Pay heed to the man who has but....

[Jerry Lester]

Other than my first 410 shotgun(bolt action Revelation single shot), I've only been down to one gun once.

I re-married my first wife(I know! I know!! ) and to beat it all she cheated, and we're not even together now!, and took on some more kids. Between her bills, and mine, and the fact that shortly after we re-married she quit her job, things got really tight. Her quitting wasn't her fault, I just don't believe in a woman financially supporting her family. I told her she didn't have to work. The next work season was a terrible one for my business, and things got very bad.

Needless to say, quite a few thousand dollars worth of very nice rifles(including my 800 yard groundhog gun ), scopes, and shooting/hunting related stuff got sold that winter. I pooled together most of the rest of my stuff(hunting/shooting), and sold it all for a lump sum right before my work season started up again the following spring. My assortment of guns carried us through that winter, and it hurt very much to see each one go. It was like losing your best friend every time I collected the money for one. The only thing I kept(thank goodness!) was my re-loading stuff.

The following spring I scraped together enough money for a brand new Ruger 77-MK II 223, and topped it with a 6x42 Leupold. I hunted for a solid year with that gun alone. I killed squirrels, and rabbits with light loads, and head shots. I killed groundhogs, foxes, coons, possums, and pretty much everything else that's huntable with an assortment of specialized loads. Yes, I even hunted deer with it that season ! It served me very well, shot good(still does too! ), and pretty much became my everything as far as guns go. I grew so attatched to that rifle that I doubt I could ever part with it unless my kids were hungry or something of that nature. Even though it doesn't get shot as much anymore hardly a day goes by that I don't shoulder it, and just enjoy knowing that it's always been there for me, and never let me down. You literally couldn't pack the game it's killed in a big pickup bed.

I think I'll go get her now, put the snap cap in, and shoot at the foxes on my calender...

[bigjeepman]

Good story Jerry .... thanks for sharing.

My father just passed away and it was he that took me shooting when I was a kid and taught me respect for firearms like any good father would. The difference in my story than most is that I was never really interested in doing much hunting when I was younger. I went rabbit hunting and went on a pheasant hunt a few times but I was more interested in sports, etc. It wasn't until after my divorce 11 years ago that I took a "genuine" interest in firearms ... so I never had anything valuable to lose in the divorce except a home, horses, land, etc ...... oh well. My son was 12 years old at the time and my father took him to a gun show after one of my surgeries when I couldn't go. My son came home that day so excited about what he had seen. The vendors at the show let him handle some rifles and shotguns at my dad's urging and it changed our lives in several ways. I set out on a schedule and a new savings plan to buy a gun every 6 months. I bought him a .22 Marlin rifle first and that was the only time we had just one gun. I bought a 20 gauge 870 next and my son taught himself how to deer hunt over the next few seasons with it on my ex's 400 acres. I actually reached the point later on where I was buying a firearm every three months until he left for college.

Well, the rest has been very enjoyable for us as my brothers took up our new interest and shooting is now a "family" thing. I took up reloading a few years ago and that even made things better. It's not really important how many guns you have but how much you enjoy each one and how well you get to know it .... kind of like family.

[qajaq59]

That saying goes for the guy with just one bullet in his rifle as well. He is likely to put it exactly where he wants it.....

[Don Fischer]

I thought for a long time I had only one gun. My ex-wife when speaking of gun's refered to each as "oh, that one". Traded one wife for 35 guns!