The Fifth

The first handgun acquisition was a bit of a fluke. The Boss and I were living in Indianapolis when I was offered a job back near our hometown. The timing was perfect because the oldest son was to start school and we put the house up for sale to move to the 'berbs. A couple days after the job offer, at a 15% pay increase, the house sold so we moved back to the Buckeye state.

The house we bought had a finished basement that was perfect for the old slate top pool table I had, but as usual I lost the arguement, and it became a family room instead. That's where the handgun comes in. I traded that old beat up table for a JP Sauer & Sohn model 38H chambered for the little 7.65mm (.32ACP) cartridge.

That was my first handgun. It was also the gun that both of my sons first learned to shoot, because I didn't have anything better for them, nor the money to buy anything else at the time. (Each was about 7 when introduced to firearms) My youngest loves that little pistol. When talking about my will last year it was the only thing he really wanted, so I got up, went to the armory and gave it to him on the spot. Therefore I don't have a picture to share, but you can see one just like it at the above link.

I probably wouldn't have given it to him just yet except that I previously bought a Walther PPK as a replacement. A guy I knew in college had several Walthers in various calibers and I always wanted one. The Walther is also in .32ACP, just for nostalgic reasons.

Unfortunately this is an example of useless gun laws, because it's a PPK/S. The PPK was not legal to import at the time, but S&W was making some with slight dimensional changes under license from Walther. That was legal.

This is one of my carry guns, inspite of the "experts" saying the .32ACP is too small for the purpose. I'm a decent shot and this handgun is easy to carry and conceal, especially in hot weather. It's better to have a small one than none at all.