Moral of the story... BUY THE GUN

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MacGuyver77

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Well I thought I would share a funny (now, not so much then) story of a gun I was thinking about buying, but didn't.

A couple of weeks ago, I got the itch to buy a Ruger GP100. I had been wanting a revolver, nothing specifically, but when I saw a post on the revolver forum about an outfit out west selling LNIB GP100 4" Stainless for $300 plus shipping the itch kicked in real bad.

I didn't know much about the .357 Ruger, but after research and reading other posts, decided that I liked it a lot, and wanted to buy one. Well my pragmatic side of me started getting the better of me, reasoning that with a wedding & honeymoon coming up (read $$$$$$$$$ :scrutiny: ) parting with $300 + $20 shipping +$30 Transfer & Taxes wasn't such a good idea. But still the itch persisted. I even called the seller of these surplus GP's to get some information, but decided that I should do a little more investigating before I said "screw you left brain, I'm doin' it."

I decided the next day that after I got the grass cut, I'd head down to the gun store (and later the range to exercise the Beretta I had bought not 2 weeks earlier) to examine a GP100 in person as I had yet to see/hold one. Well I get done with the yard, clean up and drive over to the gun shop. By then it was raining like the dickens, and I was happy just to make it there without incident... or so I thought.

Here is where you might want to put down the soda, or finish swallowing what ever is in your mouths. As I pull off the road into the parking lot I start to notice that there are a lot of vehicles there. More than usual. This is a small parking lot, kinda triangle shaped with 2 travel isles and 3 rows of spots. Well as I'm manuvering down the one way asle, I'm craning my neck looking for a spot close to the shop when BAM! The truck comes to an immediate halt. :what: I look in front of me and realize I have just driven into a 36" diameter, billboard pole which is actully slightly in the travel asle that I had failed to see. You kinda have to drive into the grass, (unless you have a compact car) to avoid it at the end of the asle. What is even worse is that it is painted flat black just like the parking lot, with no dileneators around it.

Well I caught it on the front bumper, in line with the left headlight. I hadn't been over far enough to miss it. :banghead: Totally boneheaded move by me. At least I hadn't hit someone elses' car. I was so angry at myself, I didn't even go in the gun store. I drove straigt to the body shop. I ended up spending $975 to get the bumber and fender replaced and repainted, and another $175 to take care of a couple other dings I had while it was there. Sheesh. I still ended up going to the range later and let the lead fly.They even had a GP100 there to rub it in. After a couple magezines, I had completly forgot about my mishap and managed to enjoy myself quite a bit as I pounded paper blue men with lead.

The moral of the story is I should have just bought the gun the day before and avoided going to the gun shop that day where for whatever reason I should have had my driving privellidges revoked. My need to justify a $350 purchase cost me $1150 in repairs to my truck (I know the real reason is that I was a dumb-a_ _ ) Now, no guns for a while, until I save up to recoup my bad decision. But my no means am I complaining or feel I didn't deserve it. It could have been a lot worse (billboard falls down, hit someone's car, run over a person, etc) and I have nothing to blame it on by myself. How does the saying go... The best lessons in life are learned the hard way... or are the ones that cost you $$$$$$$$$$$!!!!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to chastise away.
 
I'd say riding a bike would be a better option - slamming into a billboard pole wouldn't cost you nearly as much money. But then again you might not have that left side of your brain to reason with after that kind of collision.
 
That was a day you needed to hop back in bed and start over. Glad to hear nobody was hurt. Guns come, guns go, but you only get one body issued per lifetime.
 
Funny story, but think of it like this. You may have avoided something more catastrophic that would have happened the day before, and $1150 was a small price to pay.
 
36" diameter billboard pole. That's pretty good.

Funny how going to the range works to repair the inner damage done. Maybe the whole world just needs more range time.

Les
 
Lol, it's always a good idea to buy a gun...at least that's what I tell my wife (unconvincingly, I might add)
 
Don't feel lonely.

A few months back I was at the fairgrounds for a gun show. After browsing around I decided to leave. The place was packed and I had to park a ways away.

I got into my car and noticed the back window had fogged over on the inside. I started to back out slowly looking left and right to make sure I didn't cut anyone off or hit any pedestrians as I pulled off the grass and onto the pavement.

As I was about to tap the brakes and go into drive the car came to an abrupt stop. My heart sank as I thought that I had hit a parked vehicle. I couldn't understand it because I was costantly going from one mirror to another making sure not to hit anything.

I got out and saw that I had hit the concrete base of one of the light poles. :banghead: It was just below my view in the rear view mirror. The 30' light pole that was bolted to it was painted a color that wasn't easily seen through the fogged up glass. Had it been a little darker I may have seen it.

