What's the gun that gives you the "warm-and-fuzzies"?

[RevolverRob]

Definition:

Noun: A thing or situation designed to provoke or evoke such an emotional response. Sometimes hyphenated.

Adjective: Particularly sentimental, reassuring, and comforting, as of an emotional response. Sometimes hyphenated.

___

Definitionally it can apply to inanimate objects, since it is your emotional response.

What's the gun that when you pick it up - it gives you the warm-and-fuzzies.

For me - The first handgun I ever bought a Ruger P95DC - I still have it. It was carried many hours, many times, for many years as my only gun. I can pick it up and shoot a ragged hole with it at 15 yards. In 20,000 rounds it's had one malfunction...resolved by changing the recoil springs (after 12,500 rounds I guess that's okay).

Doesn't have to be a handgun, could be a black powder piece, a hunting rifle, your grandpa's old shotgun, even your pellet gun from when you were 7. What's one that gives you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling?

[Joe in PNG]

Currently, my Colt 9mm WC LW Commander.
I'm still rather awed that I own one.

[03RN]

My Springfield loaded.

Spent a year shooting revolvers but am back to carrying my loaded. Just something about a basic 1911. It's really the gun I feel I could confidentiality take on any threats.
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[Duke]

My fast coin brig tac.

It recently came back from Allegheny arms where josh did a flush cut reverse crown barrel, single side decocker, square notch black rear sight, Fiber front and full frame dehorn with magwell cut and fresh anodizing. The DA is 7.1lbs with a 13lb spring and the new Langdon trigger bar pulling a Wilson deluxe hammer


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[Duelist]

Kinda depends. I have a guns that I really like holding, looking at, taking pictures of, hunting with, or shooting. Then I have a couple that, when I’m carrying, I just know they’re going to work, no matter what, or that if I can see it, I’ll hit it. Or I can run it in the dark, because it’s so familiar. Confidence is one kind of warm and fuzzy.

Kind of a list. G26.3, though, for a centerfire pistol. It works. Always. Ithaca 37S for a shotgun. Really like that gun. It’s beautiful. Lightweight KISS AR for a carbine. Savage 11 .243 for a hunting rifle. Can’t miss.

Really like my 92a1, though. Looks good, feels good, shoots good, Army memories, but with all the stuff on it I wished my M9 had.

M18 S&W revolver is probably the last gun I’ll own when I’m a crippled up old man. Easy to shoot, accurate, .22 wont cut me up, but it looks like a .357.

[Drifting Fate]

9mm Browning Hi-Power.

Talk about a slim, trim piece of serious resolution to violent interpersonal confrontations.

Mine have always been reliable, easy to carry, and with soul...

[farscott]

For me, it is the Ruger Standard RST-6. It is the model of pistol my father used to teach me the basics of shooting during the summer I was aged six. I also really enjoy .22 LR, and the combination of history and fun makes the Standard an important pistol to me.

[URIT]

I have over a dozen S&W Gen3 TDA (DA/SA) pistols in 9mm and .40 S&W, but it is a rare DAO .40 caliber model 4054 that gives me the "warm-and-fuzzies". It is a safe queen and only gets out to the range once a year, but it is a joy to shoot and a reminder of what it lead me to discover about myself and my CCW preferences.

The S&W 4054 was the first of many double action only metal Gen3 Smiths. That gun convinced me to buy more DAO models in 9mm and .40 S&W and to carry the DAO semi-autos as my primary CCW.:D

[Robinson]

Colt Series 80 Government Model. The basic blued 45. I own guns that are nicer and easier to shoot, but that one always feels right.

[fatdog]

USP/c LEM has that "Goldilocks" quality, everything is just right.

[MK11]

West German SIG P226. Even though I've been assimilated by polymer, no pistol feels better and it was the first center fire handgun my father and I shot together, so nothing can replace that.

[mmc45414]

I had a S&W M15 that I bought (Dad facilitated) with money from delivering newspapers in 1973. Past tense because it was taken in a burglary. I replaced it with a sweeter M19 but it is just not the same.

At this point I would have to say a 5" 1911 in 45 (my current example is a Springfield Marine Operator) that makes me think "Hello, Old Friend...".

[Nephrology]

My first gun - a po surp 870 Wingmaster with walnut stock that had been cut to a shorter LOP by someone before me (work was very nicely done). Bluing is still in good shape, the wood is beautiful, very much still a practical defensive firearm.

[Darth_Uno]

I had a S&W M15 that I bought (Dad facilitated) with money from delivering newspapers in 1973. Past tense because it was taken in a burglary. I replaced it with a sweeter M19 but it is just not the same.

At this point I would have to say a 5" 1911 in 45 (my current example is a Springfield Marine Operator) that makes me think "Hello, Old Friend...".

I'm the same with both 1911's and Smith 19's. I rarely shoot my Dan Wesson Pointman anymore. And if I customized a new one today I'd do it a lot differently. But many other 1911's have come and gone, and this one is still here. Putting a mag in and racking the slide is like getting behind the wheel of a muscle car - it's been a while, but feels like coming home.

I also have a 4" 19-3 I never really shoot anymore. I think it's been a couple years. I could sell it and get something more useful in every measurable way, but....just no.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

My SW 1911Sc Commander. The authoritative nature of the boom and big holes in an IDPA target - ah, well!

[mmc45414]

I also have a 4" 19-3 I never really shoot anymore.
I am pretty much to the point that if it aint fiber optic, I can't see it, and the guns without just tend to stay in the safe. I have some fairly near term financial objectives that once met I plan to try and find somebody that can help me out.

[Lost River]

I have a couple.

This old Marlin Mountie .22 LR. It has seen some serious rounds put through it and gone on a BUNCH of rabbit safaris, to the point that a hunting buddy asked one time "Why don't you ever bring a different rimfire rifle along", as he knows what is in my safe. When the shooting action gets good in the thick sagebrush, every now and then I will have to pause for a moment to check and the condition of the rifle as it has become a conditioned response to work the action without thinking.

http://i.imgur.com/df4Q0E0.jpg (https://imgur.com/df4Q0E0)


This is one is an old friend. My first Model 29. A 6.5" -2 A wonderfully accurate piece that for years was one of only a few handguns that I owned and has accounted for all manner of game. For a while all I had were a Colt 70S 1911, a Ruger .22 MK2, and this .44 Magnum for handguns. In some ways it made life easier..

http://i.imgur.com/KQNwm2d.jpg (https://imgur.com/KQNwm2d)

[Totem Polar]

Kinda depends. I have a guns that I really like holding, looking at, taking pictures of, hunting with, or shooting. Then I have a couple that, when I’m carrying, I just know they’re going to work, no matter what, or that if I can see it, I’ll hit it. Or I can run it in the dark, because it’s so familiar. Confidence is one kind of warm and fuzzy...

Sorta this. The one true ‘warm n fuzzy’ gun for me, in nostalgic terms, is my unmolested ‘56 flatgate single-six that I learned to shoot with, standing between my dad’s legs as he leaned over and steadied my hands with his so I could align the sights and pull the trigger when I was a little kid. Clack-clack-clack. I still take that one to the range.

Otherwise, they’re just tools. Right now, I’m sort of agog for my Colt new King Cobra, because, 3-inch .357, sights I can see; lots of myelinated pathway for running a wheelgun.

[Rex G]

Any GP100 has a head start, because the original-pattern grip is about as perfect as possible for my hands. My first GP100, 4”, full-lug, stainless, adjustable sights, acquired around 1990, well before my others, clearly has seniority.

A good GP100 seems to have radar guidance, when shooting. This one, my first one, has better radar. I know that this part makes no real sense. “Pointability” is more like it. Even when one uses the sights, the “pointability” and fit equation gives the shooter a head start.

I had started DA shooting with S&W revolvers, during the Bangor Punta era, known for poor fitting and QC. Ruger was able to bite deeply, into S&W’s market share, once buyers became accustomed to the GP100’s non-traditional appearance. I had not grown up among firearms, and had started handgunning with a 1911, so had not prejudice against Ruger, or the GP100.

This GP100 was my primary duty handgun, during that most interesting moment, in mid-1993, that got my name in the newspapers. I switched to K-Frames in 1995, for their lighter weight, on the duty belt, but the GP100 remained a favorite. (The Safariland 070 holster, for the GP100/Python, weighed much more than the 070 for the K-Frames, so that purple-ish spot on the point of my hip was caused by the weight of much additional dense polymer, as well as the weight of the larger weapon.)

In April 1997, I started a mostly-1911 phase, using full-sized 1911 pistols for police duty, and personal-time carry. The exception was the back-up J-snub, and I may have occasionally fired an SP101. The GP100 went into the back of the safe. The S&W herd was thinned. I had owned 1911 pistols, off and on, since my very first handgun, in 1983, was a Detonics. (Yes, I had read too many Jerry Ahern and Leroy Thompson articles.) I’d had to learn DA revolvering, however, as a police cadet, and could only use DA revolvers, during my first year of sworn duty, so, I took revolvers very seriously. In 1997, however, the PD was moving toward all primary duty pistols, going forward, would be specified .40 S&W decockers. Existing duty handguns could be “grandfathered.” I decided to return to my 1911 roots.

