Sleek high tech is all the rage in the firearms world today, but it’s worth noting that some of the “gear of yesteryear” still works as well as it always did.

Case in point: I recently ran across this article from a few years ago in GUNS magazine, where I’ve written the monthly handgun column for the last few decades.

https://gunsmagazine.com/wheelgun-wednesday/the-colt-official-police/ .

There’s an absolute treasure trove at the websites www.gunsmagazine.com and www.americanhandgunner.com

The Colt .38 Special revolver I’m holding in the picture you’ll find in the article was produced in 1922: a century old this year.  It still paroved capable of putting five shots into an inch and three quarters at 25 yards with (relatively) cheap Winchester practice ammo, the best three of those in eight-tenths of one inch.  And it still goes “bang” every time you pull the trigger.

I’m sure many of you have similar experiences with vintage firearms which are still perfectly functional.  Feel free to share here.

33 COMMENTS

  1. I have a Colt Pocket Positive, ‘Chase Manhattan Bank’ stamped on back, in .38 S&W. Made in the 1920s. Tight and functions perfectly.

    Buffalo Bore makes a good 125 grain load.

    I also have a Mauser 1910 made in 1914 that is in excellent condition. .32 ACP. Good JHPs are made to.

    I guess I COULD pack them… and I have no doubt they would, as Mas says, “Get me through the night.”

    Fortunately I also have a selection of Glocks, SIGs, S&Ws, and even Colts that are far more modern and more capable.

    But I would not hesitate using those two I mentioned if that is all I had.

  2. I have a M1907 Savage(1913 vintage) and a Colt M1903(1918) both in .32ACP and both feed and function just fine. Also a 1918 vintage S&W M1917 as well as a 1940 vintage M&P. The last is a really nice shooter.

  3. When I was a teenager back in then1960s, I had a couple of Civil War vintage Sharps carbines, one in .52 percussion and one converted to .50-70 center fire.

    I had a gunsmith inspect them and get bullet molds for them, test fired them mounted in an old tire with a long string to the trigger, and went on to have a lot of fun with them. They worked fine.

    What I never figured out was how soldiers in the Civil War managed to get through a battle which required more than a very few shots: the guns fouled so badly I had to squirt liberally with WD-40 to get the actions open and closed. This was in the days before Pyrodex, so IIRC I was using DuPont FFFG black powder, and didn’t have anyone to mentor me. It was all ‘read a magazine article or two, then do it.’

    Nonetheless, a century after they were made, they worked fine.

    I’ve since become a big believer in stainless steel guns, and I expect they have a lot more than a century of life in them. Unless they just plain wear out they should be good for several centuries.

  4. I still have a Enfield No. 5 Mk 1 Rifle (jungle carbine) in the safe. My father, a Canadian, gave it to me only after the flash hider and bayonet mount were ground off to ‘comply’ with ridiculous Canadian arms laws. Honestly, where has a flash hider and a bayonet ever been used in a robbery of mass shooting in the history of the world? Even though it lost its value as a nearly mint historical firearm, it still holds a zero and is pretty accurate past 200 yards. (As accurate as I am anyway.) Nice piece of WWII history.

  5. Not sure if 53 years counts as vintage but I never feel under gunned with my dad’s 69 DS. It works perfectly and knowing he carried it for almost 50 years is more comforting to me than a space age auto with sone extra rounds. My late brother was on the NYPD pistol team and one of them actually knew how to work on old Colts and rebuilt it after my dad dropped it and broke the hand. So I feel extra confident with it now.

  6. I wish that I would kept a few of the pistols that I bought back in the early 80’s. They were American quality firearms. That’s my mistake, but looking at what’s available today, with the plastic light weight offerings of today, some way over-priced, though considered dependable they lack much in the way of esthetics or desirability. I have always wondered that the early last century pistols like the USMC 1909 D/A.45 Colt, and the later S&W and Colt 45 ACP revolver’s were great weapons for police duty or self protection. I guess the weight of the pistol alone, with 12 spare rounds was too much to carry around all day.
    I have a question Mas??
    Did the Washington D.C. Metropolitan police Dept. carry the S&W Reg. #31, 32 cal. for a period of years during the early sixties? I believe they began to carry the Mod. 10 after that.

  7. My oldest handgun is a Ruger Service Six but engraved on its side it says…’Made in the 200th year of of American liberty.” Id sooner sell the gold in my teeth than that revolver.

