One of our colleagues noted he was not a purist----and that's all well and good. I'm pretty sure nothing's chiseled in stone anywhere about what we're supposed to call any particular handgun-----other than in my mind, of course.
The first model number I ever saw was 19. It was on the box of this shiny new gun I was about to buy. It was in small print. Right up above it, in BIG print, it said COMBAT MAGNUM. That's what I was going to buy. I suspect, had all it said was Model 19---no matter in what size print----I suspect I'd probably have bought a PYTHON------has a certain ring to it---kinda like COMBAT MAGNUM.
Well, I bought it, took it home, and put it on the shelf. I told folks it was a COMBAT MAGNUM. They said it was a pretty neat gun.
It wasn't too long after that, that I heard folks talking about Model 19's, and Model this, and Model that. I thought about that some, and decided it was sad they didn't know what the names of these guns were.
Then----then pretty much everything went straight to Hell in a handbasket!! Folks started calling the early guns like a COMBAT MAGNUM---started calling them "Pre-Model 19's---and Pre Model this---and Pre Model that. More often than not I didn't know what they were talking about----had to look it up.
Then I got mad, not because I had to look stuff up; but because these "Pre-Model" this and that folks didn't seem to care enough to learn and use the proper names.
I'm still mad. I guess that makes me one of those purists.
(Oh, and by the way, a K-38 is a K frame .38 Special Target gun with a 6" barrel. Another K frame .38 Special target grade gun with a 4" barrel is a Combat Masterpiece. It's actually alright with me some folks either don't know that or don't care. The folks who don't know can find out easy enough, and as far as the folks who don't care go, well that's just sad.)
Ralph Tremaine
I see Lee beat me to it with this K-38 and Combat Masterpiece business. Good on you, Sir!
)
