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January 4, 2008

Went in my favorite gunshop just before Christmas with plans to buy a Ruger .44 Magnum carbine I had seen there a few weeks earlier. Too late. They had three earlier but “as soon as hunting season came in, they flew out of here,” said the salesman at Mid South Guns in Wagram, NC.

I read in the 2008 Ruger annual buyer's guide and catalog that the lawyers at Ruger killed the .44 Magnum carbine because of unexplained fears about product liability. Steve Sanetti, who became president of Sturm-Ruger in 2003, bragged in the article how as the company lawyer he convinced company founder William Ruger to drop the .44 mag carbine from production, but didn’t explain why.

My new S&W 22A-1 .22LR target pistol with Hi-Viz front sight.

My new-to-me Colt Huntsman .22LR pistol.

I’d buy one in 357 Sig or 10mm, too, if somebody would make it.

Anyway, the gun store had no Ruger .44 mag carbines, so I looked around and before I knew what happened, I bought not one but two .22 target pistols. First I bought a new S&W 22A-1 with the green Hi-Viz front sight. As soon as I picked it up and looked down the sights and saw that big green dot glowing at me, it was love at first sight. These tired 60-year-old eyes could see that front sight even without my glasses.

Then on the way out the door, I spotted three Colt Woodsman .22 pistols in another case. Colt stopped making those back about 1970 for some reason and now they’re very hard to find and outrageously priced when you do see one. (That’s another gun some savvy pistol manufacturer ought to bring back. High Standard makes pretty much a copy, but not as good as the Colt and way too expensive, IMHO.) I had a Navy buddy way back in the late ‘60s who had a Colt Woodsman I got to shoot and I was amazed at how accurate that little pistol was. I could literally dot an “i” with it and I’ve wanted one every since but never saw one in a gun shop.

And here were three Colt Woodsman pistols calling my name in the Wagram gun shop! But two of the regular Woodsman models were priced at $900 and $1,000 each and a Woodsman Target model was priced at $1,500! All three were priced way out of my league.

But nestled alongside two of the Woodsman pistols was another that looked identical and was priced at only $329.95! I asked to take a look at it and found it was the Colt Huntsman model, the lower end of the Woodsman line. Appears identical to me so I asked the salesman for his best price. He came down to $300 and suddenly I had not just one but two new-to-me .22 auto pistols. I googled the Colt Huntsman when I got home and the cheapest price I found for one online was $500+ so I’m not only happy with the pistol, I’m also happy with the deal I got.

Target shot with my S&W 22A-1 .22LR pistol.

Target shot with my Colt Huntsman .22LR pistol.

Here’s the range reports from my first two sessions with my two new .22 pistols, neither of which I would sell for twice what I paid for them.

In Pittsburgh for Christmas, I went to an indoor range with my son-in-law and shot both of them. The Colt Huntsman was dead on the money, but the S&W 22A-1 was shooting a bit to the left. I was also shooting a couple of other pistols, my new CZ-75 Custom SP01 9mm and my Llama .45 ACP, so I didn’t have the time to zero the S&W’s sights then.

Then back home in Rockingham, NC, on New Year’s Day, I went to my son’s house out in the woods near Pinehurst, NC, where we have a home range set up and had more fun than the law oughta allow, shooting a bunch of pistols. I hope what they say is true about what you do on the first day of the New Year is what you’ll do all year, ‘cause I sure started 2008 off right.

I carried along my Steyr MA1 .357 Sig, my Glock G29 10mm and my Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm pocket pistol in addition to the Colt and S&W .22s and my Walther P-22.

My son was shooting his Ruger P345 .45 ACP, my 10-year-old grandson was shooting “his” Ruger .22 Magnum Single Six revolver and my son’s father-in-law joined us with his Kimber Ultra CDP II 45 ACP. I got to shoot his Kimber for a few mags. What a sweet little 3”-barrel shooter that is! Too pricey, but it sure is a treat to shoot such a fine pistol. Supposedly has a 4-lb. trigger, but it’s the lightest, crispest 4 lbs. I’ve ever seen.

All three shot my Steyr and Glock (including my grandson Logan, who’s not afraid of the Big Bad Glock) and also tried out all three of my .22s.

We burned up about 300 rds. of CCI Mini-Mags over about three hours shooting all three and I forsee a whole lot more .22 pistol shooting in my future. Lots of fun and a whole lot cheaper shooting than buying 357 Sig or 10mm ammo, not to mention 9mm and .45 ACP, too. I’d forgot how much fun .22 shooting can be.

I’ve already ordered the nice, fat wooden grip for the 22-A1 made by S&W, which I’m expecting will make it even more fun to shoot. Now I gotta find me a ‘scope for my S&W 22-A1 that will sit high enough on the Weaver rail to let me see that big green dot underneath it. It just don’t get no better than this. I love my five “big caliber” pistols, but I really love my two target .22s even more.