She had been in one of her grouchy moods so I thought I'd do something to cheer her up. And I did need to load it up with ratshot, since snake weather has set in. She sat down next to me on the edge of the bed and took the gun from me, awkwardly but correctly keeping her finger off the trigger. I had just checked it to make sure it wasn't loaded. It had been a long time since I had drilled her on the old single-action, but she still remembered.
With the gun in her lap, she flipped open the loading gate and slowly rotated the cylinder until it had clicked two or three times more than necessary--ensuring herself that the gun was not loaded. I dumped six cartridges of CCI .22 long rifle shotshells in her small hand, and she slowly slid each one into a chamber. She missed one chamber, and struggled with it for a few seconds before she remembered that it rotates in only one direction. She spun the cylinder around and filled the empty chamber.
She snapped the loading gate closed and handed it back to me, still keeping her finger away from the trigger and making sure the barrel stayed pointing away from both of us. Her grouchy mood had evaporated.
I started out on handguns with a single action revolver. Someday she will learn to shoot with such a gun.
The single action revolver is a universal handgun, especially one as solid and reliable as a Ruger Single-Six. And it's so simple to operate, even an eight-year-old can handle it.
Graphic found at The High Road.
