The Second Amendment makes no distinction between the Smith & Wesson and the lowliest brand. To each his own.

Whether she could recite the Second Amendment or not, that lady knew her right to defend herself - and the youth got the message.

Regards,

Dyson

Yesterday the news had a story about an 84 year old woman using a handgun to discourage a youth (who was just turning his life around BTW) from breaking down her front door. The police were able to apprehend the youth and even reloaded her pistol for her. After all, the police probably knew the local judicial system would have the youth back on the street before the story hit the news.

Anyway, the story mentioned the woman owned a 22 revolver and they had her holding what looked like a RG, Falcon or another of those black, aluminum framed revolvers you could buy for $19.95 in the 70's. It had probably been setting loaded since the 70's "just in case".

I have an unexplainable fondness for cheap firearms. As long as they shoot reliably is doesn't really matter how cheap they are made, how ugly they may look or how little they cost.

A few of my former fellow officers would make fun of anyone carrying a cheap handgun until I showed them what they could really do. They may not last a lifetime but if you're on the wrong end of one they'll last longer than yours.

RG, wow, that brings back some bad memories. I had an RG .22revolver that threw as much lead backward as it did forward. I tried to hit a beer can from about 10 feet and missed it. It really hurt to shoot it. I sold it for 7 bucks and went and got a 12 pk.

gordon

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better have that checked

I'm a lot like "Jellybean". The cheapies are kinda interesting. And they will do what a gun is 'sposed to, even if they won't stand up to prolonged use. (because thats not what they were made for)

I have two RGs. One is a great little gun; the other is a paperweight. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.

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Insert short witty words here

I've had it in mind to go buy a Hi-Point in 9MM or .45 for the hell of it,I know they're ugly SOB's and may not last forever but it'd be fun to just try out

And hell it's under $200.

I have a raven arms .25 auto that I paid $20 for at a gun show. That stupid liitle thing shoots every time you pull the trigger. I was shocked.


snakeman

I have an I.N.A. copy of a S&W snubby I bought for $35 in 1969. Groups well when I do my part but it is definitely not a Smith & Wesson. I also have a couple $80 Marlin .22 rifles I got on sale at Dick's 2 years ago. Perfect for leaving in a vehicle with a brick of ammo 'just in case'.

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Infected by Smith&Wesson

I picked up an FIE Titan .25acp a long time ago for $25. Took it to the range and was floored to find that it shot POA and never malfunctioned once in 25 rounds. Second range session, more of the same. All told I probably put 250 trouble free rounds through it. Gave it away a year or so later but learned not to dismiss anything as junk until I knew personally it was junk.

20-25 dollars was a lot of money "back in the day". Once upon a time both Sig P210s and S&W 39s (before they were called that) retailed for around 120 to 130 dollars (suggested retail price).

I've had decent luck with cheap guns though. My wife has a Lorcin .25 that I traded a couple of boxes of .45 ammo to get her. Seems oddly functional once I cleaned it and put a nice set of pink grips on it for her.

I did buy one of the 9mm's a few years ago. That thing runs like a new car. I put a couple thousand rounds through it back when 9mm ammo was cheap. IIRC, I had a half dozen malfunctions in that run, and four of them came out of one box of "range reloads" so I suspect they were more ammo related than gun. It hits where I aim it about as well as any gun I own. I don't see any sign of what I'd call "unusual" wear on the thing.

It's no Smith & Wesson or Colt, or even a Glock, but it was $149.00 NIB when I got it. I don't shoot it anymore, but I do still have it. It's worth nothing on a trade, so I'll keep it, just in case.

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John 3:16 .

I've always had a fondness for the little H&R and IJ top break revolvers. I actually bought a Hi Point carbine a month or so ago just out of morbid curiosity. I had sold my 9mm pistol but still had a few thousand rounds of 9mm reloads. So I figured I'd use the carbine to plink up the reloads then sell it. Now I have no intention of selling it, too much fun.

I still miss those little Davis derringers you could buy for $60 ;D. I fired one Cobra and it was almost nonfunctional because of the heavy trigger pull..

In the early 80s I picked up a NIB "NEF" 32 mag 5 shot revolver for about $75. Shot a couple cylinders full and put it in a drawer as a stealth can opener. Left it untouched for about a decade.

Took it out to shoot it. Was shocked to find it wouldn't work at all. Not gummed up, the cylinder would free fall and the trigger wouldn't release the sear in either SA or DA.

Traded it to an unfavorite gun dealer I knew.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I got my first exposure to cheap pistols a couple of weeks ago when a close relative said, "I have this pistol that was given to me as a gift and it won't feed the first round out of the magazine. Do you suppose you could take a look at it"?

