Back in the Saddle

Well my vacation is now over and I am back at work. My first day was yesterday. This two day week is the perfect slide back into the every day grind I needed. While I enjoyed my vacation and the holiday's immensely, I was ready to get back by the time it was over.

My lovely wife blessed me with much firearm goodness for Christmas. I could not have asked for more, and probably deserved much less.

The first wonderful firearm she gave me is a beautiful Ruger Vaquero Montado in the tried and true .45 Long Colt caliber. This is a very handy gun. It was made by Ruger for the mounted shooting games that have become so popular recently. The gun has several unique features that make it perfect for this activity. It has a short 3" barrel, along with a lowered Bisleyesque hammer. The gun is wonderfully polished stainless steel, and has Ruger's standard black hard rubber grips. I plan to replace them at some point with some custom elk horn grips or some such.

The second firearm I opened Christmas morning was a very nice surprise that my dear wife picked out on her own. She scored well. She purchased a 6.5" stainless Blackhawk in .357 Magnum. What a lovely gun. It is a huge revolver, but it balances nicely, and shoots very nicely. I love it. I put two boxes through the tube at the range last weekend and it shot all the rounds into about a 4" area at 15 yards when I did my part. I am new to single action revolvers so I suspect that these results will of course improve with practice. I need to adjust the sights on it just a bit to the left and down. The revolver tamed the recoil from the standard .357 cartridges I was shooting very well.

Finally my favorite present was opened next. It is such a beautiful gun. She found me a Marlin 1894CB Limited in again, .45 Long Colt. Wow, just wow. What a pretty lever action. I have yet to shoot this one, but am going to try to sneak in some range time in the next week or two with it. The octagon barrel, skinny forearm, and all the other "Cowboy" touches make it such a winner. It points exceedingly well, and the sight picture is just awesome. I am so looking forward to shooting it.

I plan to get a longer barreled Vaquero and a SxS coach gun in the future to round out my "cowboy" guns. I figure the Montado will be an excellent weak side gun, and my wonderful little .32 H&R Single Six is the perfect old school CCW piece. Wow, I can totally see getting sucked into the CAS thing. I love these old style guns, and just know playing dress up as some kind of Old West character would be so cool. It looks like an awesome past time.

The last, and possibly most useful gunny gift the wife bought me was a RCBS reloading kit. She also purchased die sets for both .45 ACP, and .32 H&R Magnum. It will be a couple of months before I get it set up and rolling, but expect plenty of posts on the subject as I get it set up. I have a lot to learn. While the basic process is understood, the details are still a bit fuzzy.

In closing, I am so thankful for the blessings God has given me. My wonderful new bride and I had a great first Christmas together. The gifts were of course wonderful, but the real treasure is the love I have and receive for and from her. A good wife is a rare treasure, and I am so blessed to have one.

Oh yeah, I will be posting some more detailed blog entries on each of the new additions fairly soon.