A Father's day exchange!

[Guest Hemo]

So my family celebrates birthdays on holidays because that's when it's easiest to get everyone together. Last week was my grandfather's 90th and he is 78%(random nyumber but he doesnt remember many people aside from his daughters) consumed by Alzheimer's so we went to his house to make things easier on him. He was in WW2 with the 81st army division at Peleliu. After they got finished up on the islands he came home with a Arisaka type 38 cavalry carbine. As we were getting ready to leave one of those great summer storms rolled in so we all sat around watching some Hogan's Heroes with my grandfather waiting for it to pass, when my aunt came up to me and told me that the family was going to be clearing some of the stuff out of his pool room and that it was ok for me to go put the rifle and bayonet in my car.

Sadly I was one of the first people to slip his mind when he started showing signs of the disease. I never was old enough (or not #@%$# head kid enough) to really talk to him about his time in the war, but his rifle he brought back sure has a lot of old wounds. You can see where the stock was cracked and repaired. Granddad never would talk about the war much (his children were 3 daughters that he was very protective of) but from stories from one of his friends that wound up managing a couple of his buisnesses, that crack could have been from last ditch efforts (ala club style.)

Well when we got back to my parent's place to do our fathers day...I proudly walked in with a Marlin 1895 guide gun for my dad that I had been working over for a few months waiting for Father's day weekend. When he looked at me and said," you know I love that you have bought me so many guns (my gift of choice I guess lol) but I'm going to give you a few of mine because I have a few ordered and I need to make room untill I get another safe brought in." I really didn't know what to expect.

He came back with his arms full. I got a old Santa Fe Enfield mk.1 that had been sporterized by Golden State Arms, which isn't special all by it's self, but it was the gun my dad shot his first deer with when he was 14! Plus another Enfield, and a unfired, still in cosmoline Norinco SKS.

They cleaned up wonderfully. Suprisingly the Arisaka's bore looks brand new after about 60 patches went down her throat. I have a trip planned to take the Arisaka and the Mk.1 to a smith for a "better than I have the space, tools, etc" cleaning and inspection. I would love to take the Arisaka out to the range, but I want a smith to tell me that 0 harm will be done to it. Side note to that, I'm getting into reloading as my father gave me his reloading gear that he had just for those .303s. So I should be able to get some mild loads for the Arisaka sometime down the road.

I just thought I would share. I built myself a custom .223 bolt gun not long ago, and for some reason that firearm just doesn't seem to keep me grinning like these that have so much history!

[Guest Hemo]

I have no idea how this got double posted way after the original was up. Sorry. Mods, delete away.