With Christmas a little over three weeks away, I'm taking a tip from Rob over at Personal Armament Podcast and coming up with my very own list of cool gifts for gunnies. Rob put up his own list yesterday, and it inspired me to make my own list, presented in no particular order:
A Dozen Gifts for Gunnies:
1. Mag loaders - the MagLula brand springs immediately to mind; anything that helps you spend less time fumbling around and more time getting ready to get to the range is good.
2. Gift certificates - MidwayUSA, Brownells, Cabelas, Dick's Sporting Goods, the local gun shop or range; any time you've got money to spend on gun stuff it's a beautiful thing.
3. Targets - Particularly peel 'n' stick like the Caldwell Orange Peel, the "shoot and see" type targets are always a hit. Being able to see the impact without walking downrange or fiddling with binoculars is a major plus; not needing a staple gun is also good.
4. Snap caps - because, really, who couldn't use another 6 or 10 of their favorite caliber snap caps?
5. Gunnie-specific tools - a bushing wrench for the 1911 lover; a handguard wrench for the AR aficionado; a sight removal tool; we can always use a gadget for our gadgets...
6. Ammo boxes - even for those that don't reload, it's nice to have a handful of boxes suitable for different calibers in case you don't finish that bulk pack in one range outing.
7. Cleaning tools - few shooters actually enjoy cleaning guns, but having the right tools for the job sure make it a lot easier (and faster). A box of brass jigs or bore brushes helps keep the scrubbing necessities together; a quality cleaning rod is always useful; a boresnake or two for the times when it just needs a quick run-through.
8. A bigger range bag - I don't of any gunnie who couldn't use a bigger, better range bag. The more pockets and dividers the better - if we can carry more to the range in one trip, that's more time shooting and less time hauling.
9. Rests - I have exactly one handgun rest and zero rifle rests in my shooting gear, and the pistol rest is an inexpensive (read: cheap) MTM plastic deal that is really only suited for .22LR. Even a media-filled bag for a more steady rifle shot is a big help.
10. Grip master - anything that can help improve your shooting is good, and developing a stronger grip can help maintain a firm hold on a firearm that allows for more precise shooting.
11. Sight paint - because white-out flakes off too darn easy, and it's nice to have a color other than paint marker orange on your front sight.
12. A tactical knife - give at least one wildly impractical gift; a bowie or "Rambo" type survival knife, throwing tomahawk, or other silly edged weapon (bat'leths are good but pricey). The perfect gift is one that the recipient will love but would never buy for themself...
So there are some suggestions for the gunnie in your life. None of these require a diehard's attention to shooting sports or firearms; none require one to have a permit even in the real restrictive states; all stand a pretty good chance of being well-received by the shooter in your life. One last choice, and this is to the wives, husbands, and significant others out there - there are two great gifts you can give the gunnie in your life, and those are time and patience. Time to get to the range, or a gun show, or just to hang out at a favorite gun shop and jaw with the regulars. Patience to listen to us ramble on and on about the latest Blastomatic5000 we'd love to get (or hate with a white hot passion).
Now that you've got some ideas, get shoppin'!
That is all.
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3 comments:
"6. Ammo boxes - even for those that don't reload, it's nice to have a handful of boxes suitable for different calibers in case you don't finish that bulk pack in one range outing."
and of course, we all know what comes next: several boxes in the same caliber so that the snooty highbrow expensive ammo doesn't have to mingle with the cheap practice ammo...
Magazines! One can never have too many mags.
When it comes to some of the other stuff like tools, the gift giver might wanna check (or have someone else check for them) what the shooter already has. My wife is pretty "gunny" herself and I doubt she knows exactly what specialty tools I have already. That said, even dupes of some are nice, so one can stay at the workbench and one can stay in the range bag.
Speaking of range bags.... The MidwayUSA house brand competition range bags are slathered in awesome sauce! The compact one is still bigger then most (shhhh, the kid is getting one for Christmas!) and the full sized one has room (and probably a separate pocket) for anything and everything you could possibly wanna bring to the range. Even better they are on sale right now.
wolfwalker,
But of course! The high end target and/or hunting ammo certainly can't be in the same box as that lowly milsurp hoi polloi!
Mopar,
I tried to stay away from anything that might be regulated so as to make the list as broad as possible. You are, of course, correct that gunnies can *always* use more magazines (or speedloaders for us wheelgun fans).
And that's the beauty of tools right there - if you get dupes, one can stay in the general gun tool box (ooh, I need to put one together and blog that!) and the other can go in the range bag.
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