MOVIES
~you can't remember
the plot of the last movie you saw, but you can name the model, caliber
and finish of every firearm in the movie.
~you reflexively
count the number of shots fired by every weapon in the film, then gripe
to your friends when the actors exceed the
magazine capacities.
~you watch old WWII
movies and can identify and look at all the rifles and handguns but can't
remember who staRred in the movie
or what it was about..
~if, when you watch
a WWII movie, you have to get out th' old Garand and 1911 and help John
Wayne shoot the Japs and Krauts. Even
when he's in the Navy.
~if, while helping
John, you've ever actually shot the TV. ("Is this thing loaded?")
~you see pictures
of war on T.V. and all you think about is that you want to be there to
pick up the BRASS.
~it bothers you
more when 007 runs out of ammo than when the BOND girl dies.
~you watch La Femme
Nikita just to see the HK MP5s.
~your only criteria
for renting a video is what guns it might have in it.
~while watching
the movie "Terminator 2" you have to leave the room in tears and mornful
sobs after Arnold Swartzenneger throws
the CAR-16 off the moving tractor trailer and it goes bouncing away.
~every time you
see the finale of the Sam Peckinpa movie "The Wild Bunch" you think to
yourself "what a waste of brass!".
~your friends refuse
to see ANY films containing firearms with you.
WIFE/FAMILY
~when you met your
wife's parents for the 1st time you arrived at their house riding a Harley
and wearing a *cocked & locked* Colt
.45 on your hip.
~you and your new
father-in-law go to a gun show on your wedding day.
~your wife's bridal
registry was at the local gun shop..
~you have spent
more on guns in the last 6 months than you did on your wifes engagement
ring.
~your fiance didn't
want a ring, she wanted an M1 carbine. And, you bought her one.
~you use a lathe
to turn a nice ring from the appropriate size case. You engrave it with
a few hearts and then nickel plate it and add
gold inlay. She'll love you for having the "personal" touch, being careful
with the family money, and from knowing you'll be able to
keep her guns in tiptop shape.
~have traded the
wife's wedding ring for a shotgun, and she let you.
~you take your wife
to a gun show for your 10th Anniversary and she is as excited to go as
you are.
~you let your wife
go out and blow all kinds of money on junk she'll never use just so she
won't gripe when you buy that latest piece
you really need for your collection.
~your mother-in-law
asks what new gun junk you want for Christmas this year.
~you remember important
family dates based on when you purchased a firearm.~you build a gun rack
in your bedroom and it's closer
to you than your wife.
~your wife tells
you that you can't subscribe to any more gun magazines until you do something
with all the old ones you're keeping.
~you have Trijicon
Night-lights in your bedroom.
~your teenage daughter's
date is introduced to you while your sitting at the loading bench cleaning
your M-1.
~if half the guests
at your daughter's wedding are shooters and their wives or husbands had
fun talking.
~your wife says
to buy a gun she would like you to sell one first.
~your wife wants
to wear black leather so you buy her a carry holster.
~your gun safe cost
more then your dining room set.
~you get rid of
the microwave to make room for the brass tumbler.
~you or your wife
do the wash, several spent casings fall out of your rolled-up sleves.
~it is common in
your household to step on spent/live primers, and the occassional .22 rimfire
with bare feet.
~your wife often
vacuums-up live primers you dropped in the carpet.
~you both enjoy
the excitement when she does vacuum.
~you find some live
primers laying in the driveway.
~when daughter was
growing up hand her boyfriends a 45-70 round and tell them you have lots
more where that came from.
~you introduce yourself
to your daughter's suitors as "a very good shot" and you have a copy of
Guns And Ammo in one hand and are
wearing your NRA Life Member hat. A holstered large pistol on your belt
is optional.
~after being introduced
to the new boyfriend you quote from "Clueless" by saying: "Young man, I
own a .45 and a shovel... don't make
me have to use either one."
~your wife/girlfriend
starts using Hoppes No. 9 instead of perfume to get your attention.
~your wife/girlfrind
thinks that aura of Hoppies #9 is your favorite after shave.
~you use Hoppes
No. 9 as a room or carpet freshener.
~you are asked by
a waitress what cologne you are wearing. You just got done cleaning your
guns.
~you think a shotgun
wedding is what happens when a fellow gets overly fond of his 12 gauge.
~you consider naming
your unborn child Winchester.
~you name your first-born
boy MAK90.
~you name your first-born
girl LadySmith.
~your kid's huggies
come in camo battlepacks.
~your wife threatened
to leave you after finding muddy shotshells soaking in the bathtub for
the tenth time.
