[Majic]

As I stand in front of the handgunners in THR I freely admit:
I'm a Plinker.

I just plain enjoy handguns. I don't look at a handgun and immediately look for it's SD qualities. I look for one that has the possibility to be a good shooter. The one that gives you the warm fuzzies when you handle it and the s**t and giggles when you fire it, no matter if it's a tiny mouse gun or big thundering boomer. I love to plink, not to just train for SD situations. Pine cones, dirt clods, cans are all suitable targets for me. I'm not concerned with fast reloads, nite sights, high capacity, or caliber selection. If the handgun appeals to me, fits my hand then I consider getting one. Be it a revolver or semi-auto, it makes no difference to me. Not all makes and models fit this bill for me, but those that do are just plain ol fashion fun.
Any handgun can be adapted to a SD situation, but this thread is to see who has fun shooting and admiring their handguns.

[Mike Irwin]

Guns good.

Handguns better.

Revolvers best.

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's-

I'm with ya' Majic; as handguns are my first love
in firearm's!:) :rolleyes: :uhoh:

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[kalibear45]

Mr. Mike Irwin said it!

Mine breaks down like this:

Glocks good
1911s better
Revolvers best

:D

[BigG]

I have to raise my hand and say, "count me in!" Pine cones, dirt clods, cans, etc., all provide suitable targets. :D

[Skunkabilly]

I'm pretty picky when it comes to handguns. I've had six over the last 2 years I've been into guns but only have two left. I won't buy a gun just to plink with it, but enjoy plinking with my competition, carry and training guns.

[David4516]

I'm a plinker too! :)

But my fav guns for plinking are rifles. I still have fun with handguns, but to me rifles are ever better. You haven't lived untill you've shot at pop cans with a Tommy gun :cool:

[Delmar]

Well, count me out. I don't just enjoy handguns- I REALLY enjoy handguns-my favorite is my new Gold Cup Target. Right now. Could change soon.

[jade]

hmmm. i'm very picky about my guns, but i always think about them from a plinking point of view. only in the last 2 months or so have i thought about one specifically for self defense.

i also don't really like shooting other peoples guns. i guess i just like to be really familiar with the gun i shoot.

but please, no revolvos (revolvers). :neener:

[Smoke]

on this board it might be easier to ask....."Who Doesn't?"


:D

[Standing Wolf]

I finally bought a .22 caliber rifle last winter, my first rifle in about twenty years, and have even taken it to the range, but it's not a hand gun.

[MikeJ]

I became fascinated and enthralled with handguns about 20 years ago when I was in my mid-thirties. There were several that I viewed as works of art, they were so classy and stylish. To this day handguns are still my number one hobby with nothing else coming close. My primary interest today still rests on recreational shooting although I have spent much time and thought on my defensive handgun choices. As a side note; I find that many of the handguns being produced today are more like tools than the guns of a few years back when style seemed to play a very important role. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that maybe due to my age and original indoctrination into the world of handgunning I don't have the same appreciation for some of the newer models, although I do own a Glock 23 so I'm not totally out of it. ;) Have fun and stay safe, Mike

[Prodigalshooter]

Plinking is how I started with handguns, only in the last few years have I worked to be more than a casual shooter.
I'm in IDPA now and it's lot's of fun while still honing my skills. Plinking is harder to do now than it was 20 years ago, at least in my area anyway, too built up. I still enjoy it but it's now a big planned trip for all day, maybe once every couple months.

[farscott]

Even though I practice with my concealed-carry pistols, plinking with a .22 LR is my first love. If I can shoot a brick or so through my dot-sighted S&W M41, I had a very good day. The total lack of recoil, the quiet report, and the amazing accuracy all add up to enjoyable shooting.

I also am enjoying plinking with my STI Trojan. Shooting the 9mm Trojan is a cross between serious practice and serious fun.

[cool45auto]

Oh yeah, my guns, somebody else's gun, it doesn't matter. I love shooting.

[Mannlicher]

Nah, I don't like hand guns at all. With about 40 sround the house in the various safes, I guess I keep buying them because I don't have anything else to spend money on........... hehe:D

[Sisco]

Jeez Majic, you just described me in your post!

[gbran]

Squirrel and quail seasons overlap here and I hunt both. I don't hunt squirrel with a shotgun and I don't hunt birds with a .22 rifle. So I thought I'd buy a target .22 for squirell while carrying a shotgun for birds. I went thru several gun and scope combos and have finally found settled on a .22 mag revolver with a small light red dot. But, I didn't stop there. I have parked all my rifles and exclusively hunt with all manner of handguns. You have to really hone your plinking skills to be successful with handgun hunting. But......... I love plinking with handguns. A good plinker is a good hunter.

[Ryder]

Who doesn't like them? Well, about 2/3 of the time I go to a gun store I don't find anything to take home.

The ones I do like I like about as much as I like a part of myself because that's why I choose them. I pick based on the feel that the firearm is an extention of my own body. I'm not too particular about looks and caliber other than that I am generally looking for something I don't already own. Fit and function are my main deciding factors.

