SUBJECTIVE CHOICES

“and mentioned that someday, I’d like to have an ivory-handled, nickel-plated Colt Detective Special like Gaylord’s.”

Sounds like you want something for Christmas Mas! You’ll shoot your eye out kid!

Yessir,
My daily carry gun is usually the new double stacked polymer marvel of my generation, (I’m 23 years of age) but I occasionally refer back to my late grandfather’s Ruger 1911 or even his older S&W .38 special and you know what….I don’t feel any less armed when I do. I suppose I feel that when I holster his old guns that he’s still right there with me. Maybe thats just in my head but even so I enjoy the sentiment….just because.

Mas, I posted a question on an earlier blog that I hope you would give me your insight on, I own a few 33 round mags for a Glock that I carry. A trusted friend told me that I should get rid of them. He said if I ever had to shoot in self defense, in possesion of that magazine, I would be branded as a rabid killer by the prosecution and wouldn’t be able to explain my resoning for owning it. What are your thoughts sir? How would one justify to a court or even a friend the resoning behind deploying such a tool for defense?

My father gave me a .38 spl model 10 some time ago. even though I have a glock 19 I still carry that revolver on occasion.

“Sentiment? Yes…but from the logical side, you are never less than well-armed when you carry a classic Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.”

You really didn’t need to say that more than once for me. That’s right too.

Mas:

Guilty as charged; I sometimes carry a full-sized 1911 where legally permitted…I have other choices that are easier to pack, but there’s something about that single-action icon that makes me feel pretty darn warm inside!

TXCOMT

For me, one of my choice of handguns would be a blued Colt 1911, in .38 Super, with a 9×23 conversion barrel. I only wish my father had kept my grandfathers .38 and shotgun.

My father, just handed them over to my grandfathers neighbor, right after he died. Those were rough times for our family. Right now, I’m close to my M-9 Beretta. Not only for its design, along with the Colt, these two handguns are my favorites.

Now, as rifles go, it’s the M1A, all the way. Along with the Colt AR-15. You know, its taken years to get what I do have. I hope never to have it taken away.

My go to guns are a 4″ Python, and yes, a ’94 Winchester. I’ve put more rounds through those than anything else, and they also remind me of my grandfather who taught me how to shoot.

There is more to picking a personal weapon than checking off a spec sheet, and “sentiment” is as worthy as anything else provided the piece still does the job. I think we fall into group-think far too easy. It’s like a teenager who picks a car based on the highest horsepower when there are lots of other considerations, and “because I like it” is a valid factor.

Guilty as charged. I tend to go heeled with either my Glock or my S&W j-frame, both of which will get the job done, but for some reason when it comes to hiking or hunting I feel like I should have a .45 single action revolver at my side. The other two guns are more practical for what I do, but for whatever reason I like how single actions feel, and I don’t feel less than well armed with one of those either!

I know the modern polymer guns are wonderful. I recommend them all the time. I don’t own, shoot, use, or carry any. I just can’t. Just as I cannot abide kydex holsters, which are some of the finest things of their type today. Even rubber grips must be exceptional, as if made just for me before I will accept the over my favored wood.

Compactness is very much the in thing these days and I can see it. I really can. But I usually make a way for a full sized sidearm anyhow.

It’s what I do. I’m ok being behind the times. And so most of the time it’s a 4″ S&W 66, with a set of Jerry Miculek’s grips, in a custom thumb break holster from Black Hills Leather. My dress up gun is a bone stock 4″ Colt Diamondback .38. (The Colt was my grail gun since seeing it in John Wayne’s hand in the movie Brannigan, way back in the early 70’s)If I feel the need for more there is a brace of 1911’s and a CZ-75 to choose from. But I seldom feel the need.

I have Maurice the FrankenRuger, the only magazine-fed revolver carry gun that I know of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4XtVldNbO4

Pics:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5352882&postcount=1

I now have improved magazine latches on the 9rd mags, and a dual-mag carrier for those two 1-ft-long reloads :).

There is literally no other personal arm with this kind of feel cycle. Shells are spring-inserted to one side of the firing chamber and are gas-ejected on the other side. The firing chamber’s muzzle gasses are used to auto-eject the previously fired shell.

