Pearl-handled SIG SAUER P238 (courtesy sigsauer.com)

“Even as gun ownership per household has decreased over the last four decades, according to data from the research center NORC, that declining popularity hasn’t translated to a drop in sales,” huffingtonpost.com reports. And then . . .  “Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a gun control advocacy group, attributes that trend to aggressive promotion from gun lobbyists looking to capitalize on tragedies like Newtown and other mass shootings. ‘The reality is that in America, fewer people are owning more guns,’ said Watts. ‘They have to keep marketing to [gun owners] to buy more weapons.'” They don’t have to market to me. I’m pre-marketed. I put my money down on a pearl-handled SIG SAUER 238 for a friend. What’d you get? [h/t SS]

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143 COMMENTS

  1. Merwin, Hulbert nickel-plated .38 S&W “twist-break” revolver, made about 1880. 98% condition. Unfortunately, it has the standard hard rubber black grips instead of pearl or ivory, so it lacks that final touch. Not available at your local big-box store, and definitely NOT on sale at a steep discount.

      • No, but one of my earlier purchases does have that feature.

        Confession: I am a top-break nut (especially S&Ws). Cannot help myself when I see one – I carry a Xerox copy of “The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson”, with notes of which ones I own and the condition, so I can avoid unnecessary duplication. And a list of the other neat ones I have. Did you know that Marlin made a top-break double action revolver? I didn’t either, until I saw one at a gun show 15 years ago.

        Please help. Sending money would be really good …

  2. My first Mosin…

    And as always that “declining ownership” nonsense is just that, saw scads of first time buyers in line ahead of me, including several women.

    • Your second purchase should be a recoil pad, and your third should be an ice pack. Which is why we love those old Commie rifles — they kill from both ends. Well, that and the fact that ammo is abundant and very cheap.

      BTW, there are few things in the world more life affirming than firing an M44 at dusk. The fireball lights up the whole range.

        • Limbsaver works great with my Mosin. Didn’t even get sore from shooting it, and I shot it alot the first day I took it out. Love the sound of that bolt cycling. Bought a 16″ 5.56 upper for $324 from Masdef for my 300BLK pistol, a magpul fde fixed carbine stock to convert it into a rifle with the new upper, a Sig Brace, and took an online hunting course.

        • B, what is this Masdef place of which you speak? I tried googling it, but I failed to find anything. I’ve been looking for a new upper for a while, and I’d like to find this place of cheap uppers.

    • Your first Mosin. It will not be your last. I’ve given away several, deliberately destroyed one(A tough job by the way) and still have 2. And even at their new higher prices they are cheaper than an average .22. And since the druoght began, believe it or don’t, ammo has been easier to find than .22.

        • I had a pretty battered m44 I got for 40 bucks at a gun show here in CA when they were still listed as C&R and you could walk out with them the day of purchase.

          I picked up a couple of spam cans of feed for it and the others I already had. When I determined that it was not a decent shooter, myself and at least 3 others tried to group that carbine and couldn’t, I decided to see how badly corrosive the surplus ammo was.

          Over the course of several months I took that m44 to the range, along with other guns. I shot it only with the surplus ammo and never cleane4d it. I left it in the garage in the rafters between trips.

          The gun had no accuracy to start. But to it’s credit it continued to function a long time after it developed the creeping cruds. The gun was ruined, but functional. I finally lost my nerve and refused to fire it any more. It looked like someone had dumped the contents of a septic tank on it.

          Shortly after the local PD had a gun buyback. I took that m44 and a broken .22 in. I got more cash for them than I paid for them. I turned around with that cash and bought a Russian SKS at another gun show and ammo for it.

