¡Muy Ocupado!

Sorry, all. Didn't post much over the weekend. I ran my monthly IHMSA match on Saturday, and got to meet one of my readers who was at the range for Hunter Safety class. Sunday we had a picnic to celebrate my daughter's 25th birthday. Yesterday I did a day trip to Nacozari, Mexico. We left at 5:00AM and got back at 5:45 PM.

I didn't feel much like posting last night.

I see I got a few hits from my entry into this week's Best of Me Symphony. Interestingly, my entry, Bias? What Bias? from last August is again topical, since Glenn Reynolds, Steven Den Beste, and James Rummel (among others, I'm sure) have current pieces up on media bias.

I must be prescient. I sent my entry in early last week.

Anyway, I'm ¡muy occupado! (very busy) and won't be posting again until this evening, but first, a little gun pr0n:

My next purchase:

That's the Smith & Wesson Performance Center Model 25 Mountain Gun in .45 Long Colt. The specs are:

Capacity: 6 Rounds
Barrel Length: 4" Tapered
Front Sight: Black Ramp
Rear Sight: Adjustable Black
Grip: Cocobolo
Trigger: .312"
Hammer: .400"
External Safety: N/A
Frame: Large
Finish: Blue
Overall length: 9 1/2"
Material: Carbon Steel
Weight Empty: 39.5 ounces

There's an excellent review (with more pictures) here. (Via Boone Country.)

I've had a serious jones for a model 25 in .45LC for a long time. Many years ago, Lew Horton Distributing had S&W make a special run of model 25-5's with a 5" tapered barrel. Lew Horton has done many short-run custom order S&W's, like the more recent M24-3, 3" barreled Model 24 in .44 Special from 1983, but the 5" barreled Model 25 always struck me as the most beautiful revolver I'd ever seen or shot. Five inches is, IMHO the optimum barrel length for a big-bore revolver for handiness and velocity, and the .45LC is a cartridge that should be loaded with lead and not jacketed bullets. Well, I can't find a 5" model 25, but this short Performance Center run of 4" guns is a damned close second.

I had planned to order one a couple of weeks ago. We've paid off our bills and we had some surplus. I was sure I could convince the wife that we could afford the nearly $700 price tag.

Unfortunately, when I came home that very afternoon, I found a bill in the mail from the IRS. Seems that when I did our taxes in 2002 I managed to miss a 1099 we got from a local casino when my wife won $2,500. I remember her win. I certainly forgot the 1099.

The bill was $711.

Damn!

Saving my pennies now.

That piece will be mine!