DOGolden
03-11-2006, 03:14 PM
This past week I was on vacation. I had not been home in two years so we {Amy & I} thought we would drive to Pensacola and see my parents. My father retired there in 1984 after he got out of the USAF as an E9. I call Pensacola home but yet I use that term loosely because I lived in Europe as a kid for many years, my mother is Norwegian {hence the Norwegian flag avatar}, and I too ended up in Europe when I was in the Army. 1st Armored Division {Old Ironsides}. C/Co, 1/51 Inf, D/Co, 1/6 Inf, and then HHC, 1st BDE, 1st AD. I digress.
The trip down there from Greenville {SC} was uneventful. As soon as we got there my parents wanted to take us out to eat. After that, we went home for coffee and socializing. The next morning we hit the ground early after a home cooked breakfast and some coffee.
We were gone all day long. I think we hit something like 25 pawn shops. I may add however, that more than half of the pawn shops either did not sell firearms or only had a few on display. Most of the places we hit didn't have any milsurps at all, unless you count the occasional AK47 or SKS.
We finally found a shop with some milsurps. The guy had 2 m44's. One of them was Polish and looked minty {$140}. The other one was Hungarian {?} and painted green with spray paint {$99}. I knew I could probably take the spray paint off in just a few minutes. However the guy behind the counter was too busy {place was packed} to really be able to help me any or talk about prices.
On the way home I found a rather odd looking pawn shop on Fairfield Drive. I forget the name of it but it kind of looked abandoned and/or closed. We stopped in just for giggles. We went in and I didn't see any firearms. As we were leaving the old man behind the counter asked if he could help us. We said no because we were looking for an old-timey WWII bolt action rifle. He said he would be right back and that he had over 600 long guns locked up in back in his walk in safe. A few minutes later he comes out with a 1903 turk. Not a bad looking rifle by any means {$150}. Nice wood, maybe 50% blueing left, and then I pull the bolt out to check out the bore {If I can't shoot it = I don't buy it}. Nasty. I mean, funky and dark. Very disappointing.
Next he bring out what he calls another Turkish Mauser. It's an 1893 Chilean 7x57. Nice wood, nice blueing, and all matching. The bolt comes out, and viola! Dark, and funky {$150}. He says he has one more Mauser in the back and he would go get it {funny thing him talking about Mausers - I was asking specifically for old Nagant's}. He comes out with what I thought was a k98. But it wasn't. Not sure about what it really was. No crest, bent bolt, very nice wood and blueing. No cartouches of any kind that I could find on the stock anywhere. I did notice that the left side of the reciever was marked with something like:
E 1011
or something like that? More than anything I thought it was maybe a scrubbed VZ24? Some pitting up on top of the reciever. Dark, I mean dark bore and full of...crap? The front sling swivel was like the VZ24 series and the handguard reminded me of a VZ24 as well. However, the rear of the buttstock had a metal sling swivel screwed into it. Hold on, let me see what Ball's Mauser Book says. :confused: :dontknow:
Hmm, as I recall it had a k98 type rear sight base reading from 100m and up. The bayonet lug was like a k98 as well. No slot in the stock for a sling, and no disc like on a VZ24 either. Not sure what it really was, other than a 9 type mauser. $150 was the asking price but I declined.
Nice guy really. During the last hurricane that came through Pensacola two years ago his shop roof caved in. Almost all of his pistols were stolen and some of his assault rifles were gone too before he could get there. He told me that after the rest of his guns are gone he will probably close the doors and retire. And yes, I did ask if I could go into his safe with him and rummage around but he declined to let me do that. I tried! :D
The trip down there from Greenville {SC} was uneventful. As soon as we got there my parents wanted to take us out to eat. After that, we went home for coffee and socializing. The next morning we hit the ground early after a home cooked breakfast and some coffee.
We were gone all day long. I think we hit something like 25 pawn shops. I may add however, that more than half of the pawn shops either did not sell firearms or only had a few on display. Most of the places we hit didn't have any milsurps at all, unless you count the occasional AK47 or SKS.
We finally found a shop with some milsurps. The guy had 2 m44's. One of them was Polish and looked minty {$140}. The other one was Hungarian {?} and painted green with spray paint {$99}. I knew I could probably take the spray paint off in just a few minutes. However the guy behind the counter was too busy {place was packed} to really be able to help me any or talk about prices.
On the way home I found a rather odd looking pawn shop on Fairfield Drive. I forget the name of it but it kind of looked abandoned and/or closed. We stopped in just for giggles. We went in and I didn't see any firearms. As we were leaving the old man behind the counter asked if he could help us. We said no because we were looking for an old-timey WWII bolt action rifle. He said he would be right back and that he had over 600 long guns locked up in back in his walk in safe. A few minutes later he comes out with a 1903 turk. Not a bad looking rifle by any means {$150}. Nice wood, maybe 50% blueing left, and then I pull the bolt out to check out the bore {If I can't shoot it = I don't buy it}. Nasty. I mean, funky and dark. Very disappointing.
Next he bring out what he calls another Turkish Mauser. It's an 1893 Chilean 7x57. Nice wood, nice blueing, and all matching. The bolt comes out, and viola! Dark, and funky {$150}. He says he has one more Mauser in the back and he would go get it {funny thing him talking about Mausers - I was asking specifically for old Nagant's}. He comes out with what I thought was a k98. But it wasn't. Not sure about what it really was. No crest, bent bolt, very nice wood and blueing. No cartouches of any kind that I could find on the stock anywhere. I did notice that the left side of the reciever was marked with something like:
E 1011
or something like that? More than anything I thought it was maybe a scrubbed VZ24? Some pitting up on top of the reciever. Dark, I mean dark bore and full of...crap? The front sling swivel was like the VZ24 series and the handguard reminded me of a VZ24 as well. However, the rear of the buttstock had a metal sling swivel screwed into it. Hold on, let me see what Ball's Mauser Book says. :confused: :dontknow:
Hmm, as I recall it had a k98 type rear sight base reading from 100m and up. The bayonet lug was like a k98 as well. No slot in the stock for a sling, and no disc like on a VZ24 either. Not sure what it really was, other than a 9 type mauser. $150 was the asking price but I declined.
Nice guy really. During the last hurricane that came through Pensacola two years ago his shop roof caved in. Almost all of his pistols were stolen and some of his assault rifles were gone too before he could get there. He told me that after the rest of his guns are gone he will probably close the doors and retire. And yes, I did ask if I could go into his safe with him and rummage around but he declined to let me do that. I tried! :D