I should be able to play with the garand for a while. The garage is looking great. I still need to get the reloading stuff in and set up. I can do that in the evenings when it is raining though. Weather is sunny and warm again. Rain finally let up a little. Hopefully weather holds for a couple more days.

More rain

Just what we needed. More rain. I did manage to get the neighbors truck running before it started raining. Truck is street parked, so that was a good thing. When I went out the front door this morning, I was greeted by two mallards that decided my little fish pond would make a nicer duck pond. They spent the morning swimming and sunbathing. They got done and started walking down the road towards the woods at the end of the street.

Since it decided to rain, I managed to put my reloading bench together after rearranging the furniture in my office. I still need to bring the reloading press and supplies in from garage. Hoping it is dry out tomorrow so I can get to the range for a while. Still have a few days of vacation left and a gunshow Sunday in Indy. The batteries came in that I ordered from e-bay. My laser bore sighter uses 3 watch type batteries at $4.50 a piece through the store. E-bay has a blister pack of 100 of them for  $4.50 with free shipping. Tried them and they are the right size and work perfectly. Should be good for a while. The laser does eat them, but I now have 33 sets of them. Good place to go if you need the coin batteries often. The price in the stores is ridiculous.

So, for tomorrow, if the sun shines it is off to the range. If it rains, I will get my reloader set up and going. I have everything I need for doing the .38 calibre cowboy loads. Sunday at Indy, I want to see if I can find some .357 magnum brass at a decent price. I can try that in the Rossi and see if it feeds any better. It is suppose to shoot .38, but it flips them and jams pretty regularly. One of the guys at the range says he uses the .38 load with the .357 brass and they feed fine. I have alot of the .38 brass, but very little.357. 

Suppose to meet up with my brother and Og at the gunshow. Have to check with Og and see if he has any recommendations of parkerizing. I have a few parts I would like parkerized and would like to try it myself if it isn't to cost prohibitive.

Gender neutral?

I thought it was bad enough when they rewrite Mark Twain to remove what the politically correct thinks is offensive. I guess the bible is not off limits either. Maybe they can add a couple commandments while they are at it.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110318/ap_on_re/us_rel_gender_neutral_bible

Nothing exciting

Didn't do any fun stuff today, but did stay on course and cleaned the garage up some and got half of it painted. More than making it pretty, I want it to reflect the light better and it gives it a clean look. After I get it finished, I need to find some light fixtures that aren't an arm and a leg. I got the engine hoist broken down. Makes the garage a whole lot roomier.

Tomorrow, I need to help the neighbor get his starter put in and then I hope to make it to the range. Need to try out the new scope. Still want to get some work done on the Mustang , but getting the garage organized comes first.  Still have to find out when everyone is going to the gunshow. Try to just look this time around. It's hard because there is always something cool that wants to come home with me.

Thought about building an arc

Rain finally quit and  the sun showed up. Probably going to take a week before you no longer sink into the yard it is so saturated. Went to the welding place (finally) and picked up my tank of argon / CO2 mix for the mig welder. I also picked up a cheap stand for the tank and welder.

 The temperature got up around 70, and it is suppose to stay up there for a few days. I picked up the paint for the garage and charged up the battery in the Vette. Hope to get the Vette pulled out and paint the garage walls tomorrow. May get out to the range as well, if it isn't flooded too badly. I want to practice with the welder on some scraps and see if it does  any better than the flux core did. I also picked up a pneumatic punch for punching the holes in the panels to plug weld through. Placed the order for the under dash wiring harness. Guy on E-bay has one that hasn't been mutilated yet. When it gets here, I will have to find the mating plug to attach to the steering column. Ford  loved to change things randomly from model year to model year. They have two different plugs for the steering column. This should take care of the electrical gremlins, I hope. Picked up a cheap work bench for the office to set up the reloading equipment permanently. It's pretty solid, and has a upper and lower shelf as well as pegboard back. Should make it nice to store all the extra die sets and cleaning supplies.

 Still no word on when my rifle will be in. It's still on back order. May drop in the store tomorrow to see if they have a date for when it should be in. This weekend is the big Indy gunshow. Hopefully see my brother and Og. It is always a good time.

Mount is in/on

I got home from work and checked the mail. No bills, a netflix movie, and my scope mount. It's a good day. The directions are extremely well written and include step by step high def photos. Very nice product. It took a little under an hour, a few drops of blood, and a small sliver of skin. I swear the garand likes the taste of my blood. The trigger assembly usually nips me either on the way out, or going back in.

Assembly was very easy. You disassemble gun, slip a couple clamps around barrel, and bolt the scope mount on. You leave the bolts loose so you can adjust the mount after rifle is assembled.

In the above photo, you can see the clamps from underneath the barrel. They easily slip in place,and you can align the mount, and loosely tighten bolts to hold in place.

Here is the mount installed and the rifle fully assembled and ready for scope.

Here is the rifle with the scout scope mounted. The only way it would be better is if it was parkerized so it would match the rifle better, but it still looks great. Hope to take it to the range tomorrow if work doesn't have me beat flat by days end. Vacation starts after tomorrow, so it will make it out this weekend rain or shine. Hope to hear back from store about my savage I ordered. I want to get my reloading bench set up over the weekend as well. I have a lot I want to get done over vacation. One more longgggg day to go.

Hump day

Only two days until vacation. My scope for the garand came in today, and the mount is showing it will be delivered tomorrow. I can't wait to assemble it. I will take it out Friday or Saturday, weather permitting. I called the gun shop I ordered my rifle through. They said my rifle is on back order. They are suppose to look into it and let me know when it should come in. I really wanted it for vacation time. The club is suppose to have someone in giving lessons on trap shooting. I have never shot trap, so I am looking forward to trying it out to see if I like it or not. They are also putting the finishing touches on their new archery stand. It turned out great. They are looking into getting some 3D targets for that  area.

New toy on order

When I took one of the engineers from work out to the club to check out the facilities, he brought out his savage .17hmr plinker. It was a blast to shoot and accuracy was amazing. His had the thumbhole stock which was comfortable, but I prefer the more traditional look and I love walnut stocks. I went and ordered it today. Comes with scope mounted and sited for under $300 out the door. Should have it by next weekend.

I also owe a huge thanks to Tam from View from the Porch blog for pointing out the new scope mount for the Garand. I ordered one for my Garand. It is my favorite out of all my rifles. The main reason I wanted a M1A is the ability to mount a scope. This mount installs without butchering the garand in any way. It comes with mounting hardware. I also have a leupold scope to mount to it when it comes in. I used my Cabela points for the scope which was already on sale.  Hope it all comes in before vacation starts.

 You can find the mount at http://www.ulitimak.com/  along with many other mounts and scopes. What I really like is the fact that they bolt on without having to drill or modify the rifle as I could not and would not butcher a piece of history. Am looking forward to trying it with the scope. I  am going to get the new wiring harness installed on the mustang. Hope to get the hydraulic clutch mounted to the trans as well. I am going to pull and rebush the pedal assembly as well. If the weather is warm enough to allow it, I will paint the garage interior as well. The end of vacation is the Indy 1500 gun show, so that will be a fine end to the vacation. Five more work days to go til freedom. Yeah...