It was our anniversary and her birthday. A few weeks later when in Billings to my delight she agrees to look at handguns. I put a Ruger 22 semi auto in her hand- too heavy. I stand back. She tries them all on and finally asks about a little Walther P22. The looks aren't great to her, but the composite design and just-right reach appeal to her.
We have errands to do but she agrees she'll go back when I'm seeing the Doc and get it. I learn in the car later it was the same display model, and the clerk had trouble switching this horrible import requirement safety on the side to 'safe'. He had to lay on the counter and put the weight of his arm into the key.
Today we go shooting, or at least some of us did. The little P22 didn't. It went click. We tried to move the safety- no go. BUt the safety was in the fire postion- the clerk had merely moved it to safe and got it wrong. It woudn't fire on any position. No cartridge had a indent. Worse of all, at the urging of my wife and my friend standing there to put more force on it, (which the manual also advised) the key went sideways and buggered the plastic reciever hole to the safety.
The entire concept of this hole is insanity- it is merely a location where dirt and oil and water can destroy the slide of the gun, but it is there for 'our safety' and such safties are required of all imports.
I do not live in a UPS two day air zone. I must drive all the way back to Billings and have Big Bear Sporting goods send it in. I am really hoping they simply give my wife another gun.
Final confession- as a former drunkard, I can only wonder what 'normal' people do and feel. When something like this happens, I feel shame. I feel as if upon entering the world most people have the tools to navigate through and I do not.
We learn as get older, if we get older, that this is not true, that everyone is inadequate one way or another. But it is real hard telling yourself that when your wife finally, after 16 years, picks out a hendgun, and the bloody thing doesn't work.
Let this be a reminder of something else, for all HI's real or imagined small troubles, it has always been true that should one return a blade to Uncle Bill, he can do so no questions asked.
My 100 year old design 1911 did work. But now my wife is saying things like forgetting about guns and getting her money back, and this was supposed to be a hobby we enjoyed together. And we have- with my guns only.
What a shame.
munk
We have errands to do but she agrees she'll go back when I'm seeing the Doc and get it. I learn in the car later it was the same display model, and the clerk had trouble switching this horrible import requirement safety on the side to 'safe'. He had to lay on the counter and put the weight of his arm into the key.
Today we go shooting, or at least some of us did. The little P22 didn't. It went click. We tried to move the safety- no go. BUt the safety was in the fire postion- the clerk had merely moved it to safe and got it wrong. It woudn't fire on any position. No cartridge had a indent. Worse of all, at the urging of my wife and my friend standing there to put more force on it, (which the manual also advised) the key went sideways and buggered the plastic reciever hole to the safety.
The entire concept of this hole is insanity- it is merely a location where dirt and oil and water can destroy the slide of the gun, but it is there for 'our safety' and such safties are required of all imports.
I do not live in a UPS two day air zone. I must drive all the way back to Billings and have Big Bear Sporting goods send it in. I am really hoping they simply give my wife another gun.
Final confession- as a former drunkard, I can only wonder what 'normal' people do and feel. When something like this happens, I feel shame. I feel as if upon entering the world most people have the tools to navigate through and I do not.
We learn as get older, if we get older, that this is not true, that everyone is inadequate one way or another. But it is real hard telling yourself that when your wife finally, after 16 years, picks out a hendgun, and the bloody thing doesn't work.
Let this be a reminder of something else, for all HI's real or imagined small troubles, it has always been true that should one return a blade to Uncle Bill, he can do so no questions asked.
My 100 year old design 1911 did work. But now my wife is saying things like forgetting about guns and getting her money back, and this was supposed to be a hobby we enjoyed together. And we have- with my guns only.
What a shame.
munk
stuff arrives.
