1/1/09

Well, I guess since it is the New Year, I ought to talk to y'all. I just deleted a huge and very boring report on Christmas. Suffices to say, another Christmas is past. Good riddance. Saturday after Christmas, mom had the family over. I hate when she does that. Everyone finally left around 1730 h. Again I say good riddance. Sunday I met Larry Shuttlebus at the gun show. I wasn’t shopping for anything specific; I just thought I'd know it when I saw it. Well, I saw it. About halfway through the show, I saw a really cool looking concealable pistol. It was a Smith & Wesson with no external catches of any kind. It was a tad on the smallish side, but it didn’t feel like a toy or a “lady’s gun” like the Kahr John had at one time. I liked the feel and the price seemed good. I walked away to think about it. Of course I knew as I was walking off I was probably going to buy it. The next booth was Cheaper Than Dirt and they had 9mm ammo priced at $140.00 for 500 rounds. I think it was Remington but I don’t remember. Anyhoo, I walked away from that as well knowing I'd probably come back. I found another vendor selling 1,000 rounds in a watertight ammo case for $185.00 a few rows over. It appeared to be Winchester white box, but I should have known it was no-name reloads. I knew 1,000 rounds were going to weigh a ton so we kept walking. Once we’d seen all the rows, I went back to look at the S&W pistol again. I went ahead and bit the proverbial bullet. I bought it. I then went to the 1,000 round vendor and bought a box. I was right, they did weigh a ton. Well, not literally a “ton,” but it was heavy. While Larry was buying a rifle, I left my stuff with him and went to pee. Just outside the bathroom was a vendor selling a Picatinny/Weaver mount laser sight which I bought for the Hebrew Hammer. We left and went to eat at Dairy Queen then I dropped him off at his car. From there I went straight to the range to try out the new gun. It worked well enough once it fed the first round out of the magazine. Oh, it kicks like a mule, but I still like it. Turns out, it wasn’t a very popular gun and even Smith & Wesson doesn’t seem to like acknowledging it. They only made it for one year back in 1996 or 1997 and quietly removed them from the market. It was a “loss leader” gun and… well, the internot has very little good to say about it. I still like it though. I have been shopping for spare magazines for it and have only been able to find them on line. I ordered a pair once I found them at a price I liked. After sending several rounds through it, it now seems to be freed up and working well. Have I mentioned I really like it? Ok, I've been trying to “multitask” by typing and watching TV. I'm not having much luck with it so I think I’m going to call it a rant. I doubt I'll go back to work tomorrow. This “on call” thing seems to be working pretty well. I'll have a better rant on Monday.