chaim
Member
My biggest gun surprise was the Winchester 94 in 30-30. When I first started shooting I didn't think I'd be too into lever guns. I love history, but a lever gun wasn't old enough tech (Civil War and earlier) or new enough (WWI and WWII) to really interest me. Additionally, at the time I really wanted some modern military type rifles (mainly the AR 15). Well, it was early in my gun purchases and I had many holes in the "collection" and I didn't have a lot of money. I wanted a full-powered rifle (I did have an SKS), but at the store the Winchester 94 was about half the price of the bolt rifles and more than half the price of the Remington 7400 or BAR. With my limited funds that was attractive, and at around $250 I figured if I didn't like it much I didn't lose much. With that as the primary purchase justification needless to say I didn't expect much. It quickly became my favorite gun (including handguns) and the lever rifle remains so to this day. That 30-30 now competes with a Winchester 94 in .45LC for my favorite gun title. Oh, as for that bolt rifle I wanted, it came around 1 1/2 yrs later, the BAR or Rem 7400 haven't come yet, and the AR only came this past Dec (about 2 1/2 years later). The AR that I really wanted back then came on the same day as the Win 94 in .45LC and almost waited longer as I almost bought a Navy Arms Winchester 1865 or 1873 clone along with the Win 94 instead, and I may yet sell that AR to get one of the Navy Arms Winchester clones. Did I meantion that I love lever rifles now.
The next biggest surprises are: 1) how good my Charles Daly 1911 is (they don't have a great rep, and mines been quite good), 2) how much I love 1911s (I bought the 1911 to see if I'd like them, until I shot them they didn't do much for me), and 3) that I finally found a caliber I like more than .357mag (.41mag as shot out of my S&W 57).
The next biggest surprises are: 1) how good my Charles Daly 1911 is (they don't have a great rep, and mines been quite good), 2) how much I love 1911s (I bought the 1911 to see if I'd like them, until I shot them they didn't do much for me), and 3) that I finally found a caliber I like more than .357mag (.41mag as shot out of my S&W 57).