Treasures of Round Top Fair (with photos)

Took a trip to Roundtop Fair a few weekends ago, near Lost Pines, Texas.  One of the nation's biggest gathering of vendors for the biggest garage sale/antique show, held bi-anually.  The actual event is held within a 10 mile radius of Roundtop, specifically Warrenton.  You can go to the surrounding towns and they'll have even more groups of vendors selling stuff.

Warrenton is where the biggest gathering of Vendors are located.  In Warrenton, within ten minutes I found a tent with all sorts of guns being sold by a retired gentleman.  He was there with his wife, who I suspect was forcing him to liquidate his collection.  In the center of the tent was a table which held some M1 Garands, 1903 Springfields, M1 Carbines, Krags, Mausers, fancy muzzleloading flinchlocks, a few modern wood-stocked sporting rifles, and a glass case full of overpriced .32 pistols and breaktop revolvers and a few Smith and Wesson revolvers.  There was a singleshot Gewehr 1871 for $200 in good condition that was tempting me, but I knew better than to buy an obscure blackpowder rifle in an obscure caliber that costs $5 a round.  Basically standard Old-Guy weaponry, nothing that interested me.  In the surrounding tables were random antique stuff.  Boxes of skeleton keys, a lone French Berthier bolt missing the bolthead, spurs, pieces of furniture, picture frames, and kitchenware.

Lifesize T-800 statue for $1000
What a deal!

Several umbrella bins on the ground held a bunch of rusted toy rifles and some de-activated guns.  Single shot shotguns, .22 bolt actions of unknown make missing parts, a Spencer carbine with the barrel chopped and a rod welded in the chamber, and a late-war Arisaka Type 99, with it's bright red stock and a stripped bolt duct-taped around the receiver.  It was missing a bunch of parts and the stock had been chopped at the band.  I don't particularly care about Japanese, Italian and French rifles and I promised myself I would never own these guns just because they are chambered in weird, obscure cartridges, and on top of that, I don't like adding more calibers to my collection.  However, I could not go home empty-handed!  I removed the bolt and peaked down the bore.  The chamber was intact and rifling visible.  I asked him how much and he said $20.  I took it.

I should have offered $15, but whatever.  I have a complete spare bolt and a bin of parts at home I could probably partially restore it with, and I have a chopped fore-end from an Enfield that I could hack onto the Arisaka somehow.  I could probably make my money back by selling the extra stripped bolt on ebay, although I probably will spend as much money as a complete Type 99 trying to restore this thing.

I actually ran across two more Arisaka Type 99's at the show.  One was crudely nailed to a 2x6 pine plaque, though otherwise good-looking.  The other was in worse shape than the one I paid for, but complete.

Traveling from Warrenton to Roundtop there are a bunch of tent cities and barns with vendors selling stuff.  Warrenton is a good place to go for random antique junk and I think we spent about three hours just walking through there browsing.  Near the end of Warrenton tent city is Cole's building, with more fancier stuff - real antique furniture, and at least six gun dealers with nice antique rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, and other pieces of militaria.  I recommend bringing at least $300 if you're serious about buying something here.

We stopped at a barn near Roundtop, where there was a ton of cowboy stuff.  Holsters, boots, spurs, revolvers, amongst other random junk being sold by women - kitchenware, plates, jewelry, clothing.  Is that sexist?  I can't help it if that's what they were selling!  I spotted a half scale Colt 1851 Navy in .22 cap and ball for $400.  I'd never heard of or seen one and a quick google search doesn't reveal much about it, but I saw something similar being sold at Cabelas in their firearms display room for the same price, so it couldn't have been too rare.

Outside the barn was a man who told us he came all the way from Missouri just to sell stuff there.  He was selling a bunch of surplus ammo cans, crates, wooden dummy rounds from navy guns, green Sea-Bags (I guess army people call them "duffle bags", how odd!), and other stuff.  I spotted an ammo crate for $20 and knew it was a good deal so I took it.  Inside was a short length of thick docking rope and an old antique bubble level.  The wood of the level was moldy, but the bubble level still intact.  I figured that was worth the $20 and the crate could be used to store my ammo.

Next, a few miles up the road at one of the smaller barns/vendor gathering, we spotted a wood box.  Inside was a bunch of mementos, medals, a letter, and newspaper clippings from a Hospital Corpsman Fred L. Martin during World War I.  Interesting I guess.  The box is nice too.

All in all, Roundtop fair is a great place to waste money - highly recommended!  Pics of loot, click to enlarge:

The loot.

Letter from Mr. Martin's employer inquiring
the CO when he'll return for work.

