8/19/2005
One Benefit to Living in Olympia, WA
Olympic Arms home base is only about 6 or 7 miles from my house. So I swung by the other day on my way home from work to check out prices. Turns out, just as a bonus, they give active duty military the dealer price. So it looks like I'm closer to being able to buy that 10mm AR upper I've been wanting. They also make a .22LR adapter that can be used with a standard .223 caliber AR, just swap out the bolt group with the adapter and put the magazine adapter in one of your magazines. Not the most accurate thing around, but for $79 you can take your AR to the indoor pistol range and plink away.
Now, I know there are a good many folks in the RKBA community who don't exactly like Olympic Arms since they came out with the OA-93 AR-based .223 pistols, thus giving the ATF a reason to declare that .223 is 'pistol ammo.' (Side note: the NHTSA is staffed mostly by people who like cars, the EPA by folks who love (or claim to love) the environment, the National Archives by historians, etc...why the hell isn't the ATF staffed by guys who like to drink, smoke, and shoot?) But they're the only company I've found that makes a good 10mm upper for the AR. So I'm going with them. Plus, supporting your local gun manufacturer is a good thing.
Now, on the subject of the 10mm: how to wring the max performance potential out of that 16" carbine barrel. Commercial 10mm loads are designed for pistols, with 5" barrels, so I'm sure I can do better with handloads. I figure I'll use heavy bullets, 180 gr at least, more likely 200. Anyone out there have any powder recomendations? I figure I'll want something on the slower burning end, to make the most of that extra 11" of barrel.
Permalink
|
It's A Boy
Got the big ultrasound yesterday. Everything looks healthy, and #2 is definitely a boy. Didn't make us search for it like his brother did, just put it right out there and showed it off.
We were hoping for a girl, but we're very happy that he's healthy and has all the right parts put together the right way.
Permalink
|
8/15/2005
Gun Show Musings
Went to the Washington Arms Collectors show in Puyallup this weekend. Not entirely sure why, since I don't have much in the way of available money at the moment (haven't gotten my travel pay settlement yet, which means the credit card balance is a bit ugly just now.) Walking through a gun show when you know you can't buy anything is torture, to say the least. And there was plenty of stuff there, too-a well rounded selection, with plenty for just about every type of gun buyer-hunting rifles and shotguns, military surplus, pistols, and of course plenty of AR-15 stuff. Actually, I was a bit disappointed that Olympic Arms didn't have their own booth there. I wanted to talk to them about their 10mm AR uppers. The one thing that I didn't see was the one thing that I would have bought-AK kits. A couple of mangy looking FAL kits were all there were to be found.
But there was true torture was in what was there. Not one, not two, but THREE beautiful SAFN-49s. An Egyptian 8mm, in the hands of a guy who had just bought it, a Luxembourger .30-06 for $700 (whose owner/seller was chatting on a bench with the guy with the Egyptian. Since they were parked outside the restrooms, I had a nice chat with them while the Mrs. visited the little girls' room.) And, the prize of all, a Venezuelan 7mm for $575. I wanted to buy that lovely rifle so bad it hurt. Even though 7x57mm isn't cheap. Even though I'd probably shoot it once in a blue moon, if that often. I've been praying that the guy selling it still has it next time I can make it to a show. An SAFN-49 has been at the top of my C&R wish list for a while.
The whole thing made me think about why exactly I buy guns. There's the ones for defending myself and my family. Pretty much got everything I need in that department. Then there's the ones that are just fun to shoot. Don't have nearly all I want in that area (would you believe I still don't own a .22LR of any sort?) But I have plenty to keep me amused. Then there's the C&R guns. Most of them I've shot, most of them on more than one occasion (actually, I'm not sure I've gotten to all the K-31s. There's too many.) But then there's the ones that I shoot rarely if ever (the SVT-40) and the ones I've never fired and probably never will (the M1911A1 and the Israeli Mauser.) The number two reason (after the current cash flow dip) I didn't go back Sunday to see if I could still get the Venezuelan is that I felt guilty about buying another rifle that I knew would be more or less a safe queen. Pretty to look at, but only very rarely fired. The M1911A1 and the Issy Mauser I feel a bit less guilty about-they've both put in their time in combat and have earned their rest, even if it is only in my personal 'museum.'
Someday I'm going to have a house with a basement like the one at Castle Argghh!!! where the lovely guns that don't get fired can be shown off like they deserve. But until then I'll feel that twinge of guilt when I spend a big chunk of change on a beautiful (and, in the case of the SAFN-49, pretty darn cool) gun that I know will mostly just take up space in the safe.
Anyone else feel the same?
Permalink
|
|
|
