The New Year’s Resolutions are an American tradition. 

I’ve tried the resolution, “I’m not going to buy any more guns this year.” Just about every time, that resolve has melted in the face of a new acquisition I thought might work better in shooting competition, or fill a hole in the collection.  I’m at a time in my life where I have all the firearms I need, and all the firearms I want…

…Almost…

At the moment, there’s a gap in my Smith & Wesson collection: the Model 12 Airweight .38 Special revolver with four-inch barrel. This unappreciated model was light and easy to carry, but shot like a full-size target-grade revolver. I never bought one when they were in production and readily available. I appreciated the Model 12’s balance of attributes only after it was discontinued, and eventually accumulated three of them, both square and round butt, but all with two-inch barrels and dammit, I’m still looking for a four-inch.  Unfortunately, current collector market has older model S&W revolvers at insane prices, so the hunt continues.

Just a few years ago, the Evil Princess and I did the math and realized we had shot two dozen matches in one January-through-December period. Last year, I can remember only three.  RESOLUTION: We’re gonna try to shoot more matches this year.

One reason our match schedule has been so drastically reduced in the last couple of years has been the unavailability, and maddening overpricing, of ammunition.  Extended pandemic. Workers at the plants out sick. Component shortages and price increases.  Ships full of product sitting on the ocean waiting forever to be unloaded.  A President who decides to punish Russia by banning the importation of Russian ammunition into the US.  Which leads to:

RESOLUTION: When we find ammo available at (choke) “acceptable” prices, we’re gonna buy it and re-stock.

And my last Resolution is to not make resolutions I know I can’t keep.

What about all y’all?

47 COMMENTS

  1. Happy New Year to everyone here,

    With the changing of the calendar and new year upon us I find making “Resolutions” silly.

    None of us have the ability to go back and make a brand new start, we all can start from now and have a brand new ending.

    Make every day a great day!!

    God bless…..

  2. I have the same Model 12 resolution, but with a 2” barrel. Having moved to a much colder clime, I think it will be just the ticket in a shoulder holster under a winter coat. Had a 4” one years ago but let it get away, along with the 2 Model 57s, Model 66, Model 15, Model 10….crap, now I have to go to the safe & fondle some N, L, K & J frames.

  3. I’ve been stockpiling before this sh_t show started. 9mm used to cost a quarter a round so I bought a few ammo cans at garage sales to hold them. It’s now around 40-50 cents a round so that was a good investment. Wiki ammo is a great app to simplify the search.

  4. Two related resolutions for 2022: Practice more often and more effectively. Take at least one week-long handgun class.

  5. As I get ready to welcome 2022 I have 4 shifts left to work and then retirement. So my resolutions are to shoot more matches find more primers and try to stay healthy. So after assembling components for the last 6 months, January and February await me in the reloading room. Here in Ohio I will like a ground hog scurry out to chronograph ammo and the retreat to the burrow. I have steel challenge ammo to load for my son, bowling pin ammo to load for both of us and Bianchi cup ammo to load for myself. During this enchanted time I will also try to adapt to a normal schedule after working the last 10years on night shift.
    Best wishes to all for the new year.

    • Congrats on your upcoming retirement. I know how you feel, having been done with my work career for a few years now. I am in Michigan, and it just started to snow, with a couple of inches promised tonight.
      I also don’t make resolutions, but I do make plans. And I plan on getting more shooting done this year than I have in the past. I don’t reload, as I have been able to buy ammo in times past for about .18 cents a round, at my local Dunham’s store, and took advantage of it. So I find it repugnant to buy more at .35 cents a round, which I saw today in my email messages.
      If I get lower than I am comfortable with, I will pick up another 500 rounds, just to keep my larder full. But I have tons of .22lr in stores, with a Ruger Mark IV, 22/45 to burn it up. That is my normal practice and training gun/caliber.
      I would like to get a handgun training class, from one of the better known trainers. But there are also some good instructors near me, that are not well known, who are able to do a good job, and so I might just try and attend their class, maybe I could get 2 of their classes for the cost of just 1 of the well known teachers classes.
      As for the bowling pin shoot, I live in Michigan, and keep threatening that I am going to go to the next years shoot, up where they hold the shoot, in I think Central Lake. Maybe this will be the year I actually make it there.

  6. Dear Mas and the Princess,

    I recently sort of stocked up on a few calibers. Not cheap, but “better” than April
    2021. Already had plenty of other fodder.