~you find out that
the dishwasher does a MUCH better job but your wife threatens to leave
you because she is tired of fishing them
out from under the heating elements.
~you go to a marriage
counselor, he asks you which you like better, shooting or sex, and you
think it's the stupidest question you've ever
heard.
GUN SHOP/GUN SHOW
~you buy a gun at
a shop only to find out you used to own it a couple of years ago.
~the largest gun
store in your area *calls* you if they need something they can't get elsewhere.
~when buying a new
gun, you plead with your gun shop to keep it until you have space for it.
~you've ever sent
a scope (that was never dropped) back to Leupold for repair.
~factories ask *you*
how well their guns hold up.
~Hornady's largest
midwestern distributor informs you that you've bought over half of all
the Vector ammo they've ever had in stock.
~your standard Sunday-afternoon
question to guys selling surplus ammo at gun shows is "How much for all
of it, so you don't have to
lug it home?"
~you shoot enough
Berdan-primed ammo that you are on a first-name basis with your local scrap
metal dealer.
~you are on a first-name
basis with every major tire shop owner within a 25-mile radius.
~upon seeing your
1978 wildcatting project (a .375 on a .50 Sharps 3 1/4" case, 3340 FPS
with a 300 Sierra boattail), Elmer Keith says
"You're nuts!"
~Keith Francis (at
JGS, the chambering reamer company), answers your phone calls "What have
you dreamed up *this* time?"
~you own a firearm
listed in the Guinness book.
OTHER
~you put a Hogue
Grip on your car's parking brake
~you have a magazine
loader on your key ring.
~you use a .32-20
casing for a pen cap.
~your key-ring fob
is a converted .50BMG cartridge.
~your collection
of AR back issues, Gun digests and reloading manuals cost you a premium
the last time you moved. (or maybe that
is a sign that you are an OLD gun nut!)
~every time one
of your friends goes to buy a new gun they check with you first, since
you've probably had one already, and because
they know you have ammo and gun parts sitting around for guns you no longer
own.
~spend 3 days going
through the SGN looking through ALL the ads to get the COMPLETE kit for
a weapon and then order through
the 30 or so mail order companies that are needed for this and then build
it. Just because you can.
~you slip and almost
fall out the second story bathroom window because of the Guns & Ammo
you left in front of the throne.
~if you get a flat
and realize that you've got 400 pounds of shot, a Hefty bag each of wads
and empty hulls, and enough primers to re-open
the main shaft of the Lost Dutchman on top of your spare tire.
~if the Bible you
read every night before bed is the Shooter's Bible.
~you take your guns
out of the safe each night and handle them, just so you can wipe them off
before putting them away.
~you keep a loaded
gun hidden in every room in the house, including the bathroom and kitchen,
"just in case", and then keep one on you
at all times just in case someone breaks in while you're in the hallway.
~you named your
pocket pistol "Little Guy" and your 12 guage "Big Jake."
~you wash your hands
BEFORE taking a dump so you can take a piece of your collection in with
you and not get salty sweat on the
blue.
~you make $25 per
hour at work, but spend 30 minutes on your knees at the range looking for
that last piece of 40 S&W brass.
~you have to decide
the difference between a gun nut and a firearms enthusiast? Is it 1,000
rounds per day or week?
~you read that "Brady
II" would outlaw possession of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and
think "I have more than that rolling
around loose in the trunk of my car!", you just might be a gun nut.
~you could identify
on sight all rifle bolt-faces as in - "that's a Ruger, that's a Savage,
that's a Winchester .."
~you can identify
gunshots from faraway as to caliber, whether from a rifle or pistol, brand
of gun, grains of powder used, what powder
and at what speed! Then you realize you can tell if it is blued or stainless.
~you work for the
military and have more shooting experience then the guys in uniform you
work with.
~when you go to
the magazine rack, you check the Guns and Ammo cover to see if there are
new guns as compared to checking the
Playboy cover to see what it is offering.
~you have a callus
on your shoulder.
~you're in the Army
Reserves, and they can't figure out why every time they send you out to
shoot the M60 with 100 rounds, you return
with a shot-out barrel. It never dawns on them you're bringing your own
ammo.
~you spend more
time choosing which guns to bring with you on a trip, as well as holsters,
and belts, than it does to pick out the clothes
you will wear.
~you approach total
strangers and ask if they're going to keep their brass, you just might
be a gun nut.
~friends and family
ask what you want for Christmas "Other than gun stuff."
~you've ever run
out of film photographing your guns for insurance purposes.
~you've ever photographed
your entire gun collection, but "insurance purposes" never entered your
mind.
