A weak moment.....
Things you don't need but want and can't pass up because they're priced right. Was at a little gun show over the weekend and an older acquaintance from the gun club approached me with a gun case in hand. The conversation went something like this:
Acquaintance: Hey Destry you like Parkers don't you?
Me: For sure, nothing like a Parker shotgun.
Acquaintance: I've not bird hunted in a long time and was wondering if you'd be interested in my bird gun.
Me: Always interested in looking.
Acquaintance pulls out a well used but very solid and well cared for VH 16 gauge O frame. Pistol grip, splinter forend, 28 inch barrels.
I pull it up, fits me fine, my resolve at not buying any guns to keep anytime in the near future begins to weaken immediately.
Me: What's it choked?
Acquaintance: I don't remember, the right barrel is open for sure.
Me: How much you looking to get?
Acquaintance: Quotes a figure that's very reasonable.
Me: Do you mind if I call a friend?
Acquaintance: No problem.
I walked outside and thought about it. I always wanted a 16 gauge O frame gun with open chokes and this one was priced in my range. Still, I wasn't really buying guns to keep, or at least hadn't been. I called my friend Eric Eis to see if he was a player at the price and he said for sure, that if I didn't want it he was ready to buy it. So in my mind I was really just buying it for Eric, at least I thought I was. I walked back in and told him I'd take it, went and got cash and paid the owner off. Called Eric that evening and asked when he wanted to pick up the gun, he said Tuesday and we made a breakfast date.
I leaned the gun in a much too conspicuous place in my home, had to look at it every time I walked in to get a cup of coffee or change out the laundry. Finally yesterday evening I sent him a message and asked if he would have any desire to kill me if I kept the gun? Very graciously he said no, that he wouldn't mind at all, glad for me if I liked it that much and felt I could afford it.
The point of all this is to give a big thanks to my friend Eric Eis for not plotting my death after I backed out on the deal and being so nice about it. Now I've got to actually go some sort of bird hunting to make use of this great little gun. Maybe I can talk Eric into a pheasant hunt some day soon now that the weather has broken a bit. I'll even give him a box of shells and buy his breakfast......
Regards,
Destry
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I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-house once in a quarter--of an hour; paid money that I borrowed, three of four times; lived well and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compass. Falstaff - Henry IV
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