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The Answer

All righty then... yesterday I brought out the Arsenal's Chinese Type 51 copy of the Soviet Tokarev pistol. He was damaged during his career on active service, though not as badly as his previous owner who was deadlined and dropped from the reporting system.

And the answer? How many dings?

And the Lord of the Keep spake, saying, 'First shalt thou peer closely, seeking the places where metal is not, yet whereat it should be. Then shalt thou count those places where metal, due to energetic energy transfer, hath been made thinner, yet denser, than previous. Seek thou also the place where plastic no longer is where it once was. Truly, there shall also be a lessening of metal, and a increase in density there. When thou has done this aright - Then, shalt thou count to four. No more. No less. Four shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be four. Five shalt thou not count, nor either count thou three, excepting that thou then proceed to four. Six is right out. Once the number four, being the fourth number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Cap of Celebration towards yonder scruple, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.' So ends this reading from the Book of the Castle, Chapter Miniatus Armas.

Indeed. Four is the answer. Except when it is five. As it is. But not for this, as the 5th point of damage is on the side that is terra incognito - the Far Side of the Pistol, (a new album coming soon from Pink Floyd). The hit on the backstrap hit a pin which transferred the energy over to the other side, damaging that grip as well. Per the comments from some of you yesterday, you may recognize this staining pattern, as well. There's more than that, but it proved challenging to photograph with the time I have this morning.

7 Comments

Its a pitty that Mr. Parker hasn't been much acquainted with her as of late. Then again, her patina fits her well for an old girl like her.
 
Well, she'd be offended to be parked, since she was blued! Some girls are just old fashioned girls...
 
I guess it wasn't a holy handgrenade that caused the damage?!? Mighty small dings if from a 30 cal. MG.
 
Geoff - who actually knows when the damage occured - the owner was pretty badly used, having been pounded back into a burning BTR, with cooking off ammo and spalling from the .50 caliber fire that continued to pound the BTR because the occupants were fighting to the end. Sorry I can't *exactly* account for what caused each bit of damage. It wasn't someplace you wanted to be. And go figure how the pistol survived the fire without damage...
 
Just wondering, I hear that 140lbs worth of protein makes a great fire blanket.
 
OK, Boq, since you brought it up.... I wasn't gonna post my thoughts on that, they being the kind to provoke the "Ewww Gross!" response in my self and others, but I must say that water, H2O, is famous for its great heat capacity, and I think an "object" composed mostly of water may well have fallen across that there pistol and absorbed a lot of that fire's heat.
 
Justy, Sorry for the distasteful images that I conjured. Usually, I'm all thumbs when expressing myself.
 
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