- How it happened in Argentina: "What seems peculiar about Argentina’s case is the government’s Herculean effort to ignore the immutable laws of economics in their pursuit of grand larceny. The country has seen five currencies in just the past century, averaging a collapse every twenty years or so. In 1970, the peso ley replaced the peso moneda nacional at a rate of 100 to 1. The peso ley was in turn replaced by the peso Argentino in 1983 at a rate of 10,000 to 1. That lasted a couple of years, and was then replaced by the Austral, again at a rate of 1,000 to 1. To nobody’s surprise, the Austral was itself replaced by the peso convertible at a rate of 10,000 to 1 in 1992. During the past four decades, when all was said and done, after the various changes of currency and slicing of zeroes, one peso convertible was equivalent to 10,000,000,000,000 (10^13) pesos moneda nacional."
- Someone buy that Carcano so I don't have to. (I want a long WWI-vintage 1891 for the collection but now's just not the time.)
- I want to get a special lower with a Calico Jack engraved on the magwell so that I can have a gun just for Talk Like A Pirate Day: An ARRRRR!-15.
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
It's ok to be jealous, I picked up said lower (a Spikes Tactical) a couple years ago for similar reasons. Still gotta build it up though...
ReplyDeleteIt Can't Happen Here, and even if it could, It's Different This Time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we've got responsible leaders and sound fiscal Ok even I have to call bs on me. And I wanted the Spike's Calico Jack lower with matching ejection port cover for a friend with a nearly appropriate personality. I've got the punisher on mine. God help me if I ever need to use it in anger. Oh what the prosecutor would say...
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Carcano, I did some research because someone I used to be acquainted with had the 6.5mm carbine version. Not only did they not know how to find parts, they seemed to mistake me for the ammo fairy.
ReplyDelete1- I found parts hard to find.
2- I found ammo to be Norma @ $40/20rds... otherwise, to be affordable, it's a handloader's game.
As a deer hunter, I further observed the Italian military sights are graduated/calibrated for such an impractical trajectory, mid-range misses being pretty much inevitable, compared to what I've seen done with the Swedish 6.5's.
mustanger,
ReplyDelete1) I ain't buyin' 'em for deer hunting. I'm buying 'em to keep people from cutting them up and using them to hunt deer badly.
2) Reasonably-priced 6.5 Carcano has been available from Prvi Partizan for years.
(The limiting factor in shooting a Carcano in the 21st Century is not ammo availability, it's the scarcity of quality clips.)
ReplyDeleteI'll bet Wally could make that lower happen.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'...
Spike's already does.
ReplyDeleteTam,
ReplyDelete1-a) I didn't say you were, but the idiot I previously mentioned thought he was going to. An as-issued 1903A3 or K98k, as well as a good many sporters of varied ages, would do a much better job than what he was going to attempt.
1-b) As for "cutting them up and using them to hunt deer badly", a recent comparison of prices between milsurp and modern sporters proves chopping makes no economic sense. And Carcano is one barreled action I've never considered building a sporter on.
2) I've had so little use for this round I hadn't noticed.
(I also found very few clips of any quality.)
Wally (York arms) will do up a lower with custom graphics, serial number and fire select text.
ReplyDeleteI myself had dreamed up the ARRrrrr-15 with a SN of 7Seas, and fire select text of 'batten hatches' (safe), and 'shiver timbers'(fire)....and the (dreaming) giggle switch setting of 'repel boarders'.
The people of Argentina are, just like us, getting exactly the government they deserve - good and hard.
ReplyDeleteWell, here it is from Spikes...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?item=F1STSLCJack&name=Spike's+Tactical+Multi.+Cal.+Calico+Jack+AR+Receiver&groupid=11
Tam, have you considered starting a non-profit tax shelt...err...I mean, foundation to rescue abused, lovable old guns that just need a good home...?
You could even have a nationwide ad campaign featuring abused rifles that have been left out in the weather, set to melodramatic music.
I'll bet you could even get Joe Mantenga to do the voice-overs!
Until my early twenties the price of gold was $35.00/troy ounce, depending on the price of gold today you can do the math, to determine the comparable worth of today's dollar.
ReplyDeleteTam, that devaluation of the original peso moneda nacional to its fourth-generation derivative is scary-crazy frightening.
ReplyDeleteAside: I looked at that long set of zeros, followed by "(1013)", and realized something.
That number in parentheses is supposed to be "10 raised the power of 13", sometimes written "10^13", and sometimes written in HTML as "10<sup>13</sup>"
Copy-paste sometimes screens out that HTML stuff, making numbers/superscripts/footnotes/other-special-stuff look odd. Or unrecognizable.
I dunno. Hyperinflation like that would suck, surely, but as long as my mortgage stays enumerated in Federal Reserve Notes, and doesn't get magically swapped to be denominated in "New Dollars", there will be some upside, too.
