Chinese Junk

The 80s were a golden age for gun collecting, for me anyway. I managed to pick up several WWII-era pieces, but my eye soon turned to more modern weapons, especially Soviet-bloc and non-American designs. I was young and single and let loose in West Texas gun shows. When I moved to Maryland, I thought that would all end...until I discovered my cousin's father-in-law had an FFL. Thank heavens I was able to keep my Pennsylvania driver's license (and residency)!

At one stroke, I bought a Chinese Norinco Tokarev clone in 9-mm (shown above) and a Sino Makarov in .380 ACP. I knew these were not high-quality weapons...the Mak had cheap, clunky sights, but it shot like a laser. "The Toke" was very rough and no amount of Dremeling would fix that. It was okay; all I wanted was something different. I haven't fired them much since then. They are part of my "museum pieces," even though they're buried in the gun safe. I take them out once in a while and picture their arsenal brothers in the hands and holsters of people very different from myself, grunts who realize that this marginal firearm is the best their country can do for them. I stopped short of buying Chi-clones of American weapons...their 1911 was temptingly cheap, but there's no substitute for Colt. M-14...I don't think so.

I didn't give much thought that I was lining the pockets of Chinese Communists; I saw it as they were supplying the American militia for cheap. "A rifleman behind every blade of grass," the Japanese knew well our strength in WWII. Now, numerically there's probably an SKS in one house out of twenty in America...what better militia weapon is there? Since I started competing, I stayed with high-end American products (and Glocks, baby!), but if the SHTF, we can hand out an SKS or two with a couple of clips to the neighbors so they can watch our backs.

My entry for this week's Carnival of Cordite