- Location
- Beaverlodge, Alberta
Well gents, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted much of anything here. Life’s had some ups and downs, but lately a whole lot of ups. Back in the milsurp game, thanks to some friends both past and present. Some who are with us, and some sadly missed.
A few months ago I was talking with Tinman204 for the first time in a long time. For some reason unexplained I had woken up that morning and had an urge to go check out P&S’s site to see if they had anything interesting on hand. They did, a nice, unmolested Ross M-10 factory sporter. Price seemed fair, so I dug deep and bought the first rifle I’ve acquired since 2014. I got pretty excited buying a Ross again, and started reaching out to people in the community I’d all but ghosted sometime in 2016. Tinman204 was one of the first. He told me of how much things had changed, that we’d lost Buffdog back several years now, and that Smellie had passed last year. I’d been so far away from the hobby that I hadn’t caught wind of our loss of either of them. Both men had helped me a ton when I first caught the bug. I owe them a lot of my passion for collecting and history. Tinman told me Wolverine still had a few of Smellie’s pieces remaining, and lucky for me his ‘36 Ishy was still there. I felt it would be an honour to preserve one of George’s rifles, and enjoy it in his memory. So I opened my wallet, dug out that plastic again and committed to the second rifle in almost a decade.
Well, the old girl arrived. She needed some love, but was definitely George’s rifle.
I carefully repaired the draws where they had been pounded, making sure to get an exact fit. I carefully torqued all the fasteners after giving it a light cleaning and thorough drink of linseed oil. A little gun oil on the metal, and a light dusting of lubriplate on the sliding surfaces. I got lucky and acquired a PH 5A sight from another member here: my eyes are going pretty fast from too many years behind dirty glass operating equipment and mechanicing, as well as my new role behind a computer burning my eyes up. Once everything was repaired and the rifle was ready to shoot, I loaded up an ammo box with 30 or so rounds of my special blend of 303 made from surplus 7.62x54 bullets and powder at a reduced load in WWII dominion brass and headed to our range.
It felt like a pretty big honour squeezing a few off behind one of George’s old warhorses. I'll be its caretaker until it’s my turn to pass it on to the next man to care for and enjoy it when I’ve moved on to the big range in the sky.
A few months ago I was talking with Tinman204 for the first time in a long time. For some reason unexplained I had woken up that morning and had an urge to go check out P&S’s site to see if they had anything interesting on hand. They did, a nice, unmolested Ross M-10 factory sporter. Price seemed fair, so I dug deep and bought the first rifle I’ve acquired since 2014. I got pretty excited buying a Ross again, and started reaching out to people in the community I’d all but ghosted sometime in 2016. Tinman204 was one of the first. He told me of how much things had changed, that we’d lost Buffdog back several years now, and that Smellie had passed last year. I’d been so far away from the hobby that I hadn’t caught wind of our loss of either of them. Both men had helped me a ton when I first caught the bug. I owe them a lot of my passion for collecting and history. Tinman told me Wolverine still had a few of Smellie’s pieces remaining, and lucky for me his ‘36 Ishy was still there. I felt it would be an honour to preserve one of George’s rifles, and enjoy it in his memory. So I opened my wallet, dug out that plastic again and committed to the second rifle in almost a decade.
Well, the old girl arrived. She needed some love, but was definitely George’s rifle.
I carefully repaired the draws where they had been pounded, making sure to get an exact fit. I carefully torqued all the fasteners after giving it a light cleaning and thorough drink of linseed oil. A little gun oil on the metal, and a light dusting of lubriplate on the sliding surfaces. I got lucky and acquired a PH 5A sight from another member here: my eyes are going pretty fast from too many years behind dirty glass operating equipment and mechanicing, as well as my new role behind a computer burning my eyes up. Once everything was repaired and the rifle was ready to shoot, I loaded up an ammo box with 30 or so rounds of my special blend of 303 made from surplus 7.62x54 bullets and powder at a reduced load in WWII dominion brass and headed to our range.
It felt like a pretty big honour squeezing a few off behind one of George’s old warhorses. I'll be its caretaker until it’s my turn to pass it on to the next man to care for and enjoy it when I’ve moved on to the big range in the sky.
