hueyville
Member
39 years ago at the age of 12 my Dad gave me a v.w. bug for riding around the farm and a 22lr Ruger Mk1 Standard as my first handgun. He said if I mess up with either they both would go away. At 15 I purchased my first centerfire handgun with my own money. A 4" barrel Smith model 19 Combat Master. Same day I bought a Lee turret press, set of dies, bullet mold and 2 pounds of Bullseye powder. The local game warden who started me reloadiing at age 13 hooked me up with 500 once fired cases. From there the disease only grew worse. By legal age of 21 I owned over a dozen handguns. As the next almost 40 years have gone by I have had the priviledge of owning at one.point or another over 200 handguns. A few years ago I made the decision to thin my total collection to 100 handguns, 50 rifles and 25 shotguns. As I get closer to that goal each decision on what to cull next get more difficult.
Recently I had a student I have been working with for two years seriously ask the question if I had to decide on one handgun for life and only one what would it be. Geez, I could not even decide which 1911 varient I own would be my favorite. After some thought I threw spewed out my Dan Wesson 744VH with its interchangeable barrels from 2.5 to 10 inches. He called foul on the multi barrel capable out of production wheel gun. So more pondering till the point of pain.
I needed a choice that if plane crashed in the Alaskan wilderness, going to the grocery store, in the truck, at work, downtown in the city, or wherever. Only one, if it breaks you either fix yourself with tools on hand wherever or do without for life, have to carry conceiled for defence, fight off bears, target sboot, feed the family, basically any and all fireams tasks a man could be faced with.
After a few fuses in my head blew, replaced a cooling fan and the CPU I nailed it down to one particular style of which there are two choices. Both are 5 shot stainless 44 magnums. My Tarus Tracker 4" ported stainless 44 mag 5 sbot or Smith and Wessson Model 69 4.25" stainless 44 mag 5 shot. The reduced capacity cylinder thins and lightens these to help conceilment, drops weight to 34 and 37 ounces respectively. 4 to 4.25 inch barrels are easy enough to hide, long enough to be accurate easily to 150 yards. Simple and robust design very unlikely to malfunction or break. Can make a lot of the part with a piece of metal, file and patience. Has the horsepower to bust angry animals fairly well with good shot placement and with 44 special ammo quite pleasent to shoot. At present the Taurus with ported barrel is first in line but once the Smith gets magnaported, tritium insert in front sight ramp and tuned it will most likely step out front.
Recently I had a student I have been working with for two years seriously ask the question if I had to decide on one handgun for life and only one what would it be. Geez, I could not even decide which 1911 varient I own would be my favorite. After some thought I threw spewed out my Dan Wesson 744VH with its interchangeable barrels from 2.5 to 10 inches. He called foul on the multi barrel capable out of production wheel gun. So more pondering till the point of pain.
I needed a choice that if plane crashed in the Alaskan wilderness, going to the grocery store, in the truck, at work, downtown in the city, or wherever. Only one, if it breaks you either fix yourself with tools on hand wherever or do without for life, have to carry conceiled for defence, fight off bears, target sboot, feed the family, basically any and all fireams tasks a man could be faced with.
After a few fuses in my head blew, replaced a cooling fan and the CPU I nailed it down to one particular style of which there are two choices. Both are 5 shot stainless 44 magnums. My Tarus Tracker 4" ported stainless 44 mag 5 sbot or Smith and Wessson Model 69 4.25" stainless 44 mag 5 shot. The reduced capacity cylinder thins and lightens these to help conceilment, drops weight to 34 and 37 ounces respectively. 4 to 4.25 inch barrels are easy enough to hide, long enough to be accurate easily to 150 yards. Simple and robust design very unlikely to malfunction or break. Can make a lot of the part with a piece of metal, file and patience. Has the horsepower to bust angry animals fairly well with good shot placement and with 44 special ammo quite pleasent to shoot. At present the Taurus with ported barrel is first in line but once the Smith gets magnaported, tritium insert in front sight ramp and tuned it will most likely step out front.