Fred Martin publicizes a letter
to home in the local newspaper.

The Colt 1908 didn't come with it but
 I thought it looked period correct.

Relevant Links:
Roundtop Show Official Website - Everything you need to know about the event.

Photos: Rusty old broomhandle (and a gewehr 88)

Old pictures from 2012 that I never uploaded when I migrated this blog from WordPress.  This was taken after the last post where I foolishly neglected it. It's all cleaned up now. It still shoots and functions fine. Also pictured: A Bulgarian WW2 helmet and a Gewehr 1888 Commission Rifle that I paid 20 bucks from Old Western Scrounger back in 2004.  Photographed on a cheap Kodak pocket cam.

See also:
-The $250 Mauser Broomhandle
-Shooting the Broomhandle with blackpowder.

The Elusive Star Model A Pistola

Ever since I bought my first Mauser Broomhandle back in 2009, I've had a weird obsession with all things 7.63 Mauser.  Specifically, it was the Star Model A that caught my eye.  Maybe it's the neat cartridge it comes chambered in, or maybe it's the Colt 1911-like ergonomics, but I just always wanted one.  Plus I always had a thing for a pistol with a shoulder stock.  Since 2009 I've been using GunAuction's "Auction Recon" feature to alert me in the event that a Model A should show up for sale, but I haven't found a single one yet.  I wasn't really serious about buying one at that point anyways.

YOINK'd!

Last year I happened across a mysterious combination shoulder-stock/wood holster for a mere $75.  I bought it on a whim and discovered it was actually a rare Star Model A shoulder stock - it was fate!  I knew at that point I needed a Star Model A to help complete my collection of NFA-exempt stocked pistols.

I've been searching for a Star Model A Pistola or Carbine more rigorously since.  Either one, any one, chambered in 9mm, 9mm Largo, or 7.63 Mauser, with or without tangent sights.  I see these selling on GunBroker for $1300 for a well-used specimen, and up to $3000-$4000 for a pistol in 95% condition, with or without the shoulder stock, but I'm not willing to pay that much.  Since GunBroker doesn't keep records of old sales, I did a price comparison on GunAuction and it seems that these guns sold for well under $400 ten years ago.  I wonder what changed?

More recently I came across a seller on eBay who was selling a slide and some small pieces of a Star Model A.  I inquired about the frame and managed to talk him into selling the frame and slide to me.  The whole lot was soon transferred home to Texas where it belongs.

 

Disregard that pin thingy on the right.

I'm not sure how I'm going to go about fixing it.  I already knew that parts would be impossible to find for this.  I've been told that cheap surplus Star Model B parts are compatible with the Model A.  I already have most of the major components, so all I would really need is the recoil spring assembly, the safety and slide release, magazine, hammer spring, and barrel.  I think sacrificing a Model B to save a Model A is a fair trade.

The grip panels I believe are the same as a model B.  It's just flat-shaped wood that's slapped on there and held in place with two screws, right?  As for the barrel, a Model B barrel (if it actually fits) can be bored through, relined to.308, and rechambered for 7.63 Mauser.  Pretty sure I'm never going to run across a rear ladder sight by itself, like, ever, so my only hope for that is to just find a complete slide assembly on ebay and part that out.

Yoink'd again!

Bonus:  I recently tracked down a much nicer shoulder stock which I estimate to be in 95% condition (in my non-expert opinion).  It looks pretty new.  As far as I know, the Chinese (nor anyone else, for that matter) didn't manufacture copies of these like they do with Broomhandle, Luger and HiPower stocks, so I'm pretty certain this is original.  The seller is from Spain and doesn't even English, so I dunno if I just spent $100 on a screw or an actual complete stock, but to the left is a picture of what I believe I just purchased, so I'll just have to wait and see if it actually arrives!

  It's also interesting to note how very little information, pictures or video there are out there on these weapons.  Sure, there are a few pictures of a Star MMS and Star Machine Pistol, but below is the only example of a complete Star Model A with shoulder stock and rear tangent sight I could find.

This is what it should look like when it's all said and done.

Additional reading:

www.9mmLargo.com - Everything you need to know about the 9mm Largo round, which includes the Star pistols.
Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. - Information on all weapons manufactured by Star.
Wikipedia Entry - History of Star Bonifacio Echeverria S.A.
ATF's Curio and Relics list - A list of C&R weapons, including pistols with accompanying shoulder stocks, which are exempt from the 1934 National Firearms Act.

Is the Star MMS NFA exempt? UPDATE: Yes it is, according to Ian.

American Pioneer and Corrosion (Broomhandle Part 2)

See my initial rusty C96 Broomhandle purchase here.