I hear ya Majic, shooting to me has a feeling more like eating or breathing as opposed to a tool which is worthless until it's needed. Shooting and handling guns is an enjoyable and natural thing to do.

I've only recently started training in SD techniques myself after some 30 years of handgun ownership and an old hubcap at distance is still hard to beat for a good time. :D

[arinvolvo]

All of my handguns had some sort of defensive consideration put into them, because in a pinch, they will be used as such.

But in general, I just LOVE to shoot them.

Why else would I have gotten my mousegun ported? It wasnt to make it more effective for defensive pruposes, although the arguement of 2nd shot target aquisition may come up....It was to make it more FUN to plink with!

[GitSome45]

Handguns....(picture of Homer Simpson, head back, eyes half lidded, and drooling)


:D :D :D

Howard

[valnar]

I own just two autos. A SIG P220 and P229. Those are my "war" guns if I ever need them.

I only shoot my revolvers for fun! :D

-Robert

[243_shooter]

Majic,

I'm with you on this one..

The primary factor I use in a firearm purchase is fun factor, a firearms SD ability never really factors into the picture. If I think it's going to be fun at the range, then it comes home with me :D

Having recently started reloading, it's opened up a whole new world of affordable shooting to me.. Those guns that I considered to be to "expensive" ammo wise are now screaming my name..

I think I may have a firearm disease.. To many fun guns to buy, not enough wallet :D

Leo

[WebHobbit]

Well, while most of my 4 handguns (all revolvers) are for SD/HD I did just buy a .44 Magnum for "fun":

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25867

[gryphon]

Hanguns.....good.....
Rifles........good......

All firearms......good....

[Brian Williams]

I love to plink more than most any other shooting. Keeping my cases so I can reload make it easier to plink. I really love my DA revolvers cause they are fairly quick and they save me the time I could spend looking for flung brass and those few cases given up to the Brass gremlin annoy me. My new 1894 Marlin is a great plinker.

[tech]

There is only one thing I like better than plinking with a handgun. I guess the other thing could be called plinking with a gun also...

Mike

[aircarver]

I used to shoot competitions with both rifle & pistol.
RIFLE got to be 'too much like work'..... :D

[E357]

I think it's obvious that we are all a bit strange. I like anything I can reload. And I find revolvers the most fun to reload; lots of variables to play with.

Elliot

[chaim]

Having recently started reloading, it's opened up a whole new world of affordable shooting to me.. Those guns that I considered to be to "expensive" ammo wise are now screaming my name I know the feeling. I just won an auction for a .44spl and now I'm really starting to think it may be time for a .45lc Vaquero or Cimmaron SAA clone and a nice .44mag. Not long ago worries about ammo availability and cost would have kept me away from a .44spl or .45lc (it kept me from buying a Taurus 450 a year or so ago) and cost would have kept me from .44mag (as well as prefering something between .44mag and .44spl for recoil out of a .44mag). I don't own any guns that are just for looking at or that are impossible to shoot (I'll never own a scandium J-frame).

As for the original question, I'm not sure one has to be exclusive of the other. I started as just a plinker, but very quickly the self-defense capabilities of my guns and other guns started to really interest me. If you have a tool that can save your life in a pinch you may as well think about that possibility a bit so you are prepared. The past year or year and a half I've been really intrigued by carry guns (even though I'm not currently in a carry state). I do still like plinkers, but if it is useful for self defense or better, for carry, it will be all that much more interesting to me. This has been magnified of late because I am hoping to move to a carry state next fall (either for grad school, or maybe even if I don't get into grad school this first try- now if I only get into a school in a non-carry state that might cause a problem).

[Nick96]

Rifles are kind of like driving some big, fat, sloppy luxury car. Boring & predictable - every time. Handguns are like taking a stick shift sports car through the "twisties". Less comfortable, more skill required, less predictable and a heck of a lot more fun.

I like handguns too. That's why they out number my long guns about 4 to 1.

[capnrik]

I commonly wear a Colt's Python to dinner. In a Bianchi belt holster,it is easy to conceal with a sports jacket. (I got the same reply from Applebees that everyone else did.)

Sometimes, I wear a Colt's SAA .357 with a 5 1/2 bbl., or an SAA .45 with a 4 3/4 tube. Now, I know that my Teddy Jacobson .45 ACP is the best tool, but what about these beautiful wheel guns?

[russlate]

For some reason taking my 458 to hunt jackrabbits just didn't work out. Can't figure why, but I kept getting these headaches...

Now I shoot a 6" barreled, target sighted Beretta Mod 100 in 32 acp. I used to get a thrill from the 41's and 44's, but today why bother with all the thunder and lightning and earthquakes?

[sm]

I like all things that go bang.

Spending a lot of time on handguns. Except for birds,most all my hunting has been with a 1911...well there was that skunk with a .480, some groundhogs with a Keltec P-11, darn-- forgot about that .22lr and...and...Handguns--guilty as charged ;)

[G Man.40]

Wheelguns ....good
1911's ............better
Glocks ........................THE BEST !:D

[valnar]

Count me as somebody who likes handguns. In fact, I don't own any long arms. Just pistols.

