Guns 1

The Guns of Grim's Hall, Part One:

In which we explore the guns of Grim himself. I've been meaning to photograph these things for insurance purposes anyway -- and putting the picture up here on the blog means that, even if some thief swiped my computer hard drive and any CD backups, the photo will still exist. Besides, it strikes me as a topic that the readers will enjoy.



You can click on the photo for an upsized version. I've blogged about some of these in the past, and so I'll link back to those entries.

First, the longarms. On the top left, we have a Henry Golden Boy in .22 LR. The rifle to the right is a Winchester 94 in .30-30. The lowermost of the longarms is a Stoeger Coachgun, double-barrel 12ga.

In between is a Tennessee rifle that belonged to my great-great-great grandfather. It's got an old percussion cap lock, sadly broken, and a homemade stock. It apparently dates to the Antebellum period, when Tennessee and Kain-tuck-ee were the wild frontier.

The short guns, from the top: a Ruger New Model Vaquero 4 3/4" in .45 Long Colt. Below that is a Ruger Single-Six in .22 LR. Below that is my old Smith & Wesson "Mountain Gun" in .44 Remington Magnum. Below that is my wife's gun, a bit of a black sheep as you can see: a Glock Model 20 in 10mm Automatic.

Off to the side, under the old Tennessee Rifle, is a Bond Arms Snake Slayer in .45 LC / .410ga. This thing is the most fun piece I have to take to the range. I've never seen anything like it for getting everyone's eyes turned in your direction. First, it's because they're amused to see a big guy's hand wrapped around a tiny little gun. Then, "BAAAAROOOOOM!" and a tongue of flame and smoke shoots out of it. It fires the same load as the Ruger New Vaquero, but in the Vaquero it feels like a gentle pop. Out of the derringer, it's a beast. It can be quite accurate at short range, however, with adequate practice.

The gun belt is an Ernie Hill Speedleather make, double thick saddle leather. I don't know who made the holster -- I bought it at the Dulles gun show a few years ago, and I wish I'd kept the guy's card, because it's a fine piece. It's a crossdraw, for the Ruger New Vaquero, which is the best rig for carrying while mounted.

There is also a, er, portion of my knife collection in the photo. The two to which I'd like to call your attention are at the top right, the second and third down. These are Stek knives, made by a knifemaker family out of Montana. I've never encountered the equal of the top knife, a damascus Bowie made from the remnants of an Iraqi IED. The shards were brought back by the military contractor they tried to kill, who passed them to the smiths of the Stek family. They forged them into -- as Lord Dunsany put it -- a sword of thunderbolt iron.



The father-son team doesn't have the reputation of the big-dollar knifemakers, though I've never seen anyone's work to match their best. They normally sell their works directly to the public through Ebay -- you can see their current items here. If, reading this page, you have considered adding a fighting knife to your property and learning to use it, you could do worse than to watch their page for something that suits your arm.