A Curious Thing.

Taurus' take on Beretta

Come Easter Monday and, if you're me, it's time for some R&R. So I drove back to the Dallas compound, grilled hamburgers for a few friends and browsed Bachman Pawn and Gun. BPG is on North West Highway and has a good rep, evidently, with Law Enforcement and shooters generally. More of a handgun  shop than anything else, but there were a few Beretta shotguns on the wall.

After checking out the pistols (I want a "9" and a .22) I cast a beady eye at the shotguns. They weren't cheap, over and unders mostly, coming in at around 3k. But here's the thing -- their "hand rubbed" finish was OK, but only just. You could see a fair bit of open grain on the butt and forends.

I was surprised. At 3k you're not going to get at 10k gun, but still, you'd think the grain on the stock would be filled, at least. 

just fill the grain, LSP

This inspires me with confidence for my own project guns.

More of that later. In the meanwhile, check out BPG if you want a Dallas pistol alternative to Rays. Less comedic gunnishness from the staff (whaddaya mean you don't want an AR? Aren't you a Patriot, dammit?!), which is a minus, but better prices and selection. Just don't go there looking for a big selection of rifles, or, er, properly finished shotguns.

Keep pulling the trigger,

LSP

Happy Easter

Exhausted now from the rigours of Holy Week but...

Wishing you all a joyous Easter.

Christ has risen, Alleluia!

LSP

Holy Saturday

The Body of Jesus is laid in the Tomb and the Tabernacles are empty of the Presence, even in some of the Anglican variants of the Mystical Body of Christ, militant here on earth.

Bishop Guest, the 16th century author of Article XXVIII on the Lord's Supper, had this to say about the sacrament of the Altar. The communicant does "take Christ's Body in his hand, receive it in his mouth, and that corporally, naturally, really, substantially and carnally..." but does not "see it, feel it, smell it or taste it." As Dom Gregory Dix reminds us, "It would be hard for anyone to be more explicit than that in asserting the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament." (The Question of Anglican Orders)

Despite this, more than a few Anglicans sit light to sacramental reality, taking their cue from the late medieval skeptics of the Reformation. For them, the Eucharist is at best a reality because we think it so and at worst an empty symbol of self-referencing belief.

smash it up

Perhaps it's no accident that the Northern European write-off of sacramental givenness was followed by a near total subjectivization of all spiritual value.

Lord, forgive us for the many blasphemies committed against your holy Sacrament.

LSP

Good Friday

I wish I could say that Good Friday, and the Triduum in general, somehow become easier as the years go by. But the reverse is true; as our consciences become increasingly alive to the weight of wickedness, so too do we realize our part in the crucifixion. Fortunately Easter is just over the horizon.

As always, Austin Farrer speaks well to this:

EVERYTHING that is true of Christ's body is true of us in some manner. He gives us his body that we may become his body. Christ's body died on the cross, he also rose. The resurrection is ours, but the death also is ours. Many men, at the last challenge, have consented to be martyrs, and set their bodies aside. But Christ's passion was no more than the last expression of what he had done all his life. He had set his body aside whenever its demands conflicted with man's need or God's will, and so he had rehearsed his death continually; not morbidly, but with joy and self-forgetfulness. We have many opportunities so to rehearse our death, and how steadily we reject them! Our bed, our chair retains us when we should get up and pray; fleshly delights of act and imagination, some by no means innocent, hold us from following better inspirations. Our own pleasure comes before our neighbour's, vanity before sympathy. How will it be when rehearsals are over, and we have to act our part, to put our bodies finally off, that we may possess God? If Christ offers us up with his own death in this sacrament, it is that we may die a voluntary and daily death, and merit a daily resurrection.

How will it be when rehearsals are over? 

Pray for mercy.

LSP

Maundy Thursday

Tonight we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper and we watch before the Sacrament as Christ's disciples were asked to watch with Our Lord while he prayed in the garden before His betrayal by Judas. I like this short meditation and prayer by Marianne Dorman.

"On this most holy night, let give me sincere thankfulness for the Blessed Sacrament which fills me with Your life each day, and may I always come to the Altar prepared to receive Love, and take Love out into the world. 

