The smell of Rifle smoke in the morning. MMMMmmmm!!!!!!!!

Ah!!!! I love the smell of Hoppe's #9 in the afternoon. Going to the range is, for me, something of a therapy session. Hoppe's is something akin to aroma therapy. And the two combined really do a number on my mental state.(for the better obviously. LOL I am sure that there are some Libtards out there that would be highly concerned about that statement.)
So With the last week or so of CONgressional BS I needed some recoil therapy in the worst way. I had a great excuse too. I had made a new rear Aperture sight for the PSL that needed tried out. I have a gaggle of pictures of the process from the foam mold to the finshed product but I am only going to post the end result as they are large files. Dial up be warned.

Here is the sight as it is mounted now. I did quite a bit of measuring and calculating angles, thread pitch, Detent arrangements, etc etc. I also did a lot of double checks and made the foam casting three times before I was satisfied with it. I used a primitive Charcoal furnace to melt the aluminum. The green sand was made from fine sand, Diatomaceous earth and used motoroil. It smoked quite a bit but the casting was nearly perfect. It could have been even better if I had let the melt get a bit hotter, but I am not complaining at this point.(in all actuality, I am stoked. More on that in a moment)
So here is the end product from two angles. It isn't pretty but it doesn't need to look like DaVinci designed it so long as it works.



And Oh Boy does it work. I started at the 50 yard line to sight in as I hadn't a clue how "off" this sight was. My boresighter took a dump and is about 3 degrees off (and has since been used only as a toy to bug the squirrels with) so I was Figuratively shooting from the hip first shot.
And surprise, surprise, I was on paper first string. 3 rounds 4" low right. I had to go smoke I was so Excited. All of that painstaking work, math, scraping, sanding, etc, PAID OFF!

I went ahead and Zeroed there, Set the scope back up and verified its Zero was still in. Then I headed to the 100.

Below is the 100 yard result. Open sights, Homemade Aperture ONLY. (I put the scope back in the bag.) This is a 12" target at 100yards, 20 rounds. Only three fliers off black.(and those are all on me, not the rifle or ammo.)Everything is on Paper.



This rifle has just became much more versatile for me. I have always prefered Iron sights to scopes: I guess its the Marine Corps training for me. Dunno. But its a fact that I do prefer it AND I tend to shoot just as well (up to 400 yards) with Iron as I do with a scope.(My rapid fire with iron is actually more accurate than with a scope)



I will be back on to post observations and thoughts about what I have been hearing from the District of Criminals today. But for now, its Time for Diogenes to do a little celebrating for all the hard work he put into that little bit of metal that worked so well.

No range day. :-(

Not really that sad about it. Hunting season is open and being a Sunday, Clear skies, and cool, every shotgunner out there is going to be at the range setting up. I would be lucky to get a lane.

So what do I do?

I tear apart a Russian scope and replace the illuminator for the reticule. The PSOP scope that comes with the PSL was originally illuminated with Tritium vials. Unfortunately these degrade over time(that whole half-life thing with radioactive materials) and no longer light up enough to light the reticule. I was checking out another site where a guy was trying to replace them and saw how the layout on the scope was. I felt confident enough to give it a go but decided to NOT use Tritium. Several reasons for this, 1) Hard to come by 20) Expensive. Instead I went to Radio shack, picked up 2 LED's for $1.50 (part #276-026 if you want to emulate this mod.) I had everything else in stock. I drilled a 1/8" hole into the cover of the tritium vials after removing them. I then epoxied in the LED and led the wires out of the housing. Before reassembly I tested the reticule by closing up the house and turning off all the lights. ITS BRIGHT! I can actually use this during daylight hours and it offers enough lighting offset to compensate for dark backgrounds. Its really intended for low lighting such as you get at sunset or sunrise: it is not for night work. Typically though if I were to use this for hunting, those are the hours that I will be more inclined to see my quarry.
I will make arrangements to go to the range to verify my zero again but it seems like everything reassembled dead on. The reticule isn't part of the elevation/windage prism so I think that it will still be on target. The biggest thing was making sure it was still horizontal to the rifle.
I was going to post pictures of the Mod but my camera really sucks for closeup detail pictures. Everything is so blurry that a picture in this case is only worth one word; Crap.