In the holster it has 7 rounds – 5 in the cylinder, two in the small 3″ or so “carry mag”. Once the cylinder is dry there’s a distinct “clunk” saying that round six just got slammed into the cylinder…kind of a 2-rounds-left warning.

I can also stack a 9rd mag onto the 5rd cylinder for 14 on tap, but it’s a bit ungainly in the leather :).

I’m planning on reloading with some 100gr Penn full wadcutters sized .356″ – those should let me fit 10 rounds in each reload mag. So with 15rds on tap out of the holster and a 10rd reload available, those 25 rounds could finish an entire stage of either Steel Challenge revolver class (where it isn’t yet banned!) or a SASS stage if they’ll let me shoot it as a joke.

As far as I can tell it’s the most heavily modified SA revolver ever. Explaining it to a DA will be…interesting, in the worst case scenario…

Oh, and why “Maurice”? Because some people call it The Space Cowboy…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Td6l3X2G-4

Know the feeling all to well. I used to own a 6″ Model 19. It was a shooter! I put thousands of rounds down range with it. Accuracy was superb. Balance, weight, trigger and oh that deep blue perfectly polished finish. Everything just fit. Unfortunately it was taken when our home was broken into in the late ’70s. I still miss that gun. Not many of them around anymore and the ones in good shape demand a premium. Maybe someday.

I bought my first centerfire rifle, and killed my first deer with it, when I graduated from high school in 1969. A Marlin 336C in .35 Remington. When the USAF sent me to Montana for three years it did not take me long to figure out that a flatter trajectory would serve me better and I traded it in on a Remington 700 .25-06. Just this year a friend made me a good deal on another Marlin in .35 Remington. Sentiment was the only reason I purchased it. It’s hanging on the wall in my “cave”. I have other rifles that I had rather hunt with but it will hang there on the wall and maybe get exercised now and then until one of my boys inherits it.

“Armed” from my perspective is simply the ability to protect myself from other “armed” or “of grave physical threat” people.

If I was in grave danger of being assaulted by someone with a rifle 50 meters or more away from me, then “armed” would have a specific meaning to me, based on that threat.

In my environment, the same environment I assume most of your readers live in, I view my chances of ever needing to be “armed” at all pretty small. 100-1 or so.

This is about the same odds I’d give of me having my house burn down. Small, but significant enough that I want insurance.

This is how I view self-defense.

Absent me doing stupid things in stupid places around stupid people, my chances of being a victim are pretty small. -Small enough that I doubt I’ll ever have occasion to use my CC weapon. -This is a GOOD thing.

But on that off-chance, I want my fire insurance to work, EVERY TIME.
Same goes for my CC weapon choice. Regardless of anything else, it has to WORK, EVERY time. It also has to do a basic job: i.e. stop the threat with minimal amount of rounds fired.

And I have to do MY job: (i.e. paying the premiums for my fire insurance) or TRAINING to ensure that *I* can do the job of using my defensive carry weapon for all realistic scenarios.

That narrows it down some.
1. a suitable defensive round: .380 (bare minimum), .38 special, .357 magnum, 9mm luger, 40 S&W, 10mm, 41 Magnum, .45 LC, .45 ACP.

That’s pretty much it.

The rest is just feeding the beast that you like the best and provides you with that rock-solid reliability and your best opportunities to reload.

For me that’s the Semi-auto as I reload (even with a speed loader and practice) a revolver slower than molasses. Maybe your experience/skillset is different.

Bottom line is that if I ever have to shoot someone, they are going to get 2 or more rounds directly in the chest (thoracic cavity) followed with (if needed) more of the same or a single shot to the ocular cavity. I carry a gun capable of doing this, and of doing the same with a second opponent. (3 or more things get interesting).

Plan for what’s less-likely, be prepared for the unlikely, don’t be surprised by the extremely unusual.

None of this is rocket science. But neither should it be mistaken for “ninja only” need apply.

Your situation, your preferences, your skillset.

All the rest is someone ELSE’S opinion based on HIS situation, skillset and preference.

@Ron, you said it well!

EDDIE…if the 33 rounders bother you use them at the range and use the standard mags for carry. Or use the 33s for home protection. Who’d question their use in an armed invasion in the dark where extra mags might become scarce.