As I watch with You during the silent hours of this night let Your sufferings and grief penetrate to my inner self, so I can share something of what You endured for me and all mankind, what Deitrich Bonhoeffer called ‘costly grace’. I adore You O Christ, and bless You, because by Your cross You have redeemed the world. Amen."

Being a mission priest, I had two Masses this evening, separated by a drive, which meant refueling the truck. By way of conversation I asked the cashier where he was from. "Nepal," he said and I replied, "Gurkha!" 

gurkha

At which he started running on the spot while making great chopping movements with his right hand, in imitation of his knife wielding countrymen.

We saluted each other smartly and went about our business. It's all going on in the countryside, I tell you.

Every blessing for the Triduum.

LSP

Sporterizing the Lee Enfield - Porch Project Pt. VI

I've been told, by a notable outdoor blogger, that the recent spate of tornadoes were caused by my "boss" being angry at me for running off to the range instead of focusing on the Lee porch project. Rather than risk the wrath of God and his messenger, I applied grit to metal.

The bolt looked nasty, covered in chipped black paint and generally dinged about, but that was soon fixed by steady application of 150 - 600 grit, followed by burgers on the grill and some company around the rarely used dining table.

clamp 'n vise

Bolt seen to, it was back to the barreled receiver. The barrel had been polished to 400 grit and had to advance to 600 in order to achieve a uniform finish with the receiver and newly shiny bolt. Wouldn't want the thing to appear two-tone, for goodness sake.

shine

So I rigged up a small vise and clamp arrangement on the porch and got to work, which wasn't easy because half the congregation took the opportunity to swing by and visit. But I like that; far better than skulking away in an office pretending to be an "administrator". No danger of that when you're polishing gunmetal -- on the porch. You'd be surprised at how much pastoral work gets done that way instead of gazing numbly at a monitor. You can pray, too.

In a fit of enthusiasm, read the book, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and polish the whole business to 1000 grit. I thought it looked good, shining like a light saber in the sun. 

Next step? Refinish the trigger guard, attach new front and rear sights (tempted by a 2 leaf express) and blue. In the meanwhile, order some wood and finish the nearly done butt stock.

God bless,

LSP

Used Scopes

I like iron sights and, for the most part, that's what I use when I shoot. Still, I'm always on the look out for affordable optics, so I was pleased when a local gun shop gave me a couple of used scopes to try out. A Burris Fullfield II 3x9x40 and an old Universal 4x32; if I liked them and they worked -- $50. If not, return them and no harm done.

Burris

I mounted the glassware up on the AR to dial in and test, getting on paper from 25 yards. At first the Universal did well, grouping nice and tight but a few inches to the left of point of aim. No problem, adjust windage right by the relevant amount, get nicely on target then pull back to zero in at 50 yards. Easy, isn't it? Think again.

60 frustrated rounds and a significant amount of tape and Sharpie later, I discovered that this piece of Japanese rubbish wasn't going to work. Off with the "scope", flip up the Magpul back-up and unload a couple magazines at a steel plate turkey. Turkey down, I headed for home.

wrath of God

The next day it was time to test out Reverend Burris. The Fullfield did just fine; on paper quickly and zeroed at 100 yards. Why at 100? Because that's pretty much the maximum length of the range and I was just messing about to see if it worked. I won't trouble you with the ballistics of 5.56 ammo and don't intend to use the scope for that anyway, it'll probably go on one of the Lees to be sighted in again for the venerable .303. The Burris Fullfield's a decent bit of kit, clear and powerful enough for me and it's inexpensive new, even more so second hand.

Moral of the story? Don't scorn used optics but test them first to see if they work, you can save a lot of money. Also, steel plate turkeys are fun to blast down at 75 yards with semi-auto carbines.

stormchaser

Drove home along the edge of a tornado. The wrath of God was waxing strong against the fleshpots of Dallas, but the country just got a well needed drenching of lightning, gale force winds and rain.

God bless,

LSP

Dog & Gun

You know what it's like, serious Palm Sunday business, a bit of porch 'smithing, and then? Fire up the grill, cook some burgers and relax.