Wanting to help out I naturally said yes and he proceeds to bring out a Jennings/Bryco model 58, 9mm. I didn't know anything about these guns other than recall hearing they were cheap 'Saturday night specials'. The gun feels like it weighs 5 lbs. and I have never in my life seen a feed ramp that was so jacked up.

When I returned home I jumped on the internet to do some research on the gun and now I'm not sure I want to touch it.

I guess like most folks here, I have brands like S&W, Colt, and Beretta. But then there is the group of people trying to make ends meet, to them that word "Cheap" dosen't exist. Like many others I've seen Saturday Night Specials that I have taken a liking to, don't own any myself.

And then there is the cheap rifle, Marlin 60, love that guy.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Back in the early 80's I had a Raven .25 that was reliable and would keep them in the chest at 25 yards with no problem. Bought it for $35 new and sold it 10 years later for $45. Still miss it. Replaced it with a Jennings which I still own. It is my pocket pistol when I am doing yard work and such. A little more accurate than the Raven but no quite so reliable. It really seems to like those Aguila 60gr. SSS loads. I also have Davis 22mag. and .38spl. derringers and have had no problem with either of them.

I distinguish between "cheap" as in "inexpensive" and "cheap" as in "poor quality". I recall an independent gun review magazine I read in 1980, the authors tested a cheapo German made .357, they said it looked and felt like junk but was amazingly accurate. My cheapest-i.e. least expensive handgun is my pre-war Enfield No. 2 Mk I, paid $35.00 for it in 1972. Paid $110 for my Colt Trooper .357 then.

Wayne02, I happen to have a Jennings/Bryco model 58 I bought used. It came with two magazines and when I tried to shoot it it would jam every time. Then I switched magazines, never had a failure since and threw the first mag away. Many of the cheap autos have that problem, poor quality control on the magazines which are often outsourced. As a side note, it is amazingly accurate and draws a crowd everytime I shoot it, especially at the 100 yard range.

Horseless Trooper, the Jennings .22s were designed to shoot CCIs minimags. Other hot loads will work too, but milder ones will cause failures.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

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Centennial Every Day

while not exactly in the same class as those, i have an old .32 hand ejector that belonged to a little old lady so the story goes........they dont fetch much and i'd trade it for some 10mm ammo, but i have no doubt that a 98gr. .32s&w long LRN will kill you quite dead.

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I'm only allowed 30 characters

In my collection of guns, I have two cheap guns. They are so cheap if I lost them, I would have to put $5 with them in order to say I lost anything.

One is a Davis Industries .32 derringer. It has been in my desk drawer for 35+ years.

The other is a Titan Tiger .38 spec, with a four inch barrel. I have not fired it in maybe 30 years but assume it wil still shoot.

Maybe one day they will be nice guns to own. I remember when Taurus was considered a cheap quality gun and now they make a fine firearm. In the next hundred years, maybe Titan will be such that I can get a few dollars out of it.

Davis is a lost cause.

Many, many moons ago a guy at work was hard up and needed 10 bucks so he sold me a foreign single-shot .22 LR derringer with no markings for that lofty sum.

I was never brave enough to actually try to fire it, and eventually disposed of it.

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Only a cold warrior

Just as we have this forum devoted to S&W firearms, there is a forum devoted to Saturday Night Specials which can provide useful information and tips from other owners and users of these guns. bryco-jennings-jimenezarms.com :: Index Someone there can probably help with "smithing" these. Usually one needs a nail file or a dremel tool and these things can be fluff and buffed ala Kel Tecs. All I had to do to get the Lorcin to work was clean it and tweak a few things. Many of the autos are also quite ammo sensitive. Davis guns for example work best with Federal ammunition. Many other cheap autos run well on S&B, particularly .25s.

If I remember right, Titan is the same as either Rossi or Taurus, INA was another old label for these. Beats throwing rocks. Lots of interesting guns came into the country before the GCA '68 came into effect. Just page through the old gun mags.

I bought a NIB .40 Hi Point for $160.00 out the door. It shot dead on, first shot I split the crosshairs on the sight-in target at 30 feet. It eats everything that I have thrown in it, Federal, WWB, Blazer brass, even shoots the Magtech Guardian Golds that my SW40VE REFUSES to feed. I have about 500 rounds through it with no problems. The lifetime, no questions asked warranty is just that...
I found that out when I bought a neglected 9mm C9 Comp model from a coworker for $150.00 with a hard case, two mags and the Hi Point laser setup for it. A quick teardown and I found a few things that needed some work, but nothing safety-wise that prevented me from a trial shooting.
After resetting the adjustable sights from the three foot high impact point at 20 feet, I shot well under 3" circles with it, fed about 50 rounds through it that day. One FTE and one light strike.
I called the toll free number at Hi Point, gave them the serial number, and they mailed me out the new design firing pin and springs assembly, a new extractor key and spring, a new recoil spring and a new trigger, just for the heck of it... no questions asked.
Three days later, mailman handed me the package.

