Gun Worship

[EricW]

I went out shooting with a neighbor and his buddies today.  We were out on farm, in the rain and the mud.  We're trading guns, blasting shotgun hulls off of fenceposts, just goofing off.  I decide to practice reloads with my G19 while chewing up all the clay pigeons those losers missed.

"Man, you're a wild man dropping your mags in the mud like that.  Gonna put your gun in there too?"  <Grin>

The little light bulb goes on (or off, depending on your perspective).  I cleared my gun, tossed it into the mud and stomped it in just make sure it was really gooked up.  The guys all stopped and looked at me like I'd just took a whiz on the Venus de Milo.  I picked up my Glock, walked over to a mud puddle and rinsed it well enough to make it function, loaded it up and started shooting.  It would fire, but I had to help it go into battery because I'd gotten gook in the fire control mechanism.  The trigger was gritty as hell, but my curiosity was sated.  I always wondered what it was really like to have a gooked up gun and how it would work.  

One guy goes,

"Interesting experiment, but I wouldn't carry it now."

Why the hell not?  My precious little gun didn't get hurt.  A little soap, water, oil, (and Slide Glide) and it looks as good as new.  Works as good as new too.  It had been a year or so since it was cleaned, so it was time anyway.  If I'd broke it, so what?  Buy a new piece, stick it in, forget about it.  Would I dump my STI in the mud deliberately?  Hell no.  Who cares about a Glock?  Big deal...

Anyway, my point is, guns are tools.  I really hate the mysticism attached to them.  They're just machines.  You use them.  Occasionally they break.  You fix them and move on.  I generally don't abuse them, but I don't pamper them.  I don't care about a little rust here or there.  I don't care about the bluing getting worn off.  I don't care about a little scratch here or there.  My Glock is perfectly fine after my little experiment.  Big whoop-de-doo.

What I really hate, is that I used to fret over all this crap.  I used to do a total teardown on a gun every time I shot it.  I shudder to think of all the time and energy I've pissed away worrying whether or not my guns were perfectly pristine.  My father was so much more practical.  Guns were tools and made to be used.  Normal wear and tear was not a crime.  It took me a couple decades, but now I see his wisdom.  

Now, I find myself totally annoyed by the "God forbid anything should happen to my precious gun - I don't know if I could live with myself" attitude.  As though a gun is holy like the flag or the cross and must remain pristine and unsoiled.  I suppose I tossed my Glock in the mud today as a symbol of my final acknowlement of the truth more than anything:  that I am the gun's master, it is not mine.  

I'm through praying to it.  

[jhgtyre]

I have a buddy who is the same way about trucks.  It is almost unbearable the way he pampers his truck.

-ld

[3quartertime]

My guess is your little 'experiment' will have your buddies telling stories for some time.  Might even sell a few glocks.  ( not that I think thats what you meant to do)

My father was the pristine owner type.  His collection was always oiled and ready to show.  That was his custom and the part of the hobby he enjoyed.  When he looks at my limited blasters he shakes his head and tells me he can't believe I don't take better care of such expensive pieces.  My response to him is that I shoot what I spend money on these days.  My collection may be ugly but I've shot every dollar out of my guns that I put in them.  (almost)   My goal is to have a few ugly, disfigured, melted piles of iron in my collection some day.  When someone asks about them I will tell them,  " these globs of iron used to be my IPSC blasters,  I had more fun with them than I could have imagined,  they lay here now as a testimony to a life enjoyed."

[Ron Ankeny]

A working gun is a tool. Then there are the guns that deserve to be worshipped. They are not meant for work other than on rare occasions. Such pieces are fine works of art. Would you throw the freaking Mona Lisa in the mud???

[John Dunn]

Sell the Mona Lisa, buy a Thomas Kinkade... and throw that in the mud.

[SiG Lady]

Glock already uses the muck-it-up-and-it-will-still-fire approach to marketing this firearm. And I imagine they're pretty much right.

EricW--

What I really missed seeing in this little demonstration were the looks on your friends' faces when you buried the thing in the mud right there in front o' God 'n everybody.

[George D]

Throw my gun in the mud?? ARE YOU MAD????

I have fishing lures that I had to stop putting in the water because the damn fish kept putting teeth marks on them.

[xsrdx]

Would I dump my STI in the mud deliberately?  Hell no.  Who cares about a Glock?  Big deal...