  8. As time goes by, I find myself shooting “vintage” .38 revolvers more and more. No brass to pick up, light recoil, very accurate & relatively inexpensive to reload for, if you can find primers. While there may be better choices, there is not much that can’t be done with a good wheel gun.

  9. My father’s favorite for 30 years was his Colt Police Positive in .38 Special. He traded it for a state trooper’s Model 15 and was never happy with that one. I’ve since been able to tune up the trooper’s gun to get it to shoot pretty well, but my Dad missed his Colt. There’s nothing wrong with old guns as long as you take care of them. Many of them are built better than the new stuff. Better materials, at least.

  10. That crusty old thing I keep on my hip everywhere I go is still one of the most solid, relible, and comfortable pieces I’ve ever had. It is almost fifty years old now, and is very “other” when compared to the “modren” stuff. It is also VERY accurate, too, far more capable than I will ever be able to use. Picked up used off a private seller’s table at a gun show back when one could drop Benjamins on the table and pick up whatever you wanted to take home.
    And one of my most favourite rifles is a 1940’s 6.5 mm Swede, made by Husqvarna. Light, fast bolt action, extremely accurate to at least 400 yards. Don’t often NEED anything more than that. It too came cheap enough.

  11. I used to have a Mauser K98k made in 1937. It was a tack driver, small groups with some holes touching each other. Action as smooth as glass. I couldn’t fire it as fast as I could my 1968 Ishapore 2A1, which I also sold. The reason is because the Mauser cocks when opening the bolt, while the Ishapore cocks on closing the bolt. Pulling the Mauser bolt back required more strength than pulling the Ishapore bolt back, so that slowed me down. I should have simply gone to a semi-automatic rifle, but I was too stupid. Live and learn, hopefully.

    Yes, for me, any machine that works is a good machine. I can operate machines, but once they break, I can rarely fix them, so I feel helpless. Don’t like that feeling. If I can afford it, I have more than one machine per task, so one can act as a backup to the other. Two is one, and one is none.

  12. I have a Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk1 that my Aunt hand selected and bought out of a barrel full of them for $12.50 in 1954.

    It’ll do the job, if I do my part.

  13. Wife’s nightstand piece is the Colt Detective Special I bought her when we got married in 1975. I worked graveyards a lot through the years and I always trusted that .38 special wheelgun to protect her….still do. Preferred load? .158 grain Nyclad SWC-HP. Low recoil, noise and muzzle flash. The only changes I did was a “Skeeter Skelton” trigger job (ie: 1911 .45 firing pin wedged between the mainspring leaves and cocking until desired tension was reached.) And, I had to have it refinished once because while alone one night, she put in her lingerie drawer and forgot to tell me. A few days later, I found it with the blue finish gone on one side. Old time Houston gunsmith Herman Menscke refinished it and told me that he did lots of female officers “purse guns” because apparently perfume is so acidic that it would eat the blue finish fairly quickly. You live and learn.

  14. ““Skeeter Skelton” trigger job (ie: 1911 .45 firing pin wedged between the mainspring leaves and cocking until desired tension was reached.)”

    Gonna have to try that!

  15. Back in the early 70’s there was some late night excitement at a green grocer’s in the Market Square area of Pittsburgh. The place had been family owned by Italian immigrants for something over 50 years at the time. Apparently, (great?) grandma had saved her (great?) grand daughter from some armed robber/druggie using using an ancient (somewhere around 70+ years) Colt revolver (quite possibly it came with store when purchased long ago) and long discontinued UMC ammo. One round, one rehabilitated felon.

    This being long before video cameras, there was much jubilation in the police force. A violent offender with a long record was no longer a threat to the community and a life had been spared. Not to mention wonder at the firearm used. A collection was taken up to allow the family to acquire a replacement for the obsolete revolver along with fresh ammo.

    My grandfather’s break top .38 S&W, made by Hopkins & Allen, sits in a drawer. While a mechanical marvel [used an action that required the trigger to be pulled to fire-advertised as the “hammer the hammer” safe action- wouldn’t fire if dropped), it’s not something I’d take out and shoot these days. Even if I did many years ago.

