I didn't get into guns and trying to improve my shooting until I started this blog in 2007. Before that I was just like regular folk, like the ones going to the gunstore these days.
I had A gun. A pistol. A revolver. And a box of ammo. And I know what my progression was these days. Garand, M1A, AR. Revolver. 1911. Flirting with black plastic 9mm
But... what if I was 20 years older and started doing this in 1987?
This presumes I was a Naval Officer in 1971, though, like I was in 1991. And the war, then, would have loomed large.
I wouldn't have had the internet. Just gun magazines and Soldier of Fortune. I was wary of Glock in 2007, I'd certainly be as wary in 1987. But would I have caught the interest in the 1911 that the internet gave me? I'd have qualified on a 1911 in the Navy in 71 just as I did in 91. But I was still revolver preferred after qualification. So, like now, a 686 would be a likely first gun. Or a 19.
Or would the 4506 have caught my eye in 87? I bet they would. Or like it.
Or one of the 9mm variants of smith
I bet I'd have got a mini-14, though. If not repeating the M1A experience I already did here in the future.
If I had been smart I'd have gotten in a touch earlier and beaten the Hughes Amendment and gotten a Smith Enterprise selectfire M1A, for all the good it'd do me. But I am not smart. Or a sub gun that wasn't MP5 or Uzi (I remember me in the 80s and I do not know why I disliked both, but I did. I wonder if I could get one of these in the early 80s....)
So... like me now.
Do I even KNOW 20 years older me? Without the internet to spark my interest would I have come to similar conclusions as I learned things?
UGH! I might have gotten a Beretta 92! North Hollywood shootout and Miami Dade shootout wouldn't have happened or been internalized yet by 87. Goetz and McDonald's shooting would have. Luby's would ave spurred me to investigate CCW, but that would be later.
Who am I kidding? I've gotten a pump shotgun I barely knew how to use, a Model 19 revolver and maybe a snubby.
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4 comments:
I got out of the Navy in 1985 after a 6 year hitch. I went to work for NAVSEA in 89 and went to work for an retired GMCM. He introduced me to the wonderful world of firearms. He regularly told me I could get any gun I wanted as long as the caliber started in 4.
I would have bought a revolver and a lever action in both .357 and .22 LR. I already had (and still have) a 16 gauge pump. I would have also gotten an M1 Garand through the CMP.
In 1982 my first gun was a Mossberg 500 pump shotgun, then a 9mm Smith & Wesson 659, and them a .223 Ruger Mini-14.
1987... You could have gotten a Sig P226 or P220. The Remington 870 was still the shotgun to have. The rifle field was pretty open. FALs, Steyr AUG, M1As, oddly the AR15 was an unwanted step child back then.
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