Author: Kim du Toit

In a Comment thread a while back, a few of you talked about your difficulties in getting to the range (i.e. from the car to the shooting bay);  some required two or more trips (e.g. me), or some just humped the whole shooting match — guns, ammo, range bags, rests etc. — in one go (also me, only a lot less frequently lately).

When I used to go to Cowboy Action (CAS) meets, I was impressed by the lengths that some guys had gone to schlep all their cowboy shooting gear from bay to bay, event to event.  Here’s one such example:

…which is super-purrdy, until you see the price (“Hand me a couple them tamp’ns, Margaret, Ah need to plug mah nose”).  Also, they’re almost as heavy as the damn guns and ammo they carry, not to mention bulky (I don’t drive a truck anymore, which most of these old boys seem to do).

As always, I’m probably late to the party and everyone is just going to laugh at me, but of late I’ve been seeing quite a few Ole Pharrts using these little things from Academy to get to and fro:

…which seem to fit the bill quite nicely.  They cost around $45, and I think I’m going to get one.  Bass Pro and Cabela’s carry similar ones too, only quelle surprise  theirs cost $85 and $110 respectively.  (Cabela’s “All-Terrain Multifunction” description no doubt justifies the price variance with Academy’s humble “Sports Cart”.)  Scheel’s has one priced between the two extremes.

Anyway, the next time I’m at Scheel’s or Academy, I’m going to look into it.

…a.k.a. “With friends like these…”

In response to my plea for someone to sell me an old Mauser 98k they no longer wish to keep, I received several emails of this nature:

” I happen to have an authentic German Mauser that my father brought back from Germany when WWII ended. He also brought back a Luger which my BIL got after dad died. No. I’m not selling it. Eat your heart out! My nephew lusts after it and he’ll get to add it to his massive gun collection when I die.”

That was from a certain grouchy old crippled bastard, somewhere in Georgia.  Then this:

“I have a sporterized Mauser in 8mm made in the Obendorf factory in 1944. It has matching serial numbers on the action and bolt. On disassembly, all the parts have the eagle Waffenstamp. It was a gift from the friend who turned me on to your blog. It’s a nice shooter, and fortunately I have a stash of ammo from Privi. You can’t have it, I like it too much.”

That’s just Krool & Hartless.

Anyway, the good news is that I have made arrangements with a Longtime Reader who happens to have just such a spare, and after some negotiation (not much on my part, admittedly), it should be wending its way to my FFL as we speak:

I’m like a little boy on Christmas Eve…