Neanderpundit

An Arisaka 99 which has been sporterized.

No, not sporterized in the usual “bubba” way, sporterized by a professional. The stock is a Herters, (I originally thought it was a Fajen, but I found the Herter’s stamp on the buttplate) and it’s actually very lovely, it’s shape reminiscent of the early Rigby style stocks.

It has had a couple of issues since I first acquired it; it first had a broken bolt. I took it to Harry mcGowan and had him remedy that, he did (or, I should say, his sons) a remarkable job. The bolt is as smooth as silk and the handle is wonderful

I shot it a few times and let it sit in the cabinet, the front sight ramp loosened easily under firing, and the rear sight, a cheapass Lyman type, was cheezy and nasty looking.

Tonight I cleaned up the barrel where the front sight ramp sits, and the ramp itself, tinned them, and silver soldered them together. It’s a workmanlike job, and looks fine. next, I’m gonna put a three-leaf folding ‘Express” sight on it, from Jeff’s Outfitters.

Speaking of which, while you’re over at Jeffs , have a look around. The kind of stuff they have makes me drool involuntarily, and I’m looking hard at one of the nice canvas/leather cases for the Sabatti. They have a bucketload of very nice stuff.

Anyway, when this “Project” is done, i’ll have a fine, nice looking 30-06 bolt action that is durable and unlike most Mausers requires no tools to be broken down- the bolt can be disassembled with your hands, the magazine floorplate can be opened with your finger. I will never sell this rifle, it came halfway around the world with it’s chrysanthemum intact. I will not hand it off to someone who will drill a scope hole through it.

yes, 30-06. The US chambered a bunch of these for 30-06 to arm Korean troops. This may have been one of those; I know the rifling is perfect, and if I load it for 303-06, it shoots like blazes. You can’t resize the cases easily for 30-06, but I just neck resize them and they work fine.

but I had the link turned off for Anthroblogogy. Dirtcrasher certainly has earned a permanent place here, I must have flamed completely out.

if I’ve delinked you it was sheer stupidity- if I’m not going to delink some of the utter assholes on the blogroll, I wouldn’t have delinked you. Shoot me an email at mhardig at aol dot com and I’ll fix it up.

UPDATE: yes, I have apparently managed to accidently delink or turn off or omit several people. Thanks, and if anytone else iss missing a link let me know.

Hell, there’s a woman still linked who hasn’t posted in a year, and before she stopped called me a “condescending douchebag” and a guy who has gone off the deep end of evangelical Christian nutbaggery; I’m certainly not petty enough to delink people. Mostly I don’t see posting for ages and turn the link off- though I rarely delete them in case someone comes back.

I followed, for a brief time, a VW Westphalia which appeared to be on fire. It’s owner was adequately obsessed with grooming his ratty skullet that I could not get his attention.

The part on fire appeared to be the engine. Plenty of smoke coming out, and it would be completely consistent with a crankshaft seal, blowing, as it was, out from under the muffler.

The odd flicker of flame was the disconcerting part.

At least the fuel tank is not close to the engine. Hope he made it home OK.