You know it's summer in Texas.....

You know it's summer in Texas when you can take a shower with only the cold water running and still get a hot shower. It's not there yet, but we're rolling that way with gusto.

Gun store find of the month.

Okay. I seem to have the best luck finding the odd and rare firearm at the mom and pop gun stores in the little mom and pop towns.  That's my dirty little secret.  Evidenced by this little rough gem.

This is a Colt Police Positive Special in .32-20WCF.  Serial number of 113XX, which puts her in the first year of production, 1907-08. She has some patina and a few scratches here and there.  The bore and cylinder looked clean and straight. She still locks up tight too. There a gouge missing on one of the grips, but they're original.  I think I got a helluva price on it.

You see, there's this western wear store in the town "local" to where I'm currently working.  From the outside you wouldn't even know there's a gun counter inside.  But in there, they have a good selection of ammo, handguns, rifles etc.  With this find tucked into the display counter.  There's also a Chinese SKS in there that I might go back for. A Vietnam bring back by a local vet. That gun would be worth it just for the story there.

In related news, I'm seriously curtailing my firearms purchasing for a few months.  There are other big toys that I'm saving up for.  More on that later.

Some thing that's been bothering me.

When Ex-Mayor, Nanny Statist Bloomberg said he was going to spend 50 million dollars to create a grass roots organization, my first thought was that's not how grass roots works. In fact that's the opposite of how grass roots works.  That is exactly how astro turf works though.  Is he that much of a douche that he really thinks you can buy grass roots movements?
 

Range Report

Okay, finally got to the range with the new AR.  I forgot to take any pics, sorry.  But my initial impressions.

The gisselle trigger is like buttah.  For a non-adjustable drop in trigger, that this is a dream.

The scope is geardo giggle worthy.  I zeroed on the 100 yard range and I know that the targets were exactly 94 meters from the shooting bench.

The JP Ent. SCS is interesting. I don't know if it's absorbing more recoil than a standard buffer/spring system, but felt recoil was much less. Still shooting M855 62 gr. Green Tip ammo.

Speaking of, I shot 60 rds of M855, another 40 rounds of Armscor 62 gr, and 80 rounds of M193 Federal.  Not a hiccup or even a hint of a malf.

I have to say that I'm well pleased with this rifle. It's a keeper.

Oh, and I was getting between dime and quarter sized three shot groups at 100. But that probably because I forgot my sandbags and I was shaking a bit.
 

More gratuitous gun pr0n

Just a follow up to the post before last.  I finally got the rail adapter for the bipod.  As mentioned previously, it's a Harris bipod.  The adapter I finally decided on was the Rota-pod quick detach adapter.  So, now the bipod can both tilt and, when unlocked, swivel about 30 degrees left and right. The quick detach is nice. The thing is heavy enough. If need be, I can quickly take the bipod off and stow it.

And finally, for now, I'm thinking of taking the A2 flash hider off and putting some sort of compensator on it.  But I don't know what's out there for compensators much less what are the best for the buck.

(click to embiggenate, of course)

 

If you think about it, it's true.

Conversation on the drive home today.
As we pass a McDonald's semi on the interstate.

Me: Is that actually delivering McDonalds supplies or did they just pay for the advertising?

Pax: McD's owns that trailer...

Me: huh.

Pax: You know what you never see, you never see an Amazon truck.

Me: Sure you do. They're brown and have UPS on the side.

In regards to the previous post.(aka gratuitous gun pr0n)

If you embigginate the pic and look below the brass deflector and the back edge of the ejection port cover you can see the ambi side of the bolt release.  With this, a Norgon ambi-mag release and the ambi safety selector, it's about as ambidextrous as you can get an AR platform. All I've done so far is set the butt stock for comfortable fit and good eye relief on the scope.  The snow today is sort of slowing down any range trips.  I've also rough zeroed the scope and set the ballistics calculator for the flavor of .223 that I have the most of and plan to zero with.  Still haven't mounted the bipod yet. But that's coming.  Like I said, a very fast build for me, only a couple of weeks.

On a semi related note, Scribbler, a friend also in the DFW metroplex, had this to say about the weather.