Kind of itchy to get to the range now. LOL I am such a gungeek.

Goin Mobile.

Been having fun today exercising an old skill. I needed more space in my truck box and have been having issues working with my cartools while they are kept in there. That is the dilemma that inspired me to build a new 'roadcase'.


I used to build roadcases for my audio equipment so that I could take it out on the road with me without damage. This is a very simple roadcase that I made today but it gave me about 3 cubic feet of space in my truckbox for more carpentry tools AND makes it much easier to access the tools for working on the truck without having to completely unload EVERYTIME. Yeah me!


OH and Van Jones Resigned today. Major score for the conservatives. Thats one avowed communist out of the White house, now we need to work on getting the rest of the Socialists/progressives/Liberals out. The media is playing it off as too much pressure but not truly disclosing the facts (like we expected them to be truthful, HAHAHAHAHA!) Still this is a win for us. There are many more to go and MAYBE just maybe we can get this taken care of BEFORE we have to start shooting.

Something a little different to post today.

Been light posting lately since things are starting to gear up for the winter months around here. Winter in Cincinnati is a strange breed. Sometimes things actually look like winter but for only a week at a time. Those that talk about global warming probably grew up here. LOL The only bad winter I can really remember was in '76 and I remember the snow drift that buried the front of my Dad's house. Other than that we tend to get hammered once or twice and the rest of the time its either trying to make up its mind or leaning towards summer.

I picked up a Chevy Tahoe for a parts car to repair my truck this past weekend. That has been taking up a lot of my time. I didn't 'Need' the repairs that I have been doing but 'parts is parts' right? So I took the powered seats out of the beast and installed them along with the center console in my truck. I am in the process right now of swapping the doors out. Mine are rather beat up and the hinge pins are worn out. I did purchase the new pins but the new doors actually have power windows that I have rigged to a bank of switches in the center console. I finished the Passenger door today before it started getting dark. Tomorrow is more of the same for me since we aren't working on any houses tomorrow.

The biggest reason I wanted the Tahoe is for the Differentials. The Guy I purchased the truck from swapped out the rear Axle and didn't match it to the front one. Because of that I have not been able to engage the 4X4 aspect of the truck. With winter coming up I really want that functional. Trucks aren't the greatest handling beasts in snow or slush and having all 4 tires under power can only help. As it stands though, this little truck impresses the shit out of me at least once a week. When I brought the Tahoe home the little V6 in her just purred away all the way to the drop sight. This engine has over 200 thousand miles on her and she still runs like a champ.

I only spent $500 for the original truck. The Tahoe was Free for the taking and other than my own time in the work I probably have only dropped $200 in parts since March. I am getting about 22MPG average. Why would I want to drop this truck for a new car with outrageous insurance premiums and about the same performance factor. I am recycling at its most root core and the Liberals that would whine about a hulk of a truck can kiss my country butt on this note. I like my truck.

On the Family side, the Granbehbie is learning to sing. LOL Loudly, off key, and unintelligibly, but she is really getting into it. She hasn't mastered the walk thing yet but she is getting there.
That was the good news, Bad news is my brother-in-law has new tumors in his femur now. They took him off the harder Chemo this week and are trying a lighter chemo more frequently. They are also trying Localized radiation for the newer tumors. All of this was discovered on Tuesday so time will tell how all of this pans out. If you are so inclined please put in a prayer for him and my Sister.
\

Couldn't say it better myself.

Side note. I am quite busy right now salvaging a truck from bits and pieces. Managed to grab onto a similar vehicle so that I can try to get another 60 or 70 thousand miles out of my redneck work truck. Rag on GM all you want they managed to get it right every once in awhile. My Little S10 is one of them. It towed a dead in the water SUV across town to the tune of 18 miles up and down hills. I didn't exceed 30mph but I also know the limits of my control while towing that kind of weight. The 2.8 is a great little V6 that in this case, has nearly 200,000 miles on it and just keeps going and going and going.

