A new one made it’s way home to me this month. I coined a nickname for this one, I proclaim it my dark horse. I feel finding any 81 chambered in 32 is a pretty rare occurrence. A thread for a different day concerning how rare or not rare some collectors think that chambering is for the 81’s. There was 3 that passed through my fingers on auction sites prior to this one, they all exceeded what I was willing to pay. One was a very clean example that went around 2k. The fourth “this one” was fair priced i.m.o, and I was able to make it mine.
Back on track. This one surpassed the condition I expected from photos, it’s a very clean early example. I tore into the barreled assembly and saw that like another clean example I had, the maintenance on the inners hasn’t happened for who knows how long/if ever. There was superficial rust up to minor pitting, nothing some 180-400 grit couldn’t smooth out. I made some reloads up this week and decided to bench cycle them. The side springs needed minor adjustment. When there was more than 3 in the magazine I would get rounds popping up while cycling. I did check the magazine spring as a precautionary, it was correct. All the while it was nice getting into the rifle more for some spot cleaning/removing varnished oil. The side springs sure do trap some buildup ehhh?
Today I took the rifle outside and went to my handgun/short test fire range. The rifle fires, ejects, cycles and has a pretty good zero! I didn’t have to chase brass far. Fortunate for me the snow is hard packed, so it stayed on the surface. It got a wipe down shortly after getting back inside.
Anyways, as most say “where’s the photos”...
P.S - the antler is from a close encounter this past rifle season in the PA WILDS. The deer ran off through a thick area and when I went searching I found that he dropped the left side. Our whitetails will drop antlers anywhere from late November into March “typically mid Jan to Feb”.
