Resisting The New

You may ask yourself, "How did I get here?"

-T Heads

Now that I think about it I'm an odd duck with regards to resistance to change and early adoption.

I do both equally.

Thanks to looking up all manner of real-world numbers for guns, I've never felt that 5.56x45mm NATO wouldn't do the job, or 9x19mm Parabellum for that matter.

But I'd have fought you if you tried to get me to own an AR-15 in 1990 when FuzzyGeff and I first started thinking we should finally join the ranks of civilian firearms owners.

FuzzyGeff has a germane quote from the time, "I have drill sergeant shaped scars from that gun."

I had long nights cleaning the damn things for turn-in shaped scars myself.

That's how we ended up with Mini-14's.  It didn't hurt that a Mini was about half the price of a Colt at the time.

I successfully avoided owning an AR for years after that, with a Daewoo DR200 replacing the Mini.  The DR200 took AR mags which were plentiful and affordable during the AWB.  FuzzyGeff went with an AR-mag-taking Bushmaster M-17 bullpup.

SoftwareJanitor fucked up our happy world talking about making AR's from kits.

He also mentioned that modern, commercial, cleaning gear was capable of easily cleaning an AR, as opposed to what the Army gave us...

So we dabbled (Marv got roped in here too).

Notice that my guns are the only ones that can't take an optic?

Kaylee originally started as a carry-handle 16" heavy barrel carbine.

I didn't even have a good camera then.

I didn't want all those new-fangled things like a flat-top or railed handguards.  Why would I need optics or a light on a carbine?

But, over time, my attitudes changed about lights and scopes.

Now all of the "go-to" rifles are equipped with the capability for both.  I've tried the full cheese-grater handguards and they offer real-estate I'm not using.

I was slow to embrace plastic magazines as well.  I let someone else do the field testing for Magpul.

Interestingly, to me, is how many of my M3 magazines have that silly window.  That's because 1) I needed one in tan for pics and comparison and 2) a rumor that because it's a USMC issue item it's held to slightly better tolerances.

I did notice I was ahead of a trend with regards to making my "go-to" gun lighter.  Yay me!