How Long Have You Been GAS Free?

So, the meaning of GAS is quite clear, but after a few minutes of searching, I haven't found what the acronym actually stands for.

Someone clue me in? :)Actually, I first heard the term used 10 years or so ago as Gun Acquisition Syndrome. I must confess I have continued to indulge that. This came in two days ago:

That's a fine looking weapon you have there Ricochet.

Cool skateboard too. :lol:

8)

Nothing today.

I am about to go into purge mode though to fund another guitar. I don't feel too bad about collecting guitars as long as I maintain an equilibrium. If I find it isn't getting play time, it needs to go.

Cool skateboard too. :lol: It's not intended to be one, but it certainly can work that way! :lol:

So, the meaning of GAS is quite clear, but after a few minutes of searching, I haven't found what the acronym actually stands for.

Someone clue me in? :)Actually, I first heard the term used 10 years or so ago as Gun Acquisition Syndrome. I must confess I have continued to indulge that. This came in two days ago:

That's a beauty! My brother in law has a couple of Revolutionary War era musket remakes, he does the re-enactment thing. Very fun to go watch.

Thanks! This one's musket-length, but is an 8mm Mauser bolt action made in 1938 by the Czechs for the Iranians. Right now it's all apart, with the stock in the basement getting sprayed with clear nitrocellulose lacquer (which is what this one originally came with.)

I've always liked the old long rifles and muskets. I have a .50 caliber flintlock long rifle (early 1800s Northeast Tennessee style) that I built back in 1980. I'm not into the whole reenactment scene, though that's fairly popular around here. Takes too much time and energy. It is fun to watch! The Homeland Security folks have made it hard to get black powder, so the flintlock's pretty much retired.

Beauty!

Last time I saw a bayonet like that was on something called a...trench gun or trench rifle I think. Basically a long barreled shotgun with the bayonet off the front. WW I era I think - for 'storming the trenches.' In fact, I thought it was a WW I piece just because of the bayonet.

Very nice though - congrats!

Thanks!

This rifle is actually a close descendent of the German Gewehr 98, their main infantry rifle of WWI. At the end of the war, the nation of Czechoslovakia was set up by the League of Nations. Germany couldn't build military weapons under the Versailles Treaty. The whole Mauser Werke production line for the Gew 98 was shipped to the new Czechoslovakian State Armaments Factory in Brno, along with the work in progress and extra parts. They didn't get all the technical drawings and some other stuff they needed, and it took them a while to get going, but they put together some Gew 98s and then when the partially completed ones ran out, they kept on making basically the same model rifle with new sights as the Model 98/22. The Czechs then developed the shorter Vz.23 and then the Vz.24 rifles (Vz. = vzor, "The year of") and adopted them as their service rifles, selling the old long 98s and 98/22s to the new Republic of Turkey. They made more of them on contract for the Turks in the mid to late '20s, and when Iran (then still known to the Europeans as Persia) came looking for a service rifle, they got a further update, basically still the old Gew 98 with the newer rear sight of the 98/22 and the new type of rear band on the stock and front sight that they'd developed for the Vz.24. The design being finalized in 1929, it was called the Model 98/29 by the Czechs. Apparently they made a bunch of them in the early '30s, and another bunch later in the '30s. This one was made in the Iranian year 1317, which was March 21, 1938 to March 21, 1939. Just before the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia. It's very beautifully made, and has been well cared for. I have a Vz.24 that was made on contract for the Romanian Army (allies of the Nazis in early WWII) under Nazi occupation, and it's a striking contrast with its rough-finished wood. (Which wasn't improved by being schlepped all around the southwestern part of the Soviet Union by some poor Romanian grunt for 3 years or so of bitter war.)

I know this is all rather off the topic of guitars, but it's my other GAS. To me these things, and the history they're associated with, are fascinating. And there's been music about them. An Iranian professor named Ali Parsa put up a page on the history of these "Brno" rifles at http://aliparsa.com/brno/brno.html It's really more of an introduction to us ignorant Western sorts of some of the historical events that were going on inside Iran during the period these rifles were used. He mentions the shorter version of the rifle called the "Brno kootah" or "short Brno," and a song about it: "I'm drunk, and I have a short Brno in my hand..." That sounds like Iranian blues to me!

or

Gotta

Acquire

Something

for those who have it in other areas of life where even guitars fear to tread...

Peace
Ooo Gotta Aquire Something. Nice to know my affliction actually has a name. During my most recent episode, I purchased a 2006 Mustang. :shock: