paulg
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Post by paulg on Oct 16, 2016 5:49:32 GMT -5
At first I was just going to ask Mr. Thompson (sixshot) this question over in Big Bore's pics of interesting things thread but I thought it would be fun to put it up for all of y'all to tell your story if you choose to. How old were you when you were introduced to handsguns, what handgun was it and who has been most influential in your handgunning journey? Feel free to add any information outside the scope of the question if it helps tell your story and, of course, pictures if you have any.
I was maybe 3-4 years old when I saw and handled my first handgun. My dad was trying to get custody of my sister and myself. We were living with my mothers parents at the time, my mom was a practicing alcoholic at the time and unable to take care of herself much less two little kids. Anyway, we went for a visit with my dad and he didn't have any kids toys but he did have a Ruger single six so he took the cylinder out and gave it to me to play with. I remember that today at 51 years old. He later traded that Ruger for a Remington Wingmaster in 16 gauge as he loved quail hunting more than handgunning. I never laid eyes on another handgun until I was in high school. Hunting was always a part of my life growing up but the only guns around were either a shotgun in some form or a .22 rifle. No handguns or big game rifles. My drive to know and appreciate handguns came in the late 80's through John Taffin and American Handgunner. Nowadays, handguns are just a part of my life and I have been blessed to have owned many of them.
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Post by alukban on Oct 16, 2016 8:20:26 GMT -5
I must have been 6 years old or so when I first saw a snubby on my uncle's dresser. This was back in the Philippines, in the late '70's. My uncle was a banker so it went with the territory. It turns out that it was a Colt Detective Special. He let us play with it once and I recall how I was thoroughly enchanted with the seeming complexity of this machine - like being able to look at the innards of a watch but actually comprehensible to a kid. The semi-autos were total mysteries in comparison.
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Yetiman
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Post by Yetiman on Oct 16, 2016 10:55:01 GMT -5
I have had an interest (obsession?) for as long as I can remember. My dad made me a toy rifle when I was 4 from a broom stick and a board and a small coat hook for a trigger. The priest that lived on the corner picked up a road kill rabbit and gave it to me to take home with my wood gun (it was actually my fifth birthday). The neighbors who saw me coming down the street with it were still taking about it at my Dads funeral 37 years later.
When I was 19 years old, a older friend I knew through ham radio let me use a Ruger MK1 to get my feet wet. A few months later I joined the local Police Reserve. I had a shooting coach there who saw me not doing well with the revolvers we were using, and he put a Colt Gold Cup with BoMar sights in my hand and the improvement was miraculous.
He gave me that gun on loan for two years and the following year we won the state championship (a four shooter team I was on). He had arranged for me to use the department range whenever I wanted with their supplied ammo. I was shooting 750 rounds a week for a long time.
Dean P. was definitely the biggest influence on my shooting hobby ! I shot nothing but 1911's till 2010 when I picked up a Ruger MKII (and two more since then) and a year later got into revolvers (my current obsession).
That
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jgt
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Post by jgt on Oct 16, 2016 11:12:29 GMT -5
My first hand gun was a Winchester single shot rifle. The barrel was cut to 6" and the stock was cut at the pistol grip curve. It looked like a bolt action muzzle loader pistol. It had no sights and shot left and high when sighting down the barrel. Once I shot it a few time to understand the "Kentucky windage" I needed, I used it to shoot cotton tails. It was also the first gun I used to defend myself and worked quite well in that incident. I don't remember what happened to it. Not long after that, I went into the service and at my first duty station (Shemya, Alaska) I purchase a Model 15 Smith & Wesson. It was very accurate and I burned through a lot of uncle sam's 38 special ammunition. After being discharged I learned to reload making ammo for it.
