After spending way too long and way too much looking for The Perfect Pragmatic Pistol™, I've come to similar conclusions. Most of my recent non-pragmatic purchases/trades have been for Passion of the Gun types that I can take out of the safe and admire for whatever reason I'm drawn to them (visual, historical, etc) and not worry about how well or how often I shoot them.Originally Posted by jh9
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy / Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
A couple come to mind - I wanted a Ruger LCR since they first came out and rented one before I bought it. Kept it just about one month - too big for my pockets and too painful to shoot regardless of the ammo used. The other was a Glock 43 that I really wanted to love. Couldn't beat the squirming in hand after each shot. Kept it 18 months, put 2500 rounds through it, and finally said goodbye to (as I like to refer to it) "that wee bastige."
Regards, Ted
I gave up a long time ago looking for the perfect carry pistol. I stopped at P-239 and called it good. I guess that happened about the time I bought a P-30 and an HK45 to explore the polymer trend. I don't shoot those but still have them. IDK why. Probably just too lazy to do the work to sell them. Most of my recent purchases have been old revolvers and shotguns. None of them have anything to do with pragmatic.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Slow night, so one from the "long list which I won't enumerate"...
Shiloh Sharps 1874 Military Carbine (as in "saddle ring with bar") in .45-70. It was from Wolfgang's first production run in NY, and I was in reduced circumstances at the time, so I got the lowest-priced model. The thing was really nice, except for a soft hammer spring (which they replaced quickly), and best of all, I had a new "Sharps" made in USA!
Recoil, however, was unpleasant with anything but mild loads due to light weight and a relatively narrow steel buttplate; the sights were rudimentary and too closely coupled for distant work; the plain trigger was nothing to write home about, and I grew to hate the ring/bar. I persisted for a while, babying the thing and leaving it in the safe a lot just to keep gato's precious tchotchke in pristine condition.
In the end, I sold it for nearly what I paid originally, and in doing so was happy as a lark with a pint of stout in him. I then bought a heavy-barreled rolling block that let me know when it went off but didn't rattle my teeth.
gn
"On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog... or even a cat."
Ruger revolvers in any caliber . All are gone now and good riddance.
This triggered an unpleasant memory. I had an early Shiloh percussion 50 cal carbine (serial 874 I believe), it shot very well with the lyman 450 gr 50-70 bullet seated up into the bullet throat of the chamber. I foolishly sold it. Yes, the carbines had some hurdles to overcome, the trigger can be improved or replaced with a set trigger, the noisy clanging sling ring removed from the bar, or, as in so many of the originals, the bar removed and ground down flush when making cartridge sporters from them. The most interesting of the buffalo Sharps were the guns made from percussion military carbines, converted to cartridge either by the factory or by gunsmiths. The modern favorite seems to be heavy octagon guns with all the special order bells and whistles, but the more common guns were the medium heavy 28" round barreled Business Rifle, made with the military butt, set triggers and basic sights. The later 1874 models were made in the same configuration, but the conversion guns paved the way and reeked with character and panache. The gun used in the film Valdez is Coming appears to be a conversion Business Rifle.
Some modern guns are using the name Business Rifle, but are not like the old ones so far as i can tell, theyve just appropriated the name and not the actual style.
So, much like many guns, the basic carbine is a great start to the desired end result, though Id enjoy an original conversion carbine in 50-70. Lighter loads of course can be made for any gun. The 40 cal chamberings, 40-77 straight or bottleneck is flatter shooting and less recoil due to lighter bullets and heavier barrels. One post i recall mentioned using half the sight elevation in 40 cal at 1000 yards as in 45-70 cal.
In a huge Sharps fan. One could be a part of a basic Luddite working group of Sharps, Winchester 1866 or 1873 carbine and Colt SAA to cover most of lifes needs.
Last edited by Malamute; 01-02-2024 at 02:09 PM.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Good Riddance to:
-Every Glock 19/23 I've ever fired (That particular frame size just hurts me)
-Sig SP2022 (I thought it would be as awesome as the 2340 I shot as a kid and had great affection for...it wasn't.)
-Rock Island Armory 1911 in .45...not a great 1911 but even that one wasn't nearly the same grief I had with a....
...Colt Combat Commander in 9mm. Unreliable, inaccurate, terrible sights, shitty thumb safety engagement, painful grip safety. That gun was absolutely horrible.
I quit reading gun mags in the early 90s because of Les Baer advertising.
A cover of American Handgunner announced a “feature” article titled “Les Baer: Best .45 auto there is. Period”. Or something to that effect. There may have even been a picture.
Turned out that title had been lifted verbatim from the banner of a full-page Les Baer ad, which coincidentally, was the backside of the cover.
Getting rid of guns I don’t shoot enough is a perennial New Year’s resolution for me and
lasts about as long as all the others.
Actually, I did lose a little weight in ‘23, but the gun count went up.
I sold a 1962 Ost-Deutsch Makarov for a .45 Firestar in Starvel in 2006. It worked reliably, it shot fairly well, and was more accurate than I was at the time. The trigger had funny creep due to the external linkage. Tetra grease helped considerably. I think it actually weighed more than the S & W 66-1 6", to be frank. Once it became impossible to source even a replacement firing pin, and I was moving to a state where I could actually, y'know, carry legally again, off it went to a delighted collector in Wayzata and a friend's P99 QA came to stay here.
The other real dog was a Bubba-spec Franken-Colt Commander I received as payment for a debt. I made him pay the transfer fees. Commander slide, AMT Ranger aluminum frame, unknown parts. It mostly worked, but was unpleasant. Gun show fodder it was, and I got all of my money back.
Also, there is a Chinese Type 53 Mosin carbine mounted on a friends wall in another state that I do NOT want back. I think it was made with two groove rifling, but only had most of one groove remaining, and couldn't hit the broad side of a war from 10 yards.
"If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john
"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne
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