I Could Never Be So Lucky Again

I have previously written about ordering a reproduction of a Mosin sniper rifle.

I've had it for about two weeks. The first part of that time corresponded with a nasty cold, so I left it alone. For the last week, I have slowly worked on boresighting it.

What I thought I had purchased was a standard WW2 Soviet infantry rifle which just had a scope mounted. But it turns out that it is marked with a "СН", which is the way that the Soviets marked rifles that were produced to become sniper rifles ("CH" in the Roman alphabet is "SN"). After the war, the Soviets had a lot of sniper rifles on hand; they converted a lot of them back to standard infantry rifles. More recently, people are restoring them back into sniper configuration.

So what I wound up buying (at no additional price, mind you) was not a reproduction, but a restored sniper rifle.

I can't believe my luck on this. It made my day to learn that.

On another note, every two years, the FAA requires that all pilots undergo a "Biennial Flight Review." You sit down with an instructor for at least an hour and discuss things, then you go fly for at least an hour. I did mine this morning and I had to do it early because of the Chimpy protective TFR. We both wanted to be long on the ground before the Air Farce has F-16s looking to shoot down errant Cessnas.

So I got to fly an older Cessna 172, one that doesn't have all of the glass panel shit in it and one that has the ability to drop a full 40deg of flaps. What a sweet flying airplane that was! If I wasn't a taildragger freak, I'd want one.

A good day all around.