Chapter 9

And I did ... have money.

I also had the most gawd awful collection of gawd awful old rifles and crappy handguns in the world. Sure ... they were collectors. Sure I could hit a barn door with ‘em. Sure I could ... if I was IN the barn.

Case in point.

Merwin and Hulbert. Probably the best western handgun ... easy to load, fairly accurate, excellent construction and rare.

Minute of angle? Nope. Put five shots in the same hole? Ha! Really good revolver ... yup.

Just not up to olympic standards. Match pistols could ... regularly ... put five shots in one hole ... at 40 meters. Olympic class rifles were only limited by their shooters. From a bench, clamped in a vise, most were single hole shooters ... wind and even humidity not withstanding. Free hand? maybe.

No such animal in my collection ... Therefore ... I spent like a sailor on liberty in Singapore.

An Anschütz 1827 Fortner cost as much as a good used sailboat ... plus accessories. Generally count on another grand to make it fit ... and ammunition. Ammunition can get pricy. 22 long rifle rimmed is not something that one reloads.

Or.

One can buy Walther.

A Walther KK500-M 650mm .22 LR Rifle w/ Expert Stock doesn’t even look like a rifle. It looks like the most complicated stick ever. But it comes accessorized. Accessorized sounds like something from Dior. And it’s a step up as far as used sailboats go.

97% of Olympic shooters shoot the Anschütz ... and I was never much of a crowd follower, if there’s a better model?

Yup.

I bought a Walther.

.22 LR rimmed ... costs the same for the Walther as it costs for the Anschütz.

And the clothes.

Whee!

That’s rifles ... Six to ten thousand.

You wanna spend REAL money? An olympic grade pistol? Six to three hundred THOUSAND. You can get a real good NEW sailboat for that.

Shotgun? Good over and under? A field grade Benelli starts at close to thirty thousand.

I had to have them all.

THEN I found out about Olympic Grade Air rifles. To use an old cliche ... OMG! A Daisy they are not.