  16. My choice of a “predator control” and big-game rifle is an antique Remington Model 760 pump-action .30-06 from 1952. It is 70 years old now! It is still 100% reliable and carefully maintained. The bolt is the old 11-lug, which I refuse to believe is inferior to the supplanting 5-lug of later years. The receiver ejection port cover is the old one made of steel, much more capable of enduring the sometimes -80 degrees below F in the subarctic winters, for example, than the newer plastic cover. .30-06 is still one of the most available cartridges on-the-shelf in the Americas, if not the world, much more than the excellent pump-action options of .35 Whelen, .338-06, .35 Remington, etc., yet more powerful than the common Canadian standby .303. With appropriate, quality bullets, .30-06 is fully adequate for the biggest predators in the Americas. With options of keeping loaded 4-round and 10-round magazines handy, the clip-magazine pump-action rifle is ideal for Canada, where the usual rule now is to keep firearms unloaded when not in use, or to expect confiscation.

  17. I have an old Colt Police Positive Special Revolver that I purchased from an online auction. It came from an estate sale.

    I sent the serial number in and got a Colt letter for the revolver. According to the information that I received, it was originally shipped, by Colt, on December 14, 1923. It was shipped to H & D Folsom Arms Company of New York City. The revolver is still in its original configuration. It is chambered for the 38 Special cartridge. It still has (most) of its original blue finish and its original barrel length of 5 inches.

    I have a copy of a 1920’s era catalog for the H & D Folsom Arms Company. They sold a variety of items including firearms, ammunition, police equipment, sporting goods, etc.

    They show the price for this Colt revolver, back then, as being $28.50 with barrel lengths of 2, 4, 5 and 6 inches being available all for that same price. Note that these revolvers were built on Colt’s smaller “D” frame as was also used on the Detective Special. Mas’ Colt Army Special (in barrel lengths of 4, 5 and 6 inches) was priced at $30.00 even. A buck and a half more but, then, the Army Special is built on the larger, “I” frame. Boy, those New York prices! 🙂

    The Police Positive Special (with 4-inch barrel) is listed as weighing 22 oz. The beefy Army Special (with 6-inch barrel) is listed as weighing 35 oz. One can see why some cops preferred the Police Positive Special. It was much lighter to pack around on “the beat” but still provided the same 6 shots of 38 special ammo. It was a good choice for a revolver that gets carried a lot but shot very little.

    My revolver came with an original leather holster. It is a Folsom Audley Patent Police holster. The catalog lists it too. It sold for $4.00 for the version to fit a 5-inch barrelled Colt Police Positive. We may think that retention devices that lock onto the trigger guard of a firearm are modern technology. However, that is exactly what this Audley holster was doing back a hundred years ago. It has a little spring tab that pops up and locks the revolver into the holster via the trigger guard. In drawing the gun, one inserts one’s fore-finger into the trigger guard and pushes the spring down. This release the revolver and it can be drawn straight out.

    When I first got this revolver, I took it to the range and loaded it with some 125 gr. standard pressure 38 special ammo. I won’t use +P ammo in a light frame revolver of this vintage. Anyway, I fired a three-shot group, off-hand, at 15 yards. The shots clustered into a cloverleaf group of about one inch right at the bullseye. It was, maybe, one inch to the right but I figure that was me since, being left-handed, I tend to pull to the right a bit.

    I just put the gun away and did not shoot any more. I did not figure that I was going to do any better than that! 🙂

  18. I had a beretta model 418 .25acp with the original sales tag from Italy, the type that you’d find attached to the trigger guard by string. A late relative brought it with him after the war. I recently gifted it to his son, who now has a greater appreciation for it. At one point I found a much needed spring kit and it ran like a champ. I wish the box was saved but that sales tag in Italian lire is pretty cool. Italy has a cultural obsession with small sub caliber self-loaders.

  19. It is interesting that Colt 38 Special Revolvers were used in the classic movie “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)”.

    If you pay attention to the revolvers that the gold prospectors use, you will note a continuity error in this film.

    The events of this film are supposedly dated for 1925. We know this from a calendar shot near the start of the movie. Now, the model of Colt revolver, that should have been used, was the Colt Army Special. It was the larger “I” frame 38 special manufactured until 1927. In 1927, Colt updated the revolver, made a few changes to the product and then re-named it the Colt Official Police.

    Well, when the gold prospectors were shooting it out with the bandits, attacking the train, the revolvers they were using were the newer Colt Official Police versions. You can tell this because they have checked wood grips with the Colt Medalion clearly shown. These revolvers were obviously incorrect for the 1925 time period.

