Moral-Flexibility.Net

Ok, so the last few days have seen Lisa and I knocked down by the flu.

Thankfully Jillian seemed to have ducked it, and we sent her off to her grandmothers both to limit her exposure to the hacking, coughing, sneezing and sputtering and to provide Lisa and I a chance to recover.

Much over the counter medication was taken, and we appear to have passed the worst of it (I hope). Still suffering from chills and sweats, and still coughing like my body is attempting to eject my lungs altogether, but I’ve gone a full 4 hours now without chemical assistance, and while I feel far from “healthy” it no longer feels like my head is stuffed with cotton, and that my brain has taken a short vacation to a distant land.

Of course despite this we began the process of packing our belongings prior to the move at the end of June. Despite our feeble condition we successfully packed all my books into six boxes, and dismantled the bookshelves they live in. Can’t wait to move.

I hate being sick.

Now, I’ve dedicated quite a bit of time to the Tactical SKS project (both at home and at the range) and now that it’s completed to my satisfaction I have once again turned my attention to a project thats been languishing for almost a year now. My “Frankengarand” project is slated to resume this coming week.

Thats right, my bastardization of a classic rifle is about to begin.

No I am not going to take a piece of history and “bubba” it for my entertainment. The “FrankenGarand” is, in fact, a mutt. Comprised of a Breda (Italian made) receiver, an aftermarket barrel and an assortment of worn parts from Breda, Beretta, Springfield and Winchester. The parts have seen better times, and were originally acquired (for the most part) when I rebuilt my 1942 Springfield M1.

The rifle is slated to be reparkerized, the aftermarket .308 barrel will then be installed, and finally the finished rifle will be dressed up in a Boyds pepper laminate stock. The end result will be, I hope, a fairly modern looking example of an M1.

I will of course strive to document the process from start to finish, in yet another longwinded series of “project updates”.

Stay tuned….

Les Jones has written an excellent article titled Gun advice for writers and reporters (Knox News).

Give it a read if you’re unfamiliar with firearms, he does a great job explaining how “real” firearms work as opposed to “movie” ones, along with dealing with a few of my personal pet peeves.

A little busy here, so here’s a quick portrait of our Jillian taken by a professional photographer for Mothers day (arranged by my mom, in a conspiratorial moment).

Cute little thing isn’t she?

(Note: If you’re family do not fret. Copies of this picture and the family portrait of Lisa, Jillian and I are on the way…distribution is taking more time than anticpated)

“Why do you like guns?”

I’m asked this question often, and it usually serves as the opening move in yet another effort to demonstrate to me the folly of my ways and to bring me back from the brink of becoming a warmongering savage.

As a veteran of these mini-debates I usually give the stock answer “I collect historically significant firearms and I take part in competitive shooting.” It’s a cop out answer, but it narrows the lines of attack for the most recent hoplophobe who’s decided to take a crack at a poor uneducated gun nut. The conversation usually slides downhill pretty fast from here, with all sorts of assertions that our society has no “need” for private firearms ownership (I didn’t realize that we were required to establish a need for personal property or possessions here), that my firearms represent a threat to the peace and security of our society (despite the fact that so far crime has managed just fine without my firearms), and that we’d all be better off if guns were magically removed from the face of the planet (I agree…but as they’re just working on taking my firearms away, not the criminals I’ll withold my support at this time).

I’ve inflicted this kind of punishment on myself for some time, call it a sort of masochistic missionary work. The truth is, the only people I’ve brought into the world of firearms already wanted in. I’ve yet to convince one dedicated “anti” that I am not a smouldering psycho waiting for a chance to climb a bell tower at the earliest opportunity.

I can’t help but wonder at the pyschological reasons that these people hate and fear firearms. The kindest reason I can come up with is ignorance.

Of course R&R stands for “Rifles and Rangetime“.

Ian, Mike and I made it out for another epic range trip yesterday.

Of course it occured to me that a 350km round trip effort, involving three cities (Toronto, Hamilton and Guelph), three seperate highways (401, 403 and 6) and over 2 1/2 hours driving is not the best way to engage in a leisure activity, but for all that we had ourselves some fun with a small assortment of firearms (SKS, AR15, Remington 870 and the Sig P220), and spent some time experimenting with coconuts.

Altogether a much needed break.

Belinda has “crossed the floor“ going over the Liberals, and accepting a cabinet post in the midst of a death struggle between the NDP and the Liberals on one side, and the Conservatives and the Bloc on the other. She offered the following as an explanation;

“I find myself at a crossroads forced on me by the decision of the leader of the Conservative party to try to force the defeat of this government this Thursday, I tried to the very best of my ability to play a constructive role in the Conservative party to advance issues that really matter to Canadians in cities, to women, to young people, to many Ontarians.

But I regret to say that I do not believe the party leader is truly sensitive to the needs of each part of the country and just how big and complex Canada really is.”

She has accepted a cabinet post as the head of Human Resources and Skills Development. I’d buy the “philisophical differences” defence if she had made an issue of it before now, I’d buy it if she had witheld her vote, I’d buy it if she had done something prior to this. Sadly she has merely shown her true colors, and sold herself when the price was right.

Don’t worry Belinda, even if your constituents fail to vote you back in Daddy has a job waiting for you….

Well, as my firearms budget has not increased I’m revisiting previous projects that had little details to be addressed. My AR15 still requires the installation of a flashhider (I’ve sent out for some quotes on this with a few local gunsmiths, and it seems I’m looking at around $75-$90 for this, not counting postage for shipping the upper there and back).

More interesting though is the prospect of actually painting some of my firearms. Two stand front and center in this regard, both the Norinco M14S and the AR15 could use some refinishing (the M14 is getting a little worn in places, and the AR is a mutt who’s finish never did match properly). After much reading I’ve decided to spend a few dollars on KG Coatings - Gunkote as a means of refinishing the rifles myself.

In essence the process is little more involved than just spray painting the metal bits (although I will need to have them sand blasted before painting). We’ll see what hiccups I encounter when we walk down this path, but hopefully it’ll give the rifles a new fresh clean look, and the overhead involved is nominal.

My very first rifle was a Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I made at the Royal Small Arms factory in England. Before it came into my possession it had been “sporterized” (the full military stock had been cut back and the sights modified for hunting use). After some time I acquired a full furniture 1943 Lithgow No.1 Mk.III with a wealth of cartouches and markings speaking to its history.

Longbranch 1944 No.4 Mk.I*

I sold off the sporterized rifle soon after, and while the Lithgow was an amazing piece of history I had come to the conclussion that if I had to own only one Lee-Enfield, it would have to be a perfect Canadian sample. Shortly after moving back to Toronto I was fortunate enough to purchase the rifle pictured above. An excellent condition Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I* manufactured here in Toronto at the Longbranch Arsenal. Seemingly in original conditional, sporting matching numbers, a shiny bore, bight rifling and acceptance marks on both the stock and the receiver I counted myself lucky, and gave the Lithgow to my cousin Mike (who seemed to appreciate it more than I).

Visible Markings

There is not alot of information available online about the Longbranch Arsenal or the number of firearms produced there, but I have been reliably informed that before production was discontinued in the 1950’s Longbranch had made over 1,000,000 Lee-Enfields. This one deserves a little restoration (mainly steaming the dings out of the wood), but I admit I’m honing my skills on less critical projects before tackling this one, I’d hate myself if I marred this fine rifle out of a need for instant gratification.

This one’s a keeper, a real piece of Canadian History.