Vader Update

Well, my adventures with Darth Vader are not yet over.

As I wrote last week, I screwed up the fitting of the Easy-Loader and needed a new follower and probably a new follower catch, which I ordered from Numrich on Thursday morning. A day to assemble the order and $15 worth of second day air later and the parts showed up on Tuesday.

But, Numrich sent me the wrong parts!

The carrier latch is correct, but the carrier assembly itself is out of something like a Remington 1148 Autoloader and didn’t have the tab that interacts with the carrier latch on it.

(click for bigger pic)

Loud profanities followed when I discovered this.

Errors like this have never been a problem with Numrich in the past and I seeing as I have 30 days to return the item, I am waiting a couple days to call them lest I issue threats including the torching of buildings.

The couple day wait was helped by a flyer I found that had been given to me by the gunsmith who built Barak the Boomershoot Rifle when I asked him about the installation of Poly-Chokes.

The phone number on the flyer was to a gentleman named Mike who does a lot of custom barrel and choke work on shotguns. I hoped beyond hope that this guy would have a Remington carrier hanging around he wouldn’t mind parting with for cash.

Luckily he did.

$35 and an hour long drive from my place to Tacoma in rush hour traffic later, I had the part in my hand. It will get installed and tested on Friday for the Portland Blogger Blastorama on Saturday and the Practical Shotgun match in Sherwood on Sunday.

I forsee no problems, provided I don’t transform into King Midas and turn the entire assembly into gold while installing the new carrier (as the metal would be too soft to function). Although, it would be around 12oz of golden 1187 trigger assembly, so maybe I wouldn’t be too unhappy.

But from now on, I follow my new rule: There will be no screwing around with my guns for two weeks before an event!