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princeout
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Post by princeout on Oct 16, 2016 12:35:33 GMT -5
First handgun I ever handled and shot was a Government Issue 45 ACP marked "M1911A1 U.S. Army" It was in the early '60's and I was 5 years old. My dad was a career Army officer and the gun was one he was handed while leaving the hospital in Japan during the Korean Conflict. He had been wounded and sent from Korea to Japan for convalescing. He was being sent back to Korea and someone decide he should be a courier and carry some documents back with him. Someone else handed him the pistol since his issue weapon was still back in Korea. Guess nobody recorded it 'cause it came home with him. It was a WWII Colt built version. He kept it loaded, cocked and locked, in his top dresser drawer for as long as I can remember. All of us kids were taught what it was, how to shoot it and not to touch it. Never a problem. I started shooting that one at 5 years of age using WWII surplus hardball. My dad passed it on to my son, then a sergeant in the Army Reserves. We lost my son 3 years ago so that gun resides in my gun vault. Shot it last week on my son's 31st birthday. First handgun I ever bought was a TC Contender with a 44 Mag barrel. I was 15 and the town I lived in required you to register or something down at the police station. Since I was underage, my 5'2", 100 lb mother took it and the paperwork down for approval. The guy at the desk took it back somewhere for approval and another guy comes running out - said he wants to see this little woman with the 44. I was pretty funny at the time. Don't remember what happened to that Contender. I ran full house loads and used to destroy the lug and screw that held the forearm to the barrel pretty regularly. Tim
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Post by mart on Oct 16, 2016 13:29:09 GMT -5
I grew up on a dairy farm in the north country of New York State, on the northern edge of the Adirondacks. Growing up, my dad had a Winchester 67 22 single shot and an Ithaca 37 20 gauge. He had owned a few rifles as a young man but dairy farming was his life. He did teach us to shoot and never stifled our desire to shoot, hunt, fish and trap. We were however, never exposed to handguns. New York was already extremely strict on handgun ownership back then and he just never had any desire or interest.
It wasn't until I was 17 or 18 that I began to take an interest in handguns, I suppose primarily because of a raconteur by the name of Skeeter Skelton. He held me spell bound with his tales. I suppose the one that pushed me over the edge was an article he did on a Colt Bisley in 32-20. I don't know what it was about that article that so inspired me to become interested in handguns but I do recall after reading that article I began to follow him more earnestly as well as writers like Elmer Keith, Bob Milek, Ross Seyfried and John Taffin. Every one of them in some fashion influenced my opinions on handguns and I devoured everything they wrote.
The first handgun I ever bought was a Ruger Single Six 22 LR/22 Mag when I was 21 and living in eastern Washington. I really had no one to teach me to shoot a handgun and muddled through as best I could. It wouldn't be for many years before I felt competent with a handgun but still I don't shoot a handgun as well as many on this forum, although I have honed my skill to at least MOTBSOAB (minute of the broad side of a barn).
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cmh
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Post by cmh on Oct 16, 2016 14:17:25 GMT -5
Great stories gentlemen..... I was four and went hiking with my Dad and a friend of his.We had walked quite a ways(or so it seemed for a four yr old lol) when Dad got down on his knee and told me to come to him and stand in front of him. Explained to me how dangerous guns are and how I was never to touch them unless he td me I could etc. So I stood in front of him and he brought both arms up behind me and helped me hold this handgun and told ne to aim and pull the trigger..... that trigger was on a Ruger MkI. Ive never forgot the thrill of shooting for the first time. He had traded that pistol years ago but I came across a nice one and had to have it just because.... Everyday I open the safe and see that pistol and it takes me back to a real good time 😉
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grampy
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Post by grampy on Oct 16, 2016 15:09:24 GMT -5
My first post here so i'll try to spill all the wudrz rite.
My first intro into hand guns was when i was about 9, it was my Fathers duty gun a Colt Official Police in 38 spl. I didn't hit any thing and still have that problem today but blame it on old eyes and the target moving.
Through the years and many injuries later i hunt with a hand gun because the shoulder can't take recoil and my Doc. told me if i mess his hard work up he'll fix my hands for free.
I have gone through the mags,hand cannons and now carry and rely on Ruger Blackhawks in 45 Colt. My favorite load is a 250 WFNGC at 1000 fps out of a Bisley with a 7 1/2" tube. It does the job on anything in N. America and them some if you keep the range reasonable.
