Back last June, I wrote this:

Can't Get It Out of My Head

I ordered a Rossi Model 92 stainless in 44 Mag with a 24-inch barrel yesterday. I could be writing this as an admission of weakness, but this isn't AA. I did this with malice aforethought.

Do I regret all the stuff I've said previously regarding 44 Mag rifles, lever actions, etc.? No. However, I do believe the voices within cannot be disobeyed.

What got me down this path? I'll tell you truthfully, that I got tired of all the nudging. It seemed like the moment I finished that thread last June, I started getting constant reminders about lever guns and 44 Magnum. Even Hickock45 got in on the deal:



That showed up in my suggested videos over the summer. This is what got me thinking about 24-inch barrels.

I thought, back in October, the voices had gone silent. I went to my favorite LGS to pick up a Ruger GP100 that I've been playing with ever since. Up on the wall was a shiny Rossi 20-inch 44 Mag carbine. The manager saw me glance at it and brought it down. He and his brother have had an uncanny sense about these things. I don't always purchase what they hand me, but I do go away thinking about it. In this case, I nearly did.

What intrigued me the most about the piece was the sights. My eyes were going bad when I got into shooting in my 20s. By age 40, I was putting scopes on everything I could. Finally, about my mid-50s, my eyes started going back the other way. The Chemo jumbled up my prescription terribly, but my eyes are settling out, and the bottom line is that I can see irons again.

The other thing that intrigued me was the hammer. I've always had a thing for the hammer that Browning put on his 1897 shotgun. I've always loved that thing. It was the first exposed hammer firearm I owned. Pulling back the hammer is positively sensual. The 1892 comes about as close to this as I've found in a rifle. I briefly thought of what it would take to get it home, and then passed. At 65, I know impulse buying at the LGS is a perilous and slippery slope.

I decided to go home and do some serious reading. That culminated in the phone call this past afternoon to the LGS. Dave, the guy who picked up, knew it was me. I might be paranoid, but I feel like he was expecting my call.

I've got unfinished business with 44 Mag. The Ruger Model 44 that died was not a good platform for cast bullets. At very least, I can shoot this a bit, and come to grips with my daftness, and put this up on the rack. It's stainless, so it can go decades without serious upkeep. At very worst, it can stand there for the rest of my life reminding me of my close relationship to temptation.

So...you are hearing voices?

Well, it's not like my dog is telling me to go out and shoot women. No, I'm not hearing disembodied voices.

However, I will tell you that ever since I started that thread back in June, I've been getting gentle nudgings from within pointing me towards a lever in 44 Mag. I wouldn't even call them intrusive thoughts. However, I will say that since my Model 44 went toes-up, there have been a lot of gears grinding in there.

That Model 44 had all sorts of baggage associated with it. It was my best friend's. My other best friend, the one that died back in '92, had also owned one. They and everybody said it was the best short-range deer gun ever made. This one couldn't stay out of the gunsmith's, and suffered a catastrophic failure with less than 50 rounds through it due to a known design flaw. In the meanwhile, I'd decided it was less than I'd hoped for, but clung to it, because it reminded me so much of my departed friends.

I've thought about another Model 44, or a 96/44. I really couldn't see paying the price for either. This Rossi 92 gets the monkey off my back, and I can associate it with something positive: the recovery of my eyesight. Furthermore, I went to the oncologist yesterday for my 6-month checkup. He said, that he cannot tell me I'm cancer free, but that I should live my life as though I were. That's worth celebrating.

You're just feeding the monkey.

Not that that's a bad thing.

Congratulations on the check up and the rifle.

That is definitely worth celebrating.

know what you mean. 7 out of 10 voices in my head say don't shoot.

I've found they all shut up when my finger touches the trigger.

Glad to hear the doctor's news and concerning your eyesight. Dealing with health issues mostly due to age here. Take that gun out to shoot and remember. Be Well Shaman, RZ.

Well, a lot has happened since last I wrote. The aforementioned Rossi is resting comfortably at home. I'm resting comfortably at home. The truck is back in its usual spot. No one got hurt, but. . .

I went to the farm on Tuesday, figuring to stay down a couple of days, pester the turkeys and then head back late. Folically Challenged was coming down Thursday. He decided to take me up on turkey hunting. I was planning on taking him out to scout turkeys. I managed to record two decent podcasts and got them published ( genesis9.angzva.com ) out of all this. FC had a great time. He's beginning to see this ain't your ordinary pig hunt.

