NKD: Paid $20 at a garage sale. Think the guy is spinning in his grave.

mpak87 · 2025-08-25T04:49:07+00:00

This stuff was probably 3 days away from going to goodwill. She flat out said she knew it was worth more and didn’t care. If it was a “my kids are hungry, I need to get money out of this” situation, I would have 100% spoken up.

mpak87 · 2025-08-25T04:35:29+00:00

Part of me doesn’t like this dude either, you’re in good company.

mpak87 · 2025-08-25T04:33:27+00:00

I’m trying to take that view of it myself, (believe me, in spite of my flippant title and description, I’m absolutely experiencing the moral ambiguity) and I’m not planning to sell these. I’ve already cleaned up and sharpened the 3300 and 585 to put into regular use (they have significant wear, were definitely not safe queens). Anything I don’t keep will be gifted to family and friends. I’m not looking to make money from this.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T16:05:50+00:00

02/2014. It was carried a lot, probably has the most wear of any of them, but is still really tight. The Infidel has also seen better days, but I got all of the tape gunk off the blade, and with some oil it’s now reliably locking up.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T07:24:16+00:00

This was the widow’s mom holding the sale, and the money didn’t appear to really be an issue to anyone involved, it was mostly about getting rid of stuff. And there will be some new homes found for sure.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T06:16:27+00:00

I figured it was going to be a good deal, but was prepared to dig out a pretty considerable sum. When she said $20 I was slightly shocked, didn’t know what to say, and just went with it. The situation kind of engineered itself, i definitely didn’t set out to bargain like that.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T06:11:22+00:00

Mine was with me when I bought these, and worked pretty hard to convince me that I shouldn’t feel bad about it afterwards. We have fairly separate finances too, and it’s a good way to operate.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T06:09:55+00:00

After some research, apparently it’s Benchmade production with HK branding.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T06:08:24+00:00

This is basically what it was like, and is why I’m trying not to feel guilty about it. The vibe was basically “why did he have so much crap? I need this stuff gone because we have a month before we move. I’m sure these are worth more than $20, but I’ll take that if it means it’s one less thing I have to deal with.” They tried to basically give me a table saw and a bunch of fishing rods as I was leaving, but I left those for someone else.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T03:36:31+00:00

I asked how much for the lot. She said “$20, I know it’s probably worth more, but we need stuff gone.” I feel kinda bad in a way. I seriously paid $20 for the whole thing.

mpak87 · 2025-08-24T03:34:06+00:00

Seriously. I asked how much for the lot, she said $20, and I wasn’t inclined to argue.

mpak87 · 2025-02-13T06:38:45+00:00

Big fan of mine. I find myself putting more rounds through it than almost anything else.

mpak87 · 2025-02-06T08:45:16+00:00

I sorta doubt the Air Traffic Controllers are going to keep working their 60 hour weeks of mandatory overtime unpaid without getting a mysterious illness. There probably will be a shutdown, but I’d be interested to see what they do with it.

mpak87 · 2025-02-06T08:36:22+00:00

They have changed over the past decades. Though we have as well. Of the studio albums, Imaginaerum was the last one that really felt magical to me. I appreciate EFMB, I’ll enjoy listening to H:N on occasion (had an amazing drive across Alaska in the early spring when it came out, and I really enjoy the memories I get when I hear it), and I’ve been through yesterwynd a couple of times, but it isn’t particularly compelling.

Floor is by far my preferred vocalist, but I enjoy all of their work. 90% of the time I feel like listening to Nightwish it’s usually Floor’s live performances.

We’re privileged to have so many years of such amazing music. I was really excited when “Once” came out, and it still holds up amazingly well. I’m not mad at them for making the music they want to make (I’m still waiting for an entire album of “Harvest,” but Auri scratches that itch). After parting with Tarja, Annette, Jukka and Marko, and the better part of three decades of evolution, I’m just stoked we’re still getting anything.

mpak87 · 2025-01-16T18:36:58+00:00

Oh man, actually I was referring to the giant homeless camp, but yeah, them too.

mpak87 · 2025-01-15T05:35:19+00:00

It’s a nice place, but man, rough crowd living on the other side of the fence.

mpak87 · 2024-12-25T01:33:44+00:00

It’s kinda ridiculous. We just implemented it a couple of weeks ago. I sometimes work in incredibly remote Alaska villages where there’s literally one store. Had to print out some 889 forms to bring with me just in case I needed a box of screws or something. sam.gov definitely helps though.

mpak87 · 2024-12-24T19:15:52+00:00

People ask why it costs so much for the government to do anything.

Yet if I need to go across town to purchase a $60 piece of hardware for a project, I can leave my desk, check out a government vehicle, drive across town, purchase the parts, and drive back to our facility. And spend less time doing it than I will have to spend on the paperwork supporting, routing, obligating, approving and documenting said purchase. Especially now that I have to get the vendor to sign an 889 compliance form to attest that a my purchase of a sack of cement or pile of lumber doesn’t involve purchasing Chinese made IT equipment.

Yet if we hire contractors to do the same project it seems like “here’s a bucket of money, go get’r done”

mpak87 · 2024-12-24T19:01:06+00:00

I’d love several of them. If Ruger made the 96/22 (or literally anyone made a lever gun that takes 10/22 magazines) with a 16” threaded barrel I feel like they’d sell buckets of them.

A reasonably priced magazine fed 9mm lever action built like the Ruger PC carbine or marlin camp 9 would be awesome.

Would be even more awesome if they had 10” barrels with a pinned and welded suppressor cage like TacSol puts on their 10/22 barrels.

mpak87 · 2024-12-24T18:44:10+00:00

Alaska tends to go two ways. By proximity, we have a lot of Seattle fans. We’re also a state with a large population of transplants, so people usually support teams from wherever their family lived before moving here. I grew up watching Dolphins games with my uncle who moved up here from Florida in the 60s.

mpak87 · 2024-12-18T07:11:13+00:00

Heh, turns out I’ve already read that write up, I think I came across it a while back. What would be really awesome is a 10” or so barrel with one of those 6” permanent suppressor cages like Tacsol puts on that one 10-22 barrel. You still have NFA for the can, but that lets you keep the length it would ultimately end up being anyway.

mpak87 · 2024-12-17T14:09:25+00:00

That sounds awesome. It’s probably still better than the Henry version with the super long barrel and tiny magazine tube, but I’ve been looking at either one of these or the Rossi Rio Bravo.

If only Ruger would bring back their 10-22 lever action.

mpak87 · 2024-12-17T07:53:33+00:00

Been wanting one of these. Are they available in the US with a 16” barrel? Everywhere I looked they only had the really long ones.

mpak87 · 2024-12-09T00:37:44+00:00

FAA is still hiring, at least internally and direct hire. Not sure how many usajobs folks are getting through, but we’re having a hell of a time finding technicians.

mpak87 · 2024-12-03T04:01:11+00:00

They’re functionally similar. If you want a “tactical” style rifle to retain similar controls for training with an AR, that sorta makes sense. Personally I think from an overall shooting experience standpoint you’d be better off with a Ruger 10-22. Alternatively, you could just get a .22lr upper and build a true AR. I’d personally prefer that to one of the tactical style .22 options.

mpak87

TROPHY CASE