Great thread; thanks to starter and all contributors. Seeing the thread inspired me to get my one and only 6" Highway Patrolman, SN S265356, which puts it in the 1966-67 range. I bought it from The Gun Room in Portland OR when I was 16, and bought it on layaway with $5 down and the balance over 6 month with paper route, lawn mowing and car washing earnings. I used to shoot running jack rabbits and other assorted critters with 158gr bullets cast in my single cavity Lyman mold and loaded on my RCBS A-2 press. It's in about 90% condition, shoots great and is the 1st handgun I owned. .357's were very scarce when I bought it, as police, guys headed to Viet Nam and gun nuts like us couldn't wait to get our hands on a .357. It had arrived in the shop a day or two before I got there, along with a 6" Python. As I recall I paid about $87 for this revolver and the Python was beautiful, but had a price tag of about $130. I bought the HP and have never looked back, although I have bought 5 Pythons over the years. I Loooove this gun, as do my two sons, so I guess they will have a coin toss for it when I go to the Great Gun Store in the Sky. Recently I started a "book" for my sons, which tells the story of every gun I've ever purchased including date of purchase, reason for buying; do we really need one, and all the adventures I've had with each firearm. Like most of you, I've bought, traded for and sold many guns. Fortunately I've kept a lot of them, which my sons, now 32 and 30 years old will enjoy with their sons and daughters. If you haven't thought of it, writing the history of your "Gun Life" can be a pretty neat thing to leave to your kids, and you'll have a great time re-living all your "old friends" and the fun they provided when you shot them, fondled them and showed them off to your pals.
