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  1. #1091
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Went to visit a band mate, our bandleader Lt Cmdr (Ret.) and while we were chatting my eye spied two books that looked like MIL-manuals tucked on a shelve where my multitrack recording computer usually is. My mate noticed my look and said "Oh yes, those are for you! I know they are way outdated, but you'll probably find them interesting."

    Oh but I do! Old manuals for military tactics are like reading Shakespeare to balance modern pop-culture. He's a great gentleman for sure.

    Nordic UN Tactical Manual vol 1 and 2 from 1992. Best digested as recreational entertainment



    Which brings me to another book I happened spy on my own bookshelf today, a book that made me remember something I made a promise of to a friend a year, or was it 16 months ago...


    One 1911 Shop Manual to rule them all:



    As per I recall, my friend said to me "now...you've been gunsmithing your 1911 triggers for...ever? So would you help me and put together my Para-Ordnance double stack? I've got all of them parts, I'll put them all into this pistol case with the pistol, is it OK?"

    I said to him "Sure, no problem. Done them plenty and I've got The Book to guide me if I'll get lost in the jungle." Cool, I took the pistol in its case, brought it home, put in in my safe and forgot the whole thing.

    Until today.

    Took the book from the shelf, openened the safe (yes, the pistol case was there where I left it), put the case on the table and opened it...

    Oh boy...



    Even if the trigger system parts are plentiful, none of them are actually new, so they have been fiddled with, maybe rendering them useless during the process, maybe not. Finding a combination which probably could be filed to correct alignments will take time and effort, but this may never even happen and I'll have to start from scratch again using new parts. My friend is, how to say this nicely... parsimonious at best, maybe even miserly with money, hence convincing him to buy new parts may take another 16 months...
    Or I'll just put the case back in the safe and pretend I know nothing of anything

  2. #1092
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    This is so funny, a days work and my high point of movie career is compressed in a just a few fleeting seconds...



    But then again, its our band's original music on an international motion picture. Yes, that's me playing the guitar...


    My cue is about 33:20.

  3. #1093
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    And now, Finnish winter sports special...kind of.

    I haven't been skiing for a long time, so I thought it might be wise to re-familiarize myself with the art for at least a few times and let my muscles adapt to a mode of travel rarely deployed in modern everyday life. The actual motivator is a forthcoming off-piste ski touring trip later next month or early April back at the surroundings of our hunting cabin next to the soviet Russia border.

    At first it's just the man and the skis without Bergen, soon I'll add a lightweight backpack with 20 kg load until I eventually go full retard with the big pack with the normal 50 to 60 kg of load a long gun included. For some reason I really like that new to me AR with its 3,2 kg mass...

    The weather was brilliant, temperature a tad over freezing but with a crisp breeze.


    It's been raining for a few days, so most of the snow has melted away, but the old folks knowledge states "Half of the winter's snow comes down on March", meaning there will be expected yet of another meter of snow...


    The realities of getting old and fat: to get my boots in the ski bindings was an actual struggle causing me to draw first sweat (very much comparable to drawing first blood, but usually much more frustrating). For some reason my belly seemed to be everywhere hindering my usually so running water-like fluid movements, my knees didn't want to bend as much as I would've liked them to, and for some peculiar reason my everything was repeatedly cramping making my obvious stiffness even more humiliating. Lucky me, my wife filmed the whole ordeal with her smartphone, so I can always come back to one of my most embarrassing hours ever


    The traditional Finnish wilderness rubber boots with removable felt lining are reinforced for the front binding and have a groove on the back of the heel for the heel strap which is actually a stiff coil spring.



    Re-familiarize myself with the art for at least a few times my arse. From now on it will be a daily hour or two of skiing until it really feels nice and easy again. Shouldn't take long. Right?

  4. #1094
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Late yesterday evening, after a couple of days of working like the proverbial dog with no time to eat or drink I felt like I needed to really relax. Booze? Sex? A good book? Wors? Listening to Vietnam war playlist with the obligatory Paint It Black and Fortunate Son?

    No.

    Tinker with guns!

    With my retro-vintage craze still utterly strong, I managed to find two more original items for my XM177E1 project: First model M16 pistol grip and the second generation, often referred as the first model CAR-15 collapsible stock from the 1960s. I had already installed the pistol grip, but yesterday I did manage to get me a proper (actually in spec!) mil-spec (*) carbine buffer tube which had small enough diameter for the original buttstock.