    • May I suggest buying a recoil pad? Small size Pachmayr fits perfectly and it makes a world of a difference in felt recoil and also adds to lenght of pull.
      cabelas.com/product/Pachmayr-Decelerator-Slip-On-Recoil-Pads/741408.uts?productVariantId=1398992&WT.tsrc=CSE&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=02464512&rid=40&channel=GoogleBaseUSA&mr:trackingCode=DA338CCA-958E-DF11-A0C8-002219318F67&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=30640529711&mr:keyword&mr:match&mr:filter=58018806551&gclid=CNWwoZyqjbsCFcY7Mgod02YAdw&gclsrc=aw.ds

  3. “Even as gun ownership per household has decreased over the last four decades” [as revealed to strangers conducting intrusive telephone surveys]…

    ‘They have to keep marketing to [gun owners] to buy more weapons.’ — That’s particularly funny in light of the recent Daniel Defense vs. NFL dust-up.

    • Moms Against Gun Owners is once again spreading the damnable lie about a shrinking segment of the population supposedly procuring more & more guns. Marginalizing those whom you seek to destroy is a classic communist/Nazi tactic.

      I didn’t shop on Black Friday but I did pick up a very nice Enfield .303 from my FFL holder, so add me to the shrinking numbers of overgunned fanatics.

    • Only someone with money to burn carries a pearl handled pistol. Those things are expensive, and crack if you sneeze at ’em. If any body knows of a really good looking brand of fake pearl (S&W K-frame Magna-type), Let me know. My favorite range toy is a 1953 five screw Combat Masterpiece with rosewood Magna grips and a Tyler grip adaptor. I’ve always wanted pearl grips for it so I could go for that 1950’s, small town, Louisiana sheriff look.

  6. Ontario Ranger Falcon. 4-ish inch fixed high carbon steel “hunting” knife with .25 inch thick stock. Presently sitting on my HSGI bag and waiting for first aid kit supplies, including quik clot gueze.

  7. Who needs legislation to create a federal gun registry? Just get enough people to post pictures of their guns and compile the list from information given voluntarily.

      • I forget which blog I posted a similar comment to. It was prompting people to put pictures of their guns on line. After my comment I stopped receiving posts from that blog. Wonder why.

    • The feds don’t need pictures. Anybody commenting on these sites, even the anti gunners attempting to show us the error of our ways will be listed as enemies of the state if some type of gun grab kicks off. The kill them all let god sort them out approach.

    • Who needs pictures, check out any gun forum on the Internet. Every other dbag has the guns they own listed after their name.

      Ex:
      JohnBo44
      Sig P226, Kimber 1911, Glock 22, S&W M&P15, Remington 700 .308

      Nice job signing up for the national gun registry, Malon Labe, huh?

  8. A bunch of steel cased .223 and .308 at Cabelas for dirt cheap plus two elusive M&P9 magazines. Then from other sources, 4 PMAG 40s, low profile AR gas block, and a few other miscellaneous parts.

      • Unfortunately they were $39.99, but the last time I saw them was in June at a local pawn shop. I only paid $32 at the pawn shop but they were the last ones in his shop and he hasn’t had them since. I had to upgrade from the lame MA 10 rounders that I bought the gun with. I find the M&P45 mags all over the place. They had two more at Cabelas and I thought about cleaning them out but decided to be nice and let someone else enjoy having more than the factory two mags.

  9. Where do these statistics about declining gun ownership per household come from? Probably polls in which a significant number of people lie. But even then, a thing to keep in mind is that the percentage of the population that owns guns is not the same as the percent that support the RKBA, no more so than the percentage of the population that supports same-sex marriage consists of homosexuals or the percent that supports abortion rights is women.

    • If someone who says he’s a pollster called me and asked if I own any guns, what would I say? I have to admit i would lie too.

      • Holy smoke! I would never answer `yes’ to an unnamed pollster except maybe “well, all I got is the 12 gauge next to the nightstand” or sumpin’.

  11. Got some fun upgrades for my scary black (and FDE) rifle: a Magpul STR stock and one of those JP Enterprises buffers that Nick recently reviewed. Arriving next week courtesy of MidwayUSA!

  13. I would also question this notion of “aggressive marketing” from gun companies to gun owners to get them to buy more and more guns. I mean, how? The only places where you really see gun advertisements are gun publications and gun websites, otherwise, you do not see gun advertisements amongst regular television commercials or Youtube commercials or anything. And only a fraction of gun owners read gun magazines and go to gun websites.

