Browning!

I figured out what my house needed to brighten up the decor: a firearm. I have heard that other people enjoy guns a lot, and I thought maybe I should try one, so I went to Gunbroker and picked one up.

Okay, okay. My house was already stuffed with guns. But you always need another one. You don’t ask a woman why she has 200 pairs of shoes, and you don’t ask a man why he has a gun for every day of the year. It’s understood.

What did I get? A .22 pistol. Because I only had two of them. No, wait. Three? Four, I think. Anyway, I obviously needed one.

My grandfather used to shoot pistols with me, and we used a Colt Woodsman, a High Standard Field King, and a High Standard Double Nine, which is a cheap gun with an aluminum frame. When my grandfather died, the Field King and the Woodsman disappeared. I got stuck with the Double Nine, which was the only non-flintlock gun I inherited from him. I resolved to replace the guns I missed.

I got a Woodsman last year, and lately, I’ve been thinking about a High Standard semiauto. I started learning about them, and I found out I preferred a different model. My grandfather’s short-barreled Field King was not a great-looking gun. I started looking at Sport Kings with longer barrels. The Sport King is slim and elegant.

While I was shopping, I found the Browning Challenger. Internet nerds say this pistol was designed by Bruce Browning, the grandson of [genuflect] John Moses Browning PBUH. The claim is that Bruce started with Browning’s Woodsman and improved it.

The early Challengers were made in Belgium, and they are the most collectible and the most respected. By the time I started learning about them, I had lost some enthusiasm for the Sport King, because I read that high-velocity .22 ammo, which is now the standard, eventually cracks the frames. I wasn’t excited about trying to find standard velocity ammo (which is no longer the standard) in the current climate, and I was also concerned that I might get stuck with a gun that was already cracked. I looked into Challengers.

Lo and behold, some guy had one listed for $335 (high bid) on Gunbroker.com, and it looked very nice. I asked the seller about the condition, and he said very positive things. He only accepts money orders, and ordinarily, I won’t deal with people like that. The only reason to refuse to take credit cards on the Internet is to put yourself in a position where you can cheat people. He had an A+ rating, though, so I decided it might be worth it to keep an eye on the gun.

I put it on my watch list, assuming the price would double before the auction ended. For some inexplicable reason it did not. The day the auction was to end, I got an automatic Gunbroker email saying the high bid was only around $350. This was for a gun with a legitimate street price of $700.

Okay, I had to do something. I entered a modest limiting bid and went about my business. Then I won the gun. All told, including shipping and the FFL fee, I will be into this pistol for under $480. That’s crazy.

It appears to be in beautiful shape. If it’s not, as long as it shoots, I can flip it and get all my money out of it.

I love getting a good deal on Gunbroker. You’re not supposed to be able to do that, but I’ve done it a number of times.

Buying extra magazines will be a problem. I’m hoping it’s sufficiently similar to a Woodsman to accept a Beretta Neos magazine. I modified two Neos magazines for my Woodsman, and they function.

Of course, now that I own it, I’m troubled. I’m troubled because I don’t have enough guns. I better get out there and see what I can still snap up.

A very nice High Standard can be had for under $500. That’s ridiculous, because they were made to match the name. The standards were very high compared to those of other manufacturers. If it weren’t for the ammunition issue, they would probably sell for three times as much. I found a couple of nice ones. I may buy one. Then I’ll be able to say I finally have every gun I shot with my grandfather.
Except for a Remington Model 500 .22 rifle, which also disappeared when he died. I better keep looking.

Investing in a multi-decade supply of .22 LR was one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made. I wish I had also cornered the market on 9mm reloading components and 6.5 Creedmoor bullets, but you can’t have everything. The .22 shells will provide all sorts of amusement while other people are dropping 15 or more cents per round for 6-cent cartridges.

I was also smart to get extra Glock barrels. I’ll be able to shoot relatively cheap lead safely, so I’ll be able to practice with reloads instead of paying $35 per box for $10 factory FMJ.

I hope to have the Browning in around 10 days. I will post photos. Unless I got taken and it’s a total dog. Then I’ll pretend it never happened.