First gun...handguns only

[one eye joe]

NO PICTURE, BUT MY 1ST HANDGUN WAS A LLAMA SEMI-AUTO IN .22LR. I PURCHASED IT BECAUSE IT LOOKED LIKE A SMALL 1911. IT NEEDED A LITTLE TWEAKING BY MY LOCAL GUNSMITH TO INCREASE ITS RELIABILITY. I HAD IT UNTIL I BECAME A MEMBER OF A GUN CLUB. I THEN TRADED IT ON A CLEAN USED 6" PYTHON---ALSO NO PICTURE. I TRADED THAT FOR AN 8" PYTHON, WHEN THEY BECAME AVAILABLE. I WANTED THE LONGER BARREL FOR HUNTING, AND I SHOT SOME SILHOUETTE WITH IT. THIS ONE I DO HAVE PICS OF….

 

[Texas Star]

Marshwheeling-

Is the knife a Mora?

 

[jimmyj]

1955 : Iver Johnson .32 five shot B/T ($10.00 used)

 

[armenius]

Bought my Ruger Standard 22 cal auto pistol as soon as one hit town in 1949.$37.50 out the door.I was 15 and no paper work required.My buddy bought one two.I shot thousands of rounds through it plinking,rats and squirrels.Very accurate with a good trigger and my eyes were good.It had the red eagle insignia.Times got hard and I sold it for about 1/2 about 12 years later.I hate to think how stupid that was!

 

[Marshwheeling]

Marshwheeling-

Is the knife a Mora?

Yep. 612 with a bicycle tube over the handle to cover up where the dog chewed on it. Dunno which dog, but I suspect it was little Petunia, who was at an age.

 

[PatAz]

My first handgun was a Colt Python.

 

[Chuck24]

First handgun

Ruger mark 1 target. H/S grad gift from mom & dad. 67.95 plus blew the extra 2.79 on the optional walnut target grips

 

[mr-mom]

The first handgun I purchased was a Ruger Single Six in the early 1960s. I was so proud of that gun. Took many a squirrel and rabbit with it. A few years ago it became one of my daughter's prized possessions. I think it is more fun watching her shoot it that it was when I did.
Dave
SWCA #2778

 

[Rpg]

Mine was a Ruger Single Six Convertable 22/22mag.

Loved the 22 lr. Hated the 22 mag.

I talked my Dad into letting me get it.

I wanted it because of the 22 mag which the ballistics tables made look as good as a 38 special - something Dad would never have let me get. Of course, I didn't tell Dad my 'real' reasoning.

When you're 13, balistic tables impress you a lot.

I was young and dumb about such things and was very impressed by trivial velocity differences and foot pounds of energy seemed really important.

Over the last 52 years, I've become much less wowed about such things and learned to pay attention to performance in the field.

 

[Model 19 6"]

Michigan passed a law that you could own a handgun at 18yrs of age. The catch was you could not buy from a FFL dealer. So dad bought it and we went to Sheriff's office and transfered it to me. My mod 19-3 6" still have it.

 

[raljr1]

My first was this Model 19

Paid $212 for it in 1978

 

[Ogandydancer]

First purchase was a Spanish knock off of a 32-20. Would not lock up properly and sometimes you had to drop the hammer two or three times to get it to fire. I sold it don't remember how I got for it but wish I had it back several times since then.

 

[brucev]

My first handgun. The year was... 1979. In August of that year I got married and ten days later enrolled in seminary at New Orleans, LA. In a few weeks I had a job at a shipyard as a security guard. On the first Saturday night of September, I blundered up on a dope deal. They shot a lot and I ran a lot. It turned out O.K. On Wednesday of the following week I bought a Colt Commander in .45 ACP. It was the biggest gun I could find. It was not the most accurate pistol to ever come down the pike, but it went bang every time I pulled the trigger. It fed hardball perfectly, not so much JHP's. Later, I got a four inch nickle 19-3. The Colt went away... no regrets. The 19... gave it to my father when I graduated. Someone in the family took it out of the house when no one was looking and replaced it with a Beretta 92... O.K. pistol but nothing to get all excited about. Oh well. Sincerely. brucev.

