Beater handguns

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Buckeye63

Buckeye63

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I have always seemed to have a "beater" handgun .. A revolver or pistol that I carried while doing chores , yard work or such .. Sometimes loaded with rats shot for snakes . Or somtimes for SD whae outside .. My pistole that I have carried for tbe last few years , has been a Heritage Arms 22/22mag
single action.. I useally keep it loaded with 45gr 22mag
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I used to be a Glock guy until I acquired the XD 9mm SC. Now I have 2 XD models and no Glocks. I found that for me, I just shot the XD better. Never looked back. I have other guns as well, all of which work better for me than Glocks. YMMV
 
For me the term "Beater Gun" will always be defined by the Glock 19

When I took a first responder class that dealt with cleaning up after being in a contaminated (chemical/biological/radioactive) area, the instructors told us that the best issued pistol was the Glock 19...because they just threw them away rather than try to de-contaminate them
 
I think to an extent, most of my handguns are beater guns. I don’t care if they get banged up and drug through the mud. That’s what theyre there for. I can always clean them. I don’t intentionally abuse my handguns. But I also don’t buy guns I’m going to be afraid to take to the woods and get dirty.
 
Sure, I have some. A Glock 17 gen 3 training gun that gets fired weekly for the last 11 years with whatever ammo is available (often steel case winchester forged) and rarely cleaned- I actually broke the frame on this gun at about the 60,000 round mark when using 9mm NATO, and a Glock 23 that lives in my shed that I use as a sidearm hog hunting, so it is routinely exposed to water immersion, walking/crawling/wading in swamps. There is also a Springfield milspec 45 that is treated similarly to the Glock 17.
 
The nearest thing I have to a "beater" gun would be a Ruger Single Six a friend of mine gave me. It was already in pretty rough shape when he bought it used at a gun show years ago. Didn't help matters that he used it for when he was checking his trap lines. I cleaned it up best I could and added a decent pair of factory grips for it. It now resides in one of my gun safes, well protected from the elements.

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I don't really have a beater gun. I have a very old revolver that my grand father owned when he was a state police officer. It's not in top shape ,but it stays in my safe as a family heirloom.
 
I had an old Ruger Police Service Six that had the bluing severely worn. Good gun though. Locked up tight, timing was good and it was accurate
Used cold blue to touch it up.
For some reason Rugers take the Cold Blue very well. My theory was that the cast metal was somewhat porous and let the cold blue “stick” better
 
I purchased a SAR B6P as a car gun, and it was a fairly cheap handgun and I waned a cheap handgun because I didn't want to worry about it getting a little rust on it. But it has spent several seasons in my car - sitting in blistering hot parking lots all day and sitting in frozen parking lots all day, and it hasn't had a spot of rust anywhere. I probably shoot it 4 times a year and that's how often it gets cleaned. So I wouldn't call it a beater.

I purchased a Taurus Millennium G2 PT111 to go in a GHB, and that is probably the closest thing to a beater I have, although it hasn't gotten beat up too much yet. It just sits in the GHB in the trunk of my car, I fired it maybe twice and cleaned it twice all of last year. Its starting to show finish wear but that's because the finish on those guns isn't very durable.
 
My FEG Hp clone is a beater. Looks bad, runs good. Originally I wanted to try my hand at rust bluing it to put a nicer finish on it. One of my more practical friends convinced me into not worrying about that and to just shoot the hell out of it. I love that gun.

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If inexpensive enough, there is no reason a beater gun can't be brand new like an ATI 1911 in 9mm or .45 ACP, full length or Commander delivered to your FFL for $329. Why shouldn't your "beater" also be your favorite? With such a minimum investment, risk of loss is very small and you carry a classic.
 
My new beater gun is/was going to be a Star BM, but, alas, the thing wont release the magazines without actually grabbing/hooking the heel of the mag with a finger and pulling. Just got it, and it's in the car with a shipping label going back to the seller for review/repair/replacement. I tried removing the mag disconnect, and it did no good whatsoever, so back she goes. When the issues get sorted out, that's the plan.
 
All my handguns are "beater" handguns I guess. My guns are tools and get treated as such. They're taken care of but not babied. My guns need to hold up to water, dirt, sawdust, freezing, hot, etc. or they don't stay around. Now, if I had the disposable income to have "collector" type guns, those'd be different.
 
chicharrones said:
..,Except what I call paint is named "polycoat" or something like that.
Click to expand...
On gun forums, never call it paint. I was ridiculed for once saying my Israeli surplus High Power was painted. It is “epoxy coated” or “enamel coated”. Kinda like Glocks don’t have plastic frames — they’re “polymer”.

But as to beaters, I have a SIG P250 that I got cheap because the prior owner had done a camo paint job on it. I cleaned most off but it’s cosmetically challenged still. It’s my vehicle travel gun and if it bounces around in the lock box & gets scratched up, it can’t look any worse.
 
I have quite a few that look bad but are reliable and good shooters. My Single Six in 22lr is probably the champion. I got it for a $120-something bid because the finish was in terrible shape and it was missing the little button and spring that hold in the cylinder pin. It cost me $20 for a bottle of cold blue and the missing parts. It doesn't look perfect (such as the worn finish on the aluminum frame), but it's a very good shooter. I can carry it around fishing or whatever, and I wouldn't be out much if it fell into a deep part of the lake or something.

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This Tanfoglio TA90 (a CZ75 "clone") is another "beater". It's Israeli surplus and was apparently shot a bunch. The finish has quite a bit of wear. It's also a good-shooting pistol with an excellent trigger. I've had it for four or five years and don't recall a single malfunction. It's actually one of my favorite pistols. I don't care that it won't win any beauty contests.

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My beater is a Ruger Vaquero 5.5" in .45 Colt. Not really a 'beater' but it's my camp and ranch gun. That is slightly offset by my normal everyday carry, a Kahr CW9, which I show less attention to, simply because it's a tool as necessary as my multimeter or pickup truck. However... I don't think the 9mm is a good remote camp cartridge, not as serviceable as the .45 Colt, even if the Ruger is twice the size and weight.
 
It's not really a "beater", but I carry a little NAA .22 revolver in my pocket when doing chores in and around the house.
 
My beater is one many would keep in a safe. A 1917 Colt Army in 45. It goes with me when I need a rough and tumble gun. It's been on my hip in the prairie and at 11,000 feet on Corona Pass. It has plenty of scratches and wear, so I'm not afraid of beating it up a little. The ka-bar usually goes on the other hip.

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Up on Corona Pass. That ridge behind the lake is the continental divide
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