I've owned maybe upwards of 10 of them over 30 years or so. In the mid-late 80's and early 90's before they went out of business the first time in St. Paul, MN, I worked just down the street from their tiny little building they marketed and manufactured from. Became fairly good friends with the original gunsmiths/workers, office staff, and Dan Coonan himself. I have the most embarrassing story about Dan teaching me about shooting pistols. I'd grown up shooting rifles and shotguns fairly proficiently hunting and such, and my first pistol was a Ruger MKII .22 lr that I shot very well, and then made the mistake of moving up to my first center fire pistol and cartridge, the Coonan .357 Mag Auto.
So I'm guessing around 86-87 I saved up and got my first Coonan (having already made friends with all of them in the plant) and good ole' sarcastic Dan said to me, "Hah!, you're going to hate the gun when you shoot it, because you won't know how to shoot it." I thought I'll show him, and took it to the range a couple times and to a bowling pin falling plate competition that I'd always wanted to try out. Well he was right that I was starting not to like the gun. It had a fixed rear adjustable only for windage, and it consistently shot low and to the left. I learned to aim high and right to compensate, but this gun wasn't accurate. (you know where this is going don't you?)
So the next Mon I brought it back after hours and met with Dan and the other smiths, and they asked how I did. I told them Dan was right except it wasn't me, but the gun is way off. Yep, I got the eye rolls from the guys and Dan said (always with a cigarette in his mouth smoke crawling up into his eyes), "ok, lets go downstairs and see what's wrong with it". They had a short range in the basement maybe 25' long like a tiny cement tunnel with a wall of railroad ties as the back stop for testing the guns before shipping, issues, etc. Anyway Dan just shot the first hole in a blank sheet of paper, and took his time the second shot and appeared to miss. I said there you go, off the paper. Same cigarette in his mouth he mumbled to go back up stairs as he knew what was wrong with the gun. (yeah he was gonna punish me good) So upstairs I asked what he thought was wrong with it, and he said "I know exactly what's wrong with it, Hah! it's the shooter, you!!" I asked how that could be when he missed the paper on the second shot, at which point he said sarcastically (Dan was always sarcastic in a weird funny way) "It went in the same hole dummy." Turns out Dan was an accomplished slow fire bullseye shooter. Then he said "see, I told you you couldn't shoot it correctly", and then he mumbled about the trigger being better than typical.. Anyway, after being the laughing stock for a few minutes and swallowing my pride, I asked if he would show me how to shoot it "correctly" I'd be grateful. He said "sure, it's actually easy, you have a flinch problem." So he basically taught me proper grip, stance, trigger control, etc.. Dan first taught me I really didn't know how to shoot a pistol, and then how to. I really improved at the pin and plate matches working my way from mid to last place all the way up to a consistent 3rd to 7th depending on the champion guys showing up or not. So yeah, I have some experience with Coonan pistols. I only have one Coonan Model B left from all the years. I really regret that now....
Sorry for the long story, but your post made me remember it. So here's a couple pics.
This was my competition pistol from around 92-96. I designed the 2 chamber 6 port compensator and Danny built it for me. Yeah it was pricey even back then. That was also some of the first TiN coating in MN I could find for the bull barrel.
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This is a 35mm camera shot from the late 80's a friend took of me shooting..
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And this is the only Coonan Model B Custom I have left with a stock 5" barrel and also a 5.5" barrel with a compensator that can be switched out.
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