Training pistol, Savage 101?

[El Tejon]

Took in a collection yesterday. Included in it was a Savage 101, a single shot, .22 rf single action revolver. Had not seen one in years. Thinking of giving it to my nephew.

I have nephews the oldest is 7 and my brother says next summer he will be ready for pistol. Anyone used a Savage 101 in training kids?

The trigger is nice and crisp and the sights seem big enough to easily distinguish. Good for an 8 year old?

 

[cane]

I have used the Savage 101 to teach both my neice & nephew to shoot. I also used an Ithica 49, a lever gun look alike that is also single shot. They liked the "cowboy" look.

 

[El Tejon]

cane, how old were they?

 

[Jim K]

A word on the Savage 101. Be careful if disassembling the gun. If you are not careful, the plunger that provides tension to hold the cylinder in place can drop into one of the dummy "chambers" and be next to impossible to get out without damage to the gun. So make sure as you remove the barrel-cylinder unit that you keep that plunger between chambers, or use a piece of thin metal to cover the chambers and prevent the plunger from dropping in.

Jim

 

[BluesBear]

Handgunning 101

Great training handgun for kids. That's what it was designed for.

Perhaps that's why Savage called it the 101.

 

[Master Blaster]

El Tejon,

I started my two children shooting handguns this summer, My daughter is 9 and my son 7. They have both been shooting a .22lr single shot rifle for over a year, and exhibited excellent ability to listen, learn and obey the safety rules at the range.

My son wanted to try a handgun so, I let him and his sister shoot my S&W model 43, which is a .22lr kit gun with an airweight frame and a 3.5" barrel.
They both liked it and did well, but neither of them have the hand strength to shoot it double action, so they cock the hammer and fire it single action.

Its small enough to fit their hands. I also have a single six and we tried that but it was too large and too heavy for them to shoot comfortably.

 

[cane]

EL TEJON; My nephew was 9, and was very interested. My neice was 11 and had never seemed interested until she saw how much fun her brother was having. Both now have bows, and their own 10-22s. The bows and rifles are theirs, but stay at my house for them to use when they visit. They live inside the city limits and I live in a rural area.

 

[depicts]

Jim Keenan is right

When Jim Keenan mentioned the plunger getting stuck on the Savage 101, brought me back to the day when I was 14 that it happened to me. I thought the gun was broken forever, therefore, not a LEGAL handgun. So I took it downtown to show my friends. After all it couldn't work (I thought then...nowadays I could fix it)

When a passing patrol car spotted me and my friends looking at the pistol on the town common, we were quickly accosted and the gun taken away from me, Dad was called and the SHTF.

Only thing that saved me was that a retired motorcycle cop in town had bought the gun for me on his permit, (things were different in the 50's and 60's) so the police didn't press the issue. But even when I was 21 and back from Vietnam, the chief of police remembered the incident, and mentioned it to me when I applied for my CCW permit. Things could have been MUCH worse.

Gosh the crap I did as a kid without dying!!!!! Thanks God!!!

 

[Dienekes]

Never fooled with one of these, but remember them. At about the same time the Sheridan Knockabout single shot tip-up pistols came out for about $17.95. Looked a little like a small quarter-inch drill! Always sort of liked them and finally bought one a few years ago (for $95!). The sights are fixed as they are cast into the barrel, but it is well made and shoots dead on.

It's a fun little gun to shoot for a change of pace and likewise is a pretty fair little trainer. Even though you can keep up a fair rate of "sustained fire" (like they did in "Zulu"!) it does force you to concentrate.

The key word in all this is "fun".

 

[El Tejon]

Jim, thanks much, but there is little danger of me disassembling a gun without through knowledge! Remember I can break an anvil with a feather and can reverse the operation of a Swedish Mauser in field stripping it!

MB, well, I do have a 43 but only one. I was going to give the little Savage away, but maybe I now have an excuse to buy another 43.

 

[Master Blaster]

MB, well, I do have a 43 but only one. I was going to give the little Savage away, but maybe I now have an excuse to buy another 43.

Those model 43's are not real common, and I have seen some that are LNIB going for $500 or even more. When I bought mine it had the box all the papers and a cleaning brush/ rod, and had a little blue wear around the muzzle. It had been carried a bit but not shot much. I think they only made them from 1957 to 1974, mine was made in 1973. Because of the aluminium cylinder I only fire standard velocity ammo in it.

My children love to shoot it though, all of my guns are shooters so its being put to good use.

 

[TimboKhan]

I will start my nieces off shooting full-load S&W 500's, because I want them to grow up tough. Kids today get molly-coddled way to much. Why, when I was a boy, my dad would punch me in the arm after every shot that he didn't think recoiled enough, and if I wasn't getting quarter second splits, then he made me run a mile!




Lol... Actually, my nieces are learning on my MkII, with me putting rounds in individually. When that tires them out, they get to shoot BB's out of my 1911-style air pistol, which, at this point, seems to be more fun for them anyway because they can blast away all day without having to wear earplugs, which both hate passionatly. I still make them wear safety glasses though. And the only time my Dad ever layed a hand on me was when I was about 8 and decided that his license plates would look nice spray painted bright orange, which, as it turns out, he disagreed with.

 

[El Tejon]

Timbo, I thought your dad punched you in both arms and them made you do pushups?

I gave the Savage 101 away to my brother for Christmas. I figure he will be in the best position to decide when the nephews are ready.

 

[oweno]

I actually own one of these things - had a friend at Savage Arms buy it for me back in 1962 or so. I think that the employee cost was about 10 bucks.