Beaver Guns

The highway department in Wisconsin was having more and more trouble with the pesky beavers plugging up the drainage ditches and culverts and flooding the highways.  One of the road crews came into my shop and told me they’d been given permission to shoot the beavers.  They were also given funding to buy pistols to shoot the beavers so they were out shopping for beaver guns. 

 

At first I showed them some .22 pistols but they wanted something bigger.  I can only imagine they were concerned about being charged by angry beavers or, perhaps they had heard about the giant 10-foot beavers that roamed the land before the last ice age.  I showed them some .38 revolvers but they thought a high-capacity 9mm would be better.  Again, I imagine it was in case they were charged by mobs of angry beavers. 

 

We looked at the Sigs and Berettas but they retailed for over $600 at the time.  This was somewhat amusing as Beretta won the low bid for the U. S. military by selling their pistols to the army for $215 each; I sure wasn’t getting the extra $385 in profit.  At the time Ruger was selling their 9mm for under $300 and the Ruger is a good, solid pistol.  The guys decided a Ruger would do for them so a Ruger they got. 

 

Over the next few weeks a number of other road crews came in to purchase their “Beaver Guns”.  It seems the Ruger 9mm had become the official Beaver Gun for the Wisconsin Highway Department and John’s Bow, Barrel, and Bait had become the official source for official Wisconsin Highway Department Beaver Guns.