ReplyDeletekarrde,
ReplyDeleteThanks for catching that. It had the proper formatting originally, but flipping back and forth between the WYSIWYG editor and the HTML winder seems to have made it puke out all its italics and superscripts...
If you have the bayonet for it you MUST get the Carcano.
ReplyDeleteTAMMY
ReplyDeleteSET UP A TAX EXEMPT 5O1(C)3 HISTORICAL SOCIETY "A HOME FOR WAYWARD ORDNANCE "INCLUDE EVERYTHING EVERYTHING FROM 15CEN TOKAGAWA MATCHLOCKS TO THE ATOMIC CANNON IF YOU ARE SERIOUS IVE BEEN THROUGH THE 501(C)3 DRILL BEFORE WILL BE HAPPY TO ASSIST YOU SETTING IT UP
CONTACT ME PLEASE
I would like to put my hands on an old Carc in original condition with the progressive rifling, is there any way to tell which ones had it without looking down the barrel?
ReplyDeleteOg,
ReplyDeleteBuy one produced before WWII (well, before the late '30s,) and make sure it's not one of the M91/24 short rifles that were made by lopping the ends off of M91 long rifles.
@Tam,
ReplyDeletenow, that little voice in the back of my head is muttering the numbers, they speak to me.
Instead of the numbers, they don't make any sense!
About that lower: I've been telling myself to get an AR-15, but maybe I should go for an ARRRRRR!-15
I want an ARRR-10, but No-MAS.
ReplyDeleteI am indeed concerned the people of the United States will get the government they deserve. This past week I had TWO people tell me, basically, that it did not matter how MUCH the government spent; what mattered was WHAT it was spent on. If the deficit spending was on health and social programs, they seemed to think everything would be fine.
ReplyDeleteMy argentine mauser '91 came cheap and sporterized. Marvelous workmanship on the (long barrel) metal, Too bad I don't have a original stock to replace the remaining, sadly circumcized stock.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in who thought it a good idea to blaze away at 1000+ yards? The gatling had already been invented, as had cannon, so giving away your position at long range could have invited some truly devastating return fire.
Heck, it already happened here, in 1933. The rest is just an extended epilogue.
ReplyDeletehaving, as i do, a nifty little 1918 Carcano cavalry carbine in 6.5mm i found several things to be true: it is light, fast and handy; it has a quick, slick bolt; it groups well at 100 yds; it hits 2 feet high at 100 yds. i am considering making a replacement front sight to make it hit to point of aim (and can be returned to the original stupid european 2 foot high front sight at any time). it would be an excellent little gun for walks in the woods.
ReplyDeletealso: ammo- http://www.midwayusa.com/find?sortby=1&itemsperpage=20&newcategorydimensionid=9943&
clips- http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=307209040
The old infantry rifles were graduated out to a mile or more because mass volley fire was still - erroneously - considered a viable tactic at the end of the 19th Century.
ReplyDeleteI'm in for twenty for Tam's Relic Rescue; ten more of ya'll kick in the same and that Carcano is on it's way to living out its life in the lap of love and luxury.
ReplyDeleteOr...maybe they have layaway? :)
PB
Robin: Tell that to the British who had to face massed and accurate 7mm Mauser at 1,200 yards in South Africa.
ReplyDeleteNot that the Brits necessarily had all their marbles together in the same sack. The flipping Boers had brightly color coded aiming stakes set up out to 1,600 meters, and the Pommies mearched right past them.
Tammy, I recently got a supreme 1895 Chilean from Allan'a Armory for $195, and his prices seemed a bit better than the competition. He seems to be picking up a new small batch of Carcanos every month or so.
I also got a condition new 7.35 Terni complete with toadsticker for $95 to throw behind the seat of the pickup with some Graf and Sons softpoint.
Interestingly, somebody in the Chilean government had replaced the '95 front sight with a new Swede Mauser looking front blade that battlesighted pinwheels at 100yards. Demolished the X ring on a 100 yard smallbore target.
I went to take a gander at the Carcano, but when saw the Berthier carbine just above, I threw up in my mouth just a little. Uggh. That thing's as misshapen as Quasimodo.
ReplyDeleteAdded a Jackson to Tam's Relic Rescue Fund. C'mon guys & gals, pay up for all the "free" ice cream!
ReplyDeleteSo, apparently the readership here is among the 47%; they like their ice cream, but prefer it to be on someone else's dime. So the Carcano is sold. One might hope that it sold to a generous, well-heeled, and anonymous patron of history and VFTP, and arrangements are being made at this moment to ship it to Tam's FFL...
ReplyDeleteBut whatever; there's got to be a few thousand unchopped examples waiting for a good home and one of them will find its way to R. Cottage eventually. And the proprietress at the Arms Room now has the means at least for a box of rounds, until that fine day comes.
Thanks for the support, farmist. To the rest of you deadbeats, well...TFN.
PB