    What I’ve noticed over time is the unavailability of reloading components. It’s vaporware
    except for odd calibers and/or bullet weights. It’s going somewhere I guess…

    Many thanks for all that you do,

    Bob

  7. Although I also have “enough” guns, temptation is always lurking around the corner. However, advancing age does make me ponderabout
    the future of the “Armory.” My friends know that my wife believes long guns are worth $200 and handguns $100. If I suddenly kick the bucket, she will have lots of company…..

  8. To put God first above all.
    To do more charitable acts.
    To pray for the enemy.
    Go to the range once weekly.
    Never take a day for granted.
    Pray for me as I pray for you.

  9. Mas, found this little ditty !

    I hope and pray that none may kill me, Nor I kill any, with woundings grim. But if ever any should think to kill me, I pray thee, God, let me kill him first
    I leave this rule for others when I’m dead, Be always sure you’re right — THEN GO AHEAD! Davy Crockett

  10. For the new year I have resolved to increase my dry fire practice, fortify my home, work and travel security and study the laws around defensive use more. Thanks all for your teaching and guidance Mas.

  11. I resolve to start reloading again. I’ve finally had the time and energy to dig out all of my stuff for 9 mm and 38 special and I need to get things set up.

  12. I spent a couple of years optimizing my 2020 Colt Python and gear for IDPA Revolver, so a goal of mine for 2022 is to really run with it against all those Smiths. Happy New Year!

    • I won a few state championships with a Python back in the day. Pro tip to speed up your reloads: everybody wants to use the TIP of their thumb to retract the Colt cylinder release, which requires a shifting of the hand and eats up a big fraction of a second. If you’re right handed, just use the inside edge of the thumb (alongside the long part of the thumbnail) to hook it back and you’ll have a faster, effortless cylinder release.

  13. My resolution for the new year of 2022 is to agree more often with my always right wife so I can spend more time at the range instead of the emergency room or ICU. Husbands other than rookies should already know this, but I’m a slow learner. Better late than never.

    • Honorable Tom606, one thing is to learn something as important as always agreeing with your wife. Another thing is never to forget for an instant to do it! So quietly practice saying “of course you are right, my dear,” to your better-half Gentle Giant, and be satisfied with confidential self-congratulations on having a good memory and greater common sense. I believe that the celebrated philosopher Spinoza once said, “Never do anything that you will regret.” I have always supposed that he learned that lesson the hard way, and probably the most after his marriage began. Happy New Year to all you peace officers! May you all have the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon in 2022. And peace especially unto all the wonderful lady LEO’s. So glad we have you!

      • Thanks for the kind words Strategic Steve. I gave Bertha some well padded boxing gloves for Christmas, mostly for my benefit as she has very hard knuckles. It was difficult to find gloves large enough for her ham sized hands though.

  14. I’ve never been able to work out why they never did a 612. Given that they now do J frames in .357 Magnum they could even do that.

  15. “If you’re right handed, just use the inside edge of the thumb (alongside the long part of the thumbnail) to hook it back and you’ll have a faster, effortless cylinder release.”

    Well, well, well. ? Thank you, Mas. I’ll try this out. ?

  16. Mas – “At the moment, there’s a gap in my Smith & Wesson collection: the Model 12 Airweight .38 Special revolver with four-inch barrel.”

    Interesting. I actually have a Model 12-4 revolver with 4-inch barrel, blued finish and fixed sights in my collection. I picked it up, new, at a gun show back in the late 1980’s. I remember the FFL dealer, at the show, telling me that the model 12 had just been discontinued and that the one’s he was selling (he had a batch of 3 or 4 of them as I recall) would be the last of that model to hit the market. His price was reasonable so I bought one.

    The serial number (ADK-XXXX) indicates a production in late 1983.

    While I have fired it on occasion, I have never carried it or shot it much. It is used but is still around 98% condition.

    I rarely sell guns out of my collection but I might make an exception for you, Mas. If, during your travels, you happen to pass through Nashville, send me an email. We might be able to meet up and work out a deal on my Model 12-4.

    • Hang on to those guns TN_MAN. Back in the late 1980’s when I was working at a local gun shop, I bought a S&W 547 with 3″ barrel, a Colt Viper, and a Colt Diamondback in .22 LR with 6″ barrel, all new in the box for their going prices and with a nice employee discount. There was also a new, blued Colt Python with 2 1/2″ barrel which sat in the case for over a year and offered to me by the store manager for $375 which I turned down. I never fired the S&W 547, Viper, and Diamondback, and sold them a short time later when I needed money to buy something else. I’m still kicking myself every day for those bad decisions.

