I like Saturday Night Specials

[25ACP]

Love 'em in fact. No I wouldn't carry one as a SD weapon (I carry a Kel-Tec P3AT concealed in town, and a Sig P229 openly in the woods) and I wouldn't enter a marksmanship competition with one, but I like shooting them just the same. I'm fairly new here, so I don't know if this subject has been brought up before, and if it has, I apologize, but I am wondering who else has a love for these cheap guns. I have read a few threads where people defended SNS as a good alternative for the poor, but I am wondering if anybody out there actually LIKES them. When I see a J-22 for $20 on Gunbroker, I get excited. how 'bout you? I love my Sig, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of my Ravens than anything else I own. I like to hear them go "Bang" and watch the sparks fly out of the barrel. Sometimes I even hit what I'm aiming at. with proper care and ammo, Most of these guns can be quite reliable and reasonably accurate. I particularly like the "ring of fire" guns, but any cheap, pot-metal gun piques my interest. RG gets me all worked up, where Glock doesn't (would I choose an RG over a Glock in a SD situation? Of course not!, but this isn't about SD, It's about having fun shooting cheap-ass guns). Feel free to attack the cheap guns I've mentioned, and to question my knowledge of guns in general. I know very little about guns, other than that I like them, in fact I recently made an ass out of myself on this very forum declaring that my Sig was Stainless (it is) and polymer (it's not), and had to be corrected by a senior member (I had to go look at my own gun to see) regarding my error. All I know is I like Guns. And With $1000, I can buy 1 1911, or 20 zinc cheapos, and I'll have lots more fun shooting the cheapos. Anybody else?

 

[boredelmo]

Whatever retains the buoyancy of your aquatic vehicle!

 

[PTK]

I tend to pick up any functional firearm that I see for $50 or less.

I have a few IJ .32 revolvers, a Phoenix or somesuch .22, and others.

Nothing wrong with a gun that goes BANG.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I can see the appeal of having more, less expensive, disposable (if one breaks you won't cry over finding parts), guns. You've got more toys to play with.

When I was a kid, I'd rather have 20 action figures than one really expensive one.


Also, that's a funny coincidence, PTK.

 

[PTK]

Virgil - best paycheck ever. It all went to ammo.

 

[Gord]

I'd happily pick up a POS .22 for $20 if I came across one. Between the gun and a box of ammo I'm out thirty bucks for a whole heck of a lot of noisemaking. Heck, the pawn shop would probably give me ten bucks for it once I go through the ammo.

I hear Phoenixes are pretty decent as el-cheapo potmetal .22 plinksters go, actually.

Anything bigger than .22 drifts into "liable to get a couple fingers blown off" territory. I'll stick with big-name guns for my centerfire shootiness.

 

[PTK]

I've never had one problem with any of the various larger caliber cheap firearms I've owned other than the expect extraction/ejection.

Nothing dangerous, that is.

 

[Gord]

I'd prefer not to tempt fate. Even if they're mechanically sound (who knows?) the zinc isn't going to last forever. It's doubtful that any potmetal gun gets shot enough to wear it out before it gets pawned, but again, who knows?

"Real" centerfires are cheap enough that there's no need for me to take the chance. Makarovs are $250. CZ-52s and S&W Model 10s are $150 or so. Hi-Points run around $100 new. I'd rather save a digit than twenty or thirty bucks.

 

[PTK]

The barrel is still steel, as are other critical parts. It's the frame that is zinc or other material, just as in a Glock with the polymer frame.

 

[Gord]

The frame is what all the sharp pointy bits of shrapnel are going to be exploding out of (or made out of, depending on how events unfold) in the case of a kB. It's just my preference to stick to centerfires made of "real metal" - I'm happy to acknowledge that there's a very low chance of a kB actually happening in any gun, even a cheapo.

 

[PTK]

To each his own. More for me!

 

[NASCAR_MAN]

Rich or poor....

Rich or poor...we are all entitled to the Second Amendment. This means: ifsome of us can afford Kimbers - and others just Hi-Points, then so be it. Point is this, having a gun is always better than not having a gun when the Bad Guys show up at your door. The research of Gary Kleck validates this insofar as he shows that Defensive Gun Uses - which number about 2.5 Million per year - rarely end up in deaths - about 3000 justifiable homicides per year.

What...that's 1 per 1000: doesn't that say something in favor of the American Soul?

 

[Gord]

What...that's 1 per 1000: doesn't that say something in favor of the American Soul?

Would that the antis saw it that way. They're too busy grieving over the largely self-imposed deaths of their voting constituents to notice.

 

[jrfoxx]

I've got an RG model 23 .22lr revolver that my dad bought brand new in the 80's for like $30 I think he said.Its ugly, the sights are crappy, andits not real accurate, but with the right ammo, it works plenty god for plinking cans, plastic army men, stuffed animals, and such.
Here's a pic to get 25ACP all hot and bothered....

 

[lovesafron]

Why

Why you prefer chipos only there are other better option you have..

 

[Logan5]

I've got a couple that the great grandparents bought in the 1880's, and for the most part they're chambered for fairly heavy cartriges, .44 Colt and so on. My favorite has pidgin english barrel stampings and is bent like a bananna from being used as a hammer to put up picture frame hangers.
I can sort of feel the excitement though; my local gunshop collects them all year long, then auctions them in random lots of five for $200. People apparently snap those up.

 

[dasmi]

Post your Saturday Night Special pictures!

 

[Guntalk]

To even entertain a thread about "Saturday Night Specials" is like shooting yourself in the stomach.

I guess many of today's gun guys are too young to remember the fights we had about SNS 30 years ago, before the so-called "assault weapons" were the gun banner term of choice.

At that time, we had bills introduced into Congress that would ban "Saturday Night Specials" which included, among others, a Ned Buntline (long barrel) single action Colt revolver costing about a thousand dollars -- and that was in the 1970's.

"Saturday Night Special" is an infinitely expandable term, just as is "assault weapon," because it has no definition.

For responsible gun owners to discuss this in a public thread as though there actually was a category of firearm called the "Saturday Night Special" is just self-destructive.

 

[Z71]

I've owned a few El Cheapo's over the years. Came to the conclusion, that you get what you pay for!

You buy a $50 dollar Raven or Jennings, and you got a gun for sure, just not a very good one.

Not to say all the cheap ones are bad. I remember an RG revolver in .22 caliber that worked quite decent, and was an excellent shooter. Bought a brand new J-22 once that was the same way, reliable and surprisingly accurate.

Then there is the Bryco .380 pistol. That gun was bought new by a buddy, and it never did work right. The factory wouldn't fix it, I tried to fix it with modest success, but it was still a huge POS! The FIE .22 single action Peacemaker clone I bought new, that had huge cylinder gap. That .22 shot ok, but was as noisy as a .357mag! Also leaded the barrel bad every few cylinders full of shells. It was a joke!

I don't know, but just seems to be a huge chance the cheap handguns are going to be a hunk of crap. Maybe fun to tinker on, but very real potential for heart-breaking performance!

I would rather spend $100 or so and buy a beatup Mauser, or a Mosin Nagant, maybe a Nagant revolver and get a gun that works! Maybe spend a few hundred bucks and get a police trade in Smith&Wesson or SIG auto.

You guy's that feel the need can buy up the "Saturday Night Specials". These cheapo guns are cheap a couple reasons, lesser quality materials, and indifferent craftsmanship!

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Do a search on "Saturday Night Special" and you'll find that it has its roots in racial bigotry. We don't do that here.

If you want to start a similar thread, in the right forum, with a better title, feel free.

Closed.