pacecars
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,471
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Post by pacecars on Oct 2, 2021 8:57:55 GMT -5
Not really any mentors but got interested thanks to reading Milek, Keith and Seyfried.
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Yetiman
.327 Meteor
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Posts: 582
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Post by Yetiman on Oct 2, 2021 9:24:36 GMT -5
I had a thing for guns since I was about 4 years old. I would watch Gunsmoke every day and had the lunch box, loved cop shows and Clint Eastwood movies.
I had 1911 mentors. My dad was a huge fan of the 45, but had gotten rid of all his guns when they had kids (of which I am the youngest of four). He had even managed a large gun store at one time.
Now I am 55 yrs old. I started shooting in my late teens with an auxiliary police department. I had a coach who thought I had enough skill that he loaned me a modified Colt Gold Cup with BoMar sights for two years.
I then bought my own Gold cup and more than a dozen 1911's after that. Until I was 43 years old I had no interest in revolvers.
Then I became infatuated with a birds head New Vaquero in 45 acp and eventually bought it. In researching that gun I found this site.
Then there was a sea change.
A month later I bought a GP 100. Then a Bisley Hunter and on and on...
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Post by oddshooter on Oct 2, 2021 9:38:09 GMT -5
Definition of a Mentor I once had a relationship for 2 years with a girl that didn't know my name. Yep, it was a touch one-sided. I grant you our interaction was theoretical, but it was all I had. Maybe she wasn't my "girlfriend", but it sure felt like I learned a lot from that girl about broken hearts, no matter what her title was. Prescut
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Post by 45dragoon on Oct 2, 2021 10:43:13 GMT -5
Mom and Dad were my first "enablers" cause I started out with a pair of Mattel Shooti-n- Shell fanner 50s!! Latter on when I was 15 my grandparents sent me a CVA Kentucky Rifle kit for my birthday. BP would be with me from then on!! In College I got a brass framed '58 REM. Army - my first bp revolver. Many revolvers later (and probably a dump truck load of bp) I put them down for a while to concentrate on putting kids through collage. So, not much activity from 2001 - 2011. Got the bug again but found out I couldn't shoot out doors in my county (I've lived here pretty much my whole 64 yrs!!) Had to shoot indoors at a range but NO BP !! Found Kirst Konversions and that literally changed my life! I could still shoot my favorite revolvers (Colt open top platform) , wipe um off and put um up!! Think there's something to this cartridge thing!!! The problem was smokless is much more punishing than bp - so my job was to find out how to make these things last and be the same revolver after each range session. That's when I met Jim Martin. I would have to say my first real "mentor" for S.A. revolvers would him. I learned how to tune the Colt action from him and what things could be done to make them last as competition guns. I also learned from Larson Pettifogger's writings about the correct setup of the Colt open top platform and how to correct it. My auto mechanic, aircraft manuf. and newly learned revolver tuning abilities gave me a desire to perfect these skills and turn these "cowboy guns" into the best revolver that that particular revolver could be! Hawg heaven!! Setting high standards and keeping close tollerances have proven to be the key elements in setting up State Championship winning revolvers (CAS) on 3 platforms - Remington, Colt open top and Ruger Old Armys / 3 screw Rugers. So, big big thanks to Jim Martin and L. Pettifogger for the direction and education that allows me to do what I do !!!
Mike
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Post by crazycarl on Oct 2, 2021 11:27:03 GMT -5
Never had a mentor, per se. Grampa taught me how to shoot with his .357 Blackhawk, but my dad was neither a hunter nor a gun guy & the hunters in the family had no time for me. Musta read every hunting & shooting publication available as a kid & tried my level best to teach myself the finer points of small game hunting while traipsing about the farm.
By the time I was 14 or so, girls, motorcycles, a rotten family life & drugs conspired to distract me from guns & hunting for several years. I was always a revolver fan & have always had a .357 since I was 21, but didn't get back into guns until I retired from the Army in '08.
