The old 1911's rusting away will break your heart.





12/23/2021 05:22 AM | CHRIS EGER

BLACK FRIDAY GUN SHOPPING IN ETHIOPIA​

By nature of the past 130 years frequented by conflict in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has tons of vintage military arms up for sale.
One European importer, based in the Czech Republic, has been detailing their shopping trips to the African country where surplus firearms are stacked deep and priced cheap. Zelený Sport Defence's mononymous globetrotting buyer, Schuster, has been sending snaps back from his trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's ancient capital, filled with historic firearms.
The old Ethiopian Empire fought several wars against Italy (in 1887–1889, 1895-1896, 1935-37), a cycle that was only broken after liberation in World War II. This left the country with not only stacks of guns both bought to fight off the Italians-- M1874 Gras rifles, Gewehr 71s and 88s, Remington Rolling Blocks, FN-made Mausers, British Lee-Enfields, Russian Berdan and Model 91/30 Mosin-Nagants-- but also those captured from the Italians including Vetterlis, and Carcanos of every stripe.

How many can you identify? (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)
At least Ethiopia has a dry climate (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)
Lugers, anyone? (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)
For fans of .303 British (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)

Moving into more modern times, the Imperial Ethiopian Army fought alongside U.S. forces in Korea, and as part of the UN effort in the Congo a decade later, armed with U.S-supplied M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, and M1911s. Therefore, it is no surprise that vintage American hardware is rusting away there.

This...hurts. (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)
Some body please send this Python back home! (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)
This M14, however, is un-importable except as a parts kit, which is even sadder. (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)

After the communist Derg overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, the country became an ally of Moscow and, fighting a 17-year civil war against folks not so inclined, was flooded with military aid from Soviet arsenals. That makes AKs, SKSs and the like common in the country.

Just goes to show, you can find almost anything in Ethiopian warehouses. (Photo: Zelený Sport Defence)

With the Derg long ago consigned to the dustbin of history, a lot of that gear is now up for grabs as well. Even the 20-year-long war between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea calmed down in 2018, with the country seeing at least a degree of peace until the so-called Tigray War began last November, but even that seems to be winding down.
For the past couple of years, the Ethiopians have been having a clearance sale on all this old military gear and, besides the Czechs, American importers have been getting in on the action-- as has been well chronicled by Gun Jesus-- so you can expect much of the above to be bought up and fed into the milsurp market in the near future.
Bring it!

I absolutely hate buying new scopes. There are so many options and I've buyer's remorse more than once.

So as much as it pains me...I need a new scope for my bolt action 308. This is a simple utility rifle, currently hosting a PST2 3-15, that gets a fair amount of range time.

I've some extra money and would like to upgrade optics and move the PST2 to another AR rifle. The help I could use is in finding another scope with similiar features, maybe a little more magnification.

Ideally, I would like to stay under $1200.

Any thoughts, suggestions and snide comments are welcome.

Thanks

I’m going between a 6.5 prc and a 6.5 saum in a surgeon action

Other suggestions ??

Thanks in advance

Bill

I have a .30 cal structured barrel I’m wanting to sell its 30” and 1-8 twist was gonna build a ELR rifle but changed my mind $2000

I like Leatherneck for its historical pieces on "The Old Breed".

Otherwise it drives me shithouse with often woke BS or the dumb Editor saying dumb shit that exposes her fobbit nature.......shit like M-14s can't be shot at 1000 yards than doubling down when a PMI from that era told her to shit in her fist.

Than I saw they actually included this poem in their latest batch of letters from readers....



A striking divergence from their usual fawning BS. I note any picture of POTUS dealing with mil if it includes Obama highlights Obama over the mil member but when a picture from the Trump era is used they show Trumps back and focus on the mil member.

Hey CDR Boyce USN, you may not think so, but from my 0351 perspective being on a sub is front line shit.......

hope our rulers begin to pay the price for their polocies. but i am sure this all trump's fault as well as the NRA;s

L3 NGAL
I’m sure a lot of you know how hard these are to come by nowadays. Legit unit purchased from ONYXARMS earlier this year. Comes with NGAL mod button , pouch, manual, extra diffusers, blue screws etc.

