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How has your week been - part 2

15K views 460 replies 6 participants last post by  BigEd 
#1 ·
The existing 'How has your week been' thread has been running along for over three years so I thought it might be time to start a fresh one.

This week I disassembled my H&R .45 Colt 'Buffalo Classic Carbine' further than normally done, to confirm which receiver frame they'd used in making it. I've been halfway debating on having it reamed out to .454 Casull, as there are several gunsmiths that used to advertise the conversion, but I wanted to personally check on the strength of the receiver before looking too seriously into it.

There were two frames that H&R used when making that size gun, the SB1 and SB2. The SB1 isn't hardened and is only good for low-pressure stuff like shotguns, some handgun calibers, etc. The SB2 receiver is hardened and was used in calibers up to .270, so it would be fine for a .454 Casull conversion. Haven't decided whether I'll do it or not; a small gun like that with its steel buttplate in 454 Casull would be punishing on both ends, but it's good to know that it can take it if I ever decide to.

Non-gun stuff, I worked some more on a new storage room inside a storage room. I closed it in last weekend and hung the door a few days ago, and yesterday finished the door hardware and reinforcing. Reassembled a 4" two-sided gondola shelving section that had to be moved for enclosing the new room, regaining the temporarily lost shelf space. Then inventoried the remaining gondola shelving to try and mentally lay out the room's storage setup. We bought a bunch of retail shelving when a store nearby closed up a few years ago, and it's been phenomenally handy.

Have everything done in the new room (including lights) except shelves and electrical outlets; may finish the electrical work this afternoon. Or if the weather's nice, may be a bum and just smoke a cigar on the porch & listen to the city people trying to shoot deer instead. I don't even deer hunt anymore; too many people who haven't touched a gun all year showing up with their new uber-magnum rifles, blasting away with their yuppie howitzers at deer smaller than they are. I don't go into the woods or even our fields & pasture during deer season if I can avoid it. If I can't avoid it, I make sure to be extra noisy and wear an orange vest over III+ body armor... :)
 
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#2 · (Edited)
If I decide to harvest a deer this year I'll see if I can spot one in the backyard. Buy a lisence online sneak out through the front door around back and shoot it.

Otherwise not interested for the same reasons you gave.
The most fun I had deer hunting was back as a teen hunting with my friend and his father out in the Ozark National Forest around Spirits Creek and Potato Knob Mt ,.
Even if we didn't get anything the whole trip was a hoot.

This week gun wise not much except switch out to better scope rings on my Remington 700 varmint rifle I picked up. And working on processing surplus 7.62 NATO into useable brass. Working on the case trimming phase now in between doing other things around the place.
 
#3 ·
I got a surprise when my Son showed up on Veteran's Day and said "load up your shotgun we're going Pheasant Hunting. He took me to a Hunting preserve that cost's $90.00 per Hunter, three bird limit. Thinking it would be a walk over I was surprised that we (the Dog's I mean) hadn't kicked up a bird after half a mile or so. The I missed two Rooster's clean. If these bird's were "tame" you couldn't tell it by me. Anyway, we spent five hours and did get our six with no bird's lost. The two Labradors were terrific at finding the downed Pheasant's refusing to give up in some really tough cover. The young Lab, my Son's Dog tends to flush too early so we worked on that. Checking our GPS we had walked just over eight miles. Some "walk over". Great day and my Son insisted on paying for the whole thing and buying my Wife and me dinner at a "Safe" restaurant. I think I'll keep him.
 

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#4 ·
Pretty tame actually, went shooting with the wife and a friend on Thursday with 3 different loads for the M1 Carbine. Remembrance Day/Veterans Day up here was limited to only 100 people due to Covid, so I wasn't able to attend. Just getting caught up reloading for next years matches.
 
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#5 ·
Got gifted another not-quite-full bucket of wheelweights from a tire shop today; this one just 103 lbs, where a full bucket will run usually 120-125 lbs. That means around 74-75 lbs of usable lead when sorted through & smelted into ingots, or around 4,100 or so 9mm or 38spl bullets.

Reloading is gloriously inexpensive when all you have to buy is primers & powder.
 
#6 ·
Gave back some of the lead to a couple guys at the tire shop. One of them reloads but doesn't cast so I gave him around 750 each 9mm and 38 bullets, and gave another guy ~20 lbs of muffin-pan ingots for use in fishing sinkers & other misc stuff. It's amazing how grateful people can be for something we can take for granted - the guy who got the bullets acted like he'd gotten a winning lottery ticket or something.

Same thing when I donated a pair of too-small boots to a men's rehab place earlier this week. It seemed to mean a lot more to them than it would have to me. I guess I'm spoiled (like most Americans nowadays), but that served as a good reminder.
 
#7 ·
Pretty tame, between a recent heavy snowfall and this covid thing, not to much going on. My wife and I went to the indoor range Wednesday morning. She had some lively comments about me shooting next to her with my Chiappa "Alaskan" in .44 Mag w/ a 12" barrel. Apparently them moving down range at 1,300 fps disturbed her concentration. Well back to reloading for next year's matches (hoping that we are back to a normal shooting season).
 