Mas, we’ve talked of this but for others… I understand the utility of plastic and stainless, got some, but as an old guy and traditionalist I love the finely blued and nicely wood stocked guns. I carry and shoot both but really prefer that 102 year old 1911. Or the old model Ruger Super Blackhawk with the knuckle busting dragoon trigger guard. Old friends are most comfortable.

Just because isn’t a bad reason!

Seriously, why not choose a rifle or pistol that feels great in your hands and that you’re comfortable with? You may well shoot better with it than with “better” firearms.

My Ruger New Vaquero fits my hand like it was made for me and me only. I sometimes carry it as a backup to a Kel-Tec 9mm. I have total confidence in both pistols, and I think that the .45 Colt would be a better choice if I ever have to deal with any of the wild animals that are common where I live. I see deer on an almost daily basis, and we have coyotes, skunks, raccoons, possums and other critters. I’ve encountered a pair of aggressive dogs on one occasion, and I recently saw a pack of four running loose. Although I tote the big-bore mostly out of affection for it, my choice also has a practical side.

Thank you for a great article, Uncle Mas! Jackie may be #1 at BWH, but I always look for your column first.

Respectfully,
Bob

Mas, my choices are very similar to yours.

For a sentimental, yet practical, carry gun, I sometimes carry a Colt Detective Special because it’s still the best snub-nosed revolver ever made. Coincidentally, I was carrying one just last week instead of my Glock because I found a near mint condition Galco Combat Master leather belt holster for it in a bargain bin at a local gun shop for only $8!!! It fits like a glove & is unbelievably comfortable.

Occasionally, I will also revert to carrying the first handgun I ever bought for myself, a Colt Lightweight Commander in 9mm caliber. It reminds me of the days when I was a college student working part-time for only $1.25 p/hr. & it was the only handgun I owned.

For a sentimental favorite, yet practical long gun, I also like the Winchester Model 94, although mine is a pre-64 carbine in .30-30 caliber. It’s lightweight, compact, & accurate, with excellent ergonomics & a great trigger pull. It just feels good to carry & shoot a classic lever action carbine with iron sights.

I even have a practical, sentimental favorite shotgun. It’s a Winchester Model 97 12 gauge Riot Gun. It’s still just as effective as any “modern” tactical or self-protection shotgun, with the advantage of being compact, lightweight, & a “riot” to shoot when slam firing the action while depressing the trigger, due to it’s lack of a trigger disconnector.

Nostalgic? Yes, but classic guns like these old Colts & Winchesters are classic for a reason. If they weren’t great guns, they wouldn’t still be in use. They would have been forgotten long ago like so many others.

Mas and Friends:

I was 12, big for my age, and I had been hinting quail with my step-grandfather Daddy Raymond for three years, using a single shot H & R “Topper” in 20g . One day I brought down two birds in a single covey rise. Daddy Raymond was pleased. He grinned and told me ” its time for you to go duck hunting; you are ready for a repeater.” Two weeks later we were headed for Proctor Reservoir in west Texas and the “repeater” was in a gun rug in the back with my name on it.

It was a Remington Model 31 set up as a skeet gun. The gun had belonged to my “real”grandfather, Grandaddy Mark, my mother’s father. He had been a big game hunter, but skeet was his joy, and the Model 31 had been shot every weekend at the Dallas Gun Club from 1935 until 1956 – except for his time as a Naval officer during the war. When Daddy Raymond handed the Model 31 to me, he told me he had just been taking care of it for me until I was mature enough to handle it. The blue was just a smidge worn in places, it had a plexiglass buttplate ( the top in mid 40’s styling) with my grandfathers law office business card under it, a 26” barrel with a Cutts Compensator and a Lyman screw in choke – Improved Cylinder. The choke concerned me – it had obviously killed lots of clays, but ducks? I had read everything there was to read about shotguns, shotgun performance, patterns, lead, pass shooting, decoys, etc. and I knew you couldn’t duck hunt with IC. My Daddy Raymond reasured me though, he knew duck hunting and simply said – you lead ’em and we will call them to where IC works just fine with No. 5.