  17. Looking forward to MAS-20 in south Texas in March. Was running low on small pistol primers, couldn’t sleep so I got on Gunbrokers (bad combination), found and bid on two, 5000 lots of SPP. I thought the bid closed in three DAYS and had plenty of time for someone to outbid me. Well, it was really only three hours. That’s right sports fans……..I’m the proud owner of 10,000 SPP. Grease up that Dillon and let the reloading begin!

  18. More training for me this year. I’m hitting the big 5-0 this February my plan is to take a class for myself and drag my 18 year old son with me.
    I can appreciate your thoughts on the feeling of having the guns a want\need but I still find myself cruising my local haunts for that one piece that beckons me to take it home.
    In my little corner of New Hampshire, there a a handful of local gun shops. It’s always amazed me how each shop has it’s own personality. Some are the place to go for that new black rifle/pistol and alike while others are your best bet for that obscure gun they haven’t made in years. A Model 12 in 38 Special with a 4 inch… I’ll keep my eyes open.

  19. My resolution is to “TRY” to not be so smug regarding being correct about my predictions of left-wing behavior. For example, back on August 4th, 2021, I made a comment about the strange fact that the NYPD was soooo slow in posting their 2020 Use of Force Report to their web site. I made this comment:

    “I bet that Mayor De Blasio has held up the posting of the report because he knows that it will make his administration, and the Democrat Party, look bad. There is no problem in holding it up since the sycophantic media will never question it or push for its release.,,,You see my point? The leftists reject reality. If the latest reports says stuff that they don’t want to hear, why then, just bury it. The leftists can lie by omission just as readily as they lie by commission.”

    Well, the 2020 Report has finally appeared. It is posted now at this link:

    https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/reports-analysis/use-of-force.page

    Wonder why it appears now at the start of 2022? Could the fact that Mayor De Blasio’s term as the “Worst Mayor in NY City History” ended today possibly have anything to do with it?

    However, he need not have worried. The long delay allowed ample time for the report to be “spun” correctly. If you read the new report, you will discover that (despite 2020 being a year of political unrest, pandemics, riots and increasing crime), it was actually a “GOOD YEAR” for the NYPD from a Use of Force perspective!

    Whether this surprising outcome is the result of the NYPD sitting on their hands during the 2020 riots, or because of “creative accounting” on the part of NYPD statisticians and report writers, is more than I can say.

    Nevertheless, I firmly RESOLVE to not be SMUG! 🙂

    • Just one more point that I would like to make regarding the Use of Force in NYC. I invited the readers of this blog to compare and contrast the NYPD 2020 Use of Force Report (found at the link above) with the separate report, from the Office of the NY Attorney General, regarding the NYPD use of force during the 2020 George Floyd riots. This report can be found here:

      https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-releases-preliminary-report-investigation-nypd

      The NYPD version of the use of force report is a “White Wash” job. It says that the NYPD had a GREAT YEAR in 2020. It was one of their BEST YEARS with respect to the justified and reasonable application of force in the performance of their duties. Indeed, with the release of this report, they seem to be asking for a “pat on the back” and loud applause from the public for their restrained use of force.

      In contrast, the report from the Attorney General’s Office condemns the NYPD, in the blackest terms, for their persistent and EXCESSIVE use of force during the George Floyd riots. It suggests that urgent changes are needed at the NYPD to rectify this deplorable situation. It includes a whole host of suggested improvements and modified oversight procedures all aimed at the NYPD. Just by chance, all these suggested changes PERFECTLY FIT the very latest in Left-Wing ideological thought. Well what do you know about that?!?

      These reports differ in what they report, to such a degree, that they cannot both be true. Wonder which of these reports reflects the reality of what truly happened in 2020?

      IMHO, neither report reflects reality. If you want TRUTH, don’t go looking for it in the State of New York and, especially, in New York City. Truth is a stranger in all the Blue States and Cities. You will have better luck in finding a living, breathing unicorn then in finding the truth anywhere on the Left or in their Blue Oppression Zones.

      Quote of the Day (per Mark Twain): “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

  20. I had a 4” Model 12 with skinny barrel and round butt years ago.

    I had to sell it to afford a black powder rifle for deer hunting.

    I have regretted that decision ever since.

  21. I’d like to have an Airweight some day.

    This coming year I hope to continue to pick up cartridges in smaller quantities over time. It works for the monthly budget and has been my strategy for a while. Sure — I’d like to acquire it in bulk but spending upwards of many hundreds for the product then heavy tariff on shipping … gets expensive.

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