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New Native Texas Member

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 8:09 pm
by Halygon
Glad to find this community. I’ve already learned quite a bit from the site itself.

I am from south Texas but currently live in the north - Up in North Dallas.

I don’t get to work with my hands much at work, so my hobby is restoring old guns. Only been at it since the end of last year but love the labor.

So far I’ve refinished some and restored others. Just finished restoring a German Walther Gewehr 43 rifle from WWII and while it began rusted and then went under flood water last year for a week, I was able to turn it into a great looking rifle once again. I documented the restore on the k98kforum for others to learn from.

Now I am onto another family heirloom, my great grandfather’s old model 8. He was a blacksmith in south Texas and took two model 8s as payment for some work. One being a .30rem and the other a .35rem. Being in the 20s and the guns were new, he kept the .30rem and sold the .35rem. - I am assuming he could get more for the .35rem at that time.

He was an avid hunter and fisher - heck he took up blacksmithing so he could stop working anytime he wanted to go hunting. He ended up shooting one of the biggest white tails in the Texas game history with his model 8. Was real proud of that deer head.

He passed on the gun to my grandfather, who never shot it, and onto me when he passed. The deer head went to the other side of the family so we both got something to remember him by.

Here I am today with a earlier 20s model 8 in .30rem. Given that my grandfather and his own father never really did a deep cleaning on their guns, this one is in need of good cleaning/restoration.

I don’t think it will be a huge job but it will still be fun to do and document for others. As with my other rifles, I find the journey of doing a full dissembly and cleaning of each part quite enjoyable.

Re: New Native Texas Member

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 9:13 pm
by Sarge756
Welcome..As you might have noted if you have reviewed old posts...We love Pitchers.We look forward to seeing your progress. I too do a bit of restoration of the old ones and am here for a conversation and exchange of ideas any time. PM with an email to you.
Joe

Re: New Native Texas Member

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 10:40 pm
by Halygon
Sarge756 wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 9:13 pm Welcome..As you might have noted if you have reviewed old posts...We love Pitchers.We look forward to seeing your progress. I too do a bit of restoration of the old ones and am here for a conversation and exchange of ideas any time. PM with an email to you.
Joe
Thank you, I appreciate it.

I’ll throw up a thread here soon to capture the project with lots of pictures.

Re: New Native Texas Member

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 7:01 am
by Bandersnatch
Howdy do!

Re: New Native Texas Member

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 8:01 am
by 81police
Welcome Halygon!

I myself am a native Texan, native northern Texan actually. Congrats on the rifle! You don't happen to have a photo of the antlers and/or rifle do you?

Thanks for joining, we'd love to hear about your journey with this heirloom.

I love south TX btw, and love the hill country.

Re: New Native Texas Member

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 10:45 am
by Halygon
81police wrote: Fri May 11, 2018 8:01 am Welcome Halygon!

I myself am a native Texan, native northern Texan actually. Congrats on the rifle! You don't happen to have a photo of the antlers and/or rifle do you?

Thanks for joining, we'd love to hear about your journey with this heirloom.

I love south TX btw, and love the hill country.
I don't have a photo of the rack, although I know my father has an old B&W picture of when it was taken. Back in those days they would tie all the deer to the old model Ts and trucks they went out in so the deers were "standing" and they would all take a picture with their takes. I don't know if the guns are shown in it or not though, i'll check it out the next time I head down south to see the family. Would be neat if you could see the old model 8 leaning against one of the trucks.

Fun fact: Both my mother and father's side fought in the Texas revolution - yeah we've been here a while.

Re: New Native Texas Member

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 12:28 pm
by Phyrbird
I like this one; it's great to see our heritage appreciated. Too often modern "people" conveniently forget the things our families endured or stood up for. A shame the media forgets easier. They should publish this rather than our current "reality show". :oops:
Pardon the commentary, perhaps I'm wishing for better ethics. :idea: