Second Son Hits 21

[Jeff Higgins]

And, in keeping with Higgins family tradition, I gave him his first handgun, a Springfield standard mil-spec 1911. With some family history...

I bought this thing new in the early to mid '80's when Springfield Armory first started making 1911's. They were damn hard to find at first, and I really just lucked into this one. To be honest, I've never been much of an auto pistol fan, but I figure everyone needs at least a 1911.

Fast forward to about 1997. My youngest son was five. The two of us left my wife and oldest son (then 8) at home and embarked upon a father / son weekend at my brother-in-law's cabin up at a rather remote lake. We brought the dog (our Golden Retriever, "Scout"), the canoe, and some firearms.

On our shooting afternoon, Alex started out with his older brother's Chipmunk .22 rifle. He then progressed to my Ruger Bearcat single action .22 revolver. I was banging away with one of my old Peacemakers and that 1911.

Well, Alex decided he was big enough to shoot a "big gun". I had some kind of heavy loads going in the Peacemaker, and he couldn't reach its trigger all that well, so we fitted him to the 1911. So, here he was, all of five years old, ready to touch off a .45 auto.

I stood behind him, bending over and cupping his elbows in my hands to help him hold it up, and he commenced to shootin'. After a magazine or two, he was hitting pop cans at about ten yards. Then he decided he "could do it himself", so I dropped my hands from his elbows, and let him go. He was still hitting pop cans.

Well, after some modicum of success, he got a little cocky. He told me in no uncertain terms that he didn't need me standing over him, and that he had proven that all-too-obvious fact quite well. So I stepped aside, keeping a very watchful eye on him.

Turned out it wasn't quite watchful enough... about halfway through the first magazine, he drew the gun closer to his eye so he "could see the sights better". Before I could grab it, he fired a round, propelling the slide neatly back into his eyebrow. He fell over backwards, bleeding like a stuck pig from two little "snakebite" holes from the bottom corners of the slide.

His eyes were as big as saucers, but he never uttered a peep or whimpered in the least. I ran and got a towel out of the Landcruiser to hold over the wound. After several minutes of silence, he asked if we had to tell mommy and, most importantly, did we have to stop shooting?

Well, we did stop shooting so we could head back to the cabin to tend to his wounds. He still has not forgotten that day. And, on his 21st birthday, upon reception of the gun (with my wife wondering why that one), we finally told mommy...

[HHI944]

Awesome story and a great 21st bday present to always remind him of that story.

Yup, everybody should have a 1911.......gotta find myself another one...