My dear old MIL and her Titan .25

Armybrat · #1

My MIL was close to 80 and living alone in a Taylor, Texas bungalow back in the 80's. Late one night her two little rat dawgs (toy poodles) started barking up a storm at the door to her back porch. Ol' MIL quickly grabbed her pot metal smokepipe and took a look outside. Lo & behold there was a shirtless young dude (maybe in his 20's or 30's) standing on the rear steps fumbling with her latched screen door.

She said the guy appeared to be under the influence of mind altering chemicals of some sort, so she threw down on him and said she would shoot if he didn't "get the hell off my property". Anyways, the perp/idiot thought about it for a minute after staring at that mighty cannon, then decided to retreat. Good thing she didn't shoot him, as he was probably just drunkenly discombobulated and was trying to get home to crash.

All's well that end well, but let me say that I was unaware that the MIL even possessed this popgun. Upon hearing her account, I examined the weapon and discovered that it had one round in the pipe and one too many in the magazine. She would have gotten one round off, but then the thing would have been an instant paperweight. So a few days later I bought a Chief's Special and took her to a local dump & had her run through a box of ammo (she had never fired the Titan).

govnor · #2

I bought a Titan last year at a pawn shop just for fun. I've had other .25's and like them for some odd reason. The thing shoots pretty well for a cheap popgun. I don't know if I'd ever carry it though...I wouldn't trust my life to it.

jimd1981 · #3

Reminds me of a Cooperism (Col. Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 4 No. 14):

As we used to teach in the spook business, carry a 25 if it makes you feel good, but do not ever load it. If you load it you may shoot it. If you shoot it you may hit somebody, and if you hit somebody - and he finds out about it - he may be very angry with you.

Tom · #4

jimd1981 wrote:Reminds me of a Cooperism (Col. Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 4 No. 14):

As we used to teach in the spook business, carry a 25 if it makes you feel good, but do not ever load it. If you load it you may shoot it. If you shoot it you may hit somebody, and if you hit somebody - and he finds out about it - he may be very angry with you.

Read this account of a Oct 2000 attack in FL:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.guns ... cf2d9b2716

J. David Phillips (flimflam on rec.guns) is alive today only because his .25 Beretta was in his pocket.

David lost his business due to his injuries and has since moved to Brazil.
We heard from him about a year ago on rec.guns and he says he is doing fine and has mostly recovered.

Caliber talk is one thing. This is the real deal.

Kind Regards,

Tom

govnor · #5

Wow, that's a freaky story. Someone just comes in and starts stabbing with a samurai sword! Jeez.

I heard this account from a friend of mine a long time ago. I don't know if it's even true, but the guy wasn't the type to lie. According to him, a friend of his father's was in New Orleans with his wife. They were walking down an alley towards another street (easy to do in N.O.) when confronted with a mugger with a knife. Of course he wants money, so the guy tells the mugger that he's just reaching for his wallet as he goes into his back pocket. He pulled out a .25 and unloaded it into the mugger. The mugger then looks at him, turns around and runs around the corner where he collapsed and died.

Thing is though...six or seven shots and the guy was still able to run away!

KBCraig · #6

govnor wrote: He pulled out a .25 and unloaded it into the mugger. The mugger then looks at him, turns around and runs around the corner where he collapsed and died.

Thing is though...six or seven shots and the guy was still able to run away!

Despite all the myth, the same thing could happen if he'd pulled a 1911 and hit the mugger in exactly the same place with exactly the same number of rounds. Don't get me wrong, I love my .45 and it's my preferred caliber, but it's not a "magic bullet".

An attacker can be fatally wounded and still have a couple of minutes' worth of fight left in him. The mugger in your story chose to run away, instead of attack. You have to be prepared for the latter, too.

Kevin

ForbidInjustice · #7

My parents owned a Titan .25 for many years and now that I have a couple guns, my mother found it in my dad's old BDU pockets and gave it to me. I've never fired it, though. The magazine is full but the ammo is old as dirt, I'm sure. I'm not really excited about buying ammo for it, because since .25 is such an uncommon carry nowadays, the price of .25 FMJ ammo is roughly $15.00 for 50rd box. Double the price of my 9mm ammo!