My Handgun History

[Kleanbore]

This is not another revolver vs semi-auto post. It is my handgun story, and it started when Ike was in his first term.

When I was a young kid, my grandfather kept a loaded double action revolver in .32 S&W Long on the open shelf of his bed-side table. I have it now.

His son-in-law kept a loaded nickel plated Colt .45 Automatic in a holster under his pillow.

My dad's sister-in-law had a solid frame revolver in .32 S&W in a drawer in her dressing room.

None of these people carried.

My dad never had a handgun. He didn't like them

I was given a first edition (1944) Gun Digest and a 1953 Shooter's Bible. I spent most of my time looking at the DA revolvers, though the Colt Woodsman appealed to me.

When I started driving, a friend's Army officer dad kept his issue .45 at home, and he had a .38 Police Positive Special. We shot those and another guy's Luger. At the time, I had no preference for revolvers or semiautomatics.

Gun books listed the pros and cons of semi-autos and revolvers. Semi-autos were flatter, could be reloaded more quickly, and were much easier to keep running in mud. One could use a variety of loads in revolvers.

I wanted a Combat Masterpiece for home defense, but SAC AP and other military orders prevented my getting one, and I bought a S&W Model 39.

I now carry a handgun, concealed. I carry a semiautomatic because it is flatter, it has higher capacity than a concealable center fire revolver, and I can fire it more rapidly while scoring hits--and score better, too.

Age and surgeries have made racking a slide more of a problem The Shield 9 EZ is a dream, but every now and then a bone spur on my left elbow will cause a tendon problem to act up. When that happens, I carry a Kimber K6a. I toy with the idea of getting a Colt King Cobra three inch revolver.

Other than that, I carry the same thing every day.

Reliability? I've had next to no issues with my carry piece(s) in a dozen years. A friend, however was really shaken when the cylinder on his S&W Model 60 jammed up and required gunsmithing. The issue is common enough to merit a number of youtube videos. Anyone with the tools can fix it, but it has to be done at your workbench.

An attorney friend of mine is one of the people who are now buying firearms for the first time. I offered to sell him an XDS 9 4.0 or a 3" Model 60. His friends who carry and shoot a lot have talked him into the former.

I do not shoot as much as I would like, or as much as I should. The priority has to be on maintaining proficiency with the carry guns.

But for fun, I still have no real preference between the revolver and the semiauto, at least among the center fires.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Both of my Grandfathers served in the Pacific in WW2. Grandpa Ray carried a 1911 as a supply Sgt. in Australia, but Grandpa Mario, who suffered from severe PTSD after combat on Okinawa and Leyte, claimed he didnt remember what he carried. Neither owned a firearm after the war.

My Father got into target shooting in the '60s, but didnt own a handgun until about 1990. It was a Rohm RG38.....he still has it, taped to the inside of his master bathroom toilet tank in a freezer bag! Dont ask......

Thankfully, his tastes matured and he eventually ended up with many nice handguns. His nightstand gun is either a M1917 S&W or a Ballaster Molina depending on the season.

The only gun I ever knew him to carry was a little H&R Vestpocket .32. He sometimes wears a vest and actually slips it in the pocket.

My first was a long-lost and well-missed M681. Last purchase was a Colt Police Positive. Lots of nice handguns have come and gone in between.......

 

[DR505]

My first LE gun was a S&W Model 27 4” and later I received a Colt 1911 the day I got my commission in the USN. I love Smith N Frames and 1911s. I have others, but prefer handguns in one of those two configurations.

My parents did not care for guns so I never grew up around them. I was a military history buff and became interested in firearms through that route.

 

[Rock185]

My handgun history started with a .22 rifle. My Dad was a depression era farm boy, and WWII veteran. He was a Salt-of-the-Earth type guy and good Dad. But he never owned a gun as far as I know. Nobody in my extended family owned a gun far as I know, but I liked guns, airplanes, cars, and most anything mechanical from an early age. My Mom got me a single shot .22 rifle for Christmas when I was about 10. I'd told my favorite uncle I wanted to get a "cowboy" gun someday, meaning a lever action. That uncle gave me an old '94 Winchester .30-30 when I was about 12, IIRC. He became even more of a favorite after that, and I still have that old Winchester.

I'd shot a handgun or two prior, but as a young man the first handgun I can recall purchasing was a ratty, unreliable, old DWM Luger. Afterwards, I purchased or was issued a wide variety of guns, most of which were actually reliable

 

[.455_Hunter]

Growing-up, the only handgun in the house was a family relic .32 Iver Johnson with a loose goose action and cracked forcing cone. We had a couple of elk rifles and a .410 single-shot.

