Someday … sometimes comes

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2009 by John Taffin

As I sit down to write this, I have been on this earth 25,284 days. recently heard of a fellow who could remember every day of his life in minute detail. That must be a terrible burden! Most of us do not want to remember every day and certainly have some days we would just like to forget. As we grow older the days and years go by so quickly it all becomes somewhat of a blur. When we are young we take life pretty much for granted. Now I get out of bed slowly, and look back to see if I'm still there.

Within all these thousands of days, I remember relatively few and as I think back it is amazing to me how many things I don't remember. Even though I was only five at the time I definitely remember the day we received a telegram telling us my step-dad was missing in action and presumed dead.

I vividly remember the first day of grade school and while I was in grade school all the holidays were part of the curriculum. The birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, as well as Columbus Day, Memorial Day and Armistice Day, were great patriotic celebrations and we spent weeks getting ready for Thanksgiving, and Christmas. For the most part in today's schools these days pass mostly unnoticed.

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Someday

Life is so very strange! When we are very young we are always looking forward to our future days and then we seem to reach a peak and start looking backwards to past days. One of the most important days of my youth was Someday. All kids have many Somedays. Ever notice how many senior citizens (I hate that term!) drive convertibles? Their Someday finally arrived.

Most of my Somedays revolve around firearms. I've tried to remember what happened to get me really interested in firearms. I know there is something inborn as I made contact with a cousin in the 1970s I had not seen for 25 years. We had the same passion for firearms to the point of being able to match each other gun for gun in many instances. Obviously we have something in our genes which is in common. My dream books during grade school were the Shooter's Bible and the monthly editions of Outdoor Life and the hunting trips of Jack O'Connor found therein. I would be in high school before I would switch allegiance from O'Connor and rifles to Elmer Keith and sixguns.

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In the late 1940s and early '50s, Someday had a great hold on me. Someday I would hunt all over the world. I even spent much time designing my trophy room and where everything would go, with the plan changing on a daily basis. Someday I would have rifles like those pictured in the Shooter's Bible and O'Connor's hands. Like everybody else who dreams of Someday most of my Somedays never came to pass, however they were replaced by really great days nonetheless. One of my Somedays revolved around, of all things, a Mossberg bolt action .22 rifle.

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As I looked in the Shooter's Bible more on an hourly basis than a daily basis, I dreamed over the Winchesters and Marlins. Someday I would have a Model 70, a Model 94 and a Model 336--all those Somedays came to pass, however the Mossberg Someday has been totally elusive until this year. About six months ago Buckhorn Gun & Pawn, my FFL dealer, came up with a Mossberg 42M bolt action .22. It was in pretty good shape outwardly and had an excellent barrel, but it was practically non-functional in that it was missing the rear sight and the magazine.

I put my name on it to be purchased when they found the missing parts. It took awhile but Tory at Buckhorn managed to come up with an original 7-shot magazine along with a rear peep sight. The rear sight was not perfect as it was missing the elevation knob which required moving the sight up and down by hand using by guess and by golly to set it. But at least I finally had a .22 bolt action Mossberg.

Sometimes Somedays are really meant to be. This past Sunday, even before I had a chance to shoot the Mossberg, my friend Denis Fletcher was at a gun show and "happened" to look in a tray of parts and what should he find but a like new complete rear receiver sight for a .22 Mossberg. He borrowed the seller's cell phone (they really are good for something sometimes!), called me, I talked to the seller and we agreed upon the price. Three hours later it was on my Mossberg.

Three days later Denis and I, along with another friend Tony Kojis were enjoying our weekly early morning get-together for shooting and, of course, the Mossberg went along. It didn't seem appropriate to run brand-new ammunition through a rifle which had been around for nearly 3/4 of a century, however earlier this month I was able to acquire five bricks of .22s from the 1960s. Once I got the Mossberg sighted in I sat down to shoot a serious group at 25 yards. Six of the seven shots of CCI Mini-Mags went in one hole and I slightly pulled one shot. It had been a long time for this Someday coming to pass, however the results made the wait worthwhile.

This Mossberg 42M is stamped "United States Property" on both the barrel and receiver and was obviously used as a training rifle. Tory thought it had been a Lend Lease rifle which had gone to Great Britain and it still has the military sling in place. Both the sights and magazine of the Mossberg are quite unusual. The rear peep sight features a dial micrometer, and besides being precisely click adjustable for both windage and elevation, swings 90[degrees] to the left to allow removal of the bolt and easy cleaning. The front sight consists of three post-sights of differing heights and one aperture sight. All four of these fold down to the right. The folding features of both the rear sight and front sight blades removes fear of damage while carrying this rifle in a padded case.