Hello from new member

[timmy]

Hello IFG Members:

I am Tim from the USA. I'm a New Mexican. I am in my 50s and have enjoyed firearms since I was a child. I have a number of guns but I'm not really a collector -- I just get what I like.

Recently I went back to college to change my career. I was an older person with young people in school. It turned out that many of my new school friends were from South Asia, places such as Karnataka and Kerala. I have a very good Tamil friend. Because I am a lover of history, my friendships pushed me into looking into Indian history and dabbling in Rajasthani and Mughal art a bit. After fooling around, I finally got serious in this and found a copy of Nilakanta Sastri's A History of South India. I especially am interested in things like the Chola Empire and the temples of Tamil Nadu.

Anyway, I had always wanted an SMLE. The problem with this is getting cheap .303 ammo here in the USA. What little is available is expensive and unreliable. Currently, I shoot a lot of 7.62 x 54r Mosin Nagant (chiefly in a Finnish M39) and am used to getting cheap surplus to shoot. Recently, however, we have gotten some shipments of your 2A and 2A1 SMLEs in 7.62 x 51 NATO here, and I found a nice 2A in a shop and picked it up. I'm in the process of cleaning it up.

I wanted an SMLE and was able to get a rifle from India -- sort of killing two birds with one stone. And, it is in 7.62 x 51, which is a popular cartridge here in the USA. I will also reload for this rifle -- using cast bullets.

What is a lot of fun is having my Indian friends over (both men and women) and showing them my 2A. Invariably, they are horrified until I show them the Asoka on the buttstock socket. Then, they become interested. I have a medical student friend that, if it were not for his intensive schooling, would run out and buy his own!

I have been lurking here for quite some time and use Abhijeet's Mahatma Gandhi quote as a signature line in other forums, which is a lot of fun because the knowledge level about India here in the USA is generally dismal.

I appreciate the opportunity to join with you (finally) and hope to add what little I can, but mainly participate by understanding how India, which has so much in common with the USA in so many ways, shares the love of firearms also.

I feel honored to be allowed to participate here -- thank you.

[Mack The Knife]

Welcome aboard, Timmy.

Mack The Knife

[penpusher]

Timmy,

Welcome to IFG.Do post about how your 2A shoots.

[TenX]

Hi Timmy.
Nice to know of your interest in Indian culture too, apart from Guns.
You will also find a few good IFG-ians in the US itself. Have a nice time around

[HydNawab]

Welcome to the forum Timmy!

Cheers

Ashar

[Sakobav]

Welcome aboard Timmy..where exactly are you in NM Santa Fe, Las cruces or Alburquque?.. do post pictures of your guns

best

[lazybones]

Welcome Timmy. Congratulations on finding the Ishy.

Ashok

[timmy]

Gentlemen:

Thank you very much for your welcomes. In New Mexico, we were in Albuquerque (actually, we were "over the hill" in Edgewood) and then we were in Taos. We have lived all over the country and right now, we are in Texas. It is OK here, but it is not home.

I need to take some pics of my guns, but here are a couple that I have ready. They were taken a few years back at a military shoot near Austin.



In this one, I am shooting an SKS "Paratrooper." These were imported from China before Pres. Clinton imposed the ban on Chinese-made arms. They are like a regular Chinese SKS, except that they have 4 inches cut from the 20 inch barrel, and then the sight block is moved back to the gas port. There were a number of versions of these. Some were modified to accept AK-type magazines. Mine had the bayonet lug removed. Here in the USA, the bayonet is viewed as an "evil feature," as if thieves using such a weapon with a bayonet would be doubly dangerous. However, some Paratroopers came with a special shortened bayonet, which could be either the spike or blade version.

I am using the usual "Wolf" brand ammunition, which is very common here in the USA. It is made in Russia and is like their military ammo, in that it has laquered steel cases and steel jacketed bullets with a copper wash. Our 7.62 x 39 ammunition has become quite expensive because of the government buying it up for the wars we are fighting, because of the dollar's weakness, and because Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is reequipping his army with AK 47s bought from Russia and he is building up ammunition stocks.

The SKS is from about 1971, I think.

The rifle below me is a Finnish M39,, which was made by the Finns from Imperial Russian M91 Mosin Nagant rifles taken after they achieved freedom from the Tsar.



