Nostalgia - what & when was your 1st handgun game

Feeling nostalgic after James' post on the S & W brochure.
What & when was your 1st handgun game taken?
Here is mine.
1975 - groundhog with an octagon TC 218 bee / 1.3x Bushnell Phantom scope at age 16
1980 - Corsican Ram at Tioga with a TC 44 Mag octagon barrel iron sights.
1980 - 3 point PA Whitetail with a RSB 44 mag iron sights

1984 - decent 8-point whitetail with a Model 29 8 3/8 shooting that white hot 180 grain Federal load. First deer I killed and have been handgunning ever since.

Most exciting for me - I made a headshot on a big doe in 1985 (I was young and out too kill something and it was best shot I had) with my 4-inch Model 27 S&W with the checkered backstrap and pinned barrel. That gun was sweet!

As some of you may know, shooting a .357 with no hearing protection is rough on the ears. Thank goodness for electronic hearing protection.

Sold both of those guns and a six-inch nickel Python to get tuition together for my last year of graduate school. It paid off but I sure do miss those guns. Still have the memories...

My first handgunned big game was a whitetail doe with my 7 1/2 inch SS Ruger SBH. I watched her walk 250 yards toward my stand. As she passed under the tree I was in I braced the gun on the trunk to get a steadier hold. When the gun went off it jumped off the tree and almost out of my hands. I had rested the gun directly on the cylinder gap. The bullet struck in front of her. As she turned and ran I put the sights on the front of her chest and squeezed the trigger. This bullet hit behind the shoulder and she slid to a stop. Lesson learned.

Can't remember the year, maybe around 1990. Using my GP100 with handloads with a 158 grain bulk bullet hollow point. Had around 12 doe come in, hunting from a tree stand. Picked out one and started shooting. Shot i think four times hitting the doe three of them. The low report of the .357 didn't scare the deer at all. Wasn't at all impressed with the .357, expected for the deer to fall right there. It ended running down in a revine and dying. Had to drag it up out. A liver hit took it out. That was a long time ago, and getting back into handgunning. Took three with handgun this year.

Several groundhogs in 1980 with a contender in 44 later added a 2x Leupold
A doe in 81 and then it was off to the races after that.

1980 it was. l had been shooting IHMSA silhs for a few years so l decided to try my 44 Smith on bambi...l was sitting on a dove stool and heard her sneaking thru. She was maybe 40 yards when l sent a 180gr Super Vel thru both her shoulders..l killed a couple each year til 84 when we lost our range and my father in law died. Kinda lost interest after that..John was my friend, mentor.

l got back into ''sillywets'' a couple years ago after a 30 year break. The urge to shoot bambi is again there. l was gonna try this year but wife's illness, hospital, surgery kinda took my time. Maybe this year?? Been shooting shooting My 629 PC Magnum Hunter ALOT lately..App 900 rds in January alone.

Colt 38spec on different types of critters in VietNam 1966/68.Things like mongoose,snakes and lizards and very big rats.In 71 in Texas I hade a Stoger Luger 22lr and a Hawes western marshall that took many a squirrells and rabbits and moved up stedy from there now living in Alaska to bears,love bears.

I killed my first deer with a handgun in 2004. It was a four point buck shot at about 35 yards with open sights. I was shooting a old Ruger SBH with a 10.5' barrel with open sights.

The deer was walking from my left to my right. The bullet hit just behind the shoulder. The deer ran about thirty yards and fell.

I passed up two more deer that morning before getting up to retrieve my deer.

Handgun hunting has been a part of my deer hunting since.

I started in the late 60's with a H&R .22 revolver shooting chipmunks. Next, I moved up to squirrels. By the early 70's I had a Colt trooper .357 quickly followed by a Ruger Blackhawk .44 mag. The .44 got me into deer hunting thinking the .357 was kinda light. From there I got into contenders, 14" 30-30, >357 Herret, and a 45-70 made by SSK and I had to try all of them on deer. After that my attention turned to mainly revolvers that I enjoy immensely till today.

