The Goose
Member
My wife is a schoolteacher and on occasion I find myself roped into having to socialize with her fellow teachers and their spouses. They are usually pretty nice folks, but we rarely share much in common and certainly not my love of guns and shooting. Anyway, last weekend we were invited to dinner at one of her friends (Pam) houses. So Pam and her fiancé just bought a house together. I had met them a few times before and my wife had said that Pam’s fiancé likes to hunt. They were serving venison for dinner. Sounded good to me.
When we arrived the obligatory house tour began. Very big house, very nice, lovely furnishings yada, yada. We go upstairs and the last room we go to is a large extension over the garage. The first thing I notice is a GIANT grizzly bear rug in the middle of the room. A quick scan and I notice the Water Buffalo head, the Warthog, a few Deer with large racks and a dozen other exotic animals. Then I notice a few old Kentucky rifles displayed by the bar. Then the beautiful glass front gun cabinets full of gleaming long arms. Then other cases full of handguns. I am filled with surprise and disbelief.
Pam’s fiancé Cliff proceeds to give me HIS tour. He opened up the gun cabinets and showed me all of his various rifles, shotguns and handguns. Many are his mainstay hunting guns, but others are just part of his collection. Some rifles were purchased thirty years ago and still have the tags and never been fired. Others have brought down numerous game. I got to handle to .470 Nitro Express double rifle that brought down the Water Buffalo and the Weatherby .300 mag used on the Grizzly.
Eventually I was dragged back down stairs for Grey Goose martinis and venison cooked on a grill on the deck. Wow! My wife cheerfully gabbed about work with Pam while Cliff regaled me with stories of his hunts. I sat like a little kid open mouthed listening to his adventures. At the end of the evening Cliff gave me a copy of the book 1776 with the admonition to read it and pass it on to someone. Oh yeah, his parting words were to give him a call and set up a time to take the .470 to the range so I could try it out. What a great evening.
When we arrived the obligatory house tour began. Very big house, very nice, lovely furnishings yada, yada. We go upstairs and the last room we go to is a large extension over the garage. The first thing I notice is a GIANT grizzly bear rug in the middle of the room. A quick scan and I notice the Water Buffalo head, the Warthog, a few Deer with large racks and a dozen other exotic animals. Then I notice a few old Kentucky rifles displayed by the bar. Then the beautiful glass front gun cabinets full of gleaming long arms. Then other cases full of handguns. I am filled with surprise and disbelief.
Pam’s fiancé Cliff proceeds to give me HIS tour. He opened up the gun cabinets and showed me all of his various rifles, shotguns and handguns. Many are his mainstay hunting guns, but others are just part of his collection. Some rifles were purchased thirty years ago and still have the tags and never been fired. Others have brought down numerous game. I got to handle to .470 Nitro Express double rifle that brought down the Water Buffalo and the Weatherby .300 mag used on the Grizzly.
Eventually I was dragged back down stairs for Grey Goose martinis and venison cooked on a grill on the deck. Wow! My wife cheerfully gabbed about work with Pam while Cliff regaled me with stories of his hunts. I sat like a little kid open mouthed listening to his adventures. At the end of the evening Cliff gave me a copy of the book 1776 with the admonition to read it and pass it on to someone. Oh yeah, his parting words were to give him a call and set up a time to take the .470 to the range so I could try it out. What a great evening.
