[AGE]

Jack,

I started shooting in high school--got a letter with my Remington 513T, then Uncle Sam familiarized me with the M1 Garand. These are two great rifles that I still own. Yes, the old cowboy movies motivated me to buy a couple of Winchester 94s. Neat, but poor shooters unless scoped and then not so neat. Then I found the AR-15 when the media began knocking it. I had to have one and it's the greatest of all rifles in my opinion. Mine has a red dot sight--accurate and fast.

My real interest however is handguns. Colt single actions are the neatest works of art and would have been real innovations in 1873. The movies and TV undoubtedly influenced me, but I love them (I have two). I could still live with one as my only gun, but they aren't the best shooters. Lugers are the next neatest works of art, feel great, shoot great, etc. but are difficult to shoot fast or well. Overall, the Colt 1911 .45 is my favorite shooter (I have a bunch of them in all varieties) as it is very accurate (at least when worked over by an expert--although it won't group as well as a Luger), highly reliable, easy to get parts or service for, and is easy to shoot fast and hit things with.

I guess it is obvious that I am a real gun nut. Funny, I'm not even a hunter and certainly not a hard core collector. I just like to punch paper and have participated in both rifle and pistol matches for almost 60 years. I like them all (and have most of them) but I prefer the name brand U.S. guns with the exception of the Luger. Maybe the various spy and war movies attracted me to them. Anyway, get your Luger out to the range whenever you can and enjoy your Ruger, Sharps, etc. By the way, join the NRA if you haven't done so yet.