I'm a Gun Owner

Dawn and I were going to buy a LCD together for Christmas this year, but Tom surprised us with one when I was visiting in Atlanta. That led to quite a bit of deliberation about what to buy each other for Christmas and our birthdays. (Dawn's birthday is also in January.)

What to buy, what to buy...? When Dawn and I go shooting, we always feel like we'd like to have an extra pistol. To be fair, Dawn has many extra pistols including a .38 Special that makes quite a bang when we fire it. But we don't (or didn't) have a 2nd .22 target pistol. Usually we alternate between Dawn's rifle, a Clark custom 10/22 Ruger, and her Ruger .22 Mark II pistol. But then we're in separate rooms and end up renting something if we want to bring Carly along for example.

Well, I've had my eye on a Browning Buck Mark ever since I shot one up in Atlanta with Tom. I liked the feel a little better than the Mark II, though the Mark II is an absolute pleasure to shoot. But did we want a 2nd Mark II?

The don't make the Mark II anymore. Now you're looking a Mark III unless you want something used. Dawn and I spent a LOT of time at the store holding different Brownings and Rugers trying to decide what we preferred. The Mark III feels different than the Mark II, though there is a variant that is very similar. ( And there are plenty of variants of the Buck Mark as well.)

But to make a long store short, this is my new (and first) gun.

I was going to get the variant with a wooden handle and with a fiber optic site (the same that I shot in Atlanta), but when I held this lighter composite model with rubberized grip, it was beside myself. The gun is just wonderful to hold, and this is what Dawn bought for my Christmas/birthday present. ("Thank you Dawn!")

We had such a hard time though deciding between this gun and the other variation, that Dawn decided she wanted the other for herself. We'd been talking about the idea of matching guns for Christmas, but this opportunity for an impulse "coordinating guns" purchase was too much for her to pass up.

Her gun does not have the scope as shown above, but it is the only photo I could find. I absolutely love both of these guns in their own way. Dawn just walked in and said she's going put the rubberized grip on hers as well, which makes me a little sad because the wood really gives this gun a lot of character. But there is no doubt that the rubber grips feel really nice. Her's has the fiber optic site, and is about a pound heavier than mine.

The second Buck ark is not what I bought for her present, however. She decided it was time to own a .9mm gun. Dawn is a Ruger girl and so is now a proud owner of the Ruger P95.


We can't actually get the guns until next week because of the 3-day waiting period, and that is just driving us insane.

We're going to wait until later in the year to buy some targeting scopes for the Buck Marks. We don't want to go overboard on our shopping! But I can't wait to try them out.