Yesterday, I drove back over to Cabela's in Post Falls, ID and took another look at the RC Mausers.
In the meantime, I'd had over a week to think about them. This time, I wasn't as much in love with them. I looked at every one, prob. about 30 or more guns. A few were $300, many were $400, and some were $500. There wasn't much difference in condition within that range of prices. I walked out without buying one.
The one piece I could have been serious about buying was the G29-40 but it was the one rifle that was gone from the line-up. Quite possibly due to my earlier post about these guns but maybe not. You don't have to go to Post Falls to buy from Cabela's; they will sell over the phone and ship to a transferring FFL. Since my initial infatuation with these rifles had cooled, I don't know that I would've had any more love for the G29-40 anyway. However, I should know better to blab about something I'm still considering buying and haven't yet purchased.
About 35 years ago, I had a friend whom I used to trade guns with, go to gun shows with, etc. One day I was in a pawn shop and found a military Remington 700. It was a Parkerized .308. I don't remember what markings were on it, but it had a short action and a fat barrel, plain stock. At the time, I lived in a navy town and I assumed that it had come to the pawn shop (located on "Sailor Row") from a sailor or marine.
Anyway, I had looked at the rifle, then that evening I called this friend and we were discussing it. The next day, I took off on my lunch hour to buy the rifle and when I got to the pawn shop, you guessed it, the rifle had been sold that morning. I asked the owner for a description of the buyer and he described my friend. That evening when I called him, he admitted he'd run down and bought the rifle and said, "Well, that's how it is in gun collecting." We didn't go to the gun shows together after that.
Later in my life, I've become more circumspect on buying guns. I try to resist the impulse of the moment. That way I have a chance to evaluate whether the impulse is a passing fancy or an abiding interest. I'm a lot more cautious and this certainly works against the gun show ethic where hesitation for a minute can mean you won't get the gun. But I don't care that much any more. More guns come along. Also, now that fairly common guns that used to sell for $150 to $200 now are priced at $500 and up, that alone is enough to give pause for reflection.
On the way over to Post Falls, I stopped at High Mountain guns in Moses Lake, WA. One of the things they had in their racks was a Walther G.43. You don't see one of those out in the racks very often. Back when I was about 17 years old, I owned two of these. I'm not their greatest fan. One time, I took the better of the two G.43's out to the desert for some shooting. While I was banging away, the safety selector switch located on the back of the receiver flew off. I didn't notice this precisely, but saw something moving near my eye and briefly brought the rifle down to a kind of modified port arms, trying to figure out what I'd seen. While I was looking down on the rear of the action, suddenly the bolt and slide assembly popped up and under spring tension went flying back out of the action and over my shoulder, landing in the sand behind me. The bolt buffer spring guide was supposed to be held in place by two metal dowels on the end piece of the guide but the displacement of the safety switch caused the guide to come out somehow. The safety switch is held in place with a snap ring and any irregularities in the receiver (looked like a casting to me with lots of crude surfaces) would cause the ring not to stay in place.
Yes, the G.43 was a semi-automatic rifle and in design was an improvement over the bolt action K98k. However, all the G.43's were made in 1944 and 1945 and subject to material inconsistencies, involuntary labor, and dull tools. Consequently, they weren't that good of a rifle in practice. A bolt action rifle that works is superior to a semi-auto that doesn't, I'm thinking.
My dad was stationed at Moses Lake Army Air Field in WW2 during one of his training phases. Thereafter, he always referred to it as "Moses Hole." It's still a very flat, dry, bleak place. He practiced flying single engine fighters there, specifically the Bell P-39, before he went on to fly twin-engine fighters. The P-39 is the one with the Allison engine behind the pilot, turning a driveshaft that went between the pilot's feet up to the prop. The cockpit was accessed via car-type doors hinged on the side of the fuselage.
Just in round numbers, about 9,000 P-39's were built during WW2; about half went to the Russians, who appreciated the type more than we did. Many of the planes shipped to Russia went across the Atlantic, via Iran or Murmansk in northern Russia. However, some were sent via Alaska to eastern Russia. Many of these were picked up by Russian ferry pilots in Alaska and flown across. Later in the war, the Russian ferry pilots would get their ride to Alaska by way of flying tired, veteran P.39's to pick up new ones. At Moses Lake AAF, the P-39's that the Army Air Forces trainees were flying were trade-ins that had come back from Russia by way of Alaska. My dad commented on the planes having many patched bullet holes in the aluminum skins. Several pilot trainees crashed due to mechanical failure in these well-worn P-39's while my dad was there in mid-1944.
I also stopped in Spokane on this trip, and hit all the major gun dealers. Things change over time. The old Gunatorium is long gone. Businesses come and go. Now the biggest gun dealer over there is a three store chain of pawn shops called Double Eagle Pawn, and their store on E. Francis has a huge selection of used guns. There are a few types I'm always on the look-out for, just because. One such is a Remington Model 760 (76, 7600). I wouldn't mind having one in .35 Remington. At Double Eagle, they must've had 25 in one rack, but no .35's. Nearly all .30-06's. I think Rem. must've made them in an approximate ratio of 1 .35 Rem to 500 .30-06's.
One common thread in all of these shops was, no Smith & Wesson revolvers. Very hard to get, new ones cannot be ordered. Authorized S&W dealers cannot get anything. They pull up the site and all they can get is the .327 Federal magnum, which is a very, very slow seller and I'm guessing that the guns in stock were made three years ago.
Another common thread is a bazillion .45 automatics. I don't think there will every be a shortage of them again, so many different companies are making them.
The shortages we are seeing presently are a big challenge to stocking dealers. One said he was getting about 10% of what he ordered. Sure, it was great for a while when they were selling out their shelves. Now, they cannot get more stuff to sell. Ammo especially. Where does it all go? CCI/Speer in Idaho are making millions of 22 LR cartridges a day but where are they all going? You can't find them on store shelves. Where do all the new Smith & Wesson revolvers go? I don't know; maybe the eastern distributors get them all first and that's why we don't get any out west now.
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