… but it usually hits me during the trip. This time I managed to catch a bug of some kind on the way home, which lead to me waking up this morning feeling like I was gargling napalm. Ah, another throat infection. I spent about 75% of my childhood with strep throat, so I’m almost feeling nostalgic about it.

Between that and the usual catch-up routine (laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning up the mess I left behind), I’m late in blogging about the show. What’s worse, I barely blogged while I was AT the show. So in this case HK is justified in hating me: I do indeed suck.

A few gun notes:

• I talked to a Ruger rep about new Nitro Express calibers in the No. 1, an idea made more feasible now that Hornady has factory ammo in .450, .470, and .500 Nitro. He claimed the .500 was impossible because it doesn’t fit in the No. 1 (which would probably come as a surprise to the gunsmiths who BUILD such rifles; the No. 1 can go all the way up to .577 Nitro) and there were no immediate plans for new Nitros. Disappointing but not unexpected.
• The Ruger LCR is light, comfortable and has a nice trigger pull. The problem is with the trigger return; it’s very easy to short-stroke the action and pull the trigger again before the sear resets. Cylinder rotates, no bang. Not good. You can, of course, do this with ANY double-action revolver, but with the LCR it’s easy to think that you’ve let the trigger out all the way when you really haven’t.
• The guys at Grizzly Custom Guns build a very, very nice Scout rifle. The integral pedestal scope mounts are fantastic and the whole gun is beautifully executed. It’s pricey, definitely, but I’d love to have one.
• Stoeger’s tactical coach gun is so ridiculous it’s actually kinda cool. I like coach guns quite a bit, but I’m more of a traditionalist about them. The nicest one I saw was the CZ/Huglu hammer coach gun.

And now it’s off to gargle more saltwater and get some sleep…