I don't hunt and only plink, so that's all I need.

Robert

[Grampa]

Yeah, plinking. I shoot a lot at a plain, white piece of paper, trying to compromise between shooting accurately and quickly. But sometimes I just plink. Ya know them worthless aluminum cartridge casings? (Yup, I reload.) They make great targets, but usually only with one of my scoped 22's. Shotgun husks are good, too. I have my wife save all our empty milk cartons. Fill 'em with water and haul them out to the 75 or 100 yard line. Oh yeah, I always pick up after myself.

22 plinkin' is best. I have a bad case of squirrel syndrome. (If it's shiny, I have to bend over and pick it up. Reloadable brass, that is.) 22 plinkin' saves my back.

But, there's something to be said for plinkin' with a 44 Mag SBH Bisley, too. Makes the water jugs more fun.

[Mastrogiacomo]

Same here...:D I love my Berettas, not that I won't love long guns when I get into those but handguns -- pistols -- are my favorite.:D :D

[WSH]

Yep, I'm a plinker.....I confess. First couple of handguns I told myself (and the wife) that they were a necessary tool for home/self defense. That excuse gave out several purchases ago. Fact is I just like to shoot them, cans, bottles, dirt, whatever..... guess I'm a confirmed junkie.. I'm hooked. Oh well, could have worse habits I guess.

[Sven]

Used to just love pistols - that was because that was all I owned. Now that I own a rifle, pistols feel totally weak... and I'm finding all my money going to the rifle 'cost center' in my budget.

Speaking about practical (theoretical) usability... if I ever NEED a weapon, I'd rather have an M1A and a couple battlepacks, and be fighting from the treeline back 300 yards.

Pistols are a last-ditch weapon for self-defense, and as such, they leave a lot to be desired... like, 1500 extra feet per second and the ability to reliably hit something out at 200+ yards - not to mention 500 yards.

[blades67]

That would be me.:D

[blue86buick]

I got a chance to take some time to shoot my 22/45 for the first time tonight....oh god it's fun! i had picked up a pair of muffs, so the sound was totally bearable. i just KNOW that i'm going to be going through the federal 550 bricks like a fish through water, especially once I get the Ultimate cliploader. :D

[GitSome45]

I have been fortunate enough to "Inherit / and Aquire":

Springfield M1 Garand (Factory Rebuilt Ser# 600,000 range Mfd 1942)

Ruger Mini-14 Stainless

Romanian SAR-1

Bushmaster XM15-E2 Shorty (Pre-Ban) (Looks just like M-4 except it has 5" Flash Suppressor...)

Springfield 1903 30'06 (Grandfather had it TOTALLY CUTOMIZED into a sleek hunting rifle...)

Winchester "1300 Defender" Pump Shotgun ( 18 1/2 " Bbl, 8rd. tube)

BUT.......

Out of all those "LONGARMS", I love my pistols the most...

SIG, Glock, Colt, S&W, Ruger, Beretta, OH JOY, OH JOY!!! :D

JMHO,

Howard

[Thirties]

Majic, I'm with you on this topic.

I am probably in the minority here, but I just enjoy shooting guns, and recently have taken up loading my own ammo -- even more fun!

I live in a rural state with CCW permitting easy to get, but I just shoot for the fun of it, and I do not carry a gun (off my property).

I own and shoot .22 rifles and lots of pistols and revolvers in .32acp to .38spl and 9mm with everything in between.

[Gunner45]

Well lets put it this way I have several handguns from .22lr to .44 Mag, but olny one rifle. A ruger M77 in .308Win. So yes I do think of myself as more of a handgunner.

Having said that, my next "gun to get" is a M4gery.

That's about the olny gap in my gun safe.

Gunner45

[Universal]

I enjoy handguns; both semi-autos and revolvers, but I have very little interest in long-guns.

I currently shoot a Glock 19 9mm and a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum.

I have owned Rugers, Glocks and a Colt 1991A1.

Universal

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello. I just like to shoot and enjoy them. The other stuff is secondary.

Best.

[Dr.Rob]

Well the only way i can explain the myriad of handguns I own and the joy I get lighting off .25's from a Colt made in 1922.. well I must like handguns.

But I can stop at any time.

What's that?

You say you have a US property marked Colt pocket .32? Parkerized? What's your address?

[Hal]

Me!
I gotta fess up here. I get so into it, that I actually use a two hand "grip" with a ruber band on my finger sometimes:uhoh:
I mean how pathetic is that?

[blue86buick]

it means that the proper form is etched into your brain, ensuring that every time you aim a pistol, your form is correct.

[sctman800]

Really like that big bang, I have a couple .22lr handguns, but my favorites are two .41mags. One Taurus, and one new model Blackhawk. I also reload, pretty much necessary if you like to shoot a fair amount, I really don't save any money, I can just afford to shoot more. Jim.