You can't rant, and then discriminate on the basis of polymer content. I take care of my guns, they take care of me.

Quid Pro Quo.

[EricW]

"You can't rant, and then discriminate on the basis of polymer content...."

??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, well, my STI is half plastic too.  It looks like total hell.  The hammer's got rust spots, the bluing is well on it's way to being gone.  I sanded off the ribs on the front of the trigger, and just don't care if it's "wrong."  We won't even talk about the condition of the magwell.  And ya know what?  I love it to death.  My STI has character.

I guess I should post a picture.

E

[down0]

We do seem to reach the point of idiocy when it comes to caring for weapons.  One of the thing I like about my Glock is that it is basic black plastic and metal without $300.00 hand carved mother of pearl grips.  Guns that you shoot or carry all the time should be functional, not pretty.  If you want a pretty gun, buy yourself a "Remember the Alamo" lever-action commerative, put it in a display case and never touch it.  

Don't abuse your gun, just like you would not abuse any other tool you own, but we all know that dropping a mag, or a gun, or having some wear and tear on a weapon doesn't make it unworthy to own.  

[xsrdx]

Uh, well, my STI is half plastic too.  

The Glock has more plastic than your STI - I should have written "on the basis of relative polymer content" since most pistols have some plastic parts these days.

Your comment made it sound like your STI was too cool to throw in the mud, but your Glock was a POS that somehow deserved it.  Taking care of your tools is just insurance, assuming it doesn't devolve into "worship".

Your subtitle says it all - a means to an end. If you want to achieve the end, take care of the means to do so.

I agree with you to a point, although I'm guilty of never putting dirty guns in the safe. That might be worship, but I call it proper maintenance.

Wear and tear adds character, no doubt. Our local GMs gun looks like he shoots it a lot - no surprise there.  

[SiG Lady]

Uh-oh... pangs of guilt. I have three guns (in the safe!!) that've needed cleaning since Tuesday's shoot!... Gotta go!

[Duane Thomas]

I had the following conversation at a pistol range about a month ago. I show up and some guy I've never seen before is behind the counter. We talk for a minute, then he asks:

Him: "So, what kind of gun you carrying?"

Me: "Just a singlestack 1911 .45, nothin' fancy."

Him: "Oh. Kimber?"

Me: "Nope. Wilson."

Him: "OH! Well I guess that makes you a big man."

[say what? Did I miss that left turn into the Twilight Zone?]

Me: "Noooooo, not really. I mean, it's a good gun, but carrying it has absolutely nothing to do with my manhood, one way or the other."

Him: "Oh come on, that's got to make you feel like hot sh!t."

Me: "Noooooo."

And then I spent a few minutes trying to convince this guy that carrying a top-of-the-line 1911 .45 does not, in fact, give me the attitude I'm better than everyone else. (I get the feeling it would've given him that attitude.) Like, what difference does it make? It's just a gun, dude.

Weird.

Has the correlation between Wilson-dom and manhood somehow escaped me?

[EricW]

lol DT,

If that's the case I gotta start packing my rusty Luger.  If a Wilson'll do that for a guy's image, imagine what that old DWM will do for mine.  I can hear myself now.

"Uh, well, Mr. Gunshopbarnacleloser, I guess some folks don't *need* 45ACP to get the job done."

[Duane Thomas]

Reminds me of another conversation I had, this one years ago. A friend - carrying of course his 1911 .45 - was giving me a hard time about my Glock 19. "Only a 9mm," don't you know, as opposed to the rompin', stompin' .45. I told him, "Y'know, I figured out early on that all any of these things do is make holes. I'm sure a 9mm will work just as well as a .45 - unless you really believe that 96/one THOUSANDTHS of an inch bore diameter makes all the difference in the world."

To which he replied, "Well, you're a good enough shooter to make a 9mm work."

I have to admit that gave me pause. I'd heard the attitude many times from .45 fans that the 9mm is a wimp cartridge only chosen by those with an insufficent skill level to control a "real gun." I'd never heard the idea put forth the 9mm is an expert's cartridge because it takes a higher level of skill to make it work. But I'm sure this is an old idea. If you think about it, the concept the 9mm and .45 will work the same with center hits is really the base foundation of IPSC's Major/Minor scoring system.