Thursday, August 18, 2016

Online Gun Buying

I'm not an early adopter of things.  As a matter of fact, I normally wait until someone tells me that a new something-or-other is worth doing before I try it.

Last week I was browsing through my favorite retail gun seller, looking for another cowboy revolver.  He didn't have what I was looking for, so he told me about an online site, Grabagun.com. "I get two or three transfers from them a week." he said.  "They seem like a good outfit."

When I got home later that afternoon, I looked on their site and saw a gun that I'd been looking for.  It's made by Uberti and marketed by Taylor's and Company.  The basic Cattleman revolver, but it has a brass grip frame.  I'm a fan of brass grip frames.  My main, go-to cowboy revolver is the Uberti Hombre, a basic, black single action revolver.  I've been shooting it for the past year and it's my favorite.  Grabagun had a Cattleman with a brass grip frame, and the price was a few dollars below MSRP, so I clicked on it and got out my debit card.

In just a few minutes, I had completed the transaction.  They even had a pull-down menu of local gun shops, so I selected my favorite retailer as the place to ship the gun.  Within seconds, I had an email from them, detailing the order and telling me, apologetically, that the gun would ship in 5 to 7 days.  So there it was, I had to wait.

Back in 2011, I put up a post about an obsolescent cartridge, but one of my favorites, the .35 Remington.  It's a great old cartridge, and I notice in my stats that that post is one of the most viewed over the years.  Evidently, people looking or wondering about the .35 Remington are directed to this little blog, and that's fine with me.

Last week, shortly after I posted my order, I found an email from a reader, looking for a rifle in .35 Remington.  Normally, they're found on used gun racks next to the hen's teeth.  Marlin, as far as I know is the only manufacturer who regularly chambers for that cartridge, and they only make a limited run.  But, before I finished reading the eamail, I had opened another tab and gone over to Grabagun.  Lookee here!!  They've got them in stock.  I told my correspondent where he could find one, and he replied to me that he was thinking about closing the deal.  Well done!

So, I continued to spend the next several days looking for a shipping notice.  Sure enough, right on time, I got the notice that my gun had shipped.  Yesterday the retailer called me and told me it was in.  After work, I went to pick it up.


Just as ordered, a Uberti Cattleman with the case-hardened receiver and the brass grip frame.  After the 4473 and the background check, I walked out with my new revolver.  After a good cleaning and a screw-tightening (which I do with all new guns), it will go in the bag as a spare to my normal race gun.  I like the looks and the feel, and it is almost identical to the Hombre that I've used this past year.

If anyone is looking for a gun and can't seem to find it locally, give Grabagun.com a look.  This outfit has the PawPaw seal of approval.

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