Sunday, December 7, 2014

Gunsmoke project imminence.

Another teaser post. 

I got a call today from Rich Wyatt at Gunsmoke.  The 03 Springfield project is now complete, which on one hand is plain gonna hurt, as I am "freshly unemployed" at the moment, and this turned out to be a full-house custom rifle (a six-year story for another time)...but that is the end of the bad news.  I'm so excited about this piece I can hardly stand it, and if it's going to cost me, I intend to get full enjoyment and utility out of it.  :-)

Now, here's the teaser part:  Rich was calling in part to ask my permission to use the gun in an episode of Gunsmoke's YouTube series.  It's got a couple of features on it that you just don't find on a lot of 03 Springfields--even "Springfield Scout" iterations like this one is--and he thought it might be worth recording.

So, it may yet be just a little bit more before I actually get the gun back.  (Since it's been over six years since I commissioned the work, there's really no worries there.)  And I suspect it may well be worth it anyway, to have the rifle featured by someone who really understands all the -fu I was after with this project.  (He taught it to me, after all:  it may have been Jeff Cooper who first taught me what I needed to know about Scout rifles over the course of a lot of years, but it was Rich--and fellow master instructor Tom Russell--who was there on the line for my four hundred rounds of in-person school once I got a Steyr Scout of my own.)

I'll be sure to post back here once the episode airs, and...yeah, I'll probably be squee-ing about the gun too, once it arrives. 

Now, to acquire a supply of stripper clips, which thanks to the forward glass, this 03 can still make use of!  :-)

5 comments:

MamaLiberty said...

I'm tickled for you! Can't imagine waiting six years for something I wanted that badly. You have the patience of a saint. :)

No compensation for using your rifle in his movie? Oh well.

Joe in Reno said...

Get the Swedish 6.5x 55 strippers. They work better & smoother.

Try Samco

http://www.samcoglobal.com/acc-swed-mauser.html

Kevin Wilmeth said...

Thanks for the suggestion, Joe. As it happens, I am indeed aware of that source and the recommendation to use the Swedish clips! :-)

I do wonder, given that the apparent superiority of the Swedish clips is not the sort of thing you'd stumble on accidentally, how many folks these days are 1) using 03s at all, and 2) of those, how many actually make use of clip-loading in the first place. Personally, I intend to get pretty good at it!

Kevin Wilmeth said...

ML, the mix of emotions surrounding this rifle, over the last six years and even several years before that, would require quite a bit of space to go into.

At this point, though, aside from the financial pain, it's all win. Ultimately, the promise I made my late grandfather (whose rifle it was originally) was that I would turn the gun into something I would reach for frequently, rather than leave it as a display-case-queen. And if the gun is even a small fraction of what I believe it has become, I may have to invent excuses not to reach for it, just to keep the stable mates minimally exercised. :-D

MamaLiberty said...

Then I'm even more glad for you, Kevin. Most of us don't ever get to have that kind of experience.