$7200 shipped/insured $6850 shipped insured SOLD

Elcan (like new) 1.5-6 brown (556 reticle) with top rail for mounting RDS $1600 shipped/ insured

SAFRAN COTI (one week old from eurooptic, brand new never even turned on)
$2250 shipped/insured

KAC UNS SR clip ons! with full kits and warranty from KAC . one is brand new, the other has maybe 3 hours of use on it at this point? Both less then a month old.

$5700 shipped / insured for the new one, $5500 shipped for the one I’ve used a couple times

SU-231/PEQ (rare DEVGRU Eotech)
This one speaks for itself. A cloners dream. I’ve seen these go north of $2500$ In this condition . Crisp reticle, body is in great shape. Comes with case and reference card

$750 shipped /insured

L3/Insight SQFS kit. (I have two one full kits)
(Sniper quick fire sight)
Comes as pictured & ready to mount on your m110 deployment kit.

$550 shipped/insured (each)

McMillan a4 rem 700 footprint with badger DBM & 1 mag, & PGW forward NV rail.
USMC spec other then the color fill, never been bedded.
$1100 shipped / insured $1000 shipped insured SOLD

Geiselle Super precision 30mm 0 moa mount (like new)

$225 shipped/insured SOLD

Nvision HaloX 50mm like new (been on one hunt and is LNIB) $7400 shipped/insured
SOLD

Nxs 2.5-10 Mil/Mil well used scope. Has knicks and scratches and is a beater but holds true. I wouldn’t be afraid to drop the rifle this goes on… comes mounted in badger med height steel rings with badger rulr rail $900 shipped insured SOLD

Elcan 1-3-9 like new. 556 variant
$1450 shipped/insured SOLD

If I think of anything else I’ll post it up. Dm for pics

I have a used Area419 upgraded Harris 6-9 sbrms bipod. Separately the components are $215 I am looking to get $175 shipped for it. Will post a couple pics later.

It's time to upgrade from my Garage Sale K-Mart "Focal" brand aluminum tripod from the 1970's ( Don't laugh - it holds my spotting scope and binos off the ground most of the time ). The last match had a reverse roof slope that kicked my ass, I should have had a sling and that may have improved my score by a shot or two.
I'm thinking about $600 for a budget to get my feet wet and have "A piece of kit that not a piece of shit"
What should I be looking at ?

I told the wife there’s one more rifle I need before a kid happens. I’m honestly torn between an LMT MWS, SR25 and a SCAR 20.

1) I’d like to use this for DMR field style matches and hunting, so weight is an important factor.

2) I want to keep the caliber as a 308 for ammo availability and reliability since these companies have this caliber as a factory option. I know 6.5cm is ballistically superior, but I’m not interested in the caliber.

3) I’d like to keep the barrel length no longer than 18” so the SCAR barrel would need to be chopped. I’m a short dude and long barrels with suppressors are a pain in the ass. Also shorter barrels are lighter.

4) most of my shooting will be inside 1k. I have a 16” 5.56 recce rifle with an LPVO, so this is filling the void of a little more distance past 600 and more energy on target.

My wife made me the coolest concealed carry holster for Christmas. "I'm Gettin' the Pig!"

Coming home from Sam's Club this evening at around 2000h I saw a wonderous sight...

It was a true Festivus Miracle.

A white van with a snowman and giant candy canes on the roof almost touching the traffic lights tall made to look like the boat that won the contest with Let's Go Brandon on it.

I put a B14r together and finally had a chance to shoot it today. I only had 3 different brands of ammo, Remington gold bucket, federal match and CCI. All three grouped 6 shots slightly under a half inch at 25 yards and right around an inch at 100 yards. Vertical the shots were all pretty close but horizontally is where the groups opened up so I’m pretty sure I still need to work on my form. My question is what size groups should I expect from my rifle with quality ammo? There happened to be another guy at the range shooting .22 when I was there so I started asking him about what he was shooting. He was getting one hole groups at a 100 yards…. but he also had a custom rifle. So what will a stock Bergara barreled action in a MDT chassis do if I do my part?