In this pic, I am shooting the M39. It is a very nice shooting rifle, better than I can do now, as my eyes have gotten worse with age. You may not be able to see it in these pictures, but I now use a tiny aperture that is held to the right lens of my glasses to shoot -- this helps me to focus better.

For the M39, I shoot Barnaul hunting ammunition made in Russia. This uses a heavy 204 grain bullet. It comes in lacquered steel cases, but uses a copper jacketed bullet with a hunting soft point. I have tried other commercial ammo, such as the Sellier and Ballot Hollow Point Boat Tail Match, which you would thing would be much better, but it is not. For practice, I have a supply of Hungarian heavy ball (~175 grain bullet) that does quite well.

My Ishapore is going to have its work cut out for it, as the M39 is well-known for being a very accurate military arm.

I confess to using a "sissy pad" on my shoulder to dampen the recoil of shooting. The SKS is easy to shoot, but the M39 will make my shoulder sore after several 60 to 80 round sessions at the range.

The range I went to has closed down. I would drive out into the country and was a member of a gun club in a small rural town. right now, I have no good place to shoot.

[Vikram]

Hi Timmy,

A hearty welcome to you and thanks for stopping by to share your experiences.Nice rifles there.


Best-
Vikram

[Prabhath]

Welcome aboard Timmy. Hope you have a great time out here. Also, with your kind of interest about India, you should try and visit sometime.

[herb]

Welcome to the forum....

Herb

[timmy]

Gentlemen:

Nice to know of your interest in Indian culture too, apart from Guns.

My friends have been very willing to teach me some things. Now, it is a lot of fun to meet people here. In the USA, I think most folks here just think of India as India -- they don't realize that there are many ancient cultures and traditions behind the different sections of the country. For this reason, I think most folks who are from India or who have Indian heritage here are a bit reticent to speak of it.

When I learn a little more, I want to dig into some of the Sangam literature.

However, what is fun for me is to strike up a conversation, such as when I hear someone's name. At the medical school, for instance, there was this young woman whose microscope needed repair. I noticed her last name was "Joseph" and I asked her: "What can you tell me about Kerala?" She was a bit startled and replied, "Well, probably not as much as I should be able to!" Invariably, this is a great way to break the ice and get some conversation going.

One very good friend is instructing me on the nuances of Bollywood movies -- she comes over and my Wife and I watch them with her. I hope it doesn't sound cheesy to you, but I have to say I do like them -- the ones I've seen, anyway. I'm coaxing her into doing some Tamil movies now.

One fun thing about the movies is to see the landscapes and buildings, and also I feel it is a little window into how people think.

Also, with your kind of interest about India, you should try and visit sometime.

Thank you for the invitation! What I would like to do is to have maybe 6 months or so, where we could move about and really see the the areas of the country. Besides the big touristy sites, I've always wanted to take that little train that goes up to Darjeeling. Also, I would like to see Simla and Chandighar. My Wife Gail and I are "mountain people." I guess it sounds silly, but if we hadn't seen so many mountain scenes in Bollywood movies, we would never have associated India with the same sort of scenery we have in our west. There are forts in Rajasthan I've seen in travel shows that are a must. I want to see the ruins of Vijayanagara and also the cave temples at Ellora and Ajanta. I mentioned seeing the great temples of Tamil Nadu -- I'm especially keen on seeing the Brihadishwara Temple in Thanjavur. I saw a special on it and they talked about how the final stone at the top was placed by RajaRaja Chola (and also talked about him) and this really fired my interest greatly. Oh, and I also want to see the mountain lakes and forests in Kerala.

Sorry for running on -- I guess I'm already getting close to my 6 months!

The older I get, the more I realize that there is very little time left to see so many things...


Anyhow, I will try to get some more gun pictures posted in the future.

Thanks again for your welcomes and your hospitality!

[badshah0522]

welcome Tim

[Shamsher]

Welcome abroad Timmy,

A little tip, make sure the hero of the movie is Rajnikant,
you sure would pick up a trick or two.

Nice pictures & a brillant introduction.

Hope to see some hunting pictures and stories from you on this site.

Best Regards
Shamsher

[SURFACE TO AIR MISSILE]

Welcome aboard Tim ,Have a wonderful stay at IFG And yes,Nice photos there

,
SAM