By Jim Dickson | Contributing Writer
One of the most appreciated and cherished gifts of all is a gun for Christmas.
Whether it is a child’s first gun or an adult who has many there is something special and unforgettable about the gift of a firearm. This is deeply rooted in our DNA for throughout history the gift of arms has been something special binding the giver and the receiver. An individual may be longing for a specific gun and that can be especially important.
I remember an old African white hunter saying “ Guns are like wives. If you don’t get the one you want you will never be happy with it.” So if the intended recipient of the gift has their heart set on a specific make and model it is best not to substitute another, however better you may feel it is. For those buying for a family member that does not have their heart set on any particular gun here are some ideas for your consideration.
For anyone wanting a .22 rifle I would suggest either the classic Browning semi-auto which never seems to wear out or a Ruger 10-22 semi-auto. I do not recommend any other action type because the great virtue of a .22 is its effectiveness as a practice rifle.
As an old exhibition shooter once said “There are 3 ways to learn to shoot. Shooting, shooting, and more shooting.” Anything but a semi-auto slows down the amount of shooting and thus learning. Some people think it is desirable to linger over the sight picture saying it is “Being careful with your aim.” Expert shooters know the value of speed because targets in the real world don’t always wait around for you to fiddle with your sight picture. Your first sight picture is your best. Learn to fire quickly and accurately.
For a deer rifle for a man who wants a light, handy, fast firing gun or for a woman or a child the old Ruger semi-auto .44 Magnum carbine cannot be beat. Powerful with little recoil, it will kill anything in North America. No longer in production because Ruger wanted to make the Mini-14 on its production line these can still be found second hand. My 5-foot-2 wife thought that they had designed and made this gun just for her. She never failed to get a deer with it.
For a gun with similar capabilities that is in current production the Rossi 92 lever action in either .44 Magnum or .45 Colt fills the bill.
If you are buying a pistol for someone who is not a dedicated shooter and just wants a bedside pistol for burglar protection then nothing is simpler for them than a double action revolver as all they have to do is point and pull the trigger. That may be all some people can remember to do in a life threatening emergency.
I recommend the 4-inch barrel .45 Colt Ruger Redhawk revolver. This is a big heavy revolver with Hogue rubber grips that has very little recoil with the big manstopping .45 Colt cartridge. The trigger pull is one of the finest that I have seen enabling you to easily shoot just as good double action as single action. Some women will say it’s too big but all they have to do is use a two hand grip if they are that weak. My 105 pound wife could shoot it all day long with one hand. This gun is stainless steel which can be important for a gun that just sits in a drawer for years on end. It points naturally and is easy to hit with. Most importantly the .45 Colt is a legendary one shot manstopper which is what you want in a desperate situation, not a lesser caliber.
If I were to pick one current production U.S. made high power rifle for everything it would be the PTR 91 semi-auto version of the H&K G3 rifle in 7.62 NATO. These are made on the machinery Portugal used to make their G3 rifles under license from H&K and are the most reliable full power military rifles in current production. They are more than adequate for anything in North America plus they are one of the best rifles you can own for defense against man or beast. Fast firing with very little recoil they are exceptionally easy to hit with. The G3 series is well proven having served worldwide from the Arctic in Norway to the deserts of Africa.
If you want a hunting rifle with more power and still no real recoil, a .45-70 lever action is a good choice. My recommendation is the casehardened steel frame octagon barrel Henry as it has the best workmanship and the octagon barrel adds an extra pound of weight in the barrel where you need it for steadiness. I can barely keep all my shots fired offhand at 100 yards in a 6 inch circle with the round barrel .45-70’s but the octagon barrel Henry hangs so steady that I can shoot to the accuracy limits of the ammunition offhand at 100 yards. They may all have about the same accuracy fired from a bench rest but I never had a bench rest to shoot from when I was hunting so I value a gun that hangs steady.
Shotguns account for more game of all kinds than they get credit for, perhaps more than any other type of gun. The British side by side game gun with splinter fore end and straight or half pistol grip is the easiest to hit with. If you can’t get an English one then at least get one of that style. You owe it to the game to make clean kills and that means using the gun that best enables you to do so. I would only get a 12-gauge as it is the most versatile. A light load in a 12-gauge patterns better than the same load in a smaller gauge and you don’t run the risk of having two or more shell sizes in your shooting bag.
Personally, I use a 12 gauge load of 1 ounce of # 6 shot over 3 drams of powder on everything I shoot with birdshot from grouse to turkeys and it has never failed me. For slugs I use the old reliable German Brenneke. They crossfire in my double as it is not regulated for them but if I need to swap my birdshot for something that will stop a bad tempered bear or a wild hog coming at me they are plenty accurate. For buckshot I like 9 of the 00 buckshot over 3 drams of powder.
Pistols are the gun most likely to save someone’s life from attack by man or beast. These are the guns that you can always have on you. You won’t normally be able to run fetch a rifle or shotgun when suddenly confronted with a potentially dangerous adversary. In sudden surprise bear attacks pistols have proved more effective than rifles or shotguns because the bear often knocks the long gun aside before it can be used. Just having to take a safety off takes more time than you usually have in these attacks and the people who carry a gun with an empty chamber “For safety” are just asking to end up as bear food. A pistol deploys quicker and can be drawn and fired effectively even if the bear has you down.
The best pistol is the WWII M1911A1 .45 ACP with FMJ ammo. This is what my wife and I used when we had Alaskan trapper’s licenses and were living in a one room log trapper’s cabin deep in the Alaskan interior. It works well on everything, man or beast, and has the best combat record under the worst field conditions of any pistol.
WWII pistols are getting hard to come by but TISAS makes an exact copy of the WWII Remington Rand M1911A1with a forged slide and frame and a hammer forged barrel. It is the best M1911A1 that I have seen since WWII and extremely reasonably priced. A rare case of the highest quality pistol by far also being one of the cheapest. I can only recommend the straight WWII gun and I regard all the modern changes to it as marketing ploys.
If anyone thinks this is too big a gun for their wife I would like to point out that I had my 5 foot 2 wife able to shoot every coin that you tossed up out of the air with a M1911A1.
A pistol needs a holster and there are two that I can endorse. Both are currently made by El Paso Saddlery. The best open carry holster for the M1911A1 is the U.S. M1916 Holster, the classic U.S. Military holster. The best open and concealed carry civilian holster is the pancake and El Paso makes that as both the Tortilla with two belt slots and the Dual Duty with three belt slots enabling both strong side and cross draw carry.
For a .22 pistol Marvel Precision makes a super accurate .22 conversion unit for the M1911A1 which is extremely easy to put on and take off. This way your .22 practice will more directly improve your performance with the full power M1911A1 which is what you want.
These are my recommendations and as I said earlier, the recipient may have their heart set on something else in which case get them what they want.