All of that changed when I was 13, where my blossoming interest in guns, my older brother's (late 20's) own growing collection and a sudden mountain lion population explosion in our area all came together. My brother gave my Dad his Ruger Single-Six convertible and I picked-out an Enfield .38 DAO at the LGS. I carried the Enfield frequently for the next eight years. My brother also to had to send the rest of his handguns to us, as he was moving to NY for a job near Ilion, and that added a C96, P08, Beretta 950, .357 Desert Eagle and a Gen 1 G17 to the mix.

For my 18th B-day in 1994, my Dad bought us each a CZ-52, the gun that was on my hip for the "motorcycle scenario" I posted in S&T. Being a poor college underclassman, nothing new showed-up until my 21st B-day, when a minty Ruger .357 Service-Six was my present to myself. A .45 Vaquero, 6" Model 28 and a Russian Nagant soon followed over the next year. One of my first Active Duty Army O1 paychecks covered a NIB S&W Model 60-12 in August 1998. Reaching my duty station and being a bachelor junior officer with an off-post roommate caused an flurry of purchases in the next couple of years.

The rest is history...

 

[huntsman]

My dad’s SD gun was his Matchtarget 2nd series he kept loaded in his dresser.

I bought my first handgun (Blackhawk) in 1982, owned only revolvers till 2003.

Got my CCW in 2009, CC semiautos since.

 

[bannockburn]

After my Dad got back from Europe after WWII (he lost his leg and was a POW for 4 months), he had no interest in owning any guns. Before the war he was interested in Remington and Winchester .22 target rifles.

My earliest handguns were an Astra 600 bought from a friend of a friend, a Webley Mk.IV picked up at a flea market, and a Charter Arms Undercover which I carried nearly everywhere I went in a Bianchi #9 shoulder holster.

 

[Old Dog]

I do not shoot as much as I would like, or as much as I should. The priority has to be on maintaining proficiency with the carry guns.

Think you speak for most of us here.

But for fun, I still have no real preference between the revolver and the semiauto, at least among the center fires.

Yep, that's the one official position that I, as one who works for a government, am directed to follow -- and agree with: Celebrate diversity!

 

[grammontS]

I am still very new to being a gunowner , shot guns as a kid with my father ( Vietnam Vet) at times for fun , always enjoyed the fun of shooting , but never thought I could get licensed because of being a bit of a trouble maker as a youth. Finally took the course and applied for a LTC a year ago , guess I wasn't as bad as a kid as I thought I was .....lol
I don't own anything fancy , but in the last year I've bought a Dan Wesson 15-2 and a 14-1 , my girlfriend bought me a little Beretta Nano , I've also bought a SW Victory , a Canik TP9 SF , Savage bolt action .223 , a Remington 870 , a H&R. 22 revolver , and recently a RIA 9mm . I guess you can say that I've been bitten by the bug.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

TL/DR I have owned just about every kind of handgun, and every kind of action that there is. I got training I don't like manual safeties. I sold them all and bought 9 mm Glocks. /TL/DR.

This is a really long story and I'm going to make it as short as I can. The day I got out of the Army (1995) I bought the first handgun I ever owned, a Smith & Wesson model 915. Over the next 3 years I acquired a bunch of different guns. I bought whatever caught my fancy. I bought all the guns that I thought were cool growing up.

Right before I got married (1998) I got rid of all of them and for 10 years the only gun in my house was a NEF .22 caliber revolver that we kept in a lock box under a pile of junk in the garage. I didn't even think we had ammunition for it.

In 2007 or 2008 my wife and I sat down and we decided that we needed to buy a little bigger gun than the 22. I ended up buying an RIA 1911 because that's what I had exposure to in the Army.

I took my concealed handgun course with that gun but before I even got my permit my wife told me that she wanted me to buy a .40 S&W because she thought it would be cheaper than a .45.

I looked around and I ended up with a CZ 75B in .40 S&W. It was actually one of the best handguns I ever owned and decided that it would be a good idea for me to get a smaller gun that was compatible with the 75B, something that would take the 75B magazines but was smaller for when I needed more concealment. I ended up with a CZ Rami that I never could get to work right. I sent it back to the factory three or four times and they could never get it to feed reliably but the concept of magazine compatibility stuck with me.

To make a long story short again I ended up with a bunch of different guns in a bunch of different calibers and I got so busy chasing the next gun that I didn't have any money to stock up on magazines or ammunition. Then the Ammo Panic hit and I couldn't find ammunition to save my life. In the middle of that I decided if it ever eased up I was never going to get caught short like that again.

In 2012 I joined my church's security team. The reason that's relevant is because their insurance rider required that all team members who weren't police officers attend biannual professional training and qualify with the handgun that they were carrying biannually. It was the first actual training I was ever exposed to.

