Do you remember your first handgun? What was it, when was it & where is it today?

A Ruger Single-Six my dad gave me for my 13th birthday. I carried it everywhere in the woods as a kid. Foolishly sold it in my 20's to a good friend's dad. He passed away a few years ago and I asked my friend if I could buy it back. Nope. There was a family squabble with the guns and his idiot leftist brother got most of the guns and sold them off at an estate auction I didn't know about.

Here's the only picture I have of me carrying it on a horseback ride in the Idaho mountains shortly before selling it...

5 screw 6" M10 s&w 38 sold it and it went to Tennessee all I know.

Phoenix hp22a 89.99 brand new from Uncle Lees in Greenville Ky my freshman year of high school. I was failing a class and the agreement was that if I got a B or better then I got $100 towards a pistol. It was pretty much a choice between 3, a chipmunk hunter, a heritage rough rider, or the Phoenix. When we got there the chipmunks looked wierd, the heritage guns had a weird color grip, and the Phoenix has adjustable sights and left me a few dollars for a bulk pack of ammo. It is worn out beyond being safe to shoot with the high velocity ammo it took to make it cycle properly, but with a weakened recoil spring it finally cycles 22LR, but it typically is used as a manual action and is normally shot with 22 shorts. It’s still crazy accurate for what it is especially when considering it’s around 18-20k rounds and is 20+ years old. It will not ever be sold or traded. I could send it in and get a new one but I would honestly rather just buy a new one and support the company.

Rogers and Spencer. 46 years ago. Safe.

Walther P99. 1999. Someone else's life!

Was so excited to turn 21 in 1990 and be able to buy a handgun. A small local shop ran a sale on Colt 1911's GI models but listed a Gold Cup in the print Ad. I got one of the two Gold Cups the store had in stock. Still have the gun and it has been a great gun for me.

My first handgun was a 1936 Colt Woodsman. I had a friend in high school that told me he had a Woodsman in pieces and he wanted to get rid of it. He was going to sell it to me for something like $75 or so. I knew they were worth a lot more than that and made the mistake of telling another friend and he told the first friend! In the end, I traded a non-running dirt bike for it. I was probably 15 or 16 when this transaction took place. Funny thing is, when I met him in the parking lot to get the gun, he had at least 6 other guns in his car, including a pump shotgun and an AK-47. Those were the days!

Eventually in a time of financial need, I sold that Woodsman to my grandpa because 1936 was the year him and his family moved to Washington State. I sold two other Woodsmans as well to my dad and his wife at the time. Since then, grandpa has passed on and I still have that gun now, as well as two more Woodsmans! Dad and his now ex-wife both still have the other two Woodsmans. I have tried to buy them back...

Glock 23 which is in my safe.

A S&W 469.
I loved the gun for what it was, it would shoot rocks if you could feed them through the magazine (as someone here explained it), and I just couldn't get it to hit the same area twice in a row.
Not sure if that was the gun or the way it just didn't fit my hand, because I did well enough with others that fit better.
Traded it up for a CZ PCR, which was a huge improvement.

Armored farmer

FYI, that's it's original hunter holster too.

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I had a Hunter holster for my first Single Six along with a matching belt with 20 or so loops for cartridges. Bought it at K Mart when they still had a Sporting Goods department! I would bet a great number of folks who had a Single Six had a Hunter holster to go with it.

When my fiend gave me his Single Six, yep you guessed it...it also came with a Hunter holster!

IIRC the first new handgun I bought for myself was a Beretta 71. I traded it back in on a Beretta 70. That was in 1967.

First one was a Special Edition Bulgarian Mak. I still have it and probably won't ever get rid of it. Bought in 2007 I believe

High Standard double 9. How many of you know that is NOT a 9mm???

Hi...
First handgun was a Kimel Industries .22LR/22Mag stainless revolver I bought used off a coworker around the mid70s shortly after I turned 21. I paid $35. Seems to be a Heritage clone.
Surprisingly accurate for what it is.
Still have it and shoot it regularly, just not as much as my big bore revolvers.

When I first got to Fort Carson in 1987, as soon as I could I ran off to Gart Bros and bought a Browning Buckmark .22, for the princely sum of $179.99. Still have it, it has likely digested 20-30K rounds in it's life.

Here's my studly self popping rounds up in the foothills above Colorado Springs, circa 1988...

My first was a High Standard Double Nine. It was my great-uncle's (who showed me the ropes when I got into muzzleloading) and I bought it at his estate sale. Well, Dad bought it since I was 19 at the time. My uncle knew I was into archery and specifically left me a 70's Bear Kodiak Magnum recurve which I still have, but I also wanted one of his firearms. Both my parent's remember he always carried it on his hip when he backpacked with them and went on canoeing and fishing trips, hence all the "love" it's had on the finish. It's still in my safe and I shoot it from time to time as it's my only .22 revolver for now. While it's a little rough around the edges and the trigger isn't the best, it's surprisingly accurate. It won't quite shoot with my Mark I and Buckmark but it will come darned close.

1988, I bought a SIG Sauer P-226 - still have it!

Charlie98 said:

When I first got to Fort Carson in 1897, as soon as I could I ran off to Gart Bros and bought a Browning Buckmark .22, for the princely sum of $179.99. Still have it, it has likely digested 20-30K rounds in it's life.

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Man, $179.99 would have been a princely sum back in 1897!

JTQ said:

Man, $179.99 would have been a princely sum back in 1897!

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Some days I feel that old... and some days my brain works faster than my fingers can type!

First I ever bought with my own money was a Ruger P97dc in 1998 I believe.

As to where it is, it’s in my safe. I had it out a while back for the first time in many years.

Owned would be a Colt Cobra 38 Special bought as a back up and off duty carry gun in 1964. Sold it when I left the police force in 1967.

Mine was an H&R 676 .22lr/.22mag convertible that my dad gave me for Christmas when I was 16, 41 Christmases ago. It is in my gun safe, still gets used around the farm. Great gun.

A Colt vest-pocket .25 clone of some sort.
I found it in a couch that had been put on the curb in front of our house by the previous residents, along with a bunch of other junk furniture.
I also found a hard-rubber 1911 in a drawer in that pile of junk.
When Mother saw the rubber gun she freaked out and took it away, so I didn't show her the .25.
I didn't get to keep it for long, though. Dad saw it when I was packing my red leather suitcase for our hitchhiking trip from Grants Pass, Oregon to Los Angeles. I'm pretty sure that it paid for coffee and cigarettes during the trip.
Who knows where it is now.
I had just turned six years old... .

6" Colt Python
Purchased late spring 1974
Stolen by some orc burglarizing my house, since replaced. Sadly, had no record of the serial number, learned my lesson on that detail.