47 yrs in the making, a sniper returns to it's former glory

[Miller Tyme]

This story starts in June 1968 when my dad visited on of his favorite gun shops, Elgin Arms. He had bought dozens of mil-surps for them to sporterize and this rifle was going to be no different. The stock had been sanded by the previous owner and there was a crack in the stock by the pistol grip but that didn't matter to him. The owner told him about the rifle and told him if he found the proper scope it could be worth considerably more. So dad plunked down his $15.60 for the rifle , took it home and hung it on the wall in the basement man cave along with his other rifles only handling it to clean and oil it once a year. Christmas 1976 he gave me the rifle along with the receipt and the story about the scope and over the next 29 years I would look for one anytime I went to a gun show, but with no luck. But in 2005 I stepped into the 21st century and got on line and began to search more actively for a scope, always coming up a day late or a dollar short.

But that all ended last Thursday when I found me a 4x scope made by the Nippon Typewriter Co. for my rifle. I took it down to show my dad today and he laughed about how his former rifle was sporting a scope that cost almost 80 times what he had paid for it.

So without further ado, here is my latest Sniper



(Note, the gun shop got the caliber wrong on the receipt)

















://s220.photobucket.com/user/m1llertime/media/DSCI0023_1.jpg.html][/URL]

[Junk Yard Dog]

Better late than never

[Darryl]

That is so nice! Great sniper and great story!

That's interesting .....I bought a Enfield No.5 Jungle Carbine that same year (1968) for $15. I picked it out of a barrel of No.5's because it had a really nice stock on it! I guess that was the going price back then...........D

[Longcolt44]

Nice find, you did very good MT.

[Luthierseye]

Great story! You were lucky to find the scope in this time of easier Internet shopping. Have you fired it?

[Miller Tyme]

Thanks everyone, this has been a true labor of love.

That is so nice! Great sniper and great story!

That's interesting .....I bought a Enfield No.5 Jungle Carbine that same year (1968) for $15. I picked it out of a barrel of No.5's because it had a really nice stock on it! I guess that was the going price back then...........D

Funny you should mention that Dolk, there was a Surplus store/ scrap yard in downtown Cincinnati back in the mid 60's that use to sell a them 20 to a skid for $35.00, they had broken stocks, shot out bores , or where missing parts but you could usually cobble together 8-10 good rifles per skid. I can remember helping dad strip these down in the garage and help clean them up.