Playing Cowboy

So part of my fun this weekend was visiting gunshops in northern Delaware. I hit X-Ring in Newark, Miller's in Newcastle, and the Gun Stock Shop in Wilmington proper. it was fun. X-Ring has the most of what I want, but the highest prices. The Gun Stock Shop is the cheapest, but doesn't maintain much in the way of inventory. Millers is in the middle and has the most personable sales staff.

When I went to Miller's Saturday, I talked Cowboy Action Shooting with a salesman named Jock. Yes with an "o". He showed me a bunch of guns they had in stock. We compared the merits of .45 colt and .38 special (.38 is cheaper and faster, .45 is more authentic and usually has better balance). We talked different grip geometries like plow handle, bisley, Ruger bisley (actually an Elmer Keith grip design), and birdshead. Neither one of us really likes the dangling pinky style of single action shooting so we discussed alternatives. I mentioned the new Ruger's coming out and he said Miller's hadn't gotten one yet. I asked if he knew anything about Remingtons, but he didn't and didn't have one to show me.

He also told me that there is a Cowboy club in Delaware north of the canal. This was news to me. All the ones I knew of were 2 hours south of my house in slower lower Delaware. I have no urge to go that far out of my way to do something non-church related on a Sunday. However there is a club in Brandywine 100 that holds shoots starting around Mayish. Jock gave me a card and someone to call. He's a good guy. Plus he knew that if I wanted to start cowboy shooting, I'd need at least 4 guns (2 pistols, 1 shotgun, and 1 rifle) that I would likely buy from him. Jock ain't stupid neither.

I told Amybear about all this at our regular phone conversations. Well, no not all of it, because she really couldn't care about guns and grip geometries. I save that great stuff for you folks. But I told her enough. She wasn't especially happy.

"You have enough guns." Note that this must be said with a very cute pout in your voice.

"But dear I don't even have a rifle yet, how can I have enough guns?"

Annoyed silence. "You do, and dressing up like a cowboy is goofy. Why can't you be into something normal like SCA?"

Now for those of you who haven't experienced the Society for Creative Anachronism, the hilarity of this statement cannot be underestimated. The SCA. Normal. Two words that have never before and will never again go together. SCAdians dress up like knights and bash each other with sticks. For fun. They make up fantasy names for each other like "Sir Tristrum Pompusname". For fun. This is normal? Methinks thou hast quaffed thy draught of mead far too heartily if thou doth think thusly.

I laughed. Amy laughed. I told her I was going to blog it, she relented, and now I've written this.

P.S. Just for the record, Cowboy shooters also make up funny names for themselves. It's required. But they are usually intentionally funny and silly like Rick O'Shea, Jack B. Kwik, and Marshall Ignatious Bartimaeus (I.B. to his friends) Dead. Riotous punslingers those cowboys.

P.P.S. Just want to clarify that Amy realized how stupid SCA=normal is as soon as it left her mouth. Sort of like when Ike said "What is so funny about Rick O'Shea? Oh wait I get it..." Won't be the first time I've done something like that and it won't be the last.