First gun ever bought

[Rakso]

Did you keep or sell you first pistol you ever bought?

I'm trying selling it. No luck yet.

[Devilock04]

[george223]

I don't know when you bought your Mini-30, but when it 1st came out, surplus 7.62x39 was plentiful and cheap. The same is true when Makarovs were being imported. 9x18 was everywhere. Not so much anymore.

[Devilock04]

I don't know when you bought your Mini-30, but when it 1st came out, surplus 7.62x39 was plentiful and cheap. The same is true when Makarovs were being imported. 9x18 was everywhere. Not so much anymore.

I miss the days of 20 round boxes for under $5

It wasn’t a matter of not being able to find cheap ammo at the time. It is that that the gun won’t consistently strike berdan primers hard enough to set off the round. I would have to reload the round and it would usually go off the second time.

Mini-30’s are known to not like berdan primers unless you change the springs. But if you do that, there’s been cases of people breaking their firing pins. Ruger won’t sell the parts, so it has to go back to them for repair unless you use an aftermarket one. The aftermarket ones are hit and miss from what I’ve read.

If the gun is sent back to Ruger, they will remove any modifications you’ve made and return it back to factory, even if the mods do not affect what is wrong with the gun.

The cheapest ammo I found that worked reliably was Fiocci. I have an AK and an SKS now, too, so I can shoot all the Wolf and Tula ammo I bought and it didn’t go to waste.

[george223]

I miss the days of 20 round boxes for under $5.

$5 a box? How about 1100 rounds for for $99. 550 rounds in tuna cans. I bought 2 cans and still have about 400 rounds left. Steel cases with copper jacketed steel cores. Not being able to shoot them in CA, a few years ago, I removed the bullets and replaced them with flat nose, 123 gr lead, copper jacketed bullets. For the most part, they worked in my AK pretty well but every once in awhile, I would get a mis-feed due to the flat nose.

[BrassCase]

First one bought was a Beretta PX4 in 40. That started my Beretta collection and the rest. I've never sold a gun.

[SomeGuy75]

S&W 586 in 1988.

[iwant22lr]