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Musings of an old reloader


R.L.

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After the wife thoroughly pissed me off the other night, I decided to descend to the gun/reloading room for some decompression time. Yea, I'm sure none of you have had or have this occasional domestic problem, but after doing the marital dance 4 times now, the bliss ain't what it once was...but what is? 

Might have a little to do with me being just a bit cantankerous. I believe it's a mans God given right to be cranky when necessary after 64. How ya like that feminazi's??

About 1/2 of my entire downstairs is dedicated to everything gun related. about 1K sq ft. packed to the gills with gun stuff. Was even worse with the 30+ machinguns I had before selling them off over the last 2 years.

The wife thinks it hoarding, I call it measured and organized pandemonium. If she doesn't touch anything, I know where everything is. Moving my shit in this house is a guaranteed donnybrook.  That's a whole new conversation for another day...anywho. Just leave my stuff alone, and everything will be ok!!

With over 50 years of collecting, shooting and reloading, I've accumulated a pretty nice library of reloading books along the way. Some date fro the early to late 50's all the way up to the latest 2017 Berger, Speer, Hornady and Lyman books.

Yea I shoot the latest stuff, .416 Barrett, .50bmg, .338 Lapua. Tikka's, TRG's and Steyr's in the latest chamberings with S&B, Nightforce scopes.

There is still a strong latent attraction for me to the old stuff. John Unertl scopes, barrel block mounting, Strongback sleeves to stiffen actions, fiberglass beded wood stocks....antiquated tech for sure, but memorable tech. Tech from my time.

The old books are quite colorful look great on the shelf, but rarely in say the last 15 years have I looked at any of these reloading books. Tonight I figure is a good night to pass some time and read some of this older material. 

Talk about personal time travel.... the late fifty's was my time. Man this is GREAT! I'm loving this, reading about all of this olde4 stuff brings back so many good memories.

Bench rest matches, ground hog shooting in Pa. My first custom .22-250 with a Sako 591 action, Unertl ultra varmint scope with barrel block mounts, Canjar single set trigger.

I also remember most of these long gone cartridges....220 Swift, .219 Zipper, .218 Mashburn Bee, .250-3000. I actually owned some of these, with the .220 Swift being my favorite.

Like other older people I associate many things I did with the various times of my life. Reloading and guns have been the major focus of my life, for most of my entire life. Reading about these old cartridges brought back so many old and very pleasant memories. I also found some hand written letters, one from a major icon associated with the gun cleaning accessories, John Dewey. Yeps that's right a hand written letter to me from John Dewey.

I opened an old Weatherby catalog I've had for decades, catalog # 1 from about 1958, and guess what I found? A hand written letter from Roy Weatherby Sr.!! Yea, it might not be that big a thing for some, but this was better than opening presents at Christmas for me! It takes so little to amuse me these days.

The other thing lurking in the background after all this reminiscing is the stark reminder of how old I am now and how in the hell did I get to be almost 65 this fast.

FWIW,

R.L.

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  • 3 weeks later...

FRANKLY, I replied to this just so you know SOMEBODY noticed it. NICE STORY LINE and you brought back some good memories along with a few bad. you mentioned the wife and one time was bad enough then you had to do it some more. I did that thing 2 times and that was one too many. got it right the first time , she just didnt know it. seems like at your age, you would know that only "half of the downstairs" is only halfway and you should have gone ALL the way?  IT WAS GREAT to know that someone is still around that played with all the old stuff and can still remember it, it allowed me to go back in time and enjoy it again. finding the note from DEWEY and WEATHERBY had to hit home and make you think about others that went in the trash I'm sure. it made me think back to the days on the back porch at VAL FORGET'S place as a young man busting caps with MELVIN JOHNSON while MR WILLIAMS leaned on the rail with that never ending cigarette hanging from his lip, or watching GORDON try a mag dump with his latest brainstorm. as I get older I find it hard to recall those things on demand. but they do "pop in" when something sparks a recall. of ALL the things taught me as a young lad, I regret that that old English tradition of a daily log was not passed on to me. again just to confirm someone noticed. cheers mike

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Thanks Mike.

I'm 4X into it for now. If this one doesn't work I'm outta time anyway.

Yep the good ol' days really were good, at least for some of us. Trials and troubles too back then, but nothing like today.

Sometimes it's hard to appreciate the moment, at the time. I realize that now 50 years later.