 

[Harkrader]

My first handgun was a Walther PPK for

the very logical reason that if it was good enough for James Bond, it was good enough for me. After seeing him hip-shoot a guy off a rooftop 100 feet away at night with one, and knowing that "M" called it a "Real man-stahppah," I knew it was right.
Disappointment hits hard . . ..

It was a 7.65mm that I bought from a college class mate. Eight years later I was relieved of it by a foreign government.

At the top of the pic is a PPK (no "S"). I loaned it to two women, one who returned it after 20 years, the other after 19. You may notice holster wear. *I* did NOT do that!

The PPK/S and PP were purchased together to replace the PPK I was relieved of.

The stainless S&W-made model is, in my opinion, the best of the lot. That extended grip tang has saved me a lot of blood. It has a few other changes that may offend purists, but I'm not a collector. I want function and reliability.

Trivia note: In one of the James Bond movies the dialog says he has a PPK. However, the gun seen in the movie is a PP. The producer or director thought it looked better than the PPK.

 

[Cooter Brown]

Since it's a Lazarus thread I went thru and made sure I hadn't already posted!

My first handgun, in fact the first handgun other than a pellet pistol I ever pulled the trigger on, was a 45 Colt Ruger Blackhawk with a 7 1/2" bbl.

I was sixteen and saved up money from working at the Sing Station. A fellow that worked for my Dad had a kitchen table FFL, back when such things were possible.

Shortly after I got the gun I found a reloading press in the classified section of the paper. I doubt I ever shot more than a couple of boxes of factory loads thru that gun.

Being young and not too bright I thought I had to stoke that rascal up to near nuclear levels. I mostly loaded Speer 260 gr. jacketed hollow points at "Ruger and Contender only " levels out of the Speer manual. I shot a LOT.

One of the places we shot was pretty popular. Once when I there an older fellow (I mean this guy was in his thirties!) showed up and had a Super Blackhawk. He asked if I wanted to shoot it. Having never shot a 44 mag I took him up on it. He said. "Hang on. Those are full house factory loads. It ain't no 45."

Given the fearsome reputation of the big 44 I leaned into the thing and pulled the trigger. I though maybe I had a squib. I shot again. The same. It didn't buck and snort like my gun. He said to finish the cylinder and I did.

I handed him my gun and told him to have at it and that they were reloads.

He casually popped one off and his eyes got as big as saucers--he held the gun like it was radioactive, pushed it back at me and said, "You're crazy! What the hell kind of load is that!" He refused to shoot it again.

After a while I toned things down and discovered how wonderful the 45 Colt is when loaded to sane levels, and eventually had two Colts SAAs which were great, pleasant shooters. All three of those guns were stolen some years back--long story about how I foolishly let that happen.

By the way, don't let anybody tell you you cant wear out a Blackhawk...

 

[webley green]

It was a used High Standard Double Nine Longhorn Model; bought w/holster gun belt and a paper sack full of .22 long rifle ammo. Still have the revolver, gunbelt and holster. The ammo is long gone, way long gone. Still a good shooting old revolver. High Standards are often underappreciated.

 

[therewolf]

Why, a 1911A1, of course!

~~Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, ~~

~~For amber waves of grain~~...

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

A friend helped me buy this very practical S&W Model 915. It makes almost every range trip, if not every trip. It is undemanding, accurate and fun to shoot with a good trigger and recoil and not difficult to clean. The problem is that my wife does understand why I own not only other handguns, but why I have rifles and shotguns when I already have this Model 915.

 

[db686]

As my user name alludes to, my first handgun was a 686+ 5" half lug stocking dealer special.
My first rifle was around 1982 or so. It was a Marlin 30/30 that I purchased new at Target off the shelf. Can you imagine that now?
I had hunted with rifle and shotgun over the years but was doing some work for a neighbor in his basement and asked whats in the large safe?
He confided in me that he had a large collection of guns and that he does not normally let just anyone see this. When he opened the safe it was like nothing I had ever seen. Full to the gills with everything imaginable..
I was hooked. Since then I have been buying and playing with everything I could afford. Buy, trade, sell, buy.
I am currently in a rifle intrigue time. First AR last year. Fun!
I will never sell my first handgun and will hand down to my daughter who is a better shooter than I will ever be.

 

[Rintimtin]

Ruger GP-100, I don't have it anymore sold back to the buddy I bought it from.