Typecaster
10-09-2008, 03:12 PM
A couple of days ago I got a call that an old guy in town has Parkinson's disease and was having to move out of his apartment into a facility...and he had a "bunch" of books for the Friends of the Library book sale (one of my civic duties). I gave him a call and took the truck over to box and schlep the books back to the library. As I was unloading the second truckload, I noticed a mint copy of the Sierra manual, so I grabbed it (that's the advantage of being in charge of the book sale).
I called the old gent to thank him for the books, and told him I'd found one I was going to buy. When he found out it was a reloading manual, he said to come on back and he had some reloading equipment in his carport for the Salvation Army to pick up—but he'd rather it went to someone who was interested. He said he hadn't been shooting in about 20 years, and his son now had all the guns. I knocked on his door, and he said he'd just remembered that he had 3 or 4 "boxes" of ammunition in his closet, but I'd have to get them out if I was interested. OK, I was interested. I expected a few boxes of 38 Special or 9mm, but the "boxes" (4) were metal filing boxes 9x12x6, completely full of boxed commercial ammo (FMJ, SP, and factory lead). I wiped the drool off my chin and thanked him, then we went to the carport. There I found a minty (used once; he liked to shoot but found he didn't like to reload) RCBS Rockchucker (that makes 3) outfit—press, measure, stand, funnels, 4 reloading blocks, about 30 MTM cartridge boxes, etc. I thanked him again, and headed for home with the loot.
I was just sitting down to a celebratory martini with my lovely wife, when he called to thank ME for helping him out by taking the stuff.
This morning I took a quick inventory. After tossing reloads—
1 brick CCI small pistol primers
6 boxes CCI large pistol
2 bricks .22 LR, CCI & Win.
5 boxes Rem .22 shorts
5 boxes Win .22 Mag JHP
4 boxes CCI .22 LR Stingers
14 boxes .25 ACP
1 box .380 Auto
17 boxes 9mm
4 boxes 38 Super Auto+P
6 boxes 7.65 Auto
2 boxes 32 Auto
1 box 32 H&R Mag
10 boxes .357 Mag
2 boxes .41 Mag
5 boxes .45 ACP
2 boxes .44 Mag
4 boxes 30-30 Win
and probably 20 revolver & pistol grips, both take-offs and Pachmayer rubber aftermarket
Obviously this guy was stocking up for Armageddon, or at least Y2K (whatever happened to that, anyway?). Anyway, stacked up by caliber, it looks like the shelf at a gun shop! The bittersweet part is that a former shooter has left the game, and even though I gained a whole bunch of "stuff," that's sad.
And I guess that there's a lesson, too: It never hurts to mention your interest in this vice.
Richard
I called the old gent to thank him for the books, and told him I'd found one I was going to buy. When he found out it was a reloading manual, he said to come on back and he had some reloading equipment in his carport for the Salvation Army to pick up—but he'd rather it went to someone who was interested. He said he hadn't been shooting in about 20 years, and his son now had all the guns. I knocked on his door, and he said he'd just remembered that he had 3 or 4 "boxes" of ammunition in his closet, but I'd have to get them out if I was interested. OK, I was interested. I expected a few boxes of 38 Special or 9mm, but the "boxes" (4) were metal filing boxes 9x12x6, completely full of boxed commercial ammo (FMJ, SP, and factory lead). I wiped the drool off my chin and thanked him, then we went to the carport. There I found a minty (used once; he liked to shoot but found he didn't like to reload) RCBS Rockchucker (that makes 3) outfit—press, measure, stand, funnels, 4 reloading blocks, about 30 MTM cartridge boxes, etc. I thanked him again, and headed for home with the loot.
I was just sitting down to a celebratory martini with my lovely wife, when he called to thank ME for helping him out by taking the stuff.
This morning I took a quick inventory. After tossing reloads—
1 brick CCI small pistol primers
6 boxes CCI large pistol
2 bricks .22 LR, CCI & Win.
5 boxes Rem .22 shorts
5 boxes Win .22 Mag JHP
4 boxes CCI .22 LR Stingers
14 boxes .25 ACP
1 box .380 Auto
17 boxes 9mm
4 boxes 38 Super Auto+P
6 boxes 7.65 Auto
2 boxes 32 Auto
1 box 32 H&R Mag
10 boxes .357 Mag
2 boxes .41 Mag
5 boxes .45 ACP
2 boxes .44 Mag
4 boxes 30-30 Win
and probably 20 revolver & pistol grips, both take-offs and Pachmayer rubber aftermarket
Obviously this guy was stocking up for Armageddon, or at least Y2K (whatever happened to that, anyway?). Anyway, stacked up by caliber, it looks like the shelf at a gun shop! The bittersweet part is that a former shooter has left the game, and even though I gained a whole bunch of "stuff," that's sad.
And I guess that there's a lesson, too: It never hurts to mention your interest in this vice.
Richard