To make a long story short again, the more training I got the more I wanted to simplify the process as much as I could. So I stopped "rotating" my carry guns and decided to limit myself to one platform, third generation S&W.

In 2013 three things happened.
1. Colorado passed magazine capacity restrictions.

2. The security company that I worked for got to go ahead from the client to arm all of their guards.

3. During a training session with my church I had a malfunction with the gun that I was carrying (SW6906) and when I did the Tap,Rack, Roll drill I engaged the safety on the gun by accident and it (Obviously) wouldn't fire. I decided then and there did I was never going to carry a gun with an external safety on it again.

I sat down with my wife and together we decided we were going to sell almost every gun we owned and start over. Long story short again we decided it had to be something on my employer's approved list and it had to be in a caliber that my wife could shoot. With the exception of a couple guns that I had bought in Private Sales and a 22 caliber bolt-action rifle, we sold everything and bought a Smith & Wesson M&P 9 and the Smith & Wesson M&P Shield.

About six months later I discovered the M&P 9C and I traded in my Shield for that because of capacity, magazine compatibility with the M&P 9, and the fact that it was small enough to carry at home.

I chose S&W over Glock because it was an American company and I'd rather put an American to work than an Austrian but while I was doing my research I couldn't overlook the fact that if I had bought a Glock 19 instead it would have taken the place of both of the guns that I bought.

I never really liked the way the M&P 9C fit in my hand. So after year I sold it and I bought a Glock 19. My wife fell madly in love with it. And she bought a Glock 19 and then she bought a Glock 43.

On Thanksgiving of 2018 I was attacked buy a meth head truck driver at work. He was upset that the shipping company and took the holiday off and that I wasn't authorized to sign for his load.

It was an unarmed assignment and I decided I was never again going to go to work without a gun. I bought a Glock 26 which is sitting right in front of me as I type this.

As far as I'm concerned we are done buying guns. We only have to buy one caliber of handgun ammunition. We only have to stock two kinds of magazines and the standard magazines for all of our guns are currently legal in Colorado. All of our carry guns are functionally identical. None of our carry guns have an external safety

 

[bikerdoc]

1966 my first gun was a 357 Ruger police service. Later that year the army introduced me to the1911.

54 years later they both have a place, and it is notch higher than my CZ's ( the CZ has the same manual of arms as the1911)
Budget has always got in the way of getting a CZ 97 in 45.

 

[GEM]

SW 38 revolvers to Glock 9mm (with a diversion to 40, sold it). Then 1911s and some playing around with 22s for steel and plinking. The 32s for fun and lightweight J frame. Some 380, not so sure about them - they may go.

 

[Mike J]

My first handgun was a Star chambered for 9x18. I bought it at a gun show in the early 90's. I wound up trading it to my at the time hunting partner for a Mossberg 20 gauge. Next came a Dan Wesson model 15-2 .357 I found in a pawn shop back around '95 for $100. Then I went to a gun show in the late 90's & impulse bought a Ruger P-series. I wanted a semi-auto but I really was not knowledgeable. I bought it because I thought if it was made by Ruger it should be decent. I did not have a Georgia Weapons License or carry unless I was in the woods.
Fast forward to 2007. I had gotten married my oldest daughter was about 2 1/2 & my younger daughter was 1. My sister-in-law was going through a divorce & her & her kids were living with us. My wife & I were in Wal-Mart with our 2 girls & had her nephew (30 days younger than my older girl) with us. I started thinking about how long it took to get my wife & all the kids moving in the same direction. It made me think what would happen if someone came along that intended us harm. I knew I couldn't bail on them so I needed to have something to enable me to face whatever messed up situation might arise. I decided to start carrying.
So I got my GWL & started trying to become proficient with the Ruger P94. I started reading the forum boards, doing dry fire practice to learn the DA/SA trigger & replaced the Uncle Mikes holster that I quickly realized was junk. Everything I was reading online was saying striker fired was the way to go so I wound up getting a XD-40. Then I wanted something smaller so I got a Kel-Tec P-11. After some years of carrying the P-11 I decided I wanted something that seemed more solid. I bought a PT-111 G2. The PT-111 G2 with its G-26 length slide & G-19 sized grip made me realize I could most likely easily conceal a larger firearm. I wound up picking up a M&P 2.0 COMPACT with a 4" barrel. As far as carry goes that is pretty much where I am now. I do also have a Kahr CM-9 as a smaller option but I prefer the M&P as it easier to shoot well. Now I find myself wanting a 9mm double stack subcompact. I am somewhat interested in the P-365. I believe it would be large enough to be easy to shoot well but small enough to be easy to hide. I seem to always be looking for a better mousetrap.