Old style guns or new? Modernity has its advantages, but long-term habituation gets a vote too. Here’s a piece I wrote for Backwoods Home magazine on the topic, back in the day.
What’s your take on the matter? Your comments, as always, are welcome here.
My routine carry handgun is an S&W 686+ (7-shot) Mountain gun. I usually carry Federal 38+P, not magnums, for controllability. Old school guy, old school gun; but I can hit all 6 Bianchi plates at 35 yards. None of my modern autos give me that kind of accuracy.
Being relatively new to pistol craft the Glock platform (which I started out with) is my comfortable familiar handshake, for the same reasons you mention. Shotguns, no doubt is the modern LTT Beretta 1301T.
AR wins the rifle category, although I really did like the M-1 carbine my dad deer hunted with
After carrying a 9mm handgun for a large number of the years that I have carried concealed here in Michigan, this summer I went to a revolver in .357/.38 special, loading it with .38 special only.
I decided to do this based on a number of things, the two main ones being to simplify my whole lifestyle and in recognition of the real threat that I face in my day to day life. I simply am satisfied with 6 rounds plus another 6 in a speedstrip being able to get me through any possible trouble that I might find myself in.
We all remember the sheepdog idea that I haven’t seen as much of later, but my choice was due to knowing that I am not a sheepdog, but rather a sheep with teeth, and I don’t have to take care of the whole world, just myself and my own loved ones.
“A sheep with teeth” is a bit of a mixed metaphor, but I like it. Sounds like something that Mas might use in a trial explanation to a jury.
I would have said “A lamb with a .38 Special,” but close enough. I think it may have been Benjamin Franklin who spoke of two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch, and a “well-armed sheep” contesting the vote.
Sometimes the traditional things do need a tad of change/modernization. Particularly with the sights as one ages. I find front sights that are stainless, plated like stainless, have the S&W obnoxious orange inserts or white dots are still generally usable. The plain black sights are for target shooting while I’m wearing my magic spectacles that bring the sights into focus.
Prompted by something you wrote recently, I unearthed a few pistols that haven’t seen the light of day for quite some time. A wee dab of Testor’s metallic gold enamel made the front sight on a BHP Mk2 visible. After some consideration, a couple of 1911 slides went to Novaks for white dot front sights. They came back today. Much better.
This is what drove me-after a proof of concept-to get a spare slide assembly for my main sidearm and fit it with an RDO.
Semi auto handguns & ARs with red dots & lights for defensive use. Revolvers & lever actions in 38 Special & 22LR for fun. Bolt actions with suppressors for deer & varmints.
Pesonnally I don’t put much stock on nostalgia for its own sake. However, I am finding more and more that older stuff just seems to work better, be more functional, more rugged, and so forth.
After checking out all the new modern semiauto handguns looking for my EDC I finally and grudgingly settled on the new Springfield XD. It was far from perfect but tolerable so I put an outfit on three month layaway at my then.favourite “hardware” store. Two months on I happened to be at my favourite monthly gun show.Prowling the bins I noticed an inteesting nine mm semi, and picked it up. Hmm.. John Moses. Made in Belgium. I put it into my proper hand, held it at low ready and closed my eyes. I opened them and selected a fixed point at distance, and quickly raised my hands to bear on that selected point. The sights instantly fell right to that point, no correction needed. I repeated with a few different aim points, same results every time. I examined the piece very thorughly, was impressed with its function, ease of manipulating, had heard nothing but good things about the maker.
I asked the price and quickly drew out four of my five Benjamins and handed them over. That was the extent of he “paperwork” required at that time. (anyone mention “nostalgia lately?) Popped my new “friend” into my pocket and went home quite satisfied. Next morning I dug out a box of suitable fodder and headed out to the back yard. A few days later I was visiting a friend who mentioned he was looking for” a new handgun. What do you want”? The first one he mentioned was the Springfield XD. Mine was still in the locker at the gun store and I was regretting having committed to buying it. Didn’t want it anymore. But it was either bail it out or lose what I”d paid so far. It was on sale when I made the deal, there was a significant price increase shortly after.. so I agreed to bail it out and sell it to my friend at the older non-discount before price hike number. Legal at that time.
In the next while I was able to find and acquire a few more very similar to the first. “Just in case”. Twenty years on that first one rides my hip every time I leave home. I am not sure whether it is nostalgia or practicality, but there it is. Never found a sidearm that fits and feels so good AND is far more accurate than I am. .
My carry pistol is a Sig C3, with an aluminum Officer’s-size frame and an SST Commander-length slide and barrel. Utterly reliable. Does that qualify as “traditional”, given the materials and Frankenstein’s-monster configuration?
My bedside pistol is a Kimber full-size 1911A1 with night sights.
My truck pistol is a Springfield Armory SST full-size 1911A1.
All of these are in .45 ACP, they all work the same way, and I’ve been shooting 1911’s (starting with my grandfather’s at age 11) for almost all of my life.
Yeah, they’re all “traditional”, but that doesn’t bother me since I’m completely at home with handling, cleaning, training with, and shooting them. In my mid-60’s now, and shooting a .45 is still no problem. Tried a Glock 30S, and hated the magazines (which wouldn’t load more than 7 rounds without the tool), a terrible grip, and worse yet, the trigger from heck. So I’m sticking with what works for me.
Great article, but sometimes the traditional and nostalgic can come with a negative connotation. I wore a GI issue 1911 on my hip in Vietnam for one year, every day and I slept with it under my pillow in my bunker. I was so glad to have it, and I could shoot it reasonably well. Present day I understand how many came to love it and still do, but for some reason I grew to hate that weight on my hip. Since then I have never wanted one.
My fall-in-love pistol was the Glock. Still is.
