Why I'm here.

I grew up in a somewhat liberal, extremely pacifist household in the equally liberal Washington state. I had some good friends who introduced me to the errors of my upbringing. Guns (any weapons really) were a forbidden topic in my house, so when I was first introduced to shooting sports I fell in love- kind of a forbidden fruit thing I think. My mother still wonders where she went so wrong.
Because of my upbringing, and my poverty in college, I am not your average gun guy. Most “gun people” buy a gun and it stays in the family, passed on through generations when the owner goes to their heavenly reward. I, on the other hand, go through guns like they were work pants. I get bored, or I look too close, or I shoot them till I don’t like them anymore. Over the past five years I have bought, shot, and sold or traded More than 50 firearms. Along the way I have learned TONS, established opinions, and had a great time. Now some will ask, “Why” ? It all comes down to a deal I made with my incredibly beautiful, and patient wife. When we were first engaged we talked about lots of important things in great detail, and one of those was firearms. She knew I liked guns and enjoyed shooting (though at the time neither of us had any idea how big this would become). She was worried about having hundreds of guns strewn everywhere around the house. We set a four gun limit at any given time. Over the years that deal has been revisited and modified, but the rule made me sell a gun before I could get a new one. It also has led me to play with a ton of platforms and a ton of accessories. This review blog is based on the experience gathered along the way. I have also figured out how to self-fund my gun addiction. In our house “gun money” is a separate entity, though I have on occasion used it to spoil my wife. “Gun money” is money made from a gun sale that is used for buying another gun or ammo. (Gun money also magically accumulates when I let my wife pick our sons names). Guns have become a real investment to mee, they hold their value very well. I have made a lot of additional “gun money” along the way. My addiction started with a $550 initial investment and has grown to around $15,000 in guns, and around $8000 in ammo (though little of that is left) in the course of five years.

» »


The vepr 12 (12ga)


In the three gun that I ran my Mossberg 930 I saw shooter running in the open division shooting a siaga 12 as his shot gun and it made great sense to me, a mag fed shotgun loads way faster, than a tube fed gun. I also saw that his saiga, much like all saiga’s I have seen and shot, didn’t actually work, but it was enough to inspire me so I started researching and found the vepr 12. It is an AK style action with a bolt hold open and mag well that straight loads, a folding stock, and a rail on the top cover. It also and critically has a self-adjusting gas system, so it works. With it crossing all my “t’s” I found one locally and pounced. The gun was everything it was said to be. It ran great ate even the cheapest of low brass and was not that punishing when shooting slugs. 12 round mags were easy to load, the last round bolt hold worked perfectly, and yet I wasn’t in love. I still don’t know why I never bonded with this gun, we should have been making sweet music but for me we never really clicked. My neighbor however saw it and fell madly in love. He begged me to sell it to him offered to trade all sorts of things for it, guns, a quad bike, and a boat. I was not interested really. Then soon after his wife left him, and as friends do I tried to cheer him up. I told him he could have if for $300 and a mini 30 he had. To this day he still tells me about it every time he shoots it, and he shoots it a lot. He would never sell or trade it even if he was starving. I bought the gun hoping to bond with it, and failed, but I couldn’t be happier that it’s new owner loves it and treasures it.

THE GOOD:
12 round mags rock
Reliability was great
The magwell is awesome.
I liked the sights (standard ak sights work better on a shotgun)
The last round bolt hold open is rad
THE BAD:
The factory folding stock is crap, the cheek piece is always in the way and doesn’t stay in place and without it you cannot see the sights.
FINAL THOUGHTS:



I bought this gun with big plans to make it rock, but in the end never really did anything to it, maybe If I had had more money at the time it could have been made into the best shotgun of all time, but either way I am glad my neighbor is in love with it. In a small way I know it helped him through a very tough time.

Labels: