Just a Dragoon, Not a Dragoooon!

It's a good thing Lil Bro is so meticulous! While I'm normally unresponsive on the subject what I'd like for Christmas, this year I relented and told him about my hankering for a Walker Dragoon .44 caliber black powder pistol from Cabela's...only if the whole family chipped in on it, not just him. I'm a little hazy over whether I'd said the word "reproduction," so when he sent me this (right), I first wondered why they were selling it without a box. Then I noticed the word "Colt" and "Gun Library" and thought, "Whoa, Nelly!" I looked it up and saw it cost over $500 more than the item I had in mind.

Buying something like that for me (and taking up the slack the family couldn't chip in) is just something Lil Bro would do, but I'd declared the Gun Gifting Wars over. At least until I get a high-paying job again. My wants are simple: something that looks, feels, and shoots like History and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Reproduction BP pistols are excellent and relatively inexpensive pieces of authentic 19th Century technology. I'm looking forward to shooting the Dragoon, which was king of the Magnum Pistols until the .44 Mag. cartridge came out. Besides, when I remake The Outlaw Josey Wales, starring myself, I'll need a gun that looks fairly new and can take a dropping or two into the dirt.