My recent travels...

[no guns here]

I've been gone a couple of weeks on leave back in the US of A.  We flew a hop from Ramstein to Jackson, Mississippi.  Spent the night at a hotel down the road an hour or so in Vicksburg.  Got up the next day and momma just HAD to make a stop at Wally-World.  So... I had to check out the ammo situation that I've been reading about.  To make a really long story short.  For the next two weeks I stopped at a Wal-Mart almost every day, went to two Bass Pro Shops and three different gun stores.  I finally managed to round up one 550 pack of Federal .22's and three 100 round boxes of CCI mini-mags.  On our last day in country I went to a Dicks Sporting Goods in Jackson that was stocked up on EVERYTHING except .22lr.  All their shelves were full of everything else.  We had arranged to meet the in-laws in Jackson before our flight out.  I was going to leave the ammo with the FiL to put in my safe.  They ended up not being able to come down.  USPS won't ship ammo... FedEx said no... UPS said no... ended up selling it all to one the Air Guard guys in Jackson.  All that time and effort and I don't get to keep any of the ammo I bought.  I could PROBABLY have brought it into Germany.  I have a gun permit here but .22 LR isn't on it and technically I'm only supposed to have ammo for guns on my permit.  It wasn't worth the hassle...  I saw a decent amount of most common deer calibers on the shelves.  At least a box of two of 7mm, .270, .30-06, .30-30 were in most places.  Shotgun shells were abundant...

On the plus side, while I was at my grandfathers I got to look at the guns that he has left.  Some of the interesting ones are...

1.  A double barrelled 12 gauge hammer gun.  It's an Ithaca with damascus barrels.  All brown now... no blue left anywhere.  Wood is worn but not cracked or broken anywhere.  It belonged to my great-great grandfather.  Very tight action considering the use it had.  Wouldn't want to shoot it because of the barrels but the action would probably be fine with lite BP loads.  Some day I'll clean it up really nice and put it on display.

2.  An absolutely pristine Model 12 pump.  Well it's all pristine except for my grandfathers name hand engraved on the magazine tube...  This one will get at least one hunt in before it is cleaned and put away.

3.  An as new Model 94 top eject... except for the obligatory hand scribed name on the tube...  Only two shots through this gun though.  I'm gonna use this one when I get it.  I'm going to sight it in with my ammo and then use the remaining 18 cartridges to kill deer and pigs and then I'll clean it up and put it away.

there were some more but most are just old guns that aren't anything special except for their family history.  I'll keep them all (when they come to me) and document their known history.



Stopped by Ed's TC's in Bethany, OK.; ( just four blocks from my grandparents house) but it was shut up tighter than a drum...  To be fair, I forgot that he is a CPA and it's still tax season.  I really needed a couple of things from him though.  Guess I'll have to order them.


Good to be back on GBO but wish I was still on leave...

NGH

[Oldtimer]

You might get some Briley tubes for that old double.  A Damascus barrel had over a hundred miles of weld line in it and a very small defect could turn your prize shotgun into pieces hitting the bottom of the surgeon's tray as he cleans up what is left of your face. I hunted with my wife's grandfather's Crescent 16 gauge double some years ago and took a deer with it on some land that he gave us when we married.  It was the hit of the hunting cabin where the deer piled up.   I had a lot of memories of the old gentleman and it was a pleasure to use his shotgun, even more than using one of my modern ones.

[gypsyman]

NGH, you must have been taking with one of those counter clerks, that don't know the rules. I've recieved ammo with both UPS and FedEx doing the shipping. Some of these idiots they hire just automatically assume you can't ship that stuff. Lot of people still think the UPS doesn't ship gun's, but with the right paper work they do. In fact, you use to get all your DCM guns by mail. gypsyman

[no guns here]

See, I knew that UPS would ship it.  I found the information on GBO once I got back.  I just didn't have time or access to deal with it at the time.

Sucks...

NGH

[Oldshooter]

tough break on the ammo pard! Hope your visit stateside otherwise was a good one!

[ironglow]

noguns;
  Welcome home..of course, time you read this you will probably will be back in Germany. So many years ago when i was stationed not too far from Ramstein we used to have a slang term for going home..we said, "back to the land of the big PX and round doorknobs"..
   Thanks for your service..

[no guns here]

Thanks guys... It's not the round door knobs that I miss it's the front doors that don't lock when you shut them.  We had to hide a key in a tree in our back yard because every time the front door would shut (it was on springs too) we would be locked out of our house.

NGH