What was your first handgun purchase?

[CajunBass]

Smith and Wesson Model 19. Probably a -4, but I knew nothing about such things in those days.

I traded it off on a Colt GM when I got bit by the IPSC bug, beginning a long history of gun trades, swaps, sales and purchases. Some good. Some not so good.

 

[gwpercle]

In 1965 Louisiana you had to be 21 years old to buy a handgun , serve on a jury and vote ... but you could be drafted and fly a Huey Helicopter Gunship on the US Army's dime and that was fine ?
I was 17 and looking at my shooting love ...Handguns... the shop owner pulled out an Italion reproduction of a 1851 Navy Colt and told me he could sell me a black powder cap & ball revolver , as there were no restrictions ... Oh Boy !!! He sold me the revolver and everything I needed and taught me how to do it .... Me and my buddies had a blast shooting that thing ... I shot it so much the brass frame loosened and the cylinder spindle became all wobbly ... I actually shot it Loose !
By the time it was getting to that point I turned 21 and bought a Ruger Blackhawk 357 mag.... also I got selected to serve on Jury Duty ... a murder trial ... I learned what the word "Sequestered" meant !
Gary

 

[peh_7]

S&W Model 39 for $120.00 when I was in college. Loaded thousands of rounds for it with a Lee Loader. Shot it so much the frame was starting to get battered. Later when I was in the Air Force in training, in about 1973, I sold it for $100.00 and "upgraded" to a model 59. I still have the Model 59. A few years ago found a nice 39 shooter in good condition so now I have both.

 

[Mustang51]

1975; Ruger MKI Target. Well, my dad bought it, but I picked it out, and saved up for it!

 

[NYlakesider]

My first handgun purchase?

After jumping though many hoops, about 2 1/2 years worth (long story) I was finely issued a NY state Pistol permit. In this state even to have a gun in your house you need this permit. I went looking to get a gun.

This was the early 1970s and the era of the police revolver. Trying to find a new or hardly used revolver that could end up doing police duty made that task hard.

After a couple months of haunting gun shops and having friends keep their eyes open I went to a small basement type gun dealer. I had bought a shotgun and other items from this LGS and he knew I was looking primarily for a Smith 19 4'' blue or second choice a 28 or 27. All my friends used Smiths so I did not consider a Colt!

He told me he had in the back room a new on the market Ruger 4'' 357 adjustable sights I said I do not want a single action. He laughed and said this is a double action and it only came available for sale a week ago, its called a Security Six you want to look at it.

I did and it was decent and Rugar had a good reputation so instead of waiting who knows how long I said I will take it. Took a couple more days to get this gun on my newly issued pistol permit and I went back to the shop to pick it up. I picked up a couple boxes of .38s and also picked up a box of 357 ammo just to have on hand. Told him I was going to shoot only .38s out of it till I knew what I was doing.

 

[Inusuit]

In 1960, I wanted a Ruger Single Six. My dad had an Iver Johnson when he was a kid. I needed his permission, I was 16. He pressured me into an IJ Trailsman 66. The second time it came back from the factory and still wouldn't index correctly, he let me trade it for a Ruger. I know that the current IJ is not related to the IJ of the 1960s, but the experience was so disappointing to a kid that I wouldn't consider an IJ of any kind today.

 

[Duckfood]

I owned a plethora of junk handguns in the late 80s and early 90s... Unsure of any of the brand names, but, think Jennings, Phoenix, and other cheap name you can think of... I think in 1992, I bought a used Beretta 92 after years watching John McClane and Martin Riggs... I am unsure what happened to it...

 

[Catbacker88]

August, 1977. Brand new in box Ruger New Model Blackhawk, 4-5/8" in .45 Colt, a 200th Year of American Liberty model. Still have it, the box and everything. It's never fired a factory cartridge, but it's fired a bunch of 255 grain Kieth bullets, almost all with eight grains of Unique, the rest with 700-X when I couldn't find Unique.

 

[dave1918a2]

1967 I bought a Ruger Blackhawk .357. After reading about the power and recoil it took a few minutes to pull the trigger. Paid $87.50. Shot one cylinder full and thought " what a wimp". Took it back and traded for a .44 mag.

 

[Onomea]

I was probably near 30, a graduate student in NYC in the early '80s with very little money. Had wife and a baby. There was a fair amount of violent crime in my upper west side neighborhood, so I decided to get a gun for home protection. Went downtown to police HQ to ask how to proceed. They gave me a form to fill out and submit in order to receive a permit to keep a handgun in my home. (Not CCW.)

Per the paperwork, the permit it would cost me $80, several weeks worth of groceries at the time, and a six month wait.

The heck with that!

