iamkris
Member
After reading the excellent short essay John Ross wrote about guns letting you dream a little bit as a part of this thead -- http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60630&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 -- (and cursing myself because I can't think of anything that poetic to say) it got me thinking, what dreaming do my guns allow me?
Many of my guns evoke a memory or emotion... some let me have a dream. Some don't do either and are primarily tools or toys (those are my SKS, a G3, my O/U shotgun, a Witness 45, my Vaqueros, a FEG Hi Power, my Winny92, a Mossberg 500 riot gun)
My "dream" guns are those where I sit in my cave after getting the kids to bed (it's really just an old basement room where I've moved enough boxes to make space for my safe and my reloading bench) and take them out to handle, work the action, shoulder and pretend to shoot, clean and oil (even when they really don't need it).
* My M1 Garand -- I take my 1939 manufactured SA out of the safe weekly and stroke it's beat up stock and can almost feel the grit of sand at Omaha Beach or Okinawa...almost feel the cold of Bastogne. I dream of a windy day at Camp Perry where I get the wind angle and mirage just right...
* My 1874 Sharps -- The oppressive prairie heat and musky smell of buffalo overwhelm my nose and mouth. Acrid sulphur smoke hangs thick. I think of a buffalo hunt that may or may not happen...maybe the challenge of a single shot rifle, a ghost bull elk and steep, snowy mountainsides.
* My STG58 -- I feel in league with the heyday of NATO...against an enemy with their finger on the button. This rifle also wells up a sense that I can defend my family and country if need be.
* Blackhawk in 45 Colt -- This is the gun that got me into serious reloading, trying to emulate Elmer Keith. It's the gun that drew a high school buddy closer as we each worked up loads to test, sitting in the woods at my father's farm, shooting, talking, laughing. This is the revolver that I shot a Russian Razorback in TN "Wyatt Earp" style as he charged. I rarely shoot it anymore but its there, begging me to work up a new load for whitetails next fall.
* My 1100 -- Everytime I pick this gun up, memories of crisp fall morning, the smell of harvested corn in the air and the explosion of pheasants flushing under my feet. I dream of when I'll have enough money or time to take weeklong hunts in long, flat Dakota fields.
* My custom Mauser 98 .308 -- this is the first gun I ever built...took me 12 years. I remember shaping the forend to get just the right curve of the schnaebel, each line of the checkering (and the over runs and dips), polishing the newly bent bolt handle and the feeling of squeezing the trigger on that Wyoming antelope bedded behind the bluff (after 150 yards of belly crawling through ground cactus) This gun isn't match-accurate but I dream of that long shot on a Canadian whitetail I'll take someday with my good friend.
* My AutoOrd 1911 -- even though everyone makes fun of them, this one works and is accurate. Over the last 15 years, I've customized it with stuff that costs more than its original purchase price, but total cost is still under $500. It was all I could afford right after college when I wanted to get into pin shooting (all the rage back in the 80's.) I'm not that fast but use it in local 3 gun matches. I look at it and dream of someday beating those guys at the club that have their race guns. "Imagine", they'll say, "that guy with the beater 1991 actually smoked us!"
How 'bout you?
Many of my guns evoke a memory or emotion... some let me have a dream. Some don't do either and are primarily tools or toys (those are my SKS, a G3, my O/U shotgun, a Witness 45, my Vaqueros, a FEG Hi Power, my Winny92, a Mossberg 500 riot gun)
My "dream" guns are those where I sit in my cave after getting the kids to bed (it's really just an old basement room where I've moved enough boxes to make space for my safe and my reloading bench) and take them out to handle, work the action, shoulder and pretend to shoot, clean and oil (even when they really don't need it).
* My M1 Garand -- I take my 1939 manufactured SA out of the safe weekly and stroke it's beat up stock and can almost feel the grit of sand at Omaha Beach or Okinawa...almost feel the cold of Bastogne. I dream of a windy day at Camp Perry where I get the wind angle and mirage just right...
* My 1874 Sharps -- The oppressive prairie heat and musky smell of buffalo overwhelm my nose and mouth. Acrid sulphur smoke hangs thick. I think of a buffalo hunt that may or may not happen...maybe the challenge of a single shot rifle, a ghost bull elk and steep, snowy mountainsides.
* My STG58 -- I feel in league with the heyday of NATO...against an enemy with their finger on the button. This rifle also wells up a sense that I can defend my family and country if need be.
* Blackhawk in 45 Colt -- This is the gun that got me into serious reloading, trying to emulate Elmer Keith. It's the gun that drew a high school buddy closer as we each worked up loads to test, sitting in the woods at my father's farm, shooting, talking, laughing. This is the revolver that I shot a Russian Razorback in TN "Wyatt Earp" style as he charged. I rarely shoot it anymore but its there, begging me to work up a new load for whitetails next fall.
* My 1100 -- Everytime I pick this gun up, memories of crisp fall morning, the smell of harvested corn in the air and the explosion of pheasants flushing under my feet. I dream of when I'll have enough money or time to take weeklong hunts in long, flat Dakota fields.
* My custom Mauser 98 .308 -- this is the first gun I ever built...took me 12 years. I remember shaping the forend to get just the right curve of the schnaebel, each line of the checkering (and the over runs and dips), polishing the newly bent bolt handle and the feeling of squeezing the trigger on that Wyoming antelope bedded behind the bluff (after 150 yards of belly crawling through ground cactus) This gun isn't match-accurate but I dream of that long shot on a Canadian whitetail I'll take someday with my good friend.
* My AutoOrd 1911 -- even though everyone makes fun of them, this one works and is accurate. Over the last 15 years, I've customized it with stuff that costs more than its original purchase price, but total cost is still under $500. It was all I could afford right after college when I wanted to get into pin shooting (all the rage back in the 80's.) I'm not that fast but use it in local 3 gun matches. I look at it and dream of someday beating those guys at the club that have their race guns. "Imagine", they'll say, "that guy with the beater 1991 actually smoked us!"
How 'bout you?
