This morning I went to my Dad's and got a load of horse manure then spread it on top of my 12x4 garden box. It is not really composted yet, but we are still quite a way off from planting season. This weekend I'll staple black trash bags across the top of the box. This will speed the composting of the manure and warm the soil until it is time to plant, probably around the 1st of April or so. Sunday will be my day to make my seed decisions from my catalogs.
Guns for Defense
For Christmas, I gave my older brother my home defense shotgun. It is a Remington 870 that he found in a trashcan about 20 years ago and gave to me. It had a cracked stock, a 28" barrel and was missing the end cap that held in the mag spring and attached the barrel to the gun. Back then, I put this Choate Machine and Tool stock
on it with a matching fore end, an 18.5" barrel made by Mossberg for the 870 similar to this one but without the "stand off" feature, and a fiber optic shotgun sight from HiViz. That gun served me well throughout my police career. At Thanksgiving he had asked my advice on buying a shotgun for home defense, something he had never been interested in before. I thought it fitting that he get it back. He really appreciated it, and it was good to be able to do something nice for him after all that he has done for me over the years. The problem is that it left me without a home defense shotgun. Today I'm going to pick up a new Remington 870 Express Tactical that I ordered.
I'll get a review of it up soon.Guns I Wish I Still Had
There are tons of blogs out there about guns, so I generally have stayed away from discussing them here, but I thought it might be cool to reminisce now and then about guns I've owned and traded or sold, that I wish I still had. Anyone who has done some "horse trading" in the past probably has a similar list.
The first gun I ever bought with my own money, I was about 13 or so, and I got a Winchester Model 94 in .30-30 at a gun show. I don't remember what it cost, but I'd guess it was in the $100 neighborhood. That old .30-30 accompanied me on hikes through some family land in Ohio, took down many a pine cone and beer can, and basically got my love of the old West and guns in general started. When I was about 19 or 20, and flat broke, I pawned it for $40. I meant to go back and get it out of hock, but could never come up with the money soon enough. A lot of guns over the years got sold when I was broke, but thankfully never at such a loss! What guns are in your history that you've loved and lost? Leave a comment to share your story.
Happy New Year!
He found a perfectly good shotgun (with a couple of minor issues) IN A TRASH CAN???? Why can't I ever get that luck? I've also heard of people buying handguns or long guns at garage sales but I don't even find quality accessories.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure if it's neat or scary how many gun accessories you can get off Amazon. I've gotten a few thing there myself. I even got the tritium front sight for my 590 there.
A side note, Meprolight has tritium front sights for a variety of long guns. I'm not an employee of them, just a customer. http://www.meprolight.com/
I prefer Mossbergs to Remingtons but really either one will work well. Remington has the law enforcement market but Mossberg had the military contracts and passed their durability testing.
There are a few handguns that I wish I still had but I was like you, I needed money (usually for vehicle repairs) and they went away. I'm glad that those days are long past (better job and better money management skills).
Steelheart
I had a Ruger "Police Service Six" .357 that I sold to pay bills. It was "perfect" for me - (because I have small hands)the grip was small enough to fit my hand and it had great balance.
ReplyDeleteThat was about 15 years ago and I am still kicking myself for selling it. (I should have made my (then) husband sell one of HIS guns since he drank up all his money and wouldn't pay any of the bills.) :^(
You can still find good condition Service Six's if you look around. Also watch for Speed Six's and Security Six's as they're basically the same gun.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Security_Six
I'd recommend either Gunbroker.com or one of the Ruger gun forums.
Steelheart
Steelheart - I've been a big fan of Mossbergs and owned a couple over the years. I actually prefer their safety placement over the Remingtons and like the duel slide bars instead of the single. I looked at them for this purchase, but thier "tactical" ones are really ugly with some questionable accesories such as a muzzle break?!?!
ReplyDeleteAnnonymous - Ruger double actions are really underrated. Very well built, reasonable cost, just never had the impact of their single actions or their .22 semiautos. That would have been a great one to still have.
Yeah, I do wonder what they're thinking when they put a muzzle break that looks like they stole it from a .50 BMG rifle. The only reason I can come up with on this is to appear to the tacti-cool market.
ReplyDeleteAnother questionable item is these stand-off devices for civilian guns. From what I know these are to protect the barrel when blowing the locks or hinges off when doing tactical entries. While I do feel that civilians should be able to get them I don't see why they are a standard item. IF I've got my muzzle in contact with something the threat has gotten WAY TOO CLOSE and it's about to be dealt with...
Steelheart