A big surprise

[RobMancebo]

                       Big Surprise! 
                        by Rob Mancebo 

There’s something personal about handguns.  Maybe its because we carry them in our belt, maybe because we put our trust in them as an item of protection.  They’re just a very personal tool.  Whatever the reason, whenever handgun shooters gather, inevitably the conversation will get around to-- er-- who’s got a longer barrel. 
 
Once one of these conversations reaches an impasse-- wherein both men have the same hardware-- then it turns ‘round to who has a better story.   

While cleaning boring M-16s, a couple of us guardsmen were braggin’ on our personal hardware.  It turned out that two of us were the proud owners of Walker Colts.  Well with those we could just brush off anyone else’s claims of pistol power.  It was 1981 and although there were some modern guns with equivalent caliber and greater velocity, in powder burned, flame belched, and sheer mass of pig-iron, no one could match us.  That brought us down to who had the best story.  I could tell of mine so impressing the staff of the 2nd Armored Cavalry that they presented one to our LtCol when he left the Squadron.  Or of how the Regimental commander purchased and carried a Colts Dragoon as his personal side arm after that.  But, I have to admit, true or stretched, his story was the best.
 
In civilian life he was the manager of a rental yard.  One night after hours, he was going through his usul routine of closing up and counting out the till.  In the glare of the outdoor lighting, he saw a man hop the cyclone fence and come walking boldly towards his shack.   

He placed the money aside and stepped out to confront the intruder in the yard.  He began by calling to the man that they were closed and that he would have to leave.  The intruder was unresponsive and continued to approach him.  He next ordered the man to leave or he would have to call the police.   

The threat elicited a response of, “Oh yeah?  And what are you going to do till they get here?” 

Well, as the good book warns, ‘Ask and ye shall receive’.   He unzipped his field jacket (which is loose and long enough to cover an amazing plentitude of hardware up to and including a Walker Colt) and dragged his Walker Colt out of the big Ruger Blackhawk shoulder rig he’d managed to jam it into. 
 
At the quadruple clacking of that massive hammer, and a view down the 9” barrel of a loaded Walker Colt that few people have been subjected to since the Mexican/American war ended, the intruder flung his arms wide and shouted,  “I-- I only wanted ta use the phone, man!”  Then he turned and ran to vault back over the chain-link barrier which he suddenly realized had actually been protecting *him* from the manager of the rental yard.   
 

[The Trinity Kid]

And that's how it's done, Gents!   

--TK