Murphy laughs...

I have sold (traded) the Mini-14. A fellow on a forum I frequent offered me a pre-lock post-64 Winchester 1894 in decent condition, along with some ammo and cash ... I snagged it. The ammo went to a buyer in Texas.

In any case, we made this trade face-to-face at a gun range roughly midway between us. Conveniently, it was near the shop where I am buying my 647. Unfortunately, the coupon I need to pick up the 647 hadn't arrived at the sheriff's office yesterday so I could combine trips.

True to form, I'd barely met the fellow I was trading with and my cell rang. I answered, and it was the sheriff's office calling to let me know my coupon was available. I'm on a first-name basis with the pistol permit clerk over there, so I gave her an appropriate ration of teasing and told her I'd be in later to pick up the coupon.

Completed the trade, talked guns and work with the guy I traded with, and headed over to the nearby Gander Mtn to look for anything interesting. They had plenty of 209 primers, but the real catch was some Federal Gold Medal Match Small Pistol Magnum primers. I took 1,000 ($40) and left a couple thousand more for some other luck soul. Now to tweak some loads for those in the 28-2... they may also prove more useful in Dad's .25-20 as well, although I'm loading that with creampuff plinking loads and feel OK using small pistol primers.

If I find some free time tomorrow I'll grab some pictures of the new levergun.