Mega Rad Gun Thread

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Tour of Italy said:
Update on the Type 99 I found:

I got it down from the rafters to have a good look. The imperial chrysanthemum was defaced, which is fine since I’m not looking to sell. Everything else points to it being fairly early production; serial is in the 32000 range, although I didn’t think to take a picture or check the Arsenal mark. Barrel band has the monopod mount, but no obvious signs of wear that it actually had a monopod. Teardrop bolt handle, bore is a little rusted, action and furniture hardware all has surface rust but the “Type 99” characters are still legible. Still has the anti-aircraft sights like I mentioned before and the range graduation is still legible. The barrel band and front cap are both missing their screws, but I found the owner’s old hardware bucket, so there’s a slim chance they’re still around. Replacements are not easy to come by, if a quick internet search is to be believed.

The springs are still tight as hell, but the bolt sticks a bit. It spent 40 years in a leaky uninsulated shed and it’s still probably in better shape than rifles that spent 12 months in the Pacific.

In a different box we found a bayonet too, which was a welcome surprise. It was the Type 30 mode with earlier style curved quillion:

View attachment 2311138

(As a fun aside, it was surreal to me that the site above, last updated in the year 2000, has a reference to collector books by “McCollum and Honeycutt”, the McCollum in question being the father of Ian from Forgotten Weapon’s fame)

The bayonet was Tokyo Arsenal marked and in the 200000 range.

It’s been fun find and I hope it’s not the start of the milsurp bug because there’s never been a worse time to get into that.

I’m torn, because I want it cleaned up and restored, but I’m not sure where the line stops at harming the historicity of the piece. Also, I’m having a hard time finding a gunsmith that specializes in that kind of thing. I want the stock cleaned but want to keep or mimic the original surface, and I want to clean the rust without messing with the markings or functionality. Most of the wear is from after the rifle was brought home.
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Sounds like a great find. I had a Nagoya Arsenal type 99 for a while, and moved it on to make some room. The guy who showed up to buy it ended up being a first generation Japanese-American. I’m glad it went to someone who would really appreciate it.
 
Tour of Italy said:
Update on the Type 99 I found:

I got it down from the rafters to have a good look. The imperial chrysanthemum was defaced, which is fine since I’m not looking to sell. Everything else points to it being fairly early production; serial is in the 32000 range, although I didn’t think to take a picture or check the Arsenal mark. Barrel band has the monopod mount, but no obvious signs of wear that it actually had a monopod. Teardrop bolt handle, bore is a little rusted, action and furniture hardware all has surface rust but the “Type 99” characters are still legible. Still has the anti-aircraft sights like I mentioned before and the range graduation is still legible. The barrel band and front cap are both missing their screws, but I found the owner’s old hardware bucket, so there’s a slim chance they’re still around. Replacements are not easy to come by, if a quick internet search is to be believed.

The springs are still tight as hell, but the bolt sticks a bit. It spent 40 years in a leaky uninsulated shed and it’s still probably in better shape than rifles that spent 12 months in the Pacific.

In a different box we found a bayonet too, which was a welcome surprise. It was the Type 30 mode with earlier style curved quillion:

View attachment 2311138

(As a fun aside, it was surreal to me that the site above, last updated in the year 2000, has a reference to collector books by “McCollum and Honeycutt”, the McCollum in question being the father of Ian from Forgotten Weapon’s fame)

The bayonet was Tokyo Arsenal marked and in the 200000 range.

It’s been fun find and I hope it’s not the start of the milsurp bug because there’s never been a worse time to get into that.

I’m torn, because I want it cleaned up and restored, but I’m not sure where the line stops at harming the historicity of the piece. Also, I’m having a hard time finding a gunsmith that specializes in that kind of thing. I want the stock cleaned but want to keep or mimic the original surface, and I want to clean the rust without messing with the markings or functionality. Most of the wear is from after the rifle was brought home.
Click to expand...
Personally, if it's something that a factory refit would fix up and you're open about what parts have been replaced by modern reproductions, feel free to replace what you need to replace. Try and get as much of the rust cleaned as possible as carefully as possible - there's some techniques that use liquid and sonic vibrations to shake rust free, maybe look into those for some smaller parts. Still, that's a damn cool rifle there. If it's got a defaced chrysanthemum that's a bit of a shame, but that could be from confiscation or capture at some point of the rifle, depending on how you look at it.
 
Techpriest said:
Personally, if it's something that a factory refit would fix up and you're open about what parts have been replaced by modern reproductions, feel free to replace what you need to replace. Try and get as much of the rust cleaned as possible as carefully as possible - there's some techniques that use liquid and sonic vibrations to shake rust free, maybe look into those for some smaller parts. Still, that's a damn cool rifle there. If it's got a defaced chrysanthemum that's a bit of a shame, but that could be from confiscation or capture at some point of the rifle, depending on how you look at it.
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Check out Mark Novak's YouTube channel - he does a lot of rust conversion using steam and a carding wheel and the results are incredibly impressive - as long as the owner didn't hit it with a wire wheel before (which strips the bluing), the original bluing generally remains intact.
 
Well, with any luck I'll be putting in an order for a new Auto Mag 180 next week. Going to apply for a loan with my credit union on Tuesday like I have the past two summers. It's going to take at least 3 months or possibly more for them to build it and ship it to me because they are trying to get all the manufacturing under one roof right now, which is a small price to pay to get one of my Holy Grail guns. My credit is better than ever, so it shouldn't be an issue to get the loan. Going with the 8" barrel and polished finish for mine.
 