#10 ·
Seriously, you didn't have your AR with .22 insert and a CAN, Oh the horror how could you practice for the up coming zombie apocalypse?
 
#12 ·
Laid off cranking the press handle and turned back to making some rifle slings to sell.
Lordy I hate eBay's layouts for selling stuff. Gonna have to do three listings for basically the same product because there's no drop downs I can set up for color choices.

Well at least Sasquatch Sling Company will get a start soon I hope.
 
#14 ·
I’ve never sold anything on ebay, but have been thinking about doing so lately, to get rid of some things that I rarely use anymore. Nearly 35 years of marriage, and especially the last dozen years or so of being paid in trade by a customer who owns a watch shop, I’m thinking about paring down other stuff the same way I’ve done lately with guns. The money would obviously be nice, but just reducing clutter & baggage would be nice as well.
 
#13 ·
No gun stuff for me this weekend. My DIL recently got her master’s degree and some kind of certification(s) that I’m not familiar with, and starts a new job as a counsellor for the army next week, so I took off work yesterday and my other son and I helped them move from Arkansas to Ft Leonard Wood. Left home 4:30 yesterday morning and got back 3:00 this morning, but got everything moved to their house off base. Today, helping a family member (who’s a well driller) clean out my 81-yr-old mother in law’s water well.

Would like to start learning some christmas songs on the musical targets, but real life constantly intrudes. :unhappy:
 
#15 ·
Yesterday finished up all the outside stuff for the winter, put tractors an golf cart away an dug the snow blower out an cleaned the carb. Now it is time to start casting the usual. Then dust off the Stars an reload 9mm, 38spl, 45 AR, 44 spl. an 45 LC, everything else is in good shape. Empty brass from this year was 2 5gal. buckets of 9mm an three of 38spl, it is all cleaned an ready to load.
 
#16 ·
I've been plugging away this week with my reloading since my wife has gone down to see her parents for a couple of days. I process my brass after shooting (deprime, resize, bell) then just put it away till reloading season (when first snow hits). I base my reloading on how many empty plastic cases are on the shelf. I should be "topped" up by the end of month due to the fact that we probably shot 1/4 the matches that we normally do this year. Around the end of February I'll start building various loads in .30-30 & 6.5x55 for a potential hog hunt.
 
#18 ·
I had problems with paypal a few years back, and just closed my account rather than continue the problems.
 
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#19 ·
I don't blame you and at one point it was pretty much mandatory for a seller to have one to do business on eBay

Currently I'm rather impatiently waiting to be paid and not sure if it's gonna be PayPal or eBay transferring money to my account.

I like to ship either same day or next after I sell something but I don't ship without getting paid.

I got a rifle stock to sell plus I hope to have a dozen of the slings I put together for sale soon.

PayPal is "bam" instant but this new eBay system will delay payment up to 3days.
I'm no expert in E business and E money but I assume it's their scheme to bank the funds 3 days to earn interest on them. Probably better than PayPal use and transfer fees in the long run, I hope.
 
#20 ·
Got out the small rocket stove yesterday and ran it for a half hour or so strictly because winter’s coming. It’s a small commercially made one (Bruntmor iirc) and runs okay, but now with my welder son back in the area, I’m thinking about asking him to extend the chimney a little. I think just 6-8 inches extra height on the riser should probably make a substantial difference in its draw and maybe get rid of the small amount of smoke it doesn’t already eliminate.

Got the propane tanks squared away as well; all are full except one that I used for an hour or two at our shop wednesday, cooking for our people. Just small stuff, making sure things are winter-ready, as the almanac indicates this may be a strange one weather-wise. Already cranked up & test-ran the generator a few weeks ago.
 
#21 ·
Up here in my corner of the state it sure is shaping up to be an odd one already.
Or, I should say stranger than the normal strange weather for Arkansas.:laugh:

I expect some of the typical yoyo weather to be more extreme here. Possibly into April.
 
#23 ·
Shifting into a slightly higher gear (which I didn't think I had) on getting things squared away in the event we manage to actually sell the business. Got a verbal notice of intent from one of the prospective buyers yesterday, and looks like it might actually be happening in the near future; so today introduced our broker to our lawyer for handling all of that lovely process.

Just a lot of inevitable loose ends to tie down and rats to stomp before everything can be finalized; a lot of overlap between our personal life and business that have to be segregated first. It's a hassle and pain, but well worth it in the long run.
 
