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 weatherby SA459TR (12 ga)


I was still on a quest to find a shotgun that would fill the hole left by the Mossberg 500, at a local gun shop and saw what I thought was a benelli m4 on the rack, and asked to hold it. The sales rep. responded it was in fact a weatherby, and let me. I feel it necessary to put this shopping trip into proper context. My lovely wife had just given birth to our first child (a boy) it had been about a month and she was desperate for some alone time (which is tough when you are breast feeding) so I offered to take my son shopping. She didn’t know or care where, but I took him gun shopping. So there I was looking at shot guns with a one month old in a strange sling thing that holds him on my chest. When I picked up this pistol grip shotgun in the store while wearing my child it felt great (some of you have already figured out how this is going to end). When I brought it home and returned my now hungry son to his strangely nervous mother, I figured out that I was, in fact, a complete moron. I couldn’t get a cheek weld on the gun to save my life. I was so pissed off, but opted to at least try it out. I took it shooting and it only cycled expenceve high brass shells, I am not rich and at this point very not happy, so to ksl it went in a hurry.

THE GOOD:
It looked like a benelli
I loved that it could take a choke, and that the factory choke was a muzzle break.
THE BAD:
Pistol grip shotguns are kind of weird
 I don’t like a ghost ring sight on a shot gun. It’s not like I am planning to shoot groups with it.
Having to change a piston puck between different types of ammo makes the gun useless in 3gun and end of world scenarios
It was not the least bit reliable unless you were shooting slugs (though I am sure if I had shot it more it would have broken in)
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The weatherby may well be a great shot gun mine was picky, had annoying sights, was uncomfortable, and didn’t hold much ammo, and I don’t like having to change the piston puck to change ammos. Learn from my idiocy don’t buy a gun until you can hold it like you plan to shoot it.


Labels: