What an exciting morning!

Sadly, there won't be any links until later, 'cause as normal, I'm emailing this in and I'm not free to go browsing around for links.

Anyway, this is a gun post, so if you want to skip on down because you're not a gunny, that's ok and you've been warned.

I set out this morning to buy 1 gun, a Remington 597, 22 caliber, semi-automatic rifle. I went to Smith & Edwards, which is a story all onto itself but it's a sporting good, camping, horse tack, hardware and military surplus store, all under one (big) roof. Today was their once a year gun clearance sale. In the notice of the sale was a listing for this Remington which was the rifle I had decided would be Noah's gun, for him to call his own and take with him when he's ready. The rifle normally sells all the time for $165-169. It was on sale for $99. So, I went early and joined the line of other bargain seekers outside the store this morning.

When the store opened and we all stampeded to the gun counter, I very quickly spoke up for the Remington. And I said I'd take it, just like that. One of the scurrying clerks brought me the paperwork to accomplish for the background check and while I was completing the forms, another customer asked about 22 rifles. One of the guns still on the rack was a Taurus Model 63. I popped my head up from my form filling, "Let me see that one too, please." It's a beautiful rifle. Walnut wood with a matt finish and a bright blue polished finish to all the metal. 129 bucks. "I'll take this one too, thanks." I found out later that as I expected, this Taurus is a replica of a Winchester rifle designed in the first place by none other than John Moses Browning himself. So while I don't yet have a 1911 JMB artifact, I do have one of his rifles. Gunblast.com" has an appreciative review of this neat rifle and I can't wait until I can shoot mine and report back myself.

So that was it, I bought 2 dandy 22 rifles for me and the boy and whoever else we deem worthy of taking on a shooting trip. I bought some 9mm shotshell ammo and some cleaning supplies before I got out of there. I took the guns to the house to secure them before returning to work. When I did get back, I no sooner refilled my coffee cup and sat back down when Kenny called. "Grab your coat and meet me outside" says Kenny. I know already we are off on an adventure...

Kenny picks me up in his truck and says lets go to Big 5. That's a chain sporting goods store we have here. Kenny's been hankering for a Marlin lever action rifle in 357 Magnum. Today he has wrangled a deal, over the phone, for the one he wants, from the Big 5 manager, who turns out to be an attractive red-headed woman, Patricia. And Kenny wanted me to go along for moral support- sure...

Kenny got his rifle, Patrica turned out to be a sharp kidder that had Kenny going from the instant he walked through the front door and I got the big bottle of Hoppes #9 cleaning solvent that I wanted. I also bought 2 new folder knives, just because they looked good and had been deeply discounted. One of them is a Smith & Wesson Homeland Security model and it is marked as a first production run, even though the production was in China...

Now I've got guns to clean and lube this weekend. But I'm prepared for a trip to the desert when Little Brother Tim arrives in February!