BobWright
Member
Folks elsewhere have been discussing "Classic Handguns" and there seems to be no definition of what makes a handgun a Classic. May I offer the following?
To be a classic, in my opinion at least, a handgun must be all steel, blued, and maybe with non structural parts maybe of brass. Grips should be either walnut or some exotic tropical hardwood, or ivory, bone or stag. Parts to be forged or machined, not castings nor sintered metals.
And the gun should be sire to later improved models. And it should have enjoyed a fairly long production run and reached a good amount of popularity. It should have the reputation for being accurate and reliable.
So far as I see it, the Colt cap-and-ball revolvers such as the 1851 Navy and 1860 Army fall into this category, as does the Single Action Army Model 1873. And the top break S&W revolvers, as well as both the early double action hand ejector revolvers from both Colt and Smith & Wesson. Expense need not be a criteria, and the Harrington & Richardson and Iver Johnson top breaks should be considered in this class.
As to auto pistols, the Browning designed Colts must fall into this category, and the High Standard auto pistols. Too, the famed Luger P-08 and the Walther P-38, and the PP series pistols.
That's the way I see it. Much like the classic car era, "Classic" sort of ended around the close of WW II.
Bob Wright
To be a classic, in my opinion at least, a handgun must be all steel, blued, and maybe with non structural parts maybe of brass. Grips should be either walnut or some exotic tropical hardwood, or ivory, bone or stag. Parts to be forged or machined, not castings nor sintered metals.
And the gun should be sire to later improved models. And it should have enjoyed a fairly long production run and reached a good amount of popularity. It should have the reputation for being accurate and reliable.
So far as I see it, the Colt cap-and-ball revolvers such as the 1851 Navy and 1860 Army fall into this category, as does the Single Action Army Model 1873. And the top break S&W revolvers, as well as both the early double action hand ejector revolvers from both Colt and Smith & Wesson. Expense need not be a criteria, and the Harrington & Richardson and Iver Johnson top breaks should be considered in this class.
As to auto pistols, the Browning designed Colts must fall into this category, and the High Standard auto pistols. Too, the famed Luger P-08 and the Walther P-38, and the PP series pistols.
That's the way I see it. Much like the classic car era, "Classic" sort of ended around the close of WW II.
Bob Wright