He was right. That Model 31 killed ducks stone dead, if I did my part and swung the barrel and followed through. Daddy Raymond was a wizard duck caller, and we always had three to five greenheads in-bound, or so it seemed. I shot a limit my first time out, sitting in a duckblind with my step-grandfather Daddy Raymond, handling and shooting and using and admiring the wonderful legacy from my Grandaddy Mark.

I have since hunted ducks with Brownings and Benellis, Remington Model 11’s, Ithaca NID’s, Ithaca M-37’s and M-51, as well as a very fine English percussion 11 bore circa 1855. I still have the Model 31. It still has a Lyman choke, IC. It still has Grandaddy marks business card under the plexiglass buttplate. My special custom Ithaca Model 37 Skeet gun fits me a bit better; a 12 bore NID goes duck hunting with me, mostly. As for the Model 31? Every time I handle it I am reminded of something else – how blessed I have been by my Daddy Raymond and my Grandaddy Mark and what a fine legacy they passed on to me.

Regards

GKT

Eddie, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.

Your friend’s point that opposing counsel will take advantage of “high capacity assault clip” hysteria to paint you as Rambo is probably valid. However, your defense would be that many people use these for sport shooting and as conversation pieces, and that in a home defense situation, there’s no such thing as too much ammunition to protect your family. My own 33-round Glock magazine doesn’t get much use, but I’m not about to throw it away.

My duty (LEOSA carry is a Glock 31 and 32 pistol. But when in the woods or around home, my go to is a Dan Wesson PM-7 1911 in 10MM. Most accurate pistol I have ever held…

I have owned several DA 357 over the years and I never could get to the point that they felt good in my hand. To me they always felt like the wrong end of a baseball bat. Now I do not own a wheel gun I have only semi autos. I love the feel and looks of the S&W MPs and now I own several. Never have liked G Locks. I have always been proficient with any of them but if I am going to pay I am going to get what I like and what feels the best in my hand. If I ever buy another wheel gun it will be a SA in 44 mag I had one a Ruger Super Black Hawk that I put thousands of rds through. As far as my grail gun it would be a Nighthawk custom in 10mm.

My teaching partner and I started teaching CHL when it came to Texas in 1995. A 7-something cowboy showed up for the third class and asked if he could take the shooting practical with a well-worn Colt Single Action Army. It met the requirements, so we agreed.
He shot faster than most of those using semiautos, reloaded faster than most of those using double-action revolvers, and put fifty rounds in a three-hole group. (At 15 yards he had two 9-ring “flyers.”)

My sentimental favorite is a Marlin #1, which was under the Christmas tree when I was 11. It’s a bolt-action single shot, and my father taught me to hit any good target I could identify with it, on the first shot. Today it’s really too small for me, but it’s my go-to “first shots” rifle when I have a small shooter, and it’s the bolt action example for Hunter Education classes.
My father would be pleased.
And I still use a New England single-shot break-action rifle in .308 for hunting.

Sorry, “70-something cowboy”

My “Just Because,” guns are my hunting guns. NEF SB1 12ga, one shot at a time. Nostalgia because it was the first shotgun I bought for myself. Also because it is similiar to what a lot of the farmers I grew up with used. It is also what I call “slow tech,” makes me slow down and take my time when hunting birds. The final advantage is that I only miss one round at a time instead of firing two or three in frustration with a pump shotgun.

Original Smith and Wesson Model 60 circa 1965 or so, I use it for protection when walking the dog. Inherited from my father. Smooth trigger, nice patina, and shoots accurately to the point of aim using good ole 158 gr. swaged lead SWC-HP. However, I now have laser sights on the grips as a backup because those skinny Smith sights keep getting skinnier and I keep Corbon’s 110 gr. Copper Hollow Points in it for protection.

I spent a few years carrying a couple of different Browning Hi-Powers during my time in the Army, and shot thousands of rounds through them in training during that time…I carry a S&W MP9c these days as a civilian, and I really like it, but I’ll probably never have the emotional attachment that I do to those old Hi-Powers.

Mas,

A quick question regarding the older revolvers, how much of a concern is having (or not having) a transfer bar safety on a carry/defensive arm?

Matthew

My first firearm was a Sears .22 RF bolt gun that I bought myself by mail. I think I was 13 at the time. I cut my teeth on that rifle and still favor the Chunk-Chunk of working the bolt. The gun is long gone but I still favor the bolt gun.

