Back when I was first in the gun business, '93 or '94 or so, one of our regular customers was a local deputy. He was always willing to come in and kill some time, but no matter how much I wanted to chatter about Glocks and SIGs and HKs, all he ever wanted to look at were old Winchesters and S&W revolvers and Ruger Blackhawks and the like.
"Why?" I asked, "These new modern guns are so cool!"
"Well," he replied, "I reckon I like 'em well enough at work, but when you tote around these Flat-Black People Poppers all day long, they get kinda boring and they all look and work pretty much the same. Why would I want to play with them for fun, too?"
I thought he was silly at the time.
I don't anymore. I really have a hard time getting spun up over the fact that... "Oh, look. Somebody's released another gas-operated flat-black people popper..." I use them, I train with them, they have their place, but so does a coffee maker or an electric drill. They're just appliances to me. Now, a Springfield 1903 or a S&W No. 3 Russian? That will make my heart go pitter-pat and my palms get a little sweaty... Different strokes, I guess. Somewhere, I'm sure there's an internet forum for people who collect coffee makers, too.
In that spirit, SayUncle has photos of the new Glock. Unsurprisingly, it looks like a Glock. If you don't believe me, go see for yourself.
Did you see my trip to the Toy Museum?
ReplyDeleteI've got to admit, I can see his point. My 1911s are about the "newest" handguns in my modest collection, and I can always get wound up over a new old-style Vaquero, especially in .45 Colt.
ReplyDeleteOh, I use AR carbines and titanium-cylindered revolvers and 1911s with beavertails and tritium sights. I use them and train with them a lot...
ReplyDelete...but they don't do much for me anymore. It'd be like waxing rhapsodic about an electric drill or a dumbbell or a food processor.
Now, a prewar Hand Ejector or a Colt 1905? THAT is something for which I'll get all spun up.
YOU may not be excited about it, but for those of us with small hands who appreciate the simplicity of a Glock for a carry gun, this is exciting.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I have a few older S&W revolvers myself, and they sure are pretty... but essentially they are toys, just like a TI99 compared to today's desktop computers. Not that I wouldn't stake my life on the reliability of any of the ones I own, but they sure do run out of boolits pretty quick in a day when many of the crimes we see in the news involve multiple assailants.
An uncomplicated, boring, ugly Glock that I can actually hold in my hands, that's something I can get excited about.
Yup. That's why I picked up an AR, not because I need to be tacticool, but because I'm as familiar with it as a carpenter is with a hammer. I look at most firearms like that, as a tool that can fit in a particular place on my belt for a specific job. Sadly, the guns I want just to have are usually way out of my price range.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I have a few older S&W revolvers myself, and they sure are pretty... but essentially they are toys,
ReplyDeleteTechnically anything that falls outside of the bottom two rungs of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a toy. It's just a matter of which toys get you going. I have more guns than the average bear, but I suspect that maybe 5 of them would be of more than a nodding interest to Tamara. So what?
Anon 11:10,
ReplyDelete"YOU may not be excited about it, but for those of us with small hands who appreciate the simplicity of a Glock for a carry gun, this is exciting."
Cool! I'm glad you're excited! :)
People should get all spun up about whatever they want to get all spun up about.
He pretty well described my opinion of the M16 / AR family. Why would I want a civilian version? Just never had interest in spending even more time with that particular tool.
ReplyDeleteI had to go to the end of the internet to find it but i give you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.oldcoffeeroasters.com/vacpots.htm
Yes, as expected you were correct.
Mr Fixit
Right there with you Tam. Have had my FFL since 1990. For me, the tactical tupperware people poppers are just tools. Excellent tools that you can bet your life on, but just tools. I am currently assisting an elderly widow in the disposition of her late husband’s gun collection. He was a WWII vet who went ashore at Normandy on D-day + 6. He loved to tinker with stuff you could get for a song back in the day. A few items that caught my eye: complete top half of a Remington 1903, late production, high serial number, looks like it has never been assembled on a rifle. Two uncut complete Remington 1879 Argentine contract Rolling Block rifles chambered in 43 Spanish. Just what I need, another project.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you've seen one Glock, you've just about seen them all. It gets kinda bad when you have to check the model number on the slide to see if two Glocks are the same or different.
ReplyDeleteI like 1911s. Xavier had a nice one on his blog a week or so ago. Nicely blued with faux-Ivory grips. That, and a nice blued S&W makes me drool.
WV: sques
It'd be better with another "e".
A friend once asked why I didn't restock or refinish my well used garand and enfield.
ReplyDeleteI replied; "Why ruin their personality?"
I may have more $ invested in my tactikool tools. I may spend more time carrying and training with the eeevil black objects of mortal doom.
But those beat up old examples of fine workmanship are the queens of my safe.
