Been a good boy and not bought any guns in a couple weeks. But….gun accessories, on the other hand…
I was doing well until an email landed in my box asking if I was interested in some factory mags for the Ruger 9mm P-series….you know…P95DC mags.
Me: How many do you have?
Them: 
*sigh*
Interesting thing is, this works out to about three mags per gun.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised with an internet connection, an FFL/SOT, and a browser tab opened to Reddit /gundeals.
First off, I didn’t need some Beretta APX’s, but hear me out….at auction back in June I bought scads of magazines for various guns at bargain prices…about $4-$6 per mag. Well, since I have a stack of Beretta-made 21-round APX 9mm mags it wouldn’t be the worst thing if I picked up a few guns at discount, right?
Oh look…the Brazillians are selling a bunch of NIB APX’s they ordered. Brand new, but the manuals are in Portuguese. I can work with that:
I’ll keep one gun for myself and sell the other two off. Hmmm…what esle is out there looking for a home? Well, I’ve got the SOT so something being NFA restricted isn’t really a problem these days. Hmmm….14″ 870’s with receiver peeps and front sights. Better price if I order two or more….
Well, everyone wants to save money, right? In for two.
Holidays are coming up and I need gift ideas. This is the cheapest price I’ve ever seen Rugers MPR at.
The price was actually $50 cheaper when I ordered than what is listed now. The MPR is a good choice for an out-of-the-box gun with features that you’d normally pay extra for. I guess my Christmas gift shopping is done.
And….one more little jewel that is strictly for me. All these other guns are for resale or gifts, but there’s been something on my list for a while now and the vendor finally has them back in stock. Soooo…..
And that’s how I wound up buying eight guns in the space of a week. It also how I eventually wind up having to move into a storage unit because my house is full of guns.
Hobbies, man.
Well, I guess I’m out of excuses for not getting this .338 Lapua project done.
The 16×56 optic (w. rings) arrived today. While I was tinkering, I swapped out the questionable Ruger factory stock for a Magpul PRS which seems like a good idea.
I picked a heck of a time to start shooting magnum rifle…my plans were never predicated around it, so while I have plenty of large rifle primers, my supply of large rifle magnum primers is only a brick or two. Then again, that would be 2000 rounds of .338 and I’m not sure anyone wants to subject themselves to that much fun.
I was tempted to drop this scope on the Barrett instead, but realistically the Barret is a potentially less accurate platform…long recoil and all. The Barret has a very particular purpose…it’s an anti-materiel gun that can, under certain circumstances, do double duty in another role. But it’s primarily for busting up stuff. The .338 Lapua is a bit easier to feed, slightly more portable, and is probably more accurate at range.
Anyway…that happened.
Twenty years ago, I picked up a CZ .308 for my ‘long range’ gun. It’s been a wonderful rifle and my best day was a .512″ group at 200 yards. I put an IOR fixed 10x scope on it and have not regretted that choice. Why a fixed power? Honestly, because its just one less thing to go wrong. I figured 10x was about right for the distances I imagined I might need to shoot at.
A few years back, I wanted to bridge the gap between .308 ranges and .50 BMG ranges and decided to get a .338 Lapua. After some thought, I went with the Ruger Precision Rifle in .338 Lapua. And….its been sitting on my gun cabinet for the last several years. Why? Because putting a piece of appropriate glass on the thing was gonna cost as much as the bloody gun…and the gun wasn’t cheap to start with.
Eventually, I had to just bite the bullet and spend the moolah. Theyre a bit of an ‘off the beaten path’ brand, but I’ve been very pleased with my IOR fixed 10x and my IOR M2 4x. So, I decided that for my needs I wanted a fixed power scope again, but with a bit more magnification to go with the .338 Lapua’s extended range over the .308.
Do you know how hard it is to source decent fixed power scopes these days? Everything was either too much magnification (25x and up) or too little (4x, 6x, 10x). And, really, anything below 20x in a fixed power was a toughie. So…back to IOR. They had a 16×56 with the reticle (MP8) that I used on my .308. The 56mm objective is enormous but lets in plenty of light. I figure 16x is about the right magnification to cover the range of distances I’d be shooting the .338 at, so let’s get that puppy ordered. It’s a 35mm tube (light transmission, baby!) so rings aren’t just going to grow on trees…better order up a set of those too.
When it’s all said and done, it cost slightly more than the bloody rifle itself. But, at least I’ll be able to shoot the thing now. Pics when its all put together.
A while back I posted that ATFE had made it so that a person could, if so inclined, do some paperwork online rather than through the mail. I hate the ATFE with a passion and I see no reason to change that. But, I hate the idea of being in jail even more. So, I filled out the forms, paid the $200 tax each, and waited. I just got the approvals on both in email today:
Yep…..I took this guy:
And did the paperwork (and engraving) to add a Choate side-folder (sent to me by the fine like-minded guys at Choate). The results? Here you go:
The one on the left is surprisingly handy…I mean it is really handy. It’s a comfortable length, carries well, has enough barrel length to give the 9mm a little added oomph, and is just a remarkably handy size, weight, and length for any situation I can envision needing it. It just feels…perfect. The one on the right? Less utility but oodles of ‘cool factor’.
