Catching Up

Here’s a quick update on things we’ve posted about recently.

Someone else won the auction for Hank Williams .357 Ruger Blackhawk, and like I said I would, I ordered a New Model Ruger Blackhawk instead.  To my astonishment, the Hank Williams gun sold for a whopping $4,993.37 (when new in 1972, it was a scosh over $100).  My New Model .357 Blackhawk is at the local dealer, and I’m in the Peoples Republik 10-day cooling off period.  I snagged it for $659 on Gunbroker, a reasonable price in today’s economy.  I’ve got a bunch of ammo in a variety of flavors reloaded and ready to test, but I think I know what works in a Blackhawk.  We’ll see.

I took Poppy’s watch to the repair shop and it was enlightening.  My guy opened the watch up, which confirmed it is 14-carat white gold and revealed the serial number.  The watch tech looked it up, and I learned that Poppy’s watch dates to 1884.  It’s 138 years old and it’s still ticking.  It’s the oldest and coolest thing I own.

Gresh’s blog on a proposed vintage bike gathering in New Mexico garnered a lot of comments and it was picked up by Motorcycle.com.  I think this event it is going to happen.  A few guys have posted it on other forums (we appreciate that).  We’ll keep you updated right here on the ExNotes blog.

The Harley that flew off the Oakland Bay Bridge?  It’s still under water (dive crews can’t find it).  I wouldn’t have thought it worth the effort (you know, you can buy a brand new Chinese motorcycle from CSC for less than what a used Harley costs).  I would think the divers could just look for the oil spots and work back, but hey, what do I know?

I found the piece Gresh did on the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club particularly appealing and I joined the VJMC, too.  Like Joe, I recently received my first print magazine, and Gresh was right….there is a special excitement in getting an actual printed magazine in the mail.

The Gresh Husky saga soldiers on.   Joe is already deep into the guts of his Husky’s transmission, and his engineering talents and Ebay prowess are moving things in the right direction (you’ll get an update on that in the very next ExNotes blog).  Good buddy Terry pointed out that Gresh could have bought a used Sportster for what he’ll have into his Swedish meatball (it seems that Harleys are the benchmark for all things motorcycle).  With Gresh’s considerable skills and Harley’s rumored reliability, maybe the best approach would be to wedge a Milwaukee transmission into the Husky (a Husky-Davidson?).  Like you, I’m looking forward reading about how this adventure progresses.

And finally, one last comment, this one on Mosin-Nagant rifles.  We’ve done Mosin stories (see the Tales of the Gun page).  It’s no secret I’m a big fan, and it looks like that interest could pay dividends if I was interested in selling my Mosins (I’m not).  Rock Island Auctions recently published an article on Mosin-Nagant price trends, and it shows they are sharply up.  That’s good.

So there you have it.  We appreciate you following the ExNotes blog and we appreciate your comments.  Please keep the comments coming, and as always, please keep hitting those popup ads!

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