.....For my next weapon, I want something FUN....I'm going to budget $800 for it. So keeping with that, how about some fun ideas?
To me the "most fun" handguns (this is the handgun forum) that I have are an FN-1900 in 32 Auto and a Colt Mod 1903 in 32 Auto. Both of these handguns are single action semi-autos designed by John M. Browning. My favorites (I have multiple Colt 1903's) were both manufactured well before WWI. They are small handguns, with modest recoil and I find them "fun" to take to the range and shoot. I collect pre-WWI 32 Autos and have many FN's, Colts, a Savage, a Walther, Mauser, etc.
To me shooting both the FN-1900 and the Colt 1903 are shooting history and the fun includes taking them apart to clean them and see the history of gun making design and modern firearms. The FN-1900 was the first really mass produced semi-auto handgun and John M Browning's first commercially successfull semi-auto design. It created a near "cult-like" following in Europe for anything associated with the American Gun Designer John M. Browning. Some of the early FN advertizing stress that it isn't a "Browning" if it doesn't have an FN logo on the grip. The Colt 1903 was one of Colt's (and hence U.S. arms manufactures) all time commerical success stories and pre-dates the M-1911. It was also a huge John M. Browning success.
If you put my Colt Model 1903 manufactured in 1910 (or the one manufactured in 1911, or......) down on a table and look at it from a distance, it looks very much like a typical firearm you would find being manufactured today, with the exception of not having a double stacked magazine (my model Savage Model 1907 has one of the early double stacked magazines).
Another aspect of "fun" is the comments I get at the range. Some include things like I my dad use to own one of those Colt's or I was issued one in WWII (if you hear this, give the guy some real respect as he earned it to qualify for one of these general staff officer weapons), etc. The other set of fun, is when I am shooting say my Tokarev 9mm or Taurus 357 Mag and some gun snob says that if it isn't a Colt it isn't worth owning. At that point, I can (if I choose to do so) "one up him." I can uncase one of my the Colt 1903's and say yes, how right he is, but unfortuately after about 1915 the hand craftmanship at the Colt factory just wasn't up to what it use to be and how he must really not be too pleased with his more recent Colt product.
While, I personally enjoy shooting all kinds of different firearms and enjoy their designs, it is the really early designs of John M. Browning and other famous gun makers that I find the most fun! Collecting old firearms that you shoot adds a whole other dimension to the fun.