Domestic Dispute

This being a gun-blog (most of the time) it won't shock my readers to know that I enjoy collecting firearms and shooting them at the range, especially in the company of my expert husband. But, much to the consternation of said husband, two things have been preventing me from getting excited about acquiring new pieces and hitting the range:

1. I hate, hate, hate cleaning firearms. Carnaby actually finds it to be kind of a relaxing zen thing, parking himself in front of the TV and cleaning away. My husband is a former soldier, so he does it in the garage without complaining, whether he likes it or not. But I hate it, to the point that I haven't gone to the range in months because I don't want to deal with the mess afterward. Part of it is that I am not mechanically inclined: I don't like taking things apart and putting them back together. But I also despise getting my hands dirty. I'm not a germophobe or anything, I just hate having goop on my hands. My husband and I have engaged in a friendly argument over who should clean the weapons: I tried the "chivalry" tactic (the man should clean them, "just because"), but he is annoyingly egalitarian in this respect and says that whoever shoots 'em cleans 'em.



2. I enjoy mostly quick trips to the range where we spend an hour or so putting a few boxes of rounds through two or three weapons and then go home. My husband almost always wants to stay at the range for hours and hours and shoot hundreds of rounds through everything in our arsenal. I get tired after a while and end up in the clubhouse chatting with the range owners or else sitting in the car sleeping/reading until the sun goes down and hubby is done. I want him to have fun, but this is not my ideal way to spend a Saturday.

I do want to go back to the range and get excited about new purchases, so I'll pose these questions to our readers and present any answers to my dear husband for his consideration:

1. If your wife would gladly go to the range with you if only you would: a) clean the weapons afterward, and b) keep the trip reasonably short, would you acquiesce? Perhaps some of you would say "just leave the complaining tart at home," but my husband and I really enjoy doing this together, thus the need for a resolution of some kind.



2. If she abhorred the idea of cleaning the weapons, what would you consider reasonable compensation for you doing it all yourself? I'm looking for gun-related solutions, so, please, no comments about serving dinner naked that night, etc. :-P Or is it an unwritten law of recreational shooting that she who shoots the weapons cleans the weapons? i.e. am I being completely unreasonable?

Looking forward to your comments, and I'll post an update if we find solutions that work.

Update: Talked to my husband, and he is willing to clean the weapons and keep most of the range trips short. It seems he was just arguing the principle, i.e. what a man thinks he should have to do and what he is willing to do (for his wife) are two different things. :-)