Vizsla

JEB's happy. He's a bird dog; that's the theory. Somehow a rifle makes its way onto the mahogany and look! There's a No. 4!

Empire Builder

Nice.

God bless,

LSP

Palm Sunday

A tremendous turn out at the Masses this morning. Enfield enthusiam is obviously paying off. B16 tells us that Confession is key to the new evangelism. I must make mine.

Anyway, here's the Collect of the day.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.Amen. 

Have a blessed Holy Week.

LSP

Sporterizing the Lee Enfield - Porch Project Pt. V

You know what it's like in the mission field, drive several hundred miles to say Mass and teach a Confirmation class full of inquiring minds. "Tell me, class. Just what is a Sacrament? And why do we have them?" They did well and we'll have more Confirmations at this one Mission than we've had in a decade. Result.

nearly there

Still, class over and it's time to fall back to the LSP Compound to get on with serious Gospel imperatives, namely sorting out one of the Lees -- on the porch.

porch vise

First things first, apply another coat of finish to the butt and notice that almost all of the grain is full. This is not a job for the impatient. Just sayin'. Woodwork done, stand it up somewhere to cure.

But that's not all, not by any means. The barrel of the Lee demands polishing. Get down to it, starting with 150 grit and moving up to 400. Use a block, sand along the barrel, then across the barrel, as if you were buffing shoes.

stamper

Give the receiver another going over with 600 grit and notice the cacophany of stampings. I especially like the Crown and BSA & Co marks. 1917 puts me in a somber mood; who knows what hells this rifle and its rifleman went through. 

Imperium

Ma LSP says, "Maybe it shot some bulletheads." She doesn't waste words. A Texan. Several hours later the job was done. Barrel sanded to 400; in the next installment I'll bring it up to 600 to match the receiver.

elbow grease

Maybe it's time to turn to the bolt... Have a blessed Palm Sunday.

All glory, laud and honour.

LSP

Huge Hat Small Gun

some fool with a hat

Sometimes extremely large hats seem to go together with smallish guns... but I just got back from a preaching engagement in Dallas. The theme? The two thieves who were crucified alongside Our Lord. They serve as types of sinful humanity and were bad outlaws, which is why they were crucified. One repents, so there's hope for us all.

When I was invited to speak at this Lenten series and told that the theme was on various aspects of the Stations, I said, "Sure, I'll talk on the thieves." The Senior Warden looked at me and said, "I thought you would."

I find that vaguely unsettling.

God bless,

LSP

Sporterizing the Lee Enfield - Porch Project Pt. IV

After removing most of the unpleasant black paint from the barreled action, the obsessive madman avid Lee Enfield enthusiast ponders the best way to prepare the metal for bluing -- on the porch. There's several options; use a wheel and various polishing compounds, or do it by hand. I wisely didn't trust myself with a wheel for fear of cutting into the metal and ruining the job, so by hand it was.

get on with the sanding, for goodness sake

The objective here is to sand the metal using progressively finer grit until you get the look you want. This is the finish that will appear through the blue. I started with 180 grit and worked up to 600, producing a mirrorlike, scratchless, even sheen.

Be careful around straight edges, screw holes and stampings. Use sanding blocks to keep the surface even; I found small, old, cut to size kitchen sponge worked pretty well -- it can be formed and holds its shape, which is useful for sanding around the receiver. Don't forget in a fit of squaddie-like enthusiasm to keep a light touch, otherwise you'll mess things up. 

non satis

A lot of elbow grease and patience later, the receiver was looking acceptable. There was some pitting, understandable in a rifle that's nearly a hundred years old, but I can live with that as it's mostly below the stockline and won't be seen. If you're keen you can file the pitting out and blend the hole in to the rest of the surface. I didn't think that was necessary for this old warhorse.

better

Word to the wise. Be careful with the III safety catch; it's easy to remove and polish up but be sure it works when you reassemble and install -- work the bolt to ensure the action's smooth and if it is you've got it right. If not... don't try to brute force the bolt, take out the safety mechanism and start again, making sure its moving parts are in the correct position.

Then spray the beast with oil and admire your handiwork.

better still

Next step? More polishing.

Patience is a virtue. You can pray while you sand.

LSP