In the year 2000, however, the Malevolent* Seven, a group of prisoners, succeeded in a mass escape, then, remained together as an armed gang. Their post-escape crimes included killing an LEO, during a burglary of an Academy Sports & Outdoors store. They stole AR15 rifles during that burglary. I was working for a PD that had banned patrol rifles in 1983, the year I had started the academy.

What to do? What if I encountered the seven escapees, and their rifles, and needed more range than my shotgun, and a flatter trajectory than .45 ACP? (They were known to be committing burglaries here, in the Houston area.) Well, release the Kraken, the warm/fuzzy/radar-guided GP100, of course. I could no longer qual with it as a primary duty handgun, but it could be a “back-up/off-duty” weapon, and nothing said that a back-up weapon had to be small.

The PD range operates 24 hours a day, five days a week, so it was easy enough to update my qual. I fired an amazingly good cumulative group, with Magnum ammo. I could shoot a 1911, on a good day, about as well as I could shoot revolver, if I practiced regularly. After not having shot a GP100, or any other DA revolver, other than the occasion short session/qual with a small-frame snub, since 1997, I shot this GP100 as well as ever, a cumulative group that would have made me happy, any day. Skill with the GP100 had not perished in three-plus years. Warm, fuzzy, and radar-guided.

I have added more GP100 revolvers, to the degree that I thinned the herd, by two, probably about a decade ago, but then added one more, a Wiley Clapp edition, in late 2017. There is nothing quite like my first one, of course. Life is good.

*The “Malevolent” part did not stick. “Texas Seven” did, unfortunately, become the predominant news media term.

[OlongJohnson]

I don't yet have an answer to this thread.


West German SIG P226. Even though I've been assimilated by polymer, no pistol feels better and it was the first center fire handgun my father and I shot together, so nothing can replace that.

My P226 with Hogue G10 checkered stocks always feels like my hiking boots the first time I pulled them on in the store, and every time since. "Ahhh... that's the shape of me!" But the trigger isn't as sweet as the M11-A1 that won't extract Winchester cases and it seems to be getting silver on the underside of the frame rails too much, too soon, in spite of generous lubrication and a cleaning schedule to remove abrasive powder remains that all the reading you'd do on this site says is utterly unnecessary. So I have trouble feeling as good about it as I'd like to.


Any GP100 has a head start, because the original-pattern grip is about as perfect as possible for my hands. My first GP100, 4”, full-lug, stainless, adjustable sights, acquired around 1990, well before my others, clearly has seniority.

The GP MC is getting close. The trigger is excellent, and I'm pretty happy with it mechanically at this point. I don't shoot it quite as well as the Sig. I've been playing with the grip some more and last night during dry fire practice, got it to the point where I went, "Ahhhh..." Never would have guessed that peeling off two little pieces of gaffer tape smaller than postage stamps would make the difference they did. Will be shooting it live a bunch in the next few months; the plan when awesomeness is confirmed is to ship the whole mess up to Herrett's and tell them, "Nice walnut, shaped like this." It's close enough I have two more GPs and expect them both to be part of my estate when the time comes.

Psychologically, the USP full size actually comes closest, just because of the legendary reliability and durability associated with it, combined with the utility of being a standard-cap semi. In a Toyota HiLux kinda way, that matters to me. And it does work well ergonomically for me; big, northern Europeans making equipment for big, northern Europeans. But it doesn't have the beauty, doesn't feel quite as molded to me, and the trigger isn't nearly as good as the Sigs and GP. I believe the trigger itself has flex that contributes to a mushy feeling, and suspect the trigger bar may be part of it, though I haven't really had one apart. Also, the shape of the trigger has a lot more curve forward toward the bottom; I just really prefer the shape and solid-steel stiffness of the original-design, non-ribbed classic Sig TRIGGER-6. I like the classic Sig decocker a lot. However, I like the forward, 1911-style position of the slide catch lever on the USP better than the behind-the-decocker Sig catch. The two positions really aren't compatible.

If the P226 had a trigger as good as I know Sig triggers can be, and I could expect "forever" trustworthiness out of it the way I do a USP, I think that would be the one. Or a USP with a more Sig-like trigger; I have a bunch of USP trigger parts and need to dive down that rabbit hole.

[MRW]

For me, the first one that comes to mind is a Remington 7600 in .30-06 I bought new with a Nikon scope with money from my first job out of college. Growing up, most of the guys I hunted with had 760's or 7600's. When looking for my first new deer rifle once I had some money, it felt like the right choice.

