Odd Handguns I Have Owned Over The Years

by JimT, Texas, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 16:20 (416 days ago)

I actually had 2 of the Astra Cubs (.22 Short only) that I carried for some years. On the Ranch I used to lay under the Tamarack trees and shoot birds out of the tree for the cats. Dad had 20-some cats on the Ranch to keep the rattlesnakes and scorpions in check. It got to where you could not walk out the door with a gun in your hand but you had 6 or 8 cats around you meowing for you to shoot something for them.

I had one of these that I carried all over California in a belly band holster. Even wore it through Disneyland. I wasn't too confident in it but it was better than angry words. One of the ammo companies made a hollowpoint load that had a BB in the nose so they would feed reliably. I pulled the BB out and shot them against a concrete block and they would not expand. I figured with an anemic round like that I wanted penetration anyway. Thankfully I never had to find out if it would work.

I bought this Bersa .22 from Jeff Quinn. It was finicky, only feeding reliably with Remington Golden Bullets. I worked on it a lot and got it feeding with most anything after a couple months. I killed 6 raccoon with it over a month or so. They were stealing our chicken feed. My daughter came to visit and shot it while she was here and when she left, it left with her. If I want to see it I have to go visit her.

I carried the .38 Special Derringer in my pocket or my boot for 8 or 10 years. This was long before Concealed Carry was legal where I lived. But I had a family and felt they were more important. It came in handy several times. Once in a grocery store when the Manager came running past me and yelled for me to help him. We confronted a guy who was shoving cartons of cigarettes into his pants. He had 10 or 12 cartons and was still at it when we ran up. He started getting rowdy and I slipped my hand into my jacket pocket and grabbed the Derringer but did not pull it out, for as soon as my hand went in my pocket he quieted right down.

I had 4 or 5 of these Ravens. You could pick them up for $30 or $40 used. My Dad made me a 45 grain bullet mold for a flat nosed bullet that I used in it. I worked at seeing how fast I could get it going out of the little bitty 2 7/16" barrel. Using Bullseye I got the cast bullet up close to 1100 fps. At that pressure and velocity the primer pocket was completely gone from the .25 ACP cartridge after firing. I shot quite a few of those loads through one and it never loosened up or quit working or blew up. It turned out to be better constructed than I thought!

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.