My new MAN toys...

Lately my wife and I have been talking about owning a gun. It is something we had decided was a good idea. We want our kids to be familiar with guns so they have a healthy respect for them. We've decided that it would also be a good preparedness item to have in the home. We looked at different calibers and makes and models, and finally decided on one. We'd gone down the the local sports store and held them and the one we liked the best is the Taurus 24/7 Pro in 9mm. They make the same gun in S&W .40 and in .45ACP, but we decided on the 9mm so that S~ is more comfortable shooting it (and she will have you know that the ammo is also cheaper...).

Well we found a website that was selling all of their guns at cost last week and when we realized that our gun was going to be about $150 under MSRP if we got it then, we jumped on it. Originally it was going to be a "later in the year" purchase. Like for my birthday or Christmas. You know how I am, though. I can't wait. Once I've decided that I want something, and the wife gives her approval on that certain something, I've gotta have it. (Of course it didn't help matters that we found a SCREAMIN' deal online.)

To make a long story short, we purchased the gun online and had it shipped to a local dealer. I didn't know that guns had to be shipped to a dealer. Well, it worked out pretty well. The local dealer only charged $10 to have the gun shipped to them and we pick it up there. (Most other places charge $20 or $25.) And, since it was an out of state purchase, there was no sales tax. That saved us some money too. All in all, after the gun purchase itself, the transfer fee, shipping, and the $7.50 for the Utah background check (which, by the way, is SUPER easy to deal with. You give them your driver's license and they call a number and your background check is done instantaneously over the phone. No waiting period. If you don't have any felonies or warrants our for your arrest, the gun is yours...) we ended up spending just shy of $350. (The purchase price of the gun was $307, normally $450. Not too shabby if you ask me!)

Well, my gun showed up on Friday and I got a chance to shoot it for the first time yesterday. It's BEAUTIFUL! I love it! It's got a rubber grip that's very comfortable to hold. It's pretty lightweight for a full 4" barrel, but still heavy enough to absorb most of the kick. I shot a full box of 100 rounds through it without a single failure to load or failure to eject. It handled wonderfully. Today my father-in-law helped me clean and oil it so it looks great too. I got a picture of it after we were all done. Isn't she pretty?

That's not all that I got this week, though. My father-in-law has an old Yamaha XT350 dirtbike that hasn't been ridden in years. It's been on the side of his house almost ever since I moved out here. I've ridden it once, but that was about 3 years ago. Well, I was talking to him last week and asked him what it would take to get it going. He hesitated and gave the impression that it was may not be worth fixing up. It has a couple of problems and he didn't want to put much money into it. He indicated that it should still run, though, and we proceeded to pull it out of the weeds and tried to fire it up.

Amazingly, it actually started (after some trouble). The battery was dead, so we jumped it with one of the cars. He had to kick the starter for about 15 minutes before it would do anything. When it did finally start we found that some critters had made their homes in it. There was D-con in the air filter box. After giving it some throttle a black thing shot out of the tailpipe. No, it wasn't a mouse, but it was a hornet's nest. It looked like it was probably from last year or so. At any rate, whatever was once there is gone now. I put a new battery in it and changed the oil and she runs pretty well. There's still one little issue that it has always had and we're going to see if we can fix it. When the bike gets up to 5 or 6000 RPMs it starts to stutter. It seems as though there isn't enough fuel getting into the carb. We're going to replace the spark plugs and do a couple of other routing maintenance things to it that have been neglected for a while and we'll see how she runs after that. Having a teenage son at home wasn't particularly good for this bike. It didn't get taken care of as well as it could have been. I haven't got a picture of my bike yet, but I do have a picture of someone else's from the net. Want to see it?

Mine doesn't look that cleaned up, but it will soon. The seat is cracking, but we're going to re-cover it. S~ is really good with that kind of stuff and we'll make it look pretty again.

I'm excited to have a bike. I've taken it out a couple of times this week, but today I brought it home. I've got some good trails out by the house, and I'll have more time to ride if I have it here, than when it was out at his house. It takes about 20 minutes to get there, so by the time you factor travel both ways, that's 40 minutes of riding time that is gone because you have to get to the bike. Now that it's here, I can ride whenever I want to.

I'll post some updates later on how I do with the gun and the bike. I'll do some target shooting this week and post the results. I'll also let you know how I fare on the trails. I know you are all DYING to know. ;) Mostly I just can't wait to enjoy my new-found MAN toys. It's nice to be grown up and have the fun things you've always wanted.

And thanks S~ for letting me play with my fun toys. I know I spend more time than you'd probably like, but you are so sweet about it. I love you!