Faithful Friend

Project 365

02/09/2010

I now it might be a little odd to some of you who don't own guns, and possibly to some who do, but I do consider this gun to be an old friend.  I've had this one since the mid 80's and is the oldest gun I own.  There are other guns in the safe, but this is still my favorite.  It is a Ruger Redhawk in 44 Remington Magnum with seven and a half inch barrel.  The size of this thing actually makes it inconvenient to carry on a daily basis, so the Glock gets out of the house more.  Still, every time I handle the Ruger, good memories of camping and hunting trips come to visit.  Some of the best shots I've ever made have been with this gun.

One instance in particular happened while my brother and I were scouting for an upcoming Javelina hunt.  We had just left camp and were climbing the side of a hill with him in the lead.  Suddenly, he just started backing quickly back down.  I was right behind him so had to step to the side to keep from being knocked over.  As soon as he was beside me I could see there was a good sized rattler right in front of us.  With the steepness of the hill, he was at about eye level.  A second after I saw him, his head was missing and I realized I had my gun in my hand.  I probably could have never made that shot if I had tried to, but instinct took care of the hard work on that one.

We got lost later that night on the way back to camp, but that is another story.  Let's just say the stronger personality will win out every time.

Don't worry, using the screen on the camera I was able to get this shot without pointing the gun at myself.