The Fey Armory

Yes, I'm a political wonk. It's a weakness, and an addiction I try to resist - these days I try really hard to ask "am I going to get paid for this?" before getting all politically enthused, as to do otherwise is but a path to exhaustion and fiscal shortages. If the answer is "no", it's much easier to set some sensible boundaries.

HOWEVER, this post isn't about that.

It happens I also like guns, and tend to approve of many of their uses. Today we discuss the Fey Armory - it's past, and perhaps a few items I hope to add.

We all (well, an awful lot of us) have guns we used to own...some of them we miss, and some of them we're really grateful we managed to get rid of in one fashion or another...

I miss my 1911 - it's been gone for well over a decade, and one of these times that stainless .45acp hand-cannon really will need to be replaced in my collection with another of its' ilk. I learned to shoot on that gun, and put several thousand rounds down range from it.

The Walther PPK/S in .380 was my first sub-compact semi - sure, there was the Charter Arms snubby .38, but it was never fun to shoot and I never did find a happy holster for it. The Walther, on the other hand...I still regret being sufficiently young and dumb to trade it for a motorcycle, some 20 years later. It was a nice shooter, and reliable as all get out. Silly, SILLY me.

The Mauser 98k in the late '80's I was talked into buying and butchering into a sporterized .30-06? Pass. Glad I sold it, and wouldn't do that again to a fine old gun anyway. The Raven Arms .22? Gack. Unreliable, inaccurate at even short distances, and a mouse gun to boot - but it did persuade me, relatively cheaply, of the truth of "you get what you pay for".

Marlin Centerfire Lever's *will* return to my collection. I still have the .22LR, but I miss the .45-70. Post-medical adventure when I was still fairly sure that *all* centerfire rifles were simply off-limits to me, it and a few other things went away at the same time - a Keltec P32, a Firestar 9mm, a Rossi .22 SAA clone, and a Mossberg tacti-shotgun. Made some pistol upgrades that day.

In 2009 and 2010 I had the immense good fortune to visit the Midwest and amidst a crowd of friends be persuaded to cautious recoil adventure - discovering that I can get away with .223 in an AR platform, and 7.62x39mm in a Ruger No. 1 Action. And the wonders of the Ruger 10/22 as a varmint-getter. And that bifocals and optics are not necessarily a bad combination.

As a result, I have a sad lonely little AR lower that awaits its .223 upper to turn into a complete rifle, and I'm already fretting whether to get a second AR upper in a deer-legal caliber....or go with a second rifle in 7.62x39mm...while at the same time considering some discussions that with a sufficiently heavy rifle (Garand, anyone?) I can get away with .308 without spending quality time under medical care regretting my foolishness. And on the Marlin front, a .30-30 is in the future - when, and which one, are yet to be determined. While I'm at it, I'd like to shoot both an AR10 and a Garand, if my evil co-conspirators agree that to be a not-stupid course, and eventually add one or both to my collection.

On the pistol front, my calibers today are .380, .45LC (the favorite), and .45acp (the compromise). I'd like to add, at some point, a 1911 in .45acp again, and a Glock or two (that double stack just feels right in my hand) in .45acp - and just because I like the way they shoot and feel, a Para-Ordnance (I can hear the wincing now) .45 double-stack (if someone knows a better manufacturer of a 1911 pattern double-stack .45, I'm listening), and it'd make me happy (sentiment is just a bitch sometimes) to re-add a Walther PPK/S back to the Fey Armory eventually.

Moving along, we examine the Silly Toy and Very Silly Toy category...

Most of the Silly Toys I'd like to lay hands on are so designated either because of obscene price or limited to marginal practical use, or in a few instances, licensing issues. Very Silly Toys are simply silly dialed up about 10 notches.

A .45-70 Gatling is all the way over to Very Silly. A headache to store, pricey to feed, and darned expensive to boot in the first place, it's main virtues are prettiness, ooh-ah value, and as a historic display piece. I can think of quite a few ways to drop $10,000 plus that make more sense than as the admission price for having a full-scale functional piece of history that I can't afford to shoot.

A Thompson Sub-Machine Gun (and yes, I'm ok w/ modern fully functional replicas) would, as a piece of history, be very nice to add. As the iconic gun of the Prohibition Era, it's another "history piece" that, at least, is vaguely affordable to shoot. Of course, there are both federal licensing issues and a need to move to a Class III state that'd need to be resolved, even before dealing with the acquisition price. Thus, a Silly Gun.

An M2 .50 tripod mounted. Ok, we're in Very Silly land again. BIG money to get, serious licensing issues, and very pricey to shoot. On the other hand, we venture again into "history" looking at a gun that's served in every conflict from WWII forward and remains in service today. Yes, I'd like one for the history of it - not for any practical reason.

Well, that's enough dreaming and exploration of the Fey Armory...off to catch some sleep before rushing off to earn some dollars to begin the "saving pennies" process.