1961 - squirrels. Remington Rand 1911 .45 ACP. No, really ....

1987 or 1988 I shot my first mule deer with my 7mmBr AP-100. It was a small spike buck at about 125 yards. One shot,one jump, and DRT. Boy, was I stoked! I made a believer out of my hunting partners.

Very first one,'91.

Can't remember just how many points, but it was a BIG whitetail buck and I was using an 8 3/8" Model 29 with factory Remington 240 gr. JHP.
What I do remember is it took 50-75 feet of tow cable and a 4x4 truck to pull it up from the creek bed where I shot it.
No way I would have ever gotten it out by myself.

1992- SW 629 Classic DX killed a 6pt at about 75 yds with a Hydroshok. Wish I hadn't sold that firearm. I was only 22yo and didn't know what I had.

1974-S&W M29 6/1/2", TH TT and goncala alves grips. It is still resides in the original blue velvet lined wooded presentation case. Yes the end of barrel shows holster wear, the grips show wear, and the trigger breaks like no other! I took a really nice 8-pt buck with while hunting with my dad.

I just picked up a twin to it, except it is a 'like new' M25-2 45 ACP Model 1955 in the original presentation case with the CLEAN factory mop, rod, and brush and screw driver in their own compartment!
These are to find.

1956-squirrel, H&R M629 .22.

1984. The year I got married. My first deer with my Ruger Security Six .357 magnum. Perfect head shot.

2002. Spike at 6 paces while sitting on ground. 44 mag SBH. Such a rush that scoped it and haven't touched a long gun since.

Some of ya'll is old

2000. Spike whitetail with 6" S&W 629 topped with ultra dot red dot.

1980. Squirrel with crossman 1377 air pistol; same handgun I started my son on.

1989 - rabbit with Colt Woodsman

I believe mine was a rabbit, around 1975 or so when I was in my middle teens. The "handgun" was a single shot 12 gauge with the barrel shortened to around 10" and the stock cut off behind the pistol grip. My brother and I saw it in a movie and had to make one. Talk about a handful when that thing went off, you had to hold your support hand on top of the barrel to control it. The statute of limitations should be over with on that by now......eh.....

I believe I was 14 and using a 10.5" Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 Mag with a 2x scope. Don't remember the scope brand or the exact maker of the 240gr bullet I used. But, it was a whitetail button buck at something around 50 yards from a climbing tree stand.

Good times.

My first was in the late 70's, a groundhog with a Ruger Blackhawk .357.

partridge with a single six

My first kill was a cottontail rabbit with my dads 4'' Smith and Wesson model 28 that he purchased from a retired Virginia state trooper in the 80's complete with the S&W made duty holster. We were driving around the farm one afternoon when I spotted the rabbit and told my dad I was going to take it with the 28. He thought I was nuts but turned his Cadillac towards the rabbit to get closer. The rabbit took off for the woods when my dad turned the car and I thought I wasn't going to get a shot. At this point I'm holding onto the moving car with one hand while hanging out of the window of the car shooting double action with the other. The rabbit was about to hit the woods when my first shot hit the dirt next to it which caused it to turn and run broadside to me. I slung the revolver out in front of the running rabbit and the second shot center punched it through the lungs. Yes it was a lucky shot but was my first kill. The other day my mother gave my wife some old family photos and one of them was of me standing in the kitchen holding that rabbit in one hand and the 28 in the other .

That sounded like a Die Hard movie...lol

A Groundhog in the mid 70s with a 357 Colt Trooper out the window of the car. Still remember what my wife said when I did it. Why did you shoot that poor thing it never done anything to you.

Most wives just don't understand how ruthless those groundhogs can be. I taught mine to shoot a revolver soon after we got married. She was doing pretty good out to 50yrds. with a Smith and Wesson 686 so I took her deer hunting with me and talked her into shooting a deer with it. I was happy as could be but then I had to hear her cry about feeling bad about killing it.