    However, later on in the movie, the Humphrey Bogart character, Dobbs, tries to murder one of his fellow prospectors. We see the revolver again laying on the ground during this scene. This revolver has the correct hard rubber grips of the older Army Special!

    So, clearly, a mix of Army Special and Official Police revolvers were used in this movie with different ones used in different scenes.

    BTW, the accuracy of Colt revolvers was displayed, in the movie, when the Old Man, Howard, takes careful aim and shoots a gold watch, dangling from a chain, in the hand of the Chief Bandit! 🙂

    “We don’t need no stinking badges!” is a classic line from this movie. I guess that, if you can shoot like that, maybe it is true! 🙂

    • Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a favorite movie, based on the B. Traven (aka Ret Marut) novel of the same name. One thing I noticed in particular in the film is that the actors were very careful where they pointed their revolver muzzles, as was typical in films of the day. Obviously, the bullets would have to curve quite a bit before they ever hit an intended target, but no actors were reported injured during this filming, either. Not like the recent, publicly receding event where a film director was killed by an actual bullet, IMHO due to gross ignorance and negligence. Not really very progressive, have we been in Hollywood? More like “regressive.” American society in too many ways, also. Wonder why?

  20. I have a very nice 1950’s vintage Colt Police Positive .38 Special with a 4″ barrel which originally belonged to my uncle. It shoots the same kind of tight groups that Mas described with his old Colt revolver. The first time I fired it, I was surprised not only by how tight the groups were, but also by the fact that the gun was sighted in dead on to the X-ring at 25 yards for both windage & elevation with it’s fixed iron sights! Although it may not look as deadly as many other handguns do, I would not hesitate to use it to defend myself when loaded with modern hollowpoint ammunition. It is relatively light weight, easy to carry, easy to shoot, & completely reliable.

    Like many of you, I own & carry mostly semi-auto handguns for self-defense. However, I have found that while many gun owners know what advantages semi-auto handguns have over revolvers, far fewer seem to appreciate the advantages that revolvers have over semi-autos. In my experience, revolvers are generally more inherently accurate than semi-autos because the barrel is fixed to the frame, & even more so if they have adjustable sights or a longer sight radius. They are also more reliable & less likely to jam. In addition, revolvers are available in a variety of excellent magnum calibers such as .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, 44 Magnum, .454 Casull, .460 S&W Magnum, & .500 S&W Magnum, just to name a few. The fact that so many people (especially the young ones) don’t know or care about this is fine with me since it means there will be somewhat less competition for any nice old revolvers that I may be interested in acquiring. So don’t tell them & they won’t know what they are missing.

    • @ DAVE-VA – “…far fewer seem to appreciate the advantages that revolvers have over semi-autos.”

      There are additional advantages that you did not list. For example:

      1) Revolvers are less sensitive to the power of the ammo used. Generally, the ammo used in semi-auto’s needs to be loaded within a specific range so as to ensure that the firearm functions and feeds reliably. A revolver, for the most part, does not care. A 357-magnum revolver can fire everything from 38 special wadcutters to hot loaded, heavy bullet 357 mag ammo.

      2) A revolver can fire a contact shot, if necessary. Using a semi-auto with a contact shot may push the slide out-of-battery. This will cause a failure-to-fire malfunction. Once again, a revolver does not care. Clearly, in rare cases, this ability could be useful in a close-quarters self-defense situation.

      3) A revolver can, generally, be fired (repeatedly) from within a pocket. This is especially true for one of the hammerless revolvers (like a S&W Model 640) that could be carried in a pocket. With a semi-auto, well, you might get off one shot. However, the firearm would likely jam afterwards. Again, this is an ability possibly useful in a self-defense situation.

      Really, for close-quarters civilian self-defense, the only real advantages of a semi-auto are magazine capacity and reload speed. People often act like these are supreme abilities. For the military and police, maybe so. However, most defensive incidents are resolved with 3-shots or less. Often, just producing a firearm is enough to “scare away” the threat.

      For personal self-defense, magazine capacity/reload speed is nowhere nearly as critical as most people imagine. Anyway, that is my opinion. YMMV.

      • @TN_MAN
        You are right & I agree with everything you have added. I was tempted to say more, but I was trying to keep my comments short because I feel like I’m “preaching to the choir” here. I should have been more specific by saying that the gun I have is actually a Colt Police Positive Special, which is why it is lighter in weight & easier to carry than the larger frame revolvers. Mine also has the 1955 wide front sight & square cut rear notch that Mas mentioned in his article, which I can still see perfectly even with my aging eyes.

