Good morning. I guess us FNG’s are suppose to put something up here about ourselves, by way of introduction.
I am an old guy. Been shooting since I was 7 (along with driving). My first firearm was a Ruger Single Six with a RFM additional cylinder. That now resides with my cousins in LA, having apparently sparked their interest in weapons, to the point they both now have “several”…
I have over the years been a competitive shooter, shooting Bullseye in college and afterwards in the Marine reserve unit I joined after ACDUTRA; We managed as an Air Wing unit to win the Marine Corps Reserve Championship twice in the years I was on the team (irritating the grunt 03’s no end!). I have also competed in IPSC & CASS (IPSC for old guys!). My CASS guns were a pair of USCA SAA’s with case hardening and ivory grips, gunfighter barrel lengths, in .45 Colt. Later on I also shot a Pieta pair of Navy .36’s with Richards-Mason conversions done by a guy up at the WI border. LONG story about those guns! I also collected the Winchester line of lever guns although not all were real Winchesters. But I have the Italian versions of the Yellow Boy, the '73, Winchester '86, 92, & '94, and a Browning copy of the '95. Fabulous guns. I absolutely LOVE how they lock up, and the progression from the initial bank vault lock on the '86, to the more economical but still strong '94 & 95. My last CASS weapon was a Win '97 built in '98. Unfortunately it didn’t have the original barrel, so I cut the barrel to minimum legal. Later I bought a Norinco copy and had it “breathed upon”, with spin-in chokes and a trigger job and general action improvement. It’s still a commie gun, though, so it isn’t respected like my two real Win '97’s.
I have a bunch of wheel guns, and a bunch of 1911’s and a bunch of Sigs - and “other stuff”. Lately I have gotten into NFA stuff. Got an NFA trust and bought my first SBR (Geissele) and can (Silencer Central - it’s ATF approved but in LEO prison). I have unfortunately developed an essential tremor that precludes me from any serious competitive shooting (although I might retry CASS, just for grins) but I still shoot combat - keep up SD skills as I carry.
I look forward to interesting conversation on this forum. Hello from Dallas, TX and thanks for having me.
I used The Trust Shop to set up my NFA trust. Cost me about $100 including fee, and a couple small laminated copies, plus the regular one. I made one amendment to it, kicking out all my kids, who were initially trustees. The fingerprint kit cost about $75 IIRC. No other charges.
The trust is responsive even to stupid questions. There is a section if you’re a client where they generate the ATF forms you need, in the right numbers, for whatever form you are submitting. I did electronic filing directly to ATF with the help of the two companies involved, but I used the form generator to familiarize myself with what all would be on the form. It was simple and I got my tax stamp in roughly 2 months. Both came at the same time, but Silencer Central holds your item until the local law dog sends back the return receipt of receiving the letter informing them i have an NFA iten (so LEO prison). Hopefully that will be back shortly. I am told the ATF is doing approvals in batches, so if you’ve submitted several Form 4’s, for instance, they are all lumped together and you hear about them all at one time, not in order of submission or such. It has also been suggested that my trust went through quicker because I had kicked out everyone but me, so they had only me to do the back ground check on. I have also been told that since I formed the trust with the others, including notarized statements, if (when) I put them back on, no further testing or checks are needed. So for now I’m solo, but eventually, when I’m done acquiring NFA stuff I will add the kids, if nothing else than to keep my weapons out of probate.
If you are looking for an NFA trust, I would seriously consider these guys:
This is NOT a paid political announcement but a testamonial to good service. Take that with the usual grain of salt.
I wound up sending in my own fingerprints because the kiosks just wouldn’t generate an acceptable set of prints. It kept saying I moved. My problem seemed to be that I have developed wrinkles on my fingers that change how the print looks. Still, it is identifiable, and apparently the FBI & ATF accepted them. It is legal, BTW, for you to take your own prints and submit them. You just have to so state on the correct line - and remember that if you sign your name other than the full name, it must be listed as an alias - which I did, and obviusly no issue (I sign with initials and last name).
Looking more for the funds to buy NFA goodies but appreciate your taking the time to share your experience
The whole thing sets me at unease, friend of a friend had all his NFA items stolen while at work, back during fast and furious years, so the suspicious on who stole them is narrow
THIS goes to the heart of the problem - the NFA '34 and the ATF implementation of same.