Had I been a little more patient and waited to let my rear defroster go to work I wouldn't be driving around with a 10" x 12" spot with the paint messed up on my plastic bumper cover.
:uhoh:

I'm 51 and I still have a Homer Simpson moment from time to time. I guess we're never too old to learn from our mistakes. DOH!
:eek:
 
Don't feel left out. I remember once backing up with a boat on the trailer. Check my mirrors on the right side and left side. Good to go - NOT! The boat pretty much obscures the rear window view and I did not see a concrete pole rising up in the sky. It missed my prop/out drive by an inch and it hit my teak swim platform so no damage luckily. Learned to stick my head out the window and look up after that!
 
Crash boom Bang

I started to say I didn't laugh, but, with my driving history in parking lots, to hear someone else actually managed to hit things in parking lots as well, I just couldn't help it.

I have driven over 30 years, 25 of them in 2 seater sports cars and have yet to have an accident on a public road, or even be given a ticket, although I have been stopped on occasion.

But put me in a parking lot, with the transmission in reverse, I somehow become Mr. Hide. 2 Caddys, 1 Lincoln, at least 3 guard rails, and more posts and poles than I can remember. But maybe that's not as bad as it seems. At least I wasn't going forward and looking through the windshield. But I've actually come to believe it must have something to do with parking lots, and suspect hitting something with the front bumper is not outside of the realm of possibilities by any means, in fact it's probably quite likely.

F. Prefect



And BTW, I do hope you end up with that .357, IMHO, the best all around pistol cartridge ever developed.
 
I did basically the same thing once. Swung wide in a parking lot and bashed the right front corner of an old F150 on a concrete filled pole. It was short enough that I couldn't see it, but I sure felt it!
 
Just One Shot said:
Don't feel lonely.

A few months back I was at the fairgrounds for a gun show. After browsing around I decided to leave. The place was packed and I had to park a ways away.

I got into my car and noticed the back window had fogged over on the inside. I started to back out slowly looking left and right to make sure I didn't cut anyone off or hit any pedestrians as I pulled off the grass and onto the pavement.

As I was about to tap the brakes and go into drive the car came to an abrupt stop. My heart sank as I thought that I had hit a parked vehicle. I couldn't understand it because I was costantly going from one mirror to another making sure not to hit anything.

I got out and saw that I had hit the concrete base of one of the light poles. :banghead: It was just below my view in the rear view mirror. The 30' light pole that was bolted to it was painted a color that wasn't easily seen through the fogged up glass. Had it been a little darker I may have seen it.

Had I been a little more patient and waited to let my rear defroster go to work I wouldn't be driving around with a 10" x 12" spot with the paint messed up on my plastic bumper cover.
:uhoh:

I'm 51 and I still have a Homer Simpson moment from time to time. I guess we're never too old to learn from our mistakes. DOH!
:eek:
Click to expand...
I backed into one of those light poles with the concrete base my senior year of high school. My car knocked the pole down. It was in the parking lot of an auto parts store I had just applied for a job at. Needless to say, they didn't hire me. Did you know those poles are $6,500.00? Me either...until. The car was a '77 Dodge Monaco my friends had named "The Beast", only a little dent in the rear bumper.....


Man, I hope you get that GP100......good things come to those who wait......or so they say anyway.
 
At least I wasn't going forward and looking through the windshield.
Click to expand...

Going forward, yes. Looking through the winshield, NO. :cuss: Had I not been looking through the driver side window at the open parking space in front of the shop and instead looking through even a part of the windshield, :uhoh: I would have seen the massive pole in front of me. I was also glad the airbag didn't go off. LOL.
 
I say that as long as you are already more than a grand into, you need to self medicate your woes away with a new gun.
 
I was so angry at myself, I didn't even go in the gun store. I drove straigt to the body shop. I ended up spending $975 to get the bumber and fender replaced and repainted, and another $175 to take care of a couple other dings I had while it was there.
Click to expand...

bummer, but a gun-nut would have found a coat hanger wired up the bumper and then gone on into the gunshop and spent a grand on cool stuff:)
 
Had a rental car while at Seminary - folks paid for it so we could join them for a week's vacation - and it was a bit snug, a Dodge Neon as I recall. Anyway, we stopped to drop off the rent at the landlord's new office with an itty-bitty parking lot at the rear of the office building. I backed up and - BUMP - something stopped my (slow & gentle) rearward progress. Hmmm...must be something under the tire...so, pull up a bit, reverse again and again - gently back up. Again, -BUMP. This time, I get out to see what the heck is so big that these four squirrels and a rubber band can't get over and then - and only then - see that there is a handrail made of 1" metal pipe painted the exact same shade of brown as the back door. My line of sight was such that the pipe blended into the doorjam and I couldn't see it. On the back of the car were now two light brown parallel vertical lines - about 1" apart - pressed into the plastic bumper.

Fortunately, there were a couple marks on the bumper already, so Enterprise didn't catch it.

I didn't just hit it once, I hit it twice! No mere "once burned, twice learned" for me!

Q
 
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