Introduction

Welcom, I started when 18 with long guns and slowly moved on to handguns. I am handicapped now ad find handguns much easier while hunting. TC Encore, Contender and g2 are hard to beat. I do still enjoy my rifles and black powder guns.

Welcome. I had been a bolt gun hunter since 15. Switched to TCs having GNR do some work on a barrel. He had barrel specials that ran every 2 weeks and then it started.

back in 1956. It was a single shot .22 bolt action that my Dad had cut down for me. When I was 13 he gave me an H@R .22 double action pistol and that started me handgunning. By the time I was 16 I had a Ruger .357 and a Colt 1911. That was the start.

Dad also started me reloading when I was about 10. He had me loading blackpowder loads with a round ball that we shot in his .45 S&W.

with our .22 RF handguns. I had a Ruger 4-3/4" Std. MKI, a Ruger Bearcat, High Standard Longhorn 5.5" and a FIE SA 4-3/4". My buddy had a lone OM Ruger Single-Six 7.5" (I think). Not a bad collection to be exposed to shooting various birds, snakes, turtles, frogs, rabbits and an occasional squirrel. We roamed via horseback and trail bikes so handguns were handy to use, simply what we had with us. At the age of 14 we graduated to .44 Cap & ball 1858 Remington clones. We had real power then. All this was about the peak era of the mid 1970's where long range handgun shooting was in earnest. I borrowed my uncle's TC in .22 (Scoped) and .44 Mag with the hot-shot choke barrel. A real, specific designed hunting handgun. My first real handgun of my own that was noteworthy (discounting the .25 Beretta I traded for at 15) was a thundering Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum when I was 17. Reloading came shortly thereafter out of financial necessity, casting too. A box of (20) .44 Magnums was a half day's wages, you could get (50) .357s for the same. Had I began with a .357 I would be a much better shot than what I have to work with today! But I HAD to have a .44 Magnum. My first real big game animal was a hog with a .475 LB.

SW PA with corn fed Whitetails, groundhogs, whatever got in my way afield. Now it's G2 carbines in 12 different flavors and a few pistols.

Africa with the Misfits in 2003, 2004, 2017. Lots of hogs and a few bison in TN at the HHC in March/October years past.

Ask about the "Gathering of Friends" in Monterey, TN each October...

CAMPFIRE TALES MARCH & APRIL "GUNS"

welcome to the Misfits.