Now that was a nice pistol, and I'd have it still if I hadn't shown it to my friend Ben Choate. Ben would qualify as a Class A trader in anybody's book, and our resultant trade makes me about a Class Z trader. In short order, Ben had the Colt .38 Super and I honestly don't even remember what I got in the trade. Every time I bring that Colt pistol up to Ben he changes the subject to the weather, current cattle prices, or who the Republicans might run next time. He does, occasionally, remind me that he still has the gun and what a nice gun it is, and, no, it's not for sale.

My final story in this sad confessional is also about a Colt .38 Super, although the yarn begins with a Colt Single Action Army. It was, specifically, a prewar .44-40 with a 43/4-inch barrel and factory ivory grips. The revolver was in very good original condition, and I got it for a song from a friend who was strapped for cash.

A few months after getting the nice .44-40, I attended the Fort Worth gun show and put the single action out on my table, along with the rest of my trading stock. You can imagine that it quickly caught the eye of all of the serious Colt collectors at the show. It was just that nice of a gun.

The second day of the show, a collector from Lubbock wandered by and offered to buy the single action. He would give me most of my asking price in cash and the balance in a Colt Government Model .38 Super. We quickly did the deal.

This Government Model .38 Super turned out to be in very good condition and was wearing the serial number of 1000. When I got home I checked my collector's books to see what I could find out about the pistol.

Colt introduced the .38 Super version of the famous auto pistol at the Camp Perry matches in 1928. Full production was begun in January 1929, and my gun left the factory in April of that year. So what I had was a first-year production .38 Super in excellent condition with a rather unique serial number. Well, that was entirely too good to last. At a subsequent gun show, I located a fellow who specialized in early Colt pistols and sold it to him for cash, lots of cash.

As I sit here and reflect on the guns that got away, I wonder if they were really as nice as I recall. Or are the years, and my memory, playing tricks on me? Actually, I think those gun trades are just a way that a lot of us learn about the various guns that might grab our interest. It may just be the price we pay for this ongoing education into the wonderful world of firearms.

Because of my early trading experiences, there are a few guns in my collection, maybe a half-dozen or more, that will stay with me until the end. And one of them is a .38 Super. This one is the Stainless Target II pistol from Kimber. This target-sighted 1911 is one of the most accurate .38 Supers I've ever fired. It's a constant reminder that while the old guns were interesting and nice, gun companies like Kimber are building some of the best handguns that have ever seen the light of day. Every time I run a magazine of ammo through the Stainless Target II .38 Super, I'm convinced that the "good old days" are right here and now.