Kevin, over at the Brown Valley, inspired me with a recent post.

I went to a gun show in Dallas Sunday with a few friends and ended up pickin' up a new toy.







It started when I went to a gun show in Austin a while back, maybe a month and a half ago, and saw this rifle for sale. It's a .303 Enfield #4, Mark 1, made in Canada by Long Branch in 1944. Was interested, but didn't buy it then, trying to save some money. Then I read Kevin's post about his rifles, and the seed was planted. I ran into the guy iat Market Hall Sunday afternoon, and I found this little beauty again. She was talkin' to me.

After walking around the hall, it ended up being a choice between this and a cherry Mosin Nagant; pre WW1 (pre Russian Revolution), rifle made in Finland. That guy really didn't know what he had or how rare it is. Wanted to sell me the rifle and a bag of nice ammo for about $450. I thought about it hard as I walked through the show, fondling things here and there, and eventually decided to get the Enfield. $300 later, I'm walking away with it. As I do, two different guys, one after the other, walk up with big grins on their faces to ask me if I'm selling it.

One was a very excited Brit, who examined it and noticed that the bolt was not original. I didn't even know to look for numbers on the bolt. I checked it and sure enough the serial numbers were not the same. Still, he liked the rifle a lot, but warned me to check the head spacing before I shoot it. I guess the Brits (or Canadians) were not as good as our folks at making the parts truly interchangeable. He also told me to avoid old service .303 ammo, due to much of it being corrosive. I wish I'd gotten that guys email, because he seemed cool and very knowledgeable about these little babies.

Some of his comments concerned me, but I think it could easily be that bolts and rifles got mixed up as soldiers got together in the field to clean their guns. I know that's true with American guns in WW2, which is why you find so few Garands or M-1 carbines with all matching numbers and parts. I went over to another table and picked out a faded looking sling to go with it, and my friends and I walked out the door. When we got back to Gatesville, my buddy handed me a hollow point .303 round and I ran it through the action, smooth as silk. Ejected fine, so I don't think there will be an issue.

For whatever it's worth, the old guy I bought it from told me that the Long Branch rifles were thought to be the best Enfields, very accurate due to being made with an extra groove of rifling in the barrel or something. He said this particular rifle was very accurate, "more accurate than you or I could shoot it". Don't know. I'm glad I picked it up anyway. I'll clean it up in the next week or so and oil the stock, and order some good .303 rounds, and then we'll see how accurate it is.

Before we drove a few of the guys back to Arlington and Ft. Worth, I drove us over to Sal's and we had good vittles. A Stromboli, a great salad, and garlic bread. Good stuff. Oh, and on the way back from Dallas, after dropping the last dude in Gatesville, I stopped in at the American Legion hall in Temple and was there to see my buddy David's team lose the pool tourney in the final round. Very depressing end to a very long day for them. They'd been there all day, since 8 AM, and had been winning till the evening. Not sure who lost it for them or what happened. I'll find out this week.

Well, hope your weekend was fun. See ya later.

Update: Just ordered some .303 from the Sportsman's guide. 174 gr. FMJ, 5 boxes of 20 rds. for as little over $60. I'll clean her up and we'll see how they perform in this old bird.

Spent Friday night doin' the usual, and then watching friends play in a pool tournament, and playin' with my camera phone.

Some of the folks I work with are big into playing pool in a league. We started playing together years ago, but my night classes keep me from being able to play in this official capacity...

OK, I SUCK AT POOL, but so do they, so that's NOT why I can't play in the league. I used to play a lot in college, but got away from it, and now all my angles are off. If I played more regularly I'd get better, but who wants to hang out in a smoke filled pool hall after a long sweaty day dispensing wisdom to the masses? And if I put a pool table in the house, which I don't really have room for, it'd just end up like the stair machine; covered in magazines and crap and cat scratched.

Anyway, I enjoy going out and playing on occasion and watching these folks try to be serious. They're in a tournament now that could conceivably end up with their team going to play in Vegas. Normally they play at an American Legion post in Killeen, and Thursday night I went over after work, with the razor, and took a few shots of the crew at practice.



This is Gina. She's a cute little number. An ex-student of mine (most of them are), she lives with one of the other team members, loves to get loaded while she plays, and loves to flash her boobs to her other teammates when ever they win... as a reward. SEE why I go, and why I had the camera phone ready? I'm not a team member, so I've never been privileged to experience the full monty, but seeing that I was taking pictures, she flashed the PG version to me between shots on the table, and shots of some horrendous Korean booze she's always swilling.



Those are some famous tatas around here, I wanna tell ya.



Every once and I while my buddy Dave slides in to get a squeeze (that's her boyfriend shooting)...



and to provide his professional advise on a shot here and there. Great fun was had by all, even though the musical accompaniment was being provided by drunk Korean karaoke singers at the other end of the bar. I wanted to toss a cue ball over there and bean that bastard after a while. I think we got out of there at about midnight, and like a good boy, I went strait home and to bed.

After class on Friday, and taking dad to our regular dinner/boys-night-out that evening, I took dad back to the house and headed out to the big tournament that was being held in Temple at the local American Legion hall.



Walked in and was hit in the head by a wall of 2nd hand smoke. Haven't experienced one like that in a while. To add to the issue, apparently the AC and ventilators were down. Hot as hell in there, but the music was MUCH better than before. Hard rock classics by folks like Sabbath and Skynnrd, mixed with the newer metal that the younger vets are into. Nothin' like it to calm the nerves and clear the head.



Happiness! My friends weren't supposed to be playing, but Dave ended up having to jump in and go a few rounds. He lost most of his games, but the other players in his team played better, and they ended up winning the match anyway. As a novice, I particularly enjoyed watching the heavy hitters.



The guy in the center with the hat was on Dave's team. He's really good, but he has a reputation for choking in the big games. This time though, he was screwed over by what I would call and Act of God.

First of all, these guys are REALLY good. If one guy misses a shot, the other guy is likely to just run the table and that's it. So the hat guy won his first game against this opponent, pretty handily. I was impressed. In the second game, he dropped a few balls in the brake, but then he missed one by a hair. The guy on the left started to make a run, but then he missed one by a hair. Mr. hat guy took over and started clearing the table, and had a short, easy shot to make in the process. Side pocket, direct shot with the cue ball only inches away. As he's lining it up, a grasshopper lands directly in the path of the cue ball.

To try to get a breeze going in the place someone had propped the doors open, letting the critters in. He shews it away, and it jumps into the side pocket. He goes to make the shot and as he is hitting the cue ball, the grasshopper jumps out of the side pocket and flits overhead, breaking his concentration, making him screw up the shot. I could have made that friggin' shot! Hilarious, but nothing they could do. The other guy took over and ran the table. That was it. Mr. hat guy lost the rest of his games and it was left to his wife to win hers, which she did, to give the team it's win. She was up against a young girl who played while listening to her Ipod, which was strapped to her arm. Must not have liked Sabbath.

Meanwhile, several other folks (including Gina) were over at the bar, getting loaded to the gills while the other team members played. When all the games ended and the place shut down, we went to get them, and we all made a trip to I-Hop for an early breakfast. Nothin' like midnight feeds with a bunch of drunks to put the right end to a day. Left there and got home finally at about 2am. I brought half my club sandwich home and had it for brunch when I rolled out of the sack at about noon. Tasted damn good after bein' nuked for a minute or so.

They're playin' again tonight, and I'll probably head over there when the sun goes down and it starts to cool off. Maybe they will have fixed the AC by then. Plan to head to Dallas tomorrow with friends to run through a gun show at Market Hall. Should be a full day. Hope your weekend is as much fun. Cheers.