The old days hammer with hammer nose, often a bet- ter system?


The damnable lock … often much ado about nothing.


A pair of Model 29s customized by Hamilton Bowen.


were done I think he was sin- cerely impressed with the fact a revolver could be, can be and in fact is a viable defensive tool. It was kinda funny, as he was shocked we still used these guns. I think even more impressed they were big guns yet controllable and loadable and as stated viable — even the shortcomings — yes even those I pointed out like load- ing, reloading, continuity of fi re and so on. A brief histori- cal perspective was helpful to get the point across to the youngster — so I thought to share it with you — 40 years of change.


WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM The bigbore guns have a history


back beyond even me. The coal mine strikes, the union fi ghts, the gangster gig and even in warfare, bigbore guns were there and were working. The Smith & Wesson and Colt 1917 .45 caliber revolvers were in heavy use and demand for World War 1 even though the auto — now the 1911 was around. The era of gangsters, the ad- vent of body armor and the presence of heavy-metal vehicles brought about the .357, of course, as a later spinoff of the high-speed .38, which would often not get the job done. Noting a .357 is not a large bore its velocity along with the likes of the .38 Super were used trying to step up as a response to the lack of penetration for all the heavy mediums of the times.


Bigbore Bias I have admittedly, a bias for


Smith and Wesson and I like the old guns, this point I will discuss as we


move forward. The fi rst likeable bigbores, even


though not all that numerous in sales over the years, have a strong following with the knowledgeable. The Model 21, in .44, and the Model 22,


in .45 caliber, were true fi ght-


ing handguns with heavy frames, fi xed sights and the oil slick ac- tions made the “old way” in the “old days.” These two particular models received a phoenix-like jump start over the last fi ve years with the re- introduction of the classic series of handguns by the Smith & Wesson factory mostly under the guidance of Tony Miele, one of Smith’s oldest employees. Although not perfect, the new model’s bearing key locks as a weird-o sign of the times were still large framed and fi x sighted and for the most part put together well even though it is no longer truly the “old days.” As a point of interest, the sales of the new Model 21 and


67


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