~you try taking
one big 'family photo' of your gun collection, but just can't fit them
all in one frame.
~you have Brownells
on speed dial.
~you hand crafted
a base pad for your Hogue monogrip out of a hockey puck.
~if you install
a speed dialing device on your gun safe~.
~you own a BAYONET
for a gun you haven't bought yet.
~you buy some checkering
tools, checker all your gunstocks, and then start in on the bedposts.
~you practiced on
the bedposts first before you did the guns.
~the custom door
lock pulls on your Jeep are .223 Rem cases and the gear shift knob is a
.50 BMG.
~you have guns in
your safe that you can't for the life of you remember how you came by.
~you consider it
a point of honor to only buy factory ammo if you need the brass.
~when you hear or
see the numbers 221 you automatically think "fireball", 257 you think "Roberts",
218 "Bee", 4570 "government" etc.,
etc. and can't stop.
~your pickup is
subject to search at any given time because, in your state, empty cartridge
cases rolling around the floor are considered
probable cause.
~years in history
are inextricably linked to firearms development in your head. 1860...1903...
1921...1941... 1957... etc.
~your telephone
number is: 223-2250 or 308-3006 or 303-3040 or some other combination of
three + four digit calibers.
~you think there
is some special significance when you glance at a clock and it shows 3:08,
3:57, 2:23, etc., no matter how many times
you see it.
~when you hear "Winchester
Catherdral", you think of the "church of shooting".
~you use a spot
on the windshield as a targeting sight on that idiotic driver in front
of you.
~you wonder if you
should spread out your ammo boxes to more evenly distribute the weight
on the floor.
~you measure the
floor space around your gun vault wondering if you could fit another one
there along side it.
~you’ve had the
thought " I wonder what scale that little kids Animal Crackers are, compared
to Regulation silhouttes?"
~you buy a Remington
700 BDL Varmint in .308 just to get a supply of 308 cases to make brass
for your .44 Auto Mag.
~you carry pictures
of all your guns with you at all times in order to show off your "babies".
~you spend more
on ammo each month than on food.
~your guns are worth
twice as much as your car.
~even one of your
guns is worth more than your car.
~you list your local
FFL dealer as a dependent on your tax return.
~a topless joint
with free admission is half a mile away, and instead you drive 40 miles
to the shooting range on a Saturday night.
~you alternate Silvertips
and Hydra-Shocks in your magazines because they look prettier that way.
~you guess range
and windage whenever you look at road signs.
~your driver's license
says "must wear night-vision goggles"
~"Miller Time" means
plinking at beer cans.
~the highlight of
your week is discovering that 6 .40SW hollowpoints fit perfectly in a plastic
35mm film canister. (5 up/1 down in the
middle).
~you retrofit a
laser sight to your TV remote control.
~your favorite NBA
team is the Boston KelTecs.
~your mailbox has
a Weaver Rail on top.
~you can't figure
out why your non-shooting friends laugh when you say "Bushmaster".
~you drive 300 miles
just to ogle (and fire) HK-MP5s (and Stens, Uzis, BMGs and whatever else
shows up at Knob Creek)
~you go to three
different gun shows within a month and your excited every single time.
~you're guns are
cleaner than your house/apartment.
~you have 5 different
guns being DROS'd at 3 different FFL dealers.
~4 local gun shops
know you by name.
~you're friends
with 90%-100% of the employee's at every one of those shops.
~when you stop in,
they ask you questions like "how was work?", "how's the wife and kids",
"we're gonna order some food, ya want
in?", etc.
~you can wallpaper
your house with old issues of Shotgun News, Gun List, Guns & Ammo,
etc...
~you're a computer
specialist and you have more issues of Shotgun News and Gun List than MacWeek
and PCWeek.
~you bought 7 or
more AK-47's just so you could have different ones from different countries
(Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, Yugoslavian,
Egyptian, Chinese, etc.)
~your phone number,
license plate, extension at work, etc. relates to some caliber...ON PURPOSE.
~you have framed
targets hanging in your bathroom, hallway, etc. with tight groups that
you have shot.
~you can read the
same issue of SGN/GL/etc. everyday until a new issues comes out.
~you own enough
guns to arm everyone on your block.
~you own 4 AR-15's
configured EXACTLY the same but by different manufacturers (Colt, Bushmaster,
Olympic Arms, Armalite, etc.)
just because you can.
~the last 5 guns
you bought are never to be fired.
~you'd rather have
a $10,000 PSG-1 and drive a $600 car rather than drive a $10,000 car and
have a $600 gun.