FC took me to lunch in Brooksville afterward, and we then split up. He went back to Cincinnati; I started toward the farm. On the way back, I started getting some strange noises out of the right/front suspension. About 3 miles from the farm, things got dicey. The truck decided it wanted to randomly veer into ditches and phone poles.

"Lord, if you want me, you can have me," I said. "But if not, I could really use a hand here!"

I would have stopped on the road, but there is a dead spot with no cell service and I was in the middle of it. I knew I'd get a signal back at the farm. I limped back under 20 MPH. I also knew the last guy with a tow truck in this county died about a year. Wherever I stopped, I was going to be staying.

I called the mechanic I knew on the other end of the county and he said to stay put. The wheel would probably fall off if I tried to drive over to him. He'd managed to acquire one of the Roll-ons from our deceased mutual friend who ran the towing service. He'd be over before dark.

I sat down on the front porch and waited. There were storms due. I had a front-row seat. I can see 4 counties from my chair. Along about 4, it got dark. A nasty black cloud showed up over Falmouth and headed my way, just barely missing me by a mile or so. I was glad it did. I saw rotation. There was a distinct wall cloud, and from the radar on my phone, this cloud was the bottom hook on a line of storms stretching all the way up through Northern Ohio. It was the same storm that killed 3 in Indiana. The net result for me was a single 35MPH gust and about 30 seconds of rain.

My buddy came and got the truck about an hour later. He said that SR 22 was covered in ice. He took off and my other buddy, Blacksmith, came over from the next ridge to look in on me. He said the county had gotten pummeled. He picked me up and we drove to Falmouth for dinner and shop for grossities. I was going to be stuck for a few days. That cloud I saw go over had dumped a 1/4 mile wide trail of 1/2-1" hail bracketting SR 22 all the way from Falmouth to Willow and then onto Powersville and beyond to Mount Olivet. In some places there were piles 2" deep, and if you look at a map, that cloud had to take a decent jog to miss me.

There were more storms that night and then it cooled off and stayed foggy all Friday. Saturday, was pea-soup fog, but the turkeys were wound up like I seldom hear them. They were going nuts in the fog. After it burned off, my mechanic called and told me he'd fixed the wheel. His dad drove it over to me. I packed up and drove back him back out and paid all that I had save $8 and some pocket change to get the truck out of hock. I'm mailing him the balance today.

That still left me $800 and 67 miles from my goal. I stopped by the ATM on the way, and finally made Hibberd's Armory in Cleves about 2 days later than expected. The bill came to $808.50. I went home with under a dollar. I used a credit card to pay at KFC.

Glad to read your post above RE the doctors news. And the journey toward this Rossie you speak of. I will be very interested to hear about the outcome of your load work ups. The algorithm knew to show me a link to the latest 357 M from Ruger. I abhor the safety but it sure is nice to see US made Marlin actions in that caliber on the shelves again. If only because it fits so nicely into the mix with the dies set up for all the K Frames in the same.
Enjoyed reading about the observations on that storm. Saw it move on the national map on weather underground. Looked impressive from the radar.
Thanks for continuing to add your voice to all the ones that seem to follow nostalgic lever rifle loonies just as temptation followed the cowboys through the saloon doors in the good ol days of B&W Westerns

It’s axiomatic that buying a new toy will cause something essential (and expensive) to break just in time to kill your buzz from the purchase. Almost never fails, especially if the purchase shall we say, stretches the budget a bit.

OTOH, when disaster has struck, I’ve always been able to find the money to put out the fire, even if a toy has to go for that.

Congrats on the acquisition, and the prognosis….

I am the only person I can hear perfectly every time. So when thoughts arrow out I hear them and know I didn't imagine it or that it was from any source but my own. Strolling around after setting up at a show I spied a m94 Marlin in 44 mag pre cross bolt bought it for 450 and another time cruising thru the local cabelas gun library a m94 357 mag pre cross bolt a little beat but ok. Got it for 400. Talking to yourself generally makes people view you with suspicion. But sometimes it's the only intelligent conversation your gonna get. I learned along time ago to pay attn when my thoughts vocalize themselves. It's OK Shaman to listen to voices but yours are the only ones that count at the end of the day.mb