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Post by sixshot on Oct 16, 2016 15:16:10 GMT -5
For me it all started in Sherman, Texas in 1966. I was stationed there in the Air Force for 4 years & at first I didn't like Texas, no mountains, no trout streams, no public land, I thought I was in prison! Plus my wife & I didn't have much money so I took a part time job working in the sporting goods department of a Gibson's Discount Center. I had deer hunted quite a bit before going in the service but never fired a handgun. Working around guns everyday I fell in love with them from day one, I just had to figure out how to buy one. We didn't have any kids at the time but still money was hard to come by but after a few months I was able to buy a Hi-Standard Double Nine with faux ivory stocks & I was on my way. Soon I had my first Ruger super single six with dual cylinders, then a new in the box model 28 S&W 357 magnum for $93. Then a Blackhawk 357, then the 44's started coming. In between I had found my dream gun, a 4" model 57 41 magnum, used for $100! I learned long range shooting with that gun & a couple of cast bullet moulds I had found. I would get up in a friends barn, swing open the big doors upstairs & shoot out into the dirt fields. Soon Armadillos, Possums, Coons, turtles, Bull Frogs, Squirrels, Alligator Gar, white tail deer, Javelina & snakes would fall victim to my handloads. Almost always Unique or 2400 were my powders. It was about $2 per pound & primers were 67 cents at the store where I worked. Now I was beginning to love Texas! When I would go home on leave deer & elk would fall to my Ruger & Smith 44's & Elmer & Skeeter were my heroes, along with an old gunsmith named Moss Cosper from Dodd City, Texas, he taught me a lot, mostly that the front sight was pretty important. Soon I was shooting on the base pistol team & was issued a Hardball gun, a Wad Cutter gun & a rim fire gun with my own pistol box, spotting scope & accessories. Life was good! On weekends I could check my was cutter gun out of the base & the range master would give me a couple boxes of match wad cutter ammo for the 45 & I would hammer anything that moved, then on Monday check the gun back in, it was a fun time. Then Rifle & Handloader magazine came out & along with Elmer in Guns & Ammo & Skeeter in Shooting Times I would spend hours learning about all thing handgun related. The old timers coming into the store were having a ball giving me a hard time for the first year or two, after a while I could hold my own & then they finally gave me a break....finally I was one of them but I had to earn it, you earn everything in damn Texas! Our first 2 kids were born there so we have strong roots to the Lone Star State. I've gone through hundreds of handguns, in the early years I never had the money to keep all of them so when I wanted something new one of the old one's had to go, wish it had been different because I had lots of dandies! Many, many blued S&W's & many, many old model Rugers, back then all of them were old models. Since then I been blessed to hunt Idaho, Texas, Arizona, Alaska, Africa, Utah, Montana, Wyoming & Nevada. Everything from Idaho moose & African plains game to all kinds of small game have been my targets, along the way I've met some great friends & shot along side some of the finest shooters in the world. Some of both are right here on this forum. Wish I could meet every single one of you in person, Callshot would buy the Huckleberry milkshakes! One of 3 Warthogs taken in South Africa, this one with my Freedom Arms 475 & a 370 gr. cast slug. My Blue Wildebeest taken in South Africa with my Bullberry 338/284 using a 185 gr. Barnes X bullet off my shooting sticks. A tough shot, almost head on, the X bullet went through him almost length ways & broke the left rear leg, knocking him flat. The gloves & elbow pads came in very handy with all the thorns. Bull elk, taken in the Selway country of central Idaho in the 70's with my old model flat top 6 1/2" 44 magnum in the shoulder rig, either a Lawrence #7 or Idaho Leather, can't remember. Keith 250 gr. cast & 21 grs of 2400 as always. Dick
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Post by sheriff on Oct 16, 2016 15:42:21 GMT -5
1963 , freshman year in high school and this new kid from Barnsdall transfers to Shidler. As we get acquainted and become friends I discover he owns two handguns, a Smith Mod 27, 5" and an old 4" Colt's Army Special and he casts his own bullets and reloads!! I wound up with the old Colt, learned how to cast and reload and now 53 years, a bazillon cast bullets and pounds of powder and more handguns than I'd admit to, I have the habit. And George and I are still friends who get together every so often, tell stories, burn powder, and solve all the world's problems.