I've killed a lot of PA whitetails with it including two that ended up on my wall. It still goes out with me for a few days every year.

[JRB]

My Father's stainless Colt Officer's ACP - Yes, it's a stainless, series 80 Officer's model.
It had a local gunsmith's 'going through' not long after he bought it when I was a very young kid, and it was one of the only firearms in the house.
I was 6 years old and along with my Dad on a range trip where I'd gleefully chase brass from centerfire guns and make a lot of brass with his old stainless 10/22 - and I vividly remember watching a family friend shooting a magazine through that small, stainless .45 and thinking a bunch of "I can't wait until I'm a grown up" kind of thoughts, when my Dad loaded a single round into a 7-round Wilson Combat magazine, and asked me if I'd like to take a shot with it.

There was about 3/4 of a clay pigeon laying on a dirt berm at 10 yards or so. I carefully wrapped my hands around the pistol, tried to steady my shaking hands and line up the sights, and the gun recoiled way over my head and the clay pigeon jumped about 5 feet in the air off the berm - I'd hit about 5 inches low.

After that, I made as much .45 ACP brass as my Dad would let me, and I went home with sore hands and sore thumbs from loading that same Wilson magazine over and over again.

Every time I pick up that pistol, I feel an indescribable mix of nostalgia and gratitude toward my Dad for raising me the way he did.

The rifle that gives me the warm and fuzzies - a straight tie between my Dad's old 10/22 I did my best to wear out, and my Dad's HK91. He assures me that the HK91 will be the last rifle I inherit from him - and it's hard to blame him there! :D

[FNFAN]

I inherited my Dad's 3.5" Model 27. That gun or a T-series Hi-Power accompanied us on many family vacations as I was growing up, going back to South Dakota in the summer for family gatherings (Dad was one of 11 brothers and sisters) and walleye fishing in the summer or pheasant hunting in the fall. When I turned 12, he would have the teachers give me a weeks worth of homework and we'd go meet the Uncles and family friends for some leisurely strolls through cornfields chasing roosters. One of my Auntie's husbands had been a Zip Feed salesman for decades, so we always had plenty of farmers willing to let us hunt their land.

After Dad passed we divided up the machinery and my little brother, a Browning collector, took the Hi-Power and I took the Smith. I've fancied N-frame Smiths over the years, starting my L.E. career with a 6.5" Model 27 and have had a few other "N's" over the years. At some point he replaced the service grips and Tyler-grip adapter with a set of my Pachmayer service grips from when I carried the 6.5" for duty and PPC competitions. I always kidded him about dressing up that svelte old gun with those huge, ugly, beat up grips. When I got the old gun, I went through and cleaned out the action and was about to throw on a set of Hogue Coco-Bolo finger-groove grips with absolutely gorgeous wood figure. I got them half way on and stopped.

His gun still wears the old Pach's and will until my son decides to do something different when he gets it.

[Tom Duffy]

Well, I'm finding myself surprised at which guns that I own it isn't.

It isn't my beautiful nickel plated Colt Python, bought in 1972, which is my heirloom gun. The double action certainly isn't up to Smith and Wesson standards and you really can't trust it not to go out of time with heavy volume shooting.

It isn't my newer Dan Wesson V-Bob, though I thought it would be. Tough for me to get a quick, solid anchor with my weak hand on the grip when drawing from a holster. at some point I'd like a medium length, smooth faced trigger installed.

It turns out that it would be one of my H&Ks: My P30L LEM has a grip that fits my hand like a glove. My HK45C LEM has a slightly better trigger. Both point naturally and will put bullets in the black at 25 yards all day long. Both have been absolutely reliable with 7,000 rounds each without a single failure. I have a RMR mounted on each by L&M and they conceal well in a Dale Fricke holster. Either one would be the one I'd pick up if I needed a gun.

My grail gun would be a P30L with a 1911 trigger. :)

[WOLFIE]

HK USP Elite in 45.

[psalms144.1]

I've got several:

First, anything that starts with 19 and ends with 11. But, old school really trips my trigger - keep your rails, please. Next, Colt SAAs and clones.

I'm also partial to the BHP, the P7M8, and pretty much any old school deep blue round guns (though the N frames are very yummy for me).

For long guns, it's the Sharps all the way, followed by lever actions, and side-by-side double barrels. My heart doesn't really warm at the sight of any long gun designed much past the beginning of the 20th century.

What's funny, when you look in my "things that get used" safe, you won't find any of these heart warmers - all soulless, utilitarian tools - Glocks, M&Ps, ARs, and a Benelli M2. Hell, the only round gun I have that comes out of the same is an LCR, which, despite it's great shooting and utility, is about as "warm and fuzzy" as the backside of a donkey...