~you preach how
stupid gun laws/bans are at work when you work in a predominatly ANTI-gun
company.
~you'd rather ban
alcohol than hi-cap clips/mags.
~you actually consider
buying the camo sexy underwear advertised for your sweetie in some gun
catalogs.
~you learn that
in the house you're buying someone committed suicide using a firearm and
all your interested in is the make, model, caliber
and condition of the firearm that was used.
~your kids, once
in said house, determine that the broken window was a result of that firearms
slug after it left the skull cavity of the
victim, and they understand why you bought the house.
~your brothers-in-law
only come to visit so they can shoot your guns.
~your gun dealer
owes you $500 bucks rather than the other way around.
~you consider concealed
carry every time you shop for clothes.
~you take a dolly
or hand truck with you to gun shows.
~you buy a gun safe
much larger than you think you'll ever need and still fill it up.
~you need yet another
safe for all of the ammunition.
~you have to structurally
reinforce your house due to this hobby.
~you buy a .25 Beretta
to keep inside your Bible cover. Everybody needs a "hideout church gun".
~your drive to work
is filled with reverie about why Ed's Red actually works.
~when you talk about
the best piece you ever had, you mean a pistol.
~you get real good
at drywalling your gun room once a year.
~you spend more
on the gun accessories than the gun.
~you know the cyclic
rate of a 1928 over-stamp Thompson.
~you spent hours
trying to design a device that hands you bullets the right side up.
~you identify the
gun on the cover of Dillon's "Blue Press" before you ever notice the girl.
~the first thing
you notice is that she is actually holding the gun correctly
~your license plate
reads: "DBL TAP"
~your license plate
reads: "GUN NUT" and the wife's car had "GUN NUT2".
~you have these
plates and the Sheriff stops you to ask about finding a part or to sell
you a used gun.
~you are Canadian
and have the audacity to own a gun.
~you spend more
than the cost of a new Glock to travel to the GSSF/Glock matches on the
chance that you might win one as well as
to shoot at someplace new and different.
~you never miss
Monday Night Football because it is reloading night. That's because you
reloaded a whole week's ammo the day before,
while everyone else was home watching the regular Sunday games.
~you bought a barrel
of Garand clips for the Garand your going to buy.
~you bought a mauser
98 barrel and are now looking for an action to which it can be fitted.
~you find a set
of 8x57 dies and 3 boxes of brass for a good price and then spend $200
on a Persian Mauser and $99 on a Hakim to
shoot the 8x57 reloads with.
~you carry a brush
gun like a .35 Remington for close range shots and a .25/06 slung across
your back for those long range shots when
you have plenty of time.
~you have a Ruger
M-77 in 7mm-08 because you had an excess 3X9 by 40 scope.
~you buy a used
holster at a show for $5.00, and then spend a few hundred on a gun that
fits it.
~you look in your
dealer's used gun case and most of them once belonged to you.
~and you start buying
them back.
~take your gun parts
to work to do your customizing even though it may get you in trouble.
~you've ever conducted
dry-fire practice while riding the porcelain pony.
~if your local dealer
comes to your house to shoot rather than the local range.
~if you collect
empty cartridges that you can't use on the off hand chance that you might
some day be able to trade them for something
that you can use.
~you buy a set of
grips for a pistol that you hope to get in the future.
~the dealer knows
what you collect and calls you whenever he gets something new in (a Mk
IV .455 Webley or anything Brittish).
~you call a friend
long-distance just to discuss if a 3 gr. varience in cast bullets will
effect accuracy.
~you were the only
kid in the 8th grade who know how to field strip an MP40. field strip an
MP-40.
~you spend more
time at the range on your knees in the bushes looking for corroded .25
ACP cases than shooting?
~you pick up even
such useless items as .22 rimfire and steel Berdan primed military cases.
~you know they used
those spent .22 cases for guilding material in swaged bullets during WWII.
~you stand next
to shooters with semi-automatic firearms with a cardboard box, hoping to
catch a few ejected empties.
~you concentrate
more on where your .45 ACP cases are landing than on the target.
~you can concentrate
on the target because your wife and/or kids chase the brass for you.
~you wander about
in front of the firing line in search of that elusive 30/06 case even when
others are firing.
~you make trips
to the local range on cold, wet days just to search for a few old semi-crushed
.38 Specials.
~you worry if you
lose just ONE empty when shooting?
~you have cases
in your pockets, car, bedroom, kitchen, office and garage at all times.
~your basement looks
like an ammo dump.
~you scrounged brass
before you ever owned a gun.
AND FINALLY: Your
favorite euphemism for sex is "concealing the weapon,"