I went for an early morning row for exercise. So, I threw my Sevylor Colorado off my parents' dock into the Intracoastal Waterway. In the rear was my flare kit, boat horn, and a pelican case with the clear side painted to be opaque containing a Smith and Wesson model 610 loaded with 10mm ammo. I lowered myself in and started paddling away.
About an hour later as I'm out pretty far, some jackass in a motorboat who had plenty of room in the waterway, decides to basically side swipe me (mind you I'm on the far right of the waterway). Despite me sounding the boat horn, the guy comes within a few feet of me while he had a good 100 feet or more in between me and the other side of the waterway that he could have used (or at least it looked like 100 feet or more, I obviously didn't have a measuring tape). There were no other crafts around to justify why he would have done that other than he was either A) a jackass or B) not paying attention.
After sounding the horn and seeing that it had no effect, I freaked out thinking he was going to hit me (and I was right to think so since he almost did) and tried moving over further to the right even though there was only maybe 10 feet separating me from the right side of the waterway, but of course a $40 paddle doesn't exactly stand a chance against a $2k-$5k Mercury outboard.
In retrospect, moving over to the right only helped cause what happened next. The resulting wave from the motor caused me to smash sideways into the wall of the waterway and the impact followed by the rebound (inflatable boat) causes me to go falling over to the right almost hitting my head on the wall. The weight of me falling over capsizes the kayak/canoe. Everything spills out and for a moment I'm just in the water stunned. I'm glad I took another THR member's advice and converted my inflating life-vest to manual mode otherwise it could have been worse.
Anyways, I managed to get the boat turned back over and found the horn and flare kit floating nearby and tossed them into the boat. The 610 in the Pelican case had somehow made its way a good distance away from me in a short period of time, so I swam, grabbed it, and threw it in the boat. Then I got back in, which I found was not as easy as I remember it being when I was 10 or so. It actually probably would have been easier if I had gotten into the boat first, then went around picking up the stuff that got dumped out.
I cut the trip short and headed back home. While I was glad I didn't get hurt, I was FREAKING out thinking that I was going to have to go through Gun Srubber on the Smith 610 like Birchwood Casey products were going out of style. I wasn't even sure if the gun cleaners were designed to get salts out, but I suppose since that's what corrosive ammo and sweat leaves behind that must have been a thought when designing gun cleaning fluids. I figured that I'd open up the 610 and spray the living daylights out of it with Gun Scrubber, and then finish it up with a thin layer of Hoppes Elite oil (I'm not sure if it's any different than Hoppes regular oil, but the bottle looks cool).
I was pleasantly surprised when I got home to find that absolutely no water whatsoever had made its way into the Pelican case. I knew they had a gasket, but figured a little bit of water would still get in. Not a drop got in as far as I can see.
Anyways, I guess the only point of me typing this ridiculously long account of my morning adventure is to say, if you bring a gun on a small craft, a Pelican case is a must! Had the 610 been on my person, even though it's made of Stainless steel - right now I'd be cleaning the bajeezers out of the 610 and would be one unhappy .Cheese.
About an hour later as I'm out pretty far, some jackass in a motorboat who had plenty of room in the waterway, decides to basically side swipe me (mind you I'm on the far right of the waterway). Despite me sounding the boat horn, the guy comes within a few feet of me while he had a good 100 feet or more in between me and the other side of the waterway that he could have used (or at least it looked like 100 feet or more, I obviously didn't have a measuring tape). There were no other crafts around to justify why he would have done that other than he was either A) a jackass or B) not paying attention.
After sounding the horn and seeing that it had no effect, I freaked out thinking he was going to hit me (and I was right to think so since he almost did) and tried moving over further to the right even though there was only maybe 10 feet separating me from the right side of the waterway, but of course a $40 paddle doesn't exactly stand a chance against a $2k-$5k Mercury outboard.
In retrospect, moving over to the right only helped cause what happened next. The resulting wave from the motor caused me to smash sideways into the wall of the waterway and the impact followed by the rebound (inflatable boat) causes me to go falling over to the right almost hitting my head on the wall. The weight of me falling over capsizes the kayak/canoe. Everything spills out and for a moment I'm just in the water stunned. I'm glad I took another THR member's advice and converted my inflating life-vest to manual mode otherwise it could have been worse.
Anyways, I managed to get the boat turned back over and found the horn and flare kit floating nearby and tossed them into the boat. The 610 in the Pelican case had somehow made its way a good distance away from me in a short period of time, so I swam, grabbed it, and threw it in the boat. Then I got back in, which I found was not as easy as I remember it being when I was 10 or so. It actually probably would have been easier if I had gotten into the boat first, then went around picking up the stuff that got dumped out.
I cut the trip short and headed back home. While I was glad I didn't get hurt, I was FREAKING out thinking that I was going to have to go through Gun Srubber on the Smith 610 like Birchwood Casey products were going out of style. I wasn't even sure if the gun cleaners were designed to get salts out, but I suppose since that's what corrosive ammo and sweat leaves behind that must have been a thought when designing gun cleaning fluids. I figured that I'd open up the 610 and spray the living daylights out of it with Gun Scrubber, and then finish it up with a thin layer of Hoppes Elite oil (I'm not sure if it's any different than Hoppes regular oil, but the bottle looks cool).
I was pleasantly surprised when I got home to find that absolutely no water whatsoever had made its way into the Pelican case. I knew they had a gasket, but figured a little bit of water would still get in. Not a drop got in as far as I can see.
Anyways, I guess the only point of me typing this ridiculously long account of my morning adventure is to say, if you bring a gun on a small craft, a Pelican case is a must! Had the 610 been on my person, even though it's made of Stainless steel - right now I'd be cleaning the bajeezers out of the 610 and would be one unhappy .Cheese.
