Or
How we end up coming home with guns that we had no idea we even wanted an hour earlier.
I'm primarily a rifle guy. I also have a couple of handguns. Only one shotgun and that hasn't been out of the gun closet in years. My handgun needs are fairly simple and I always thought well covered by a 45 Colt/45 Acp convertible, a 32 H&R mag and a couple of 22s. Life was good. A 38/357 was just another one of those unnecessary cartridges that I didn't want to go to the expense of tooling up for.
Then, a couple of years ago, my dad, in his early 70's and with no plans to retire from the family business but facing increasing pressure from everyone else associated with the business to do so, decides he needs a new hobby. He decides guns would be a good idea. Give him something to do with the grandsons. So he goes out and buys some. Shows up at my place with a Marlin Cowboy and a Ruger GP100 in, of course, 357 Mag. Asks if I could load up some ammo for him. How do you say "no" to your dad?
So I start tooling up; brass, dies, couple of molds. I do a little load development with the Marlin and put up 500 rounds for him. I expect that will last him for a long time. Now I have these tools and components. They take up space. They add to the clutter. They don't see much use.
This week I stopped by one of the little gun shops that I get to less than once a year. Larry, the proprietor, is retired (chainsaws and guns), but he has a pole barn out next to the house from which he still keeps his hand in the gun game. Primarily used guns, but interesting models at reasonable prices. Poor Larry is terribly distraught over our political situation. His inventory is down by 2/3rds. From his perspective we are at the end of times and he doesn't want to be caught sitting on inventory when all guns are banned in a couple of weeks. He's got "move them out the door" prices on a lot of what is left.
Spent some time trying to figure out how I could help the poor guy out. I was tempted by a couple of ratty, post 64, top-eject Winchester 94s. There was a Garand and a Krag. No 03 Springfields. No 45/70s. I decided to take a spin by the powder shelf in order to take a few moments to mull over my rifle options. I had to walk past the handgun case on the way and out of the corner of my eye I spot a S&W 15-2. He's got a "well worn" price on on it. I do have all those tools and components. Larry is pretty quick about getting it out of the case when he sees me looking at it.
It has some blueing wear issues, but it doesn't seem all that worn mechanically. Reasonably tight all the way around, in fact. Rifling is good. Crane is tight. Underneath the Packmayers someone has done a roundbutt job on it. Great trigger. None of the screws are boogered. An old S&W with a history and some soul. It would be a good excuse to cast up some more boolits. What the hell. Someone has to help poor Larry out of his predicament.
-ktw