Tallbald
Buckeye
Over the holiday weekend Miss Penny and I had company for a traditional cookout with burgers, hotdogs and sides. My adult daughter, age 28, graduated with her Associate's Degree from a local university this semester too. She declined to attend graduation, claiming that "it's only a two year degree Daddy..." but my daughter worked hard off and on for her education over the last ten years. She always worked full time plus, and only rarely accepted a little help for books for her classes as she prefers to "fend for myself" as she says.
I don't know what my daughter's mother did for her to honor our daughter's accomplishment except a dinner at her, but Miss Penny (daughter's step-Mother) and I wanted to mark the event. Sunday night Penny crafted a beautiful card on her Cricut machine in which she wrote for my daughter our thoughts of pride and love, and we put some "walking around money" inside. Not a lot on many other folks scale, it was what we can afford and was an unexpected thing for us to do. After the pleasant surprise, hugs, kisses and thank you's were done, I handed my daughter something I had wanted her to have for some time.
She opened the unwrapped pistol rug and inside was a stainless vintage 1978 Ruger Single Six. This gun was bought used from Whittaker's Guns back when my daughter was about ten. It had evidently been part of the legal system as it had in permanent marker an evidence number on the frame and spare cylinder. The muzzle of its 6 1/2 inch barrel was scratched as if it had been drug on concrete, and the walnut grips apparently had spent time under water. The steel front sight was rusted, and the internal lock work had in spots a few patches of very light surface rust. I will never know how long that little revolver lay ignored and snubbed before I spied it that morning. At $190 out the door I felt good about the purchase, even in year 2000 dollars.
I bought the gun as a project gun and it became the first "custom" revolver I ever worked on. Back then I completely disassembled the gun and found it the be a solid specimen with a pristine bore and chambers.New Wolffe springs, grip frame rounded butt contouring, high external polish to a mirror finish, a custom turned (by me) stainless lanyard stud drilled and pinned in the grip frame and elongated, polished Brazillian rosewood grip panels made in my shop were fitted. Reblued front sight and screw helped the look too.Those years back, my daughter as a child crafted a braided paracord lanyard for it too for me. She remembered doing that so long ago.
This gun sat lovingly locked away as a completed project, occasionally coming out for a range trip.
On Monday, my beloved daughter was stunned to receive this unexpected bit of father-daughter history for her very own. She and her significant other sat for some time on a couch examining it and discussing its fine details and graceful contours. They commented on the fact that when they go kayaking on a local remote creek my daughter can use a lanyard to secure it in a holster to her side with snake shot to take care of any unfriendly critter that decides to get too close (lots of water moccasins in out parts). I was going to print out a new manual from the Ruger website until I saw it would be forty pages, so I instead gave her a written sequence map to get to the manual herself.
My little project gun is now where it was meant to be. No more concern about what might happen to it should I unexpectedly become unable to distribute the few things I want to go to specific people either.
A great afternoon.
Don
I don't know what my daughter's mother did for her to honor our daughter's accomplishment except a dinner at her, but Miss Penny (daughter's step-Mother) and I wanted to mark the event. Sunday night Penny crafted a beautiful card on her Cricut machine in which she wrote for my daughter our thoughts of pride and love, and we put some "walking around money" inside. Not a lot on many other folks scale, it was what we can afford and was an unexpected thing for us to do. After the pleasant surprise, hugs, kisses and thank you's were done, I handed my daughter something I had wanted her to have for some time.
She opened the unwrapped pistol rug and inside was a stainless vintage 1978 Ruger Single Six. This gun was bought used from Whittaker's Guns back when my daughter was about ten. It had evidently been part of the legal system as it had in permanent marker an evidence number on the frame and spare cylinder. The muzzle of its 6 1/2 inch barrel was scratched as if it had been drug on concrete, and the walnut grips apparently had spent time under water. The steel front sight was rusted, and the internal lock work had in spots a few patches of very light surface rust. I will never know how long that little revolver lay ignored and snubbed before I spied it that morning. At $190 out the door I felt good about the purchase, even in year 2000 dollars.
I bought the gun as a project gun and it became the first "custom" revolver I ever worked on. Back then I completely disassembled the gun and found it the be a solid specimen with a pristine bore and chambers.New Wolffe springs, grip frame rounded butt contouring, high external polish to a mirror finish, a custom turned (by me) stainless lanyard stud drilled and pinned in the grip frame and elongated, polished Brazillian rosewood grip panels made in my shop were fitted. Reblued front sight and screw helped the look too.Those years back, my daughter as a child crafted a braided paracord lanyard for it too for me. She remembered doing that so long ago.
This gun sat lovingly locked away as a completed project, occasionally coming out for a range trip.
On Monday, my beloved daughter was stunned to receive this unexpected bit of father-daughter history for her very own. She and her significant other sat for some time on a couch examining it and discussing its fine details and graceful contours. They commented on the fact that when they go kayaking on a local remote creek my daughter can use a lanyard to secure it in a holster to her side with snake shot to take care of any unfriendly critter that decides to get too close (lots of water moccasins in out parts). I was going to print out a new manual from the Ruger website until I saw it would be forty pages, so I instead gave her a written sequence map to get to the manual herself.
My little project gun is now where it was meant to be. No more concern about what might happen to it should I unexpectedly become unable to distribute the few things I want to go to specific people either.
A great afternoon.
Don