[Lost River]

My Father's stainless Colt Officer's ACP - Yes, it's a stainless, series 80 Officer's model.
It had a local gunsmith's 'going through' not long after he bought it when I was a very young kid, and it was one of the only firearms in the house.
I was 6 years old and along with my Dad on a range trip where I'd gleefully chase brass from centerfire guns and make a lot of brass with his old stainless 10/22 - and I vividly remember watching a family friend shooting a magazine through that small, stainless .45 and thinking a bunch of "I can't wait until I'm a grown up" kind of thoughts, when my Dad loaded a single round into a 7-round Wilson Combat magazine, and asked me if I'd like to take a shot with it.

There was about 3/4 of a clay pigeon laying on a dirt berm at 10 yards or so. I carefully wrapped my hands around the pistol, tried to steady my shaking hands and line up the sights, and the gun recoiled way over my head and the clay pigeon jumped about 5 feet in the air off the berm - I'd hit about 5 inches low.

After that, I made as much .45 ACP brass as my Dad would let me, and I went home with sore hands and sore thumbs from loading that same Wilson magazine over and over again.

Every time I pick up that pistol, I feel an indescribable mix of nostalgia and gratitude toward my Dad for raising me the way he did.

The rifle that gives me the warm and fuzzies - a straight tie between my Dad's old 10/22 I did my best to wear out, and my Dad's HK91. He assures me that the HK91 will be the last rifle I inherit from him - and it's hard to blame him there! :D



You might like looking at this old Officer's ACP then.

I picked it up in 1991 and had it built to my liking.

http://i.imgur.com/h3yOTQU.jpg (https://imgur.com/h3yOTQU)

http://i.imgur.com/No3yRcv.jpg (https://imgur.com/No3yRcv)

[TheDLoon]

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Definitely my 1946 S&W .38/44. It belonged to my Grandpa who unfortunately passed before I was born and I never got a chance to meet. We found it in a shoebox in my Grandma's closet. I also have his prized pair of Lucchese boots that actually fit me. I like to wear them while shooting that gun to honor his legacy.

I also have my Remington R1 1911, it's nothing really special but it was a gift from my dad when I went off to college. After shooting plastic guns so long it's fun to go back to the classics!

[45dotACP]

As far as pistols?

Warm fuzzies in that I can pick the gun up and have a certainty that I'll hit what I'm shooting is my model 57 with an 8 3/8 barrel. Emotionally, the handgun I love the most is my Caspian 1911 built by yours truly...yours truly having had zero experience with 1911s and who had never even field stripped one when he built it. The gun has character marks. Did everything from the rails, trigger work, barrel fitment, and even the finish. That gun will be shoved off in my flaming longboat with me when I depart this life.

The rifle I love the most is an old Mossberg Target rifle. It was loaned to me by my older brother and used to win trophies galore when I was in high school. I still remember getting done with homework, setting up targets in the basement and not even dry firing the thing, but holding it in position aimed at the targets till my arms were too tired and then doing it again for hours.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[Wondering Beard]

Glock 17, any generation. This pistol is the closest to 100% sure it will work when taken out of the box. That gives me the warm and fuzzies.

For the pure pleasure of ownership, a Blued Colt SAA with fancy grips.

[Malamute]

Smith K-22s, 4" 19s, 4" 29s. Ruger 22 auto 6 7/8" target pistol, which is the only auto pistol ive ever shot consistently well (well, smith 41 shot really really well also). Colt SAAs, preferably 44 spl 4 3/4". Ruger SAs a distant runner up.

Winchester 1886s, 1894s, 1903 Springfield sporters, Marlin 39 Ruger tang safety 77s.

[Poconnor]

Several guns hit the sweet spot when you pick them up but my warm & fuzzy guns are my colt 1911 government 45, 18” & 14” 870s , and my ARs with barrels between 16” and 11”. These are the guns I have carried the most and have used for real. I also really like S&W K,L and N frames with 3” or 4” barrels. A K frame with 3” or 2.5” (S&W 66 and a 64) barrels are my favorite revolvers. I carry a 642 in my pocket often but as soon as I can get a magic pocket that carries a 1911 like a J frame I’m am switching. I have a Winchester Mosel 70 featherweight in 30-06 for over thirty years that is my go to bolt action

[Medusa]

I don’t have many, I’m fond of them all, and they’re all either 92s or px4s, but this one. Because she’s been with me for two decades, coast to coast. Always there. Always ready.

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