Parkerized Swedish 1914 bayonet

[Aragorn243]

The Turk is coming from Europe. The Finn is in Texas, just purchased it yesterday.

[Aragorn243]

I got the paint all off the scabbard and bayonet and put some oil on the wood. Doesn't look bad at all. Next time I'll know to take it out in some natural light where I can see it better. Really did look and feel like a parkerized finish here in the office.

[Aragorn243]

The Finn arrived today. Still waiting on the Turk.

[Aragorn243]

Turk arrived today. It isn't pretty, but it is uncut and still has it's markings. I'm good with it. I'll try to take some photos over the weekend. Rifle season just started and I'm a bit busy at the moment. I love working with the kids but the first week is extremely hectic. I only have 11 returning and 15 first year shooters this year. Graduated 9 last year.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Turk arrived today. It isn't pretty, but it is uncut and still has it's markings. I'm good with it. I'll try to take some photos over the weekend. Rifle season just started and I'm a bit busy at the moment. I love working with the kids but the first week is extremely hectic. I only have 11 returning and 15 first year shooters this year. Graduated 9 last year.

Happy hunting! Photos when you can.

[Aragorn243]

Not hunting. I'm the head coach for my local high school rifle team. 2nd year so I'm still in the learning curve. I have 26 kids, of which only 12 have fired these rifles before and only 11 are returning from last year. Plus they started the actual season a week earlier this year which gives me one full week, three days before Thanksgiving and three days after to get 9 kids ready to shoot competitively. I have two seniors and three juniors. Only one sophomore has varsity experience. I had nine seniors graduate last year. 8 of them were regular match shooters. Only three of my team this year were regular match shooters last season. One of them is currently ineligible.

It could be a long season. I think we will be OK however. First couple of matches are going to be rough but with a couple extra weeks I have 5 first years that show real good promise.

[WarPig1976]

High school rifle team,,,Now that's not something you hear everyday!! There is hope....

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

high school rifle team,,,now that's not something you hear everyday!! There is hope....

ditto!

[Aragorn243]

We have 7 teams in the league with an 8th looking to join. The 7th joined three years ago. JR ROTC program. The 8th is starting a JR ROTC program. The other 6 schools are normal high schools and it's just been a very long standing sport. There were two other schools considering but with the various shootings, they backed off for a time.

They used to be in all the local schools using 22's but then the Feds got involved with lead standards and shut the entire league down maybe 15 years ago. The alternative was to switch to air rifles and at $1200 each then only six schools made the switch. Each team bought 10 rifles so it was a pretty big initial cost. The ROTC programs are in the larger cities and they don't have anyone to compete with other than big "encampments" a couple times a year so it's a natural for them to join our league. They are high schools and the sport is open to non-ROTC students too but the ROTC is supposed to do it.