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Your favorite production handgun and why…

I have both old gen Pythons and old King Cobras. The King Cobra is a much more robust gun. One of my King Cobras I have
put over 30k magnums rounds through. It's still as tight as when I bought it new.

Just curious - how do you keep track of that many rounds going through the gun? Very impressive.
 
joel,

Keeping round count for that gun has been fairly easy. It was my only shooter .357 for a number of years. I shot metallic silhouettes with it for several years. I was shooting about 1k rounds a month in practice. Keeping track of the bullets I reloaded, plus the number of small pistol primers I used was not too hard. I generally bought the bullets in cases of 3750. It was easy to count when I used one gun and one load.

Toward the end, I branched off from silhouettes with a King Cobra. I used a Python a bit. Finally, I settled on a pair of Smith 686 guns. One with open sights. One with an optic.
 
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OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
joel,

Keeping round count for that gun has been fairly easy. It was my only shooter .357 for a number of years. I shot metallic silhouettes with it for several years. I was shooting about 1k rounds a month in practice. Keeping track of the bullets I reloaded, plus the number of small pistol primers I used was not too hard. I generally bought the bullets in cases of 3750. It was easy to count when I used one gun and one load.

Toward the end, I branched off from silhouettes with a King Cobra. I used a Python a bit. Finally, I settled on a pair of Smith 686 guns. One with open sights. One with an optic.

I used to own an old OHP 686 Smith I bought used at a pawnshop years ago when they were transferring to semi’s. I loved that revolver. I was pretty young at the time and I ended up permanently breaking A Taurus model 66 my older brother owned. I can’t even remember how I broke it, but it was one of the older Brazilian imports that didn’t have a good reputation of quality back then. I didn’t want to pay him for that cheap gun so he took my S&W for himself. It’s still one of his favorite pistol’s to this day.
 
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Favorite of all would be the Browning Hi-Power. Favorite revolvers…that would be the Pythons.
Had to get another safe. I had a pair of secure walk in closets in the old house that are absent in the new one. So….
Liberty is my go-to safe. Ft. Knox is a legit choice also, but more than a tad spendy.
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Claudel Xerxes

Staff member
Just curious - how do you keep track of that many rounds going through the gun? Very impressive.

I know @ColtRevolver already answered your question, but since you were curious about his round count methods, I thought I'd share that I keep a gun log. Please, excuse my chicken scratch. I had no intention to show this to anyone. I log every shot fired through every gun I own. I also make note if there are any malfunctions. My magazines are numbered, so if I have a malfunction I can make note of which one I was using while the malfunction occurred. That way, if malfunctions start to become frequent, I can see if there is a pattern with a specific round or magazine. It might be overkill for some, but it's just something I started doing when I first started buying firearms and shooting regularly.

20230327_150920.jpg
 
That's far more detailed than my accounting. I only kept track of most of magnums through the King Cobra. I didn't account for all the .38 reloads I shot back when I couldn't afford to shoot magnums. The first few years of ownership, I didn't reload and couldn't find/afford .357 brass. I bought a few thousand used Specials. I would send 1k off in the mail to be reloaded. At the time 1k cost about 60 bucks to have loaded.
 

Claudel Xerxes

Staff member
That's far more detailed than my accounting. I only kept track of most of magnums through the King Cobra. I didn't account for all the .38 reloads I shot back when I couldn't afford to shoot magnums. The first few years of ownership, I didn't reload and couldn't find/afford .357 brass. I bought a few thousand used Specials. I would send 1k off in the mail to be reloaded. At the time 1k cost about 60 bucks to have loaded.

I can't remember if someone had recommended it, if I started logging all my shots as an excuse to use up some of my fountain pen ink and paper, or if I just decided it would be a good idea. The log will go in whatever range bag I'm using, then I just make it a point to fill it out before I leave the range, while the round counts are fresh in my head. Every once in a while I'll flip through it, and it's kind of fun to look at and remember different range sessions, frequency of range trips, how much I was shooting per session, etc..
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
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OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
I know @ColtRevolver already answered your question, but since you were curious about his round count methods, I thought I'd share that I keep a gun log. Please, excuse my chicken scratch. I had no intention to show this to anyone. I log every shot fired through every gun I own. I also make note if there are any malfunctions. My magazines are numbered, so if I have a malfunction I can make note of which one I was using while the malfunction occurred. That way, if malfunctions start to become frequent, I can see if there is a pattern with a specific round or magazine. It might be overkill for some, but it's just something I started doing when I first started buying firearms and shooting regularly.

View attachment 1628050

A log is actually a great idea which many frequent shooters should keep but don’t. They really help with things like ammo budget and/or inventory, and firearm maintenance.
 
I used to own an old OHP 686 Smith I bought used at a pawnshop years ago when they were transferring to semi’s. I loved that revolver. I was pretty young at the time and I ended up permanently breaking A Taurus model 66 my older brother owned. I can’t even remember how I broke it, but it was one of the older Brazilian imports that didn’t have a good reputation of quality back then. I didn’t want to pay him for that cheap gun so he took my S&W for himself. It’s still one of his favorite pistol’s to this day.

I had a S&W US Customs revolver in the 80's. Was a 686 round butt with 3 inch barrel. Foolishly sold it some time in the early 90's.
 
I desperately need another one, with absolutely no place to put it. :(

When I hit the 50's many years ago started giving thought to what I own and why. Also considered how much time I was willing to spend maintaining what were essentially safe queens. Went from multiple safes to one. Now own maybe 20% of what I once did. Happy that I downsized the numbers.
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
When I hit the 50's many years ago started giving thought to what I own and why. Also considered how much time I was willing to spend maintaining what were essentially safe queens. Went from multiple safes to one. Now own maybe 20% of what I once did. Happy that I downsized the numbers.

I keep this same philosophy myself, but the little, ‘get it voice’ in my head won’t stop man, it just won’t stop! :)
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
Too many favorites to just pick one, congrats to you fellas for being able to do so. The one thing I will say, prices keep going up on our old favorites and I won’t sell any of them.

I should have a bunch of the old classic favorites over the years... But sadly, I'm an idiot. :(
 
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