Just took delivery of a new toy in the making.

About 4 months ago I ordered a parts set from a co. In Florida. Took them forever to send it to me. When they did, the FedEx guy and I failed to get together and I had to spend a month on the web trying to get them to send it again. Well, today it arrived. I was at school, so my little old neighbor lady signed for it and gave it to me when I got home. Bless her. It's a Bulgarian AK-74 with a side folding stock.

First, a parts set is a military rifle that has been sawed in half so that it can be legally imported and sold without the need for any special paperwork. Basically a bag of metal and plastic parts that used to be a gun, and a few parts that have never been assembled before. You've got to be into these kind of guns to get this, but take my word, this thing is cherry.

Now, in order to turn it into the gun that I want, I have modify a few things myself and then buy a receiver for it (to replace the part that was sawn in half). I will have to fill out paperwork on it as if I were buying a gun (easy), and then when I have all the parts and pieces gathered together, I'll hand it over to my gunsmith in Mansfield. He's a great guy. Nicest guy you'll ever meet. Does amazing things with metal. Has two other sets of mine in line as we speak (yep, I'm a nut). Months later (he's always busy) I'll take delivery of a cool new toy, and yet another reason for a lot of people to look at me like I'm some sort of weirdo. Part of the fun of having it I guess.

Pisses off some of my friends who think there's no good reason to own such a thing. A few, like my boss, are gun snobs. They can't figure out why anyone would want one of these stamped out, mass produced "Black Rifles". They have some other type of gun that turns them on, which they claim is superior, technologically or aesthetically. Others can't see why anyone would want to own a gun at all, or as many as I own anyway. They equate it with wanting to kill or do harm, or think it does harm to the society somehow to have these things in circulation. To me it's all about "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". This is one of the many ways I chose to do that; collecting implements of exquisite violence and pissing off liberals generally. It's legal, so there you go.

It might end up looking something like this, which is a rifle based on the guns that Soviet airborne troops used in their war in Afghanistan.



I'm thinking though that I'm gonna change out the gas block and sling loop and put plum colored grips on the front of it and maybe a laminated wood pistol grip. That's the image I have in my head at the moment. I've got parts to put together any one of a number of rifles with different furniture (grips and handles). Thing is, I can change out the furniture real easy once it's finished. It's one of the things that makes these guns fun to own. I can change things out to make it look like a Russian , Bulgarian, East German, Chinese or Hungarian rifle. Or I can mix and match to make up my own version. I can even install all sorts of new after-market parts to make it look like the guns our guys use in Iraq. Toys are toys, after all.