I'm looking for a semi auto 6.5 creedmoor that I can take to matches, but isn't so dedicated to matches that I won't take it hunting because it weighs 16#'s. I enjoy shooting Guardian matches, and in January will do my second Mammoth. I like accurate rifles and shooting matches more for fun than trying to be the most serious competitor there. I'm stuck on 6.5 creedmoor because I like the versatility of also taking deer with the same rifle.

I'll admit I'm not too well versed on the semi auto precision rifle world. My goals for this rifle would be completely reliable, and accurate to 1/2" to 3/4" at the most with handloads. I've been looking at Aero Precision, Daniel Defense DD5, JP, and GA Precision. I just don't have enough experience in this realm to know where to focus.

If any of you have some wisdom gained from experience I'd appreciate it.

Hi All,

I just got a completely unsuspected surprise from the people at Defiance Machine / BadRock Rifles.

My build came in today, ahead of schedule, and on Christmas Eve no less. How cool is that! These are some really great people out in Montana. Great comms. Great service. I will email them later to let them know how happy I am that I got an unexpected Christmas present from them. So, broke free from smoking some Christmas meats and a turkey for the extended family and went to my FFL to pick it up.

It's a heavy rifle. I got in on the scales. It weighs in at 15 pounds with the magazine and the Atlas bipod on it. I will have more info soon. Suffice to say that it's a very nice build and the Defiance action is pure melted butter . Guys at the FFL couldn't believe how smooth it is. The barrel and action are low glare utilitarian bead finish. Definitely built for taking some knocks. This ain't no safe queen. Which is a good thing 'cause I plan to shoot the snot out of it.

So far so good. The proof is in the shooting though, which will take some time as I now have to go through the whole measure this and that for the setup, get rings, a scope and other things. I love this part

Nevertheless, here is a pic, literally right out of the box. Had to install the bipod so I could stand it up straight....

Merry Christmas you all!

I’m currently debating between the Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x42 and the Vortex Razor 1-10x24 for my new hunting rifle.

The rifle is a .308 Remington 700, with a 16” barrel. This rifle will be primarily used to hunt whitetail deer in the North East. The average tree stand shot opportunity will be 75 yards or less. I also hunt over cut cornfields, where shots can be made out to 250-300 yards. Lastly, we conduct end of the season deer drives, where shots can get as close as 10-15 yards.

Ideally, I imagine running around 5 power for tree stand hunting, 8-10 power for hunting over fields, and 1-2 power for deer drives.

Some pricless shit right here from that warm bag of oatmeal, the Pudding Prezident himself.

Looks like Cadex is trying to get into the comp world. I'm not sure I'd drop the ACC but I bet this thing is great quality. Thoughts?

Howdy hide, been a while since I’ve traversed the forums with life and all. I having coming due two suppressors I ordered in the last year but sold all my big bore hosts for the roof over my head. They should both be ready in the next couple weeks and sent to my FFL in Franktown, CO near Denver. I want to get new homes arranged so I can get them turned around quick when they arrive.

Both cans are:

338 Ultra SR
5/8x24 QD Brake
FDE Color

$1,800 shipped from my FFL to yours. $400 off retail!

Thanks!

Looking for caliber opinions for my next rifle. This next gun will mostly be a hunting rig with occasional banging long range steel.

I mostly deer hunt, but I want to feel comfortable taking a mature Bull moose, Bull Elk, or Boar Grizz as well without feeling undergunned.

My current largest caliber rifle is a 7mm rem mag.

I'm considering the following:
300 WSM
300 PRC
6.8 Western
300 wm (although I'd like to get away from the belted mags)

*Keep in mind I'd still like to be able to use this rifle for deer without losing both front shoulders turning to jello.

Any other recommendations?

Thanks!

I can’t stop laughing

When he said “I agreed” I may have lost it.




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Selling a new in box Tikka T3X 223. It is blued with 20" barrel. 1 in 8" twist. The box has never been opened. I will try to post pics later today. $660.00 shipped.