My childhood was similar to SolidCopy44. Raised on a farm and carrying a gun was just something you did. I had a High Standard HB I bought from my Uncle and can't remember what I took first. It could have been one of many creatures including squirrels rabbits and yes alley cats. Shooting rats at the town dump with a spotlight was completely legal and an accepted way for father's and sons to spend summer evenings. Great fun!

My first kill was 38 years ago, I was 27 yrs old. I lived in Hawaii at the time and shot a feral ram on the slopes of Mauna Loa Volcano with a Thompson Contender, .357 Herret at a 110 yards.That's when I got bit by the handgun hunting bug and its only gotten worse since. After 43 years of marriage my wife realizes there's no cure. I'm a big bore revolver guy now and enjoying every press of the trigger.

FA834ME Shooting rats at the town dump brings back memories of shooting rats when I was still in school in the 50s.

Probably rock chucks (marmots) above timberline in Colorado rockies with Contender .223. Late 70's. Too long ago.

Mid-sixities, Arizona, javelina, Super-Blackhawk (before transfer bar)

1989 raccoon with a mod 66........it was eating my corn

4 years ago
Whitetail spike

As a very young boy I remember my dad always having his S&W K-22 on his belt when we were outdoors - hunting, fishing, camping, whatever. My uncle had an identical one that he also carried. Between the 2 of them they bagged all types of small game and varmints with the K-22s when I was growing up. Dad had several long guns but none of them fascinated me like the K-22. I knew then that someday I would hunt with a handgun.
My dad turns 85 this week and we still have and shoot his K-22. My uncle is no longer with us but I have his K-22 and I regularly carry it in the field. What great guns they are. Nearly 60 years old and still going strong!

I always seem to forget hunting small game when talking about handguns. Killed hundreds of squirrels with a CO2 crosman pistol and my first firearm kill ever was with an old 22 revolver that a friend 'borrowed' from his grandpa. Shot a squirrel from about 30 yards up in a tree with one shot. I looked like an aceshot even though I know it was pure luck. Good memories. Except for the 'borrowing' part.

I was a bit hesitant to post my handgunning adventures, but it seems I got my start like most everyone else.

I started with a Hertiage Rough Rider that my dad bought me as payment for cleaning brush off the farm. I shot a ton of squirrels and some raccoon with that gun. My squirrel load was the 22 mag cylinder with solid points. I've killed squirrels out to 50 yards.

I bought an Encore in 375 JDJ in 2013 to deer hunt with. We had an early season in October that year and I took my first deer with that hand cannon. I crawled on my stomach to within 50 yards off her and threw a 225 at her shoulder. Dead right there. I've hunted with it and the 7mm-08 I had since, but didn't get any shots.

Last season I had a few shots but didn't take them as the weather was too warm. Not having any deer in the freezer, I picked up the 338 long barrel when it got cold, and laid a few down. Shame on me.

Next year is it, the 41 is shooting good and I'll have the 480 next month!

Brenden

1964(I was 15 Years old) Illinois fox squirrel with a Ruger Single Six with magnum cylinder. I didn't even own a camera then. Cotton tails to follow in the winter time with standard cylinder. By the way when I shot that fox squirrel I knew the magnum cylinder was not my bag(i think that's when my deftness started)!
Steve

1991 antelope with S&W 44Mag.Was hooked, got a F/A 454 then a encore with .308. Then a .375 JDJ Barrel. Now I am going to try a glock 10mm.Grew up hunting with ruger22 .Hunting with a handgun is way more exciting then a rifle. Teaching my son now. Rifles are for wall hangers now.

I was left under a tree with a Colt Woodsman .22 LR by my dad, breaking all manner of Illinois laws back then, 10 years old, 1960s. I didn't get the squirrel but it was my first handgun hunt. I took my first big game in 1979 with a S&W 57 6 inch, nickle plated, 41 Magnum with Winchester 175 grain HP Silvertip. Little 4 point buck eating persimmons in the back pasture. Loved it! I now have a 3 screw Blackhawk .41 Magnum. You can't hunt everything with a 9.5 inch Super Redhawk 480 Ruger, but you can try.

2006 whitetail Doe with Redhawk in .44.

2005. I killed a wild hog with my ruger super Blackhawk at about 10 yds. The gentleman that ran that operation showed me his 500 linebaugh. Then he showed me scars on his leg from a hog. Said he had the 500 built after that. He said the 500 was his security blanket as no hog would get to him after being shot with it. He let me fire it and I was hooked

My first game I took with a handgun was in 1970. I used my Ruger Single Six on rabbits when I was going to school in CO. I've used handguns on small game ever since.

My first big game was taken in 1986 with a Ruger Super Blackhawk. I took a doe antelope on my first handgun only hunt.

Except for one hunt all my revolver hunting has been with open sights. All my single shots are scoped

My first animal dispatched was prairie dogs on a 2000 dog shoot in SD with a SS Contender chambered in a 22 K-Hornet 14 inch super barrel. Been hooked ever since.

Bought a 7-30 Waters in a 14 inch super the next year and shot a button buck in the late antlerless season.

My dad got a 9 pt buck with his Haws western marshall in .44 mag . Sweat shooting gun the western marshall !

I was 17 in 1981. My brother-in-law and I were on the family lease late on a November afternoon. It was cold and misty. We saw hogs several hundred yards out in the winter wheat and decided to stalk them. We moved through the woods that bordered the field. A few of the hogs decided to leave the field and we jumped them in the mesquites. I dropped two hogs with my Virginian Dragoon chambered in .357. I've been hooked ever since.

Before then I had taken various bunnies and small critters with a Ruger Single Six, but the pigs were my first medium size game.

I was 18 and I had several places to bow hunt hogs and everyday after school I would go check my game cameras and bait up spots with soured corn and this one particular day I pulled up to the land I had permission to hunt and I seen a pretty good size boar run across a trail and so I quickly grabbed my urged RedHawk 44 and went down the trail to see if I could put a stalk on him, long story short I got him cornered up in a briar thicket and he charged at me and I shot 2 times with the first one meeting the mark the other two was because I was shaken up and making sure he was stopped! He was about 10 feet when I folded him up and he weighed 172 lbs let me see if I can post a pic

84/85ish squirrels and coons with a heritage 22, I believe that was the brand name. 89/90 for big game with Rossi 357mag.

1982 interarms Virginian dragoon in 45LC. Shot a big turkey tom about 65 yds. Thru the years I've hunted with ruger revolvers and Tc single shots. This year I added a glock 10mm to the arsonel. I'm amazed at its accuracy.

A Colt Diamondback .22 accounted for my first trophy animal with a handgun in 1999, a huge field mouse. I opened the door on a target shed at the range as I was preparing for the rest of the group to show up and he showed himself. I went back to the truck to grab my Colt, but he had vanished. I picked up a target backer and as I spun around to set it out, he shot out the end onto the dirt path that lead towards the range. I was able to hit him at about 7 yards. I was hooked. Later on the same year, a whitetail doe with a Colt Anaconda 8 inch 45LC, 45 yards as she was bedded.

I shot a 130lb doe in the early 90's with my 10.5" Super Blackhawk 44mag. 300g XTP, about 50-60 yards high through the shoulders and spine (bang flop) she never twitched after hitting the groung.

Mike

Wow, that's pretty impressive, considering my derringer prints about 4 feet high and off to one side with most any ammo, I have deep admiration for anyone trying to kill anything past arms length with a derringer.

A rat with a S@W 22 at the farm... 16yrs old. It's amazing what a hose off the tractor will bring out of hole's in the ground!!!!

A rat with a S@W 22 at the farm... 16yrs old. It's amazing what a hose off the tractor will bring out of hole's in the ground!!!!

Spike buck with a 10" TC contender...1988

Since then piles of whitetails, hogs, turkeys, several elk, antelope, javelina.

Love handgun hunting:)