Mulliga of Shangrila Towers fame has posted a series of short essays on all the guns he has carried concealed. In his latest, he lets slip the fact that he has personalized his shoulder holster for the gun he carries now. He has had it monogrammed with his initials, even though no one is likely to see the work.
Mulliga seems a little bit embarrassed about this, but I don't know why. It has been going on for centuries.
Although it seems a difficult concept for those uninterested in self defense to appreciate, proficiency with a defensive arm increases confidence because it expands the number of situations that someone can handle. It is completely reasonable if someone wants to proclaim their ability by showing that they are familiar with the tools they chose by personalizing them.
Most engraved firearms are works of art that are made with an eye towards the collector's market. These have their place, but the type of decoration I find most striking is simple modifications that Amerind warriors made to their trade rifles in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
(Please click on all pictures to see if there is a larger image available.)
This is a replica, but you get the idea. Hammer a few shiny brass tacks into the stock to form a pattern and you have a snazzy personalized weapon instead of one of many boring rifles that rolled off the assembly line.
The trappers that traded and lived amongst the Amerinds also decorated their gear, and I always admired some of the scrimshaw powder horns that have survived from that time. Below is another reproduction instead of an actual antique, but it is a pretty good example of what I'm referring to.
So it is wholly understandable for someone to want to personalize their personal weapon, but there are some who think that it is in poor taste or gaudy. One would think that I would hold that opinion since I have never personalized any of my own weapons, since the only time I ever modify a stock gun is to improve the function in some way. (Replacing wooden grips with rubber, for example.) But the reason for that is due to that fact that I shoot a wide variety of firearms, and have never relied on one gun alone for my self defense needs.
So Mulliga doesn't need to feel embarrassed. In fact, I would like to see the work he had done on his holster. This probably won't happen since it would reveal the initials of Mulliga's legal name, and there are some very good reasons to maintain your anonymity while blogging.
Comments (2)
Sometime ago I recall seeing, for sale by one of the big importers, an SKS that had been personalized.
Surplus Com-bloc weapons, since they most all have wooden furniture, get all sorts of little personal touches. But this one was really pretty cool, and I wish I had saved the pictures, as I am sure it had been sold pretty quickly.
It was (IIRC) a Yugo or Albanian SKS. The previous "owner" was likley a bored 19 or 20 year old kid, as he has taken photos from rock and roll and glamour magazines and somehow transferred them onto the furniture of his rifle. Maybe a light shellac or something of that nature, as I have seen that sort of thing done on wood before.
I imagine he caught hell from some Sgt. for that stunt, or maybe he WAS the Sgt. But in any case, he "went to war" with his favorite rock stars and pinups on the stock and handguards of his rifle.
Posted by Porta's Cat | February 4, 2007 11:13 AM
Posted on February 4, 2007 11:13
I usually remove modifications and get my used guns back to original condition.
I have carved my name under the buttplates on my rifles and on the insides of my wood pistol grips just in case. Maybe someday a couple hundred years from now someone will discover my name and date on an old gun.
Posted by hammer | February 4, 2007 2:03 PM
Posted on February 4, 2007 14:03