Sunday, March 22, 2020

3/22/20 Got Lucky On My Second Try?

    Things don't usually bounce our way, but I feel I got lucky Saturday morning.  I had got it in my head that I wanted a shotgun for home defense and once I get a thought, it doesn't easily go away.  To add to the consternation, I thought we had at least the shotgun my father in law gave Boy a couple years ago.  Boy then let me know that no, he had lent it to his cousin a while back, when?  I have no idea, he must have taken the gun to him when I wasn't looking, not that I pay that much attention.    Normally, I wouldn't care, but with my mom's histrionics, she keeps making me think that the sky is indeed falling.  We should be protected, and now!
    With that baggage in my back pocket, and a week off, I have been looking and trying to decide on a home defense weapon.  We will get the shotgun back from my nephew, eventually, but in an apocalyptic world which we are sure to see, shortly, according to some, I want a gun for every person in my household.  I decided I wanted a .410 shotgun because of the smaller size and compact nature.  Make no mistake, with it having the capability to shoot slugs, it can be a formidable arsenal of death.  But mostly, if a gun is ever shot in the house in a defensive action, I like the chances of minimal injury for my boys from accidental crossfire.  With pellets, better the power of the .410 than a 12 or 20 gauge.
    I finally found a shorter shotgun, the shockwave (which somehow ATF does not consider a shotgun, but whatever) and Academy showed it had one online.  I decided to not even bother Wife or Javalina, they are just horrible at waiting for things.  I headed there alone and got in line.  They were supposed to open at 9:00am and I got there at 9:10am, but the line was already an hour long.  I looked at the guns showing and it was enough to make me leave because the display is pitiful.  There were maybe 12 handguns in cases that usually have up to 40 and the rifle holders behind them barely had any.  Still, I hung in there, when it was my turn, I awkwardly asked for the gun I had seen online was still there (I am such a noob, I prefer Boy be with me, but he was asleep).  The guy casually looked where it should be and said he hadn't seen one in over a month.  I said thank you and left to pay for some ammo for one of the other guns.  The guy then showed up in a jog and said he had found one, though it was put in the wrong place.  He then joked that he thought about it for a second because he has wanted that gun for his wife, but felt guilty that I had asked for it.
    It takes a nice hour of filling out paperwork and waiting around to get the process all done, which feels like a long time (as I am remembering a commercial last night that it is too easy to buy new guns), about half the people were getting "delayed" which I guess ATF or whoever looks through the background checks needs more time to look over their history.  I got through with no problems and was back home before noon.  I then went to another Academy with Wife and bought 3 boxes of ammo apiece.  They are limiting the purchasing of ammo to three boxes at a time, but I will get a few hundred rounds little by little.  I now need to find a place open to go and test the gun out, but at least I have what I wanted now.

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