Somehow lost track of documentation of restoration progress, but the TL;DR of it was that I scrubbed at it with some steel wool and mineral spirits, cleaned with a dry cloth, applied Casey's cold blue and re-oiled.  I replaced the grip with a $30 red wood grip from India.  Looked good enough to me.

 Here is the result of shooting about fifty rounds of American Pioneer blackpowder substitute through a Mauser Broomhandle for the giggles and forgetting about it for a year just to see what would happen.  American Pioneer is a black powder substitute that is said to be cleaner burning and less corrosive than black powder.

Addendum: This experiment wasn't really trying to prove anything except that I'm lazy.  I still prefer American Pioneer over black powder just because it's easier to clean.  I just never realized that it would get this bad.  I pretty much never clean any of my guns unless I have to.  Used steel wool and oil to clean up the light rust again.  Looks about as good as it will ever get.

Photos - $250 Mauser Broomhandles!

There was this company on AuctionArms called OysterBay Industries (their screen name was OBI or something) and apparently years ago they were an importer of Broomhandles and they made detachable magazines for Broomhandles (and modified their frames).  I bought this one for $250.  It looked okay in the pictures, but was worse in person.  I still think it's shootable, though!

  I began by removing the grips.  They were crusty and disintegrated immediately.  The grip frame was pretty nasty with heavy pitting.  I'm surprised how thin they are.  I feel like they would break off if I dropped the gun.  Actually that would be kinda neat if I could replace the grips with an AR-15 pistol grip.  Next I stripped the 'upper' from the grip frame (the barrel and upper receiver are actually one piece and cannot be separated)  I didn't wanna take apart the fire control group just yet, because I was afraid they would break or I'd loose some pieces.  I let the metal parts soak in brake cleaner for a few days.

To be continued in part two here with video footage.
Also photos, post-restoration.

Hunting at Escondido Ranch

We went hunting for the first time.  Went to a lodge called Escondido Ranch, which is owned by the Navy and run by the 'Morale Welfare and Recreation' department.  When we got there, there were three enlisted navy personal running the place and one elderly gentleman chilling in the lounge watching some Clint Eastwood movies.

After registration, they told us a bunch of rules.  One shot one kill, no followup shots, no execution shots.  No firing at anything except hogs.  No wandering from the stand and hunting Elmer Fudd style.  They said if we saw a mountain lion we should kill it because the XO wanted it.  We headed to the range to register our guns and make sure we were proficient with our rifles.  Also, apparently we should have had scoped rifles but didn't.  We were using iron sights.  Come to think of it, we don't own any scoped rifles.  I thought all of those things were odd, but whatever.

This is what most of the roads look like

I brought my new and mint 1953 Mosin Nagant with surplus ammo and my dad used his Savage 340A in 30-30 Winchester.  The gong was 50 yards away and we had to hit it three out of five times.  I never realized we had to qualify to hunt, so this seemed strange to me.  I never fired my rifle before, so I was kind of nervous and flinchy when I fired, after all, I'm always hearing stories about surplus rifles and KABOOMS and I had this rifle that I'd never fired before.  They asked me what kind of rifle I was using and told them it was a Mosin Nagant.  They had puzzled looks as if they never heard of it before.  Maybe they haven't.  Hell, they even reloaded. I expect everyone who reloads should know these basic guns.

My dad shootin' a Noisy Magnet

I don't think me and my dad hit the gong but they let us hunt anyways since we paid the fees and registered and everything.  If I did hit the gong, I wondered if the bullets pierced right through?  These were FMJ bullets with steel cores, and I imagine most hunters would have used soft-nosed lead bullets.

A whole lot of nothin'

They took us about four miles into the middle of nowhere.  They gave us a radio and told us goodluck, have fun, call us when you're done.  We spent about three hours in and around the hunting stand before getting bored.  We saw a bunch of deer and some rabbits, but no hogs or mountain lions.  At sunset requested pickup over the radio.

My dad firing our .22 Marlin 795

I had fun, my dad didn't.  I wished I could have killed something.  We went back to the range the next day to use up our ammo.  The range was pretty clean.  Every piece of brass had been picked up.  We went last year, but couldn't hunt that time because we came on the wrong day, but they let us use the range and there was a ton of brass we picked up.

My Mosin Nagant and the approximate distance of the gong.

Five shots at a gong-sized paper.  No way I could have missed!

I wanna go on the all-night hunts next time, without my dad.  He hates guns and hunting, but this was his idea after all.  What a sweet job that is, running that ranch.  That has to be the best job in the Navy.