Decisions, decisions

[bubblehead]

I've been wanting a 98 Mauser for a long time and when Christmas rolled around, the wife told me to go pick one out.

We drove down to Orange Co. (CA) where the bigger gun shops are to shop around. The first one didn't have anything and all the second shop had were Yugo M48's. I did find one that was just gorgeous so I thought what the hey, I'll just settle on it, paid for it and went home. I thought about it for a few days and got to thinking that the price was too high and it wasn't really what I wanted.

Last week I decided to cancel the Yugo and look some more and went to a local shop in Riverside (CA). They had some Milsurp rifles including several Sweeds, but what caught my eye was a fine looking SMLE Mk 1. The salesman told me that it had been rebarreled in .22 RF after WWI and again to .303 at the start of WWII. The sweeds were nice too, so now I had 3 choices to take the place of my elusive 98k.

I was just about convinced to take that Enfield, but thought I try one more local shop in Yucaipa, CA. I walked in and immediately saw a beautiful 96 and was drawn to it like a magnet. I looked it over real good and put back on the rack, then noticed a 98k!! It was a DOU 43 with all the proper Waffenampts and all numbers matched except the cleaning rod. It's probably an RC, but not defaced like most.

Anyway, that's my new toy. Later, my wife told me that when I started looking, she was willing to LET me spend up to $1k.

Ah well. I'm happy. I have a new cartridge to load. Now, decisions on molds, dies, etc.

Thanks for listening.

Ron

[Frank46]

Uh oh, methinks you are suffering from gun aqasition syndrome, get the hook in good then reel 'em in. Frank

[Buckshot]

...............Hey Bubblehaid. Well the list for 8mm boolit moulds is pretty short and not so sweet. You have one each from Lyman, Saeco and Lee. I think the RCBS offering is a special order deal? Maybe not. Lyman is a Loverin 165gr job and the rest are bore riders. You should slug the barrel to see whatcha got to work with.

One thing I can say though and that is the Lee is a very fine shooting boolit in 2 of my 8x57's. I haven't tried it in the other couple. If yuo had gotten the 6.5 Swede you'd have been in the same pickle so far as mould availability goes.

.............Buckshot

[waksupi]

Bubblehead, SWMBO may have been willing to let you spend a grand. But you wouldn't be any happier with a more expensive firearm, than the one you got. You had the fun of shopping and comparing from tried and true designs. And now you get to shop for the mold, and all the extra stuff that always comes to mind.
Sounds like a pretty good deal.