        I will add one more advantage that revolvers have–they can shoot shotshells reliably without having to worry about the plastic shot capsule breaking prematurely. I have an old Colt Agent from 1969 that I use as my “snake gun” when walking my dog or hiking during the spring & summer months. It is very light & comfortable to carry because of it’s aluminum frame & Pachmayr Compac grips. I carry it loaded with CCI .38 Special shotshells in a pocket holster in the right front pocket of my cargo shorts as a precaution against the copperheads where I live. I also have a Charter Arms Bulldog Pug with a bobbed hammer spur & Pachmayr grips which I can load with CCI .44 Special shotshells if I want something more powerful, although it’s not really necessary.

        Incidentally, I carried the Bulldog Pug loaded with Winchester Silvertip hollowpoints & a couple of HKS speedloaders for many years as my primary concealed carry handgun. It’s not much bigger than a snub nosed .38 Special revolver, but it’s a .44 Special (!!!!!) & it’s comfortable to carry in a pocket holster, an IWB holster, a belt holster, a shoulder holster, or even in an ankle holster because of it’s light aluminum frame. With the speedloaders I had 15 rounds of ammunition which can be loaded almost as fast as changing magazines with a semi-auto. I love that gun & I still carry it from time to time when I want a big bore concealed carry gun or as a backup gun to some of my semi-autos.

        I have several other revolvers both full sized & compact in a variety of calibers, & despite what some people may think, I know from experience that I can’t go wrong with any of them.

      • @ DAVE-VA – “…that I use as my ‘snake gun’ when walking my dog or hiking…”

        Great minds think alike! The gun that I like to use as a snake gun, when hiking, is a Taurus Judge. It is the version with the lightweight alloy frame, 3-inch barrel and shoots 2 1/2 inch 410 shells.

        I will load a couple of chambers with 410 #9 shot-shells for snakes. The other three chambers will be loaded with 45 Colt lead hollow-point rounds. In this way, I am prepared for just about anything from a snake to a feral dog to a criminal human!

        I have also used a Charter Arms Bulldog, in 44 Special, as a carry gun. My version is the “Boomer” model. Its perfect for pocket carry. Boomers do not have any sights. At close range, this would not matter. It is a point-and-shoot gun. However, in the event that a longer shot is ever needed, I equipped mine with laser grips. I can use the laser dot at longer ranges or in low light to score accurate hits as necessary.

        Small revolvers still have a role in self-defense. The Bulldog style goes back 150 years. People think that the Colt SAA was the revolver that “Won the West”. I’ll bet that the number of British Bulldog revolvers carried, back then, outnumbered all of the Colt’s, S&W’s and Remington’s combined!

        The “British Bulldog” was made in multiple countries. Not only did the British make it but versions were made in Belgium, Germany, France, America, etc. Total production numbers would have been in the millions. It puts Colt’s production numbers to shame!

      • DAVE–VA & TN_MAN,

        I think you two covered all the advantages and disadvantages of revolvers and semi-autos. I’ll just add the needed hand strength for semi-auto magazines and slides. When I load the magazines for my Glock 30 in .45 ACP, it takes a lot of hand strength. I can “only” load 9 rounds in the 10-round magazines, or else the mag won’t fit in the gun. Retracting the slide isn’t too bad, but new slides on some small semi-autos can be stiff. I’m sure my Glock 30 magazine springs will lighten up with use. The point is, as I get older and weaker, I’m pretty sure my ability to manipulate a semi-auto will fail before my ability to operate a revolver will fail.

        Point and click. And if I cock the hammer first, the clicking is real easy.

      • @TN_MAN
        I know several people who carry the Taurus Judge loaded with .410 shotshells as a snake gun. It’s perfect for that purpose.

        I also load my snake gun with three .38 Spl. shotshells & three .38 Spl. jacketed hollowpoints for the same reasons that you do.

        I’m a big fan of lasers, too. I have them on several of my guns. For me, they are so much quicker & easier to use on handguns than red dots are because they give me a very wide field of view & I can use both eyes to see the laser on the actual target without even holding the gun up at eye level. I can even see the laser on the target without my glasses. Red dots can be very useful on some rifles or shotguns, but I don’t like them on handguns.

