Your guns of yester-year

I about 1987-1988 I bought a new in the box Colt Woodsman Sport, series 3 When I bought it and after I started shooting it and using it, I thought it was the finest made pistol ever made. It reminded me of a fine rifle or shotgun. It was made of milled steel and fitted and finished like a Swiss watch. The Ruger mkii of that time would not even come close to it in quality. Just being out of college, married, two young children and just starting in my field of work, I had to sell the little Colt. I have bought and sold firearms my whole life but this was the only one I regerated parting ways with. I never thought I would find one in the condition mine was in. I missed it more than any gun I ever owned. A few years back I corrected this when I found a new in the box 1976 Colt Woodsman Sport on line. It seemed like it took months to make it to me, even though I had it in my hands inside a week. This one will be with me from now own, I hope. The Colt Woodsman was just one of those guns people took pride in making and owners took pride in owning. Guns like this were dropped from production because they could not be made at a price to complete with the cheaper guns coming in the market at that time. Ruger changed the .22 auto market with it's mk series. They could be made and sold much cheaper than the Woodsman and others that took a lot of machine work and hand fitting. Little pistols like the Woodsman are gone and we will never see that kind of quality again.

Oldest gun currently owned by me, no dash model 17 from 1959. I'm only a few years older than the 17.

Gary W. Strange

I always liked the clean lines and overall design of the Colt .22s. Those and the Browning Medalist were the cat's meow back in the day, at least to me!

The only pistol that I've lost and not replaced was a SIG SP 47/8 that was stolen by a family member.
I traded almost four ounces of gold for that gun.
Sadly, I don't have access to that gold-bearing creek any more... .

Only guns I haven’t replaced is a S&W 19 .357 Mag that someone had tried to do a cold blue job on it before I bought it for $159 in the early 90’s and a Winchester M1 Carbine I bought for $200-some odd dollars in 1994-5.

Here’s the only pic I have of the S&W Model 19 .357 Mag as I execute a bowling pin.

Trunk Monkey said:

The only gun I ever really consider replacing is my Model 915 but I know that if I did it would just sit in my gun safe. I'd never carry it so it would never see any range time.

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Yeah, I guess I just don't see any reason to own a gun anymore if it isn't going to see some regular firing time. Even if it's infrequent. If I know I won't shoot it, it goes away, and stays gone.

A bunch of them. Colt Python 6 inch, blue. Remington 600 carbine 350 Magnum with laminated stock. Any N-frame Smith I've ever owned (25, 27, 28, 29), Erma Luger .22.

For me, it's not the gun so much as it is the price. I had a S&W 422 and a 622.. I paid about $179 for the 422, maybe $200 for the 622. I had a Makarov that I got for $150, a Russian post-soviet model. I had a Ruger Single Six that I got at an auction for $100 and a Ruger Bisley Blackhawk in 44mag that was about $250. I think I paid about the same price for a Marlin 39a lever action 22 then too. My first Mosin was an all matching numbers model for $59. I had an all matching, pristine Swedish Mauser that I got for $100. Those were the days.

I purchased my 1st handgun in 1971. It was a S&W model 59. Man I had a blast with that gun, 14 rds of 9MM. Would take it down to the sand pits of Long Island and blast away, such fun! Boy, those were the days. Sold it a few years later, and never replaced it.

The only gun I truly regret selling was a Savage 99F in .308. I had to pay the rent back in 1987 so I sold the first centerfire rifle my Dad gave me. It kept a roof over my head for three months and I found a new job during this period, so the trade off was worth it at the time (my half of the rent was $125 - mo back then).

I do miss my West German Sig 226 that I sent to Robar for Np3 and an action job. I sold that gun, a Colt Accurized rifle and an HK USP .45 to finance a European trip for my wife, daughter and myself about 16 years ago.

The things we do for love...

Stay safe..

Felt almost blessed to find a Nylon 66 Apache in good shape a while back. Great condition, and a tack driver.

Used one back in High School, before the earth's crust cooled, and had fine memories of it's accuracy.

I've had to sell most of my guns off 3 separate times over the years. First was about 1988 to buy a PC. I kept only 3, a Dan Wesson 15-2, my Beretta 950 .25, and a Browning BDA 380.
Second time was in 2009, due to my mother's RX expenses and other stuff for her. Kept a Dan Wesson 715, and the Beretta 950, along with a Beretta 92FS, and an S&W 5906. Eventually, all were gone but the 715 and the 950. And in 2013, I got whacked with a major tax bill and sold most of everything again. Kept the 715 and 950, along with about 6 others, all the rest went bye bye, After 2014, my finances have improved tremendously, and when they go the next time, it's because I'm about to go too, and all of them will go.

