Well it's that time of year again, the time of year where I pucker up, look at my bills, freak out for a few weeks, wonder how I'll do Christmas presents for my 3 sons, look over my used junk, dream of what i could possibly make out of all of it to give to them. This year was no different, I have been working away in the garage on a couple air rifles made up mostly of my leftover Crosman stuff(I have quite a bit laying around). I made one really cute 2240/2260 mix with half a 2260 stock and the action from the 2260 except for the airtube and barrel(2240 airtube, 14" barrel)...I'll show pics when done. The other is going to be a straight 2240 with a 10" barrel, and a little Daisy 3x9x32 scope I have. One son wants a scoped "pistol" and the other wants peep sights on a rifle small enough for him to cock (my QB has too much spring), I can accomodate these requests I think:)
On with the hunting part of the story already Dano, geez, we thought we'd hear of some big "catch". Well, today my boss walked up to me, shoock my hand and said,"Merry Christmas Dan". With the other hand he handed me an envelope...with a nice bonus check!!! Not huge, but huge enough for me to finally do some proper Christmas shopping. One son was at a friends today, the little son was with my wife at the doctors, and the oldest boy was needing me to come pick him up from a friends on my way home from work. I have now got a partner in crime...Off to WalMart son!!! Anyways, we did a little Christmas shopping, one son gets a 3 wheeled deal he has about grown into (he'll be 2 on January 5th), the middle son wanted a Razor scooter...into the basket with that too! My oldest boy, who was with me I was telling,"Let's go see what air rifles they have in stock.". We walked to Sporting Goods, looked at the red Ryders, the Daisy 880's, the new Beeman 1100 they've started stocking recently, a few other things...see I was really trying to see if he was even interested in another air rifle (he has a Red Ryder from last year, but shoots my 2300 the most). He wasn't all that interested, another story altogether though. When ever I go into a WalMart I hit the Sporting Goods section thinking things like,"Wonder what's new", "Wish my WalMart had the elusive $74 S1K's", "Ooh, look they have more of those plastic shooting bb gun things...wasting perfectly good air rifle space on the shelves"....Anyways, these thoughts go through my head every time I visit a WalMart. Today was no different, and as we were starting to walk away from Sporting goods I spotted it...it, It, IT!!!!! A Gamo box on the VERY top shelf. I could barely see what looked like "Shadow 1000" on the box, but this is not possible, these are only in oddball WalMarts, my WalMart has never stocked these. So I went and found me a clerk and asked the price of that Gamo on the top shelf. He says,"I think it's $139 just like that Beeman thing over there, same gun I think, that's why I haven't put one on the shelf". After a minute or two I ask if he could take it down and scan the price for me...$139 wasn't gonna happen, no way to explain $139 for a $74 gun to my wife, didn't matter how good the Christmas bonus was, I have bills! He scans it as he's standing on the ladder and says,"I think it's $139, but, wait, the one says it's clearanced for $74, huh, that's odd". I was standing there, perplexed like I was staring in the eyes of the Sasqwatch himself, then I noticed the box has been openned and had been taped back together....sorta. So I asked the clerk, "Does that look like it's been returned?", he says,"Yea, box has been openned, probably a return.............", I think at this point I was tearing up, my eyes were just starting to get the hint of burning before the waterfall that kids get when they fall off their bikes "........., but there's another one up here, still sealed, ya want it?".
I did a little grocery shopping after that, had to make sure I had a good dinner ready for my wife when I got home and broke the news about my "hunting" trip. News has been broken and I think I'll still be sleeping in my own bed tonight, she understood:)
I've since openned the box, shouldered it, shoot two rounds into a piece of scrap wood in my garage, I think I am going to be very happy!
Also, when I got home there was another gun sized box I had never seen on my workbench...."Yay!!! Boyd's delivered my Walnut gunstock blank!!!!" Merry Christmas everybody!
Dan