    • Yeah, they’re full of crap. They keep spouting that declining gun ownership line, but NEVER do they point to a specific survey or any evidence — other than the obvious fact that gun sales are way, way up. They just can’t admit to themselves that guns actually are appealing to a wide variety of normal people for a wide range of good reasons.

  14. Didn’t buy anything. But we were up at 3:00 am, and we did leave with a bag limit of wood ducks within an hour of legal shooting hours, so all in all, I think it was a successful Black Friday.

  15. Bought my first pellet rifle in over 20 years. Benjamin/Crosman with built-in sound reducing thingie. .22 caliber with kind of a mil-dot scope.
    Heading to the range today after I get my ‘honey do’ list shortened.

    • I have a cheap crossman .177 cal. break barrel. Scary powerful and accurate. Could pot small game with it all day. 99 bucks and no paper trail. Good shooting with yours.

      • Just got home from the range. What a piece of crap.
        Scope is topped out and still shooting low at 10 yards. There is a long dead insect, (mosquito?) inside the scope that appears in a different place after every shot.
        After 10 shots, the crosshairs are now at 2 o’clock with the scope still vertical.
        This is the Benjamin Legacy model.
        It’s going back to Big5 tomorrow.
        I knew I should have gotten the mosin instead.

        • Too bad. Still, a Mosin is always good to have. Cheaper than a .22 and a lot of fun to play with.

          My .177 came with a scope and fiber optic sights. No complaints. We’ve only used it for backyard plinking. I bought a pellet trap with it and my son has a big back yard.

          On a side note. My son has been trying to get into hunting. Today he went on his first pheasant hunt and bagged one. He’s stoked. Got me signing up for the hunter safety class so I can get my license.

        • Awesome!
          Upland bird hunting is my second favorite form of protein gathering.
          A son taking dad hunting. This is way too cool.
          I’ve got a good recipe if your son wants to cook up some pheasant phajitas.

        • He threw the pheasant on the bbq with some kielbasa. Don’t tell my wife, I had some. Now I gotta start looking for a hunting shotgun.

  17. Nothing for Black Friday, but I picked up the Glock 20 I got for Christmas earlier in this week. Haven’t taken it to the range yet on account of there being too much football on the TV, but should get to shoot it next week sometime.

  20. I’m saving up for one of those “weapons of war” that our exalted President keeps blathering about. You know, the ones that made him cry when he couldn’t get them banned.

    • I don’t even want an AR or AK. But if I lived in a state that didn’t have mag limits, bullet buttons and registration I’d buy one just to bring tears to that useless basturds eyes.

        • Nevermind. I googled it and was enlighted and saw the whimsical manner Californians were using to get around the fixed vs detachable magazine.

      • I bought my first AR for no other reason than the fact that the liberals didn’t want me to have one. I discovered how much fun they are to shoot, so I bought another one. And another one. Thanks Diane Feinstein!

    • I did buy an AK pistol (in 5.56) and the arm brace for it. Sent in the SBR paperwork too, hopefully it gets in there before ATF changes anything on trusts.

  21. Mmmmmm…. Glock 20. 15 rounds of 10 mm ought to please any hostile crowd (to quote Boston T. Party).

    What I got: A sure fire flashlight (a screaming deal in fact) that went onto a shotgun, and a box of Gold dot. That one box was all the LGS had. That plus another box I’ve had a while let me swap a lot of my old defense rounds for new; I still need one or two more boxes, to finish out the replacement and for testing.

      • Mine’s the “Military Trainer”, same as the Lux, but with a beech stock instead of Walnut. If CZ ever gets them back in stock, I may buy a walnut stock, strip it, and put on a nice hand rubbed oil finish

        Oh – and it shoots – GOOD!

    • So jealous. I have been eyeballing one of those for the past year. Just can’t justify another .22 in the safe with other more pressing needs/wants.

