How I became a gunnie

I was raised by my mom.  No guns, no hunting, no Boy Scouts.  Nothing.  Complete mama's boy.  I'm sure you're all surprised that I got beat up on in school.

After I moved out, I went with a friend to the local BLM land and shot his shotgun and Ruger Vaqero .44 mag revolver.  What a monster gun.  I don't recommend anybody every pick that as a first gun to shoot.  Damn thing nearly broke my wrist!

A couple of months later I bought my first pistol.  A Ruger P95 that had just come out that year.  The first and as far as I know only gun to ever have an all plastic frame.  Glocks have little metal inserts in the rails as does every other plastic gun that I've taken apart.  It's a tank and was probably a bad choice.  My hands are small and I had a lot of trouble keeping a good grip on the gun.  About that same time I picked up a Mauser '98 chambers in .308 and a Marlin Model 60.  Those were my guns for about 10 years.  I shot on occasion but never seriously.

Then I had kids.  Now kids are funny things.  They'll change your life.  All of a sudden there were creatures that depended on me 100% for safety, food, and shelter.  I had food and shelter pretty well figured out.  But safety?  I was, in my opinion, lacking.  I got serious about self defense.  I got my carry permit, added a shotgun and a mini 9mm to the arsenal.  I got a range membership and started toshoot regularly.  I started my 'box o'holsters.'   Once I got comfortable with my guns, carry became a daily activity.

About two years ago my Mauser started having trouble with the safety.  The hammer would drop when you took the safety off.  It was time for a new gun.  What to get?  Well, I didn't want a bolt gun.  This is a new century after all and I didn't want an AR.  To easy.  I ended up with an FNAR.  An ugly gun, most people will agree.  But it shoots far better than I ever will.  I always laugh when people talk about mediocre accuracy.  If you can shoot off hand or even prone and outshoot the gun, you should be on a team doing it for a living.

So now I had a 'hunting rifle' that could also double as a serious apocalypse gun.  The bug had a good grip on me now.  A Sig P239 that was just too good a deal joined the fold.  Another PF9 was added when the first one needed to go back to the factory.  Then an SD9, which is a good gun, but not for me.  It was rapidly traded off for a Sig P226, which may very well be the last pistol I buy for a very long time.

I also added a Rock River AR to the stable.  It's a cheater gun.  It just amazes me just how much gun you can get for so reasonable a price.  Easy to shoot, dead nuts reliable, and accurate to a fault.

So there you have it.  The making of this gunnie.

Adding a ping back to Jennifer, since she started this one.