Once I had my HD/SD needs covered, I treated myself to a .357 Blackhawk & the rest, as they say, is history. Still no mentor, but this place is a huge resource that keeps me from flailing about too blindly.
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Post by dougader on Oct 2, 2021 13:30:33 GMT -5
Dad taught us to shoot his pump action Winchester 22LR when I was about 5. I didn't like his Model 12 shotgun or the Remington 760 30-06 because they kicked too much... until I got into high school.
Dad didn't like handguns, but didn't say anything about me having them.
My brother-in-law and I learned together about handguns and handloading our ammo.
But the real mentors on handguns have been writers like John Taffin, Skeeter, Mas Ayoob... no way I can remember them all. And, of course, the guys on here who have been so helpful. Dick, Robb, Max... again, no way I can list them all.
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Post by rexster on Oct 6, 2021 7:21:24 GMT -5
I started handgunning with a 1911, at age 21, and did not own a revolver until I was about to start the Houston Police Academy, in Texas, about a year later. Double-action revolvers were on the curriculum. So, police officers, who were firearms instructors, were my mentors. I learned things from several instructors, but the ones I consider to be mentors were the late Officer Phil Bankston, and Officer Debbie Lokey. Officer Lokey provided most of the classroom revolver instruction, and Officer Bankston did most of the hands-on coaching, on the firing range. My group of cadets, as determined by alphabetical order, were assigned to his part of the line.
Edited to add: I did not grow up, among firearms. I was a history buff, as a kid, especially WW2, which was largely why my first handgun, bought at age 21, was a 1911.
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44guru
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 77
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Post by 44guru on Oct 7, 2021 4:57:48 GMT -5
My family was not a gun family, we had a old single shot shotgun that belonged to my Grandfather. I was interested in guns from a early age, I purchased my first gun at 13 years old and my first revolver at 15, it was a Smith & Wesson model 10 .38 Special 6" it was 3 more years until a .357 Ruger Blackhawk came along. Next was a Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum and on it went. My mentors were Elmer Keith, Skeeter, Bill Jordan, Jeff Cooper, Charles Askins, Ross Seyfried and anything I could get my hands on to read.
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johnc
.240 Incinerator
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Post by johnc on Oct 8, 2021 12:10:33 GMT -5
my dad also had very little time for me, and hated guns. so...roy rogers, gene autry, lone ranger etc etc etc. Paladin! i had a Paladin cap gun and holster as a kid. it was a model of a cap and ball. i always carried just the frame and cylinder in the holster. assembled it like lightening when i need it for action. he finally asked me why. said i'm just like Paladin, Half Gun Will Travel. after a beat or so, he shook his head and told me to quit watching so much TV. even to church it was the same thing, boots, double gun rig, hat. finally the powers to be at church had enough (some old biddy complained), and i had to leave the guns at home, the hat hanging up with the grownups in the entrance, kept the boots. spent 23 years in law enforcement and related jobs in texas till retirement. Thank you MATT! and Hoss and Joe and all the others, Starsky and Hutch! and especially Bill Fuller, wounded in okinawa (sp) and with who i spent awhile assigned to his dept when i was loaned on assignment to DEA. he used to come by the shop and we'd spend many long hours, for years, telling tall tales and shooting on the weekends.
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Post by mike454 on Oct 8, 2021 19:10:56 GMT -5
Had the good fortune to have a question about a Ross Seyfried article when I was about 16. Not knowing any better, I ended up giving him a call and he couldn't have been more gracious or helpful. Led to many many more talks and a number of visits in the intervening 30 or so years.
When I bought my first gun in college I belonged to an outdoor range near the University. I was there just about every day along with an older gentleman who appeared quite serious about his shooting, always shooting over a chronograph and shooting groups off of sandbags. Turns out the gentleman was none other than Terry Murbach. We ended up becoming good friends and would shoot together several times a weekly basis for many years. When I bought my first centerfire, he told me to buy components and he invited me over to his house to teach me how to reload. House sat for him a few times which was always a treat, he had quite a library which I availed my self of frequently.
