When truth doesn't matter...

The FN Five-Seven. It's an odd gun, not quite strange enough to have me leaping at it but strange enough that I look at it in the eyes of acquisition every so often (then I try the trigger, but that's another matter).

Now I *need* one, and badly so; why?

Because the Queens, NY district attorney had revealed that it's capable of *time travel*. Ooooooooh! Now I've got to detail strip one the next time I get my hands on one, I've *got* to discover what method of relativistic space-bending it involves in a handgun that's only around nine-hundred dollars*!

*That's a crack at all the people who think this is the "favorite of street thugs and muggers", who are all, if armed, likely carrying their neighbor's grandad's .38S&W or a $99 Zincomatic.

Whoops.

As per tuesday, it seems my No5Mk1 has a leetle problem.



Can you spot the problem in the picture? :) I'm happy I still have my vision... the gas handling worked well enough that I didn't even know the first shot had seperated; I ran the bolt back and was surprised when nothing came out and this little stub of brass rattled down on top of the magazine. Looking closely, I do believe the barrel isn't screwed into the reciever all the way.

The colt official police (ca. 1956) that I jsut got has a bad timing issue, it's jumping the bolt on three cylinders when pulled in double action. Frankly I just think it's gunked up under the bolt cam or the star or has some burrs... but I could be wrong, and I don't know enough about colt's DA revolvers to venture inside the frame.

So, both are getting dropped off in, oh, 20 minutes or so at CCA to let wiser heads prevail. Sometimes even doctors need specialists :)

On a brighter note, due to the "closet lock" project I have a length of aluminum bar that's 1/8" thick and fairly soft... if I can consolidate what's in my head onto paper, I may use it to make a mechanism mockup for a single action striker for a pistol, with safety.

Sometimes it's not all mackerel and roses

Tuesday at Tam's was a blast, literally and figuratively.



Those two, I whipped up around or just before midnight the night before. 3" bore and 7' length, and 2" bore and 52" length. They've got a near-perfect 1.5:1 chamber to bore volume, and I only made a mild materials error in that while rushed to grab stuff before Lowe's closed at 10 I got 3 and 4" cellular core non-pressure rate PVC, so I was intending to shoot light loads or empty for noise (it was the 4'th after all).

At the end of the night, I'd managed to get some feeble wheezes out of the 2" one and one good low-pressure burn with a muffin (er, ask McAdamSandwich on that) that launched 40' or so.

I have no idea what went wrong at this point, but I think my fuel delivery methods are suspect and I couldn't get it "lean" enough. I was using starter fluid at first and then moved on to cylinder butane, and I don't think I was fast enough with the latter to get the right amount. I'm not sure. Could also be that I was using touch-hole style flame ignition because I didn't have time to rig up a proper electrical system.

I also discovered that my No5Mk1 Enfield has a jug chamber when it blew a casehead on me on the first shot, and when testing almost did the same ont he second.

But, to make it all better:


These arrived today, and I'm rather happy about that :) That's an early 50's S&W M&P five screw and a 1956 Colt Official Police. The S&W seems in perfect working order, but the Colt jumps lock on three cylinders. It may be due to old grime though, there's some deposits in the locking lugs and around the star, and I hesitate to ponder what's inside the frame.

When I'm done with these I'll have two nice shooters... they aren't collectible by any means (except maybe the Colt since it's on a Marshal frame, i.e. "round butt") and they're heavily worn, 50% by my guess. So I figure I'll get them working right and practice with them, work on my .38 loading, and have handy conversation pieces... both belonged to the NYPD at first and them Yonkers race track in NY.

Ah, wonderful history :)

Can I keep'em!? Pleeeease!

Two more rifles followed me home like pitiful forlorn puppies the other day, a Swiss K-31 and a Steyr-Mannlicher M.95 .

I would show pics but the cellphone is as fuzzy as a three day bender and the Olympus is AWOL and not taking much better photos. It may be time to invest in a nice SLR digital and a macro lens...

but, what I *did* work on, is clearing the master bedroom of my house out (I use the smaller bedroom, how's that for devotion) to use as an office slash gun room. Gun ROOM! Yeehaw. I've got my very own dedicated, well-lit, 10x14 space for nothing but guns, computers, and money matters. Now *that* is a home office, ladies and gentlemen. And, once I get done with another little project here it'll have it's own "gun closet" with double-locking sliding metal doors. No fire protection, but my little darlings will be safe and sound :-D

At this point it's fairly obvious that I'm single, right?