Hangover

Ok, that was my wish-list(s). This post is about wish list hangover. I thought on it a while with a little tiny Devil’s Advocate on my shoulder. I am now going to explore the possible unintended consequences of wish fulfillment. What if I woke up this Christmas and Santa has delivered everything on that list. After the excitement fades, and the bloom is off the rose, where will I be?

The M1A, case in point. What a great gun. But it would force my current favored rifle, the Garand, into the background. They are similar guns in most respects, as the positive features in the Garand are the same as the positive features in the M1A. The M1A has certain advantages, not least of which is greater ammo capacity. Comparative negative aspects between them are negligible. I’d hate to get the new toy and forget old. It’s like the Pixar Movie 'Toy Story', where Buzz Lightyear becomes the primary toy and Woody the cowboy is forgotten.

Now, I’m not anthropomorphizing the two rifles here, it’s just HAVING an expensive rifle that I might use less after buying another upgrade expensive rifle that I then use a lot leaves me in a quandary. I don’t want to part with the rifle I liked once. Sentimental reason, historical interest, not wanting to part with a good functioning rifle are all reasons to keep it. In fact the only reason I’d ever part with a gun is for extreme financial hardship (like the SPAS) or that it simply won’t shoot well for me.

But having 2 guns that do the same job still itches. If the Garand was match grade and super accurized and the M1A was service grade, that would be one thing… Ok, I could use the Garand for hunting and the M1A as the Zombie gun. But wait… I’d probably have long eye relief low magnification scopes on both rifles, and, in my wish fulfillment fantasy, Santa DID give me a more appropriate-to-hunting bolt action rifle, so I am back to square one. The Garand is a good gun, but has no role to fill and sits in the cabinet. My range time is finite, I’ll concentrate on tuning my abilities with the ones I use, and even I have enough guns that I need more range time anyway.

What I need is a third role for the three .308 guns. Bolt action with 10x scope for hunting, M1A with a long eye relief scope for emergency preparedness, and the Garand for…? Until I think of a roll, I will hesitate on purchasing the M1A, even if I had the money.

The Garand is inconvenient for me because it is great, but not great enough.

I could spend a lot of money getting it accurized and shooting it in competition. That’d be fun, but it would take a lot of devotion. And I’d probably have to convert it back to .30-06 to compete, as I see Garand contests being sticklers about the original cartridge size in many competitions.

Maybe my ultimate solution is drop the priority on a bolt-action rifle down on the list, scope the M1A to higher power or something different from the Garand, use the Garand for hunting and the M1A for the other stuff. I need to get more experience hunting with the Garand to know if this setup is feasible. More study, more practice, is needed

Ok, moving on. The 10/22 rifle fanatsy Santa delivered is the next quandary. I’ve been thinking… Why do I want it? To have a .22 LR gun for cheap rifle practice, and in a survival situation where the heavy caliber is too much to take small game. But wouldn’t a .22 LR pistol do the same thing, pretty much? I’ve had trouble testfiring both the Ruger 10/22 rifle and Mark III target pistols with excessive jamming, but that is probable due to the ammo type provided. Fully jacketed round supposedly work better and I will test that before I buy any semi-auto .22 so let’s assume for now that that is a non-issue. Can I get good and cheap practice with just a pistol? Sure, either pistol or rifle is good for trigger-contol skill honing. And I can get good rifle practice with the Garand or whatever by just spending more on ammo. I may change that .22 rifle on the wish list to .22 pistol. Heck, they are cheap enough, I may just add a pistol to the list. If Santa dropped one in my lap, I could go out and get the second the next day. Maybe get a regular .22 rifle and go through the Class III licensing rigmarole to have a quiet/suppressed .22 pistol. For zombies. And squirrels. And fun.


Finally, whichever .45 ACP pistol I get, either a Glock Style or a 1911 style, I will have desires for the features of the one I don’t have. Like the clip types. Not that people I know have reported jams with the staggered stack in the Glock type magazine. But it does make the handle wider. And I like old styling and engineering, especially when it is exquisite. And the 1911 can certainly be described as exquisite, almost timeless. But I am not a fan of the grip safety. Still leaning 1911, anyway. Leaning hard.