Meat Target said:
I just scored 2 packs of .22LR at Wally World. Is the end of the ammo shortage in sight?
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It's in sight, but that doesn't mean it's close. This is the Obama years all over again. Things will slowly improve over 2020, but they'll still be bad until him and Kamala are both out - unless something happens to make the threat tif gun control feel remote/fake. Like a repuican blowout in the midterms, or a major pro 2A SC decision.
 
Thornforg said:
Getting it any other way should be punishable by death. Or having to stress test a PSA AK without safety gear. Probably leads to the same result.
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Well, the original Auto Mag 180s were only available with 6" barrels. When Clint Eastwood made the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact he reached out to (I believe) the guy who originally owned and helped design the Auto Mag to make him a pair of Auto Mag 180s for the movie. This was after the gun had gone out of production, but the guy had enough parts left over to build them. Eastwood requested 8" barrels for the pistols instead of the original 6" length.

But after seeing the new pistols with the longer barrels and gloss finish, I agree that it's the only proper way to configure the Auto Mag 180. If/when Auto Mag starts offering the new 180s in .45 WinMag like they have talked about doing, I plan on buying a second upper assembly chambered for it so I can swap between .44 AMP and .45 WinMag without shelling out another $4100 for a second 180. .45 WinMag isn't a common cartridge, but there are more companies making it than .44 AMP.

I really need to get my own reloading press someday and learn to roll my own, but for now I'll just have to stick with buying ammo. It's not a huge deal for me with the Auto Mag since I'm buying it more as a collector piece because of it's history, but I do want to be able to enjoy shooting it from time to time. I know Auto Mag have tapped SBR Ammunition to load new .44 and .357 AMP ammo, but they're loading it a little light. There's a boutique ammo company called Aria Ammunition who are also loading .44 AMP at much hotter loads, and they've got several different bullet weights/styles to choose from, but they ain't cheap.
 
Celebrated the 4th yesterday by finishing my first P80. Got a line on a dual illum RMR made in 2020 a gentleman had to sell cheap along with other stuff due to an illness (hate to see it seriously) so I threw it on for a range toy. I still need to get sights and put it through a 500 pack of 9mm. This was the 19 frame 17 slide midway was selling on close out for 75$ back in January 2020 ( I should have bought like 8 of them).

Digging the 7 MOA amber dot on the RMR though it can suffer from washout as with ACOGs. Great in the sun and complete darkness. Its the in between that it struggles with. Will be picking up a Type 2 for my carry 43X. Screenshot_20210705-232819_Gallery.jpg
 
Cpl. Long Dong Silver said:
Celebrated the 4th yesterday by finishing my first P80. Got a line on a dual illum RMR made in 2020 a gentleman had to sell cheap along with other stuff due to an illness (hate to see it seriously) so I threw it on for a range toy. I still need to get sights and put it through a 500 pack of 9mm. This was the 19 frame 17 slide midway was selling on close out for 75$ back in January 2020 ( I should have bought like 8 of them).

Digging the 7 MOA amber dot on the RMR though it can suffer from washout as with ACOGs. Great in the sun and complete darkness. Its the in between that it struggles with. Will be picking up a Type 2 for my carry 43X.View attachment 2320421
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Get the mounting plate for the optic from CHPWS. The OEM Glock one sucks and is made from cheap pot metal. The slide cuts in the G43X MOS are designed for the RMS Shield and those things suck.
 
Well, it's done. I got my Auto Mag ordered and paid for. Had no problem getting approved for the loan. I'm even getting a free wood display case and AMP challenge coin because I paid for the whole thing up front. Now there's nothing left to do but wait, which is looking to be around 6 months due to demand and them working to get all the machining under one roof.

I also ordered an Enrique Pena mid-tech balisong knife. Always wanted a balisong, but didn't want to get some piece of shit you'd find at a truck stop. Gonna see if I can find a nice little belt sheath or pocket slip for it so I can include it with my EDC gear.
 
Tour of Italy said:
I’m torn, because I want it cleaned up and restored, but I’m not sure where the line stops at harming the historicity of the piece. Also, I’m having a hard time finding a gunsmith that specializes in that kind of thing. I want the stock cleaned but want to keep or mimic the original surface, and I want to clean the rust without messing with the markings or functionality. Most of the wear is from after the rifle was brought home.
Click to expand...

Most military rifles (especially American) will have been through a re-arsenal or two, so I never get sentimental about them unless they are a firearm that had super low production, but even then probably not, though for foreign makes you want to keep matching serial numbers together.

When I got my M-1 Garand about 15 years ago I had to refinish the stock because whoever dipped this one in linseed oil didn't allow it to dry long enough and there was a huge barely stained part. Eventually I ended up replacing it with an original 1943 stock, and replaced all of the guts (including an uncut op-rod) to 1943 factory. I did the same to my M-1 Carbine. My 1903a3 was never rearsenaled, but over the years whoever owned it scratched up the stock badly in a few places so I wouldn't mind redoing the linseed oil on it someday.
 
I'd do nasty, wicked things to be able to own one of those M240s. Our government overloards think we're not worthy to own firearms, especially ones capable of firing continuously when the trigger is held down, but have no problem essentially providing them to our enemies for fucking free. Makes sense.
 
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