My First Gun Was Purchased During a Crisis

This tiny .22 LR revolver once defended my family. It’s the first gun I ever shot and was just a budget .22 LR single-action revolver my dad bought from a local hardware store. It was pretty common to find these catalog guns back in the day. At just $20, it was probably as much as my dad could afford on a teacher’s salary in the 1960s.

It was a fine plinking gun as a kid. At some point, we even managed to break the cheap plastic grips on this budget six shooter. The safety is just the half-cock position for the hammer on this little Herter’s hardware-store revolver, which was one of many sold by mom-and-pop shops back in the day alongside common tools and tackle like hammers and fishing lures.