One of those posts you hate to read

Hoo-Rah!!! At last I CAN finally got back into the forum -- you'd not believe the biyatch of a time I had finally ztting back in. The system not only told me I'd fogotten my password (yeah, right!) but that MY E-MAIL ADDRESS WAS NO GOOD! (Uh, like maybe I changed it while I was gone?)

About the trip -- got to the Improvisational Organ Competition in Haarlam, about 50 miles from Amsterdam, (a 4500 Euro prize, about $6,000 USD.) One is supposed to improvise from the first 5 or 10 bars given, and improvise for 15 minutes, with a penalty for going over or under. Well, one (dope) doesn't usually wear a watch and only went NINE minutes -- guess. The REAL kicker -- the "jury" (6 pre-eminent organists) decided NOBODY was good enough, and declined to award the prize!!! Also went to the last day (July 2) of the Rembrandt Exhibition -- got three beautiful etchings from original Rembrandt plates, flew first class all the way there and back, (UAL retirees get what's "left over.") The business manager thought "Mary Jane's," those shoes high-school girls wear, would look nice -- but they're NOT what one walks half-way across the continent in -- and remember, I'm former Army, ("We do by 9 AM what the rest of the world accomplishes in the whole day.) So, she had some MAJOR foot/ankle/leg problems -- went straight from Dulles Airport to the Kaiser-Permanente after hours care. She wasn't hospitalized with the cellulitis which I suspected, luckily, 'cause that's potentially deadly. She's doing much better now. 'Course, she'd already had "excellent" nursing care -- former medic, don't ya' know -- but what do I know, I'm not her docktor, and she doesn't HAVE to follow MY orders. And I couldn't prescribe much more than acetaminophen, (Paracetamol in Europe) ace-wraps and keep the feet up.

About the incident: That engraved RHSP went mistakenly missing too, ("S Browning" from .30cal.) There were two visitors, -- besides our friends in blue, what a great story -- one brought the air compressor all the way from the other direction from (edited) for his buddy, who came from the other direction 'cause of work, and one other. I haven't really notified "Everyone," so thanks for doing this Lobo. I just don't believe anyone would have done this intentionally, and still hope they'll be found. The business manager says I have enough guns now anyway -- but she just bought one week-before-last, (with a little encouragement) a Ruger 10/22 which I've, (I mean SHE'S) been wanting for a long time. They've got those new mags out now, ya' know! She doesn't know she "needs" them, YET. Someone, (Will Rogers?) said "One can trust ALL of the people SOME of the time, and SOME of the people ALL of the time -- but one cannot trust ALL of the people ALL of the time." I'd like to think that this board consists of the "ALL of the people ALL of the time," and I still do.

I hope all those who attended will look through the stuff they brought home and find the internals and RHSP and they'll put them in the mail (insured.) I suspect they'll show up somewhere. This will go into my memory as about the best party. with the best bunch of guys, gals and one 10 y.o., (who now addresses me as "Mister" Gary) I'VE ever had or been to -- nobody got drunk and had to be asked to leave and no angry words, no sloppy women to laugh at -- just a darn good time. Still looking for some green wood for smoking meat. (Did I mention...?) "What a country!"

CARRY on!
Gary

Guns and Company....

Guns and Company...

You know guys I was kinda dumbfounded about three months ago when I went to one of our local ranges. I've always said that I can only trust people I go shooting with and that the shooting community was one of the most honest...

Well wouldn't you know it somebody had to prove me wrong. My buddy and I went to the range to shoot our 1911's and had our 50cal box stocked up with 800 plus rounds in our shooting area left for a few minutes to shoot some knock downs before we cleaned up. Came back cleaned up and someone had walked off with all our rounds... It wasn't the fact that it couldn't be replaced it wasn't about the time it took to make those reloads it was just the point a community that I had placed a lot of trust into let me down. Since then we continue to check back at the range to see if someone turned the ammo in but to no avail it never has... The one thing I do have to say is that the scumbag took a bad batch of .45's some didn't get some powder thanks to the cheap press we were using

See Karma will get you... So I hope all you folks that went to that party double and triple check things and get those parts back where they belong an honest mistake is just that...

Good Luck Guys and Thanks for all the help on the forum
Brian

People with sticky fingers should have them cut -off !!

I learned the hard way also . years ago I had a very large Garand collection with a lot of stuff in it-- I also had been rehabbing garand rifles for many years- I took a standard m-1 garand's and rebuilt them into match rifles. Anyone knowing what it takes to do that will realize that most of the pre & early WWII parts are either worn out or obsolete . And for years I traded Brand new late model parts for early parts; both with the owners consent and to save them money.

I was talking with one of the founding members of the GCA and he asked to come over and look at my early parts. While he was over I got an overseas phone call and became distracted from what was going on for a few minutes-- This ""GCA founding member"" was left alone looking through my parts
----- ""BIG F'ING mistake"" My call was from a buddy on Guam and this guy asked if he could "" Borrow"" a barrel I had for a GCA article; last I ever saw of this guy , my barrel, and a bunch of early sight parts-- BTW My barrel did appear in the GCA magazine as a "" New acquisition"" on his part-- Between the barrel and the parts figure I lost in todays market about $2500.00 -- Moral of the story-- very expensive phone call !!

At least fakery hasn't really showed up in the shooter 1919 area as of yet !!

Gary can be confusing in his posts sometimes . He first posted that they were missing and asked all attendees to check their bags. No one came up with the parts. Gary then posted that they were on their way back and I think that was a Gary thing so people wouldn't think there was a thief in the batch or was his attempt to flush the quail and give the person one last chance to say they accidentally picked them up...didn't work. You'd have to ask Gary what was in his mind with all that. However, Gary has emailed me that the parts were never returned and I posted only as a warning to others. This individual is liable to show up at another build party in that area with a great set of internals and a rsp that he came by dishonestly. As others have posted about their own disappointing experiences, keep an eye on your stuff...if he will steal once he will do it again. When I host a build, great guys like scoutfal, xkss62 and xanthier usually show up and I don't have to worry about someone walking off with something cuz there's four sets of eyes and one of them is always around when I'm not.

I hope this clears it up...based on what Gary says, and I have no reason to disbelieve him, somebody stole them.