Picking a hobby

mpolans wrote: In reply to Drewsifer: Both. Until my recent move to Japan, I enjoyed, cars, motorcycles, and shooting IPSC/USPSA about twice a month (Glock 17 tricked out by SJC for Open, Glock 35 for Limited and Production, and an STI Edge for Limited).

I really want to get into the 1911 class as that's what I have, and 2- and 3-Gun shooting. I just need to get my shotgun in order and I could be competing (although competing with a bolt action would just be laughable, but it seems fun).

Another note, that M44 followed me home. The dealer wanted $195 for it. I brought my 91/30 and asked if he'd give me $80 for a trade, and take $80 in cash. He said yes. So a rather nice M44 Mosin-Nagant is now mine. I'm looking for ways to sporterize it without doing anything permanent.

I have been shooting .22 competition at the local club using an old Marlin bolt action. I'm looking to build a 10/22 for a new competition gun and get a Mark III.

I also have evil plans to get another mosin and build a custom long range target rifle and load some hot rounds for it.

rebelgtp wrote: I have been shooting .22 competition at the local club using an old Marlin bolt action. I'm looking to build a 10/22 for a new competition gun and get a Mark III. I also have evil plans to get another mosin and build a custom long range target rifle and load some hot rounds for it.

My plan right now is to get a .223/5.56 chambered rifle (leaning towards a Mini-14 right now) and a shotgun (Mossberg 590 mayhaps?) and start doing 3-gun. Plus, those will be my SHTF weapons, so I'll be set. Also, will you post pictures of your Baltic Sniper for me?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found it. That's pretty much exactly what I want to do to mine.

I did a lot of that accumulate-trade-sight in stuff but it's competition that represents a real hobby and gets you focused on a rewarding discipline.

Nothing wrong with the various handgun games. If you want a bigger long-term challenge, take the AR to an Across-The-Course match. I settled on rifle metallic silhouette, which can be played with .22 rimfire, or Highpower. It's sort of like golf. You'll always be a little short of what you ALMOST accomplished and can work on your skills for a lifetime.

92dxman wrote: I can second home brewing being a fun and worthwhile hobby. I stick more to home brewing my own hard cider since I have a sweet tooth but it is very cool to see the looks on peoples faces when you tell them you home brew. Also, there are tons of recipes online for any and every kind of beer. Look to see if there are any local homebrew places or clubs in your neck of the woods. They can give you some pretty good insight.

Ciders are good too. I did one recently and they are stupid-easy and get good results. Mine came out quite dry (FG: 0.00), but I like that. I prefer the beer though, and there's more creativity and more to learn.

I have too many hobbies, as far as my g/f is concerned... to her, auto-x is not covered under the 'car hobby' umbrella... and unfortunately, I think she's right...

Cars, bicyles, guitars, wood working, home renovation... all compete for my time and money to varying degrees and it's a tough battle at times. Right now, cars are losing... the fire is simply gone. At least for project cars. Maybe it will get re-kindled when I have a better place to work on them.

I've dabbled in guns, R/C, kayaks, skiing and rock climbing. Of these, only skiing still holds on as I still have all of my gear and always hope to make it to a mtn sometime each season. Followed by kayaks at a far distance, mainly because I want to build them, so it ties into the woodworking thing.

I've considered home brewing... but the reality is, I really don't drink that much and most of my friends don't like the dark stouts and porters I gravitate towards.

I had a friend who was a nuke in the Navy, and he told me a lot of Nukes brew beer. He explained the science to me, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

I have several hobbies myself- cars, r/c, videogames both playing and collecting, bikes, etc etc. I find the balance is easily determined by the weather. Good weather? Cars and r/c. Bad weather? Videogames. Weather that I might die in? bikes! The balance can be achieved if you know what you're doing. I recently picked up a Taurus and a Geo prism for a sum total of 300$, both run and drive fine- that i'll probably trade for a 69 chevy pickup with a dump box, and a 327/4bbl combo, and likely trade that for something of use to me, perhaps another car, perhaps a warm 360 for my Volare, who knows. But I've got an entire summers' worth of fun, and TWO winter beaters, for 300$. I have that tripled in the amount of R/C in the trunk of one of the winter beaters.

My point? It can call be done. Make intelligent purchases at right time, keep your eyes open, and be ready to move if the mood suits. And really, if a hobby pisses you off (my DD ms3 for example) park it and move on for a while. I haven't touched that car since late october, and I'll probably revisit it again in feb/march, right before it's time to put it on the road again. In the meantime, I scour CL/eBay for deals, get stuff I know is cheap that is relevant to my interests, and generally watch for things I like.

Of course, I'm a terrible example, as I recently spent 150$ on older Sega stuff I have 0 room for when we're trying to pack for a move, and I'll be picking up that Prism this weekend. Don't have room for that either. Oh well.

True... room is definitely the issue for me as much as anything... I'll often look at a potential purchase and think: Do I want it? Yes. Do I need it? Eh... Can I afford it? More or less... Do I have room for it? No.

When I forget to ask myself that 4th question, I get into trouble.

