A Hat, A Gun, and A Trip to the Store

Two days ago, my dad dropped off a gun. Talk about awesome! I love a .357, which is the perfect woods cartridge in my part of the world. The Uberti is about as perfect a woods gun as can be had. That it will be a great form-gun for fast draw rigs is a great bonus.

But I've been looking at that gun, and seeing it in it's holster got me thinking: I really need to make matching gear.  The start of that project? A hat band that matches my holster.

(Not my gun. This is one I borrowed from dad a few weeks back)

When I was dying it, after using a dark brown, I planned on coating it with Hi-liter, which soaks into the tooling and gives a nice contrast. I must have been distracted, because somehow I grabbed edge-kote, and smeared it with that. It turned out darker for the treatment, but it still looks nice.

Also, now I need to make a matching sling for my Marlin 1894. If I have 2 guns that are wood and blued steel, both in .357, I guess I should have a sling on the rifle that matches the pistol's gunbelt, right?

Well, I'm going to get on that, but that meant I needed to head to the Bass Pro and pick up a set of sling swivels.

My Mother in law and Grand-Parents-in-Laws gave me gift cards for my birthday (totally unnecessary, but appreciated) so I went to the store. Of course, you can't go to Bass pro and pick up sling swivels alone. No, they put the sling swivels on the same isle as the reloading stuff, the bastards! So after spending the gift cards  (and 90 bucks of my money, too...) I walked out with a set of sling swivels, a bullet puller, a Lyman reloading manual for pistols, a pound of Unique, a pound of Blue Dot, 100 .38 caliber 158 grain Hornady XTP bullets, and 250 rounds of plated Berry's 124 grain round nose 9mm.

I always need more 9mm range ammo, and Unique and Blue Dot were staples on my Pop's reloading bench, so I figured I'd give them a try.

I got the XTP's because my Pop made some hunting ammo a few years ago that was BRUTAL. I have like 25 left, but I wanted to mimic the load, so I gotta get with him on what powder he used.

And after I got home, I was putting the reloading stuff away and found ANOTHER  bullet I wanted to make a hunting load out of. Again, it's a mimic of one my dad has made before. It uses a hard cast, gas checked 180 grain flat nose bullet that is a real whitetail-whacker. I know he used Lil Gun, but again, I'm gonna have to get with him on the exact recipe.

Anyhow, it looks like I need to get some reloading done.