Another new toy to play with

So my tax money came back, and while most of it went to bills and savings, I allowed myself the luxury of one new toy.

Feast your eyes on the Super Sniper 10x42 scope, shown here attached to a Savage 110 Tactical, special limited left-handed edition.

I've had the rifle for over a decade, but until now, I've never done anything with it other than mount a cheap Tasco World Class scope on it and banish it to the back corner of the gun safe. I hadn't really seen a need for the rifle all these years but I bought it way back when just because it was a left-handed tactical rifle. I'd frequently said back then that if a company ever decided to make a left-handed tactical rifle in .308, I'd buy it. Well Savage eventually made a run of them back in the early 1990's and I snared this one. Of course back then, I wasn't much of a bolt-rifle shooter and didn't know a thing about optics, so the rifle just languished.





These days, I've got plenty of time to shoot but not a lot of extra cash to drop on new guns. I also need to re-think my own tactical scenarios since I'm arguably not as fast or agile as I once was. That up close and personal CQB stuff is better left to the younger folks, ideally those with two natural feet.

I can still play those games, mind you--former employers spent a lot of time and money training me to do just that and I haven't forgotten or stopped training--but I think that it's time to revamp my tactics around skills and equipment that give me the edge via distance.




Sure, I can hose bad guys off or cover whole areas from a distance with the Browning MG, but it's really not the handiest tool in the safe for most applications due to it's weight and rather voracious appetite and the requirement for an assistant or two to lug it's fodder and keep it in action. While the Browning has it's niche, I really need something a little lighter for routine distance shooting.




So the Savage is now out of mothballs and it's been topped with this professional-grade scope. It's a fixed-power 30mm scope that's currently seeing much use in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as here on the home front with numerous police department SWAT teams. It's got a mil-dot reticle and nice target turrets--a perfect compliment to this great police-grade rifle that Savage crafted.

I took it out to the range today to zero the scope, and once on paper and dialed in for the M852 military match round that I have a quantity of thanks to a generous Uncle Sam, I had no trouble putting three and four round groups on the 100M targets that could be covered with a half dollar. And it doesn't hurt that this rifle shoots the 7.62x51mm cartridge. Thanks to the aforementioned Browning, I've got tons of it that I can use for low-cost practice.

Me likey.

I'm still getting used to this new tool, but I see a lot of potential here, plus I get to learn a new aspect of shooting that goes beyond the basic iron sight skills. With this set-up, I can theoretically hit head-sized targets out to 500m and consistent torso-sized target hits out to 1000m if I do my part. I figure that this'll give me something to do for a while and help keep me out of trouble while I work on mastering some new techniques.


No Lagniappe. You ain't getting it. You'll just have to keep dealing with the neighbor's cats the old-fashioned way...by chasing them like normal dogs do.

Saved another old war veteran.

About a month ago, I stumbled across this thing in a local pawn shop.




The shop owner said that an old local used to use it to hunt deer, and when he died, his adult children brought it into the shop to get rid of. I recognized it right of way as a #4 Mk1 Enfield rifle made by the Savage Arms Company in Massachusetts. Back when the Second World War was getting started, Britain was desperately short of small arms (again) and they contracted with the Savage Arms Company to help them out. The only problem was that America was avowedly neutral--at least officially--at that time, and a 1939 act of Congress known as the Neutrality Act made it illegal for American companies to sell munitions to either side. However the Roosevelt Administration came up with a creative fiction known as the Lend Lease Act whereby we could loan US government supplies to the allies. As part of that fiction, these rifles--Enfield rifles made in the British caliber .303, neither of which were ever used by American forces--were manufactured, stamped "US Property" to prove that they were really only US gear, and loaned indefinitely to Britain.
When the war ended, we never asked for or wanted them back and they remained in British hands until they were declared obsolete and disposed of.


Some time between the end of the war and 1968 when imports of surplus foreign firearms into the United States were stopped, this one came over and was probably sold in some hardware store for a few dollars and subsequently butchered into a handy deer rifle by cutting the stock down, removing the handguards the front sight protector and the rear sight and mounting a new sight on the barrel. No doubt Bubba--or a succession of Bubbas--used it to fill the larder with deer over the decades and bestowed little to no care on it until it found it's way into this particular pawn shop some sixty-three years after the end of the war.

I wasn't really looking for another gun but the offered out-the-door price of $60 was too good to pass up on, especially as I knew that I already had a set of correct wood for this rifle at home, so I took it.

Once I got it home, I rooted out the old stock-set that I had for it--a four-piece, refinished set that contained some, but not all, of the required missing metal parts. A good cleaning revealed a bore that was actually pretty good, with sharp lands and grooves. The bolt turned out to have a serial number that matches the receiver too, and of course there is no unsightly import stamp on this rifle. Subsequent examination showed that the extractor spring was missing and had been replaced with a totally non-functional spring from who-knows-what. As usual with restorations, I needed about a dozen small bits and I had some scrounging to do.

Now here's were my luck ran bad. I checked with all of the dealers in surplus gun parts and no one dealer had all of the parts that I needed. Since they were all cheap, tiny parts, I didn't relish the idea of paying shipping costs for two or three separate orders, as by that time the shipping would have cost me more than the parts.

So I put out a call for help on a couple of websites set up for collectors of British guns and in less than a week, every little bit that I needed showed up in the mail from one collector or another. Who says that gun folks aren't the greatest people in the world, eh?

I just finished re-assembling the rifle after a complete rear-down and cleaning which included the removal of a lot of rust and accumulated grime. Modesty aside, I have to admit, it looks spectacular. You've seen the "before" pics. well here it is now.



As you can see, it's been put back to it's appropriate configuration again. The crude barrel-mounted rear sight is gone and the proper "L" 300/600 meter aperture once again sits in it's rightful spot. The stock set is correct again and the sling swivels, sight guard and barrel bands are all back where they should be.







The bolt has been disassembled and cleaned and a new extractor spring has been installed. Six decades after it's retirement, this old war horse is once again ready to hit Gold Beach at Normandy and begin another drive inland.



It always feels good to be able to rescue one of these historical old firearms and return it to it's proper condition. So many have been irreparably ruined over the years by conversion to hunting guns back in the day when these rifles had no collectors' value. And considering that this one only cost me sixty bucks and a few hours labor, mostly with some fine steel wool and a toothbrush, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

A range report will naturally follow just as soon as I get over this Bronchitis and am able to go out in the chill air again.