Your First Smith&Wesson Love

[Fredo Batali]

My first Smith & Wesson love was an 8.375" nickle Model 57 thirty years ago. I started thirty years of reloading with that weapon as well. That Model 57 is long gone now (damn the bad luck) but I recently found a nickle Model 58 that I like just as much, well almost, and I still reload the .41 Magnum.

De Oppresso Liber

 

[bulletproof-791]

it was back in the late 80's i was in the canton police explore unit(youth corps) and got to shoot my 1st .357 model 66.........(now i own that same gun) it was loaned out to my by a officer who i had befriended ...he even brought it to me @ school to take to the range the next day.......and yes i did keep in my school locker till the end of the day...i was so nerves about it in my locker that i kept checking on it after each class...i know what HE & I DID WAS WRONG!!!...but i love that gun and still shoot it...........

 

[Ron H.]

When I first began buying handguns I owned Sigs. However, when I walked into the local gun shop one day I looked into the case and my heart stopped. I saw this gun with an unmarred blued finish that was absolutely gorgeous. Lying beneath my gaze was a model 34 with a four inch barrel. Needless to say that began my love affair with Smith&Wesson firearms, especially the older guns before 1980.

Lever4Ever

Sir, when I was a kid, I used to pore over the catalog sections in the back of the old "Gun Digest" and the "Guns&Ammo" annuals, mainly ogling the N-frame Smiths. Smith didn't use photos in those days, but rather some sort of illustration, the same as those in the all-model circulars. You know the kind. The Model 29 was a particular favorite--just an aesthetic delight. Mmmm.

I didn't spend much time looking over the automatic pistols; then as now, I figured the only auto really worth having was the Colt Government Model.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[Rule 303]

A K-22 that my father gave to me in 1958.
I had shot it before and had carried it on the tractor and hunting before he gave it to me. I was ten years old, we sat down one cold and snowing afternoon in his shop. He said, "Let clean the K-22". I went and got it out and we gave it the super duper cleaning job. After we finished, my dad said, "go put it up in your room and take care of it". Its in my big safe now. I shoot it a lot. Hasn't missed a beat in all of my years of shooting it nor the time my dad spent shooting it. I never shoot it or handle it that I can see my father on that cold snowy afternoon talking about guns and WWII. I shall always remember him, my children will remember him and my grandchildren will know about him.

Rule 303

 

[2152hq]

My first S&W was a post war 38-44 HD, 5" Nickle. A used but excellent condition former Police gun w/ factory roll marked backstrap that an out of the way cellar dealer had.
I wanted a 38special. The HD was $45,,,another 38,,a pre war 5" M&P he had was only $40.
I sprung for the HD! That was in 1967.

All I have left of it is the receipt and a factory letter,,somewhere.

 

[PALADIN85020]

My first S&W "love" was this Model 28-2 with a 6" barrel, purchased new in 1967. I picked it from among 5 similar guns for its excellent trigger pull and tight lockup. I equipped it with some modified rosewood smooth "coke bottle" grips I bought for a song at a gun show not long thereafter. The trigger shoe was all the rage in the late '60s to give the feel of an even lighter trigger. I still have it today, and it's still tight as a drum and very accurate to way out there.

John

 

[imashooter2]

In January of 1990 I was in a local shop to buy a box of .380 and saw a stainless revolver in the case. I asked to see it and was handed a lovely 686-2 with hardly a turn line on it. As soon as it hit my hand I was smitten. I looked at the tag and it said $325. I was a newly wed with a fresh mortgage and that was way more than I could afford and I told him as much as I handed it back. He looked at me for couple seconds and said he'd come down to $275 out the door. Still more than I could pay and so I thanked him, bought my box of ammo and headed home. I guess I looked a bit crestfallen when I walked in the house because the wife asked what was wrong. So I told her about the nice revolver that was more than I could afford and shrugged. "Maybe another time." Well that woman of mine would hear nothing of it and the next thing I knew I owned my first S&W.

Good thing too, because by September of that year I was a father and my firearms buying was back on hold. Funny thinking back on those times how much that $275 represented in our budget...