        You could be right about the British Bulldog being widely used in the West, but I’m not sure if the British caliber ammunition was as available in the West as American ammunition was. I’d like to see some research on that. Another old saying is that the Winchester ’73 was the rifle that won the West, but at least one firearms historian has suggested that there were probably far more shotguns used by settlers than rifles or handguns.

        @ Roger Willco

        You’re right that some semi-auto slides are stiff, but so far I haven’t had any problems manipulating them, although that time may come. Like everyone else, though, I have had some problems loading magazines. The Glock magazine loaders will usually do the job, but the UpLULA magazine loaders are the easiest ones to use that I have found. If you haven’t tried them yet, you should. They’re worth the price. You can buy them online at Midway USA or at Natchez Shooters Supplies, among other places. Even so, as you pointed out, revolvers will always be easier to load & to operate.

      • @ DAVE-VA – “…but I’m not sure if the British caliber ammunition was as available in the West as American ammunition was. I’d like to see some research on that.”

        Ammunition would not have been a problem. The British Bulldog revolver was popular enough for the big American ammo companies to load for it. For example, I have copies of Winchester’s 1895 and 1900 catalogs. They offered both the .44 Webley (British .442 Caliber) and the American .44 Bull Dog cartridge.

        The .44 Webley has fairly stout recoil when used in a little bull dog revolver. So, the American companies developed a .44 bull dog cartridge for it. This was a 3/4 load (about 3/4 of the bullet weight plus about 3/4 of the powder charge in a slightly shorter case). A sort of .44 Webley short. The ammo companies sold both the full power .44 Webley ammo and this lighter bull dog round. So, a bull dog owner could go for either the full power load or the light-recoil load. That is how popular these revolvers were. The American companies not only offered the ammo but made special versions for the American market!

        Forehand & Wadsworth was an American company that made a copy of the Webley bull dog revolver for sale here. They offered it in .32 S&W (7-shot) and .38 S&W (6-shot) calibers as well as the original .44 Webley (5-shot) version. This, in addition, to all the British and Belgium made revolvers for sale.

        So, getting the revolver and ammo was not a problem. In fact, competition drove the prices down to the point where one could (around 1885) pick up a bull dog revolver for just $3 or $4. That would be for an American or Belgium copy. A genuine British-made Webley would cost at least double that amount.

        The be fair, the Forehand & Wadsworth version was of very good quality (just as good as the British) and was probably the best bargain in the bull dog market here in the U.S.

        I am not so sure about shotguns being as common as you imply. A good double-barrel cartridge-firing shotgun went for about $50 (New) . That was a lot of money in the old West. Forehand & Wadsworth made a very good single barrel shotgun that sold for about $12 and was popular. One could still also buy the old-style percussion shotguns. Some people still used them because they were cheap to buy and cheap to load and shoot.

        Still, would you rather pick up a good Winchester 1873 Model Rifle for about $25, or would you rather spend $50 for a good quality double-barrel breech loading shotgun? I suspect that the Winchester ’73 was the gun that “Won the West” based upon pricing alone!

        Not to mention that .44-40 ammo was dirt cheap compared to buying pre-loaded shotgun shells!

  21. Back in 1995, when we first started teaching concealed carry in Texas, we had an old cowboy (a real one) ask if he could take the practical with his single-action S&W. There being no rule against it, I agreed.
    He shot faster than the semiauto shooters on the line, and reloaded faster than those with double-action revolvers. After 50 rounds at three, seven, and 15 yards he had two “flyers” in the 9-ring. He had been carrying that gun for more than 40 years.
    After class he told me several people had suggested he get a modern gun and asked my opinion.
    My reply was, “Ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

  22. Have a brace of S&W 1917s, .45 ACP. full moon clips make a pretty quick reload, and a Safariland speedloader pouch with the plastic cylinder removed, will hold two loaded full moons. A double pouch gives me 24 rounds, plus six in the gun. 30 rounds of .45 is very comforting….. my other “old reliable” has history, a K-98k with ‘1940’ stamped on the reciever, but the “Waffinampt” eagles and Swastikas are punched over, and the markings on the 7.62 NATO barrel are in Hebrew… .308 Win. works just fine in Mauser stripper clips, and my Garand ammo belt will hold 100 clipped rounds… makes me happy.

  23. Have a retired LEO trade-in S&W model 15, .38 split, 4″.
    It’s been my farm snake gun for years. Not the prettiest thing, but works flawlessly.

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