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Saturday Night Special


Buckshot Bear

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It was a pretty broad term. Any cheap, disposable gun. Pawn shop, beaters, etc.

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A small, cheap, easily acquired pistol, often of small caliber that’s easy to conceal in a pocket or waistband without a holster. Not very accurate, but will do the job in close quarters. Also disposable as needed. 
 

Some for example, were worn out Smith and Wesson pocket revolvers picked up in pawn shops. I have one that my father acquired from a pawn shop back in the early 1940s when in high school. Said he needed it for protection when going to work on the St. Louis, Missouri Mississippi River waterfront. It still works, but is safer as a wall hanger. 
 

 

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As @DeaconKCsaid, it was a broad based term for pretty much any handgun. Nearly every handgun used in a crime was a “Saturday Night Special” according to the morons in the media manipulated by their own management, politics and weird ideals. 
Shortly after a news story about a Saturday Night Special there would also usually be a story about the heinous conditions in prisons or some other criminal coddling bull sh…stuff. 

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Conway Twitty bought a Saturday night special for suicide with 1 bullet but then felt bad for the sad woman hawking her ring so used it to rob the pawn shop he just bought it from and lived happily ever after with his new found love.  He sang a  song about it. 

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2 hours ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 As a kid, I was led to believe that these guns were responsible for most gun crimes, and that laws banning them would solve the rash of shootings.  How'd that work out?

 

LL

The people pushing the anti gun agenda use the term assault rifle in the same manner 

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When the term started to be widely used back in the 60s-70s, I was living in Miami. It was the epicenter of cheap imported pistols mostly made in Europe. Raven, Arminius, RG, Jennings, Röhm, etc were the pieces of choice (pieces of sh**). We had a class in the police academy on them they were so prevalent. Usually revolvers in .22 to .38 caliber, they were eventually supplanted as the South American cartels grew. Those boys had the money to buy higher quality guns. The money filtered down through the local gangs and eventually only the lowest level wannabe gangstas carried them for holding up convenience stores and cabbies. The 9mms began to fill the shelves in the stores. Talking to a gunshop owner one day I was told the chrome, nickel, and gold plated 9s were huge sellers. Couldn’t keep them on the shelves.

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1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

mostly made in Europe. Raven, Arminius, RG, Jennings,

 

If memory serves, both Raven and Jennings were made by the same guy right here in the once great State of California. Part of the infamously bad and cheap (as opposed to inexpensive) "Ring of Fire" handgun manufacturers.  

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1 hour ago, Rex M Rugers #6621 said:

I think that I have one just like it. (442?) Mine has some wood grips just one finger groove longer.

Rex :D

Yep 442 with factory grips. I sometimes carry a 637 Airweight, it’s stainless and has a hammer.

FB959C99-A1B0-4297-A0FF-1FF82AB6783C.jpeg

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1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

If memory serves, both Raven and Jennings were made by the same guy right here in the once great State of California. Part of the infamously bad and cheap (as opposed to inexpensive) "Ring of Fire" handgun manufacturers.  

Don't forget Davis Firearms...Pure garbage.

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16 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Yep 442 with factory grips. I sometimes carry a 637 Airweight, it’s stainless and has a hammer.

FB959C99-A1B0-4297-A0FF-1FF82AB6783C.jpeg

You need a ski mask for these photos. :lol:

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6 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Don't forget Davis Firearms...Pure garbage.

 

 

Yep.  A big list of junk guns.  
From the link:

 

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I still have a Jennings J-22 that I bought in the early 90s for the whopping sum of $55 bucks. Believe it or not it actually runs pretty good as long as I stick with Mini-Mags. But no I would never trust it for anything but screwing around at the range.

 

Interestingly enough, back in the early 1970s the DOJ actually did an endurance test of every known handgun model in an attempt to come up with a definition for "Saturday Night Special". Only two handguns went the entire 3000 rounds without a failure... a Colt 1911 and a Browning Hi-Power. Many of the cheap guns actually made it nearly to the end, and a few high-dollar European target pistols took a dump early in the test. Needless to say the results were simply buried and forgotten.

.

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6 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Wow! I had forgotten about a couple of those.

 

A company called Jimenez there at the bottom of your list makes 22 pistols in Las Vegas. Jimenez worked for Jennings and when they went under he bought all their machinery and moved it to Vegas to make 22 pistols there.

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3 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Wow! I had forgotten about a couple of those.

