Classic Hifi Care

They are another area In which I've been collecting. I've pared down my collection to a few rifles and pistols. I have an M1 Garand, M1 carbine, an AG42b Ljungmann rifle and some others. I have been performing much of the maintenance and repair work on my arms and on new acquisitions that come more cheaply if they have a mechanical flaw. I've also built a rifle and a pistol from loose parts. It is an interesting hobby.

I was hoping you'd share your firearm collection with the forum. Thanks, Rex.

My Step-dad was an avid hunter and gun collector. He was actually a licensed gun dealer and gun smith. He was very good at it so everyone would bring there guns to him for repair. As he aged he sold off most of his collection and kept just what he needed to hunt with. People would still bring him guns to repair and he did that until the last 4 or so years of his life.

Bill

With all the repair work on my shoulder, I think it will be difficult to shoot the Garand. It is an excellent shooting rifle, but the recoil is quite robust. ammunition is becoming quite expensive. I have a couple of .38/.357 revolvers and .38 special is running about $1 a round here.

A dollar per bullet?

Sounds about right. That's what I've been paying in the Pacific Northwest. That's for .45 ACP, .40 S&W and 5.56mm. The 5.56mm is a bit more, of course.

I haven't purchased any ammunition in sometime. I knew it had gone up, but not that much.

Bill

There are some good places to shop in Pa. I took a class on safety there after when I bought a Ruger SR .22 for target shooting, at least that ammo is not as pricey. There is a very well ventilated shooting range there.

I ended up doing cleaning and maintenance on some .32 and .45, cant recall the exact pieces but it was easier than fixing a record changer

We also had a 1955 Remington .410 but had to give it back to my In-laws, who hunt archery mostly.

I don''t ever want to see an M1 again... when in ROTC from Aug '68 to Jun '70 we didn't get M14/16s, we were stuck with M1s, the M14s/16s went to the guys in the field. Ask me about M1 thumb, and I hated carrying those "deleted" things. My son in Denver (recently of NY) sells military arms at gun shows: M1s he gets from the CMP, Moisin-Nagants, Mausers, Enfield's, SKS, Arisakas, you name it. He hunts sometimes with Mausers but prefers new CZs for deer.

I have a very small "armory": 1941 H&R .22 "Sportsman" revolver that was my Dad's sidearm as a Lt. on the USS Coral Sea in WW II, a vintage 1950s Colt Model 10 .38 Special revolver (THE classic cop handgun), a Remington "1896" SxS 12 gauge, H&R "Pardner" 12 ga. pump (Remington 870 copy), a vintage 1950s Marlin Model "336'" 30-30 lever, and a newer Savage .22 rifle for "varminting" and "plinking". Sold my Remington 700 BDL and may pick up a C-Z 600 in .308 for mule deer in CO or whitetail in VT and NY, but with age the days in the blind don't appeal so much anymore, and eyesight is not what it was. Son Josh is a fine hunter, typically comes home with 2 each year in one day out. Handloads most of his ammo and has his FFL.

D'oh! Of course I meant S&W Model 10 .38 Special ... not Colt for goshsakes! Messers Smith & Wesson are rolling in their graves!
]I've always preferred revolvers to automatics, Ruger's Blackhawk .357 6.5" is a great one I used to have.

I have never fired a firearm in my life. My dad was rabidly anti-gun. Didn't believe in killing anything he was not going to eat. Grandpa preferred a 12-gauge shotgun. My grandma was a crack shot, used to participate in skeet shooting contests. She preferred a 22 long rifle. She had Parkinsons so bad she couldn't feed herself, but she could grab that old .22 and shoot a blue jay between the eyes out on the light line behind the house. I still have her old rifle, a JC Higgins. I think that was a Sears and Roebuck brand. I have no idea how old it is. Maybe the 1920's?

IIRC J C Higgins rifles were all post WWII. Mostly made by Marlin. I thing there was a break-action model made by Savage.

We only shoot what we eat and eat all we shoot. I don't hunt deer, mainly pheasant and duck, plentiful in MD and which I love. Son and his wife like venison and he's the family meat provider. Deer are over-plentiful and need population control.

My dad was terrified of firearms. I have no idea why. Grandma's old rifle is a single shot, IIRC. You put in the cartridge, move this little lever, then fire the weapon. It hasn't been fired since the early 1980's. Mom worked at Sears after the war, so they bought lots of stuff at Sears. Quite possible your timeline for the rifle's age is pretty much on.

I have a S&W 65 in pretty nice shape. I bought it for $200 and it had a small bind in the cylinder rotation. I sent it to the factory and they had it working better than new. I bought a Remington 1911R1 for about the same price. I could not get it to strip and chamber a round. The feed ramp in the frame had been left parkerized. I carefully polished off the parkerizing and finished the ramp and it cycles, chambers and functions like a 1911 should. i have my Garand mostly for collector interest. My favorite is the type I carried in the Army, an AR15. The M1 carbine was fun to shoot when ammunition was plentiful and cheap. I have 2 S&W 3rd gens, a 411 and a 5906.

Son has (or had, I can't keep up with his inventory) a Browning M1911 he's very fond of. He's partial to modern CZ handguns, I forget the models. My favorite shotgun is the 130 yr old S x S Remington, it's Damascus barrel so you have to use low-brass shells but it feels so balanced and just right, deadly for pheasant. The duck & goose gun a needs longer reach, growing up on the Chesapeake it's paradise for those birds. I'd love a Browning Super-posed over-under but they're mighty salty when it comes to buying one.

I also have an AR-15 as a result of my time in Uncle Sam's Air Force. I enjoyed the M-16 that was our standard rifle in the Security Specialist ranks. I did decide to purchase a Carbine instead of the full size rifle, however.

Mine is made as a A1 model. I think it will be the one my shoulder will allow me to use in the future.

I have 2 S&W semi autos, a 5906 with the novak rear sight and a 411 with a regular dovetail sight. I've made a handy tool to help in field stripping them. It is a small piece of aluminum tube, a bit bigger than the diameter than the barrel and just long enough to hold the slide back when the pistol is pressed against a table top to allow the slide stop/ takedown pin to be started out.

An M1 will pound your shoulder pretty hard. I was "in" a long time ago, shortly after the "Tet offensive" of Jan '68. After ROTC I was lucky, everyone I knew went to Infantry right away but I drew a high number in the lottery and opted out as soon as I fulfilled my commitment.

The shooter in the Buffalo incident came from Conklin, about 10 miles from me. I also know pretty well the gun dealer who sold the AR to the guy, my son dealt with him, Bob Donald, all the time. Super nice guy in his 70s, and I feel very sorry for him for getting caught up in it, he's a retired History teacher who collected Antique and Vintage arms and he eventually opened the shop very part-time to support his hobby. He sells very few modern firearms like ARs and he did all the right things with background check, and NY's very strict SAFE law, etc. but the system didn't Red Flag that idiot Peyton Guydron.
It wasn't Bob's fault at all, but the fanatical nuts are making his life miserable by the usual threats online &c. and now he's closed his shop. The system needs to work better in these kind of cases, but it's hard to figure how. No politics are intended here, just the facts on the ground, ma'am.