Hello Charles,
Shopping in gun shops and having a wife present just seem to be diamterically opposed forces in nature that seemingly do not come smoothly and calmly together...
The Hillsdale Mall (with Nordstrom's) is only 10-12 blocks south of the gun shop on El Camino Real. I would suggest you give your wife a few hours of shopping and sneak to the gun shop on your own...
You will find the folks at Mike's shop very helpful and willing to spend time with a luger beginner if the shop is not too crowded.
Mike will be at Reno this weekend so you will only meet John and Ted if you do stop by. If you wait for Mike's return, he will probably show you a custom-made .45 luger pistol he makes on special order. His 1st. un-numbered prototype is usually in the shop when not at gun shows. He sells these .45 lugers for $ 15K...I think...
Just remember for any retail gunshop, their first line of business is to sell guns to make the overhead and profit...not necessarily to educate a beginning collector; and their pricing is usually a bit higher than a private-collector find...
If you are ever in the Walnut Creek area, another great C&R rifle and pistol gun shop is Mike Chance's place :
http://www.cccfirearms.com/
Sorry you cannot join us for the Reno gun show. Reno has others in April and August of each year. Here is the link showing the 2004 show schedule :
http://www.bigrenoshow.com/
Regards,
Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />