Requiem for a really cool pistol

Hi. I’m Joel, and I’m a gun-lover.

(Hi, Joel!)

I’ve come today to speak of a very fine little pistol. We weren’t personal friends, I never shot it, but I saw it on several occasions and just thought it was a cool gun. I mean, it was so…together, y’know? You just wanted to pinch its cheek.

I have numerous guns, as most of you do. And with most of them, I’m kind of prone to apologizing for their shortcomings. “Oh, y’know, it’s just an old Taurus,” or “It’s from SA’s schlock period. It had a bunch of powdered-metal parts, and the frame is apparently constructed from aged cheese.” Or my favorite, “This is why guys like me shouldn’t make their own receivers.”

But sometimes a person can own the perfect gun for them, y’know? And I have a friend who, until a few days ago, owned a fine stainless S&W wheelgun in .357, with Pachmayr or Hogue grips, I don’t remember which. I don’t know enough about modern revolvers to call the model by a mile, but it was a sweet little small-frame semi-snubby* in a Kydex holster, and the whole package always struck me as just the right combination of quality and style. It fit its owner as if custom made.

Anyway, this friend’s apartment got broken into and that sweet thing was stolen and is off in the wild, no doubt never to be seen again. And it occurred to me, a day or two after I heard of it, that I was sitting around feeling nostalgic about this gun I didn’t even own, as if I’d lost a friend.

Which was a little weird, when I started to think about it. And yet maybe, like our pets, our weapons come to resemble us. I mean, I’ve got a couple of long guns I’m not at all ashamed of. But other than them, after a long life of bad trades, unfortunate purchases and sales and general abrasion and attrition, my every-day guns never were all that to begin with and are now looking rather worn. Just like me.

And that little revolver was just like I picture its true owner: Small and sharp and solid, y’know? Maybe not what you’d take to a firefight, but bright and tight and deadly. Very high quality. There when you need it.

I didn’t see it very often, but I’m still kind of going to miss that little gun.

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*How’s that for a technical description, eh?