Several people have written to me, asking about shooting the lovely Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt I got hold of a while back.
Here’s its story.
One of the things I do whenever I get a new gun is to take the Son&Heir to the range to acquaint him with more guns, because otherwise he’d just shoot his 1911 and Ruger Mk II pistols till the end of time. Occasionally that backfires on me — I’ve lost my treasured Princess Inge (Swedish Mauser) and a Marlin Mod 60* to him this way. And that’s what happened here.
We’d finished shooting about three or four different guns at Mission Ridge (his home range), and when I was packing up I suddenly noticed that the Redhawk had gone missing. When I asked him if he’d seen it, the Son&Heir said casually, “Oh, that’s going home with me.” (Said without a hint of guilt or remorse too, I have to say.)
When I half-remonstrated with him, he simply shrugged and said, “I’m going to shoot it a lot more than you are,” followed by the killer: “…and I’m going to inherit it from you anyway.” And then the final, unanswerable statement: “This way, I’m not going to run the risk of you trading or selling it, either.”
He loves shooting it, and of course he shoots it far better than I can, the little shit.
Oh well. I guess if I do want to shoot it some more, I can always ask him to bring it to the next range session.
What really got up my nose was that just the day before I’d gone to Bass Pro and acquired what we may call a “decent sufficiency” of .45 Colt ammo — so of course that disappeared into his trunk as well.
Kids… [he said proudly]
*For some reason, I cannot seem to hold onto a Marlin 60.
No sooner have I got a new one, when somebody needs one really badly and off it goes. Bought one, lent it to a friend, bought another, lent it to Adopted Daughter, same result: gone forever. In the most recent of these occurrences, the S&H was going off plinking with some of his old shooting club buddies, so he borrowed yet another Model 60 from me because all he had was a bolt-action Marlin 981T (his first-ever rifle).
When I asked how the shooting went, he mumbled something about the joys of shooting a semi-auto .22 rifle and had the decency to ask if he could keep the 60.
Oh well, could have been worse: he could have “borrowed” my brand-new Ruger 10/22…
That’s not a bad problem to have.
I’ve never shot a 45Colt revolver. I have a couple of S&W model 29s that I enjoy. They’re great with .44 special loads and the .44magnum loads aren’t bad either.
Sometimes, no matter how old they might be of how much you love them, children need to be reminded where “the line” is, and just how close they are coming to being cut out of the will entirely.
Children, respect your elders!
I love my kids and all but damn! that just ain’t right. Especially the casual insouciance of it all.
I’d never tell a man how to raise his kids, but had that been one of my boys they’d have been whacked across the snout w/ a rolled up newspaper. No! Drop it! Drop it! Bad son! Bad!
We share all our stuff, it’s no big deal.
Ahh I’d love to have that problem. As it stands I have one out of four that gets everything. The other 3 not a fucking chance, they’d end up arming Pantifa or going to some buyback.
While the 10-22 is the undisputed King of Rimfires, I’ve always like the look of the Marlins. Slightly more western profile plus the quaint joy of loading the tube. Unfortunately the Model 60 looks like it is no longer in production. The only Marlin I currently have is a rusty old bolt action with what looks like a particle board stock — seriously cheap looking imitation wood. Still, I have a very old Savage pump, so probably won’t go on a scavenger hunt for a used Marlin. But, if I just happen to see one …
While I find my 1911’s and hi-powers to be good looking guns there is something very viscerally pleasing about a stainless revolver, maybe because my first hand gun was a Smith 686. I learned to shoot a handgun on it and the tiny bit of PPC I did was with it. I was 50 when I got it. I’ve bought a 686+ and a ruger gp100 in the last few years. The 686+ leaves me cold but I enjoy the ruger.
When I sojourn to Florida in the winter I usually bring a couple of 9’s and 22’s for range time they’ve all been typically semi’s. While I did bring my Springfield sa-35 to see if its reliable after its trip back to Springfield and a Smith compact 22 semi for the Mrs. My range toys are the 686+, the gp100 and 2 shiny stainless 22 revolvers, a ruger sp101 and a ruger gp100.
Glad to see the report, and that he really enjoys shooting it. Hoping for a future post with father/son range shootout results, and that he NEVER has to use it, or any other weapon, in actual hostilities.