      • You should try to afford one, somehow. They are a real bargain – you can find good used ones for $300.00 – $350.00. How long they’ll be easy to find is a question. The 452 is out of production, replaced by the 455, arguably a slightly cheapened gun.

  24. I got nothing. I stayed inside and avoided the crowds of insane human-cattle. Did some online ordering, if that counts. Got ammo.

  26. I did some pre-Black Friday shopping at The Nation’s Gun Show. Bought a standard edition Browning Hi Power. Spent Black Friday morning at the range shooting a bunch of 9mm, 45 ACP, 22LR and 12 gauge slugs. As bonus my club was selling Federal American Eagle 22 with a six box per customer limit (240 rounds). The Hi Power is the smoothest centerfire pistol I have have ever shot. The recoil was almost as benign as my 1911-22.

  28. A spotting scope, some .30-06, and two Mosin Nagant 91/30s. Oh, and a bunch of Garand gear for the M1 that arrived at my front door.

  29. A Lee Autoprime XR, 100rd bonus pack WWB 40S&W, and a reloading manual for 10mm/40S&W. Picked up while birthday shopping for my wife.

  30. My parents live across the street from PSA headquarters and store. Got a bag and pmag deal, and one of those ati pump shotguns for 150. Got 100 rounds of .223 and went and fired the AR I bought in the PSA preblack Friday deals. Also got a new cell phone and some jeans 🙂

  31. Has anyone really challenged that statement about gun ownership declining? I for one, was not a gun owner until 2 years ago. Now, let’s just say I fall under the more than one gun per household category. More seriously, I know dozens, if not hundreds of people here in Hawaii that have become new gun owners. My guess is, shockingly, that the statements about declining gun ownership from Huffy Puffy and MDA have about as much scientific validity as determining whether one is a witch by being weighed against a duck.

    • I’m in the same boat but, like a lot of people, would be disinclined to talk about what guns I have to anybody calling over the phone… so if it’s a poll, it’s skewed.

    • I posted this comment way down but I’ll repost it here so maybe people will see it, and as a response to your comment…

      I’m a little late to the party, but I’ll throw in my two cents anyway, hopefully shed some light on this whole debate…

      I saw a graph posted awhile ago (if anyone really wants to challenge it, look it up yourself) that illustrated the percentage of homes that reported having a firearm over the past two decades. That number fluctuated a bit, but currently sits at about 47%. Now, as they say, the devil is in the details.

      When Shannon Watts and her ilk shout from the rooftops that “fewer and fewer households report owning guns” they are not technically wrong. If you simply look at the percentage of households that report owning guns, that number does indeed show a downward trend over the past two decades, albeit a small one.

      However, they fail to include some crucial details:

      1) They treat “gun owning household” and “gun owner” as if they are interchangeable terms. As I’m sure is the case for many readers here, my “gun owning household” includes three “gun owners.” So that skews their numbers in a bad way.

      2) The *percentage* of gun owners may be going down, but the actual *number* of gun owners is climbing. This is attributed to the fact that, while both the number of people and the number of gun owners are increasing, they are doing so at differing rates; there are more people being born than there are people becoming gun owners, hence the “drop” in percentage.

      Long story short, they’re full of shit and can’t admit defeat. While they’re not technically wrong in reporting that the percentage of gun owning households may be declining, they know damn good and well that that statistic doesn’t mean anywhere NEAR what they wish it did; the problem is, while the anti’s recognize that fact, there’s no way in hell they’d ever report it, thus leaving many fence-sitters clueless.

  33. A case of 9mm from The Armory (best prices on the east coast) and NOTHING from Buds Gunshop (worst gunshop on the east coast.)

  34. I bought a 9mm full sized S&W M&P. My first striker fired pistol. Also some punches (I misplaced mine) and other tools and grubbins for my next AR build. And some Magpul magazine followers to replace the old style followers in my GI mags.

  36. Have a friend who bought his first pistol back in January or so, and has been in the “gun of the month” club ever since. Not only are new households joining the fold, they are making up for lost time.

