excellant post Adam!
I had "bertha" (hakim) out a couple of weeks ago at an outdoor range, and as usual she draw some looks
It still halfway amuses me, and halfway worries me that some of the younger crowd, what with their geewiz-doohicky-laser sighted ar's and such, have no idea what came before.
I got fairly amused at a couple of them, from this quote " you mean that was made in the 1950's? wow i never thought they had autoloaders way back then" chuckle.
Of course they've had history but it's so remote to them that i think their brain just disconnects thinking about it
I need to go get a membership at the local range they do all the CMP and other stuff at, hopefully can get to it soon.