I have two stories that relate to Rugers. The first is a good memory from my youth. As I said before, I was raised out in the middle of nowhere. We didn't have any kind of entertainment around so most Sunday afternoons, we'd all get together and shoot. We would bring out the shotguns, rifles and revolvers. one of my uncles had a Ruger 22 automatic, and this was the first pistol I ever shot. Since this was back in the 60's and early 70's, I would guess it was a Mark I. I'm not sure how many rounds we put through that gun, but I bet it was at least a hundred everytime. I know there are probably many of you who did the same thing growing up, and that is where your love of firearms started.
My second story is not as enjoyable. This had to have been in the late 70's maybe early 80's. My cousin and I went over to a friends house in Clermont, and we decided to go get a pizza and bring back to his house. We stopped at the Winn-Dixie and went in to pick up a couple of bottles of Coke (sorry guys, no beer). As we were standing at the check out counter, 4 or 5 guys came in to rob it. When they came in, they fired two or three rounds out over everybodys head. I guess they thought this was necessary to get everyones attention. We were at the check out lane that had the little office by it where the safe was located. They told us all to lay face down on the floor and not move. My cousin did as said, our friend was nowhere to be found and I just sort of squatted down to check on an old man that was behind us. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Anyway, one of the robbers pointed his Blackhawk at me and told me to lay down, which that time I did as told. I had been thinking about getting one of these, so I knew exactly what it was. I'm sure it was probably just a .357 magnum, but when your looking at the business end of it, I'd swear it was four times that big.
I found out later why my buddy was not around. When they came in shooting, he ran to the back of the store to try to find someone to call for help and get out. He had served two terms in Nam as a medic, and standing around waiting for someone to shoot him wasn't what he wanted to do. After that, I started keeping some kind of gun in my truck. I know it would'nt have done any good it this situtation, but it made me feel better.