Spot77 and I departed from the Baltimore metro area this morning at 0200 hours and started our trek to Port Clinton, OH to visit the CMP North store at Camp Perry.
We traded off shifts driving the Passat over the next 7.5 hours as we travelled through some of the most beautiful land that God chose to grace the US with (actually we only saw this after the sun was up
). But let me just say that I'm envious of those that live along the I-80 corridor in Ohio as it was just the most serene, pastoral landscape I've seen in a long time.
At 0930 we arrived at Port Clinton and immediately headed for the rest stop to take care of the most urgent business, wondering how much further it was to Camp Perry. Lo, and behold....the gate was only about 100 yeards down the road....but I was focused on other matters before I noticed it.
Guards gave us a cursory look over....helps to have military ID and a DOD sticker on the car, I guess.
Entered the CMP store and immediately started perusing the SA Service Grade rifles there.
After looking for a few minutes and finding a couple of likely candidates, I finally decided to do a very un-guy-like thing and ask for some help from the counter person. A very kind gentleman (sorry, didn't get his name) spent the next 30 minutes going over the redeming qualities of many of the available rifles and doing throat erosion and muzzle wear measurements for those that hadn't been done yet.
He then turned me loose to make a decision from amongst the most desirable candidates.
Then, a magical thing happened. I had just about decided on a 1942 model, re-barrelled 1956, TE 1, MW 1 with average quality stock. However, a very nice older gentleman had just selected two other guns to purchase. This means that more guns come from the back stores to refill the retail shop racks.
The first store employee then brought a rifle to me that he said that I ought to consider.
That's when I first saw it.
Serial number in the 3.3 millions....a lot younger than I first wanted but continue reading and you'll see why I ultimately picked it.
Apparently this puts the manufacture in around 1956. Re-barrelled with a SA barrel in 1966, looks like it has an IH bolt. The front and rear handguards look to be of same vintage, whether it original or not who knows?
The stock is flawless.....I mean pristine, virginal....well you get the idea.
Counter worker felt it was a replacement of recent manufacture while the armorer from the back felt that it had been sanded and refinished. For sure it was of a less dense cut of walnut as it is noticeably lighter than the other vintage stocks.
Now comes the kicker.....muzzle wear? 0....as in nada, nothing, zilch. Armorer felt that it had never been fired since being re-barrelled in 1966.
The conundrum is that now I feel like I have to get another one in rack grade because this one is too nice to shoot
Ended up coming away with a can of surplus ammo and one of those spiffy CMP soft cases as well as the rifle. Spot77 came away with an ammo can and a load of .30 caliber brass (the cans with the brass were in better shape).
Returned back to Baltimore beltway area at 1815 hours tired but exhilarated at the same time. 15 hours driving time with 16 hours or so elapsed time.......
Off to Fulton Armory later this week for a once over/check up and then to Hap Baker range hopefully by the end of the week.
If you can make the trip to CMP do it.....I would never have gotten this quality rifle had I taken my luck with the mail order. I'll do the rack grade that way though....
Spot77 will be posting some pictures as soon as he wakes up.....
We traded off shifts driving the Passat over the next 7.5 hours as we travelled through some of the most beautiful land that God chose to grace the US with (actually we only saw this after the sun was up
). But let me just say that I'm envious of those that live along the I-80 corridor in Ohio as it was just the most serene, pastoral landscape I've seen in a long time.At 0930 we arrived at Port Clinton and immediately headed for the rest stop to take care of the most urgent business, wondering how much further it was to Camp Perry. Lo, and behold....the gate was only about 100 yeards down the road....but I was focused on other matters before I noticed it.
Guards gave us a cursory look over....helps to have military ID and a DOD sticker on the car, I guess.
Entered the CMP store and immediately started perusing the SA Service Grade rifles there.
After looking for a few minutes and finding a couple of likely candidates, I finally decided to do a very un-guy-like thing and ask for some help from the counter person. A very kind gentleman (sorry, didn't get his name) spent the next 30 minutes going over the redeming qualities of many of the available rifles and doing throat erosion and muzzle wear measurements for those that hadn't been done yet.
He then turned me loose to make a decision from amongst the most desirable candidates.
Then, a magical thing happened. I had just about decided on a 1942 model, re-barrelled 1956, TE 1, MW 1 with average quality stock. However, a very nice older gentleman had just selected two other guns to purchase. This means that more guns come from the back stores to refill the retail shop racks.
The first store employee then brought a rifle to me that he said that I ought to consider.
That's when I first saw it.
Serial number in the 3.3 millions....a lot younger than I first wanted but continue reading and you'll see why I ultimately picked it.
Apparently this puts the manufacture in around 1956. Re-barrelled with a SA barrel in 1966, looks like it has an IH bolt. The front and rear handguards look to be of same vintage, whether it original or not who knows?
The stock is flawless.....I mean pristine, virginal....well you get the idea.
Counter worker felt it was a replacement of recent manufacture while the armorer from the back felt that it had been sanded and refinished. For sure it was of a less dense cut of walnut as it is noticeably lighter than the other vintage stocks.
Now comes the kicker.....muzzle wear? 0....as in nada, nothing, zilch. Armorer felt that it had never been fired since being re-barrelled in 1966.
The conundrum is that now I feel like I have to get another one in rack grade because this one is too nice to shoot
Ended up coming away with a can of surplus ammo and one of those spiffy CMP soft cases as well as the rifle. Spot77 came away with an ammo can and a load of .30 caliber brass (the cans with the brass were in better shape).
Returned back to Baltimore beltway area at 1815 hours tired but exhilarated at the same time. 15 hours driving time with 16 hours or so elapsed time.......
Off to Fulton Armory later this week for a once over/check up and then to Hap Baker range hopefully by the end of the week.
If you can make the trip to CMP do it.....I would never have gotten this quality rifle had I taken my luck with the mail order. I'll do the rack grade that way though....
Spot77 will be posting some pictures as soon as he wakes up.....
