The Bad Guy
One of the many cool aspects of my job as a gun writer is that good folks send me things. Little, expensive items and most guns usually get sent back when you’re done. Big, cheap examples invariably become gifts. Return shipping can be prohibitive.
Do that for three decades, and you will start to accumulate some decent stuff. I once did a review of a giant gas-powered wood splitter. A big truck delivered the thing. I put it together, split a season’s worth of firewood, shot plenty of pictures and attempted to wax eloquently about the experience. Once the article hit newsstands, I asked if they’d like their splitter back. The splitter people just laughed. It was really too big for our needs, so I gifted it to a friend. He used the machine to make a small business.
Among all of the stuff I have accumulated through the years, one item has actually sort of become part of the family. There aren’t any adoption papers or anything, but I have developed a great deal of affection for him. We call him the Big Rubber Man.
The company is called Rubber Dummies. They make humanoid three-dimensional targets out of recycled tires. These guys are tougher than John Wayne’s jockstrap. You can shoot the snot out of them, and they just keep coming back for more.
Rubber dummies are also really heavy. They sit atop a big steel frame and are sufficiently rugged to absorb gunfire. In dim light, they also look like a real person — a big, menacing, scary real person.
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