I had one, I liked it, a granddaughter's boyfriend stole it and likely fenced it somewhere. Needless to say, that sh*tbird is out of the family and better not show his face in town again. Unfortunately, knowing is not enough to prove he did it in court, but I know. Some odd things about that one would have made it a great one to still have.
@Smokin Joe If I were forced to carry a 9mm pocket pistol,that would be the one. I couldn't find a single thing to not like about it. It was even insanely accurate with factory loads.
I just prefer a 44 special over all other calibers when it comes to handguns,and my SAO Rossi has the sweetest trigger pull I have ever seen with a out of the box revolver,and is so accurate I have literally made 1 shot kills on running snakes with it.
I literally wouldn't sell it to anybody for any amount of money close to sane. I did have to promise one friend I would leave it to him in my will if he would donate 200 bucks to St.Judes in my name,though.
He is loaded with cash and wants almost all the other guns I own too,so chances are he is just going to buy them all at my estate sale.He is from Holland and had never even shot a gun until he met me. He was into bow hunting. I got him interested in shooting,then had to teach him gunsmithing,and now he has bought a milling machine,a couple of engine lathes,heat treating ovens,and has a federal manufacturing license.
He is now into black powder primitive hunting,and goes on hunting trips to Wyoming a couple of times a year. Shoots black power single-shot target rifles in calibers up to 60 caliber and even wears buckskins made from deer he shot. Hell,he even forged his own tomahawk and skinning knives that he carries.
Unless you are into it,it would shock you to find out how much that stuff costs,even if you just buy the components and fit it all together yourself. A couple of his rifles are so freaking heavy it's hard to pick them up,never mind shoot them. You literally NEED a shooting stick to shoot one of them because you can't hold it on a target without a rest.
He is to the point now where he is loading and selling custom black powder calibers for obsolete rifles. Made his own dies. He has several nice bolt action rifles including one I gave him with a birds eye maple stock that is chambered for my own wildcat version of a wildcat .375 H&H Magnum. It is build on an Japanese WW-2 Arisaka action with a custom hammer-forged barrel 26 inches long,and it uses .348 Winchester brass that has been blown out and improved to give .375 H&H magnum performance with a medium-length action. It is NOT a rifle you are going to want to shoot a dozen times a day!
I created a monster. Back when I first got him interested in building guns,it wasn't unsual for him to call me at 2 AM to ask me the proper way to do something,and if I couldn't explain it to him,he would pay me to drive the 275 miles to his house to help him set up and show him how it is done. Yes,like ALL good gunsmiths,he is more than a little anal about putting them together right.
Before he started building guns he was a semi-famous sculptor. The White House even hired him to repair some of the items they had that were damaged over the years. He even has a photo of him and Reagan shaking hands in the WH.
He still sculpts a few statues for previous customers or does repair work on them when needed,but only because he knows them and is friends with them. If he doesn't know you,you can't hire him. He doesn't need the money and is at the age now where he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do.
He tells me a bunch of people want to buy the .348/375 Improved rifle,but he refuses to even take offers because I built it and then gave it to him,and it is the only one in the world like it. I built it when I was in gunsmith school just to see how it would work out,and because somebody gave me the old Arisaka action,and somebody else gave me the birds eye maple stock and giving up on trying to shape it. I hand lapped the bolt in the rails,squared the bolt face in the receiver and the rear of the locking lugs by lapping them too,using Dyken Blue to make sure I had 100 percent contact. The front half the barrel was milled to be an octagon shape using a milling machine,and the rear half is round for more accurate bedding. I did this to reduce vibrations when a bullet is fired.
It is as close to being perfectly fitted and bedded as you can make a rifle.
Guess who sells me new gun stuff at wholesale any time I want it.
As for my 44 Special,it was so perfect out of the box that to this very day I have not had the side plate off of it. IF Taurus hadn't bought out Rossi and discontined my model 44 for their own version that is MUCH larger and heavier,I'd buy another one that was DA,bob the hammer,and do a trigger job on it. Even with a slick trigger,it's hard to hit a running snake with a DAO only trigger.
Not that this is my prefered snake gun. It ain't. 44 Special ammo is a LOT more expensive than 22 LR rounds. I just happened to have the 44 in my pocket when the copperhead and the cotton mouth appeared (at different times,obviously),so I used what I had in my pocket.
They sure don't move much when you hit their spine with 200 grain hollowpoint.
