The Husband is a fine husband, I believe I’ve mentioned this before. I’ve been drooling over cowboy guns lately, something to which he, as a fine husband, has paid close attention.
Last weekend we stopped into the local high end gun shop to see what they had lying about. The Henry rifles are gorgeous but almost uniformly HEAVY, and I’m not looking for a .22, we already have a plinker. Plus, I can just see all that pretty gold color rubbing off over time.
The Italian company Uberti is making Winchester replicas these days, and while they are gorgeous to behold, they’re sodding EXPENSIVE, and also just kind of…well, irritating. Frickin’ WINCHESTER should be making Winchester replicas, not some continental upstarts. Silly, I know.
I learned to shoot on lever action rifles, so the sentimental factor was extremely high, and these slick, pretty guns just didn’t have what I wanted.
Anyway, the Suncoast Gun Show was kind enough to hold their regional show right here in town on my birthday last Saturday, so the Husband and I deposited the children with Nana and set out. I was just there joy-looking, but the Husband had an AGENDA.
And there it was, about mid-way through the endless aisles of overpriced H&Ks… Its stock glowed a healthy natural wood color among all the over-used cherry grains and tactical black plastics. It had the marks of a well-used rifle, slight scuffing above the lever and around the cartridge port, and inside a bit of crud that will need a gunsmith’s attention. But it was GORGEOUS. And precisely what I wanted, even without the octagonal barrel.
So meet my 1979 Marlin Glenfield 30A lever-action 30/30 rifle. Once she comes back from her spa day with the gunsmith, we’ll take her to the range and give her a proper name.