Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Fighting the Same Battles

Years ago, I followed three or four gun magazines religiously. I devoured every thing written by the likes of Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, Skeeter Skelton, and others too numerous to mention. One thing you could count on. Keith, Jordan and Skelton always "stuck to their guns" if you'll pardon the pun. They had their opinions, all based upon years of experience and held to them firmly. Not that they always agreed. Far from it, as a matter of fact; but they all had good reason for their opinions and told what worked for them.
The old magazines also had what I'll called rotating arguments. It usually revolved around what was the best cartridge, bullet, powder or load, for a given purpose. The one I usually zeroed in on was the "stopping power" argument, which generally revolved around the .38, 9mm, .357 and .45 ACP cartridges. If memory serves me correctly, the arguments seemed to rotate among the magazines each month, with one round winning the argument each month in each tabloid.
Somewhere in mid-adulthood, I tired of the arguments and quit reading them all, however keeping a firm interest in the topic due to my profession.
Every once in a while, I pick up a magazine and find that similar battles are still being waged but with new guns and calibers. Meanwhile, the same old guns still are in the field and still work--sometimes better than others, but work they do. .357 magnums and .38 specials are still working in police and security circles even though the field is now dominated by the auto pistols---with a couple new calibers coming on strong. .308s and 30-06s still kill innumerable deer, bear and moose across North America and other venerable aged cartridges find equal use in Europe and Asia, all the while new ones come out about every day. some finding their niche, some fading away into obscurity.
So what's the point of this rambling? Well, I'm not really sure. But I know that some things never change. The old will still be serviceable; the new will still come on the scene; at least with guns and ammo. We seem to be in search of the perfect solution to all problems. I suppose it would be nice if we could buy one gun and have it work for all situations, but there would be no fun in that I guess, and nothing new and good would ever be discovered.

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