Great unadvertised deal on M 91/30 @ Dunham's!

[Guest bcgib]

I've been thinking about adding an M 91/30 to my collection for a while - figured it'd be a interesting piece of history to have not to mention an inexpensive shooter given the readily available cheap spam cans of 7.62x54r. They've been a little sparse to find at the local shops near me in Columbia (other than the beat to #ell one at Franklin Gun Shop that's way, way overpriced at $229) and I've been getting a little antsy as I've also noticed that they usual online dealers, Bud's and AIM Surplus, have been slowing down and on my last several visits they've only had the laminate models available at $159.99. So, I was excited when I noticed the Dunham's circular in today's Sunday paper advertised a 2-Day Sun/Sunday sale on non-laminate stock models for $79.99 - not bad since the cheapest they normally put them on sale for is $89-99 - figuring they must have finally gotten a good supply back in to run the special I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger, so to speak, and pick one up.

Unfortunately they were completely out of the $79.99 stock and although they are giving out rainchecks they apparently have such a backlog of folks with the rainchecks from the past few sales that they anticipated it'd be several weeks before their supply catches up with the rainchecks they've already given out. However, much to my surprise they are marking down the nice laminate stock models they have on-hand and offering an unadvertised price as a customer makegood on the nice laminate models they have in stock today & Monday 3/19 (supposedly this is the case at all the stores as since they had to have the circulars printed and inserted before they realized they'd have no stock again)! They are selling the laminate stock models for only $99.99 - marked down from $159.99 (they have an advertised discount of $25 but the added $35 is only for the folks who ask!!).

So, I'm thrilled that I picked up a 1934 Izhevsk, Hex reciever for $119.24 out the door with tax and background! It's clearly an arsenal refinish as the serials are forced matched along with a beautiful laminate stock but otherwise the finish is great and the bore is spotless with great lands/grooves and has not been crowned. Before an FFL fee Bud's normally has them at $109 for a standard stock (cash discount price) and AIM Surplus is 119ish for a hex receiver - so I'm really happy with my deal!

Thought I'd pass on the info in case any of you want to try and get in on the action Monday...at least as far as the Columbia store is concerned they had several on hand - including a handful with hex recievers and a1933 Tula Hex although the bolt was really tough to close, more so than what seems to usually be the case with the sticky ones, so I passed on it - plus I really liked the hammer & sickle markings on the one I picked up.