    The authentic brown speckled pistol grip from early to mid 1960s looks very purdy on the carbine...



    ...and so does the equally authentic aluminium buttstock.



    The only obvious to the eye anachronism left within this project is the castle nut which should be a lock ring with holes on the opposite sides of it, but they are more or less impossible to find in Europe and the US companies don't want to send them here. 9.90$ ITAR part isn't worth their effort I guess...

    The less obvious is the fact that Harvey Aluminum (CH marking) didn't produce upper receiver forgings to Colt until 1974 on, but then again the receiver design was immutable from the 1964 introduction of Colt XM16E1, the predecessor of 1967 M16A1 until the introduction of Diemaco C7 (Colt model 715) and M16A2 in 1982.



    (*) Mil-spec my arse... I so hate the misuse of that term, like a 'mil-spec trigger mechanism': if your AR won't shoot select fire, it ain't mil-spec. It's just got an AR15 compatible civilian FCG, military has nothing to do it.


    P.S. Now playing: Sympathy For The Devil...






  5. #1095
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Nice background music. Good to see you go retro on the AR. Come to think about it, I might be going a bit retro with my select fire Valmet M-76.

  6. #1096
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Nice to hear from you Tex, I was worried if the polar bears got the best of you

    The RK62 76 aka. M76 Valmet is an interesting part of Finnish assault rifle design (yes, the one Tex has IS by definition an assault rifle) since the riveting technology, as simple as it seems, proved to be a pain in the butt and Valmet ditched the design as way too expensive and hard to master. Now there's one thing with which the Soviets were better at compared to us Finns. The another one is: why don't Finnish assault rifles have chrome lined bore and chamber? Because back at Valmet they never learned how to do it keeping the given rifle accuracy parameters. Solution? Don't chrome the bloody barrel, replace it as it wears down.

    But really, your M76 is vintage/retro as its finest. One of my favourite carry assault rifles ever.

    Just the other day I made an inventory on my AR-family weapons and thought since I basically have now eight ARs of which three are full auto capable, maybe three of the lot may be kept as historic 60s to 80s vibe weapons while the others are dressed for modern combat

  7. #1097
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Got an SMS today. "The permit you have applied for is ready for you to collect from the Lohja Police Station". This time it took one month to the day to get my license for the AR, but then again there are more than usual pending applications for sporting and hunting guns in process right now

    Must be something in the air, or we the natives are growing restless...?



    Why so serious: a few years ago, a break by the campfire.

  8. #1098
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    After a days work, tasty and healthy dinner (yes, my wife cooked this time) and a moment of quiet solace, I yet again found myself contenplating what should have been and should be done to one of my ARs: let's correct an anachronism which is minor, but since if I've got them parts why not just do it.

    My 1996 Colt Match Target HB is one of those models that Colt self mutilated by not having a bayonet lug on the FSB nor a threaded barrel, so naturally the rifle didn't originally have a flash hider. A previous owner had the barrel threaded, very nice job and there has been a multitude of muzzle devices and suppressors attached to this barrel during the quarter of a century of metamorphoses this rifle has lived through. The last detail of its return to the original form is to use correct peel washers to index the A2 birdcage flash hider in lieu to the A1 version which was just tightened in its place using a lock washer. A double anachronism, which is almost an act blasphemy.



    The barrel vise is an obligatory investment for an AR builder.




    It took four peel washers (two number ones and two number twos) to correctly index the flash hider. Now it lines up nicely with the FSB.




    A Vintage Colt Trio Ready to deliver the Rhythm and Beat and the Rock and Roll...




    In the early days when there were no low profile gas blocks nor flattop upper receivers available, the norm was to mutilate SP1s and SP2s to cope with the actual and perceived needs of IPSC sport shooting. That said, I'm extremely happy I kept the components of my Match Target intact and I never had the chance to buy an SP1 which eventually might have been mutilated beyond recognition while seeking the essence of the perfect tactical carbine. Instead I started to build my carbines from scratch which was both interesting and utterly rewarding on many levels...
    ...one of which is the fact that I didn't destroy any artifacts during the process

  9. #1099
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Friday after a hell week of work. Still have some things on the to-do list, but I'm almost there. Meanwhile a slight deviation from the day job: Moska The AK had a slight nose job done in a form of a new lighter E-LOK upper section of the Value Manufacturing ltd handguard.

    Dis good.




  10. #1100
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    Default Re: Meanwhile back in Finland...

    Very nice

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