Four Favorites

Bonding With Handguns.

Bonding is a current catchword—such as bonding with a new pet, male bonding, etc. How about handgun bonding? I’ve experienced that and it seems to follow no rhyme or reason. Then again, friendships are the same. For example, I don’t remember the name of a single person from my college years, but I’m still tight with people I worked with in Yellowstone National Park during the same time frame.

Here’s a specific example of what I mean about handgun bonding. Back in 2010, I sold my Smith & Wesson “pre-Model 29” .44 Magnum after owning it for 42 years. Why? Because I never bonded with it. It was just a tool: a powerful handgun I carried back in the ’70s and ’80s when riding horses in Montana’s mountains. Since that isn’t a pastime for me anymore, that old .44 just gathered dust. Conversely, I’ve truly bonded with a couple of other handguns owned only for two or three years, and for which I have not the slightest practical purpose.

What it is that creates a handgun bond: aesthetics, accuracy, utility, history, and uniqueness? Aesthetics must be a factor, although I’ve owned engraved, custom-finished handguns and then sent them down the road with no regrets, and one of the handguns to be detailed further along is plain ugly. Accuracy must be a factor, but is not the main reason for bonding. I wouldn’t keep a handgun that sprayed bullets around the countryside, but I’ve gotten rid of some far more accurate than the one’s I’ll talk about soon. Utility? Nope. We’re back to the handgun as a tool thing. I’ve got self- and home-defense handguns I’d never sell, but could care less about them otherwise. History? That’s a more important factor with me than with some other people, because the study of history is part and parcel of my life. What about uniqueness? That is a factor with only one of these four favorites.

Frankly I can’t pinpoint why some handguns “trip my trigger” and others are just tools, any more than I can tell you why I prefer blondes to redheads. It must be a combination of the above factors come together to make one handgun more special than others. Two of the four discussed here are single actions, and two are autoloaders. Not one of them is a double-action revolver, although I’ve searched out and owned many notable double actions. They never bonded.
Story By: Mike “Duke” Venturino Photos By: Yvonne Venturino

>> Click Here << To Read More About Bonding With Handguns

Order Your Copy Of The March 2012 Issue Today!

Get More Features