Went to visit family in Tuscaloosa and we made the pilgrimage to the CMP store in Anniston. Nice place, friendly people. It's not as big as the one at Camp Perry but it's much closer for me now that I've settled here. While I was there I snagged one of the $100 Daisy M853 rebuilds. These look like they've been passed down to a (few?) dozen high school JROTC programs but have been re-arseneled by the CMP to get them up to factory specs. Mechanically, they're nice. Cosmetically they're a grab bag. I picked the one with the nicest looking wood. If you buy one they come with a new sight and spacers for the buttstock as well as a sling and a bunch of sight inserts.
The stock isn't bad, but the wood was dry and covered in layers of masking tape from different owners.
Sorry, Mack.
Not the worst in the world but I thought it could look nicer. I scrubbed the stock down with steel wool, hot water and simple green. A lot of pretty nasty stuff came out of it; even with a touch of goo gone the years old masking tape was pretty tough to deal with too. I lightly sanded the stock to smooth it out, de-whiskered the wood and stained it according to the to the recipe I found here and a few coats of boiled linseed oil later...
Much better. Would have liked a touch more red in the stock, maybe next time I'll do 2:1 instead of 3:1 with the stains that I used. It shoots really well so far, I need to pace out 10 meters and set up a proper range/target for it. I'm very happy with the purchase and it's probably one of the better airgun deals out there. You can find them for sale, no club memberships or paperwork needed, at the CMP web store.
The stock isn't bad, but the wood was dry and covered in layers of masking tape from different owners.
Sorry, Mack.
Not the worst in the world but I thought it could look nicer. I scrubbed the stock down with steel wool, hot water and simple green. A lot of pretty nasty stuff came out of it; even with a touch of goo gone the years old masking tape was pretty tough to deal with too. I lightly sanded the stock to smooth it out, de-whiskered the wood and stained it according to the to the recipe I found here and a few coats of boiled linseed oil later...
Much better. Would have liked a touch more red in the stock, maybe next time I'll do 2:1 instead of 3:1 with the stains that I used. It shoots really well so far, I need to pace out 10 meters and set up a proper range/target for it. I'm very happy with the purchase and it's probably one of the better airgun deals out there. You can find them for sale, no club memberships or paperwork needed, at the CMP web store.