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ericp
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Post by ericp on Oct 16, 2016 16:30:26 GMT -5
My grandfather started me out shooting muzzleloading rifles. The first handgun I shot was a H&R 999 that he borrowed from a friend for me. At the time his handguns consisted of a Commander, a Contender with a 44 Mag and 30 Herrett barrel, and an original Rogers and Spencer cap and ball. He later got a 22 barrel for his Contender and would let me shoot it to my heart's content. I got heavily into sixguns in college for trapping, then later for hunting and packing around the farm.
Eric
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Post by medicdave on Oct 16, 2016 17:43:55 GMT -5
Dad had a plastic index card box with an Astra cub in 22 short with grips he made in shop class, a homemade holster and two boxes of ammo on a shelf above the bed. He picked it up sometime in the 60's in Colorado and it was the only gun that didn't disappear from the trunk of his car when he and mom were packing to move to Florida in the 70's. I can't remember a time when I didn't know about the box on the shelf and the nifty toy that was inside of it, and begging permission to hold it. Believe I was around 4 the first time I talked dad into letting me touch it off and the shock of the slide slicing two parallel grooves in the web of my hand. I do know for certain I shot a possum in our hen house with it before I turned 7 when mom couldn't get the safety off. When dad died I was in West Africa working on an oil rig. By the time I arrived back in the states the little box on the shelf was no longer there. My brother said Dad must have sold it......right. Searching the Internet auctions daily became the routine untill it showed up on gunbroker in Wyoming August of last year, minus the homemade holster and index card box. I of course made sure it found its way home and it's been set aside to make sure dads first grandson gets to day dream about the nifty toy in the index card box.
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Post by sportster on Oct 16, 2016 18:47:51 GMT -5
I couldn't even tell you the age but it was before I was ten and it was my dads single six. He never really had much use for a handgun but he always kept it around. The first one I shot a lot was when I turned 21 I bought an IWI Baby Eagle in 40s&w. I wanted a GP100 but was talked out out if. Jokes on them as I now own more revolvers than semi auto handguns. The guy who talked me out of it (my brother) sold me his only single action, Blackhawk in 357. In turn I sold him a Vaquero in 44-40 two years later. Since all of this happened my brothers and I have talked dad into getting more handguns. While he still doesn't have any revolvers of his own I did happen to leave a Smith 686 at home for him to use as he pleases. He wanted my S&W model 28 Highway Trooper, yeah that isn't happening.
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Post by contender on Oct 16, 2016 19:46:43 GMT -5
Well, my Dad had a war souvenir of a Jap 9mm top break revolver that was always around. Never had any ammo for it. But my earliest handgun memory was my Dad's Remington model 51 semi-auto. I got to shoot it occasionally. Then, at the old age of 15, I bought my first handgun,,, an Iver Johnson Cattleman in 22 LR. I wore that gun out. Buy the time I was a teen, my brother had gotten a Ruger 357 Blackhawk that I envied, as well as shot as often as I could. And as I read more & more of Skeeter, Elmer, Jordan, & many others,,, I just had to have many as handguns as I could. I did a lot of shopping in a Gibson's in Copperas Cove Tx. while stationed at Ft. Hood. As such,,it's been a life long obsession.
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awp101
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Post by awp101 on Oct 16, 2016 20:40:37 GMT -5
I must have been around 5 or 6. Dad didn't have any handguns but he hunted with my maternal Grandfather so it was on a hunting trip with the 2 of them and it was either an H&R Model 55 .22 LR or US Firearms top break .38 S&W. I have both of them and while the H&R will get shot every so often the USF isn't safe (cylinder won't lock with the hammer back) and the parts are more than the revolver is worth.
After that the majority of my handgun trigger time was a Crossman 38T .177 revolver. Still have that one as well but it needs seals and I haven't taken the time to search out the who or how much it will cost.
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