Treasure or tool - which is your gun?

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Rusty S

New member
I'm thinking of the model 19 2 1/2" that I've had longer than any other pistol. I've treated it as a tool to teach me how to handle recoil and still shoot straight, fast, and hard. But it has loosened up. Doesn't NEED repair yet, but it's already semi retired. A treasure I treat gently.

Another gun I treated as a tool was my dad's Chiefs Special, with the old flat latch. Less than two boxes of +P ammo turned it into an unfitted bunch of parts, and it was traded for a tight Airweight Bodyguard.

One treasure I bought from an older guy who carried it on hunting trips. A 4" skinny bbl model 10, made in the 50's or early 60's. That thing is like new, and put together better than some pretty decent Colt Pythons.
Which is another treasure - Colt Python Target Nickeled 8" bbl 38 spl.

My highway patrolman is a tool - bought so I could shoot 38's in an N frame for subcaliber practice for my 41 mags.

So are your guns tools, treasures, start as tools and become treasures, or are some working guns and others kept as special?
 
tools. You can't ever have enough tools. just when you think you have enough a job comes up that takes one you don't have. I take care of them but don't treat them special.
 
Tools, all of them -- except the presentation grade LC Smith double shotgun that my grandfather gave me and it's still in new condition.

The rest of my guns are tools that I trust and care for, like my knives, auto tools and home tools, my computer and my books. All just tools.
 
Tools but some are treasures because they do their jobs as tools so very well. Or have done their jobs well, which are keeping this tubby body safe.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Treasured tools. To be used, enjoyed and cared for. I no longer have any of the older stuff, my kids are teachin my grand kids with some of em. Everything I have now is 60s or later.

Sam...J frames are cuddly, K frames are just nice.
 
Treasured tools. They are loved and cared for. Some of my tools have been with me a Loooonngg time. Others are relative new comers but all are well cared for.

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***Torpedo***
It's a good life if you can survive it!
 
Tools. I do consider one to be a treasure as well, although the price was not a Kings ransom.
My very first firearm, the
Phoenix Arms HP-22.

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"Any world that I'm welcome to.....Is better than the one I come from"
 
Rusty,

How do you mean your 19 2.5" "loosened up?"

It could be a very easy fix.

I've got a 4" Model 19 that has a TON of endshake, but is still pumping rounds out there.

My 2.5" Model 19 is one of my favorite carry guns.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
Mike - it has a small but significant amount of endshake. Front of cylinder does not contact the bbl when forced forward by hand, maybe moves back 3 or 4 thousandths.

It was bought blued before the 66 came out. Back then, it was the rage and hard to come by. Sent it to S&W and had it blasted ( like the topstrap of the frame ) all over. Including inside the chambers, and rounding edges. You can guess what a cylinder of Super Vels did. With a support for the back of the cylinder, a steel punch, and a hammer, I got all six cases out. Sent it back, and it came back right. Same serial # but month/yr of frame mfg. was marked as a few weeks earlier than the date I got it back from Smith.
Later had a Ranger trigger jeweled, edges rounded, installed with trigger job. Rear sight blade rounded at corners, silver front sight inlaid blaze orange w/ top of insert line sight on at 25 yards, bottom of insert = on at 80/90 yards ala Keith, cylinder latch lower half ground straight and beveled for speedloader use, hammer spur removed and sides that showed surface ground both sides, smooth Herret's round butt grips...

Then I took and shot it till I made Master and then Distinguished Master PPC scores with it using full charge 125 .357's in the advanced POST class.

Only shot expert with my 58 and full power 41 mag loads. Think that may have been distracted by the way recoil had web of my hand bleeding inside 2 cylinders. Blood rusts bluing like crazy. Solved that problem mostly when I picked up a nickeled 58.

[This message has been edited by Rusty S (edited July 31, 2000).]
 
Rusty,

That amount of endshake isn't a problem at all. In fact, that's really within tolerance even for a pretty new gun that hasn't been shot a lot.

There are two solutions to endshake, washers in front of the cylinder, and stretching and recutting the yoke.

The washers work as a decent temporary solution, while stretching the yoke is quite a bit more expensive, obviously, but can solve more severe problems.

The final solution is to replace the cylinder, which is most expensive of all.

I just picked up a Model 58, which is my first .41 Mag. I found some Remington 210-gr. JSP for $24.99 a box of 50 (OUCH!) and took it shooting on Father's Day.

LOTS of fun, but you're not kidding the thing has recoil. I replaced the grips with Hogue rubber before I shot. I NEVER shoot a Smith with the original wood grips if it has any kind of recoil to it.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
Some are even toys!!!........Or so my wife thinks. ;)

Frenchy

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Donnez-moi la liberté, ou donnez-moi la mort!
 
Those customized 1911s I used to shoot and carry were treasures, even works of art in a few cases.

The Glocks I now shoot are tools, plain and simple.

Dave T
 
On another forum, someone asked what you do after a shooting, the cops roll up, see you with your gun, and order you to "drop-it" at gun point...not realizing at that moment that you are the hero. The question was posed as to what you do when the gun you are supposed to drop is the same one you have had for years, sent off for customization, been with you at Front Sight and Thunder Ranch, etc. etc. etc. I was surprised the guy would argue about dropping his "baby" while at gun point - if if the gun were that special.

Guns are tools for me. I have had better experiences with some than others and I would be less inclined to sell the ones with which I associate happy feelings, but they are tools - expensive, precision, highly specialized tools. Some are very pretty tools, but then again, so are my Snap-Ons.
 
The guns that I carry are viewed as tools. I don't fuss over them. I just make sure they're clean and that they work when they're supposed to.

People who carry expensive guns are going to be in for a rude awakening if they're ever involved in a self defense shooting.

They'll have to drop their $1700 Les Baer or risk getting shot by some paranoid cop.
 
I got a Caspian 1911 that has stupid money in it (over $3000 for a 1911!), custom serial, all the best stuff, NP3'ed, but still a tool.

Know what I mean?

(once angered a friend 'cause I was using my GP100 as a hammer.)

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"All my ammo is factory ammo"
 
They'll have to drop their $1700 Les Baer or risk getting shot by some paranoid cop.

Put yourself in that cops place. He has recieved a shots fired man down call and he rolls up and there you are standing there with a smoking gun in your hand. He has never laid eyes on you before and how is he susposed to know that you just made the world safe for motherhood, apple pie and the American flag. As far as he knows, which usually isn't very much, you could very well be the bad guy. How would you handle it? If you were in his place. Perhaps a little paranoia is a good thing, especially if you want to make it to the end of your shift and not end up on the slab down at the city morgue.

7th


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SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE, KEEP THEM INDEPENDENT.
 
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