First day in a long time my back wasn’t bothering me to the point of having trouble walking, so I decided to go for a short motorcycle ride. I haven’t had any windshield time this summer. About 8pm I came up to the road that goes down to the conservation shooting range. I don’t shoot there but sometimes I do go there to pick up brass. I decided what the heck, probably too hot today but I will see what I can find, so I turned down the road and parked at the range. No one was there. I guess I met the last folks leaving on my way in. From the parking lot I could see there had been some activity because the trash cans were pretty well full.
There is a small creek that separates the parking lot and the range and there is a concrete bridge that crosses it. I always look in the water as I cross because sometimes folks lose things in water or they throw stuff in the water. As I looked down I saw a long funny shaped stick laying there in about 6 inches of water, didn’t think anything about it until I got up to the benches. I found a Military type sling, an old leather ammo pouch, and what looked to be a mosen nagant cleaning rod. There was lots of old milsurp 7.62x54R steel cases laying around, as well as the usual suspects, like 9mm,45acp, and 223, nothing I wanted to pick up so I grabbed the sling pouch and rod and headed back across the bridge to put the items in my saddle bags. As I was crossing the bridge the light wasn’t as bad on the water and that funny looking stick looked more like a gun.
Now I have heard guys jokingly say they were going to toss said rifle off in the brush, but never in a million years would I have believed someone would actually do it. I worked my way down the bank and sure enough there was the rifle that the cleaning rod went to. I pulled it out of the water and it still had so much cosmoline on it that the water beaded off of it. I put the cleaning rod and sling back on it after shaking the water out of it,slung it on my back and rode home.
I pulled it apart and dried it then cleaned it real well. The bore doesn’t look to bad for an old military rifle, it is for sure good enough for a cast boolit shooter. There is a few scratches on the wood and a couple small scratches on the blueing where it hit the rocks, but other than that I can’t find a thing wrong with it. It is a model 91/30, and it looks better than a lot that I have seen. I don’t know what they are worth but it ought to be worth more than nothing. I thought about one years ago when they were $100 for a cast shooter, but couldn’t justify the rifle, dies, and mold costs. I hate Lee dies but they are cheap and will work for what I want to do. Now to find some cheap brass.
Best wishes,
Joe
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Originally Posted by nicholst55
