I Want a Garand

Who doesn't right? Well, I can thank DirtCrashr for starting this. He graciously sent me several hundred pieces of Lake City '06 brass. It was very nice of him to do, and I am going to make use of it.

I do have access to a properly chambered rifle currently. It is an older Remington 7600 pump gun. It belongs to my grandfather, and I can use it whenever I want. It is a great rifle, and it will be used as a benchmark for my eventual Garand purchase.

If they are still available, when the time comes, the purchase of milsurp loveliness will be made through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. There are certain requirements one must go through to be allowed to purchase from them. One of these is a certification of various types that you are able to safely handle a firearm. A CHL license is one way to fulfill this requirement.

The wife and I have neglected getting our CHLs for a long time. This is a good motivator to getting it done. We also have a child to think about now. I would hate to have something happen to her because I was unarmed. It would be bad enough for one of us to not be able to defend ourselves, but Brooke is a totally defenseless child who relies on us for her safety.

The leering spectre of an Obama Presidency also looms. He has supported a federal ban on concealed carry before, so getting mine before then adds to the number of potentially disenfranchised citizens ready to hit the reset switch.

Ultimately I want both of us to be able to legally exercise our right to bear arms, and the perpetual delay is over. I plan to get us signed up for a class within the next month. Kim will most likely use her LadySmith revolver to qualify, and I will use my XD-45.

Once that is complete I will work out the rest of my paperwork and get a Garand ordered hopefully. They are such neat old guns, with such a rich history. I also think they make a good affordable battle rifle with PLENTY of punch on the other end so to speak.

Sure they don't have a large magazine capacity, but through training, loading clips is a fast process. Sure I would love to get a Springfield M1, but I don't see being able to afford a $1,500-2,000 rifle any time soon. For what they cost I can buy a Garand, and a DPMS .308 AR.

I am going to use the brass that Dirtcrsher sent me to build up the most accurate loads I can. Then I will shoot both the Remington and the Garand to see how they compare. From there I should be able to customize a good load for either gun or both.

Working on the Beater

Well I finally decided to work on the beater SKS a bit. I bought it months ago, and cleaned all the cosmoline off of everything but the stock. The stock itself was carved up by some commie soldier named Marko at some point. This thing is a turd really. I am not all to sure it will even fire. The trigger is a bit wonky. I could not get it to drop when it was coated in cosmo, but hope it will once it is reassembled.

So anyway, I chose a harsh method to clean the stock. Acetone and a steel brush! I am sure this would make many run screaming, but it seemed to work well. The wood grain is a little loose, but some sanding should cure that. I plan to use some hard core wood filler I found to fill the carvings, sand the whole thing, and paint it with some lightly textured paint I found. It should look fairly tacticool when it is done.

Even if the gun is a total loss, this will have been a decent learning experience. I can always use this as a parts gun for other Yugos. I plan to have 3-5 of them ready to roll at some point. You can't get a much cheaper assault rifle to give someone in a TEOTWAWKI situation. Let's not forget that they share ammo with the AK, and I want a couple of those as well. :)

Getting off my ass

So I bought a completely beater Yugo 59/66 SKS a couple months back. I got all the metal parts de-cosmoed, and need to put it back together. The stock is full of cosmo still, but I think I am going to work on that this weekend. One way or another I am going to get it back into one piece and see if it works. There was some trouble getting the hammer to fall originally, but I believe that was due to a mass of gunk in the works. We shall see. If I have time, which is doubtful due to Easter, I may get it to the range. That would be a complete miracle though honestly.

I like the gun though. It is neat piece of com-bloc design and manufacturing. The next gun on the list is the Mosin M-44 I got a couple weeks ago.