WV: lobnfle - a nerf grenade launcher
new Glock...........YAWN!
ReplyDeleteAll The Best,
Frank W. James
I'll believe the ACR exists when I see them on dealers shelves next to the Unicorns. I stopped holding by breath over the MagPul/Massada/BushCester/AC-BLAH-BALAH two years ago and bought three ARs made of honest to DEITY obtanium instead.
ReplyDeleteNow if good training could be found near me instead of over where the rainbow ends that'd be super!
Yah! And here I was hoping the next Glock would look like a Schonberger.
ReplyDeleteWebly mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteThe ACR should be out sooner rather than later. I'm thinking there's a formal announcement at SHOT Show next month. I'm pretty wound up about it, but no small amount of that has to do with a serious jonesing for shiny objects. Flat black finish or no, the ACR looks very shiny to me.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a Garand a year ago as my first rifle, though. Tarded-up tactical guns are cool (ARs are practically combat Legos), but it's like comparing a be-turbo'd riceburner to a 1968 Camaro.
WV: resses -- when shool lets out in the middle of the day for kiskball.
There's users, and there's connoisseurs. Now, there's overlap between the two, everyone's got a little of both in 'em. Ain't nothing wrong with that. I think you have to be a user to be a connoisseur, and not vicey-versa, but then I'm heavy on the connoisseur side.
ReplyDelete(Hey, my regular carry guns are a round butt 4" Colt OP, a HK PSP and a box stock 1956 LW Commander---which side do you THINK I come down on?)
Sometimes when someone tells me about the New Hot Stuff I just say something like, "Oh, we've got a new lead projector?"
And then for shoulder arms, forget the 50. How about a 20mm? Yes, you too can now bring down an Me109 -
ReplyDeletevia http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/2009/12/18/portable-artillery/#comment-54909
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pics and video http://tractioncontrol.well-regulatedmilitia.org/?p=5469
I agree with Sebastian: having a grooved barrel does not make it what I think of as a rifle.
What next, a 155mm? Or a 16-incher?
Aw, hell....I usta hardly ever find a gun that i wouldn't take a fling at owning and shooting, if it were cheap enuff or strange enuff.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you personally acquainted with me, no comments please, on whether this character trait extended to other social interactions. That was looong ago, far away, technically in another galaxy, and not much of it is illegal anymore, anyway.
I can see how a carpenter just can't get excited over using his nailgun on his day off for fun. But he might have a vintage hammer and real 1950's steel nails, and some good lumber to craft around with.
I dearly like the Glock 21, first edition, and don't see much other use for hunting up an alternative item for really serious stuff, like touring Detroit. And, I like shooting it.
And, so do I like shooting most quality handguns. But i hanker after vintage firearms, to the point of owning and shooting flintlock rifle-guns and percussion double 12's shot-flingers. {note: .690 patched roundballs in that SxS, over 3 1/2 drams of black powder will get ya ta smilin', if y'r feeling blue, too.
And I like about everything decent, that's been invented, since those guns were news. Some of those desired sidearms and long guns I've only dreamed of shooting, or only got to shoot once at some BEEG Git-ta-gether. But I didn't turn down the chance to try out something rare and exotic to me, even it was another persons everyday tool.
So yeah, I can see the point of being bored with one's...um..duty sidearm. That translates to lots of life circumstances. But then reliability, and deep reserves are sorta positive assets for forming that attachment, to begin with. [dangle dat party-ciple, sucka!!]
OYOH, I just like hanging about of chill and damp eve, with a Brown Wavyfur dawg at my knee and .45 Colt snubby single action in a hip pocket. Sorta homey and cosy. A pumpaction and No 4 duckloads are lingering discreetly for seriously unwanted occurrences. A centerfire rifle isn't far away. Just bein' comfortable at home.
When I'm IWB'ing that Glock, tho, it's f'r certain that I am not sittin' home, and have good reason to choose it as the companion du jour. Not bored then; not at all.
J, t R
Just a Kimber in my shoulder rig [Thanks to Corns 'n Beans].
ReplyDelete'Sall I need for the big cities.
The abode is well protected, thank you.
When I'm pulling my boogerhook on the bangswitch and the dot's up I'm *shootin'* the AR, but when I'm carefully sgueezing the trigger with a good cheek-weld I'm firing the Garand or the Krag.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm tap-rack-and bangin' all isoscelized I'm *shootin'* the Sig - but when I fire the 1913 S&W 3rgd Model Perfected I'm in a bladed stance with a single arm out, sending lead bullets downrange on target. It's two different worlds.
Christmas photo of my restored Remington 1903A4 posted at Neural Misfires for Tam's benefit.
ReplyDeleteDecidedly not a gas-operated, flat black people popper, although the intended purpose doesn't stray far from the premise...