  40. Nothing. Not a single thing. Stayed home and hung out with the family. It was relaxing, didn’t cost me a dime.

    Besides which, I hate the crowds. I’ll save up a bit and pay a few dollars more on a day when I don’t have stand in line for hours and maybe not even find what I came for anyway.

  41. I didn’t do any Black Friday shopping, but I was out and about doing some errands. I was in the market for a Hogue HandsAll Jr. for my CW9, so I swung by the LS and snagged one. Wow–a $10 great buy. The palm swell perfectly fits my hand, and the rubber gives a great tactile feel that is nonskid but not sticky. I would have bought some range ammo, but the only FMJ in 9 mm they had was Fiocci at $30 a box. No thank you very much.

    Nice little pocket pistol, Robert. New lady friend, I would guess.

  44. I’m calling BS on that whole declining gun owners thingy. The factories, both domestic and foreign, are working round the clock to meet demand. It’s not a handful of OFWGs that are doing that. Every time I go to the range I see young people, women and minorities shooting. So again BS to Dirk’s boo.

  48. Picked up a Spikes Tactical midlength upper in a pre-Black Friday sale. An unbelievable $399.

    Also snagged a set of Pau Ferro grips for my Hi-Power. Nothing to do with Black Friday – I just had to mention it because the gorgeous wood on that high-polish-blue pistol made me weep.

  49. “…aggressive promotion from gun lobbyists looking to capitalize on tragedies like Newtown and other mass shootings.”

    Now this bit of unbelievable BS proves that Wonder Woman and her fellow MDA crones live on the planet Zontar, and not here in Realitytown, USA. How can one person be so profoundly and utterly delusional and still be allowed out by themselves after dark?

  50. Steel Lyman bullet mold, miscellaneous cleaners (kg products kg12, etc). Debluing solvent, scope rings.

    Almost got a hunting knife and some Ammo cans from bass pro – but the check out line was too long. So I put them back and left the store. It was worth my time to pay more ( not on sale) than to wait in that ridiculously long line.

  51. Not a damned thing. I slept in, had a cup of Joe and went shooting. I shot a few mags through the Del-Ton test AR and then went old-school with my lever guns and air guns.

    Did you know that mostly-empty cans of red spray paint behave exactly like ground squirrels when you shoot them with a .223.

    We started calling them ‘groundhog simulators.’

  53. It was a bittersweet Black Friday for me: I had to retire my CZ 82 from carry duty due to a persistent slide stop spring failure, and ordered a M&P Shield 9mm.

    I’ll definitely miss carrying the CZ and it will still hold a place of honor in my safe, but I am happy that I’ll be getting a modern, dependable sidearm with a good reputation as its successor.

      • Thanks for the heads-up. I did some looking around yesterday and did find Norm on the CZ forum–I’ll probably do an upgrade with one of his springs, but I’m still inclined to retire the pistol from daily carry. Even with the upgraded part, I think linking the spring from the slide stop to the trigger guard latch pin was a questionable design decision.

  54. I impulse bought a RIA 1911 GI model fro $329. That just seemed like an irresistible price to me. And then I promptly impulse bought 500 rounds of Wolfe .45 ACP for $169. Apparently I have impulse control issues.

  56. I bought my second Mosin Nagant and my first M44 from Classic Firearms on Friday. My first Mosin was an M91/30 hex receiver with laminate stock. Love these guns.

  62. A couple of boxes of .357 ammo, multi-caliber all in one gun cleaning kit ,for my husband’s Colt .357 4″ barrel Colt revolver. Branded Colt range bag to carry ammo, revolver, yet to buy his own eye/ear protection, so he will quit borrowing mine, to add to his new range bag.

    For me: ordered 1775 rounds of .22lr bullets from Midway thursday evening on-line and 500 rounds of .38 caliber bullets to feed my new Ruger Wiley Clapp GP .357 3″ revolver., on Friday night.

    My husband is not into guns as much as I am so I have make sure he has proper eqiupment for trips to his freind’s ranch for clearing rattle snakes.