The Sun is Shining

I can see Grass through the Snow

Classes are Cancelled

Which is an apt and completely unintentional haiku. He has titled it, "LOLTexas"

Just putting this up here.

Really quickly doing an AR marksman / sorta varminter rifle. Actually, Aero Precision has a ambi lower that I wanted to experiment with and this seemed to be a good enough reason to.

So,
Aero Precision Ambi Lower

Bravo Company 18" SPR Mk 12 Upper Receiver

Magpul PRS Stock and MIAD grip system.

KNS Precision for turned pins and non-rotating trigger pins

Wolff Springs for all lower receiver springs

Harris Bipod

JP Enterprise SCS system

Which apparently is a no no on my part, because it eliminates the SPROING of freedom.

 

As for other oddball. I went with Armalite for the buffer tube or receiver extension if you want to be technically accurate. Yes, I'm sure the 15 dollar DPMS tube would have been perfectly fine.

 

That's about all I can remember off hand right now.  I still need to decide on an optic.  I'm seriously looking at Burris, Zeiss and Vortex right now.  But I'm still open to suggestions.

 

Oh, and this is seriously the fastest build I've done. I think it'll be like 2 weeks total from initial order of the lower to assembly.

 

No pics now. Basically everything is still in transit to me. I just wanted to get it all down somewhere so I don't forget what I've put in this one.

Edited to add: I forgot this. A Gissele SSA-E trigger.  I've grown very fond of Rock River's 2 stage NM trigger. To the point I've used it almost exclusively for my AR builds.  This time I wanted to try something different.  Which I sort of failed at. The SSA-E trigger is pretty much Gissele's version of the RRA trigger. But it's a drop in replacement for the stock GI trigger and it's got an operation that is basically what I'm used to in my triggers, so it shouldn't be a stretch to get used to it. 

 

 

 

I swear to god....

You can't make this stuff up.



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Look what followed me home....

You see, yesterday I was wandering through my local gun shop/range and I saw this in the consignment display case. I'd been looking for a nice Colt M1917 off and on for a bit now and this one got my interest. 

There's no lanyard loop on the butt and no hole for one either. There's no U. S. Gov't Property markings on it. Either on the bottom of the barrel or the bottom of the butt.  It has acceptance markings on it though. An RAC on the right side of the frame and on the front of the cylinder.

(I apologize for the crappy pic. Someday I'll by a real camera, pinkie swears)

Anyway, that's the RAC on the frame. Same as on my Webley Mk V.

Also, it's not marked M1917 on it.

It's marked COLT DA .45

All of which has me thinking it's a 1917 produced for the civilian market by Colt, and then acquired by the Royal Army for WW1 or WW2.  According to the serial number, it was made in 1918, so possible.

Anyway, since it's nearly 100 years old, I took it down to the guys and Jackson Armory to make sure it's safe too shoot. Turns out, it used to have the lanyard loop and US Prop markings on the butt. Someone had filed them off and filled the hole in. They'd also filed off the US. Property mark on the bottom of the barrel too. I guess someone was freaked out by the markings and didn't want to get in whatever imagined trouble they thought.  Trust me, they didn't do the value of the gun any favors.

Good news/Bad news.

Good news first. It's shootable, the barrel is good. Locks up tight.

Odd news. It's not an M1917.  If you look closely at how the barrel and the frame meet, you'll notice the barrel is straight and doesn't bell out.  It's a model 1909, chambered in .45LC. Even older and slightly more rare. The RAC stands for Renaldo A. Carr, the initials of the inspector.  Along with the FB, which were the initials of Col. Frank Baker, the Army Inspector of Ordnance.  The serial number puts it in the initial contract of 6000 ordered by the War Department to fill the gap between the old service revolver and the new 1911. So, made in 1909 or '10.  There were a total of 19503 made for the U.S. Army. This one probably went to the Manila Ordnance Dep't in the Philippines and then spent the next 100 years wandering it's way back to me. 

The gun store had it mis-identified as a 1917 when it was actually a 1909 and thus priced it a little low for what it actually was.  Which brings me to, H'Ray Me!

Bad news. I now have ANOTHER caliber I have to buy.

Anyway, look what followed me home, a Colt New Service Revolver, model of 1909.