 

A company called Jimenez there at the bottom of your list makes 22 pistols in Las Vegas. Jimenez worked for Jennings and when they went under he bought all their machinery and moved it to Vegas to make 22 pistols there.

 

The reason why these "Ring of Fire" manufacturers kept going out of business every few years was lawsuits. The guns are so poorly made that they're prone to going off all on their own when the plastic or pot metal sear fails.

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I remember when I moved to CA in '82 the "Saturday Night Special" BS still came up in the news. I remember with every story they showed a  picture of either a Smith & Wesson revolver, probably a model 19, or they showed a 1911. Neither of which was a "Saturday Night Special".

 

 

Then of curse, later on, any news story involving a weapon had a picture of a revolver or a 9mm in the background. It didn't matter if the weapon was a knife, a club, a hammer, whatever. The photo of a gun was displayed.

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After WWII the Germans rebuilding their economy made a bunch of small hand guns with pot metal frames. These guns were outlawed from importation ( to the USA) by the gun control act of 1968. These are what I think of when I hear that term. I have a Raven, great shooter, but they are not known for longevity.

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Just now, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Then of curse, later on, any news story involving a weapon had a picture of a revolver or a 9mm in the background. It didn't matter if the weapon was a knife, a club, a hammer, whatever. The photo of a gun was displayed.

 

There once was a photo circulating on the Internet of a screen grab of a newscast where they showed a picture of a Beretta to highlight a story about a stabbing. Wish I could find it...

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2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

If memory serves, both Raven and Jennings were made by the same guy right here in the once great State of California. Part of the infamously bad and cheap (as opposed to inexpensive) "Ring of Fire" handgun manufacturers.  

I was just talking about 'The ring of fire' the other day. My brother gave me a Jennings .380. Nice gun. It will even sometimes fire two rounds in a row!

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2 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Don't forget Davis Firearms...Pure garbage.

 

I've had the pleasure of firing a Davis.  Also several Ravens, Jenings, Bryco, and Lorcin.  Some were fine.  Felt cheap but no feed problems or misfires.  Some were so bad that I don't think they would even function as a paperweight.  Stovepipes, failure to feed, failure to fire, magazine dropping out without hitting the magazine release.   About the only things they didn't do were KABOOM or function properly.

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2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I've had the pleasure of firing a Davis. 

I have a Davis…derringer. What a wonderful wonderful paperweight. I have probably shot 50 rounds through it since I bought it in ‘97.  I actually bought it for side matches and did fire it at a side match. I didn’t hit anything that we could detect, but I did fire 2 rounds out of it at a side match. 
 

I got it for something like $68 at Turner’s Outdoorsman and it was a demo gun someone dropped and damaged the front appendage they call a sight. 
 

I keep hoping for a gun “buy back” to erupt somewhere so I can off load it. 

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53 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

I wholeheartedly agree with that list except AMT. At one time or another I've owned four AMT firearms. .45 Hardballer Longslide, .45 Backup and 2 - Automag III in .30 carbine. All were well made, solid guns that I never had any problems with and none of them were cheap. The .45 Backup had a 400lb trigger pull and was anything but pleasurable to shoot, but I never had any problems.

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36 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

I wholeheartedly agree with that list except AMT. At one time or another I've owned four AMT firearms. .45 Hardballer Longslide, .45 Backup and 2 - Automag III in .30 carbine. All were well made, solid guns that I never had any problems with and none of them were cheap. The .45 Backup had a 400lb trigger pull and was anything but pleasurable to shoot, but I never had any problems.

 

From the link to the blurb about AMT:

 

Arcadia Machine & Tool started out primarily manufacturing pocket pistols such as their "Backup" series of pistols. While they are often lumped in with the other "Ring of Fire" manufacturers (likely because of their close proximity to them), it should be noted that the quality of AMT's firearms are considered far superior to those other manufacturers and were definitely not low quality "throwaway" firearms like those other Saturday Night Specials.

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1 minute ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

From the link to the blurb about AMT:

 

Arcadia Machine & Tool started out primarily manufacturing pocket pistols such as their "Backup" series of pistols. While they are often lumped in with the other "Ring of Fire" manufacturers (likely because of their close proximity to them), it should be noted that the quality of AMT's firearms are considered far superior to those other manufacturers and were definitely not low quality "throwaway" firearms like those other Saturday Night Specials.

 

Aha, sometimes it pays to click on the highlighted section.B)

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