Sure I have a S&W AR decked out with the usual garbage. I also have a match grade FN-FAL that is very accurate. I guy does need “some” fire power.

The first gun that I can recall that I just absolutely had to have was a Dick Special. Back in the late 50’s early 60’s there was a tv program Called “The Detectives” I believe Robert Taylor was the lead actor. All of the episodes started out with this special squad on the firing line blasting away with blanks in their Dick Specials. Yep, I have one in my safe.

A gun that I will never get rid of is a Remington XP-100 in .221 fireball. I made the longest shot ever for me with that handgun. 400 yds on a milk jug hanging in a tree, 1 shot no rest. 4 power Leupold scope . Handloads. Yes, I had 4 witnesses. I just guessed at the amount of hold over needed. About 12”, I jug high.
Another gun that I lusted after was a .44 Automag. Unfortunately, getting it to function in colder climates was a challenge. Stainless Steel for handguns was in its infancy and the lube they had you use was castor oil. It was also very sensitive to your grip. It went by the wayside where traded guns go. Alas

Over the years I have had several Colt Pythons. The last one in my safe is a blued 2 ½ “. It is very accurate with wadcutters. I actually bought it in a Drug Store that had a gun and coin shop in the back. I still have the receipt. Today, you would never get zoning.
Today all the hoopla is over Tupperware guns. Yes, I shoot them but not by choice. They have no character.

I almost forgot. Back when Dirty Harry was roaming the streets with his M-29 they were as scarce as ammo is today and triple the MSRP. My wife went into a new hardware store and there in the case were 4 4” M-29 .44. $250 –She told me if I still wanted one to go out and lay it away and she would pay it off in time for my birthday. Need I say that I wasted no time getting there? Damn, they were already spoken for. But all was not lost as they also had 4 M-57 .41 mag. Yep it is in my safe. I have a couple of guys in our club lusting after it but they would have to pry it from cold dead fingers.

Matthew McL, it depends on the individual make and model, but I can tell you that all the old revolvers depicted in the article are in perfect working order and considered “drop safe.” 🙂

“Just because” guns includes my blued S&W Model 29 and my Colt M1911. Both are a joy to shoot.

I did once buy a Kel-Tec P3AT because it was cute.

Jim March,

You are a mechanical genius (I’m referring to the FrankenRuger). But I viewed you shooting in YouTube, and it appears you hold the revolver in your right hand, and cock the hammer with your right hand, even with a two-handed grip. When using two hands, cock the hammer with your left thumb. It is faster, and you don’t have to alter your shooting grip, which is a plus.

Ahh, sentimentality. Many, many times I have embarked on bird hunts, skipping the 870’s in 12 & 20 and forgoing the Italian over and under in favor of a well worn, little Winchester 42. It was my grandfather’s gun, and he shot many birds in the US and in Mexico with it. My father used it as a teen to win his first skeet shoot. Of all the guns that the Old Man had, the little .410 was the most coveted. Papa gave it to me as a wedding present, when he was ninety years old.

For the next several years, I hunted it periodically, even with shells at $9 a box. I would bring dove and quail to the Old Man, who had been legally blind for years, and share my hunts with him. I don’t believe that he was more proud than the day that I shot 12 white wing with only 26 shells.

As the Old Man lay in bed, looking all of his 97 years, I read Robert C. Ruark to him during his final days. The vigor and excitement for tales of the outdoors never left his sparkling blue eyes. He’s been gone three years now, but I can still rub my hands over that little gun an hear him coaching me…”Now Kenny”….

Yes, there is an emotional attachment to certain objects, especially those whose ‘presence’ can mean the difference between life and death at times. Sometimes I pull a gun out of range-only duty to carry it, and it gives me a warm feeling to be reunited with an old ‘friend’.

I think that identification with the tool and its function is one of the things that give antis the willies so much. We are not immune to animistic tendencies and neither are they, otherwise they would clearly see that evil lies in men, not their tools. We project our hopes for safety onto our cold steel, and the antis project all the violence they know deep down to be capable of (and refuse to face) onto it too, and therefore out of themselves. ‘If the gun is bad, then maybe there is hope for me’ is one of the twisted little notion they cling to.