Recently for various reasons, I've had two diverging phenomena. The first was some cash on hand and the urge to get some rifles "while I can", and then the second was a home-space downsizing, requiring that I only have one small safe that holds about four rifles. That's the shortest version of the story.
On the fun side, I bought some really interesting rifles. On the bummer side, the most expensive of them proved unreliable, and are relegated to being shrink wrapped (go FoodSaver!) and stored. Since I can only have a handful of rifles with me, they have to be ones that have proven themselves to be 100% reliable (hey, the poop is flying everywhere and the fan is spinning furiously, and what was once the fodder of B-movies is now moving into the scary side of the probability scale).
I don't have a gunsmith in this town, and my old one stopped working due to bad health. I also don't currently have the time to try and "play" with them at the range until I figure out what makes them not tick.
The first is my Remington R-25 (DPMS LR-308 camo'd). It randomly has light primer strikes. Sometimes it runs fine, and then, it misses a beat. All lined up on target, focused, hold a half-breath and squeeze... and nothing happens. Unacceptable.
The second is my SIG 556. What an awesome rifle! Except, periodically the bolt completely cycles, ejects the last round, and fails to grab the next one. Boom. Boom. Boom. Click. Unacceptable.
I may have an opportunity in the coming months to move another of my safes onto the property in a climate controlled storage area. If so, I'll have more access to these rifles, and if I also have more time and ammo does not become more precious than gold, I'll take them out and play with them and see if I can figure out what the issues are. For now, they will hibernate. On hand will be the usual suspects; an AR, an AK, a Mossy 12ga./18", and one other TBA.
All that fancy hardware, and I end out sticking with what I already had.
On the fun side, I bought some really interesting rifles. On the bummer side, the most expensive of them proved unreliable, and are relegated to being shrink wrapped (go FoodSaver!) and stored. Since I can only have a handful of rifles with me, they have to be ones that have proven themselves to be 100% reliable (hey, the poop is flying everywhere and the fan is spinning furiously, and what was once the fodder of B-movies is now moving into the scary side of the probability scale).
I don't have a gunsmith in this town, and my old one stopped working due to bad health. I also don't currently have the time to try and "play" with them at the range until I figure out what makes them not tick.
The first is my Remington R-25 (DPMS LR-308 camo'd). It randomly has light primer strikes. Sometimes it runs fine, and then, it misses a beat. All lined up on target, focused, hold a half-breath and squeeze... and nothing happens. Unacceptable.
The second is my SIG 556. What an awesome rifle! Except, periodically the bolt completely cycles, ejects the last round, and fails to grab the next one. Boom. Boom. Boom. Click. Unacceptable.
I may have an opportunity in the coming months to move another of my safes onto the property in a climate controlled storage area. If so, I'll have more access to these rifles, and if I also have more time and ammo does not become more precious than gold, I'll take them out and play with them and see if I can figure out what the issues are. For now, they will hibernate. On hand will be the usual suspects; an AR, an AK, a Mossy 12ga./18", and one other TBA.
All that fancy hardware, and I end out sticking with what I already had.