Also took a week long class with Bowen and have visited Linebaugh a number of times. Have corresponded with John Taffin by mail a few times over the years as well. Shooters in general tend to be a helpful bunch!
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Post by parallaxbill on Oct 13, 2021 9:57:15 GMT -5
No mentors but my interest in revolvers probably started in the early 70s when my four uncle's, all law enforcement, brought practice ammo in huge paper grocery bags to family reunions and Christmas gatherings. After the food was gone they'd give me and my male first cousins their service revolvers (all S&W model 10s) paper plates for targets and all the ammo we could shoot. That hooked me! Later, gun writers like Skeeter Skelton and others were my biggest influencers. I'm 64 now and still shoot weekly.
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hombre
.30 Stingray
Posts: 119
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Post by hombre on Oct 13, 2021 21:31:41 GMT -5
Skeeter Skelton
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Post by messybear on Oct 14, 2021 7:08:01 GMT -5
Seifred and Taffin and others were mine
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Post by x101airborne on Oct 15, 2021 15:58:32 GMT -5
Never had a handgun mentor. We were so poor growing up my family went without sugar for 6 months. We dairy farmed for a living and I did the morning and evening milking while my father did other chores on the farm. We had one handgun, two rifles and two shotguns in the entire house. Firing a shot was only for killing food and a handgun had little use for our open spaces and long ranges. It wasn't till my Army career that I ever learned to shoot a handgun and enjoy it (M-9). After that, shooting SWAT team shoots and LEO competition led me to revolvers over duty autos. I killed my first animal with a handgun shooting a hog at 60 yards with a Contender in 308 and a cast bullet. That was somewhere in my 30's. Since then I have been working toward maximum accuracy in a handgun, not just putting bullets in paper. I have read, studied and worked to make myself what I am capable of today. Sadly now at 44, my skills are starting to fade because of physical limitations such as shaking hands, sore joints and fingers, etc. I am going to enjoy my handguns till I absolutely cant and I am teaching my sons to shoot so they have a head start on me and hopefully will be precision shooting game and enjoying the challenge long before their bodies start to give up on them.
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Post by lar4570 on Oct 16, 2021 8:43:18 GMT -5
My first real handgun was a S&W M29 with the 10 5/8" barrel and the 4 position front sight. My oldest brother had his FFL and ordered it for me at cost. He also ordered a RCBS partner Jr. reloading kit. He sat me down and taught me how to cast bullets, RCBS 225 SWC. Next we hit the loading bench. He showed me the how and why of setting up my scale, dies, proper roll crimp... We started with a moderate load of Herc 2400 and hit the range. It didn't take long until I'd worked up to a max load and wanted more, lol. I should have bought a FA 454, but listening to the guys at the gun shop talking about broken thumbs and skinned palms, had me doubting myself. Of course it didn't dawn on me that it was possible, or maybe even acceptable to load and shoot moderate loads. I loved reading about Keith, Taffin and Seyfried's adventures. When I was in the Navy, I picked up a 4 5/8" stainless Blackhawk in 45 Colt and discovered the joy of 350gn hard cast bullets with a compressed load of 296. About that time, a buddy of mine sent off a blued 45 Bisley to Linebaugh to be made into a 475. That was a significant jump in power with 400s at 1400. I developed a serious case of 475 envy, so I ordered some .458 45-70 405s sized down to .452 and set about seeing just how close I could get to the 475. I hit close to 1250 when I stuck a case and stressed the cylinder. Luckily my buddies Bisley was a 45 colt, so I bought his cylinder and fit it to my frame. It was about this time that I decided that moderation might be a good thing. I shoot and pack that two toned 45 more than anything else, but now it's fed a regular diet of 320-350gn cast at 1250. Sorry if I got a little long winded.
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