NFA '34 is simply unconstitutional by any rational English reading of the 2nd amendment - period, full stop, end of discussion. That, of course, then implies the government has been doing illegal things and in the process denying us our rights. NONE of this nonsense was present before 1934, when the commie Democrat congress of FDR’s time passed this law. They attempted to disguise it as a “tax”. It is, but it’s so much more, too! It is an egregious assault on what WE the PEOPLE decide is right and good for us.
We gun people tend to look at the narrow area of 2A. But the assault is widespread and shows up in all manner of places, always hiding under colour of law and always “it’s good for you” as the excuse. Sorry, my father and mother are long dead, and I don’t even use that on my grown kids, so I have zero use to see the government deciding what’s best for me. They have a hard time deciding bigger issues - like what’s in the national interest - to worry about little ole me.
There is no “left” anymore. It is now the Far Left, made up solely of Democrats/Marxists/communists. The repetitious BS about the EBR and “assault rifles” is simply troll work, meant to attempt to control the terms of the debate. We fail if we don’t break out of that shell and reject the speech from the Far Left as “hate speech” to take a page from their playbook.
Thank you. I’m stiill trying to get accustomed to how this place is organized. You don’t seem to be split into major segments - like single action, DA wheel guns, auto loaders, rifles, shotguns, suppressors (or NFA items), gunsmithing, misc, with subforums in each. But perhaps that was on purpose.
Anyway, it seems like a nice place. People are friendly so far. No burning debates. No controversial discussions. Kind of nice to just be peaceful and talk guns.
It was deliberately done that way in purpose so in each category one could carry on threads about those subjects without intrusions in the thread about other types of weapons discussions evading the thread.
Welcome from just south of you in Waxahachie! Thanks for the trust info, too! I’d like to get a suppressed .22 one day.
Anyway, you mention a “more economical” ‘94 and ‘95 lever gun. Is that the Browning copy or an Italian copy? I’d love to add a lever gun to my collection as I always thought they were cool looking, functional and historical pieces of Americana.
I think perhaps my comment was not clear. I meant “more economical” in the sense “cheaper to make “. If you look at the’94 for instance, it uses the exact same locking mechanism as the’86, only lots smaller. The’ ‘95 is simply a different approach to handling the then new smokeless centerfire cartridges. Mine is in .30-‘06.
As for cost of acquisition, unfortunately SloJoe has saddled us with nasty inflation. So old AND new guns simply cost more. Some of the more popular weapons have been overproduced, so their prices are kind of at record lows. These include hammer fired Sigs, Glocks, some HK’s. Lever guns are not in that kind of demand so prices have remained high. My preferences are (in order) Winchester 2nd gen, Winchester 1st gen (for like a ‘94 made before 1964), Browning, Uberti. The last is the Italian copy, so most likely to be the lowest price. I have 2 - ‘66 & ‘73. Both are good quality but have “quirks’ - like the safeties.
?You shoot at the rifle range in your town. I have heard it’s really nice. Haven’t yet found a good place to shoot rifles. All I really need is a 100 yd range. My feeling is that you can learn all you need at that distance but transition range, which you can often find in ballistic tables.
Gotcha. That makes sense. Thanks again for the info!
As to the range in Waxahachie, are you talking about ETTS? I haven’t been there yet. I looked into their membership years ago, but when I saw the annual membership cost I kind of never bothered to them in my radar. I think they now allow the public day use, though?
I used to go to the range on 287 in between Midlothian and Mansfield, but they recently closed, unfortunately. When I have time, I go to the range in Terrell where I’m a member, but it’s at least an hour’s drive from me. It has a 100 yard and a 200 yard range. I can bring you as a guest if you like. And later if you’re interested, I can sponsor you, but there is a several year wait list unfortunately.
I know you haven’t found a good range yet, but which one do you go to when you can?
@Devereaux ETSS does allow day shooting (at least they did a few years ago). They have lots of outdoor pistol/short rifle bays. I think they used to allow use of their 200 & 300 yard ranges. You were not allowed to use their long range though. It went out to 1200 yards IIRC.
I have been there a couple of times. They do not have range masters watching you. You are in a bay with 20+ foot high gravel berms on 3 sides. There were 18-20 individual bays at the time.
They have shooting matches as well as LEO training at times. These can cause some of the bays to be unavailable. They do not provide targets for you, but you can use steel targets if they are still up from a recent match.
In all, it is a good range. It is $700± for a year membership. It is also over an hour away from me.