Now about 1k rounds through it and it functions flawlessly, is a blast to shoot and accurate as hell! I love cheap guns, especially when they work! A lot of people complain about FTF's, but in my experience its always been magazine problems.
And if nothing else, smacking someone upside the head with one of these would put them down and out like a brick.

My first handgun was an FIE Titan .25 that I bought new for about $30 in 1967, as soon as I turned 21. It never misfired and I could roll a pop can with it at 10 yds. I sold it to a deputy sheriff to use as a BUG. Wish I'd have kept it.

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Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

I, like several other folks, am intrigued by the cheap firearms. I had always heard nothing but bad things about RG's, but when I saw a 4 inch barreled RG 39 in a pawn shop a few years ago, I was suprised. it seemed to be all steel and the cylinder locked up tight. Now, I want to track one down and make up my own mind.

Were I in the market for a cheap handgun, I'd go with an Eastern Bloc surplus over a Hi-Point or Jiminez, any day of the weak. That said, I own a Hi-point 995 carbine I picked up at a garage sale, and the wife has a Davis Industries packed away somewhere.

I still have the used Titan that I bought / carried in my pocket during drug deals back in the 80s. Still has the white-out I 'painted' on the front sight. I shoot it every few years for sentimental reasons.

I don't particularly care for cheap machinery, but I own several Lee products. In actual guns, I once had a Charter Arms Bulldog which was flawless in function, although to get the (excellent!) grips to fit the frame without moving, I had to glue in a shim cut from a wooden matchstick. Reminded me of my first car, an A-H Sprite.

I think the RG's were produced in different levels of quality. I dated a woman a couple years age who had a RG .22. She asked me to take a look at it. It was definitely all steel, no potmetal/aluminum. Not a Smith, Colt or a Ruger but not a bad little gun. Shot OK for a small fixed sight revolver.

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Jim
Many K and N Frames

In my almost thirty four years of LE, I always figured that the law abiding poor folks had a right to self defense. I worked more justifiable homocides that were committed with cheap pistols and shotguns than any of the higher priced spread.

A Clerk, Raven or Lorican is a gun that will shoot you today and you'll die next week gun. Or a single barrel .410 guage shotgun will really kill you from across the room.

So I'm an advocate of self defense for every law abiding citizen, no matter their socio economic status.

Rule 303

Anything can break, I just like to keep the odds in my favor. I'll stick with the "better" brands.

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Go big or stay home

Some very strict constitutional scholars maintain that the 2nd *only* applies to arms suitable for militia purposes, such as full autos, etc. I haven't heard of any case law to support that, however.

I might be willing to give up my 642 in favor of a SAW...

Interesting thread.

Long ago when I was a youth I had several "cheap" guns.

RG10 22S, S for short but can shoot LRs and did. It shot good and better than the deluxe model (15 or 20?) which required several trigger pulls to fire six shots. This model 10 means you have to unscrew the pin and drop the cylinder to load. Also the pin is used to poke the shells out.

Jennings 22 LR, Shot a full mag and then nothing but jams and FTEs thereafter. I took it back and got a Raven 25.

Raven 25, terrific gun. Accurate enough to shoot 25 yards, I've done it.

Titan 25, another terrific gun. I carried it with the round in the pipe and hammer on half cock.

Unknown 22 revolver, it starts with an H and have a 4 1/2" or 5" barrel. Shoots well and fast. I can pull the trigger part way and the cylinder spins to the next chamber without firing it. Pretty neat. Also the cylinder is solid round, no cutouts on the outside.

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_It was love at first shot_

I used to collect Iver Johnsons, and still have a dozen or so. From break tops dating to the early 1890s, to copies of the Walther TPH they were all very reliable. Most of the revolvers didnt shoot to where their sights looked, however.

I've looked at Hi-points and reviews from actual owners are consistently good. There are some videos out there showing them being run over with trucks, dragged in mud and dropped from an airplane and still fired afterwards. I would get one if I could find one locally for cheap but stores here sell them for 200 + tax last I looked. For that price, I would rather get a Ruger for just a little more (which I did for 45 bucks more). But I don't disparage those who buy and shoots Hi-points, they make good truck guns.

that sounds a touch high for a hi-point.
Hi-points handguns are kind of bi-polar from what I've read and heard. some are indestructible and some self destruct on the first trigger pull.

After I turn 85, this will be my nightstand gun since my kids will have most likely gutted my collection of high end guns...

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

I have a FIE 22cal revolver made by Tanfoglio and it shoots pretty good. My Father in Law had it to shoot skunks after he trapped them and passed it to me. It goes bang every time and pretty accurate. They were Ruger lookalikes.

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James