I lost my BB gun after I shot the windows out of our old barn when I was 6 years old. Seems that Dad did not agree that they were great reactive targets.
It didn’t matter, I was hooked, I was a shooter. All these years later, I never haven’t been.
I came to handguns a bit late, soon after I escaped the institutionalized cruelty of high school, and it was probably my grandfather’s fault. Even though he had piles of them, he didn’t like handguns and told me so often. Still, it was inevitable that handguns would come up in the rotation.
Back then, it was all revolvers. Of course, the options for semi-automatics were pretty thin compared with today. There were some .22 rimfires—Bill Ruger saw to that. A few cool kids had surplus 1911s, but they really didn’t shoot very well. If it was a Gold Cup, it mostly jammed.
Pacino in “Serpico” had us all talking about the Hi Power, but nobody I knew had one. European-style handguns didn’t really fit in, and it was common knowledge that the 9 mm was too puny to be of any real use.
So, my first handgun was a 4-inch Smith & Wesson Model 28. The cops I hung out with were shooters and influenced that choice, but I soon regretted its short barrel. I was into a lot of handgun shooting, hunting and long-range work were climbing pretty high on the list, and a longer sight radius would prove useful. I got a used 6-inch Model 19, slicked up the action, smoothed the trigger face and got serious about revolver shooting.
Police Pistol Competition (or PPC) was popular at the time. Most of the hardcore guys used purpose-built competition guns with a big, ugly Bomar blob on top. It was probably a delusion brought on by poverty, but I believed that a handgun should serve multiple masters, and I stuck with my Smith.
I used it in many matches of multiple disciplines. I also hunted with it, taking a wide range of game, big and small. If you use cast bullets and light loads to hunt gray squirrels—while focusing on head shots—the rest is pretty easy. I did a lot of 100-yard shooting and, as an Elmer Keith fan, busted rocks and such out as far as I could find ’em.
It follows that I had to have a Smith & Wesson Model 29, .44 Mag. Elmer said so, as did Clint. “Dirty Harry” made it hard to find one, but after months of waiting I finally got my hands on a 6.5-inch handgun.
I once wrote that if the house catches fire and I am not home, my wife should get the kids and dog out first, then my Model 29. Even though I own many more guns today, I stand by that.
I can see the readers now, rolling their eyes and muttering, “OK Boomer.” But, they need to understand that it was the Boomers who created this world and most of the stuff in it for them to ridicule.
The influencers of the day were all wheelgun guys. Except that Cooper fella—he liked the 1911. He seemed pretty sharp, but for years I refused to buy a 1911 due to the systematic prejudice they propagated. I am a lefty and the 1911 did not consider us worthy. At that time, I don’t think you could buy a 1911 with any-
thing other than a right-hand safety. That just galled my over-revved sensitivities. So, I balked, sulked and shot my revolvers.
I had some semi-automatics, of course; how could I not, right? One is a Smith & Wesson Model 41 to use in our winter Bullseye league.
I shot my buddy’s 1911s and secretly fell in lust with the design, but I stuck to my principles and refused to own one. I even had a brief fling with the Auto Mag handguns. In the late 1970s I was falling hard for Silhouette shooting and found that the Auto Mag did the deed well, but they were horribly expensive. So, being poor, my IHMSA guns were a couple of T/C Contenders and even an impressive 10-inch Ruger Super Blackhawk that I won in a match.
Along came Glock and everything changed. Semi-automatic handguns soon dominated, and the shooting world underwent a metamorphosis.
With the thirst for learning new stuff, I followed the trend. My first Glock, a G22, blew up. But, I bought more. I even relented and bought a Commander 1911. With my unrequited love satisfied, a bunch more of John Moses Browning’s masterpiece soon followed.
Revolvers were thought to be quaint for a long time after that; scorned and ridiculed by the anointed ones. Still, it all comes around if you just wait. As happened with our music, I see now that the hip and happening kids are “discovering” revolvers. What do you know, suddenly wheelguns are “in” again.
Proving, one more time, that we Boomers got it right.