  64. My morning hunt was jacked up by a pack of coyotes taking down a doe so being dejected I hit gander on the ride home.

    Was looking for something smaller than the 1911 for deep concealment and they actually had S&w shields in stock with a rebate. Picked up the 9mm.

  65. Hit Gander so my son could buy his first gun. We got the only 2 Hex Mosins they had. Spent today cleaning them. Ammo on the way so a trip to the range will be soon.

  66. Picked up an arsenal slr 106. Had seen them in stock at lgs a bit back, then saw the review of em here.. amd when I went it yest tuey were on sale for $990. Sold! Now to find magazines for it….

  67. Took a friend shooting for black Friday, I won’t contribute to the madness.

    Today, bought a S&W Bodyguard .380 (LGS is having a “tax free” weekend). NICS delayed me so I’ll be picking it up Thursday, or when I get the call if sooner. I really need to get my CWP if anything to avoid NICS delays.

    • Every gun owner should have a CWP, CCW or CHL for that reason alone, no NICs check, no paper trail.
      Even IF the NICs check records are deleted within 24 hours as the law requires an audit of an FFL makes copies of the 4473s on file.

      Never let a loophole go to waste.

  69. Sweet Black Friday deal on two-rifle case from Walmart. Going to pawn store later this month for epic haggling session on AR scope, sling, and disco ball.

  70. Don’t have much in the way of money this year and not really keen on registering anything I buy so I went with a Pietta Colt 1851 Navy 44. Its my 2nd one and wanted a matching pair before I went with the Pietta Remington 1858 44 New Army. Same balls but easier to swap cylinders in the Remington than Colt.

    No drawback to these except in reloading speed hence my desire to add in the Remmies.

  71. I’m a little late to the party, but I’ll throw in my two cents anyway, hopefully shed some light on this whole debate…

    I saw a graph posted awhile ago (if anyone really wants to challenge it, look it up yourself) that illustrated the percentage of homes that reported having a firearm over the past two decades. That number fluctuated a bit, but currently sits at about 47%. Now, as they say, the devil is in the details.

    When Shannon Watts and her ilk shout from the rooftops that “fewer and fewer households report owning guns” they are not technically wrong. If you simply look at the percentage of households that report owning guns, that number does indeed show a downward trend over the past two decades, albeit a small one.

    However, they fail to include some crucial details:

    1) They treat “gun owning household” and “gun owner” as if they are interchangeable terms. As I’m sure is the case for many readers here, my “gun owning household” includes three “gun owners.” So that skews their numbers in a bad way.

    2) The *percentage* of gun owners may be going down, but the actual *number* of gun owners is climbing. This is attributed to the fact that, while both the number of people and the number of gun owners are increasing, they are doing so at differing rates; there are more people being born than there are people becoming gun owners, hence the “drop” in percentage.

    Long story short, they’re full of shit and can’t admit defeat. While they’re not technically wrong in reporting that the percentage of gun owning households may be declining, they know damn good and well that that statistic doesn’t mean anywhere NEAR what they wish it did; the problem is, while the anti’s recognize that fact, there’s no way in hell they’d ever report it, thus leaving many fence-sitters clueless.

  74. Bought a couple of Magpul PMAG’s to go with my slowly building AR project. Since most of my wishlist is gun parts and related stuff, holding off to see what shows up under the tree first.

  75. I picked up some backups (to my backups to my backups)….

    Troy DOA rear flip up + Troy M4 style front flip up with Tritium (got $20 off)

    …oh and a RA Raptor charging handle at Primary Arms, while they were still in stock and $20 off. (Yeah, I am also having a hard time justifying $70 for a charging handle, but it is the best one on the market)

    Can’t wait to get the new gear slapped on my Crossman .177 pellet rifle! 😉

  78. “I put my money down on a pearl-handled SIG SAUER 238 for a friend. ”

    RF, as a new tenant of Texas, you should know: that’s a STRAW PURCHASE around here.

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