i just got back from this fall's wonderful knob creek machinegun shoot! ah...the sights and the sounds! explosions and flame throwers and miniguns! oh my!

the weather was spectacular...sunny and highs near 75° with no humidity!

prices were good to downright 'strike-up-the-band' fantastic on some items and lot's of those 'wtf-is-that-jerk-thinking' on others.

on the balance, falling prices on mags, steady on firearms and rising on eeeevil parts...just as expected. ammunition prices were the same as up here, so why waste gas and our backs lugging it home?

ar15/m16 mags were dirt cheap at 12$ in your choice of grey anodizing or black teflon. ak mags as cheap as $6 for single purchases (black polish polymer akm mag) to $5 in quantity buys. all flavors were in abundance, including east german stg940 weiger mags at $22 in singles.

kits were plentiful...from uzi's at $125 to m60's at $2750-$3995 to ak74 folders at $300.

oh happy days! we should not have to wait long for a 4340 heat treatable RPK...YES RPK!!!!!!!!!!...receiver. the prototype was very nicely made, as was a sample gun. i can't name names...but, i will be buying that kit soon!

vector's rpd's were phenonenal at $1995! they are just too good looking for words to convey!

these are just a few of the MANY neat things that assaulted my senses over the course of the show. there are way to many cool items for me to recal, right now.

i saw denny from gts (lula). troy sellers (several short chats), mickeymouse (waldo and i hauled 6 kilograms...145 pounds...of maxim belts/cans back to our 'world headquarters' for mickey and dumberplunber), the entire ohio machinegun crew, scott cousino...the folks from century (great deals on the lafette mg42/3 tripods!), coles (super rifle prices!) ohio ordnance works, vakyrie, dpms, model 1 sales and so many others i could spend all day typing their names/companies out!

i bought all kinds of small pieces parts that i needed to keep or get some projects going and picked up my walther p22 and akt98 romanian rimfire training rifle (finally!).

i think i'll go outside and shoot them after i get a bite to eat!

i hope your weekend is as much fun as mine!

the rpk reks HAVE dimples and the side bulges looked good...maybe could stand a little sharpening of the radii, but they showed no signs of cracking.

the material is .062 thick (1.59mm).

there are no 'x' and 'y' indentations (just like russian rpk's).

the fire control pivot pins installed properly and flushed out with the outside of the right side wall.

no lower bolt rails were welded in the in-the-white sales sample, which also lacked ALL HOLES and the mag/trigger openings.

the upper rail bend looked very sharp and clean.

no anti-crush tube was in place.


the built up rpk had all holes installed, of course and the lower rails that were welded in place were also made of .062 4340 alloy steel.

i am assuming that finished/ready-to-build receivers will be available.

ask waldo how much i was drooling as i fondled that receiver and looked inside the built up rpk!!!

i got to talk to the receiver builder for a few minutes. he is in the final stages of fine tuning his dies.