Attachment 222164
In 1966 a skinny, short-haired, gawky 13 year old was taken to the Detroit Police range by the father of my friend Jim. His dad was a Detroit Police officer, and he was going to let his son and friend, me, shoot a "real" revolver. That gun was a Ruger Single Six 22 long rifle. The rangemaster gave us cotton balls to stuff in our ears, but no eye protection was required in those days. Safety instructions were given and then we went on to our firing lane. A target was run out and we commenced to shooting, I had quite a bit of experience shooting pellet, BB and 22 rifles, but I had never shot a hand gun before. Carefully lining up the sights like the signs on the wall had shown I squeezed the trigger and got an 8! I was hooked! We shot up several boxes of 22's and at the end, his dad let us each shoot his 38 a couple times. Sadly, Jimmy moved away shortly thereafter, and it was to be years before I shot other handguns.
In 1974, I bought my first revolver, and it was a single six, too. But a convertible, with two cylinders, one for shorts, longs and long rifles, the other for 22 Magnums. It didn't shoot all that well, and after a year or so I sold it and bought a S&W M-17. I haven't owned a Single Six since.
Well, things recently changed. My father-in-law, who recently passed away, gave me the gun in the picture above shortly before his death. I have a ten year old grand daughter who is learning to shoot. I am going to start using it to teach her the rudiments of pistol craft and arrange to pass it on to her when I cash in my chips. But in the mean time, I can hold and look at it and reconnect to my younger self. Sort of like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long while.
Anybody else renewed an old acquaintence recently?