It was a VERY busy weekend.
Oh MY. It was almost too much. My brain vapor locked a bit, as it is wont to do in gun stores.
In anticipation of this, I brought a hand written list so I could stay focused. Just looking at every table took 3 hours.
Here is a picture of my swag:
I got a bore light so I don't have to peek down the barrel to see if the gun is unloaded. An inexpensive LED flashlight, too. There is a fine tipped set of tweezers, for, um... tweezing stuff. There are two 10 round magazines for the .22 bolt action rifle, and a mag for the 1903 Pocket Hammerless. Also a pocket holster for the pocket hammerless. There is ten clips for the Garand. And, in celebration of Buy Ammo Day, today, I bought 140 rounds of .308. And it's from South Africa, to further honor Mr. du Toit.
Not bad, considering the temptations. I have an actual nibble on more contract money, but haven't landed that fish.
What else tempted me? Well I was saved from big impulse buying on 2 occasions by the convenient fact that many dealers don't take credit cards. I expected that ahead of time, as this show is similar to antique shows and old tools shows, of which I am more familiar. I almost bought a bunch of magazines for a gun I don't have (M1A) and I almost bought Winchester Model 88, which is a .308 caliber lever action with a 5 round box magazine, there is a scope mount on most I've seen, and back-up iron sights. There is even a carbine version. A really good hunting rifle that fits my criteria. That rifle kept calling to me, and I was ready to get it when they told me no credit cards. Phew. Saved me $800. The experience DID put that rifle at the top of the contention for a lefty hunting rifle.
I also considered getting .45 ACP ammo. I don't own a gun that shoots .45 ACP.
I noticed VERY few bolt action rifles that were for lefties. No love.
The next show is in February. And by then I will be expecting a tax refund check, hopefully a month or 2 into a higher paying job, and I will have the walking around money ON me. Uh oh.
What else was fun there? Well I got to fondle a LOT of .45 ACP. The prices there were comparable to what I'd get from my favorite local store, so that made me feel good. It will be a pleasure buying with confidence from my guy when the time comes next Spring. I'm going to be kinda particular on the features, too.
3 comments:
I believe that profit is not a dirty word, and "making money" is not a low or dishonorable motivation. The desire to make a buck is what has driven progress throughout history. I believe that commerce, the voluntary exchange of goods and values, is the best motivator for peaceful cooperation, and that the restriction of commerce promotes strife and poverty.
I believe that my life is my own. I am no one's property or sacrificial animal. I have a right to exist for my own sake, and I don't have to be ashamed of it. I do not exist to be numbered, counted, categorized, stamped, herded, and milked. I am not a cog in a machine, a sheep in a herd, or a number on a census.
I believe that taxation is equal to forced labor. I believe there is no moral or practical difference between taking the wages of a day or a week from a person to pay for a schoolhouse, and ordering them at gunpoint to spend a day or a week building that schoolhouse directly.
I believe that property rights are the basis for all other rights. If I am not free to dispose of the fruits of my labor as I see fit, all other rights are meaningless. Those who deny property rights cannot claim to be defenders of individual rights.
I believe that the term "individual rights" is a tautology. Rights can only ever be individual.
I believe that there is only one proper role for government, and that is the protection of individual rights. I also believe that no government in history has ever limited itself to that role.
I believe that my neighbor has the right to worship God, Allah, Vishnu, Odin, the Great Pumpkin, or any other deity. I have the right to worship all of those gods, or none of them, and neither of us has the right to force our beliefs on the other. That includes trying to make me live by the tenets of your faith under the guise of "majority rights"--one man's pork dinner, bourbon, or steak is another man's abomination, sin, or blasphemy. Worry about your own standing with your deity, not mine.
I believe that a crime without a victim is no crime at all. If an action doesn't violate another's person or property, no crime has been committed.
I believe that thoughts can never be a crime, nor can they be an excuse for a more severe punishment. I believe that beating a person because you want their wallet is every bit as despicable as beating them because you don't like the color of their skin.
I believe that no group has rights beyond those of any of its individual members. There is no magic or alchemy that gives a mob special rights that trump the rights of the individual.
I believe that democracy and majority rule are not automatic mandates for anyone. Without a properly constrained government, fifty-one percent of the tribe can vote themselves the right to pee in the cornflakes of the other forty-nine percent. A tyranny of the majority is still a tyranny.
I believe that any economic system that isn't centered around rational self-interest is fatally flawed. No amount of altruism or appeals to charity will motivate a man like the prospect of making money for himself.
I believe that forced charity is no charity at all, and forced virtue cannot claim credit for itself anymore than a eunuch can claim credit for chastity.
I believe that it is not my right or obligation to raise and educate your children, nor is it your right or obligation to raise and educate mine.
I believe that it is none of my business what goes on in my neighbor's bedroom, nor is it any of his business what goes on in mine, as long as no one's right are violated. Bugger a goat for all I care, as long as it is above the age of consent.
I believe that you cannot have a right to anything that necessitates a financial obligation on the part of someone else. You have a right to life, liberty, and honestly acquired property, not to any sort of monetary or material thing. The former merely requires your fellow citizens to leave you alone; the latter requires them to work for you free of charge.
I believe that it is the height of ignorance to judge an individual not by their actions, but by their ancestry, gender, nationality, religion, dietary preferences, or the melanin content of their skin.
I believe that emotions are not substitutes for facts when it comes to describing and understanding reality. Wishing something to be something other than what it is won't make it so, no matter how many people wish for it.
I believe that the most effective way to ruin something is to put the government in charge of it. I also believe that the most effective way to corrupt a religion is to mix it with government.
I believe that the desire to become President should automatically be a disqualifying factor.
I believe that anyone in favor of "free" government services has no understanding of economics.
I believe that patriotism isn't measured by flags or bumper stickers, but by your willingness to defend the rights of someone with whom you disagree completely and profoundly.
I believe that freedom of speech especially extends to unpopular or repulsive speech. Popular and uncontroversial speech does not need protection; dissent does.
I believe that the IQ of a crowd is the IQ of its least intelligent member, divided by half. I do not believe in the wisdom of the masses--intelligence is not an additive quality, but force is, and the threat or application of force is the only tool available to any crowd.
I believe that I am the only person qualified to run my life, that I have the absolute right to be my own master, and that no amount of laws and Constitutions ever written can grant me that right or take it away.
This I believe.
^ that was from Munchkin Wrangler. I wanted to preserve his words in my comments in the event his blog disappeared before mine did.
http://munchkinwrangler.blogspot.com
Here is his other one...
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
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