Finally snapped some pictures of the M44. Figure I'll post them here rather than make a new thread

Woohoo matching serial numbers!

Blemishes

Drewsifer wrote: I had a friend who was a nuke in the Navy, and he told me a lot of Nukes brew beer. He explained the science to me, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

You can go waaaay overboard studying the science of it. Frankly, that won't necessarily make your beer any better. The three keys to good homebrew are: sanitize, sanitize, sanitize.

Basically, yeast eats sugars, craps ethyl alcohol, and burps CO2. Give it sugar and time, and prevent bacterial contamination.

Most home brew shops will have a set with all the basic equipment you need except a large brewpot, and will probably also have pre-measured recipes with directions.

The hardest thing is waiting the 2-3 weeks for the bottled beer to be ready.

In reply to Drewsifer:

Good lookin lil M44 you got there. How is your action and trigger pull on it? Smooth or rough? Mine is smooth as silk so I'm guessing it had been worked on at some point in the past, trigger is a bit of a stiff pull but not terrible.

Have you picked up ammo yet?

Rebel,

I haven't shot it yet, but after a few dry fires the trigger feels smoothish. Not as rough as my 91/30 but smooth enough. I still have some surplus stuff. Since I'm not going shooting any time soon, I'm gonna hold off on buying ammo. Gotta get some other things taken care of first. Then, spam can.

For those planning to shoot 3-gun with shotguns, get a Saiga...it's the heat for that sort of stuff.

That is a nice looking stock on the M44! Enjoy the increased size of the fireballs over the longer russian gun. One of my winter projects when I finally get to it is redoing the origional stock on my M44. I want to reshape it some and stain it in a nice ebony finish to match other stocks I have done.

Oh crap, I am turning this into another thread about guns. Sorry

In reply to rebelgtp:

imho, stay with the bolt gun, or go to another bolt gun that has enough following where you can modify a bit if needed, but don't have to. i just bought a 10/22, and am not impressed with its shooting. it will probably need at least some barrel/chamber work (brass shows evidence of leaking past the case), if not a replacement barrel, bolt work, and at probably a competition hammer to start being able to come close to my $100 walmart special savage mkII. with cci mini mag, it has turned out to be a tackdriver, and i've done exactly 'zero' work on it other than the occasional cleaning.

In reply to Strizzo:

Oh trust me another bolt gun is in the works as well. However the 10/22 is needed for speed work on some of the courses where speed is required. Basically it will get a new barrel, trigger, stock, target/match guts and nice scope.

I'm actually looking to build a Savage as well.

If GRMers have a Mini-14? I've recently gotten rather hot and bothered for them. I've heard from the box they "only" have a 2 MOA accuracy. Seems plenty to me, considering most times it the shooter missing not the gun.

In reply to Drewsifer:

i think thats the complaint though. as a shooter, with a perfect gun, say you could shoot 1 MOA. that puts your 2 MOA gun shooting 3 MOA at least, with very likely to get out to 4 MOA, which is probably not as much fun. i have heard they can be made to shoot pretty well though.

In reply to Drewsifer:

The problem with the Mini 14 is it can be quite hit or miss accuracy wise. I had one that was more accurate than most and was an over all good lil gun. Decent accuracy wise but it could not touch my AR. The other draw back on them is for good magazines expect to pay through the nose. Sure there are tons of cheap mags you can pick up for them but they are mostly garbage and will cause the gun to jam.

I honestly loved my Mini 14 until I got my AR then it basically just played second fiddle.

Strizzo,

I can see where you're going with that. And it makes sense. However for me, I'm normally a 2MOA shooter. So a 2 MOA gun would suit me

@Rebel,

That is the biggest thing I've heard. Mini mags are freaking expensive! But Mini's are cheaper. Even the cheapest of the cheap AR's (Which I would never buy because their garbage) is more expensive than a Mini.

True but you could always go the grassroots method and build your own AR for not much more than a new Mini goes for. Just shop around for good deals on good parts. That way you also get to build it to be exactly how you want it

rebelgtp wrote: True but you could always go the grassroots method and build your own AR for not much more than a new Mini goes for. Just shop around for good deals on good parts. That way you also get to build it to be exactly how you want it

I've been doing a lot of research on AR's lately. It seems like you save a little, but less then $100. Unless I stay on the hunt constantly for parts. Which I'd rather not do. I've sort of set my heart on a Bravo Company AR. $1299 before tax and shipping. Ouch. From what I've seen BCM is the most affordable true "milspec" AR's on the market right now. I was looking at getting a Del-Ton Inc rifle (although damnit now I'm looking at them again.) but the chrome lined barrel and rails bump it to within spitting distance of the BCM (which would still not have rails. Damnit!)

You could look for an older factory build as well then modify away. Heck I'm working with a mid 80's Colt heavy barrel match. The thing is a long barrel no rail beast that is dead nuts accurate. I am currently looking for a couple different uppers so that I can swap out for the needs of the day, one bull barrel target with rails and another a short barrel carbine (think M4) with rails setup.

Is punishing my liver with copious amounts of Vodka and micro brews considered a hobby?