To all my Tribe Readers: have a safe and joyous Pesach, in whatever form you choose to have it in these troubled times.
And bedehr gesocht, once this insanity is over, we can meet next year in Jerusalem or (more likely) at Boomershoot.
Author: Kim du Toit
Auction Time: Choice #4
While I stated in the Comments to the original post that New Wife only liked a few of the British sports cars available, my husband’s sense of responsibility wouldn’t allow it, simply because I’d soon get sick of phone calls telling me that the MG/Healey/Triumph had broken down again, and what was I going to do about it? Clearly, we would need a more reliable alternative, so the 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL pretty much picks itself.
Like me, New Wife prefers a stick shift, so here we go:
While Mercedes has made many good-looking sports cars over the decades (the 1950s 300 Gullwing and 1960s 190 SL come to mind), I still think that the 230/250/280 SL pagoda-tops were the prettiest of them all, to this day, and it would be a perfect car for her.
News Roundup
Short takes on mistakes.
…shut the fuck up, Meathead. The only mentally unstable person in the room is YOU.
…and another loony heard from. Why do we even care what this batshit celebripussy thinks? And speaking of name-brand nobodies:
…you know, before she too went batshit on us, this one used to be quite a babe:
And speaking of ‘orrible cunts [\Bricktop]:
…such as your husband/brother? [redundancy alert] And:
…of course she did. Once a Commie, always a Commie. Now for some better news:
…trying hard to see a downside to this position; can’t. It’s such a Commiesymp organization anyway, might as well let the Chinks sponsor it completely so we can just ignore their bullshit in the future.
…and will she be punished as badly as the other partygoers? Don’t make me laugh (again).
…yikes. 200,000 pounds of unused airline meals… that’s all kinds of horrible. Now THIS is much better:
and 
…doing what America does best. And not a Gummint bureaucrat in sight. Oh, and why do I not see any Muslim charities doing something similar? [\rhetorical question]
…as long as when the next wildfire hits, the 9th Circuit judges are forced to pay for the damages out of their own pockets before any Fed dollars get sent.
And a late addition:
…except that all the Taiwanese stuff worked.
Auction Time: Choice #3
If I were a Rich Phartte and thus able to visit this auction, I would already have purchased a beach house (because New Wife loves the sea more than I do), probably somewhere in Maine. Accordingly, said beach house would have to have a car in residence, to be disconnected and left there during the winter. It wouldn’t have to be much, its duties pretty much relegated to trips to the supermarket, into town or for short sight-seeing trips along the coast and so on. Which makes my third choice simple: the 1966 Austin Mini Moke.
Longtime Friend Knal N. Domp (from the old website) had one of these, and many’s the night we were to be found driving it around Johannesburg at breakneck speed during the late 1960s and early 70s.
And as for simplicity, try this:
Just so you know how badly I want one of these, it was nearly my #1 choice.
There are a couple of competitors — the Renault Jolly comes to mind:
…but I’d only get that one if the beach house was in the south of France.
Not Grasshoppers
From Shooting Times:
Between private conversations with firearm, ammunition and optic manufacturers over the past two weeks, along with public information disseminated by major gunmakers, I am fairly certain a major disruption in the supply chain for those products and likely many more is coming, and coming soon.
Read the whole thing.
And this, my children (he explained for the thousandth time), is why we gun owners need to have not only a plentiful supply of ammo, but also of guns.
Ant and Grasshopper story (executive summary): buy and lay in stocks during Times Of Plenty, so that when the Lean Times come busting in through the front door, you don’t have to beg for anything from anyone.
This is as true (or more so) for guns as it is for any other household product.
Gratuitous Gun Pic: Last-Ditch Rifles
As the above post recommends, it’s during times of plenty when one lays in stocks of the necessary stuff, in anticipation of Dark Times. (And having lived through the Urkel Regime quite recently, and the Chinkvirus right now, I think everybody understands what I’m talking about here.)
Let me also be clear about what I’m suggesting in this post. I think that everyone needs a rifle that could be regarded as ugly / awful / not wanted when one has, say, a couple AR-15s or AK-47s, or even a smart-looking hunting rifle or two.
By “ugly rifle” I mean the gawdawful Mosin M44 carbine or its older and taller brother, the 91/30 rifle, respectively:
Rugged as all get-out, these rifles have survived Russian winters and worse yet, Russian soldiers. The only problem I have with them is their ammo. While cheap and plentiful, 7.62x54mmR cartridges are not what one would call “common” ammo — i.e. available at Bubba’s Guns ‘N Bait Store in Bumfuck, Nowhere.
The same is true for just about any of the “ugly” rifles out there — even the not-so-ugly ones (which are still relatively cheap) like the excellent Swiss K.31 rifles in 7.5x55mm Swiss:
Fantastic rifles, usually only a couple-hundred bucks more than the Mosins, but that ammo… highly effective to be sure, but is it on the shelf at Bubba’s? No? Aahhhh…
See my point?
Here’s what I think is the rifle which checks all the boxes: ugly, cheap, reliable, BUT found in a chambering which is so common, it makes Miley Cyrus look classy: the rebuilt Spanish small-ring Mausers, in 7.62x51mm NATO. This is the 1916 model, derived from the 1893 model (not the ’98), which was made from 1916 till after WWII in 7x57mm, and later rechambered into 7.62 NATO:
Best of all, these old warhorses are seldom found at a price higher than $500 — and it’s usually less than $400, with a decent bore and iron sights which will still deliver at minimum a “minute of 6-inch paper plate” at 100 yards, if the shooter knows his stuff.
It’s not pretty, it’s not a rifle to be proud of owning, it has a severe recoil (like the M44), and it’s not even worthy of a place in your safe: trunk of the car, semi-annual cleanings timed to coincide with range visits, you get the picture. But it’s the ammo which sets these battered old ladies apart from their newer, semi-automatic and sexier cousins.
And yes, the 1916 small-ring Mausers can handle modern .308 Win cartridges — those will be the ones that kick like hell, btw — but even that can be avoided by shooting lighter bullet sizes (<150gr). If you look up the rifles and hear warnings about “soft Spanish steel” and “use only the light 7.62 CETME loads”, you are in the presence of major league bullshit. I know this because I myself used to own one, and after well over a thousand rounds of commercial .308, I had it checked out and it passed with flying colors.
I’m not saying you should run out and buy one of these right away; but on one of those occasions when you feel the need for another rifle, but have less than $400 handy, I am saying that one of these rifles deserves some serious consideration.