Last Weekend

So I know I'm running behind on my weekly update, but only by a week. So last weekend we decided that after our security concerns that my wife needed a gun of her own. My Ruger is a bit too large framed for her dainty, lady like hands. On Saturday we head over to the Will Roger's Convention Center for a gun show. If you've ever been to a large gun show you know that there are some "interesting" elements of society there. We get there around 10am and start looking around. Mary's never been to one of these shows before but is pretty open minded. We are looking for 2 guns. A 7mm-08 for Mary to hunt with, and a pistol for protection.

The first table we looked at had the normal assortment of hunting rifles and shotguns, and a few hand guns. The next table has WWII nazi regalia. I know some people collect this stuff as a hobby, and having a bachelors in history I find it interesting, but some people collect this stuff for the regime it represented rather than its historical significance. Just strange, I'm not into it and try not to judge those that are. Anyway we walk through the whole show pretty quickly since we were there to get specific items.

By now we're a bit hungry and leave to meet some friends for lunch at AppleBee's. After a quick lunch we head over to Elk Castle's shooting range to rent a few different guns and find out what Mary likes. The first gun we try is a 5 shot .38 special revolver. The recoil is pretty violent on one of these guns, and being double action only, the trigger pull at 12 to 18lbs makes it very difficult to accurately shoot a gun weighing 2 to 3lbs. Mary fired 10 shots, I fired 5, and they all hit in the center mass but it wasn't enjoyable to shoot. Next we rented a .380 automatic. Mary shot this very well and enjoyed it too. So we decided we were going to get her a .380. While at the gun shop we priced a few used .380's and they were pretty high. We go back to the gun show and find only a few .380's that are affordable, and of those we don't recognize the brand of these. We found a couple of Beretta .380's that were very nice, but they sure were expensive. We decided since we didn't have to make a decision that day (there is another gun show in April) we left and headed for Cabela's to look for rifles, as we didn't find any 7mm-08 that were short enough for Mary.

At Cabelas we found they were clearing out the used rifle section, but alas no youth model rifles in the desired chambering. We did find out that Savage makes a very affordable youth rifle in 7mm-08, although they didn't have any in stock. We were helped by a gentleman named Bryce, who made us feel good about our options, didn't try to upsell us, and took the time to help us when so many of the staff were ignoring us or treating us as an inconvenience. We were thinking of putting a rifle on order and then on lay away, when Bryce told us we could get $30 off today's purchase plus earn money to spend at Cabelas if we got a store credit card. We thought this sounded like a fine idea since the rifle wasn't very expensive, we were getting a discount, and we'd earn points towards future purchases. We got the card and went back only to discover that Bryce had left for the day. So we ask who we need to speak with to order a gun. We were told to see "Pete" in the gun library. I must say that Pete appeared to be more myth than reality. After 30 minutes of waiting in the library for anyone to acknowledge our precense I got disgusted and put down several purchases I was prepared to make and walked out. I'll go back to Cabelas but I doubt I'll buy any guns there.

This did not ruin our day though, we'd had a fun day.

The next day we went to our friends house for lunch and for Mary's folks to see about a dog. I played XBox with their son, and whipped him at every game he threw at me. I think that is an accomplishment since I'm 29 and he's 5. We had a good time though. We ate a good meal, and Mary's folks decided to get the puppy. I think it bonded to my father in law pretty quickly. Anyway, it was a good weekend and we hope to have many more like it.