#24 ·
John - I've only had one thing to deal with property wise and that was a real estate sale of undeveloped land.
I can't even imagine going through a business and property sale of that size.
On mine I had to do the transfer from my mother's estate to my name then do a split and the sale to one buyer all through a real estate lawyer.
After that I know why people hire real estate agents. Biggest hold up was the title company doing the title search. I was about ready to wring someone's neck down there. They couldn't seem to fathom a family smoothly and without strife transferring ownership and dividing real estate I guess.
About the last straw was some green horn getting my property number mixed with the one that had been owned by my Uncle and Aunt. Yeah what a rookie mistake.:spinny:
Once my lawyer's legal secretary figured that out I got a laugh out of it. Stress relief :laugh:
 
#25 ·
Similar here. It's the biggest transaction I've been involved in; it’s not like I do stuff this big on a regular basis. That’s why we’re using the lawyer to interface with the broker; I have fairly limited personal experience with attorneys, but I’m a firm believer that a good attorney, a good accountant, and even a good real estate agent will save me more money than they cost, and you’re better off with one than without them.

The overlap I mentioned is just a byproduct (maybe an inevitable byproduct) of business and busy-ness of normal life. When we sold our house ~3 years ago, our new house wasn’t ready, so we put a lot of personal stuff in storage in our business’ building; and a lot of it is still there. One of the business service vehicles is in my name instead of the company’s and will have to be changed, because we're selling the vehicles with the business. In a weird case of karma or serendipity or whatever, this month is actually the last mortgage payment on our building, so we’ll have that real estate transaction (seller’s quit-claim and other deed stuff) to deal with as well. But then, we’re not selling the building itself with the business; I’ve told the buyer that he can have up to 6 months free rent if he wants, but he doesn’t know yet if he wants to move into our facility or not. If not, we’ll end up either selling or renting the building. It’s crazy enough even with a broker and attorney on our side; without them it would be like trying to juggle spaghetti.

Bear in mind, we don't have a contract or anything yet, just a verbal declaration of intent; and it may turn into absolutely nothing at all. All I can do is find the best professionals to help that I can, and then lean into the harness & pull…


:laugh:
 
#27 ·
Getting things lined out for winter; because regardless of who's in the white house two months from now, or whether rioters burn cities again, or whether half the world dies of covid, or whether we face a gun ban, or whatever happens with china or korea, "winter is coming" as they say... ;)

Test-ran the small generator and cleaned & ran the small rocket stove several weeks ago, hadn't run the tractor in over a month so cranked it up for a while on saturday, and topped off the fuel cans. My wife can't handle the five-gallon cans anymore, so I keep a small can full for her just in case she gets a wild hair and wants to do something. I don't keep much diesel on hand, as the tractor and fire-starting are the only things we use it for.



On the side of the small generator is a laminated set of instructions for cranking up and shutting down the generator; in case I'm not there and she or someone else has to do it. Per the wife's request (mainly because of winter coming on), also broke down and ordered a replacement seat for the old ripped-up one on the four-wheeler as well.

Need to replace the bigger generator. The one we had wasn't a honda and I traded it off to a guy who did a bunch of work on our 17 year old (honda) four-wheeler. At this point in life I'm done with any small-engine stuff that isn't honda. It's just not worth the hassle anymore. But until I find a deal on a replacement, this small one will pretty much (barely) do all we need in a short-term emergency.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Well, it has been up and down. I got all my Christmas shopping done, 95 % on line, and the credit card paid so that's a done deal. I didn't shoot a Deer, that's what I get for passing up legal Doe for "The Big Rack." Took the Dog for a hike after Deer season (Gun) ended and twisted my knee when tripped over a dead fall. Hiked the three miles back to the car cussing the whole way. ACE hardware opened up a sporting goods section in the small town not too far from me and had .22, 9MM, and .45 ACP. 3,1, 1 box limit respectively. I grabbed the limit without looking at the price. It rang up to $103.00 and change. I did some pistol shooting with a Walther P-38 I bought long ago and kind of forgotten about. Heavy DA but very good SA trigger. Trim semi-auto with a lot of modern features for a WWII gun. The CMMG kit continues to be fun, but dirties up with Blazer and GB's at about the 140 round mark. I'm going to try the Mini-Mags next.
 
#30 ·
After searching pretty much every place within 50-60 miles of me (online & phone call inquiries), settled on a new generator; Honda's EM4000SX, and picked it up yesterday. Was hoping to get the 5000, but none in stock anywhere nearby or online that I could find, and the 4000 will actually do anything we need it for.
 
#33 ·
We have a "three-point rule" here in my part of Arkansas. A buck is legal if it has three points on either side, or if it has NO points more than two inches on either side (button buck). So a five-pointer is legal, most four-pointers are illegal (although a four-pointer can be legal if it's a weird distribution of points), a button-buck is legal, a spike is (usually) illegal, and (in most areas) a doe is legal.

Basically, we can shoot big bucks, small bucks, and doe even in most places, but the medium-small bucks and even some of the medium-large bucks are illegal to shoot.

I don't even deer hunt anymore, but the three-point rule is why I gave up trying to use a handgun for it. Without a magnified optic I can't tell whether a deer is legal or not; at least can't tell quick enough to do much about it. Now instead of shooting them I just wave to them while smoking a cigar on the porch.
 
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