And I’m back!

A big Thank You for all the Happy B-Day wishes and for not minding the day off. Thanks to David (and Fred) for the post. I’m going broke agreeing with Fred (another $50 went his way for that comment).

Lunch was Tex-Mex and much too filling for my diet’s specs. At least I stayed away from the cervezas (I was also doing the driving).

Cabelas was, as always, much too much all the way around and I almost, and I mean I was within a blond pubic hair away from, grabbing a rifle out for the famed Cabelas Gun Library.

I have long lied to myself by trying to “remember” that I don’t “Need” any more guns: I’ve got my MBR, my battle carbines, my stage two and three rifles, too many shotguns and pistols, etc., and most importantly, I’ve got my calibers selected and collected.

I, technically, should be done for the time being and spending my monies on beans, band-aids and transport.

Yeah, just about flushed that yesterday in a big way.

I’ve been slavin’ and savin’ for the lift on Buddy and I’m just about there. And boy does he need it. When I bought him, the rear leafs were tired and the shocks were on their last compressions. It has now been four months or so and I really shouldn’t be driving him on Washington’s winter roads in this condition.

Forgetting that for a moment, I made the mistake of entering the gun library to show it off to The Wife, who was suitably impressed with the rest of the store. I turned to my right and there it was, my (almost) Holy Grail

A Marlin 1895 LTDIII in .45-70. 18in full octagon bbl, butter smooth action and if it weighs 7lbs, I’ll eat a snake. (no factory images are available. I picked this one off a msg brd).

Think of the Marlin 1895 Guide Gun, but holding an extra round and harder to find than Britney Spears’ underwear on a night out with Paris Hilton.

Oh, I had the money. Jeep lifts ain’t cheap. But two things stopped me: First off, they wanted $900 for it. It was that nice, but that was above “reasonable”. If’n I had tried to, I could have probably talked them down to near “reasonable”, but the second thing stopped me from doing that: It wasn’t stainless.

In the dark of night while I’m at work and I’m trying to think of something other than the job at hand, I have often cursed Marlin for not offering their LTD edition rifles in stainless. Lever guns beg to be stainless, especially this one. Short to medium range brush busting cartridges and barely 36in in overall length means it’ll be doing the work my Remington 700 won’t be; namely getting carried about, becoming damp and possibly scratched when I slip and fall on my ass.

As it is, I should be easily satisfied with an 1895GS

But I lurves me some octagon barrels and that extra round (5 in the tube versus 4) is a must for reasons I cannot comprehend in my waking hours.

But I’m not looking all that hard (for obvious monetary reasons) for the 1895GS and I just never seem to run across them used when I’m at the gun shows (because nobody seems to sell them used).

So (sigh), I bought a very nice new coat that I can wear at work and stay warm and dry in whilst I curse Marlin for not making their LTD rifles in stainless steel.