Couple of pics of this old war bird. Battlefield recovery from a dead VC in Vietnam 1970.
Sweet! It's a huge deal here in Canukistan to get a legal sidearm. Then it has to ne carried in a locked safe between your house and the range. the easiest way to use one is to get a prospector's license for maybe $50 then buy a claim online for as little as $25/yr in an area you like to go and know is remote enough you can fish or hunt while packing iron.
When I went back to school in my 30s I was living on residence all week and going home on weekends. Reading a local rag I saw an ad for handgun training for 50% off just a few miles from campus so I signed up. We got the usual safety lecture from some 19 yo dude then went down to the range. We got a 50 box of .22 ammo each and you fired off half in a pistol then half in an auto. Then if you wanted to you could go upstairs and buy a box of any ammo you wanted and they would lend you the gun to blow it away. lol
I've always been hot for a Model 66 S&W .357 SS and many years back in Calgary Alberta c. 1977 me and a buddy each put down $100 deposits at a gun shop to buy those same guns in a boxed set with an assortment of barrels up to 12" and other bits and pieces. About a grand each. A week later he and Harry were bar hoping in his little MG and while chatting with some girls in another car while travelling along a windy road caught the curb and Harry died and he got a serious brain injury and was never the same. I went back to the gun shop to tell them what happened and because we had both signed the same order it was cancel both or take both so I cancelled both and he returned our deposit. Wish I'd got both now but I couldn't have coughed up the dough at the time.
Anyway I bought a box of .357 wad-cutters and a big man sized target and they gave me a chrome plated Colt Python with combat grips to play with. The instructor hung with me as I was the only one of 12 that went for the bonus round. He kind of coached me about what to aim for if I were in a competition as the very first shot I took with the .22 pistol could not be seen at 20yds. When we pulled the target back for a look it was dead centre. I'd had a .22 pump up target pistol for years and was damn good with that at 20yds so I wasn't all that surprised.
I'd fired a .25 auto purse gun and a .38 snub-nosed revolver before plus a lot of long guns up to a 54-40 or whatever that elephant gun my bro-in-law had but nothing felt better than that first round thru the Colt. Yee-fuckin'-haw! Quite the rush. Not as good as the first time I went sky diving or bungie jumping but definitely in the top 5. The front sight had a clear glass/plastic tip and I didn't really see it on my first shot and it went high. I said wtf and he pointed that little detail out. Every shot after that was dead on and a single hand rapid fire group of 6 was just under 2" in diameter at 20 yds. Somewhere in all the junk I've been packing around for 30 years is that target and other stuff I'd like to sort out before I take the long dark ride.
I like guns but I'm glad I live in a world where they are kept from people who really shouldn't have them and the weapons of mass destruction are severely restricted or banned altogether. I would not be comforted standing in line for coffee while men of dubious nature were packing heat openly around me. At least the women would be hiding theirs in their handbags where I couldn't see them. lol
The wild wild west was a 50 year chapter of American history but has had more stories, films and lore wound around it to make it look like it's been forever. I doubt Covid will kill as many this year as will die in the US at the end of a gun. The NRA and Charlton Heston has done a real good job brainwashing the population to keep the magic alive. Is it worth the carnage? How will you feel if someone who should never have had a gun walks into your child's school and shoots him/her dead? Just a sacrifice to the 2nd amendment or will it really hurt.
I'm not saying take away guns but sensible laws to weed out the maniacs and restrict weapons of war a bit could save a lot of lives. With the millions of unregistered guns floating around the states it's going to take a while before the #s drop but lives will be saved and one of those may just be someone you love.
I really can't understand the opposition to something so sensible but there's no accounting for the ignorance of the masses as we've seen with the election of the Trumpster.
Jah help us all thru this new crisis.