Now I must say that negative feeling didn’t extend to my M16. After over 45 years of not shooting one, the first time I shot a friend’s civilian AR15 on a range, I had a grin from ear to ear. It was just like finding an old friend from 45 years ago. I love that rifle and still do.
“…I slept with it under my pillow…”
Word for word what a retired Australian news reporter recently stated. He went out with US Marines on patrol, and was issued a 1911 and everything else. He still has his helmet.
Hence the old joke:
“Why do you sleep with a pistol under your pillow?”
“Because I can’t get my rifle under there.”
Quote of the Day:
“I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like.” – Will Rogers
I am sorry to say that I cannot comport with Will Rogers sentiment, as given in his above quote. I have, in fact, met a few people that I did dislike and a small number that I outright despised. Not the Christian attitude that one should cultivate, I confess. I strive to do better.
However, if we paraphrase Will Rogers, then I can truly say that: “I never handled a gun that I didn’t like”. Some more than others (it is true), but both traditional and modern firearms appeal to me. I own antique firearms that date back more than a century. One dates back to the 1880’s. I purchased (from an online auction site) a single-shot Remington Rifle, that dates back to 1926, just a couple of months ago. OTOH, I recently bought a couple of handguns that were just introduced onto the market in 2025. Models as new as this year!
The whole subject of firearms is of interest to me. This has been true since I received my first “Cap-buster” toy rifle, at the age of four, and began watching “Davy Crockett” on TV! 🙂
I do both at the same time. Simple.
Great article, and a pleasure to read.
I’m a big 1911 fan, love the plastic guns like Glock and the M&P, they just seem to always go bang. I have tried a few over the years to carry, even tried a little LCP but kept coming back to a 1911 style. USPSA with a 2011 and 21 rounds in the mag, steel plates with a 9mm range officer, zombies with a Colt gold cup in 45. You could say I blend the old with the new but it always has the same grip angle as my carry gun, Ed Brown Coba Carry. I was shooting a Glock at steel plates for a bit and the next week went to the 1911 for USPSA and forgot the thumb safety a couple of times and that was that. Sold the Glocks and stuck with one platform. With so many choices in that platform I don’t lose a thing.
I love your stuff Massad, when one of your articles come up I always take the time. Hope to see you at the Antelope Club some time and shake your hand.
Barry
The handiest, quickest, most dependable with ball ammo, and accurate, combat pistol that I have ever had, or fired, was a lightweight satin nickel Colt Commander in .45 ACP, with a throated chamber and a customized trigger, both done by a gunsmith who was a former Marine Corps Band member, and was likely a Vietnam veteran. The pistol was a fantastically accurate single-action semi-auto which I may never have the likes of again. I loved that trigger!
This is off-topic but I think that the readers of this blog may find this news of interest:
https://tennesseefirearms.com/news/
Here is a link to the oral arguments for this case. If you have the time, and the interest in the 2A, it is worth watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsMzcIkVw6o&t=6423s
This is HUGE for Tennessee, folks! Do you realize that the primary law governing carrying a firearm or a club, and the law governing firearms in parks have both just been struck down?!? Right now (until the appeals and stays start), the law that governs the carry of firearms, in Tennessee, is the 2nd Amendment, straight up!
Technically (Today, August 24th, 2025), I could sling one of my AR’s over my shoulder, holster my 1911 on one side, slip my PR-24 baton on the other, and go for a walk through any park in Tennessee!
If some cop/prosecutor wants to nab me for it, then he will have to shoehorn some other statute to charge me under because the old, standard statutes have just been struck down as violations of the Second Amendment of the United States of America!
Hallelujah! For this brief moment-in-time, I am truly living in “Free America”! 🙂
Here is a follow-up article that illustrates our problems with RINO’s in Tennessee. The Republican Party has controlled the State legislature for years. For this reason, Tennessee is thought to be a “RED” State that is 2A-friendly. Yet, our own citizens had to sue in order to put pressure on the legislature to reform out-of-date, anti-2A laws that have been on the books for decades.
These reforms should have been made after the SCOTUS clarified the 2A under the Heller-McDonald-Bruen series of decisions. Pro-2A groups lobbied FOR YEARS to try to get the legislature to make the needed legal reforms to get Tennessee Law to comply with the current understanding of 2A Rights. However, the RINO-led legislature turned a deaf ear toward all these lobby efforts.
Finally, the Pro-2A groups were FORCED to sue in order to have a court declare these obsolete laws unconstitutional with respect to the 2A.
It is to be hoped that the State Legislature will restrain the RINO’s, in their ranks, and FINALLY move to make legal reforms now that a court has put them “under the gun” (pun intended 🙂 ).
We will see what happens now. It is always a bitter battle to get our 2A Rights respected. Even in a so-called Republican-controlled State. Yes, folks, the “Uni-Party” exists even in RED Tennessee.
Here is the link to the follow-up article, mentioned above:
https://tennesseestands.org/commentary/tennessee-court-delivers-historic-victory-for-second-amendment-rights-while-exposing-republican-failures/
Scene: Paleolithic Era appx 10,000 BC
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Ig: Big hard rock, make head go flat! Guud! Guud!
Ook: No! No! New rock, smooth, slick fly fast, no heavy! Easy to carry many! Better!
Ig: You is young punk, no know nothing! One big slow, they get up no mo’!
Ook: Old fool! Me got sack with heaps, win fight for keeps!
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Nothing’s new, apparently. I can see some drawings on the Shanidar Cave walls that translate into something like “Peridotite or Feldspar? Which one will keep YOU alive? We test both!”
I’ve opted for a close relative to the 1911. I’m currently carrying and fond of Springfield’s SA-35. Nice having 16 rounds of 9mm and slim enough to conceal. Hopefully my 1911’s don’t get jealous