Nice hearing from you.

 

Bob L.

AKA known as R.L.

and Welsh Warrior

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The good ol days were great, but if the truth be known, I'd love to be a bit over 30 again. Gettin' old really sucks! Enjoy your youth. I kinda' pissed mine away going through wives ,overseas work, and poor decisions. But I got stories...lots and lots of stories.

 

FWIW,

R.L.

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WELL I have a LOT more to say about ALL of it. but there is not enough room.   MY #2  ? everyone has there own pers taste, all ican say about her here is they were long , it was round and it cycled smooth as a COLT 21.  she was younger than my daughter and gave me 10 perfect years , only cost me 3.5 mill or so. its been so long since I have touched anything soft or without grease at times I think it was worth it.  this is not a GENTS SITE so enough of that. lets share some more old gun stuff. when I was 12 yrs old, I met J-CURTISS EARLL for you "young guys" that don't know, he was the foremost class 3 dealer in the U.S. and advertised in all the major mag's  with the header "DO YOU WANT TO OWN A MACHINE GUN" he never had less than 500 guns in stock when I showed up. while he knew the value and history . he had no idea how/ why they worked or how to take them apart. I DID ! and from day one maintained them, packed sold units and traveled to all the shoots with him. there are folks out there that repeat bad tales of him they heard from "somebody" and they are NOT TRUE! 99% of it came from jealousy .  It was a real privilege to be on the MARANA firing line with the likes of DOLPH GOLDSMITH, GORDON INGRAHM, EUGENE STONER and all the KEYSTONES of the recreational machine gun community. I know its not nice to speak ill of the dead but when all those men with impeccable human personality's are remembered, the bad seed has to show his face.          IE; PETER KOKALIS, at my age it was best to hang in the shadow and listen and he went against the grain from day one. try to find and view the LAS VEGAS SOLDIER OF FORTUNE CONVENTION machine gun shoot video and you will see what I mean. its 7:30 am and sadly I have to drive 12 miles to the other side of the ranch where the vault is and test fire a MG-34 that I put a DANISH 308 conversion in this morning. may try the BREDA 30 again if I have time so to coin another old phrase from days gone by TOODLE LOO !

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On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 9:29 PM, Shortbarrelpete said:

Im on number two but have no doubt she'll be the last, one way or the other! I can't wait to be old, I already hate kids walking through my yard, like things the way they used to be, prefer "terms no longer used", and use 'hep cat' every chance I get ha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Khrut27Gg
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  • 5 weeks later...

GOTTA  ADD another CURT EARLL anecdote to the pail that just "popped" back into my head , while we ALWAYS got along and in all the years only had ONE heated incident between us. he was the most demanding self centered human being I have ever encountered and managed to give more than one shot at me. when he called and asked for something or to go somewhere all you could do was GO or DO. besides women and guns,his MAIN FETISH was VANILLA PUDDING of all things and he loved it from my wife at the oddest times by the GALLON. he lived apprx  35  inter city miles from me and day light travel was congested , at least 1hr+ behind the wheel one way and difficult with no joy for sure. one sunday afternoon he calls asked what I was doing  then demanded my wife take the phone and he "placed his order". If I didn't black out in anger it was danged close, but I watched as my wife started dragging out the makings.  all the way over in my truck I had decided to cut loose on him and let my feelings about this whole thing come out but anger kept taking hold and I was changing shape. when I arrived the transition had completed my forehead was fully extended and I could hardly hold on to the container my claws were so long.  I didn't even knock just charged right in the door, he was sitting at the kitchen table and I roared HERE'S YOUR G*^$&*$#D PUDDING! and slammed it on the table forcing quite a bit out the lid. he just jumped back and started laughing. it continued an he almost fell from his chair. when he started to regain some control at first all he could do was point behind me. finally he said ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS SHARE THAT WITH YOU because I KNEW you wouldn't believe me if I just told you! when I turned around there stood 2 of the most gorgeous amazons standing at the sink you can imagine totally naked except each had on a skimpy apron. all I could do is sit, stare and stammer.  when all the smoke cleared, he calmly explained that they  had arrived in a limo unannounced with a note from HUGH HEFNER TO ENJOY! for a couple days. they were in fact current "BUNNY'S" that lived in the mansion full time. maybe not that great a tale but I would suspect a rare action from MR HEFNER for anybody much less a grouchy old butt hole machine gun dealer.  

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