The next time I drove down to Virginia to visit my folks I asked my dad's advice about what gun to buy. Though not a gun guy, he had a Browning HP, and had carried one in Vietnam as a CIA officer. (He had a story about turning down some guy's offer of two 1911s for it over there.) He thought highly of it, so I decided to get one.

Probably not the best choice for HD for a novice, but..

So, went to the LGS in Va, ordered the HP, and some days later and $400+ lighter in the wallet, drove back to NYC with the HP and a partial box of ammo. I kept the pistol in the Browning zipped pistol rug hanging on a hook behind my bed's headboard.

My plan, if I needed to use it, was to leave town.

I sold it a few years later to a good friend when another good friend was getting married in Guatemala and I needed money to travel. On the plane to Miami, where I would change plains, I met a guy heading toward the same wedding whose father would later offer me a job that led to my career as an expat businessman in Japan.

My brother inherited my dad's HP. I occasionally think of replacing the one I sold, but I am pretty much a revolver guy nowadays. Like the simplicity.

 

[Richard Simmons]

Colt Trooper MK III, nickel, 4" purchased new in 1978. Ended up selling it some years later to make ends meet in our young family. Purchased the same gun only blued some years back, NIB. Nice but not quite the same. Out of hundreds sold this is one of maybe a handful I wish I'd kept.

 

[Hawg Rider]

Fresh out of college in 1976, I got a good paying job and in 1979 bought a brand spankin' new S&W blued Model 57 with a 4" bbl. (in the mahogany presentation case). My roommate at the time bought his first handgun, too- a brand new 6" blued Colt Python. I was actually looking for a Model 29, but they were like hen's teeth after Dirty Harry Callahan appeared on screen. The .41 Magnum really appealed to me, and I enjoyed shooting it and reloading for it. Unfortunately, the following year our apartment was burglarized and both handguns were stolen. I was left with only an empty presentation case! I still have the case, and I finally replaced the Model 57 last year with this minty 1980 nickel version.

 

[jmace57]

Back about 1974 I purchased a Ruger Super Single Six 22LR/22mag single action revolver. I have probably put 20-25,000 rounds through that little pistol over the years and it always functioned 100%. The blueing has a little bit of wear, but the gun still shoots great!

I bought an ASM 1851 Navy BP revolver when I was 15 in 1972 and sold it in 2021. I bought a Ruger Single-Six in 1976 and kept it until 2020. I got a S&W Model 19-4 4" Nickel in 1977 and sold it last year. (I've been going through long overdue downsizing) Strangely enough, these were the only new handguns I ever bought (and over 100 used ones).

 

[target tech]

My Dad's friend, who had a kitchen table FFL at the time, ordered me my first handgun for my 21st birthday. A brand new 1990 vintage Colt .45ACP stainless combat commander. I had been drooling over the Colt catalog for a year, waiting to turn 21.

 

[Absalom]

I bought an ASM 1851 Navy BP revolver when I was 15 in 1972 and sold it in 2021….

Funny, same here .

Except I was only 12, and this was before 1972, when BP six-shooters were actually still mail-orderable by anybody in Germany. A Christmas present if I remember correctly. Mine was a (unhistoric) .44 brass-framed Navy version. I sold it in the 1990s to a Confederate reenactor.

My first "real" handgun was a police-surplus Walther PPK 7.65mm which I only had a few years before moving to the US. I couldn't bring it, so I sold it.

 

[Drm50]

You're talking to a guy that cut his first gun deal astride a tricycle. I can't begin to count handguns that went through my hands as a kid. But as far as my first new purchase was a combo deal. I was 13 or 14 and they were building I-70. It took out a store with sporting goods. A clerk ended up with everything left after sale. He wanted $400. I haggled him down to $360 and bought them. I still have 3 guns from that deal. A Ruger Single-6, a Savage 24 Deluxe and a M70FW Win. Up to that point most guns I got were
H&ARs, IJs and military bring homes from WW2. Dirt cheap in the day.

 

[CRT2]

Colt Trooper Mk III, 1969 Bad Toelz, Germany.

 

[RobertJ.]

My first purchase was a brand new Interarms Virginian Dragoon, w/ 8 3/8" barrel, in .44 Magnum, in 1979. My dad actually bought it for me as I was only 19.

My first pistol was actually a trade. I traded a Fisher turntable and $50 for a like new Walther PPK/S in .22 LR. This was six months before I bought the .44 Mag.

 

[Marshal Tom]

Model 17 in 1971 NIB. I sold it and have owned several 5 screws since and let them go as well. I replaced them with a 1947 model that will not go anywhere that I got for an extremely good price.

 

[Patrick L]

Six inch Model 66, in 1989. I was already an accomplished handloader, and I figured the classic 2.7 Bullseye/148 gr wadcutter could teach me just as well as a .22 rimfire could. Glad to say it turned out that way!

I still have it!