It's been nearly a year since I joined the club, so I thought I'd check in again with you guys. I've put about 30 rounds through her so far without a hitch - 10 rounds of 170gr Winchester soft points, and 20 S&B 196gr soft points. I was seriously impressed with the hitting power behind those S&B rounds. I was shooting at an AR500 gong hung off of some scrap steel shelving (pretty heavy gauge industrial stuff) and managed to miss the gong and punch a very nasty looking hole through a couple layers of the shelving. I wish a snapped a picture of the carnage. Shortly after I bought it, Hitzy was nice enough to sell me a Timney low profile safety (thanks again), minus the tiny spring that is placed in the shaft of the lever. Luckily after speaking to a rep from Timney, I got one sent to me free of charge. Fast forward to last night, I got the safety on in anticipation of getting my hands on a scope and it seems to function flawlessly.
I do have a couple questions for you guys though. There seems to be evidence of a little bit of bubba'ing here and there and I was wondering if you guys have seen any of this kind of work before.
First are these overlapping screws on the lower trigger guard assembly. I have no idea if this was a common practice years ago or not... I'll admit it's a little fugly.
Second is this. I'm assuming it is meant to be a stock repair of some sort, seeing as there is a hairline crack behind the tang. Just looking to confirm my assumption.
Last is the forend of the stock. Every 640/648 that I have seen on here has checkering and mine does not. Did it at some point, or do you guys think bubba sanded it off?
I guess you could say I'm also having a pretty hard time nailing down the exact year it was manufactured. I'm still trying to confirm all of the little details about it.. Im 99% certain that it's a large-ring FN98 action - it cocks on opening, it's got the stripper clip cut out, it aligns with all of the pictures that I've seen, etc. I guess I don't really know enough about these beauties yet to be 100% sure. Here a couple of pictures for viewing pleasure - excuse the cheesy butler creek recoil pad, it makes the length of pull just right for me. By the way, the sling is the Polish PPS sling from Tradex. Can't beat the quality and style for the price, though the leather was pretty dry from storage when I got it, so I had to put the Mink Oil to it. Cheers!