My first handgun was a Detonics Combat Master, a mini-1911, in late 1982 or early 1983. I recently “replaced” it with a Detonics 9-11-01, which is a full-sized 1911 that uses available recoil springs, but has some characteristics of that early Combat Master, including the top rear of the slide being sculpted to allow better access to the hammer spur.

I had a pair of S&W 3913 pistols in the early/mid-Nineties, which I phased-out in favor of the DAO 3953. A dear friend is keeping the 3953, on indefinite loan. I recently bought a well-preserved 3913 TSW, and have been eyeing some other 3rd-Generation S&W autos.

Nostalgia. Yes, ”it is a thing,” in my late fifties.

I have begun to rebuy some of the guns that I was forced to sell off due to financial difficulties.

Last year I bought a Beretta CX4 in 9mm. It actually has a better and lighter trigger than my old one.

This past spring I replaced my Marlin 1894 in 357 mag (this is also a much better gun than my original. I also replaced my Ruger P95 which I always enjoyed and liked the looks of the big stainless steel slide. My orignal as a decock only but the new one us a decock/safety model.

Of the many other things i sold I'd really like to replace my old Vaquero Birdshead with the big frame. That gun was fun to shoot, even with the occasional Ruger only loads.

I'd also like to replace my S&W 3913LS. It was comfortable to shoot and easy to carry. However, idk how much use it would get as I have a 9mm Shield. The Shield is a better carry gun

hemiram said:

I've had to sell most of my guns off 3 separate times over the years. First was about 1988 to buy a PC. I kept only 3, a Dan Wesson 15-2, my Beretta 950 .25, and a Browning BDA 380.
Second time was in 2009, due to my mother's RX expenses and other stuff for her. Kept a Dan Wesson 715, and the Beretta 950, along with a Beretta 92FS, and an S&W 5906. Eventually, all were gone but the 715 and the 950. And in 2013, I got whacked with a major tax bill and sold most of everything again. Kept the 715 and 950, along with about 6 others, all the rest went bye bye, After 2014, my finances have improved tremendously, and when they go the next time, it's because I'm about to go too, and all of them will go.

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I noticed you kept the DW’s every time you had a need to jettison firearms... having been in that position a couple of times myself, and being a DW guy as well, I would have done everything I could to keep the DW, too!

Hopefully we’re all at a point where the financial need to sell is past us!

Stay safe.

I got back into shooting a bit over 10 years ago,,,
I had been in a 20 year hiatus due to a lib wife and living in California.

When I decided to get back into recreational shooting,,,
My first rifle purchase was a single-shot .22.

When I was a kid a friend of mine had a break-open .22 rifle,,,
I'm reasonably certain it was an H&R model.

What I remembered was that he could out-shoot any of us,,,
It had to be the rifle (couldn't have been the skills of the wimpy little neighbor kid).

So I went on-line and found the H&R Sportster,,,
That was the first rifle I ordered.

Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoy the simplicity of the rifle,,,
And after scoping it (very old eyes) I found I could hit reasonably with it.

I honestly didn't I would dive into shooting as heavily as I did,,,
It wasn't very long before I started getting nicer guns.

I still drag the H&R out of the cabinet every now and then,,,
But the novelty of the break-open action has faded,,,
I much prefer my bolt-actions for recreation.

I have a friend with a young son and have taken them shooting a few times,,,
They both enjoy plinking and the kid does okay with the H&R.

I'll probably just gift it to him sometime in the near future.

So much for nostalgia.

Aarond

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Though not a handgun, I already replaced just recently the one and only yesteryear gun I really missed, the Winchester M190 I was taught to shoot with. It had been my stepfather's before becoming mine. He taught me about it, then died within the year. His son then came by asking about the gun, and I let him take it. This was back in 1986. I found two at the same time just recently in a LGS and bought one of them. These two were the first ones I'd seen since back then.

Actually, I did let my ex-wife keep a Taurus M94, which was pretty much bought for her, anyway, back in 1996. Missing a .22LR revolver, I bought another M94 new in 2014, but it really wasn't about nostalgia as much as the gun type.

I've let two other handguns go during rough times, a S&W 659 and an Interarms-Walther PPK/S. I've missed both from time to time, but have no real "yesteryear attachment" to either, and won't seek out to replace them.