Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Anderson
All this X-Mass jibberish and good cheer has caused me to browse some of my favorite gun sites. No new Parkers but since I have been very, very good this year  I'm trying to adopt a Colt Match Target. It will make a nice stocking stuffer and a good companion to a tricked out Ruger 10/22. Those rascally rabbits will be in for it now.  |
I have my late father's Colt collection- he was more into varmint hunting (.220 Swift M54 SG) and handguns than shotguns, whereas my maternal grandfather shot his Parkers and used a rather plain-Jane M1894 .30WCF for everything from woodchucks to deer.
But in 1939 Dad bought a Colt Match Target Woodsman- heavy barrel, Elianson sights and the older "elephant eared" checkered walnut grips- box, cleaning rod and spare 10 rd. magazine- have no idea what he paid for it, back then you could buy or sell a handgun pretty much "at will"- It came to me before he passed on, and it is a flat out "Dinger"> I shot it for years in our Club's Winter Indoor pistol league-also my Python 6" Colt, but with .38 Wadcutters-
The only other .22 Handgun I have "coveted"- belongs to a HS buddy- when he turned 21 in 1962, his Dad gave him a S&W K-22 with 6" barrel, which he still has. Back then you had to be 21 or older to own a handgun and you had a green card verifying that- BUT it was not a CCW. We killed thousands of rats with our .22's in my boyhood, first with our rifles, after we were "of age" also with the .22 handguns.
Probably shooting that sweet Colt Match Target helped me acclimate to the Colt 1911-A-1 .45ACP that I carried as a TO weapon in the USMC. I still prefer the "wheelguns" even the 1861 Colt .38 cap and baller- One of a few advantages of a wheelgun for a home defense weapon, assuming you have proper training and practice with it- NO springs are under tension until you either cock the hammer, or if it is a double actioned model, pull the trigger. But the great old 1911-A-1 is still a "battle tested" workhorse of a handgun, like anything the old Master John Browning designed-
Hope you get that MTW- once you have one and shoot it, you'll never part with it--
