A nice old Ruger ad.  Since I kind of have a soft spot for Rugers, I had to look up some info on the Deerstalker.

I didn't know this, but the Deerstalker was Ruger's first ever centerfire long gun.  Opting for a semi-auto .44 magnum as their first long gun must have been kind of odd to rifle aficionados at the time.  Introduced in 1959 or 1960, and "proven on the plains of Africa."

Here's an interesting link about Rugers at about.com.

I called a couple of gun stores today.

No one had ever heard of the Taurus Thunderbolt.

One guy was not aware that any rifles in .357 magnum had ever been made.  I had to tell him three times that I was saying .357 magnum, not .300 magnum.

Looks like I'll just have to keep prowling the gun shows until something good turns up.

UPDATE:  Did some snooping around at The High Road, and couldn't find anything that was said about the Puma that would keep me from buying one.  The last gun show, I saw four of them.  We'll see if they're still around next time.

An octagonal barrel would be really cool, but they're more expensive.

Former Texas governor Ann Richards passed away on Wednesday.

When they announced this on the local NPR affiliate this morning, the announcer stated that she once said she was proudest of two things during her term as governor.  I don't remember the first one, I guess it was something that didn't mean a lot to me.  The second thing he said was seared into my brain.

"She vetoed a bill that would have allowed Texans to carry concealed handguns, automatic weapons, and cop-killer bullets."

I haven't been able to find an actual cite for this quote.  I don't know if she actually said those words verbatim or if this was just a little creative editorializing on the part of the KSTX copywriter.  I just want to say that part I emphasized in the above statement is a blatant lie.

Forget about the fact that "cop-killer bullets" only means whatever they decide the scary-ammunition-du-jour might be at the time.  Forget that part.  Here are the facts.

The Texas concealed handgun law makes no reference whatsoever to fully automatic weapons.  That's not what it's about.

The Texas concealed handgun law does not contain any references to the type of ammunition that may or may not be carried in one's concealed handgun--or any other references to any type of ammunition, for that matter.  The only reference to ammunition is in regards to the qualifying test, in which a handgun of minimum .32 caliber must be used.

The only reason Richards ever got elected in the first place was that there was no incumbent running for re-election at the time.  It was a whole new ball game.  Her opposition--Clayton Williams--was such a colossal ass that even many Republicans couldn't bring themselves to vote for him (most Texans will remember the infamous "rape" quote).  The first time she came up against a real opponent, she lost.  (For the record, I voted Libertarian.  I just don't remember his name).

Richards was one of those who donned camo, picked up an expensive shotgun and ventured into the field for dove hunting every year, followed by her entourage of photographers.  To be honest, G.W. Bush did the same thing.  When he was running for governor, he went on a dove hunting jaunt about the same time as Richards' annual farce was going on.  He accidentally shot a bird that was not a dove.  Richards and her Austinian sycophants got a lot of mileage out of this, milking every drop of humiliation out of it that they could.  I remember the photo of Bush at the time.  It seemed to me--by the expression on his face--that he was genuinely sad and sorry that he had accidentally shot the wrong species of bird.  Richards and her gang just used it as an excuse to ridicule him.  I was disgusted by it at the time, and the years haven't softened that feeling much.

Richards' hypocritical attiude toward gun owners, among other things, cost her the re-election.  She was as anti-Second Amendment as they come, right up there with Kerry and his ilk.

Leave it to a master sh*t-slinger like Miz Ann to figure out a way to keep slinging it from beyond the grave.

This time it's "decock a springfield xd 40."

No way that I know of, other than dry-firing.