men and guns

Are funny.


To view pictures in fullscreen, click here.

AJ got his birthday wish from his pop, a lever-action cowboy rifle. So of course our day started by trying to buy shells, "30/30" kind, to be exact. Man, are they ellusive. We finally found three boxes at "The Gun Room" after making at least ten phone calls around town.

This is all because because Obama's got some sinister and secret plan to tax the stuff at 500% ... or ... because Sean Hannity, (water-carrier for gun manufacturers, corporate shill, and all around Great American nut-maker) started a rumor as such, and now his redneck listeners are buying and hording 'em all up -- undoubtedly in poorly-made bunkers under Confederate flags. According to all the folks we met, these are the only two possible reasons for America's current bullet shortage.

You learn two things when trying to buy bullets for a cowboy gun: 1) a whole lot of people like to share their political opinions with you. At length. And 2) Teenage boys find 30/30 bullets to be really funny. Why, I don't know. Any enlightenment on why that might be would be most welcomed.

So, after a burger at Bud's Bar (where you'll find no french fries, but plenty of Hank Williams Jr. songs playing on the jukebox and painfully average highschool art displayed proudly on every wall), we made it up to the land where AJ got -- and shot -- his cowboy gun, along with his brother, pop, and cousins. And me too! It was my first time ever shooting a rifle and I'm proud to say that my right bicep is now bruised proper.

Back at the cabin, more shooting. But this time with old-timey black powder rifles (youtube vids below!). I wanted to shoot one but didn't. It looked like too much work to set up and I didn't want to be a bother.

When I mentioned that to AJ on the way home, he was hugely disappointed. Apparently he would have liked nothing more than to have taken ten minutes to set up the proper mix of lead balls, black powder, paper doiley doohickies, and tamp-tamp-tamp-ing that damn thing fifty times ... all to allow me the pleasure of making it go boom. All that painstaking preparation? Well, somehow it makes up much of the fun. Okey dokey, whatever you say, Love.

Booooom! BAHoooouuum...! Tink, plink ... POW! Deep, contented, sincere laughs ... huge smiles ... and eyes as big as saucers everywhere you looked. And no, I still don't get it. But I'm awfully glad to have been there.