Gary Reeder
the same thing that has been going on as long as we have
Monday, March 04, 2019, 21:26

been here. When you were younger and watched the cowboys on the tube, I bet you wanted a chrome plated 45 and spangled holster and belt like the cowboys did. Then you watched Gunsmoke and wanted a rig just like James Arness used. How many time did you practice quick draw in front of the mirror. Years later John Wayne spun a Winchester with a big loop on it while riding his horse and how many people wanted that big loop and hit themselves in the face trying to spin it. Don't forget how Dirty harry shot the bad guys with his Model 29 44 Magnum while snarling "you feel lucky punk?"and we all had to have one. Like a true blue moron I paid $450 for a S&W Model 29 that retailed for $265. I was so pissed at myself that I hated that gun and sold it to some other dummy. When Eastwood was in The Gauntlet everybody had to have the 2½" Model 66 S&W. Even now years later the prices on the snubbie Model 66 are still sky high. Then Eastwood used the Auto Mag in Sudden Impact and it took off like a rocket. I had 3 or 4 Auto Mags that I paid retail for ($269) and all of a sudden they were worth $1500. The Wildey did the same. Used in one movie and it was famous. A couple of movies with the good guys holding off hordes of gooks, slants, slopes, chinks and all the other names that end in S and the AR-15 became a household word. They had been out for 35 years but all of a sudden everyone had to have one or three.
People, for the most part, are like Lemmings. One jumps off the cliff and the rest think holy shit he is my hero so I need to follow him. A couple of wannabe sniper gun writers all dressed up in camo with blackened faces did big articles on the long range sniper rifles and that along with a couple of movies about snipers doing long range shooting in the sandbox and all of a sudden AR-10s were the vogue in the highly overrated 6.5 Creedmoor and every one with visions of himself as a sniper had to have one. To add dried cow pies to the fire the precision rifles came about loaded down with gimmicks and the young wannabe snipers were paying $3000 or better for them and about that much for the scopes.

Now the precision rifles are available in 22 Magnum (I have to admit the 22 Magnum is one of my all time favorite cartridges and I will probably have to have one, the one at our gun shop has been wooing me for a couple of weeks now). I sorta think maybe in another life I was a poacher of the highest degree. There is even a small "sniper" rifle in 22 LR in tiny form aimed at 5 and 6 year old future snipers. It is made by Cricket and is well made with a bipod and sniper type scope. The neighborhood cats don't have a chance.

So what all this adds up to is we are creatures of habit and we tend to follow our heroes on the silver screen or in real life. Get used to it booby, that is America.