What's up, players.
(that's street for 'hi.')
You may recall that Yours Truly has somewhat of an obsession with swords. I always have, and despite my purging I still boast an obnoxious collection. However, to my credit, I have made efforts at downsizing, and for the last few years have focused primarily on antiques, pieces from Africa, and souvenirs from my travels to Europe.
This collecting habit of mine is one that gets on my wife's nerves, as I tend to do it with everything. Records, pipes, walking sticks, ukuleles. . . I'll the first one to admit I have a problem. But let's not get into that right now.
Lately, I've delved into a realm that I've always been interested in, but haven't yet set foot.
Guns.
Years ago, right before Kris and I moved to Florida, my dad gave me his old Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic rifle. He had purchased it years ago for small game hunting, but didn't really use it anymore, and I had always wanted a small-caliber hunting rifle.
Kris didn't have a problem at all with rifle in the house - after all, her dad was an avid hunter and she grew up around guns all over the place - but she's been adamant against handguns in the house since before we were married. You always hear horror stories of little kids blowing each other's brains out playing around with their parents' handguns.
I completely agreed with her, too - we're on the same page, there. I have no need for a handgun. I can't hunt with it, and in terms of 'self-defense,' I've got more than enough swords in the house as it is (see paragraph above.) I mean, seriously - at 3:30am, with intruders charging into my home, there's little chance I'm going to be able to load a handgun ('cause I'm not going to leave it lying around loaded, obviously) and wield it effectively in time to smoke some asshole before he does the same to me. It just isn't happening.
Still, there's no denying the fact that handguns do have a certain allure to them. Maybe it's a dude thing, who knows. So, coming back to my compulsive collecting talking point from earlier, Yours Truly decided to buy a handgun.
Well, pellet pistol.
I got away with this because this thing fires .177 pellets - not bullets. Airguns are quiet and much safer to use (and have around the house) than firearms, and so Kris had no problem with this so long as I kept it in a locked case (I bought a four-pistol Plano case that I'm pretty happy with.)
Here's a review from the guys at Pyramyd Air:
I set up a pellet trap in the backyard, and - as the video illustrates above - this gun has pretty good accuracy. Not that I'm going to be entering tournaments anytime soon with it, but it's a blast to shoot.
Shortly after purchasing this one, I started checking out Umarex's new Legends line of air pistols, which are highly rated and extremely popular right now. They have realistic, full-metal reproductions of some of history's greatest sidearms, like the Colt Peacemaker, the Luger P08, and the old Soviet Makarov.
But this is the one I ended up buying. . .
This 'Broomhandle' Mauser was a fully-automatic pistol designed at the outbreak of World War I, and, just like the original, this air pistol is fully automatic. Seriously. It shoots out 18 BBs in a little over a second, which is obviously overkill for target shooting, but really, really bad-ass all the same. The accuracy on semi-auto is pretty good, considering it's firing BBs and not pellets (obviously on full-auto there's shit for accuracy.)
All metal, moving parts, and insane historical accuracy (which, being the history nerd that I am, was the sole reason I bought this thing.) This model counts T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill among its admirers, so you really can't go wrong there.
Here's another Pyramyd Air review for you. . .
Speaking of Lawrence and Churchill, the next pistol I'm looking at picking up is their personal favorite (and also the favorite of Indiana Jones) - the Webley Mark VI Revolver.
. . .well, we'll see what the Warden says.
(that's street for 'hi.')
You may recall that Yours Truly has somewhat of an obsession with swords. I always have, and despite my purging I still boast an obnoxious collection. However, to my credit, I have made efforts at downsizing, and for the last few years have focused primarily on antiques, pieces from Africa, and souvenirs from my travels to Europe.
This collecting habit of mine is one that gets on my wife's nerves, as I tend to do it with everything. Records, pipes, walking sticks, ukuleles. . . I'll the first one to admit I have a problem. But let's not get into that right now.
Lately, I've delved into a realm that I've always been interested in, but haven't yet set foot.
Guns.
 |
| (okay, so this is a stock image, but it's more or less the same gun.) |
Kris didn't have a problem at all with rifle in the house - after all, her dad was an avid hunter and she grew up around guns all over the place - but she's been adamant against handguns in the house since before we were married. You always hear horror stories of little kids blowing each other's brains out playing around with their parents' handguns.
I completely agreed with her, too - we're on the same page, there. I have no need for a handgun. I can't hunt with it, and in terms of 'self-defense,' I've got more than enough swords in the house as it is (see paragraph above.) I mean, seriously - at 3:30am, with intruders charging into my home, there's little chance I'm going to be able to load a handgun ('cause I'm not going to leave it lying around loaded, obviously) and wield it effectively in time to smoke some asshole before he does the same to me. It just isn't happening.
Still, there's no denying the fact that handguns do have a certain allure to them. Maybe it's a dude thing, who knows. So, coming back to my compulsive collecting talking point from earlier, Yours Truly decided to buy a handgun.
Well, pellet pistol.
 |
| The Crosman .357 Revolver |
Here's a review from the guys at Pyramyd Air:
I set up a pellet trap in the backyard, and - as the video illustrates above - this gun has pretty good accuracy. Not that I'm going to be entering tournaments anytime soon with it, but it's a blast to shoot.Shortly after purchasing this one, I started checking out Umarex's new Legends line of air pistols, which are highly rated and extremely popular right now. They have realistic, full-metal reproductions of some of history's greatest sidearms, like the Colt Peacemaker, the Luger P08, and the old Soviet Makarov.
But this is the one I ended up buying. . .
 |
| The Mauser m712 "Broomhandle" |
This 'Broomhandle' Mauser was a fully-automatic pistol designed at the outbreak of World War I, and, just like the original, this air pistol is fully automatic. Seriously. It shoots out 18 BBs in a little over a second, which is obviously overkill for target shooting, but really, really bad-ass all the same. The accuracy on semi-auto is pretty good, considering it's firing BBs and not pellets (obviously on full-auto there's shit for accuracy.)  |
| I had the gun hand-tested by Pyramyd Air techs, just to make sure I wasn't getting a lemon. $10 for peace of mind was hard to pass up. I'm a big fan of the custom-fitted foam packaging in came in, too. |
All metal, moving parts, and insane historical accuracy (which, being the history nerd that I am, was the sole reason I bought this thing.) This model counts T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill among its admirers, so you really can't go wrong there.
Here's another Pyramyd Air review for you. . .
Speaking of Lawrence and Churchill, the next pistol I'm looking at picking up is their personal favorite (and also the favorite of Indiana Jones) - the Webley Mark VI Revolver.
. . .well, we'll see what the Warden says.
- Brian
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