A very valid question to ask would be why not just go with the now-legal-again ‘wrist brace’ and save myself $200 and some headache? Well, a couple reasons…first, I’m already on ‘the list’ so..in for a penny, in for a pound. Second, the SBR status lets me throw a VFG on the front of the thing. And finally, I just figured that in this case I may as well skip the half-measures and just go full retard on this.
How long did the paperwork take? Let me check….49 days. I get Form 3’s back in less than a week but the Form 1’s take seven weeks, it seems. Unfortunately this isnt the end of my having to deal with the goons at ATFE. I still need to give my Uzis the same treatment. But, for now, I’m gonna enjoy taking these to the range and getting the envious looks.
As if I hadnt already hemorrhaged enough money with the auction from last week, it appears that there’s more to be had. A coworker asked me if I’d be interested in ‘some reloading stuff’ from the estate of his recently deceased grandfather. Ok fine, I’ll look. Digital scales, Redding powder measures, carbide RCBS pistol sets, lots of powder, plenty of bullets, bullet molds, and, of course, the big-ticket item in todays market: primers.
To add insult to injury, my buddy at the coin shop asked if I had any interest in a S&W Shield EZ. Well, no…not really. Until the numbers starting getting tossed around and it became a case of “at that price it makes no sense to NOT get it.”
When it rains it pours.
I have to take the entire lot of reloading stuff, can’t cherry pick it. I very much want the primers, and the assortment of bullets and gas checks are certainly worth picking up…if I can get it cheap enough.
Hayes Otoupalik told me that when you’ve been in this business long enough, you don’t have to go looking for good deals…the good deals come looking for you. Truth.
In addition to the reloading gear, there might be some guns as well. Judging by the collection of reloading gear, there might be a 9mm, .380., a couple Smith K-frames, a 1911, and some varmint rifles.
I am seriously running out of room for this stuff.
A long and expensive week. I wound up spending three days closely following an enormous auction of gun stuff. I wound up buying, among other things, 165 stripped AR lowers.
The goal, of course, is to sell the bloody things to finance other projects…like a land purchase. It takes money (usually) to make money, kids. In addition to the AR lowers I also wound up with a mountain of Magpul AR furniture. This was a liquidation of an AR ‘manufacturer’ [really, an AR assembler] partnership, and everything had to go, go,go. In addition to AR parts galore, there was a respectable amount of ammo but the prices were quite high. I did manage to snag 5,000 rounds of Magtech 124 gr. 9mm for myself, so those will wind up going into the Deep Sleep.
Things that I missed? Well, I bid on almost 200 different lots of AR barrels and got beat out on all of them. Also got beat out on a rather healthy supply of Magpul Pmags. But, I did okay on lotsa small stuff…miscellaneous lots of odds-n-ends. Wound up with a bunch of magazines for guns I don’t even own, so I’ll probably dump the on Gunbroker.
In the end, the goal is to get back my initial outlay quickly, and once thats recovered I can take my time with the remaining items.
In the meantime, my living room looks like a warehouse. On the bright side, though, if there’s a 1994-style assault weaons ban in the next few weeks I may become quite well-to-do.
If anyone is interested, here’s the links to the closed auctions:
When you leave the vendor’s store with your two shiny new suppressors, and you have a few other things in your arms as well, and you place the suppressors on the back of the truck box while you unlock the truck….don’t forget that they are sitting there. Don’t get in the truck and drive off. Don’t get halfway to your destination, look at the passenger seat and go “hey, where are the suppressors”. Don’t panic and do a Bat-turn, and drive at excessive(!) speeds to retrace your route.
And, lo, there in the middle of the intersection, were my two boxes. Amazingly, not yet run over by traffic and not taken by passerby.
I was not looking forward to the phone call to ATFE if I had lost them.
How panicked was I? My butt was clenched so hard I’m surprised the seat covers didnt get out of the truck with me.
But, you know what? I checked off the last things on my suppressor wish list – .22(x2), .223(x3), .30, 45, 9mm (x2), Uzi. The really painful thing is…I purchased all of those in the last 60 days. $ouch$.
Sooo….that happened:
Kinda sweet. Someone spent some good money to put this thing together. I rather like the idea of earth-sheltered homes but I always wonder about the long-term waterproofness of such things. I think I’d be more interested in earth-bermed homes. Kinda like those ammunition bunkers where they bulldoze berms on all sides.
Anyway, places like these are always interesting to look at, unfortunately the attention sales like this receive kinda negates a lot of the advantage of a place like this.
This one gets the Harder Homes & Gardens tag.
H/T to the person who emailed me about this.
