2010 Year in Guns

This year I did a lot of buying and selling of guns, most of it was done in an effort to rid my collection of a lot of non-shooting "collector" handguns that filled my safe. At the beginning of 2010 I had several of them that I hadn't shot in a long time and even a couple that never were shot at all. Those guns are all gone now and the rifles and pistols I replaced them with are working tools, not collector pieces. I can't say that I will never buy another collector gun but I can say I will never own another "Safe Queen." I will never again own a gun too "nice" to shoot. Over a year ago I also began an effort to simplify my gun collection by reducing the numbers of different calibers in my collection, I continued that program in 2010. Eventually I got it down to these eight calibers - .22LR - .38 S&W Special - .357 S&W Magnum - 9x19mm - .45 ACP - 5.56 NATO (.223 Remington) - 7.62 NATO (.308 Winchester) and 12 Gauge. I also own a rifle each in .30-06 and .303 British but I already had plenty of surplus and commercial ammo for them. Since I knew that I don't really shoot either very much and didn't need to purchase any more ammo I decided to go ahead and keep both rifles, but I won't be buying more ammo for them. I have only kept what I consider the best combination of affordable, available and "useable" ammunition and the guns chambered for them. Every round that I now own (except the aforementioned) I have at least a couple of guns that use it. Doing this has definitely made my life easier, I have more storage room and have really decreased my headache factor. The official numbers for 2010 are - 9 guns bought (1 Gift) and 9 guns sold. I didn't go shooting this year near as much as I wanted, but then that's true of every year.

Pictured above is what I consider my best purchase this year. A Smith & Wesson pre-war "Non-Registered" .357 Magnum. This smooth old revolver shipped as shown with blue finish, Magna grips and a 5-Inch barrel with a gold Call front sight. According to the historical letter this gun originally shipped to an Inspector in the Virginia ABC in December of 1939, and yes it's one great shooter!

Year end stats!

I know that all by regular blog readers (all eleven of you) are just dying to know about wilsonblog's statistics. Well, thanks to Blogger I can tell you...

Let's start with my top ten most popular blog posts ever!

# 1 From the vault - Smith & Wesson Model 4566

# 2 N Frame Carry

# 3 Double Down!

# 4 Gun product review - RB-17

# 5 Continued light blogging...

# 6 Movie Reviews - End of the World Edition

# 7 Gone shooting - S&W 342PD

# 8 Registered Magnum Reading

# 9 My Black Rifle

# 10 People with guns collection # 19

But what about wilsonblog readers? The vast majority of my readers, as could easily be guessed, are in the United States (92.4%). But did you know what other countries love wilsonblog? Here is the count down of the other five top viewing countries - Russia (1.38%) - United Kingdom (1.32%) - Netherlands (1.31%) - Germany (.84%) - Canada (.81%)

What about browsers? How are all those viewers actually viewing wilsonblog? - Internet Explorer 73% - Firefox 16% - Safari 4% - Chrome 2% - Opera 1% - (Jakarta - Java - Netscape - Iron - Mobile - all less than 1%)

Then there are the operating systems. Windows 91% - Macintosh 5% - Other Unix 2% - (iPhone - Linux - iPad - iPod - Blackberry - SonyEricsson all less than 1%)

And finally, since starting on Blogger last March wilsonblog has had 9572 page views.

Now don't you feel better knowing all of this?

The Ghost of (recent) Christmas past

Driving through my neighborhood early this morning I couldn't help but notice one of the last remaining vestiges of Christmas 2010 parked along the curbs up and down the streets of quiet pre-dawn suburbia. Of course I'm talking about the Christmas trash. Wednesday is garbage day in our subdivision and you could clearly see it was the (post) holiday season. Heap after heap of overstuffed trash cans and bags filled with rumpled wrapping paper and those cardboard tubes they come on, the tubes wildly jutting out of the mounds of garbage like porcupine quills, and then there were the boxes. Oh the boxes! Every fulfilled Christmas wish had a box that came with it and every one of those wishes was sitting on the curb ready to be picked up and taken to the landfill this morning. Up one side of the street and down the other you could easily see what Santa brought all of your neighbors. There were only a couple of trees today, the real flood of trees will be next week, the garbage day after New Years. Those remaining trees and Christmas displays will start coming down in a week, maybe two, and when they are all gone that will bring to an end another holiday season. Except for that one guy two streets over that refuses to take down his Christmas lights until Easter…

Too much paranoid, or not enough?

One of my regular website reads is SurvivalBlog.com, I try to visit the site at least a couple times a week because there is a lot of good info to be had and I find Mr. Rawles' site (on the most part) entertaining and informative. On my last visit I noticed that he is now posting his actual IP address on the site, and he's not the only one that started doing this. Apparently he (and many others) are concerned that hackers or unnamed government entities will take control of his site. Frankly I am not sure if he and the others doing this are too paranoid or not enough. In general I am in favor of paranoia, it tends to help keep you alive, but I'm wondering if this isn't going too far. Am I just being naive? What do you say readers, do I need to do this too? Is wilsonblog in danger of being taken over by some nebulous "Gubment" agency or some pimply-faced teen hacker?

A gun nut Christmas...

I had a great Christmas this year and got the usual assortment of gifts including clothes and socks, some money, and being a "gun nut" I also received my fair share of gun stuff. The "stuff" I got this year included 3 Check-Mate Industries 25 round M14 magazines, 3 black (no window) 30 round PMAGS (can't ever have enough PMAGS), a small gunsmith screwdriver set and no doubt my best present this year, and maybe ever, a stainless Colt Combat Commander. My Dad was in a gun giving mood this Christmas season and gave me the Colt and my brother a near new Smith & Wesson Model 40 from his massive collection.

The Commander he bought from me a few years back and it's not just a standard, stock Colt. This gun is moderately customized and according to the previous owner the work was done by none other than Ted Yost when he was at Gunsite in the early 1990s. The pistol is not marked by him nor do I have a build sheet to prove that Yost did it but whoever did the work it was certainly done right. The pistol was constructed using "Gunsite Service Pistol" specifications of the time and has the plain Hi Vis sights, a Videki trigger with a 3.75 pull, and other niceties that you might expect to see on a custom 1911 like a contoured and polished feed ramp, precision barrel crown, fitted solid bushing, a tuned Wilson heavy duty extractor, extended thumb safety, fitted Ed Brown grip safety, beveled mag well and a complete external dehorning with a bushed satin finish. The Colt also started life with the Series 80 safety but was at that same time converted to the 70 Series configuration. It's really a super nice pistol and I can't honestly remember why I sold to him in the first place, probably to finance some other gun I "had to have," such is the life of a "gun nut."

I'm really happy to have this Colt back and FREE is always better than paying for it. I am however a little troubled over one of the reasons he gave it back to me, he said it was just "too much" for him now. My Dad is getting along in years and this .45 Auto is probably more than he can handle these days. My Dad has had a .45 automatic as long as I can remember, up till now. I guess you just don't want to think of a parent getting old. Now days one of his favorite carry guns is another Colt, a Government .380 that he also bought from me a few years ago. He really likes that gun. One of my gifts to him this year was a Bianchi 19L holster for the tiny Colt and you could tell he really liked it. 2010 was one great gunnie Christmas for everyone in the Wilson clan, especially me!