New things on the horizon

I recently acquired a Mauser made P-38.  This was the German sidearm in World War II.  It uses 9mm Luger ammunition and has an 8 round magazine.  The insides are similar to a Beretta in the sense that it has a wedge shaped locking block, but the dual recoil springs are unique.

In my hands it feels pretty natural unlike the Romanian TT33 I used to own.  However, the double action trigger pull is about the worst I have ever felt ever.  The single action trigger pull is much more manageable.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet.

I also picked up a 1934 Izhevsk Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifle.  This is my second Mosin rifle.  This one has a hex receiver and a very clean bore.  It also has a laminate stock and enough cosmoline to preserve 6 rifles lodged inside of it. 

I am not sure if I am going to attempt to scope it or put mojo peep sights on it like I did with my other Mosin rifle.

A coworker of mine does welding and I discussed the idea of him turning down and welding my bolts as well.  There are a lot of options and since 77 million of these rifles were made, they are cheap and you don't even have to feel bad about any modifications.

For anybody not aware, the Mosin rifle uses the 7.62x54R cartridge which is almost equivalent to a 30.06 cartridge.  Surplus ammo is still cheap (440 rounds for ~100$).  The ammunition is jacketed soft steel core ammo.  This caliber is still seen on battelfields.

I had a dream the other night that zombies (yes I know ZOMBIES?) were swarming my house and slowly finding there way in.  Only me and my girlfriend were left alive and in a hurried panic we took all of our guns out and began to load them as fast as possible.  Unfortunately, both of my large caliber rifles (I only had 1 Mosin at the time of the dream) have a 5 round capacity and are not magazine fed rifles.  It occurred to me that I could not load my rifles fast enough to deal with the impending doom that was beginning to stress the door which was my last line of defense.  I woke up right as the door began to give in.

When I woke, my mind began to race and I realized I needed something magazine fed.  But I also wanted a bolt action rifle as I am partial to them.  For that matter, there were a lot of other features I always wanted on one rifle.

I wanted controlled feed.  Who knows when I might need to take a shot while hanging upsidedown or something (yes there is a bit of sarcasm in there)?

I also wanted peep sights.  The first time I used peep sights, I was hooked.  They are so intuitive.  It is no wonder military weapons use them.

I wanted all of this in one package chambered for .308 Winchester or 30.06.   My initial search turned up only a few options.  Usually iron sights were an afterthought.  Magazine capacity was relatively low as well.

Then I stumbled onto the Ruger Gunsite Scout.

This carbine style rifle is chambered in .308 only and comes with a 10 round detachable steel magazine.  It has a threaded barrel with a flash suppressor and a forward rail as well as a drilled and tapped receiver which can accomodate a scope if you are willing to remove the rear sight.  It is based off of Ruger's model 77 action which is based on a Mauser action.

I put my order in for one and am now in that excited waiting phase.  However, I am not too excited that extra magazines are 70$!  I also would have preferred a wooden stock, but the stock it comes with actually isn't that bad.  I have a Martin Alternative X guitar which has almost the same patterning on the neck.

Hopefully I will remember to do a full review of it when it finally arrives.