The next few weekends will be replacing the rear axle with the correct ratio one(the original owner changed it out for a higher ratio axle and that screws me up for the 4X4 part) swapping doors (ones bashed in and the other is falling apart) among many other little (mostly cosmetic) repairs. She has been a great little truck to me and I figure its time to return the favor some. (a bit more than basic maintenance)

Sunday Musings part: dunno

One thing that I really like about being a "jack of all trades,," (besides being self-sufficient) is being able to adapt an object and personalize it. Making something from scratch or modifying something for better performance (or just ease of use for your particular needs) is very self satisfying to me.

I have been looking at a bolt modification to the Mosin-Nagant over the last few weeks as I have been thinking about putting a scope on that rifle. (I freely admit my eyes aren't what they were in the 80's and early 90's) Unfortunately there has been a serious run on those at the website I buy most of my parts through. I hadn't liked the way the ATI modification looked. I wanted something as close the the original intent of this rifle.

SO, Looking at the modification that was done using a TIG welder I figured I could probably do the same thing with a MIG: just a little more grinding needed to polish out the product. After much internal deliberation I bit the bullet and broke out the cutting disk and hacked apart a perfectly good Mosey Bolt.(I can hear the Howls from some collectors now) I had a piece of solid stock steel in my 'bin' that measured .315" where the original measured .311"(wonder if there is a reason for that since the rounds are also .311")

Here is the end result of that and fitting pieces for the welding that is coming(my apoplogies for such a crap pic. My Flash decided it wanted the day off so I had to use a set up flashlights to illuminate the 'scene')

Trip out to the MIG and an hour worth of regrinding and some minor polishing up(more to come when I get a flap wheel for my Dremel) and THIS is the end result. (also notice that my Flash came back from whatever vaca it had gone on. I really need a new camera)

end result. Clearance for a scope mount, but more importantly easier cycling of the bolt while maintaining position with the cheekweld. Even if I don't go with a scope in the future I LIKE this modification. My neighbor asked if it 'devalued' the rifle and I had to think about that one for a minute. I don't think so. Maybe to a collector but these rifles tend to be pretty common and really cheap in comparison to a U.S. made rifle. I "re-valued" it to me though and I think that is more important than worrying about the monetary value. If this were a collectors item I wouldn't have even considered it.(and very probably wouldn't own it right now. Money is too tight to be owning collectibles. I buy tools I can use.)

P.S. I am not a C&R holder, I have thought about it but I tend to like modifying my guns so I just go through the usual channels.

Range Trip

Since my last range trip I made a couple of modifications to the SKS. I recrowned the barrel since I noticed that the end was slightly deformed when My Neighbor knocked it off its hanger. I noticed that it had changed in windage but hadn't equated it to any damage to the barrel.
The other modification was in the firing pin though that shouldn't effect the ballistics of the rounds. This mod is only to insure that I don't experience the notorious slam fire that the SKS is known for. I added a spring to the pin also to insure that it returns to nuetral position each time. Sorry, no picks since my camera completely sucks on close up picks. You wouldn't have been able to see anything meaningful anyway.

Goals for this trip. Insure that the rifle is functioning correctly first and foremost.
Second is to shoot 10-20 rounds of each type of Ammo that I have and compare the results. The reason behind this: to determine what type of ammo I will prefer.
I have available Hungarian Milsurp. Czechoslovakian Milsurp and Russian Wolf black box. I Can get any of the three fairly easily though the source comes and goes at times. I know that the Wolf ammo is not the greatest and I hope to prove that the actual milsurp stuff is better even though some of it is nearly as old as the rifle itself.(haven't yet had a Dud round that wasn't caused by me changing things in the rifle. lol )

So off to bed with me so that I can get an early start and get my shooting in before the range gets busy.