27 July 2009
My pretties may not be your pretties....
As a result of my husband's gun hobby, I find myself in gun stores way more often than one would expect, knowing me. About a week ago, the husband and I stopped by his "bookstore." I first went into the pawn shop next door (around here, there seems to be a rule that where there's a pawn shop, there's a gun store) and scored a cheap copy of Deadwood Season 2. Win!

So I went back over to the gun area and hung out with the husband as he poked around and oohed and aahed over things. Romantic suspense writers take note: How's a 100 round magazine for a 9mm pistol sound? Insane, right? It's weird, this double-drum shaped thing. Look it up.

Anyway, the owner of the place is a pretty cool guy. Ex-Special Forces, a bit of a smart ass. Apologizes to me when he cusses. It's funny. He comes over to DH and me to show off some hand stippling he did on a .45 pistol. (Turns the whole hand grip and the barrel into non-slip. It's prickly in the hand, but not irritating.)

Owner sees my not-exactly-brand new copy of Deadwood and we exchange some "So Awesome!" Then....oh, then....he pops the question: "Do you want to see my Colt Single Action?"

Yes, please!



Naturally the history geek in me went Whheeee! But more than that, the gun itself was surprisingly elegant in my hand. I'm only 5'3" and of relatively small build. But I could hold it easily. The recoil might break my wrist, but hey, aim low and it's all good.

One thing I hadn't noticed when I'd seen pictures of Colts before - the swirly/smudgy looking area on the casing. Here, a close up of it:



That's not just a sign of age, or poor care (both of which I'd thought based on pictures.) It's intentional, the result of mixing alloys to harden the casing. And more than that, it's pretty in person. I'd almost go so far as to say beautiful. Just one more example of why book and internet research doesn't always cut it.

And yes, this is all filed away for future writing. :)


1 Comments:

Blogger Kate Diamond said...

Guns are kinda hot. Although I balk at owning one... I'm the kind of woman who's a hazard around a toaster. I hate to think what I might do with actual bullets.

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