My first centerfire was a new Model 39-2 purchased during the summer of 1973. I started loading for it with one of Lee's kits that you power with your own hammer. Ranges were not yet littered with free 9 mm brass. I rode the metro into Seattle to buy a 50 count box of virgin brass for $9.99 plus tax. (Remember those were 1973 dollars.) It was not long before I moved on to an RCBS Rockchucker, bullet lubricator sizer and Uniflow, an Ohaus scale and a Lyman bullet mold.

Along with my first two .22 automatics my 39-2 convinced me revolvers were the way to get better reliability and, from affordable centerfires, tighter groups. Let us now how yours shoots.