Now that I am accused of being fixated on the 1911... and it gives me something to blog about...
I guess it's time to specify that I only own two of the things; and the same number of Glocks.
The reasons for getting them have nothing to do with usefulness, though I packed the now-departed Springfield for a while.
I packed the .38 Super for a while too.
I shoot the 1911 very well, it fits me.
I got asked to stop bringing the .38 Super to the bowling pin shoots after winning five times with it.
The M1911A1 has a definite romantic nostalgia for me because I was issued one. I was in one of the last One-Station-Unit-Training Companies to be trained on them. The people who came in behind us got trained on the M9 only.
I was in the last Armor unit in the Army to turn in the old .45's.
I still feel cheated that veterans can't take home their issue gun at separation.
Over the years I've owned four .45 ACP 1911's. My dad's Remington Rand M1911A1 (which, if I'd kept the damn thing would have saved me tons of angst and money!), an AMT Hardballer, the Springfield M-1911 A1 USGI and now my Ithaca/Rem-Rand M1911A1.
That explains the M1911A1.
The Colt Government Model .38 Super is because of gaming and because we gamed in period settings. Frank Hamer packed one. It was the most powerful handgun you could buy until S&W dropped the .357 Magnum on the market.
The one I own shoots like a freaking laser! Plus it looks so damn choice with my pig-tooth powder "Ivory" grips
1911's have soul. The Browning High-Power has soul.
Glock has no soul.
I own two of them. A 17 and a 21. The 21 I've had longer than any other gun in my collection.
My daily carries, depending on season, are both souless 9mm plastic fantastics.
I don't shoot them as well, but I shoot them well enough.
All things being equal, having more shots is better than fewer. Plastic wonder-9's have plenty of beans to sling. Modern materials mean they'll endure being next to my sweaty carcass better than blued or parkerized steel and wood.
But that's getting off the point.
I buy guns I have no intention of using "for real" simply because they delight me.
Often times that delight has extended to and from the gaming table.
Sometimes that delight derives from the faux angst about what caliber or brand I've chosen.
Sometimes that delight stems from the tactile pleasure of having a piece of history in your claws.
Sometimes that delight is from recreating the history and feeling what the people who really used them in earnest must have felt.
If you made it this far, and really followed the blog closely, then you'd know that I'm actually fixated on .25 ACP.
Click here to submit $0.00 US for a lifetime subscription
Posts
Comments
"then you'd know that I'm actually fixated on .25 ACP."
ReplyDeleteWe know... and ravens to boot.
You need a support group
That gun has more variations than Lugers!
DeleteI already knew that. I thought of you when I was at a gun show a few weeks ago. There was a table there with about a dozen odd .25's. Mostly Spanish, but a couple of Italian brands I hadn't heard of or at least didn't remember (and don't now either).
DeleteYour arms were broken, you couldn't call?
DeleteWe just kind of stumbled across this little show out in the middle of nowhere on a wander-about. I didn't have the money to front for any of them. I may be back over there for the next show. If that vendor is there again I will give you a ring.
DeleteI once had an AMT Hardballer AND a Browning High-Power, until they were stolen by juvenile burglars.
ReplyDeleteThe idiots took only those two guns (no magazines), a coin collection, and some costume jewellery. They left my ex-US Army 1911 - probably because it looked ratty on the outside. Inside it was all new parts, and without doubt the best shooting pistol in the safe at the time.
I got the Browning back two years later when the police recovered it during a drug raid. It was in better condition than when I had it. Someone had done a top-notch job fitting a new barrel and re-bluing the whole gun. It also came home with four new magazines and 96 rounds of ammo, all in a sheepskin pistol rug.
Both had to go in The Great Confiscation of '96 here in Australia. I don't miss the AMT, but I wish I could have kept the Browning.
Just to add ...
DeleteMy current handguns include models from Glock, STI, S&W, Ruger, and a couple of custom competition guns.
Anybody who tells you that Australians are not allowed firearms is lying.
Why did those two have to go, and why are the current ones O.K., where the old ones weren't?
Delete