10/23/2012

Ok, so yesterday I gassed on and on about what all I accomplished on Saturday.  Be glad that I compressed a couple of those stories to a single sentence or we might STILL be reading about it.  Anyhoo, at some point in the day, or perhaps earlier in the week, I'd arranged with Gregg to meet him and Larry at the credit onion at 0930 h so we could caravan to the gun show at Will Rogers.  I got a call around 0845 h saying he was just dragging ass out of bed and would meet me at the show.  He said he’d call around 1000 or 1030 h.  I fingered as much and went about getting myself ready.  I printed out a sign advertising the Bullpup shotgun for sale and packed up to leave.  Larry called to say he was on his way so I left too.  I met Larry at the credit onion and suppressed the urge to pull another $100.00 from the savings account.  If I couldn’t sell the Bullpup, I could always: a) only buy what I could afford with the $300.00 I had on me or 2) get the $100.00 from the ATM at the show.  On the first row, about three tables in, a guy asked about the gun.  He low balled me and we met in the middle.  Was it as might as I paid for the gun?  No, but I expected to lose my ass on it and I wanted it gone.  I pocketed the $350.00 and started shopping.  I tucked the “for sale” sign into the back of my shorts and pulled my shirt over it.  It made my ass and back sweat.  I was not happy about that.  I didn’t want to make a special trip back to the truck though.  We moved on.  Near the end of that first row were the tables of a group I'd talked to before about a sporterized Mosin Nagant.  Wow, three unrecognized words in a row.  Nice.  Anyhoo, they had almost exactly what I had come looking for: a tactical over/under shotgun!  Why was it “almost” what I was looking for?  It wasn’t all black.  It had some silver in the receiver and grey in the furniture.  Since it WAS the first row, I said I'd come back after looking at the rest of the place.  Oh, it was also $400.00 so I knew I could afford it.  We walked the show.  I looked at every Saiga 12 and made note of the locations for Gregg.  About three rows in, Larry found some ammo cans he wanted so we took them to the truck along with the ass-sweat “for sale” sign.  As we were leaving, Gregg called to say he was just walking in.  I said we’d meet him at the front door in just a few minutes.  We did.  He introduced the two guys he’d brought along who were also looking for Saiga 12s and I told them where I'd seen the best price.  They took off that direction while Larry and I picked up with the row we’d left off.  I saw a few single action pistols, but had that tactical O/U pretty much set in my mind as the gun I was going to buy.  Gregg got his Saiga 12 and a pink Cricket .22 for his daughter then left.  Larry and I stopped for lunch when we had worked our way back to the middle of the venue then finished out the rows.  I still hadn’t seen anything at any of the tables which drew me away from the tactical O/U shotgun… until the third from the last row.  I saw a guy carrying a coach gun with black furniture and exposed hammers!  It was EXACTLY what I wanted!  He said that some previous owner had painted the furniture black and that he had added the “Limb Saver” recoil pad and shell holder to the butt.  It was, as I just mentioned, exactly what I wanted.  We haggled a little and I bought it for $325.00 with a smile on my face.  Was that too much?  Possibly, but it was exactly the coach gun I wanted.  Sure, I would have settled for a CG with natural wood-colored furniture… but the black is so cool!  I shouldered it and we walked on.  When we got to the lady from Granbury who sells jellies and preserves and stuff, Larry had to stop.  We took those purchases and the coach gun to the truck.  We finished up with the rows and began the return trip to look at and buy other stuff.  Since I'd bought the coach gun, I didn’t feel the need to go back and look at the tactical O/U… especially since I couldn’t afford it now.  I intended to go buy 250 rounds of #4 buckshot for $119.00 at one of the vendors but got… sidetracked.  While Larry was haggling with someone, I turned to look at a lone gun sitting on a table.  It looked so sad and lonely.  I shrugged and went to check it out.  It was a bolt action 12 gauge shotgun with a detachable box magazine and the most ludicrously long barrel I'd ever seen.  The tag said $125.00!  I flinched.  I looked at the nearest group of guys sitting at the next table and pointed mutely at the thing.  One of them jumped up and said, “I’ll take $115.00 for it so I don’t have to lug it home!”  I figured for that price I could chop the barrel down to 18” and have yet another dumb-as-a-rock, manual action, dead reliable “tactical” shotty.  I paid the man and shouldered this blunderbuss.  In fact, I think I'm going to start calling the thing The Blunderbuss.  Hang on; I gotta go change my inventory right quick.  Larry finishes up with the deal he was making while I bought the Blunderbuss and we went to another table.  The guy there was trying to sell Larry something and commented on the Blunderbuss’s barrel length.  He had four boxes of 12 gauge slugs for $5.00 each and said, “You can have all of these for $15.00 if I don’t have to be anywhere near you when you fire them in that thing!”  I bought them.  Ok, so now we go to the truck one more time and return for the finial walk of shame.  We talked to the “Russian” dude with all the Saiga stuff for a while and Larry bought a folding stock .223 caliber AK for too much money.  We finally called it a day when they announced that the show was over and we had to leave.  When I got home, I found out that the Blunderbuss wouldn’t fit in my gun cabinet.  It is 55” long while the cabinet is 48” tall.  I decided that, since I could remove the bolt and render the gun useless as a firearm, I'd just lean it up against the wall, redneck mother… er, I mean behind the door.  So, after updating “Firepower Inventory” spreadsheet, I settled in for the evening.  Now we’re back at work and… um, I guess that’s it.  I'll talk to y'all again later.  Toodles.