My first handgun was a cap n ball ....

[JimT]

jim-sixgunner-kid.jpg

Original Remington .44 ... I was 4 years old. Dad had a string running from the ceiling to the barrel so I could hold it for the picture.

My first horse.

jim-sixgunner-kid-horse.jpg

[M. M. Wright]

Me too Jim. 'cept I was 14 I think. My first handgun was a Remington 44 that I paid $37.50 for. All the blue was polished off but the action was tight and it needed a new set of nipples. I found a set of new old stock ones. Really like your pics. My Dad never did things like that.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[AJMD429]

I thought maybe it was because that was the only kind of guns around when you were a kid....

[JimT]

I thought maybe it was because that was the only kind of guns around when you were a kid....

GREAT GUESS! Close. No cigar.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[AmBraCol]

Check again, Ray.

[JimT]

Check again, Ray.

Thank you my friend.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Bill in Oregon]

My first was one of these Hubley Model 1860 capguns. My first real one was a brass-framed Colt Navy imported by Hawes, if anyone remembers that outfit.

https://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=21091712

Jim, we had a rocking horse very like that one you are riding!

[JimT]

My first was one of these Hubley Model 1860 capguns. My first real one was a brass-framed Colt Navy imported by Hawes, if anyone remembers that outfit.

https://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=21091712

Jim, we had a rocking horse very like that one you are riding!

I had a brass-frame 1851 Navy. Don't remember if it was Hawes or not, but it was back in the '60's. I was loading it with duplex loads of black and smokeless, trying to get more power out of it. One day on the range as I shot some of those loads, the barrel and cylinder pin departed downrange. Pulled the cylinder pin right out of the frame. I tried drilling and pining it in place but it never worked right after that.

[Grizz]

my first handgun was this cap-pistol, which I used to routinely wear in the Las Vegas airport when out with my Dad.

F4527cs.JPG

my next handgun was a 45 cal Webley break action that I bought via us mail when I was 9th grade i think. mailed to my home address.

Screenshot (6779).png

not "the" one, but "like" it.

and to think that "citizens" think they are free. R O F L O L

[JimT]

and to think that "citizens" think they are free. R O F L O L

That's a problem with us old guys. We can remember freedom.

[Grizz]

and to think that "citizens" think they are free. R O F L O L

That's a problem with us old guys. We can remember freedom.

So True. . . That's why we are being killed in "healthcare" centers.

[TraderVic]

Looking back on the Ruger Old Army cap & ball revolvers, how were they to shoot and use ?

[AmBraCol]

Looking back on the Ruger Old Army cap & ball revolvers, how were they to shoot and use ?

Very stout, very accurate. Essentially a "Modernized Dragoon Revolver". I used my first one even to the point of ignoring the engraving on the cylinder and it gave good service. My favorite load was a LEE conical over a snort of powder. Now I've another at long last and it's a good shooter as well, albeit with too soft of a mainspring, something I really need to correct one of these days. I wouldn't think twice about working up a load and using it for deer or hogs, if the regs allow such (I can't recall off the top of my head).

[Pisgah]

"My very first pistol was a cap and ball Colt
Shoots like lightnin' but it loads a mite slow
It loads a mite slow, and soon I found out
Gets you into trouble but it can't get you out"
--Steve Earle

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Looking back on the Ruger Old Army cap & ball revolvers, how were they to shoot and use ?

I have two of them and they shoot just fine. As accurate as most cartridge guns if you take any care in loading them.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[JimT]

People sometimes accuse us oldtimers of repeating ourselves.
We are NOT repeating!
We are reviewing.



I did not lose my memory.
I know I have it.
I just put it someplace safe and can't lay my hands on it right now.

[Bob Hatfield]

My first real handgun was an F.I.E. 58 Remington brass frame with probably a .030 cylinder gap. Paid $24.99 for it from Southern Ohio Gun Co. Inc. I could hit really good with that thing despite the wide cylinder gap. Had to mold balls from a brass mold. I shot 30 grains of 3f till I battered the frame so bad the cylinder ratchet was imprinted heavily on the recoil shield. But I could bounce pop cans around out to 30 yards. Looking back I probably barked most of them with dirt. My first foray into gunsmithing was to file the front of the frame and screw the barrel in a hole turn. I definitely festered that project up.

Bob

[6pt-sika]

Strange , first handgun I ever owned was a cap n ball revolver as well . But I was a good bit older than the little guy in the puctures . I was 16 I think bought a nice new Ruger Old Army for $125 dealer threw in two cans of Pyrodex this was a few months after the plant they made Pyrodex in ignited the first time . Shot that gun a bunch and eventually traded it to another dealer for about twice what I paid about fifteen years later .

[yooper2]

Nice old photos! The first sixgun I was allowed to tote around my grandad's farm was an Italian 1858 pattern in .36. Shot a ton of porcupines, skunks, squirrels, coons and a few coyotes with it.
It came with a right handed flap holster, we cut the flap off and added a hammer thong. I carried it on my left side butt forward, he told it was the way the cavalrymen did it (strong side butt forward) so 10 year old me thought that was about as cool as it gets.


Eric

[Ysabel Kid]

The way things are going cap & ball revolvers may be the last handguns any of us can own...

[t.r.]

Mine was a short barreled 44 that was used successfully to shoot raccoons out of trees after the hounds treed them. But it was traded off a few decades ago.

TR