De-Milled Kit Arrival
The Brown Santa Delivered
The big brown truck (BBT) visited the Rodent's household and dropped off my first parts kit. I ordered a Grade III Imbel kit from Dan's Sporting Goods and it arrived on the day promised. I went ahead and took advantage of Dan's US made muzzle brake and pistol grip 1/2 price offer when ordering a kit. I was going to need them anyways to be compliant with the law and as usual couldn't turn down a bargain. So, for $139 (shipped) (early 2000 prices) I got a very useable parts kit and 2 US parts to go towards the 7 total US parts I needed.
Dan's DE-milled Kits Information
Dan's kits were the Chilean surplus Imbels that saw little action. Looking over the parts you could tell these were carried a lot, but shot very little. The exterior finish, if you can see past the cosmoline, wass scratched to hell and all finish forward of the handgaurds was totally GONE! Looking on the inside though, shows pristine parts. Bore was nice and shiney and the rifling appeared sharp. It's a shame I had to replace the hammer, trigger and sear on this kit, because they truly were in great shape! The trigger felt pretty good to my trigger control digit, with only a small amount of creep detected. Oh well... I wasn't worried about outside finish of the kit, I planned to refinish the rifle anyways. The furniture was planned be replaced with new Israeli handguards and buttstock, but the ones supplied with the kit were easily used no problem. So... I have some spare, useable parts for a future build. =)